Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: The word repent is an interesting word. It means to turn the other direction. The Greek word in the New Testament is metanoia, but it means to change your mind, do an about-face, reverse your current direction.

Guest (Male): Though sin means to miss the mark, yet in repentance we’re made perfect, says Pastor Brett Meador.

Brett Meador: When we sin and mess up, we’re supposed to turn back toward God, and that’s really what God is asking the Jews here through Zechariah. I love the responsiveness of the Lord. He says, "All you’ve got to do is turn to Me, and what will I do? I’ll turn to you."

Guest (Male): The book of Zechariah opens with a clear and urgent call: repent. To the weary people rebuilding after exile, God’s call was for changed hearts. Through vivid visions, the Prophet Zechariah revealed a faithful Lord who remembers His covenant. In today's word, Pastor Brett Meador illustrates how with a repentant heart, the Lord stands ready to renew and restore His people.

Brett Meador: If you break down the book of Zechariah, chapters one through six, it’s an interesting experience from one night that Zechariah has. We’re going to see eight visions or dreams that Zechariah is going to have in one night. Basically, verses one through six is an introduction, and it’s a call to repentance where Zechariah is calling the people of Israel to repent for their sins.

In fact, the old preacher G.L. Robinson said this: one of the strongest and most intense calls to repentance is found in verses two through six of Zechariah chapter one. So, it’s a pretty intense call to repentance. Like I mentioned earlier, the time period is the same as Haggai, 520 BC. They’re starting to rebuild the temple, and the date, of course, 520, we actually have the actual general vicinity. It says, basically, the eighth month in the second year.

Exactly two months—remember how Haggai had different sermons that he gave? This is two months after Haggai’s first sermon. If you remember, we went through the months of Haggai’s sermons: October, December. Well, after Haggai’s first sermon, two months after that, Zechariah gave this eight-vision prophecy. So, they’re contemporaries of each other, and they’re preaching really the same thing.

Haggai is a no-nonsense, to-the-point kind of guy, sort of kick-you-in-the-pants kind of guy. That’s Haggai. Whereas Zechariah is more mystical, cryptic, meditative, and maybe says, "Come with me, and I’ll show you the deeper things of God’s kingdom." Like, that’s the kind of guy Zechariah was. God uses people in different ways. Even Paul and Barnabas, I see this in the church today. There’s some people that are more Paul, some people are more Barnabas.

Paul was given the responsibility with the grand scheme of things. He was starting the church. That’s a huge deal. He was traveling the world starting the church. If it wasn’t for Paul traveling the world, going into cities and risking his life and limb, we wouldn’t have seen the church grow from Jerusalem to Judea and even into Rome, where after Rome, it scattered throughout the whole world. That was Paul who did that.

Barnabas, on the other hand, didn’t have that kind of ministry. He was called the son of consolation. Barnabas and Paul had an argument, a disagreement when it came to John Mark. Paul said, "Get John Mark out of here. I don’t have any time for this guy." Barnabas was like, "Yeah, but I love John Mark." What happened? Well, it seems that John Mark and Paul had a huge disagreement, and they went their separate ways.

But Barnabas sort of nursed John Mark back to health and sort of cared about him as a son of consolation, a comforter. He was more of a one-on-one discipleship kind of guy. That was Barnabas. Paul: "I don’t have time for that." Well, which one was right? Barnabas or Paul? The answer: both. Paul had to do the grand scheme of things. Barnabas was more of a guy who ministered one-on-one. Thank the Lord for both of those guys.

I’m glad God uses different people. Peter was loud and obnoxious. John was relational and spiritual. But both of them had a really cool place in Jesus’ plan. That’s very much Zechariah and Haggai. Both contemporaries, probably knew each other. Were they friends? I don’t know. Maybe. But they had the similar calling at the same time, same exact time. But they’re both calling to repentance, and that’s kind of the deal there.

