Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Isaiah 43, verse 25. I, even I, am he that blots out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember your sins. I love that.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador with an assuring promise of scripture, offering comfort to believers of God's mercy.

Brett Meador: He knew no sin, became sin because he took all of our sins upon us and died once for all on the cross. And that's why when Jesus died, he said, "It is finished." The finished work of salvation.

Kurt: The prophet Zechariah's vision depicting a flying scroll exposes sin and declares God's righteous judgment. And helping us to understand its significance, Pastor Brett Meador reflects how this scene also points us to Jesus fulfilling the law, bearing the curse for sinners, and offers cleansing where judgment once stood.

Brett Meador: And that's where we'll rejoin him in Today's Word. Let's take a look here, Zechariah, chapter 5. It says in verse 1. Then I turned and lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a flying roll. You say, "Brett, what in the world is a flying roll?" The idea is not a roll, but a scroll, okay? A flying scroll.

Now, this is already weird enough, wouldn't you say? A flying scroll? That's an image that you're like, "You don't see that every day." But that's this next vision, vision number six, the flying scroll. And it's basically Zechariah 5, verses 1 through 4. And it is interesting in that it's a flying scroll.

When you come to this idea of flying, the idea is active, present energy, the Hebrew word there. Flying, but also active and energetic is and living even. Something that's inanimate sort of becomes living or moving, the scroll. And this one here is very unique for several reasons. And let's take a look in verse 2, what those things are.

It says, "And he said to me, 'What seeest thou?' And I answered, 'I see a flying scroll, the length thereof is 20 cubits and the breadth thereof is 10 cubits.'" So right there, for you Bible students, you're like, "Wait a minute, did you know that's the same dimension of the holy place in the Tabernacle?" Kind of interesting.

Do you remember there's three main things in the holy place? You know, one side, as you walked into the right side, you'd see the table of showbread. You know, the Bible talks about provision. Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread." But also Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." He is the provision that we need.

A little altar on the inside was called the altar of incense. And it's where the incense would ascend up into heaven. Incense was a type of prayer. And, as it turns out, Jesus is the one who ever lives to make intercession for you and me. So we've got the bread of life, Jesus. We have intercession, Jesus. But then you've got the lampstand that we talked about. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." Remember the center post of the lampstand, Jesus. And then, "I am the vine, you are the branches." And we get to be, as Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." And then he said, "You will be lights in this world."

So everything about this holy place points to Jesus, just like the whole Tabernacle if you do a whole study of the Tabernacle. But the holy place does an interesting thing. It connects Jesus with humanity. The Tabernacle speaks of Christ, but Christ also is linked not only to being pictured by the Tabernacle, but also the word of God.

John chapter 1, verse 1, of course, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And then later on in John chapter 1, verse 14, it says, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Who is that? Well, that's Jesus. But back to the vision of the flying scroll, what does the flying scroll do?

The same thing the Bible does for us today. The Bible is sort of a self-proclamation. It reveals our sinfulness. It's the mirror that shows us how flawed we really are.

Let's read on in verse 3. Then said he unto me, "This is the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth. For everyone that steals shall be cut off as on this side, according to it. And everyone that swears shall be cut off as on that side, according to it." Why are the two sins of the scroll here basically swearing and being a thief? What's the deal with those two things?

Well, as it turns out, with the Ten Commandments, the two tables of stone, it's like what's being said here is on the one table, it ends with one thing, the cursing and the swearing. And then the next thing, thieving. And then everything after that. So it's not that cursing and swearing and thievery are the two unpardonable sins. They're basically saying, "And everything else included." All the sins. So it's basically the indictment of sin on all of humanity, which is the curse.

The sin is the curse. And we're all cursed with sin. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, we were born sinners into that curse. That's the idea of this word curse. Now, there's a few things about this scroll. One thing you see here that's not as clear, but it's written on both sides. A scroll that has been written on both sides.

And what does the Lord say? He says in verse 4, "I will bring it forth," says the Lord of hosts, "and it shall enter into the house of the thief," remember, that's one of the sins, thievery, "and into the house of him that swears," that's the swearer, and everything in between is the idea. The scroll is going to enter in and it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof. Okay. So the scroll comes and wipes out the person who's cursed with sin. Does that scare anybody? Does it make anybody uneasy?

Well, as it turns out, that's what the word of God does. It does directly put the curse of sin on humanity. And that's one of the things we have to remember. By the way, when Jesus comes back with 10,000 of his saints there, at the end of the Tribulation, the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom, the second coming of Christ. Does anybody remember what's coming out of his mouth as he's coming in the imagery?

