353: Both High Priest and King? | +Quigg Lawrence

So you guys, I wanted to wear the alpha shirt, but can I just confess this is not my color palette? I don't own one red thing in my entire wardrobe. Plus, this is way too small. So I was thinking maybe I could tie two together, but I just decided not to wear it, even though I love Alpha. Brian, here we go. I've been to Alpha twice—it's amazing, great place to go, free dinner, free childcare. Why not?

Alright. Today we are in the book of Zechariah. If you want to find your way to the Bible text, it's page seven ninety five or go on your app. We're going to be in Zechariah 6. So let's start with context. I left that out of the first sermon, so I think I'm going to add it now. Slip did an awesome job on Zechariah 3. He just crushed it. But I want to borrow one verse that Slip preached on—Zechariah 3, not 6. Zechariah 3, verse 8.

Hear now, oh Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign. Behold, I will bring my servant, the branch. — Zechariah 3:8

So God starts talking about Joshua, and he says, you know what? You and the men—Joshua the priest and all the men, I assume all the priests—are going to be a sign, but the one I'm really pointing to, the one I'm going to bring is the branch.

Now, I forgot to tell you guys the opening story, which is incredibly embarrassing. Could you throw that shirt back? Remember when I said I didn't fit into it? Well, I had a story. I was at the Rack one day about fifteen years ago, and it was after Thanksgiving, after Christmas, and you know how that goes. Everything's tight. So I got with my buddy, Dave Fuller. He was equally as tight or tighter. And I said, Dave, let's go to the Rack and work out. So we went there and headed down to the normal men's room where they have the steam and all that. That's normally what I would do—take a steam and stretch, take a shower and go home. That was my workout. But this particular day, the main men's dressing room was closed, so I had to go to the other one. I don't like change. I like the old Lord's Prayer, I like the old twenty third Psalm. I don't like new ones, I don't like new things. So we go work out, and then we are huffing and puffing. I mean, I'm sure we only exercised for fifteen minutes, but it felt like a marathon. And we were red in the face, out of breath, gasping for air. And so we walk into the men's room and there's this little dude. I don't know who he was or what he was, but he's just a little tiny dude, and he didn't look like a guy I want to have a beer with. Didn't look like a guy I want to go hunting with. He's in there looking at me kind of strange, and I'm like, okay, whatever.

So Dave and I go to the shower. We come out. We're still breathing heavy. I'm doing my hair—that's about as much as I do for my hair, ladies, like this. Do my hair, and then I go to my locker and I open it up and I get my underwear—BVDs, better value drawers, in case you're wondering. Put them on, and I'm still out of breath. I'm talking to Dave, we're kind of laughing. And then I turn around back to my locker and I open it up. And there's my underwear. And so there's this moment. There's this moment of knowing and unknowing. And I'm sitting there looking at my locker and all my clothes and my nice white size thirty eight BVDs, and I realized that somehow I had put on that man's underwear. They were size thirty two, and they belonged to another dude. Y'all, I screamed so loud. I don't know who the man is—I apologize in Jesus' name to him—but the point was, it didn't fit.

So it is the case that a lot of times in the Bible we see people trying to wear clothes that don't fit them. Clothes they shouldn't have. For example, David said, I can't wear King Saul's armor. It's too big. I'll just go as I am. There are a lot of times where the clothes don't fit.

And I think God legitimately raised up priests to help his people, Israel. There had to be a sacrifice for sin. That's what the whole temple was about. That's what the priesthood was about—offering a sacrifice for sin until the lamb of God would come in the fullness of time. The great high priest who had no sin himself, who would be able to offer once and for all a sacrifice for our sin. And all the rest of these priests really were icons, if you will. They were placeholders.

In other words, if we saw that high priest or this king, we would know ultimately, they're not really the king. They're like a placeholder as we await for the coming of Messiah, king of kings, lord of lords. As we await for the great high priest who is none other than Jesus Christ himself.

So we were reading about Joshua. Joshua again is not the one who fought the battle of Jericho. He is the high priest. The setting is they're coming back from Babylon. They've been away from their homeland for plus or minus fifty to seventy years depending on which year they left and which year they came back, but let's just say seventy years. They're coming back to the holy land and everything's demolished. Everything's run over. The temple is in ruins. There has been no sacrifice for sin for the Jews for seventy years. What did they do with their sin? There's no goat. There's nothing to sacrifice. There's no priesthood, no active priesthood, no temple. And so they were stuck. And then they came back to the holy land. And so God raised up Zerubbabel to rebuild the temple. And he raised up Zechariah to speak courage to the people and say, let's get on with building this temple, the temple of the lord where there will be worship. And it wasn't just about ceremony, it was about the presence of the lord.

