We will celebrate the Lord’s Supper twice this coming week — Sunday morning and Maundy Thursday evening. Easter Sunday morning, April 12, our worship will be extended, as we rejoice knowing He rose from the dead, victorious over sin and the grave, and therefore, by grace through faith in Him as Savior and Lord we are forgiven, embraced and empowered.
(Please note carefully: there will be no Wednesday evening activities April 8th, and no Sunday School or evening service Easter Sunday, April 12th.)
Our focus this Sunday morning, Palm Sunday, will continue to be, “The Gospel According to Zechariah.”
The prophet tells us about a coming King, who rides into Jerusalem upon the foal of a donkey (Zechariah 9.9). He comes to proclaim peace to the nations and to reign “from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (9.10; Ps 72.8). By the blood of His covenant He sets the prisoner free (9.11).
In Zechariah 3.8-9, we learn that the LORD Almighty’s Servant, the One whose name is “The Branch,” will remove the sin of the land in a single day.
This coming Servant is symbolized by Joshua, the High Priest of Zechariah’s day. Joshua, the High Priest, is shown having placed upon his head a crown formed from the silver and gold of Babylon (6.11). He is the High Priest. But He is also the King.
Zechariah lived hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. The Scripture tells us that the people of Zechariah’s day, and even the prophet himself, did not understand these prophecies as clearly as we do.
Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1.10-11 that “concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.”
So why do we spend time looking at “The Gospel According to Zechariah” when we have the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? It’s so we will appreciate the astonishing fact that all of history is an unfolding of God’s redemptive plan.
One day, all of creation will be liberated from its bondage to decay (Romans 8.21). New heavens and a new earth will be set into place. And there, all who by grace through faith have embraced Jesus as Savior and Lord, will live forever. And throughout all eternity they will glorify and enjoy God in all they do and say, think and feel.
This wasn’t the pipe dream of one prophet. This is the sure and certain word of the Lord, Who throughout all of human history, has revealed His intention to save His people from sin’s curse and power.
In the garden, God promised that one day a Man would be born of woman, whom the evil one would attack, but Who in turn would crush the serpent’s head beneath His feet. Zechariah tells us His Name is “The Branch.” Furthermore, the prophet reveals to us that He will be both Priest and King. And that in a single day, He will remove the sin of the land. And then, He “will be king over the whole earth” (Zechariah 14.9).
And that is “The Gospel According to Zechariah.”
Pastor Caines