A double-edged sword. It's the word of God that's going to indict the world that's there, that remains, of their sins, and that's going to be the wrath of God on them. Who's going to be coming with Christ? Us, 10,000 of his saints. And the Bible tells us that we are not under curse, but we are arrayed in fine white linen. How did we get that?

Well, I'm just giving you a little relief valve right now because we're under the curse of sin initially, but there's some good news. Now, this is where you take this imagery of the scroll, and you wonder what it's about. It's a double-sided scroll. Where else do we see that? Would you flip over to Revelation chapter 5? Here we have a scroll, and I believe it's the same scroll.

It's the same scroll with all of human's requirements written on it, the requirements to be freed up from the curse, if you would. We get a little more definition of this one. This is what we might call the scroll that is the title deed to planet Earth, which I also believe is the word of God. The word of God is sort of the document that tells us about what's required for ownership, what's required for salvation, what's required for the earth to go and move and for us to live and breathe. It's the requirements, if you would.

And so that's why this story in Revelation 5 becomes so amazing. John in his revelation, gets taken up into heaven in chapter 4, caught up is the word there. In verse 1 of chapter 5, what does he see? This is where the drama in heaven starts really unfold. This is all future. In Revelation 5, it says, "And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book, written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals."

This is a scroll that's written on both sides, and it's got seven seals. Now, let's talk about that. Don't picture just seven seals in a row. Picture when you're unrolling, you have to break a seal to get it unrolled to a certain place, and then there's another seal, you have to kind of crack that one, and then open up further than that. And there's seven of these seals. Now, why would somebody put seals intermittently through the scroll?

It had to do with the requirements for something. Like if you were to take possession of a house and you had certain things you were supposed to do. Let's just be kind of weird for a second. Let's say you're buying a house, but before you buy the house, the owner has to replace the roof because there's holes in it. So, seal number one, re-roof your house before I can pay this money and buy the house. And then, seal number two, you also have to fix the toilet because it doesn't work. Seal number three. Like there's things they got to do. And once they can break open all those seals and do it, then you take ownership of the house. Are you guys with me on that?

That's why it's an interesting thing the way this scroll is described here. It's like a title deed with seven requirements. And there's only it's got to be the right person who can fill those requirements, or else the scroll can't be opened. That's the idea here. So, this scroll is written on both sides with seven seals. Verse 2. "And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof?' And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon." Uh-oh.

The title deed to planet Earth, no one can open it. And John starts to go, "Oh, no!" In this vision, he's like, "What's going to happen?" He freaks out. So it says here, verse 3, "No man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and read the book, neither to look thereon." So he's just there bawling his eyes out thinking, "Man, the earth is lost, humanity is lost because no one's worthy to open up those seals of the title deed to planet Earth."

But then, one of the elders, verse 5, said unto me, "Weep not. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof." Man, that's a glorious verse right there. And who's the Lion of the tribe of Judah? That's Jesus, a descendant of the tribe of Judah, but also a lineage of David. Like this is a great title of the Lord.

And verse 6. "And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne," verse 6, "and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain." Isn't that interesting that John sees Jesus as the Lamb that had been slain on the cross? Check this out. This is Zechariah language. "Lamb had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth in all the earth." Do you remember? We saw that in Zechariah chapter 3, verse 9, the seven eyes. Remember this? We're talking about the same person here. There's a link.

And verse 7, "He came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts, the four and 20 elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, 'Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and has made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth.'"

And then in chapter 6, he starts to crack open the seals and that's the requirements, and the requirements are going to be poured out during the Tribulation period. The seven seals are going to deal with the seven major judgments. And after seven seals, there's some trumpets and some bowls of wrath and it gets kind of crazier from there. But all that to say, this is the same scroll that is the one that indicts us as humanity, that we can't fill, that we we're toast. If we're under the law of that scroll, we're going to be in big trouble.

So there in Revelation, we see a scroll written on both sides, a legal document, title deed to planet Earth, only Jesus could open it. Back to Zechariah. This is that same scroll that we're reading about. Zechariah's time before Jesus was even on the scene, what you see is only the bad side of the scroll, the indictments, if you would. That's all we see here in chapter 5 of Zechariah. The sins, or as it's called, the curse.

Verse 4 says, "The scroll, I will bring it forth," says the Lord of Hosts, "and enter into the house of the thief, into the house of him that swears falsely by my name, and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with timber thereof and the stones thereof." Now, you say, "What's that all about? Why is the scroll consuming?" Remember, we're seeing the curse side of the scroll, and what happens to the sinner? The thief, the swearer, and all in between, all the sins in between. And there's utter destruction.

