Pastors Blog

                “But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.  Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as King.””

                                                                                                                                                                1 Samuel 15:22-23

                The fifteenth chapter of 1 Samuel is one of the most instructive chapters in the whole book regarding the LORD’s ways with His people.  It is concerned with the trying of King Saul, his failure to obey the LORD’s command, his justification of his actions, and finally the LORD’s judgement upon him.  Earlier, in chapter thirteen, Samuel had pronounced God’s judgement upon Saul and his future dynasty on account of his failure to obey the Prophet’s command to wait.  Now we see that judgment begin to unfold as Saul’s true nature as a rebellious man is revealed.  It some ways this is a depressing portion of God’s Word.  The Bible is a very honest book, describing in great detail our depravity and the consequences that come from it.  The point of this chapter is that just as Saul was tried, so too will we and our generation be tried.  The sinfulness of our hearts will be exposed in the trials we face in life.  There is a purpose to these trials which is to cause us to see the reality of our rebellion and to come to the LORD in genuine repentance.  That is our only hope. 

                In 2 Peter 3:9 we read, “The LORD is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  This is what we see here in 1 Samuel 15.  Outwardly it seems as if Saul has repented, but his heart has remained rebellious towards the LORD. When another test is given he once again failed spectacularly, and when confronted by Samuel he justified his actions rather than confessing his sin.  Finally he brought to acknowledge his sin but he does so in a way that continues his self willed rebelliousness.  The LORD requires genuine repentance which results in a person turning to the LORD in whole hearted obedience.  This is what the LORD requires, that we become people who seek His Glory first.  When we are tested by God in the circumstances of our lives it is as if God is asking us one key question.  This is, “Who are you worshipping?”

                How do we as twenty first century Christians answer God’s question?  In every generation, including this one, there are challenges and trials which serve to test the reality of our faith in the LORD Jesus Christ.  Surely this is one of the key themes of the Book of Revelation.  In that prophetic book we see the LORD confronting and testing the world.  Who are you committed to?  Who do you worship?  These are the questions God is asking us.  The answer we give determines our eternal future. 

                Today our trials confront the things which we are worshipping.  We are led into living lives which are judged successful based upon the standards of this world in which we live.  In the first five verses of the Book of Galatians the Apostle Paul describes this world as evil, using a word which defines evil as an active, aggressive force in this world which seeks to corrupt others.  It is not a passive evil, but and active one seeking to conform others in rebellion.  We are led down a road in which we seek wealth, popularity, security, fame, health, and peace based upon the teaching of worldly philosophy rather than upon the Word of God.  In Church circles so often we define success based upon these same standards.  Are we attracting a crowd to our Church or Ministry?  Do we have a growing internet presence?  Are we selling more books, or CDs?  Are we more in demand today than we were yesterday?  How often do we ask ourselves whether we are “Keeping in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24-26)? In answering this question we find ourselves having to deal with just what it means for us to live in a way which is truly obedient to the LORD.  His ways are revealed to us in His Word.  His call is for us to turn from our sin and cast ourselves upon His grace revealed in the LORD Jesus Christ who went to the cross bearing all our sin, so that we might be reconciled to God.  What is needed is genuine repentance, seeking Christ first and humbly walking with God in Christ.

                How will you respond to the trials of your life?

                “I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.  As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in My love.  If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love.”

                                                                                                                                                                John 15:5-10

                “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming.  See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.  You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.”

                                                                                                                                                                James 5:7-8

                This week the children return to school, and we find ourselves resuming the “busyness” of our church schedule. We find ourselves dealing with the worries and concerns of the Covid19 pandemic.  At this time of year there is always a day or two when the sheer number of things which demand our attention threatens to overwhelm us.  The temptation is to try to respond by working harder in the flesh as if the whole work of Christian mission is dependent upon us alone.  Sometimes I find myself wondering just how God accomplished His work before I came along.  Very quickly I am reminded that this way of thinking is in fact idolatry, and that I am called to repent of it right away.  It seems however to creep up on me each year at this time. 

