Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: If you’re a Christian and you know your Bible, you know that when the world’s getting worse, your heart is broken because the world is lost. But the Lord reminds us, man, but don’t forget to look up. Your redemption is drawing near.

Guest (Male): On today’s Word, Pastor Brett Meador interpreting the signs of the times.

Brett Meador: And yet the world just kind of sits by and, whatever, it’s just the days we’re living. No, I believe that these are the reasons the Lord’s going to come back as a warrior, mighty in battle. There’s a point where the Lord’s going to say, "Enough."

Guest (Male): By all accounts, the nation of Israel has endured ongoing conflict from neighboring aggressors. But drawing from the prophet Zechariah in today’s Word, Pastor Brett Meador anticipates the coming Day of the Lord when Jerusalem’s enemies will encounter the return of Jesus intervening for His people as a conquering king come to fulfill His sovereign purposes.

Brett Meador: The end of the book of Zechariah is really all about Jerusalem and the future of Jerusalem and what God has in store for the people of Jerusalem, the Jews. And it’s an important passage and it does affect any one of you that are Christians here today. It’s something you should know about according to the Bible.

Remember, the Bible says don’t be ignorant about several things. One of the things you’re not supposed to be ignorant of is God’s plan for Israel, especially as it relates to Israel and the Jews in the last days and the end times. Today we’d like to kind of look more what Zechariah has to say about the future of Jerusalem. What’s going to happen? How’s it going to go down? Why is it important? We’ll continue that discussion.

The Lord says there through Zechariah the prophet in verse two of chapter 12, "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about when they shall be in siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it."

So really, this passage tells us a lot about what’s going to happen as far as Jerusalem in the last days, the second coming of Christ. And I want to show you that. Here’s some of the notions you should be aware of. Number one: one thing that we learn here in Zechariah is all nations will attempt or try to deal with the problem of Jerusalem.

The world’s saying the Jews are occupiers there in Jerusalem, that they don’t deserve to be there. The world is saying at least chop Jerusalem in half. Even though, like I said last week, the Jews bought the land, they were given the land back after World War II and the Holocaust, and God gave them the land. I mean, what nation of people can say that?

Meanwhile, the world’s saying the Jews have no right to parts of Jerusalem. The Arabs, they’re not saying part, they’re saying all of it belongs to the Arabs and they want it all, not just part, not just half. But the nations that try to deal with Jerusalem, they will surely hurt themselves. And that’s really what we’re going to see here.

The United Nations: they’re constantly passing resolutions against the Jews and against Israel. Like here’s an example. There was a big vote. 129 nations ignored Jewish ties to the Temple Mount, call it solely Muslim. When did the Temple Mount in Jerusalem become a holy site of Islam?

Remember Yasser Arafat? His grand uncle, the Grand Mufti. He was the one who declared Jerusalem the third most holy site in Islam. It was somebody that lived in a time period that some of us were even alive. It’s a new thing. And like I mentioned last week, how many times is Jerusalem and the Temple Mount mentioned there in the Koran? Zero. How many times is Jerusalem mentioned in the Hebrew Bible? 800 times, more than 800 times.

But as it turns out, all the nations are voting against Jerusalem, voting that the Jews leave Jerusalem. The world is mad at Jerusalem. This is a sign of the times. Point number two: not only will all the nations try to deal with the problem of Jerusalem, but number two, we learn from our text here in Zechariah, all nations that go against Israel will ultimately be destroyed.

Fast forward to Zechariah 12:9. Speaking of that time, it says, "And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." This is what the Bible says. All the nations that come against Jerusalem, He says, "I’m going to take them down." This is pretty clear. This does not mean, by the way, that all the nations that are going against Israel right now are going to be destroyed. It just means there’s coming a day, the Day of the Lord. In that day, well, I will destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Point number three: Jesus will personally come and fight those nations. How big of a deal is what I’m talking about? Well, this is the event that’s going to bring the second coming of Christ. The second coming of Jesus is when the world is against Jerusalem, hating Jerusalem, wanting to destroy Jerusalem.

In fact, the Bible tells us even more exactly how that’s going to come down as you flip the page here to Zechariah chapter 14, verse one. It says, "Behold, the day of the Lord comes." Now remember, the Day of the Lord is defined in the Bible. It’s the day when God intervenes in humanity. Right now, humanity’s kind of doing its thing and Satan is the prince of this world, the Bible says.

But there’s coming a time, and I believe the rapture of the church is the event that gets the church out, and then the Day of the Lord begins. And it begins with the tribulation all the way through the millennial kingdom. That’s the Day of the Lord when God intervenes on Christ-rejecting, sinful world and He starts whipping countries. Check it out.