The language here would have been reflective for the Jews because there was a specific law where they were supposed to burn the timber and the stones of a person's house. That was the language of the Bible, the Levitical law, in a specific situation. Does anybody remember what that specific situation is? Leprosy. And leprosy is a picture, a type of sin, right? Sin. Leprosy is always pictured as sin. So one of the things you had to do is cleanse out leprosy, and the scroll comes to destroy this house in a way you'd destroy the leper's house, the same language. And that's kind of important thing to see and know.

So back to this vision, we basically see in that scroll would be a list of our sins or the people of the Old Testament, Zechariah's time. The good news for you and I, because we live in the dispensation of grace. We're not under the law of the Old Testament, but we live in a time where we, Jesus died on the cross for our sins. And he paid the price, redeemed us from the laws of sin and death that were written on the scroll. So the curse, the curse is no longer on us, and that's beautiful.

Let me go over some of that. Isaiah 43, verse 25. "I, even I, am he that blots out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember your sins." I love that. Now, there will be those who reject Jesus, the living word, the scroll, but they'll be crushed by the same scroll. See, the scroll will either bring you salvation or it'll bring you death. It kind of reminds me of the analogy of Jesus, the rock.

If you're a Christian, he's our rock, our sure foundation. The wise man built his house on the rock, foolish men built his house on the sand. And the Bible talks about that, the rock. The gospel writers talk about Jesus, about how he will become the stone that crushes. And there's this kind of idea you'll be broken before the stone or you'll be crushed by the stone. One of two is the options there. So the stone can be a good thing or a bad thing. The rock, you'll either be broken before it and repent or you'll be crushed by it. Same thing with the scroll.

The scroll is good news for the believer, or it's your indictment against you that dooms you to death and destruction. It just depends on your perspective. So the scroll speaks of wrath and judgment for those who reject the Lord. And that's what we're seeing here. That's why it's called the curse there in verse 3. Link that word curse, by the way, to what the Bible says throughout the Bible about the curse.

In fact, Galatians chapter 3, verse 13 says, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law." That's the scroll. "Being made a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.'" That's an Old Testament passage that tells us that Jesus is the one who became a curse for us. In fact, 2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it this way, "For he, the Lord, has made him, Jesus, to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

What, did he sin? Some people try to say Jesus sinned. He didn't. He who knew no sin, became sin because he took all of our sins upon us and died once for all on the cross. And that's why when Jesus died, he said, "It is finished." The finished work of salvation. So, the vision of the flying scroll, I know it's a little crazy, but basically apart from the cross, this scroll would still be horrifying to you and me.

It'd be this massive indictment coming towards you saying, "I'm going to crush you and clean out your house of sin." But, good news, Christ became sin on our behalf, protecting us. So the word of God is not a sword that's going to hack us up. The word of God becomes the sword of the spirit that defends us. Do you see the difference there?

I love the transition. Once you accept Christ, the rock becomes a foundation rather than a crusher. The scroll becomes good news instead of the indictment against you. All of these things are changed when you get on the right side of the scroll, is kind of the idea. By the way, the Jews to this day don't believe in the New Testament. They just believe in the Hebrew Bible. So they're stuck with Zechariah right here. Zechariah 5.

See, if I just had Zechariah 5 here, these verses 1 through 4, and you didn't have the New Testament, I'd be horrified. And I'm going to say, I've met Jews in Jerusalem that kind of are horrified. I'll tell you why. Because a good Jew, and I've met lots of them. I remember talking at the Temple Institute with this young girl. She was the kind of the tour guide of the Temple Institute. Because I wanted to kind of get her sense of, you know, because here's the problem. If you're a Jew, how do you deal with your sin? And I even asked her, "So, as a Jew, how do the Jews deal with sin?" And I kind of knew what the answer was going to be.

She says, "Well, it's the Jewish sacrificial system of, you know, the altar and and the priesthood. And that's why we're wanting to rebuild the temple and get it this worship back up and running so that the Jews can worship the way we've always been meant to worship." I said, "Yes, that's great. But what do you do in the meantime?" Like right now there is no temple, and there hasn't been one for several thousand years. What do you do about sin right now?

And it was interesting because her and her friends were there kind of, they sort of blush and they sort of hem and haw, and they say, "Well, we pray, you know, for our sins and stuff like that." And it's funny because I know the awkwardness there because they also know that just the Jew praying about their sins, that doesn't help. That doesn't do it. There must be the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. The Jews know this. So you're still stuck with this heavy scroll of Zechariah 5 with no answer to it.

But you and I have the answer, "Oh, blessed is he, Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who came and was worthy to open up the scroll and cause the curse of sin to be put upon himself instead of us." And that's the glorious truth. And by the way, helping the Jews to see, the big mistake Christians make, and I'm going to say the replacement theology people are the worst at this. They have the narrative, "Well, Christianity has replaced Judaism." That's what most Jews think Christianity is, a replacement because of the way we've presented it.