                It is when I am wrestling with this way of thinking that I am helped by passages such as those quoted above.  Jesus tells His disciples, and us, that they, and we, can do nothing without His indwelling presence.  James calls his readers, and us, to a lifestyle of patience on account of one supreme fact.  This is that the Lord’s coming is near.  Life is to be lived, decisions made, sin repented of, in the light of the Lord’s return because it is near.  He is at the door.  This is how believers are to face each day of their lives.  Everything is changed by this one great fact. 

                For the work of ministry this means that everything needs to be done with an awareness of the Presence of the Lord.  It is His work we are engaged in.  Moses pleaded with the Lord that His Presence would go forward with the People of Israel.  Can we do any less?  James MacDonald in Vertical Church describes how people are brought to the Lord when there is a tangible awareness of His presence among us.  This, under the sovereign will of our God, is what we must be seeking as we go forward in the work we are called to.  The Church moves forward in mission as it walks with the Lord, being indwelt by His Presence.  If He is not in our work, it may be impressive, but it will be of the flesh and will ultimately accomplish nothing.

                For me this will require that I be seeking the Lord’s Presence in everything I do.  Dependent intercessory prayer is our calling.  In this praying, along with a prayerful meditation upon the Word of God, we are seeking to really know and walk with the Lord, so that He can do His work among us.  This seems to have been the heartbeat of the New Testament church.  It must be our heartbeat as well.

                “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted.  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.””

                                                                                                                                                Matthew 28:16-20

                Throughout the long history of the Christian Church there has always been an intense wrestling with the task of the expansion of the Christian Church.  We might call the task evangelism, or disciple making.  Some might refer to such terms as Church Growth or a missonal approach to Church life.  As we have debated, and developed our work we have had a whole variety of approaches, some better than others.  At the heart of the debate however has been a desire to see people brought into a genuine discipleship.  Hugh Halter, in his book The Tangible Kingdom points to the absolute necessity of the working of the Holy Spirit in our attempts to carry out our call to lead others to genuine faith.  A century ago a missionary writer by the name of Roland Allan touched upon the same theme in his books Missionary Methods: Ours or Saint Paul’s? And The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church.  In both Allan pointed us towards faith in the Holy Spirit as He causes us to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ as the power source for authentic expansion of the Kingdom of God.

                It seems as if our present debate is leading us back to a real wrestling with the Great Commission as it is found at the end of Matthew’s Gospel.  In Matthew 28:16-20 we encounter several helpful thoughts which push us forward in mission.  The first is that such a work is in fact the response that we make to genuine worship.  Worship requires faith.  Matthew tells us that when the Disciples met Jesus on the mountain in Galilee they worshipped Him, “but some doubted”.  What was required was faith.  We might ask however; “Faith in what?”  As Jesus delivers the commission He leads us into that faith.  What these disciples have experienced, and what we are called to believe is that the Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled in His ministry the prophesy Daniel delivers which is really the promise of a coming Kingdom.  In Daniel 7:14 we read, “He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped Him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”  Later on in Daniel 7:27 we read further that, “Then the sovereignty power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High.  His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and adore Him.”  There are many things that could be said about these verses and how we can understand them, but for our purposes here I will confine myself to these thoughts.

1. Jesus is claiming, in Matthew 28:16-20 that this promise has been fulfilled in Him.
2. Faith that this is so is a necessity if we are to be part of the promised kingdom.
3. It is fulfilled in Him and in His people, who are in fact “in Him.”
4. We abide in Him as the Holy Spirit unites us with Him.  This is one of the central doctrines of our faith.
5. John Miller in Outgrowing the Ingrown Church describes how this became a reality for him as he gave himself without reservation to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith.  Miller goes on to say that he then stepped out in faith obeying that command of the Lord even when he did not feel like it.
6. This is what Jesus means when He tells His disciples that they are to make disciples of all nations “as they are going.”  For me this means that in every place that I find myself I am called to obey my Lord’s command to make disciples of Him.
7. This command is for all Christians.  It is not restricted to Disciples, or Apostles, or Pastors, or to those who some hired to serve.  It is for every believer.
8. The command requires faith that recognises that as we are going, He is going with us.