"Behold, the day of the Lord comes and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem"—Zechariah 12—"and they’ll be there for battle and the city shall be taken and the houses rifled and the women ravished and half of the city shall go forth into captivity and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city."

Now pause for a second. This is what the Bible says. That day’s coming when all the nations are going to gather against Jerusalem and they’re going to successfully divide Jerusalem in half. That’s going to be a successful endeavor. But what’s going to happen? Look at verse three. "Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle."

Zechariah announced that the Lord will go and fight against these nations. And the word "go out" there in a military term in the Hebrew Bible, to go out is a technical term for a king to go out to battle. Interestingly enough, which is the clear meaning here. The Lord is going to go out and fight as a warrior.

The first coming of Christ, He came as a humble servant. Made Himself of no reputation, took upon the form of a servant and went to the cross, dying on the cross for the sins of the world. That was His first coming. But don’t forget, Jesus the Messiah is not just the lamb who is slain; He’s the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Don’t mistake that.

Remember what Moses said in Exodus 15:3-4 right after the Egyptians were wiped out? Moses sang this song. He said, "The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea."

Can you imagine the Egyptians for a second? They were the most powerful nation in the world at that time. So Moses comes along and says, "Let my people go, the slaves of Egypt, the Jews." And do you remember what Pharaoh’s response was? He says, "Who is the Lord? And who is your God that he could move my hand?" And Moses basically, "Well, let me introduce you to Him."

And He was introduced—Pharaoh was—by the plagues of Egypt. Can you imagine how totally destructive those plagues would have been? The locusts that came and ate up all the crops. That was their food. And if there weren’t any crops after the locusts, they were destroyed by hail and the fire that was left by the hail. Or well, let’s have steaks from our cows. Remember the animals all were killed by the murrain?

So you got the crops, the herds, the flocks—dead. You got all these problems. And then to make matters worse, on Passover night, the firstborn of each home was killed. What would that do? Like just for fun of it, show of hands, how many of you guys are the firstborn of your family? Raise your hand. Look at that, that’s more than half of this group.

This is Egypt’s, half the people are dead. And now Pharaoh lets the people go because of that, He’s finally like—but then he gets mad and says, "Let’s go get them." And so whoever’s left with a pulse, he takes that part of the army and goes after the Jews. And you know the story: they go through the Red Sea and the Red Sea closes over the Egyptians.

And the whole Egyptian army, like Moses says here, were drowned in the Red Sea. You couldn’t more soundly defeat an enemy than what God did to Egypt that day. When the Bible says the Lord is a warrior, a man of war, you kind of got to take that seriously.

Isaiah 42:13 says, "The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar, and he shall prevail against his enemies." Don’t forget, that’s part of God’s nature. He’s a defender of His people and He’s going to come against those nations in the last days that come against Jerusalem.

And as all the nations attack Jerusalem and try to chop it in half, they’ll be successful. And when Jerusalem’s hanging by a thread, back to Zechariah 14, what’s going to happen? Well, let’s read on in verse four. So it says the Lord will fight as he fought in the day of battle. Verse four: "And his feet"—this is Jesus’s feet—"shall stand that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof"—an earthquake—"the mountain’s going to crack in half in the midst thereof toward the east, toward the west, and there shall be a great valley and half the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south."

And then it talks about how the Jews are going to flee at that point and it’s going to be an amazing story. But basically Christ returns—second coming—when all these nations go to battle against Jerusalem. So is the coming of Christ near? All I know is this: do you realize how close we are to all the nations of the world hating Jerusalem right now?

So what’s going to happen? All the nations are posturing right now for what this Zechariah passage is saying. But are you suggesting that the second coming of Christ could be near? Well, see, it’s my view that the first thing that has to happen is the rapture of the church. Then after the rapture of the church, it’ll take seven years to get to the point that we’re reading about here.

So from my perspective, it could be at any moment the rapture of the church happens because we’re getting closer and closer to the world hating Jerusalem and putting their whole attention against Israel. So this second coming of Christ is very real and Zechariah talks about Jesus returning to conquer against those that are warring against Jerusalem.

By the way, where else in the Bible do we read about the second coming of Christ? What’s probably the biggest rendering of that second coming of Christ? The book of Revelation. Why don’t you go with me to Revelation chapter 19? Because this is sort of a parallel passage to Zechariah 14. When Jesus returns, a man of war to fight against those that are warring against Jerusalem and all the nations.

But Revelation 19 tells it from a little different perspective. Revelation 19, verse 11. John the Apostle says, "And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a name written that no man knew but himself."

"And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called The Word of God." Now we know who this is. This is Jesus in His second coming form as a conquering king. His name is The Word of God. It reminds me of John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." This is Jesus in His second coming.