See, the first temple had a holy of holies and it says the Shekinah glory rested in the holy of holies. The second temple, even though it ended up being bigger and finer and grander because Herod helped, the Shekinah glory of God no longer was there. The Ten Commandments were not in the Holy of Holies. There was no ark of the covenant. And so we pick up in Zechariah. We've been patiently waiting for that.

The Word of the Lord

Zechariah six verse nine. And it starts out and it's just one sentence. It's pretty simple. It says:

"In the word of the lord came to me." — Zechariah 6:9

Now, a lot of people say the word of the lord came to me. Jim Jones said the word of the lord came to me. The guy in Texas, what's his name? Koresh. Word of the lord came to him. Word of the lord comes to a lot of people, right? What I want to say is sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

God gives us two words in the New Testament for word of God. One is logos — l-o-g-o-s — logos, the written word of God. The word of God written, we know that as the holy scriptures. But there's another word of God in the New Testament, and that is rhema. Rhema is when God speaks to his people for a specific situation like, "Watch out. Don't cross that road. Oh, I wouldn't go there. I wouldn't get on the Titanic if I were you." Like, very specific things.

So when we have here is really a rhema word. God is speaking not through scripture to Zechariah. He's speaking through his spirit to him. And the learning for me is this: Some of us love the scripture so much, we don't even want to mess with any rhema stuff because that's only for Pentecostals and people that make us nervous, okay? Maybe we need to understand that God's word is final authority. We test all rhema by this word, but we should be open that the Lord actually does speak to his people.

"I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." — John 14:18

I think I'll leave you on the planet. I hope to see you in sixty-five years or seventy years. I will come to you. But we always want to judge what we think the Lord is saying, and pour it through all sixty-six books, and say, does this sound like Jesus? Does this sound like the word of God? Does it contradict any word of God? But in this case, the rhema was, in fact, a true word of God. It came.

Now, what did the Lord say to Zechariah? Look in verses ten and eleven:

"Take the silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah, and Judah, who have arrived from Babylon. And go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest." — Zechariah 6:10-11

So to review those verses, the word of the Lord comes and he says, I want you to take from these exiles, from these three guys, I want you to take silver and gold. Why does he want silver and gold? So they can make him a crown and make this priest a king. Now, what strikes you as weird about that?

I mean, I know Jesus told his disciples, "Hey, go to the village and if you see a colt there, just tell them the Lord has need of it." I think it's weird that these exiles coming back—these exiles coming back—are not asked, "Hey, would y'all mind contributing so we can build a crown for Joshua, the high priest who God is making king?"

It just says, take it from him. Y'all wouldn't like that if we do that in church, would you? Just take it. But you know why this fits perfectly? Because of the truth of Haggai 2:8.

All the gold and all the silver are mine, says the Lord. — Haggai 2:8

Whether these three guys recognize it or not, the Lord knew it. Just like all the things we think are ours, the Lord knows they actually belong to Him. That's a mini stewardship sermon. And so He says, just take it from them. Take the silver and take the gold. And He says, now why are you going to take it? You're going to take it so you can make a crown.

It's interesting. If you think about when they're coming back, there had been no king in Israel for a really long time. In fact, God never wanted His people to have a king. You know, sometimes I see all the stuff on Instagram and I've truth—I've said some things on Instagram I shouldn't have. Bless my heart. Might have made a comment or two under a fake Twitter name. Might have. Just saying. I have strong opinions and sometimes I'm looking for an earthly leader to come fix this mess we're in. Right? And then I got people that I love a lot in the body of Christ that are looking to somebody else to come fix the mess. Seems like we all want a king.

The Problem with Wanting an Earthly King

Do you remember in the time of the judges? The people came to Samuel and they're like, "Hey, your sons are wicked and by the way, all the other nations have kings. Oh, we want a king." And Samuel was like, "No, no, no, no. You have a king. The Lord God Almighty is your king. No, but we want a real king like a king we can touch and see and one who wears robes and fancy things." And Samuel got very sad and he's like, "No, but the Lord is your king." And the Lord says, "Samuel, it's okay. It's okay. Give the people what they want. They want to have an earthly king. I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. He's going to tax them to death. Sound familiar? He's going to take their children, their boys and their girls, and make them do things they don't want to do, and use them even as slaves." And so what they're asking for, they think they want, but they actually don't want.

But Samuel, don't be sad yourself because they're not rejecting you, Samuel. They're rejecting me—the King—for a little king.