In times of revival in the church I believe that we draw close to this reality.  We begin to pray and to live as those who have heard the call of the Lord to go out with this faith, courageously making disciples of the nations. 

                “This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, ‘Let us go at once and entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty.  I myself am going.’  And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat Him.”  This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’”

                                                                                                                                                                Zechariah 8:20-23

                I love the opportunity afforded to believers to be students of the Word of God.  To gather together with other believers and meditate upon the message of the Scriptures is of such great blessing to each of us.  To think that we have been given the privilege of reading, reflecting upon, and of growing in understanding of the thoughts of the Living God leads me to stop and praise that God for His great grace which has been poured out upon such creatures as us.  It is in fact a wonder that more people do not avail themselves of this great privilege. 

                These thoughts came to me as I was preparing for the Bible Study I lead each Wednesday Evening at First Baptist Church Brampton.  Currently we are focusing upon the eighth chapter of the book of the prophet Zechariah in which good and comforting words of prophesy are spoken by God through the prophet.  That these are the words of God and that He repeatedly tells us that this is what He says helps us to see that the Words spoken here are not only of great importance, so that we must listen to them, but that they are a certainty to be fulfilled.  When God speaks His Word always comes with His infinite power to fulfill what is promised.  This is not wishful thinking, it is reality. 

                The promise made here is related to the soon to be completed Temple and how it is to be made into a house of prayer for the Nations.  Many peoples and powerful nations are going to flow into Jerusalem, coming into the holy city in order to entreat the Lord Almighty.  They will find in this place a meeting place with God where they can truly pray and receive the blessing that God has promised to give through His people.  In Genesis 12 we are told that God will make Abraham into a blessing for the Nations.  This promise is being fulfilled says God through Zechariah. 

                There is more here however because Zechariah goes on to share God’s plan with us.  More than just the Temple is on view here.  As God speaks we are given a vision of a Temple that is much bigger than any earthly building.  Throughout his prophesy Zechariah has been lifting our eyes up higher to the One who will come as redeemer.  In the Words spoken here in chapter eight we again begin to see something greater, a Kingdom and a Temple which are not of this world.  Here peoples from all over the world will enter into the blessing that God promised through Abraham.  Such blessing would come through the promised seed, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Could it be that we see a small hint of this when we read the final verse of the chapter?  “In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’”  There are hints here that the blessing promised will come to the ten men because they have grasped hold of a Jew who is with God.  The number ten, in prophesy, is often used as a symbol for an indefinite number of people.  The one Jew could refer to the one who is in fact Emmanuel, God with us. 

                The blessing promised to the Nations is to come through an individual who will in fact be God with us.  He is the one through whom we are reconciled to God.  It is in Him that we have access to God in prayer.  To make this thought clear I want to quote from two great Christian leaders who seek to define the way in which we draw near to God.

                The first is Horatius Bonar writes on page 44 of Light and Truth: or Bible Thoughts and Themes, the Lesser Epistles (London, James Nesbit, 1883).

                                “The whole Trinity has to do with our return and reception.  The Father throws open His presence chamber; the Holy of Holies where He dwells; the Son provides the way for our restoration, by answering in His death all the ends that could have been served by our exclusion; and the Holy Spirit conducts us into the Father’s presence along the new and living way.”

                John Bunyan shouts amen to that in his Discourse on Prayer in The Works of That Eminent Servant of Christ, John Bunyan (Philadelphia: Clarke, 1863) 2:81.“Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God hath promised, or according to His Word, for the good of the church, with submission, in faith to the will of God.”

Today I want to spend a few moments meditating upon the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and its wonderful impact upon our lives.  Everything about us is changed when we encounter the Lord Jesus Christ crucified.  In 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul writes about the message of the cross as the solution to the brokenness which had come upon the Church in Corinth as a consequence of their sin.  Like them we too live lives which are constantly in need of the grace of the cross of Christ.  Today I came across this prayer which is part of a collection of Puritan Prayers published by the Banner of Truth Trust in a book entitled Valley of Vision.  It speaks to us about the grace of the cross of Christ.  Let this be our prayer today.

O my Saviour,

I thank thee from the depths of my being

for thy wondrous grace and love

in bearing my sin in thine own body on the tree.

May thy cross be to me

as the tree that sweetens my bitter Marahs,

as the rod that blossoms with life and beauty,

as the brazen serpent that calls forth

the look of faith.

By thy cross crucify my every sin;

Use it to increase my intimacy with thyself;

Make it the ground of all my comfort,

the liveliness of all my duties,

the sum of all thy gospel promises,

the comfort of all my afflictions,

the vigour of my love, thankfulness, graces,

the very essence of my religion;

And by it give me that rest without rest,

the rest of ceaseless praise.

O my Lord and Saviour,

Thou hast also appointed a cross for me

to take up and carry,

a cross before thou givest me a crown.

Thou hast appointed it to be my portion,

but self-love hates it,

carnal reason is unreconciled to it;

without the grace of patience I cannot bear it,

walk with it, profit by it.

O blessed cross, what mercies dost thou bring

with thee!

Thou art only esteemed hateful by my rebel will,

heavy because I shirk thy load.

Teach me, gracious Lord and Saviour,

that with my cross thou sendest promised grace

so that I may bear it patiently,

that my cross is thy yoke which is easy,

and thy burden which is light.

“Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.””

                                                                                                                                                Mark 12:43-44

Derek Thomas tells the following story in order to illustrate the principle of true Christian giving which the Lord Jesus Christ teaches His disciples in Mark 12:41-44.

                “Now the story is told – I have no way of verifying it – a little girl in church, and when the offering plate comes around she puts in her doll, her treasured little doll.  Now this is the doll that she takes to bed with her at night, and gets up in the morning and carries it around under her arm.  It’s her treasure, and she puts it on the offering plate.  And the deacons are touched, and the minister during the course of the week comes round and visits the family and brings the doll with him, and says to the little girl, “I’m giving her back to you.” And the little girl wipes a tear from her eyes and shakes her head and says, “No.”  And when the Pastor asks why, she says, “I didn’t give it to you.  I gave my doll to the Lord.””

                Mark is at the end of chapter 12 describing true saving faith.  It is a faith that arises from a heart that is given completely and unreservedly to the Lord.  The widow brought all that she had to live on.  In her poverty she gave all that she had.  What she was demonstrating was that God had done something in her heart that had resulted in her coming to trust in His provision for her.  What she had did not matter because she believed that to quote the Apostle Paul, “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)  What was important to her was the extravagant expression of real love to the Lord with all of her heart.  This was the purpose of her life and living.  She had come to understand that the God she worshipped would care for her needs.  His Word had demonstrated this time and again.  The test was in her demonstrating that faith in real life.  Would she bring her treasure, her last two coins, her future, her security, to her Lord and cast it into the Treasury? 

                That is the test for each of us.  What is our treasure?  What are we relying upon today?  We cling to it as if life itself depends upon it?  In this world it often seems as if life itself does depend upon our treasure.  So we cling to it.  We protect it.  We worry about it.  So often after all of that effort it fails us.  Jim Elliott once wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, in order to gain what he cannot lose.”  This is the position we find ourselves in.  We find that to gain an eternal security through faith in the Lord we have to give ourselves without reservation to the Lord.  This requires us to yield up our lives, and all our treasure in trust to Him.  We in fact become living sacrifices.  What we get back is His limitless resources.  He promises to meet our needs.  This truly becomes for us a narrow road of faith.  On that road however there is great and eternal blessing.  God is fitting us not for this world, but for the one to come.  He is remaking us into people who are truly holy, not with that which we have created for ourselves, but with that which He has created within us through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.  All we need to is give ourselves without reservation to our Lord.  Will you?

“Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who makes the storm clouds.  He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone.  The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain.  Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd.  My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the Lord Almighty will care for His flock, the house of Judah, and make them like a proud horse in battle.  From Judah will come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler.”

                                                                                                                                                                Zechariah 10:1-4

                In these four brief verses we encounter a wonderful call to biblical praying, a judgment upon all praying to idols, and then one of the most powerful of promises of the coming Messiah, His nature, and His ministry to the people of God.  The central message of these verses is the personal presence of the Lord in the lives that we are living.  He Himself will intervene and care for His people.  He will come to them as the fulfillment of a whole host of biblical prophesies.  What His people must do is turn to Him and seek a real communion with their Lord.

                In Zechariah 7:5-6 the prophet confronts His people with this penetrating question.  “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?’”  Zechariah calls us to take a careful look at our motivations for our praying, fasting, and mourning.  Are we looking to get something from God or do we want to know the Lord Himself?  Think about it this way.  When we pray for revival are we praying that we will experience all of the events which surround a revival, including the increases in numbers within the Christian Church?  Do we want the phenomena or do we want to know the Lord?  Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew 6:33 that we are to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  It is a matter of our priority.  God calls us to a type of repentance in which our priority is to know and love Him supremely.  Everything else, no matter how necessary, must be secondary to this great purpose of our lives. 

                It is this that is at the heart of Zechariah’s prophetic message in 10:1-4.  Our calling is to pray biblically, seeking help from God within the context of His covenant promise to us which is centred upon His person.  This is why He tells His people that He is going to come personally to be the Good Shepherd who will care for their needs.  For too long they, and we, have wandered around as sheep without a shepherd, being lost, and latching on to any new fad which promises to make sense of our sin ravaged lives.  We turn to lotteries, and fortune tellers, self help guides, and all kinds of other helps looking for a way out of our lostness.  It all leads us more deeply into hopelessness.  Even more dangerously at times it might seem to meet our needs, only to bring us more powerfully under the judgment of God.

                There really is only one way out and that is through the personal knowledge of God.  He will come, Zechariah shouts, in order to redeem us.  We are called to seek Him with all of our hearts.  Is it your desire to know the Lord personally and deeply?

                “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.  Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

                                                                                                                                                                James 2:12-13

                It is astounding how often the Scriptures assume that we will be intimately aware of the personal presence of the Lord.  He is described as the Holy One.  As we get to know Him in all of His glory we become aware of the reality of His perfection in Holiness and also of our great sinfulness.  The story is told of the Baptist Preacher Alexander MacLaren that one day a friend came into his study and informed him of the gossip on the street that a certain Godly preacher in the city was not really a believer.  MacLaren, not being a man who listened to gossip dismissed the news quickly by declaring that it could not possibly be true.  He knew of the Godly character of the accused.  To this his “friend” also informed MacLaren that the news on the street was that the same status was accorded to MacLaren.  The response of this Godly man to this piece of news was to put the other gentleman out of his study with these words, “I must go before the Lord to determine whether this is indeed true.”    The closer we walk with God the more we become aware of our own sinfulness.  We must therefore conduct ourselves in such a way as to recognise that we are constantly in need of the grace and mercy of our God.