And then who’s with him? Verse 14. "And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." Who are these people in clean clothes that are following him? Us! Why are you given clean clothes? You’ve been given a robe of righteousness. If you’re a Christian, you get to be a part of this.

That’s why this pertains to you, by the way. You’re like, "Brett, I don’t know, man. Revelation 19, Zechariah 14, what does it have to do with me?" Well, if you’re a Christian, you’re going to be there. And the question I would ask you: are you going to be a tourist or are you going to be a tour guide? "Whoa, what’s going on? Whoa!" We’re flying around like—"Okay, don’t you remember this Revelation 19?" Some of you are like, "What are these clothes we’re wearing?" Fine white linen because the Bible depicts that as you’ve been made righteous by the blood of Jesus.

It’s a great story. But what happens? We are raptured to be up with the Lord. Or if you kick the bucket on the way home from church, either way, you’ll be as a Christian with the Lord. That’s the best day of your life, by the way. When you’re with the Lord, either rapture or death, but you get to be with the Lord and you’re there in heaven—the marriage feast of the Lamb.

Meanwhile, back on earth, the tribulation is brewing. The Antichrist, the coming world leader, is going to hate the Jews. And he’s, the Antichrist, is going to be the one to gather the nations of the world even more together against Jerusalem, more than what we’re seeing today. They’ll unite around this Antichrist world leader the Bible talks about.

So we’re in heaven, the earth gets angrier at Jerusalem for those seven years. And eventually they go to attack Jerusalem and wipe out the Jews. Then right when Jerusalem’s hanging by a thread, Christ returns. No man knows the day or the hour. We don’t know when that’s going to happen, but we’re going to be there with them.

By the way, if you’re a post-tribber and you believe the rapture is at the end of the tribulation, the problem I have is why do you get raptured? You go up to meet the Lord and then you come right back down? What’s the point? Well, you get some new clothes! I believe there’s more to it. I believe we’re going to be up away from the wrath of God being poured out in the tribulation period because the Lord doesn’t put His bride in the time of wrath.

We’re up with the Lord in heaven, wrath on earth, and then the Lord comes back when the earth rebels and tries to wipe out Jerusalem. And so let’s read on. Revelation 19—we come back in verse 14 with him. And verse 15: "Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords."

Now you say, "Well, what right does he have to wipe out all the nations of the world?" You got to understand, God has given the world millennia to repent of their sins and to not be mean to His people. You got to remember the world has hated the Jews. And there’s a point where God says, "I’m not going to let that go unchecked."

So the second Holocaust is right here where the nations are gathered against all the Jews in Jerusalem and the Lord says, "I’m not going to let that happen." And He will come as a warrior mighty. And check out what happens. There’s a big dinner feast. Check it out, verse 17. "And I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the fowls, the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together for a supper of the great God."

What? Birds at dinner? Yeah, check it out. Verse 18: bon appetit. It says, "that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great." And I saw the beast—that’s the Antichrist, this coming world leader—"and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse."

Is that a good idea? You see Christ coming on a white horse with a sword coming out of His mouth, ten thousands of ten thousands of His people with Him. And we have been given new bodies by this time. If you’re worried about that—"Brett, I don’t want to be in the army!"—you’re going to be given a new body. Remember, they’ll shoot at you and like, "You missed, you missed, you missed!" It goes through you. Like, you’ll be indestructible at that point.

That’s why we don’t even read about the actual battle here. Check this out. "I saw the beast and the kings of the earth gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse." Bad idea. "And against his army." Verse 20: we don’t even read about the battle. But it says, "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls of heaven were filled with their flesh."

Man, that’s a pretty heavy story. So Revelation 19, Zechariah 14, all of this is the same story. Nations gather against Jerusalem, Christ coming with us, ten thousands of His saints intervening. And don’t confuse that: that’s the battle of Armageddon. Ezekiel 38 and 39 is the battle of Gog and Magog, and they’re not totally unrelated. But we’ll see how Zechariah explains maybe even the differences between these wars. And if you’re interested, you can study Ezekiel 38 and 39 separate battles.

But there’s going to be probably nuclear weapon exchanged. We’re going to read about people that are going to be in this battle: their flesh shall consume away while they stand on their feet and their eyes will melt in their eye sockets and their tongues will consume away in their mouth. Sounds like something from either *Raiders of the Lost Ark* or a nuclear weapon exchange. We’ll read about that in Zechariah.

But all that to say, remember what Jesus said. Because you think, "Man, that sounds horrible and it sounds like the Lord’s just going to come and crush everyone." But the Lord says in Matthew, Jesus said this in Matthew 24. He said, "Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect’s sake, for those days shall be shortened."

In other words, basically the Lord, if He doesn’t intervene, there’s going to be no one left on the earth. But the Lord will come, intervene, and save the elect. I believe the elect’s sake is the Jews, but also perhaps some of the tribulation saints that are left during that time.

So you say, "Brett, okay, so the stage is set for this." There’s no time in history like today where the nations are posturing themselves to say the Jews have to give up Jerusalem. And the more we see that drum being beaten by the world politicians, the more we should be concerned that we’re getting closer to the rapture of the church. It could be happening.

I don’t know whether to be excited or heartbroken. I’m excited for the rapture of the church, heartbroken that the world is so stubborn against God. And it’s not just the Jerusalem issue; it’s every other issue that we could talk about in the last days. The world arrogantly saying, "We’re going to solve the problem." Davos, Switzerland, World Economic Forum. Klaus Schwab, this guy who kind of lead and founded this thing. He made almost biblical statement. He said this.

He said, "The problem today is there’s wars and rumors of wars." And he said, "There’s disease and famine, food shortages." He sounded like Jesus in Matthew 24. The only difference is Klaus Schwab said, "And we, the World Economic Forum, are going to bring the solution. We are the thinkers, we are the ones who have the power to save the earth."

And I believe that that’s just part of the plan to get the world to become a one-world government come together using kind of like the old Tower of Babel days. Same thing, only the modern-day version that was talked about in the Bible. We see all these things. Unless those days be shortened, man’s going to do themselves in. Jesus is coming.

So what do we do? Jesus told us in Luke 21. He said, "When you see these things begin to come to pass"—would you mark the word "begin" in that little verse there? Because it doesn’t say when these things come to pass. No, when you see the end-time scenarios begin to come to pass, then look up. That’s the next thing I’d like to mark there: look up and lift your heads for your redemption draweth nigh.

If you’re a Christian and you know your Bible, you know that when the world’s getting worse, your heart is broken because the world is lost. But the Lord reminds us, man, but don’t forget to look up. Your redemption is drawing near. When I see the evil that’s going on in the world, and we could just list so many things.

One of the things I’m shocked: people that are pushing transgenderism down the throats of first graders, second graders. They’re chemically castrating children. Like, this is something that I can’t believe the church people are just standing by going, "Oh, that’s too bad." And it’s so evil. It’s like comes from such an evil place.

And yet the world just kind of sits by and, whatever, it’s just the days we’re living. No, I believe that these are the reasons the Lord’s going to come back as a warrior mighty in battle. There’s a point where the Lord’s going to say, "Enough." And I believe the world’s pushing those buttons all over the place.

But the one that’s probably the most accurate timepiece we can look at is not all the other things; it’s Jerusalem, the timepiece, the epicenter. And when you see these things begin to come to pass—which I believe we’re watching right now—you and I are living in the most exciting times to be a Christian right now. This is a day where we should be looking up for our redemption draws nigh.

Remember, don’t be like the evil servant there in Matthew 24 that says, "Ah, the Lord delays his coming and things have been going the way they’ve always gone, whatever." Jesus said that’s the evil servant. The wise servant, the good servant is busy looking for, watching, waiting for the coming of the master and he’s busy serving and doing what he’s called to do. That’s what you and I are called to do. Preach the gospel, be bold, share as much as you can, look up for your redemption draws nigh. These are days we’re living right now.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador emphasizing that scriptures call for believers to be watchful, faithful, and ready for the ever-approaching last days. More great insight drawn from our continuing study series of Zechariah on Today’s Word. And Pastor Brett will be closing with a word of prayer just before we conclude today, so I hope you’ll stick around for that.

But first, Today’s Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. 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.

Our vision on Today’s Word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations". Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations". We’ll now hear again as Pastor Brett Meador to close today’s program.

Brett Meador: Let’s pray together. Lord, we’re so thankful for Your Word. It is quite incredible to see Bible prophecy unfold just like Your Word has predicted. Watching these nations posture themselves, Lord, is so—I think it’s become so common that so many people aren’t even looking or watching at what’s going on even though Your Word so clearly articulates what to see and what to look for.

Open the eyes of Your church, Lord, I pray. I know that so many churches and pastors have just put aside Bible prophecy altogether. But I pray that Your church would wake up, that we’d see the days we’re living and act accordingly, that we let our lights shine before men, that we’d be radical and fervent as we serve You and walk with You.

Lord, forgive us for apathy and just passive sort of understandings of what Your Word says. Help us to dig and search the scriptures daily to see if what’s being said is true or false, Lord. So give Your church wisdom, breathe new life in us, Lord. Pray Your blessing upon Your church today as we serve You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time here on Today’s Word. And that’s all the time we have. 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.