Let’s go on in verse two. It says, "The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say thou unto them, thus saith the Lord of hosts, turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts." I like how it repeats this over—does that remind you of someone who’s saying "saith the Lord of hosts, Lord of hosts" over and again? Who said that also? Haggai.

By the way, this "saith the Lord of hosts" thing, like I talked about in Haggai, it’s talking about armies. When the Bible calls the Lord the Lord of hosts—and the reason that’s an important term is that’s the Lord that’s coming back. That’s the returning Christ, the Lord of hosts. The idea is Lord of armies, both the armies of the heavenly angels and of maybe even you and me. Like, when Christ returns, He’s returning with ten thousands of His saints, and that’s us.

But mostly the host, heavenly host, is referring to the angelic armies. You say, "I’m not afraid of angels." You should be. Think about Michael. Think about the book of Revelation. Remember there’s an angel that stands on the earth in the book of Revelation who puts one foot in the ocean and one foot on the continent. It’s not like standing at the beach with one foot—like a mile out in the ocean and another foot a mile inside the continent. These are big, amazing, powerful angels, and they’re the armies that God commands.

But the second thing is also the world’s armies. God actually is the Lord over them as well. One of the things when you read the Bible, you realize God uses even worldly armies. Even in our story right here, the Lord used the Babylonian army to sort of correct the Jews from their misdeeds and their sin, and we’ll even read more about that here in the book of Zechariah. So, Jesus’ second coming, He’s coming as the Lord of hosts or the Lord of armies, the conquering King.

This is where I can’t really agree with my friends that believe in pacifism. Because the pacifists say, "Well, the New Testament, we never see Jesus fighting anyone." True. But we do see God fighting people. The Lord is a warrior; the Bible says He’s mighty in battle. You say, "Well, that’s God of the Old Testament." Same thing. Jesus and God are one. Don’t forget in the New Testament, Jesus reminds us that He’s coming as a conquering King.

Those that believe in pure pacifism, I think they forget Romans chapter 13. Let’s review that just for a second. It says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God." Question: when Paul wrote this to the Romans, who was the power that be that was in charge at that time? Nero. Caesar Nero, the most crazy world leader ever in the history, maybe, of the world. You might argue even worse than Hitler and some of the others.

"Whosoever, therefore, verse two, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain."

That’s an interesting phrase there, "for he beareth not the sword in vain." For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. So, it’s amazing. We live in a world today that people are just so confused about power and authority and stuff like that. We’ve seen corruption in law enforcement, but it’s a tiny, tiny fraction of a percent of law enforcement. The Bible tells us that law enforcement and, by the way, military is part of God’s team.

It doesn’t say here that as long as it’s not Nero’s army or if these guys are carrying their King James Bible. It doesn’t say that. It says that these guys that are the powers that be, they’re ordained of God. So, here in verse two, it says, "The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers." The word "sore" is a double negative word. So, like, it’s not just that—I mean, he could have just said the Lord has been displeased.

But the idea is sorely displeased. A lot of times we miss the force of what’s being said. It’s sort of a double angry; it’s almost like He’s angry about being so angry is the idea there. So, the Lord is sore displeased. Verse three: "Therefore say unto them, thus saith the Lord of hosts, turn ye to me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts." So, this "turn to me"—the word here is repent.

Turn around, repent of your sins, go the opposite direction. It’s the same word, really, as repent. It reminds me there of James chapter four verse eight, where the Lord reminds you and me. He says, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near," or draw nigh, "to you." The Hebrew word, by the way, for sin is an interesting word. It’s *khata*, and it means to miss the mark. The word *khata* is used in the book of Judges, by the way.

It’s talking about like in the book of Judges, remember the guys that were able to use a sling and they could sling a rock and split a hair on a man’s head? That’s pretty good accuracy with a rock and a sling. But the word they use is these guys would not *khata*, miss the mark, is the idea, or miss the target. Because they were so talented with the sling. Sin is to miss the mark. Sin equals everything evil and anything that misses the bullseye of perfection.