                It seems that this is the perspective that James brings to his letter.  We must live with a constant awareness that our Holy Lord is at the door, about to come into this world in judgment.  He is at the door.  We are about to stand before Him.  Have we seen him as being absolutely holy, and as a result convicting us of our sin?  Have we looked upon this Holy God hanging on the cross, pouring out God’s merciful love upon us?  James brings us into this reality telling us that we have been set free in the Law of the Gospel, through which Christ has fulfilled all of God’s requirements by becoming the sacrifice of atonement for us.  In Christ we are set free so that we can begin to live lives that are truly Christ like because we have come to believe in Him as our Redeemer.  This brings us to stand in the presence of our Holy God as those who have received His mercy.  As we stand in His presence we know that we deserve judgment, but we also see on standing at God’s right hand who has taken our place.  The punishment that was ours He has endured for us.  We have been crucified with Him, and been raised to new life in Him.  We have been set free in Him all because His mercy has been poured out upon us. 

                He then sends us out into our world as those whose lives have been transformed by the mercy of God.  He requires simply that we give what we have received.  He has forgiven us therefore we must forgive one another.  He has sacrificially loved us therefore we must love sacrificially.  He sought us out, bringing us to receive His grace, and now He sends us out to be His servants reaching out to others with His Gospel of freedom.  Even when they won’t receive it or us we must keep reaching out with this precious message, because we have received His mercy.  Constantly we are aware of His presence.  He is at the door and that changes everything.

                “”Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the man who is close to me!”  Declares the LORD Almighty. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn My hand against the little ones.  In the whole land,” declares the LORD, “two thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one third will be left in it.  This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold.  They will call on My Name and I will answer them; I will say, “They are My people.” And they will say, “The LORD is our God.””

                                                                                                                                                                Zechariah 13:7-9

                Right in the middle of the final oracle in the book of Zechariah we find this little poetic passage which refocuses our attention upon the central theme of this wonderful prophetic book.  The book is concerned with the promise of God which is to act on behalf of His people through one whom He calls the Good Shepherd in order to redeem them by establishing a new blood covenant.  Israel is facing a crisis in leadership; the shepherds have failed to lead God’s people into godliness therefore God Himself will intervene on their behalf.  This text brings us into an awe inspiring encounter with the tremendous promises that the LORD has made to us in His Word.  What is required is that we stop and meditate upon God’s Word to us here.

                Verse seven contains two commands from God as He speaks to the sword of Divine Judgement.  The LORD commands that the sword awaken and then that it strike the shepherd, presumably killing Him.  What Zechariah is confronting us with here is that whatever will happen to the Good Shepherd it will be a direct result of God’s initiative in bringing judgement upon a people ruined by their sin.  It will not be an accident or an event out of the control of God.  Zechariah tells us that it will be the direct response of God’s Word.  He will speak the word of judgement and the sword will fall upon the Good Shepherd.  There is more here as well for us to meditate upon.  The sword will fall upon “My Shepherd.”  It is the shepherd who belongs to God that Zechariah is referring to here.  The definition is taken further as the Prophet writes, “against the man who is close to me.”  More literally the word that is used here refers to the man who is my fellow, one who participates in the nature of the poetic speaker, or God Himself.  David Baron explores this in his commentary on the book of Zechariah.

                “The unique and peculiar relationship between this “Shepherd” and Jehovah is fully brought out in the words which follow: “the man that is my fellow.”  The word (‘amith) is found elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible only in Leviticus.  It seems to be a substantive, and denotes “fellowship,” “neighbourship,” in the abstract.  But the only other place in the Hebrew Bible where this word is found, namely, in Leviticus, it is used only as the synonym of (“brother”), in the concrete sense of the nearest one.  The two words (“man”) and (“My fellow”) must therefore be regarded as apposites, and have been properly so rendered in the English Bible…..”