How did earthly kings work out for Israel? Have you ever seen a list of them? Like, even the ones—I looked on the Bible map and it says, "Okay, so for the kings of Israel," you know, that's the top 10 tribes. Right? 10 tribes. They had a bunch of kings and I think maybe five or six were actually good kings. Even some of the ones you think are good, they'll live good for like 90% of their life and then it says, "And then he did evil in the sight of the Lord" or "He refused to pull down the Asherah poles and the pagan worship places." And then on Judah's side, Judah had one—really, just one—good king.

So the people want a king. God gives him a king from the very beginning. It's a disaster. It starts with Saul, then it goes to Ishbosheth—he had a short run—then it goes to David, then to Solomon. You think David and Solomon are great, right? David's a great king? Go read the scriptures and let me know how great he was. He had great moments. He also had some really terrible moments. How about Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived? Go read the Bible and tell me how wise he actually was. The man had 700 wives and concubines. Just saying—like, that probably wasn't a good idea—but he did a lot of other things that were not good. And these men, while they might have had godly moments, these kings always failed. They always failed. They always failed.

And so they got the silver and they got the gold and they made a crown. Now, what's interesting is if you go back to Numbers—remember, in the first part of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers—in Numbers 18, God is speaking to Aaron, right? Moses' brother, Aaron, of the Aaronic priesthood. He says this:

Aaron, only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. — Numbers 18

You can't earn it. You can't buy a calling. We know through church history, rich people bought their way to becoming bishop because they gave money. But in God's word, Numbers 18, it says no. Aaron and your sons, y'all serve as priests. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death. That's a pretty solemn warning.

And yet we see in Scripture, we see several people that actually did not pay attention to that. King Saul, who was a king, stepped in and made an offering as a priest. God said no. He actually said they should be put to death. There's later this guy—that's about 700 BC.

There was a guy named Uzziah. Do you know who Uzziah is? He's one of those kings and on the map, I looked at it and said, he was a good king. Well, he was maybe for fifty-one of his fifty-two years. He's an amazing king. Until he wasn't. Until he got a big head. Until he got filled with pride, and then he starts thinking, "Well, who the heck are these priests to tell me I cannot come in? I'm king. Do you get it? I am king and if I want to go in the temple and offer incense, I'm going to do it." And so he did, and all the priests of God said, "Your grace, no. Do not enter the sacred place. Don't profane. The Lord has spoken. This is not for kings. This is a gift given to those from the line of Aaron and Levi, but you are not to be here."

And he kept approaching the altar, and then God struck him with leprosy. The payoff for him stepping out of his role into the role of a priest is that for the rest of his life, he was filled with leprosy. He couldn't even go back into the temple. My guess is he couldn't even stay with his own family. The Lord had warned, but he wasn't paying attention. That was Uzziah.

Now, go to verse 12. Turn your Bibles to verse 12. And so the prophetic word goes on. It says:

Say to him, thus says the Lord of hosts, "Behold the man whose name is the Branch. For he will branch out from this place and he shall build the temple of the Lord. And it is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor and sit and rule on his throne." — Zechariah 6:12

This is why I wanted to get Zechariah for Dummies. I actually looked. When I was going to seminary, they didn't have those books—Old Testament for Dummies, New Testament for Dummies. But I got the closest thing I could to study for my finals. Sometimes these things are very helpful. Zechariah is a hard book. I'd really rather give it all to Tim and let him handle it because it's dense, man. It's hard and it's hard to draw an application. That's why preachers don't preach on Zechariah. How many times other than this church have you heard a series on Zechariah? Apparently that's less popular than tithing. Okay, that's amazing.

So when you read verse 12, it's very easy to get confused because we're talking about Joshua, the legitimate high priest that God is going to make king. Right? And again, they're going to crown him. And yet here they start talking about the Branch. So you think that the Branch is actually Joshua. But actually, the Branch is the Messiah. We saw that last week when Salut was preaching Zechariah 3—the Branch is His servant, the holy one, the true Messiah, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the great high priest that Hebrews spoke about.

And so it's kind of saying two things at once. It's kind of like looking at an icon, and you see what you see, but actually you're supposed to look through that to see the King of Kings. Right? That's the purpose of an icon—not so you can stare at a piece of wood that's been painted by a monk, not to commit idolatry. That's what they thought. That's what the Roman Catholic Church thought, and they burned them all up. And the Orthodox are like, "No, no, no, no. The point of an icon is so you can sit in the Lord's presence in prayer, and you see a picture of Jesus or a scene from the Bible, and you see that, and then you begin to meditate on it. Say, 'Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit.' And you look at the icon and through it, pass what is made of human hands to the one who's not made with human hands." It's just a simple way—it's a way to pray to Jesus, and you look through it to the one that is to come.