So, when we sin, then what we need to do is repent and turn. The word repent is an interesting word; it means to turn the other direction. If you look it up in the Hebrew, the Hebrew word is an interesting word, the word *shuva*, which means to return. The Greek word in the New Testament is metanoia, but it means to change your mind, do an about-face, reverse your current direction.

So, when we sin and mess up, we’re supposed to turn back toward God, and that’s really what God is asking the Jews here through Zechariah: "Turn to Me. You’re going the wrong direction; turn to the Lord, and I will turn to you," saith the Lord of hosts. I love the responsiveness of the Lord. He says, "All you’ve got to do is turn to Me, and what will I do? I’ll turn to you." He’s not going to play it hard to get.

If you turn to Him, then the Lord will say, "Well, we’ll see if we like you anymore after your rebellion for all these years." Lord’s not like that. If you turn to Me, then I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts. Interesting. Well, we’ve got to remember that because Paul the Apostle, he knew what it was like when he struggled with his own sin. He said there in Romans seven verse 15, "For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that I do."

"If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not." Does this sound relatable to any of you? A lot of you are like, "No, I’ve actually got it all dialed in." No, you wouldn’t say that, right? Like, we struggle.

He says, "How to perform that which is good, I don’t know how to do that." Verse 19: "For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more that I do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." So, Paul’s admitting his own sin. What constitutes sin? It’s an amazing thing because so many people think sin is, "Well, murder." And it is. Adultery. That is.

But also having a sharp, perturbed, grouchy attitude is sin. Or thinking an ill thought of someone you’re driving on the road is sin. Having a sharp word to your wife—that’s sin. Having a disrespectful word to your husband—that’s sin. It’s amazing how we think, "I’m not a sinner." Oh, we’re all real bad sinners, and it doesn’t even have to be that bad. So, what do you do? You turn from that sin.

So, rather than having the sharp word toward your wife, you say a kind word to your wife. Instead of being disrespectful to your husband, you say something of respect to your husband. That’s what repentance is: just turn and do the opposite thing. If you’re a teenager and your mom tells you to clean your room, instead of grouchy and stomping off or whatever, you say, "Mom, I’d be happy to do that." You go off and clean your room. She’ll pass out if you do that. But that’s how you repent; you turn and do the opposite thing.

By the way, one of the primary goals of prophecy in the Bible is repentance. One of the reasons prophecy is given, both the local application and the long-term application, is that people repent. Prophecy, that’s part of the deal. So, now here, we’re going to see a couple pieces here in this call to repentance. First, Zechariah nails them on disobedience here in verse four.

It says in verse four, "Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, thus saith the Lord of hosts, turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings. But they did not hear nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord." Man, this is talking about for generations. There’s been generations of disobedience. It’s like the older people didn’t hear the prophets that the Lord sent.

And more accurately, it’s saying they *would* not hear. It’s not that they did not hear; they would not hear what the Lord said through the prophets. It’s interesting because that’s what we have to decide. Are we going to do what the Bible says, or are we going to rebel? And it’s so easy to see this in Israel with Zechariah the Prophet and these people. What a bunch of losers they were. God told them for centuries what to do, and for centuries they just said, "We will not believe and follow."

But then you have to kind of say, "Lord, are there little things that You’ve told me to do that I’ve refused to do?" The Bible says, "Husbands, love your wives." How are you doing, hubby? "Well, that’s different." No, it’s exactly the same. Are you repentant? "Wives, respect your husbands," the Bible says, "and submit to them." "Oh, I don’t like that." That’s just called rebellion. How long are we going to rebel?

Husbands and wives, that’s just something that’s really a hard thing to do. The children of Israel, what they were doing, I would argue it would have been hard for them to do the right thing. But nonetheless, God called them to repentance, but they just were disobedient. And then not only were they disobedient, they would even try to delay. That’s the second part of this in verse five, the delay that we see. Check it out, verse five. It says, "Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?"