But the better truth is, Christianity is a fulfillment of Judaism. Like Judaism is is being fulfilled through a Jew. Jesus was very Jewish, and Jesus didn't do away with the law. He actually kept the law perfectly. And Jesus would be the one who would be able to be the Lamb that was required for the Jewish sacrificial system. Like it's exactly the continuation of Judaism.

So it's not like Judaism ceases and is no longer important. No. But if you're just living in Judaism right now, you're still lost. You got to carry it out as the Hebrew Bible foretells. And so when you show a Jew the scroll, Zechariah 5, and you show that that scroll is opened by Jesus, the Messiah, who was a Jew, who died on the cross, shed his blood. And that's the sacrificial blood. Jesus. That's why when Jesus came, John the Baptist, a Jew, said, "Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world."

If we can present it to our Jewish friends more as, "Well, look at how the Bible," as we look at it, and when we call the Old Testament and the New, it also turns the Jews off. The Jews are like, "Oh, the old washed up has-been, our Bible. And then you Christians have your new and improved." And they almost look like we've sort of added to the Holy Scriptures with our New Testament. And we say old and new. And what we mean is, the Old Testament's older, and the New Testament's newer. That's what we mean when we say that. But it sort of also has a connotation of saying new and improved, better religion than the old Jewish way. No.

Don't listen to those preachers that blow off the Old Testament. The Old Testament, it's called the Bible. You don't blow off any part of the Bible ever. So all that to say, the Jews don't believe in the New Testament, but ask a Jew, "How are you forgiven for your sins?" And then you can show them how the Bible, the Old Testament, or you might call it the Hebrew Bible, if you're talking to a Jew, you know, the Hebrew Bible, it says. And then you can talk about what the Hebrew Bible says. And if you know your Old Testament, you know, Jesus is totally spoken of in the Hebrew Bible. You know.

It's interesting because Jesus, when he talked to those two dudes on the road to Emmaus, he explained to them everything about himself using the Bible. At that time, it was the Hebrew Bible. And he explained everything in the Old Testament as it related to himself. That's what you and I should do when we talk to our Jewish friends. Show them in their Hebrew Bible, Jesus the Messiah. It's so great. Well, all that to say, we got this flying scroll, the forgiveness of sin only coming through Jesus.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador with another fascinating verse by verse study in Today's Word of the book of Zechariah, telling of the redeeming work of Christ from the curse of sin, as reflected in the vision of this Old Testament prophet Zechariah. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will be with me in just a moment. But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church just south of Portland, Oregon, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. Our vision is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus, their savior, through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. All right, Pastor Brett is with me now.

Brett, I know you grew up in a Christian home. Your folks were involved in ministry. You have some stories about how those experiences made an impression on you and your ministry today, don't you?

Brett Meador: You know, Kurt, growing up in a Christian home really was a giant blessing, and I think I'm realizing even more and more how huge that was for my ministry right now. I think I'm only now fully started to realize. You know, my parents, hard-working people, they were fairly new Christians when I was born, but they were hungry for the word. And my dad being in construction, we'd travel around different cities on the West Coast, different construction jobs in Southern California all the way up into Oregon. But we attended churches. Baptist Church, Assembly of God, Nazarene, like wherever the nearest church was, we'd go. And so as a little kid, those churches all left impressions and I think were largely part of shaping what I thought about church in general. You know, and finally when we settled in Southern Oregon, my parents, there wasn't really a great through the Bible teaching church that was nearby. And so they called up a friend from Southern Cal, and they came up and started a church in my own home. So I had an experience going from a church with 10 people in my living room, and that church grew to over 7,000 people in about a 25-year trajectory. And so it was by that experience I became, you know, deeply involved in ministry from a very young age just because it was what my family did. I don't remember anything but serving. Watching my parents serve people quietly, you know, praying with sincerity, studying the word faithfully. And those impressions really stuck with me. And, you know, one of the biggest things I learned from my parents is it's not about the spotlight. It's just about being faithful. And my parents really modeled that. They weren't the front of the sanctuary kind of people as much as they were behind the scenes just serving. And that was a giant thing for me personally.

Kurt: Well, thank you, Brett, for sharing some of those personal stories about your upbringing. And like you said, what a blessing to have parents like that to model Christ and service to you. Well, if you'd like more information about Athey Creek Church, Pastor Brett Meador or Today's Word, you can visit our website at todayswordradio.com. Well, next time, Pastor Brett will continue another verse by verse study in the book of Zechariah. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.