And so these guys, Joshua—really to me he is an icon. He's a placeholder. He is both priest and high priest, and he is king. So he's an icon pointing to the Branch, the Messiah.

Alright, what verse are we on, y'all? It's funny. I chase rabbits and people go, "I don't know. You should know." We go down to verse 13:

And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both, and the crown—remember the crown of silver and gold—the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord as a reminder to Helam, Tobijah, Judah, and Hen. — Zechariah 6:13

So they gave Joshua, the legitimate high priest, a crown, which the Lord had actually forbidden in Numbers. But here's the thing: if the Lord says something's forbidden, it's forbidden. If He says it's no longer forbidden, it's no longer forbidden. Much like when He says, "Don't eat the dietary laws, the Jewish dietary laws," but then He says, "Peter, get up, kill, and eat."

And so the Lord was saying, "No. I have appointed this man. This isn't like Uzziah who appointed himself. I am appointing this man, and he is going to be an icon to point you to the one who is to come, who is the King and the great high priest. That's the Branch."

That's the one. So Joshua was given a crown, but what did they do with his crown? I don't suppose King Charles walks around all day in his crown. Would that be creepy? Much like if I walked around in bishop get-up all week long to the Kroger or something, that would be kind of creepy, right?

But they put the crown on Joshua's head and then they took it off. God did make him king, much like Melchizedek had been a king. Hold that picture there. But then immediately he had to take it off his head and put it in the temple. So he was a priest who was a king, but to emphasize more and more that he's not really the king—he's an icon pointing to the king. They put the crown in the holy place in the sanctuary so that everybody could look at it and see: the king is not yet come. Yes, we have a king, but the king is not yet come.

The Promise for Those Far Off

Maybe one or two last things. Verse 15 says:

And for those who are far off, those who are far off shall come, they will help to build the temple of the Lord and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you and this shall come to pass if you will diligently obey my voice. — Zechariah 6:15

The point in verse 15 is that God is speaking—those who are far off will come and build the temple. Those who are far off will come and build the temple.

I didn't know this before. In fact, I've told so many people that Solomon's temple was great and grand, and when the exiles came back, it was like comparing a $20,000,000 house to a broken down cabin in the woods. That's why they were crying. But if you read the book, what you'll find out is the first temple was grand and beautiful. But the most beautiful thing about it was not the building. The most beautiful thing about it was that God himself took up residence in that place—the ark, the Ten Commandments, God's presence, his Shekinah glory.

When they came back, it wasn't just the Jews building it. Cyrus, king of Persia who conquered the Babylonians, sent silver and gold with them. He gave them what they needed. So God used people outside of his people to build this temple. With Herod's help as well, the second temple was actually the bigger one, the grander one. When you go to Israel and see the temple mount or the wall, that's from the second temple. But the problem was the glory of God was not there.

So while he's speaking about the situation of rebuilding the second temple, what he's really speaking about is something else. He's talking about Joshua, but he isn't. He's talking about Joshua but he's also talking about Yeshua who's going to come and build a temple—a temple made with people who are far off. Do you see what's happening? From the beginning, it's going to be people of every tongue, tribe, and nation. From east and west, God is going to build his church, the body. He says, your body is a temple, the spirit. You are that temple. The temple that the Lord is going to build is not a building. Jesus is never going to return and build a third temple. He is building a temple made up of people—spiritual stones. People like you and me are the temple of the Lord.

Look to Jesus, Not Earthly Kings

So friends, we close with this. I like the monarchy a little bit. King Henry the eighth was a king, and he declared himself the defender of faith, head of the church. Ridiculous for an adulterous man or any man. And it's continued to this day with Charles, who is still a king and monarch but is head of the Church of England. He's the supreme governor of the church. He's a man who says, well, I'm now not defender of the faith—I.e., the Christian faith. I'm a defender of faith plural, in general.

But here's the thing. Rather than beat up on him, don't we do the same thing? Don't you look for an earthly king, an earthly ruler who's going to solve your problems? Then you're being just like Israel. I do it. "If this person gets elected, all will be well." But what God says is, they were never meant to be the one you look to as your provider. Never. If you look to human kings or even the best priest, they're all going to fail you.

Jesus is a better high priest. He doesn't have to offer for our sins over and over and over again. He doesn't have to offer for his own sins. Jesus is unlike any earthly priest. He said, "It is finished." It's done once and for all.

So, the whole point of Zechariah is to let us take a glimpse at Joshua, but as we glimpse at him, it's an icon that points us to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Messiah, who has come and is coming again.

And all God's people said, amen and amen.