He’s saying, "You’ve procrastinated too long. How long are you going to live? Don’t delay. Do it now. Repent now," is the idea. Life goes by fast. If you want to be really morbid and weird, try this just for a second. If the average person lives to be say 79, which I think that’s the number right now, how many more weekends do you have in your life? Because it’s one thing to say how many more years or how many more days, but how many more weekends?

Do the math on that, and you might be a little shocked. And are you using the time? Well, the Bible says redeem the time, for the days we live in are evil. So many times there’s so many people with regrets of how they used their time. These guys just delayed for years and years and never really did what they were called to do. So, verse six. It says, "But my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers?"

"And they returned and said, like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us." It’s interesting he’s basically saying, "Did they not take hold of your fathers?" In other words, did they not overtake? Some of your margins say on that word "take hold," did they not overtake? It’s like a police officer stopping you with the red and blue lights, being pulled over. That’s the idea.

He’s saying, "But my words and my statutes which I commanded you guys, didn’t they pull you over like a police officer?" is the idea. "And they returned and said, like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us." It’s interesting that these older people just said, "Nah, we’re not going to do what he says." And even with years going by, the truth caught up to them is the idea and took them over.

One of the things we still need to learn is older people need to be teaching younger people. And it’s hard because younger people don’t want to hear it from the old people. It’s as old as the sun is. Just people, old people making mistakes with their lives and then saying, "You youngsters better listen up." And the youngsters saying, "Yeah, whatever." And then they make the same exact mistake. That’s kind of what’s going on here.

The older people didn’t learn, and Zechariah’s saying, "Oh, the younger people should have been listening." And still, he’s teaching repentance. He says, "According to our doings, so hath he dealt with us." So, the idea is you need to repent. That’s his theme. By the way, if you remember back when we were in the book of Joel, that was the theme of the book of Joel. Remember he said, "Rend your heart, not your garments. Turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth of the evil."

Remember that word repent is like relent of the evil, the judgment, the wrath. But the idea here is interesting. There’s an external appearance of repentance where they were ripping their garments, but that wasn’t real repentance. They needed an internal repentance, which is more of a rending of the heart or working on your heart, your inner self, to have true repentance. And that’s the problem. The people went through all the motions of repentance, but they weren’t really repenting. And Zechariah is calling them out.

Now, this is where after verse six now, in verse seven is where it starts with the beginning of the eight visions or dreams of Zechariah. So, that was the first part: all this disobedience and a call to repentance there in the first six verses. But in verse seven now we get to this vision, and by the way, one thing you should know about in Zechariah here, these visions, each vision that we read has sort of a pattern to it.

And some are really hard to understand, I’m just going to say it. But if you are looking for some interesting things about these visions, first of all, there’s a pattern that you’ll see that each vision does possess, and you can kind of look for these patterns. The first pattern that you see is every vision has sort of some introductory words about the vision. And then the second piece is it gives a description of what he saw in his vision.

And then there’s sort of always in each vision, there’s a question as to what the meaning—it’s almost like there’s going to be a question to an angel, "What is the meaning of this vision?" And then fourthly, there’s an explanation from an angel in each one of the visions. If you look for these things, it’ll help you sort of understand the eight visions of Zechariah. And remember all these happened in one night. He must have had some serious spicy pizza before he went to bed that night, or it was the Holy Spirit.

I think it was the Holy Spirit. But keep this little list in the back of your head as you’re looking at these visions. Introductory words, description, question, explanation is sort of the pattern here, and that’s going to be helpful. The first vision, we’re going to call this first vision the rider in the myrtle trees. And let’s take a look, verse seven. It says in verse seven, "Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, in the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying."

Now, before we hear the vision, a couple things: month of Shebat, that’s February 15, 519 BC. Again, if you’re following these dates, take into account the Babylonian calendar and the lunar calendar and all that. Here’s the question: why does Zechariah and Haggai, why do both of these guys record meticulously this precise date of each vision? The answer: I don’t have any idea. But I feel like we’re missing something.

