Zechariah 6:9-15

“Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ¹⁰ ‘Receive the gift from the captives—from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon—and go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah. ¹¹ Take the silver and gold, make an elaborate crown, and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. ¹² Then speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying:

‘Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the temple of the Lord; ¹³ Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on His throne; so He shall be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.’

¹⁴ “Now the elaborate crown shall be for a memorial in the temple of the Lord for Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah. ¹⁵ Even those from afar shall come and build the temple of the Lord. Then you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. And this shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

Over the past few years, I have endeavored to read through the Bible completely at least once each year. This year, because of reading with one of the members of our church to encourage them, I will do it twice. Today, I had the chance to read this passage in Zechariah. It is amazing how many passages in the Old Testament talk about the future reign of Jesus. In this passage, He is called ‘The Branch.’ In this passage, a strange ritual occurs in verse 11: the kingly crown is placed on the head of Joshua (another OT name of Jesus), and he, Joshua, is the son of the high priest. The crown was never promised to the priestly tribe of Levi; it was promised to Judah as far back as Genesis 49:8-10.

“Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”

Jesus, we know, is born from the tribe of Judah, and He has the legal right to sit on the throne of David. He is the oldest living male of the Judah tribe. But here, in Zechariah, we see that Joshua is the high priest and not from the tribe of Judah. Later on, we will be told why he is from the tribe of Levi when the future is explained. There are some things that will happen under the rule of Jesus that we should note:

This Branch will build a temple of the Lord. We know that the Temple of the Lord can only be built in Jerusalem, and, if you take a look at Ezekiel 40-46, you will see that a New Temple is built in Jerusalem. It is a massive complex, and this is not the second temple that caused the people to weep because it was so small and looked so bad. This is not the Temple where Jesus turned over the tables of the money changers, because we are told that the Branch will build the Temple and that He will sit and rule over it. Jesus did not sit and rule over the Temple in Jerusalem in His earthly ministry.

We also see that He, Jesus, the Branch, is both priest and King. We know from Hebrews 5:6.

“As He also says in another place: ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’”

Jesus is a king/priest after the order of Melchizedek who is the High Priest/King of Salem (later to be called Jerusalem) that we meet in Genesis 14 and to whom Abraham pays tithes. Jesus, the Branch, is a high priest/king. Only in Jesus have the two roles been merged. Yes, I believe that Melchizedek is Jesus. I don’t think that one can deny that once you read Hebrews 7:1-3:

“For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.”

This Melchizedek has neither mother nor father, without genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life. Thus, it looks like one day there will be a new Temple in Jerusalem. Not the one offered by the Man of Sin, but one built by Jesus and inhabited by Jesus, and, man, what a time that will be! This raises a lot of questions that I can’t wait to have answered. Like, why do we need a new Temple? I thought that Jesus had finished the payment. He did for us for sure in this time. But what about the next period, the Millennial Kingdom and the events that happen there?

It seems to me that there is a lot of exciting stuff that we’ll be learning about the Kingdom of God. What if we live in a unique and special time in the history of man where God offers the possibility to be indwelt by His holy Spirit to us and just us? In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came on people at times, but only once Jesus was resurrected did He indwell us.

This is a unique and special time to live as a child of God. If there will be a group of people that need there to be daily sacrifices, what will we be doing? Will the earth’s population go on after the end of the Tribulation? Wow, there is a lot to unpack here, and I hope I did not mess up too many minds. But the Bible is clear that there is a 4^th Temple and that Jesus will work there. The Bible is clear that there will be a 3^rd Temple, and the Man of Sin will work there and attempt to make the Jews worship him.

Revelation 13: 14-15, “And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.”

The future is going to be busy, wonderful, scary and with lots to learn and see. Jesus is coming soon and there is going to be crazy upheavals and major changes. Are you ready to meet the Lord?

