Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Right when the Jews are hanging by a thread there in Jerusalem, and the world is surrounded Jerusalem in hatred and they're ready to take over Jerusalem militarily after the seven-year period of tribulation. That's when Christ returns and defends Jerusalem and the Jews. And that's when the Jews will be saved like the Bible says.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador, anticipating the arrival of the Deliverer.

Brett Meador: So, one of the final outcomes of the Day of the Lord is the Jews will be restored in good standing with God.

Guest (Male): The Day of the Lord is used in scripture to describe a time when God intervenes in humanity to usher in a period of wrath to punish the wicked and help the Jews eventually see the true Messiah. Pastor Brett Meador opens today's Word to Zechariah 14, sharing vital details about what people will experience and how the Jews will respond when these things come to pass.

Brett Meador: Once you turn in your Bible to Zechariah 14 as we keep going right through the Bible. Chapter 14 of Zechariah. And for you football fans, we are going to see the greatest touchdown ever. It's ever going to be in the future is right here when Jesus touches down in his second coming. He touches down on the Mount of Olives and it's going to be quite a deal.

Zechariah's been dramatic. Chapters 12, 13, and 14 we've been camping out because it's a lot of stuff, a lot of information. What I love about Zechariah 12, 13, 14 is just ask a Bible teacher, has that already happened yet or is it yet to come? And that'll tell you a lot about what they believe in their eschatology.

Because there's a lot of people who say all this stuff has already happened, Bible prophecy's already sealed and fulfilled. I always chuckle because it's very clear. We're talking about everything from the Rapture of the church to the tribulation period, even into the millennial kingdom.

What we're going to be dealing with is that time period that's known as the Day of the Lord. We've been talking about that now for several weeks. Let's take a look. Zechariah 14:1, "Behold, the Day of the Lord cometh." The Day of the Lord, now if you by the way are just joining us, I want to make sure you understand the Day of the Lord is not a single day but it's talking about a time period.

Like when an old timer says, "Well back in my day," is he talking about a single day? No, he's talking about a season in their lives when he was young, how things happened and worked out in those days. Well, that's kind of when the Bible says, "In that day" or "The Day of the Lord," it's talking about a very specific time where God intervenes in humanity and their future and also judging them for their past.

The Bible's an amazing story. It starts with God creating the heavens and the earth, then the keys and the title deed is given to humanity by God. And God gave humanity a perfect earth without sin and gave Adam and Eve instructions on how to deal with the earth and live on the earth. But it took about ten seconds and the very one thing they weren't supposed to do, they did.

Human nature is to sin. So, when Adam and Eve sinned, the world entered into a fallen state: death, disease, suffering, sorrow, sadness. One of the answers when people say why do bad things happen in the world if God is love? God lovingly gave humanity a free will to do what we want and lovingly gave us a perfect earth without disease and death.

But we did a really good job wrecking everything. And then the rest of the Bible is God fixing our flub-up. We messed up, we blew it, and the Lord says, "Okay, I'm going to reconcile humanity back to myself." And that's the story of the Gospel where God becomes a man, lives among us, lives the perfect life, dies on the cross for our sins, raises up from the dead.

Jesus proved his claim by resurrecting. And then after he rose from the grave, he ascended. But before he ascended, he said, "I'm going to come back." And that's when I'm going to intervene into all the death and dying and sin and evil. And I'm going to reconcile not just all people but the Jews specifically. The Lord has a plan to reconcile the Jewish people to himself.

So, if you're wondering about the time frame, I believe it's very clear and simple. The next thing on the list of things to do: the Rapture of the church to take his church out before he pours out his wrath on a Christ-rejected sinful world. It makes sense that God would take his bride out before he pours out his wrath on the world. And the church is called the Bride of Christ.

And so the Day of the Lord really begins, the Rapture of the church. That kind of kicks off the Day of the Lord when the Lord intervenes, he pours out his wrath on a Christ-rejected sinful world. Seven years of tribulation and there's going to be all kinds of crazy stuff. Read Revelation 6 through 19.

It's the tribulation period, all the things that are going to happen there along with this world leader that's going to come and deceive and seemingly come in peace but he's going to come bringing all kinds of death and all kinds of destruction. But right when the Jews are hanging by a thread there in Jerusalem, and the world is surrounded Jerusalem in hatred and they're ready to take over Jerusalem militarily.

That's when Christ, after the seven-year period of tribulation, that's when Christ returns with ten thousands of his saints. That's us. Revelation 19. And that's when Christ defends Jerusalem and the Jews. And that's when the Jews will be saved like the Bible says.

In fact, this is that time that the Book of Romans talks about in Romans 11:25-27. It says, "For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery. Lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins."

So after the fullness of the Gentiles, Rapture of the church. That's us. The church is largely made up of Gentiles. When that fullness of the church age comes, that's the Rapture. And then during that time called the tribulation, Israel will be saved and they'll come out of Zion. Zion is Jerusalem. But it's also even more exactingly the Temple Mount.

That Temple Mount area and kind of including the Mount of Olives area. But the Temple Mount is the epicenter of all these things. And so that's where Christ is going to rule and he has a covenant with them, like this verse says, to take away their sins. So one of the final outcomes of the Day of the Lord is the Jews will be restored in good standing with God at the end of the tribulation when Christ returns.

But there's another part of the Day of the Lord that's a little more ominous and should be a little concerning for many. And that is one of the results is that God's going to judge the world. Isaiah 2:17 tells us exactly how God's going to do this in the tribulation period and when he returns, the Second Coming of Christ.

What he's going to do according to Isaiah, "And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." The ultimate final fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the Day of the Lord will come at the end of history when God with all powerful, all knowing power will punish the evil unrepentant sinners of the earth.

This verse should cause people concern, don't you think? I mean, if we're talking about LGBTQIA+ month, it's just so rampant and it's pride. It's all about pride, pride, pride. This is the kind of sin along with others. There's a lot of sins, but this is the one that you kind of see that sort of matches the rest of the Bible.

It was Sodom and Gomorrah that had the same attitude. They could care less about what God thought and they were into all kinds of perversion and sexual immorality. But you know what was interesting? It wasn't the fact that they were homosexual rapists in Sodom, but it's because of pride. We know that pride was the root of the problem.

We read that by the way in Ezekiel 16:49 where the Lord tells us the problem with Sodom. "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy." You know what's sad about the gay pride thing is you can see even here in this verse that pride was the first thing.

But it also led to they were full and they had what they wanted, but they could care less about the other people that were hurting and poor and needy. And you know, we really see the same thing today. I find it interesting that many of the people that tout LGBTQIA+ pride, they also could care less about how people are actually really doing.

You know what's interesting as far as the transgender population? The LGBTQIA+ say they really have their back and they're watching, but I would argue that we Christians actually care more about transgender people than the transgender community. When you see what they're doing, it's so sad. The transgender community is the highest rate of suicide of any people group in the world.

Should that cause concern for people? It causes concern for people like me. Because actually the church, most of the church that I know, they care about transgender people and their mental health. And suicide is not good at a 40% rate. And yet they just ignore the well-being. It's all about their pride and making sure that their pride is touted without really being honest about what's going on.

And by the way, I got to speak as a pastor and maybe a little bit fire and brimstone because we're talking about the Day of the Lord. But if you're all LGBTQIA+ ABCD EFG, if you are on board with that, you need to repent. You had me at L. Lesbian, gay, the Bible makes that very clear. But all the other acronyms, it just gets more troubling as we get down the line.

And the worst one of all is the plus at the end. I can't believe anyone on the planet would sign off saying, "Yes, I'm pro LGBTQIA+." Because if you look it up, the plus actually means something. And here's what it is. It's a denotation of everything on the gender and sexuality spectrum that letters and words can't yet describe.

So if you're LGBTQIA+, that means anything goes. We're seeing the sexualization of children. Those people that do those things like three weeks ago used to be thrown in jail. Today they're being celebrated. It's just heartbreaking. Putting puberty blockers in children at five years old and stuff. This is abuse and it's evil and it makes me wonder, Lord come quickly.

When are you going to intervene? Humanity has lost its marbles. And I go back to that verse in Isaiah that says that's what's going to happen. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down and the haughtiness of men shall be made low and the Lord alone shall be exalted. There won't be gay pride in the Day of the Lord. There'll be just saying, "That's God and we're not." And he is only worthy.

So, the Day of the Lord, part of that's going to be God judging the arrogant, prideful, sinful part of man. And that's going to be very sobering. And that's what we're going to read about here. So, Chapter 14:1, "Behold, the Day of the Lord cometh." And now we're talking directly about Jerusalem. "And thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken; the houses rifled," or some of your newer translations say ransacked, "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."

In the last days, during the tribulation, toward the end of the tribulation nations are going to gather against Jerusalem. What's interesting is we're already seeing that happen today. There's very few nations that actually love Israel or care about Jerusalem. You know, it's interesting because they're going to chop it in half, it says here.

And we learned, if you remember Chapter 12:2-3, this is what we looked at. "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling," or poison, "unto all the people round about, when they shall be in siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day," the Day of the Lord, "I will 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 this is a theme of Zechariah talking about when the world is going to turn against Jerusalem. Again, the Bible teachers say, "Oh, this stuff has already happened." When did that happen? When did all the nations of the world gather against Jerusalem? That hasn't happened yet. There was a couple interesting close times like when Hitler was against the Jews, but that wasn't really against Jerusalem because the Jews weren't really largely in Jerusalem at that time.

But now we see a literal Jerusalem and the world hating and wanting to chop Jerusalem in half today. That's what the political story is. So here in Zechariah 14 we see that Jerusalem's going to be hanging by a thread. And then something radical's going to happen starting there in verse 3. It says, "Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle."

We looked at how when God fights in the day of battle, you don't want to mess with God. He's also compassionate, kind, loving, patient, but he's also a warrior. And he's mighty in battle, the Bible says. You don't want to mess with God in those days. Now, how is his return going to look? That's what Zechariah 14 gives us.

It says in verse 4, "And his feet shall stand in 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 toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal," which is another old name of Petra.

"Yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light."

What we need to go away with on these verses 4 through 7 is a massive cataclysmic earth event. And we've talked about Mount of Olives splitting, but that sounds so localized and so small. Zechariah 14 sort of broadens our understanding. This is going to be massive. And we'll even see the dimensions of this new rift or valley that's going to be created by this earthquake.

The first thing we note is when Christ returns he's going to stand on the Mount of Olives. And one of the things that you should know is that the way he ascended into heaven is the way he's going to return. He ascended from the Mount of Olives, he's going to return to the Mount of Olives and put his foot down there and that's what's going to kick into gear this earthquake and all this cataclysmic stuff.

Acts 1 we read another mention of this. In verse 9 it says, "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up. And a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."

He left when Jerusalem was in turmoil because of the iron fist of Rome was causing chaos. And it would be only a few decades later after Jesus ascended but the Romans would wipe out and crush Jerusalem. So he ascended during a time of Roman occupation and crushing. What's interesting, remember he's going to return during the time of those ten toes of Daniel 2, the ten-nation confederation that's going to be against Israel.

The old ten toes came out of the old Roman Empire. There's some interesting links for you Bible students and people that like to think a little more on this prophecy stuff. There's some interesting correlations about when he left politically and when he comes back politically. It's going to be very similar. But it's going to be chaotic to say the least.

But he's going to return during a time of real chaos and Jerusalem's going to be hanging by a thread. Jesus is going to return, the earth will quake and the Mount of Olives will split. Now, by the way, there was a massive earthquake in the Middle East. And in my journeys and travels through the Middle East, there's some interesting places you go where you see massive evidence of this 10.0 earthquake on the Richter scale.

When the Bible says as the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, this region of the world is ready and ripe for another big one, they say. The Bible says you can expect when Jesus comes back there's going to be a massive earthquake like in the days of Uzziah. And you know, it's interesting because we read about this valley that's going to be created by the Lord's return, this earthquake.

Remember the fountain of water that's going to spring up from that crack in the mountain? We pick that up again in verse 8. And there it says, "And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be."

That's going to be bringing water to the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. Dead Sea's going to come back to life. It's a great picture of what Christ is going to do. But look at verse 9, it says, "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." Again, is this a verse you can explain has already happened?

Where Lord has been Lord over all the earth? That hasn't happened yet. We still have a lot of work to do. And I say that sort of jokingly because there's people who think we are going to bring in the kingdom of God. That's not going to happen. The Lord himself is going to come and he's going to set up his kingdom.

Mark the word Lord in your Bible there. Notice the capital letters L-O-R-D. That means it's the word from the burning bush where Moses got that great tetragrammaton that they wrote down the four letters Y-H-W-H where we would say Jehovah or Yahweh. It's the name of God: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not pagan god of Baal, not Buddha, not Krishna, not Oprah.

This is the time where the whole world will say, "Well, that's God." And there'll be no question about it. Gallup did another one of these polls. They found that we are more atheist than ever. Far fewer people believe in God than even a year ago. We're seeing a move away from believing in God. It'll be at this moment the world will believe in God again. There'll be no question because he will be there sitting on the throne in Jerusalem.

Now, this valley that's created by the earthquake is defined in verse 10 and 11. It says, "And all the land shall be turned as a plain." Mark that word plain because it's an interesting word Arabah in Hebrew, which is the geographical name of a deep rift or valley that would happen. And so you can understand this is the new valley that's going to be in Israel.

"The land shall be turned as a valley or plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited."

Has Jerusalem ever been a safe place to live? No. It's funny, the name Yerushalayim means city of peace. But it's been anything but that. But it will be that when Jesus comes and he rules in Jerusalem. It will be the city of peace.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador looking forward to a time of peace that comes to Jerusalem at the return of the Lord, as promised in today's word. And there's much more to come as Pastor Brett will join me here 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 starting to realize. My parents, hardworking people, they were fairly new Christians when I was born but they were hungry for the word.

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, 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.

Finally, when we settled sort of 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 the 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 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, praying with sincerity, studying the word faithfully, and those impressions really stuck with me.

One of the biggest things I learned from my parents just 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.

Guest (Male): 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, next time, Pastor Brett will take one last look at the last chapter of Zechariah resulting in the ultimate peace to Jerusalem. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.