A Warning And A Promise

There is a solemn warning here for people who knowingly reject Jesus. If they do that, then they had better look out.

Of course, we think, this applies to people of the world. It doesn’t apply to Christians. It couldn’t possibly apply to ME!

But some people who call themselves Christians effectively reject Jesus as king. Jesus warned his disciples:

‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven’ [Matthew 7:21]. For ‘Jesus is Lord’ to be a reality we must DO what Jesus asks us to. Many people who call themselves Christians struggle to do that because they’ve never bothered to read the Bible. They don’t know what Jesus wants them to do. People can say ‘Lord, Lord’ to Jesus but it doesn’t mean they truly accept him as king.

There’s another warning.

THE PROMISE

Let’s go on to the promise. I said at the start of this talk that it’s a bit harder to spot.

Let me give another example from early in my working life. I said I worked as an engineer in a design office in Manchester. We designed power stations. Later, the company sent me to work on power station construction. One of the people in our team would usually be a planning engineer. He would have a great big flow chart on his wall or a plan on his computer to show how the construction should go. One activity would be followed by another activity, and a third activity would be done in parallel and finally, if hundreds and hundreds of activities went according to plan, we would hand over a working power station to the client. The planning engineer could put his finger on an activity on the plan and say, ‘We’re here.’

Jesus got on a donkey and rode into Jerusalem. But in a sense, he put his finger on a plan.

Jesus placed himself on a prophesy that was made by the prophet Zechariah about 500 years before Jesus lived.

Zechariah is one of the most remarkable prophets who looked forward to Jesus.

Let’s look at some of the things he prophesied.

One, in chapter 9, Zechariah prophesies that a king will enter Jerusalem on a donkey [9:9].

Two, in chapter 11, Zechariah prophesies about a shepherd being paid for his work. He is paid thirty pieces of silver [11:12-13]. This was, of course, the price Judas received for betraying Jesus.

Three, in chapter 12, Zechariah prophesies: ‘And 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 HIM WHOM THEY HAVE PIERCED, they shall mourn for him…’ [12:10]. On the cross, Jesus was pierced by a spear.

Four, in chapter 13, Zechariah prophesies: ‘Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered’ [13:7]. Jesus, the shepherd, was struck, and his disciples, the sheep, were scattered.

These prophecies of Zechariah’s were fulfilled EXACTLY. That takes us up to Jesus’ time. But then Zechariah continues! He moves on to what we call ‘End Times.’

Five, in the last part of chapter 13 there is a time of tribulation. Revelation refers to ‘The Great Tribulation.’