So, there’s your assignment. Try to figure out why is Zechariah so obsessed with the exact date of each vision? Because I’m convinced that in the Bible, there’s nothing there that’s just meant to be, "Oh, well, man, he’s just stupid about dates." That’s not the way the Bible works. When you see something and you’re like, "That’s so unnecessary," usually not only is it necessary, but it usually has something of huge meaning. And I’ve just never come across any commentator or theologian or pastor or sermon that actually says why these dates are so important, and I haven’t figured it out.

So, maybe you can. But it is amazing to me that each date is so meticulously recorded here. So, some reason to maybe pray about it, search the scriptures. Maybe the further down the road we get, we’ll know more why Zechariah recorded these dates with such precision. But anyway, back to the rider in the myrtle tree vision. Here we go, verse eight. He says, "I saw by night and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled and white."

So, the first thing we see here in this vision is a rider. The description of a man riding on a red horse. Red in the Bible is a symbol of war and judgment. Revelation 19:11 talks about that, and Isaiah 63 verses one through six associates red with the concept of war and judgment. Judgment, of course, red being the blood of Christ on Calvary, the judgment for our sins, what have you. But also the book of Revelation associates the color red with warfare and judgment.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador pausing in our verse-by-verse study, having identified just the first of eight visions revealed in the book of Zechariah. And of course, there’s much more to come as we continue in today's word next time. I also invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment.

But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon, area where Pastor Brett Meador’s the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more about Pastor Brett and Athey Creek Church by going to todayswordradio.com. If you missed any portion of this message, you’ll find all of Pastor Brett’s messages online at todayswordradio.com.

All right, Pastor Brett has joined me. Brett, for a person listening today who is looking for a good church to attend, maybe they’re not in the Portland, Oregon, area, what kind of church is important to look for?

Brett Meador: Well, Kurt, I’m really glad you asked that question, and it’s an important question. The first thing I’d say if you’re looking for a church is that it actually teaches the Bible. Now, I’m a big fan of verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter. There’s a lot of good churches that don’t necessarily go verse-by-verse, but I would say make sure they open up the Bible, that they’re actually walking through good sections of scripture, not just tacking on a verse here or there.

When you read the story of the early church in the book of Acts, in Acts 2:42 it says they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine. And I think that should be the model that you look for, that the word of God needs to be central. Apostles’ doctrine is just the teaching of the word. Second, I’d look for a church that keeps Jesus right at the center. It shouldn’t be centered on a pastor or even the programs or the outreach.

Those are all good things, the outreaches and stuff, but it really needs to be Jesus-centered, I think, and the gospel should be preached every Sunday where people hear the good news. My thought would be if you walk away thinking more about the pastor and less about Jesus, we probably missed the mark. That’s something I think as a pastor a lot; I want people to go away thinking about Jesus.

And then also looking at the health of the church body. First Corinthians 13, Paul reminds us that even if we have the gifts of knowledge and word of prophecy, but if we don’t have love, we’ve got nothing. So, you want to see love in a church body. And then finally, I’d look for a church with a good, humble leadership that’s accountable, servant-hearted leaders. Not perfect people—you won’t find that anywhere. But leaders who are teachable but also who handle the word faithfully.

I think if you just pray and ask the Lord to lead you to that church and give you wisdom. Now, it’s been said if you find the perfect church, don’t join it; you’ll ruin it. And that’s true. So, you won’t find the perfect church, but I would say find generally those things, and you’ll be in good shape.

Guest (Male): That’s such great advice. Thank you, Pastor Brett. And if you happen to be in the Portland, Oregon, area, we’d like to invite you to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn or our two other locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville, Oregon. Just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "locations." Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "locations."

Well, next time Pastor Brett will continue in the book of Zechariah, and we’ll see how the Lord offered Zechariah a series of visions to communicate a message of divine encouragement. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.