                “No Owner of a flock, or lord of a flock, would call a hired or purchased shepherd his ‘amith.  And so God would not apply this epithet to any godly or ungodly man whom He might have appointed shepherd over a nation.  The idea of nearest one (or fellow) involves not only similarity in vocation, but community of physical or spiritual descent, according to which he whom God calls His neighbour cannot be a mere man, but can only be one who participates in the Divine nature, or is essentially Divine.  The shepherd of Jehovah, whom the sword is to smite, is therefore no other than the Messiah, who is also identified with Jehovah in chapter 12:10; or the Good Shepherd, who says of Himself, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30).” (Baron, David, The Visions and Prophesies of Zechariah, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1975, p. 476-477)

                What a wonderful prophetic word.  Zechariah gives us much to meditate upon here.  The promise of God is that one will come who will share in the Divine nature and who will be struck down by the express plan of God that he might be the refiner of his people so that they will be brought into the covenant relationship with God through him.  For this reason Jesus point to this Scripture as being fulfilled in the scandal of the Cross.

                “Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.”  But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”  (Matthew 26:31-32)

                The word for “fall away” used here is to be caused to stumble, to be offended, or shocked, by what they have observed.  That God would deliberately afflict His only begotten Son with our punishment so that we could be redeemed in Him seems offensive to us.  In reality however we find here the power of God for our salvation revealed here.  For this we praise God! 

“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.  They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.  Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.  You, however, did not come to know Christ in that way.  Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.”

                                                                                                                                                                Ephesians 4:17-21

                “If it feels good, do it!”  If there is a slogan that describes our times this is it.  We live in a time which is dominated by our feelings.  In the past we may have spoken about what we thought, but now we speak about how something feels to us.  Just this week as I was listening to a Newscast about Hurricane Sandy and its impact upon the East Coast of the United States I was startled to here the Reporter use the Word feel in place of think.  We really are a people dominated by feelings.  To be sure it is a sign of good mental health to be in touch with our feelings.  We love to be around people who are genuine in their feelings of affection, especially when those feelings are under control and expressed appropriately.  The Apostle Paul, although being a person of warn affections was not a man dominated by them.  His feelings we under the control of his thinking as can be seen in his application of the doctrine of the unity which the Gospel creates when it brings us into the Body of Christ.

                Paul has called the Ephesians to be diligent in maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph. 4:3)  He then digresses into a very important exposition of the doctrine of the Body of Christ and the giftedness through which God in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit maintains and builds us up in the love of Christ.  Paul wants us to understand here with our minds the principles upon which the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ are built up.  These are biblical principles which bring us Godly wisdom on which our lives together as Christians are advanced.  With the help of the Holy Spirit we are called to understand and apply this Wisdom to our lives.  After establishing the doctrine clearly here Paul then turns back to the application of this truth to our lives.  Unity in the Spirit is maintained through thousands of obedient actions on our part as we live out the Christian life.  This is Paul tells us the thing that he is constantly testifying to as he leads the Churches into ever deepening discipleship. 

                Paul points out that this involves us in putting off our sin (Ephesians 4:17-19), in order that we might put on Christ (Ephesians 4:2032).  What we are to put off it a nature which is enslaved by sin and its characteristics.  What we are to put on is a new nature which is characterized by the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is done through, faith filled, obedient, thoughtful obedience to the characteristics of the life of Christ that has been given to us.  What this means is that we put off a lifestyle dominated by slavery to our feelings.  We put on a brand new way of living which is dominated by the Biblical Wisdom which we find embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is a creation of God’s grace which comes from something new being created in the attitudes of our minds (Ephesians 4:23).

                Perhaps this can be best illustrated by looking at Zechariah 3 where the prophet is given a vision of Joshua the High Priest as he is being accused by Satan.  He is standing before the Angel of the Lord dressed in filthy rags, symbolic of his, and his people’s sin.  The Lord acts to cleanse him, symbolically removing Joshua’s filthy clothing and replacing them with clean garments.  The Lord tells him that the meaning of this is that the Lord has taken away his sin.  Looking ahead the Lord gives the meaning of this vision. When the Messiah comes He will fulfill this vision by taking away the sin of the land in a single day.

                This is exactly what God does through the cross of Christ.  The calling upon the lives of those who are thus cleansed is to put off their old way of living which was to be in slavery to their inner lusts which lead them away from the life of God so that they can put on the righteousness  of Christ which has been given to us by God in Christ.