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario

“Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another. ²⁶ ‘Be angry, and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, ²⁷ nor give place to the devil. ²⁸ Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. ²⁹ Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. ³² And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

Last week, we ended with a call to live righteously. The first three lessons taught us how to behave toward each other inside of the local church, and then the last two have spoken about how we are to be outside.

Paul encourages us to be ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. We are to take the beauty of the Kingdom of God beyond the borders of our local churches and promote the Kingdom of God. So, let me ask you, what kind of ambassador are you? Are you a good advertisement for the Kingdom of God, or do people who interact with you decide that it is better to avoid the Kingdom of God? This is a legitimate question. We have all met people who tell us the horror stories of their encounters with the ambassadors of God’s Kingdom. Maybe you have some horror stories of your own to tell. Sadly, like all countries, the Kingdom of God has good residents and bad residents; which are you?

Paul goes on to lay out some practical ways that we are to behave and act toward our fellow men/women that will allow us to be good ambassadors for the Kingdom of God. Notice in verse 25, we are told how to communicate with our ‘neighbors.’ These are those with whom we have a relationship either in the local church or maybe the icon in our family or home area.

One of the most important ways that we can be good ambassadors of the Kingdom of God is how we speak to the people around us. Paul tells us to ‘speak truth.’  This is important; we are not to be lying to each other, but neither are we to affirm lies. This is being pushed on us today, even in so-called churches – the idea that we are loving people by affirming them in their delusions and misguided thinking.

The next way is that we are to have control over our anger. Too many of God’s people use the idea of ‘righteous rage’ to justify ungodly behaviors; and in the event that there is a cause of anger, we are not to let it drag on and on. When we hold on to anger, when we stay mad at people, we are opening the door for the Devil himself to come in and work. Thus, we are no longer ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, but for the Devil himself.

Get a job! It is essential for God’s people to be productive members of society as far as jobs are concerned. Do not be a part of theft or even the appearance of theft. If you do steal, stop it and get a job. As a pastor, I think it is good for a man to be as bi-vocational as possible. It allows us to keep our ears and hands in people’s lives around us and not cocooned in the ministry. Most if not all of the apostles had other means of supplying their personal needs; it was not solely on the local church. The reason to have a job is not just to care for yourself but to also to be able to help those in need (see verse 28).

Paul turns again to our speech in verse 29. Wow! The way we talk must be very, very, very important. It looks like our mouths and the way we speak either make us good ambassadors or bad ones. How then is your speech? We are called to edify, to lift up, one another and to speak with grace to each other. Are we building up or tearing down each other? Sadly, too many Christians are good at demolition but not good at construction. We can destroy in our ‘righteous anger,’ but we cannot build up; we are not good ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. And frankly, I don’t care how much Bible you know, if you cannot speak to build up and with grace even when there is a need for correction, then you are not helping.

Paul then calls us to live in such a way as to not ‘grieve the Holy Spirit.’ He then goes on to tell how we need to behave so as not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Put away bitterness, wrath, and anger. A good ambassador of the Kingdom of God has a godly control over his or her emotions. Bitterness, as defined by Aristotle, is ‘a resentful spirit that refuses reconciliation.’ Wow! This sounds a lot like many Christians I know. They refuse to be reconciled because of an offense that was so egregious that it was more than what God’s grace could handle. Can you imagine an offense that big? There isn’t one. We make them up in our minds. Paul tells us to put this kind of untamed emotional behavior away from us. Mature people do not behave this way; this is for children or the unsaved but not for the ambassadors of the Kingdom of God.

Paul calls us to godly living: be kind, be tenderhearted, be forgiving; in other words, behave toward others how God behaves toward us. God is kind, God is tenderhearted, and God is forgiving beyond all measure. Good ambassadors of the Kingdom of God are this way toward those both inside and outside of the local church, and this is how we promote the Kingdom. You will not draw many with your ‘righteous anger.’ Rather, you will draw and keep many with kindness, tenderheartedness, and constant forgiveness.

So, how is your tenure as an ambassador for the Kingdom going? The Lord is coming soon!

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario