Zechariah 8:13-15 - You shall be a blessing

8:13

There will be a complete transformation in the life of Israel, and in the way the world looked at her. She was regarded with complete contempt and disdain, she was a byword. This had come about because of her disobedience towards God. The church in the west is regarded similarly today, and much of this is thoroughly deserved. The only way for things to change is if we return to God with our whole heart. Now, we need to realise too that this may bring persecution. The church is meant to be a blessing to the world, but we are only a blessing when we are faithful and obedient to God.

8:14,15

Oh, it is so important that we take these two verses together. We like v15, but are not so keen on v14. However, the judgement is real. Israel knew this, and God had purposefully brought judgement upon Israel. It was absolutely real. So it would be with the blessing, with God’s purpose to bring good to Jerusalem. There are times when we may encounter the Lord’s discipline in our life, these are designed to lead us to times of peace. On the cross God’s judgement was poured out on Jesus. We know it was absolutely real. We can be equally sure that the blessing, the goodness, that flows from the cross and resurrection is equally sure.

Galatians 2:13,14 - Led astray by hypocrisy

2:13

Paul does not beat about the bush in describing what has happened. Hypocrisy is called hypocrisy.  The rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite. This is understandable, as if the apostle Peter would not eat with the Gentiles, then they would not do so either. Even Barnabas, Paul’s great friend and supporter, went along. This demonstrates the danger of judging an issue on the basis of who is supporting it. For here we have Peter, the foremost apostle, and Barnabas that great encourager refusing to eat with the Gentiles. Surely they must be right, so their actions must be right? Wrong! We must judge things on the basis of God’s word.

2:14

“They were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel.” Living, speaking and acting in a manner that is consistent with the truth of the gospel is vital. The common custom was to rebuke someone in private, at least at first. Indeed, this was the practice taught by Jesus (Matt 18:15-20). However, this was an extraordinary situation. The whole integrity of the gospel was at stake. The gospel bring unity between all who believe, and does so purely on the basis of faith in Christ. Peter’s actions were saying that the Gentile believers were less than the Jewish believers.  Paul then referred to Peter’s previous actions, when he did eat quite happily, and quite rightly, with the Gentiles. His actions were now saying Gentiles needed to live as Jews, and this was not true.

Zechariah 8:10-12 - There shall be a sowing of peace

8:10,11

Now we see the effect of what the Lord is doing and the importance of the word of the prophets. Before that happened life was very precarious. Workers were not getting their wages, even the animals were not getting fed properly. There was no safety nor security, “for I set every man against his neighbour”. Now things would change. Why would things change? Because of what the Lord was doing. When the people start obeying the Lord things change. The most important factor in the well being of a nation is how righteous the nation is. The precise economic policies are secondary.

8:12

Prosperity comes when a people live in line with God’s word. We need to understand that creation is dependent upon God. Its fruitfulness comes from God. We are absolutely right to reject the so-called prosperity gospel, but we do need to understand the way the world actually works. It is not that economic and environmental policies do not matter, they do. But the most important factor in the economic well being of the world, and the environmental well-being is our obedience or otherwise to God. “I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all things”.

Galatians 2:11,12 - I opposed Peter

2:11

We now get the famous confrontation between Peter and Paul, or rather Paul rebuking Peter. Why does Paul recount this incident here? There are several factors that might be at play. One could be to further demonstrate his independence of the Jerusalem apostles, something he has emphasised in the preceding verses. It could also be to demonstrate that Peter accepted Paul’s teaching on the matter. So if the Judaisers were saying that Paul was subordinate to the Jerusalem apostles, he is showing that that was not the case, for Peter listened to what Paul said and accepted his rebuke. It could also be to emphasise the importance of the absolute equality in Christ between Jews and Gentiles. Christ has broken down the wall of division between Jews and Gentiles (Eph 2:14).

2:12

What had happened was that Peter had been at Antioch eating quite happily with the Gentile Christians on equal terms. Remember that in Acts 10 we read of God sending Peter a vision, and doing so three times, that he should go and meet with Cornelius. However, some men “came from James”. This does not necessarily imply that they were there on James’ behalf, and given what Paul has said earlier in this letter, and the decision of Acts 15 this seems unlikely. These men were of the “circumcision group”, ie they believed that being circumcised gave you a superior status. They would be quite forceful, and when they came they would disapprove of the Jews and uncircumcised Gentiles eating together, and Peter gave into their attitude. It is interesting to note that while Peter had been filled with the Holy Spirit, has spoken boldly for Jesus, has suffered for Christ, has received visions from God about the matter, there is still something of his old weak nature there. The weak nature that led to him denying Jesus three times. Later on Paul will speak about the flesh warring against the Spirit, and we see an example of that here.

Zechariah 8:7-9 - They shall be my people and I shall be their God

8:7,8

The Lord will bring about His salvation of the people. Man is forever trying to work out his own salvation, whether by political means, economic means, philosophical means, or even religious means. None of this works, and it certainly does not produce a salvation that is marvellous in His eyes. So the Lord would work out His own salvation, bring the people back from east and west. Then they would be His people, and He would be their God, faithful and righteous.

8:9

We know that much of this prophecy was looking many years ahead to Christ, and to all that would happen after that, but there was an immediate relevance as well. And the immediate relevance mattered. So the people had to be strong and get on with the building of the temple. It is significant that the rebuilding of the temple and the walls of the city had many aspects to it. We need to read Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah in order to get a complete picture of what was going on. There was practical organisation, this is found especially in Nehemiah. There was religious organisation, as recorded in Ezra, and there was prophetic input as recorded in Haggai and Zechariah. We have a tendency to focus on just one of these aspects, usually the one we are most comfortable with, or most involved in, but we need all three aspects. This is just as true for church life today.

Galatians 2:7-10 - Entrusted with the gospel

2:7,8

So Paul was not dependent upon the other apostles, but nor was he in disagreement with them. They recognised that God had given Paul a different task, namely taking the gospel to the Gentiles, to the uncircumcised. So Paul’s ministry was entirely consistent with that of the other apostles. They were all part of the same plan. God was at work in Peter in reaching the circumcised. Though remember that it was Peter who preached to Cornelius and was used by God in the first major Gentile breakthrough. God was at work in Peter, and He was at work in Paul in reaching the Gentiles.

2:9,10

Paul met with James, Peter (Cephas) and John and they gave both Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. So Paul is stressing further that he, along with Barnabas, was fully accepted by the Jerusalem apostles. Paul is countering any attempt by the Judaisers to try and separate Paul off from the Jerusalem apostles. There was agreement that they would preach the gospel to the circumcised, while Paul and Barnabas would preach to the Gentiles. The only aspect of “Jewish religion” that they were asked to observe was giving to the poor. It is worth noting that in some of Paul’s letters there is mention of collections, in particular for the Jewish Christians. We also see here a distinction between the ceremonial/ritual aspects of the Law, and the ethical/moral aspects. Caring for the poor had and always will be fundamental.

Zechariah 8:4-6 - Streets full of children playing

8:4,5

The two pictures presented here, or old men and women sitting in the streets, and boys and girls playing in the street, are pictures of a nation at peace. When things go awry fear creeps into a nation, either because of war, or because of crime. But when peace and security comes the young and old are free to walk and live freely.

8:6

The people will be delighted with what is happening, but would the Lord be delighted? Since it is the Lord saying that this will happen, and it is He who will bring it about, one has to assume that the answer is yes. But why is God asking this question? Perhaps the answer is that the people who first heard this would focus on the peace and prosperity, what they should focus on is faithfulness and righteousness. The peace and prosperity follow the faithfulness and righteousness, but we so often and so easily put the peace and prosperity first rather than seeking the kingdom first.

Galatians 2:5,6 - We did not yield

2:5

Paul’s response was “not to yield in submission even for a moment”. There are times when compromise, give and take, is not an option and would be totally the wrong thing to do.The reason for this is that “the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you”. Notice the two elements of this. One is that the gospel is truth. To put this in terms of modern controversies, LGBT ideology is completely inconsistent with the Bible, with the truth, there can be no compromise. Those parts of the church that are sin affirming should recognise that they are going completely against the Bible and against God’s ways. Second, “preserved for you”. If Paul had compromised, then he would have been denying the Galatians the freedom that is in Christ. Let me put this in LGBT terms again, and the reason for doing this is that circumcision is neither here nor there today, it is no a live issue. LGBT stuff is very much a live issue, so it helps us to appreciate and apply what Paul is saying. The LGBT agenda does not bring freedom but enslaves people, for all sin enslaves. Jesus is the only way to find freedom, so if we become sin affirming then we are not being nice to anyone, we are denying them the chance of true freedom in Christ, and that is not very loving!

2:6

The false teachers in Galatia had probably implied that Paul was inferior in some way to the “real” apostles. Paul does two things in this verse. First he says that “whatever they were makes no difference to me”. Now is he just being sniffy? I don’t think so, I think he is trying to get the people off making idols of leaders. This is something that was very much to the fore in Corinth (1 Cor 1:10-17). Putting leaders or preachers on pedestals has been a perpetual problem in the church throughout the ages. God does not show favouritism, this was also a key element in Peter’s teaching (Acts 10:34). Then Paul says that the apostles “added nothing” to his message.

Zechariah 8:1-3 - I am jealous for Zion

8:1,2

This is another example of the great conundrum that is addressed in the Bible. Israel (and the whole human race) are a bunch of dirty rotten sinners fully deserving of judgement. Yet God is jealous for Israel, He longs to have Israel as a nation that will say “You are our God and we are your people”, and mean it. So in the previous section we have seen why Israel received judgement, and she did receive judgement, but that is not the end of the story.

8:3

“I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem.” We should note that this is at the time of the building of the second temple, after the beginning of the return from Babylon, implying that the return from Babylon was not “it”. Furthermore, note that it is now God acting. Israel had manifestly failed to fulfil God’s requirements. So God Himself would fulfil them. The fruit of this would be that Jerusalem would be called “the faithful city”, and the mountain of the Lord would be called holy. This is what happens to those whom God saves. They have faith in Christ and are sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 2:3,4 - False brothers

2:3

Titus was a Greek, so if the apostles believed that circumcision was essential they would have insisted that he was circumcised, but this did not happen. The argument that circumcision was necessary did not come from the apostles.

2:4

See how Paul refers to the Judaisers, there is no using nice language. Rather he calls them what they were. They were “false brothers”, they pretended to be Christians, might even have thought they were Christians, but there were not. They were not there to build up the church, but to spy on the freedom that the Christians had, and so to bring them back into slavery. One might wonder why on earth would they want to bring people back into slavery, but we see the same phenomenon happening today in various ways. Muslims who convert to Christ will often face a very hard time, even risking murder in some countries. Gays who give up their gay lifestyle, or those who detransition from transgender can face an enormous backlash.

Zechariah 7:12-14 - I scattered them

7:12

This is one of the saddest verses in the Bible, but also one that sums up the attitude of Israel, and indeed of all mankind. “They made their hearts as flint and would not listen”. What would they not listen to? Both the Law and the Prophets. Note the clear implication what the prophets spoke was God’s word. This is entirely consistent with 2 Peter 1:20,21. When Jesus came to earth the Jewish leaders hardened their hearts against Him. This is also true of humanity as a whole. It takes the grace of God to open our minds to the word of God. “So the Lord Almighty was very angry”. Man objects to the idea of God being angry, but what was the Lord commanding? It was that they administer justice and mercy with compassion, and they were refusing to do this. It would be wrong if He was not angry.

7:13

God had called to His people on numerous occasions, but they would not listen. So when they called upon Him He would not listen to them. Where does the problem lie? With the people. We are so ready to blame God, to object to the way that God acts, but the one who needs to change is not God, but us.

7:14

They did not listen to the Lord, so He did not respond to their calls to Him. Instead He scattered them to the nations, nations they did not know. This would primarily be Babylon and Egypt, but some would go to other nations as well. This is looking at the matter as effectively backward looking, but it could also be forward looking as well, for the Jews have continued to be scattered among the nations. In their absence the land became desolate. The land was created to be looked after by God’s faithful people, this is why Paul speaks in Romans 8:22 of creation waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.

Galatians 2:1,2 - After fourteen years

2:1

Fourteen years later Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem again. Some think that this could be the visit mentioned in Acts 11:30, others that it was the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) visit. No mention is made of the council here so the latter might seem unlikely, on the other hand circumcision was a big issue, so that would count in favour of it being the council visit. We are not given clear information on this point, so it is not actually that important.

2:2

“I went up by revelation”, this would count in favour of Acts 11:30, as that visit resulted out of the prophecy of Agabus.  Whatever the case, Paul told Peter and the others the gospel that he was preaching. He did this privately with the apostles. It seems that Paul was genuinely concerned that there might be discord between what he was preaching and what the Jerusalem apostles were preaching. If so it would have been a waste of time, for a key part of the gospel is the unity between Jews and Gentiles. All are saved by faith in Christ, there is no difference. This aspect will be so important in the disagreement with Peter that we will read about later.

Christmas (2) : I believe in the virgin birth - nae bother!

As we all know, part of the Christmas story is the virgin birth. This is something which sceptics find hard to accept, or consider it a ridiculous thing to believe in. I want to say first of all that I absolutely believe in the virgin birth, and I have no problems whatsoever in doing so. In this short post I want to briefly explain why.

The virgin birth makes perfect sense to me, in fact I think it is a theological necessity. You and I are fully human, and that is it. Jesus is both fully human and fully God. So He is unique, and therefore it is not surprising at all that His conception (actually it is His conception, not the birth, that was unique!) was different from ours. Indeed, I think it is essential that Mary was a virgin, and it makes perfect sense to me.

Then people say that “virgin births don’t happen, so how could it happen”. This is the weakest argument against the virgin birth, and the silliest. It was a miracle, and miracles are by definition highly unusual events.Then we need to remind ourselves who God is. He is the creator of all things. He created everything on earth, He created the solar system, He created the galaxy, He created all the billions of galaxies (100 billion is apparently the latest estimate). Now if God can create all that I am sure that a virgin birth is well within His capabilities.

There is one argument that does seem, at least superficially, to have some substance to it. That argument is that apart from Matthew and Luke, there is no direct reference to the virgin birth in the New Testament preaching. They preached about the resurrection all the time, but not the virgin birth. So the argument goes that the virgin birth was just a piece of mythology added on later. However, a little thought shows that there is a perfectly rational explanation for this. Suppose you are Peter preaching on the first Pentecost and you start proclaiming that Jesus was born of a virgin, then someone in the crowd shouts out “don’t be ridiculous, you don’t get virgin births. Prove it!”. What is Peter going to do? There is no proof or evidence that he can offer. But now suppose someone in the crowd shout out “don’t be ridiculous, people aren’t raised from the dead. Prove it!” The situation is now quite different. First, Peter could say “if Jesus is dead, then show us the body! Oh, you can’t can you, the only tomb you have is an empty one!”. Then he can point to the five hundred plus people who saw the risen Christ. He, and all the apostles, could present clear evidence for the resurrection. And, contrary to the arguments of some sceptics, the gospel is evidence supported. So there is a perfectly good explanation of why they preached the resurrection all the time, but not the virgin birth. Moreover, it is the death and resurrection of Jesus that have an immediate impact on our lives, the virgin birth makes perfect sense, but is not in the same category.

So on the Christmas Day let us rejoice in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and let us thank God for all that that life was going to do for mankind.

Merry Christmas!

Galatians 1:18-24 - After three years

1:18

So Paul has been establishing his “independence”, or perhaps rather his God dependence. He is not merely parroting a message given by the apostles, nor is he now deviating from the apostles message. The message he has been preaching is God’s message. However, he also needs to show that his gospel is actually the same gospel that the Jerusalem apostles were preaching, he is not teaching something different. So now he will demonstrate that he and the other apostles are in agreement. So three years later he did go up to Jerusalem and met with Peter (Cephas), spending fifteen days with him.

1:19,20

The only other apostle whom he met was James, the brother of Jesus. Paul then vehemently asserts that he is telling the truth. When there are false teachings going about we should not expect everyone to act nicely. There will be false teachers who make all sorts of unfounded accusations, so Paul needs to defend himself most strongly.

1:21-24

Paul was not known personally in the Judean churches, they did know of his reputation as a persecutor of the church. Then once he had had the Damascus road experience they knew that he was now preaching the very gospel that he had once so zealously persecuted. “And they praised God because of me”. So again Paul is making the twofold point. On the one hand he was  not influenced by the Judean churches, and so his teaching that circumcision was not necessary for Gentile christians was not a deviation from their teaching. At the same time he was approved of by them, for “they praised God because of me”.

Christmas (1) : Speaking up for Zechariah!

Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth appear right at the beginning of Luke’s accounts for the Nativity. We find the account in Luke 1:5-25 and 1:57-80, and they became the parents of John the Baptist. The angel appeared to them and said that they would become parents. This in itself was a great surprise to them, for they were getting on and had had no children. Moreover, this child was no ordinary child, but he would prepare the way for the Son of God!

Before we start to look at Zechariah, there are a number of points to learn from this. The first is that God gets involved in our lives and changes the way things are, even if this looks impossible. But He does not just “bless” u, He also gives us a role in His purposes. If we look at God just as the supreme problem solver for our lives then we are missing the heart of the matter. For we were created for His purposes and are saved for His purposes. No also that it would be some 30 years before John would fulfil his task. Elizabeth and Zechariah had to prepare the boy for his future task. During that time nothing particularly significant would seem to be happening. For all tasks there is a period of preparation and the ones who succeed are the ones who are faithful in the time of preparation.

Now to the main thrust of this post. When told that he and his wife are to become parents Zechariah says “How shall I know this?” (Luke 1:18), he is rebuked by the Angel and struck dumb. We contrast this with Mary’s reaction to being told that she will be the mother of the Son of God, “Let it be unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). So we write off Zechariah for not having faith, unlike the wonderful Mary. Well I want to speak up for Zechariah. First of all, I can understand his reaction. They had been married for many years, and no children had arrived. How can things change now? By the way, this kind of puts the kibosh on the notion that first century people were gullible folk who would believe anything. However, let’s now go a little deeper, and there are three points to this.

Our unbelief or disobedience cannot stop God’s plans

The first point is that Zechariah’s unbelief did not stop John the Baptist being born. Our unbelief and disobedience cannot stop God’s plans being fulfilled. Let’s go right back to the beginning. What was God’s plan as set out in Genesis 1 and 2? We were to reflect His glory, being made in His image. We were to have dominion over the earth, and we were to live in joyful fellowship with the Lord. Adam’s sin seemingly messed all this up, but what is the end result as outlined in the Bible? We will be perfectly Christlike, we will reign with Christ, and we will enjoy the presence of God forever. God’s purpose is fulfilled despite our disobedience.

Then look at Abraham and Sarah. God told Abraham he would become the father of many. About ten years later nothing much had happened, so Sarah comes up with the plan that Abraham should sleep with the serval girl and have a child through her. How on earth they ever thought this was a good plan is beyond me, but we are all capable of incredibly stupid things. What was the end result? Abraham and Sarah had Isaac, and Abraham has indeed become the father of countless millions, with thousands being added to that number each day, and you and I, if we trust in Christ, are part of that number. Their lack of faith did not stop God’s plan.

And here we have Zechariah’s unbelief, but it did not stop God’s plan being fulfilled.

Our unbelief or disobedience matters

Although our unbelief or disobedience cannot stop God’s plan, our unbelief and disobedience matter. Adam and Eve’s sin has affected the whole of humanity ever since, it has had horrendous consequences, and we have all added to that sin. Abraham and Sarah’s sleep-with-the-servant-girl scheme had bad consequences. Zechariah was struck dumb for nine months.

It is infinitely better to obey that to disobey, it is infinitely better to act of faith than to live out of unbelief.

There is always a way forward, it is called faith

We have all disobeyed, we have all had unbelief. There are “small” things each day, but there are times when we make decisions or take actions (or fail to take actions) out of unbelief or disobedience that have long term consequences, and we can feel hopeless afterwards when we realise what we have done. But there is always a way forward.

When the baby was born the people asked Elizabeth what he was to be called. She said “John”, much to everyone’s surprise, for no one was called John in their family. Zechariah then wrote on a tablet, “his name is John”. At that point his speech was restored. The Angel had told him the child was to be called John, and Zechariah showed that he now believed God. Then look what happened, Zechariah began to prophecy. There was no sitting on the naughty step for a period, he began to prophecy and his words are recorded for us in Scripture. There was full restoration.

After Isaac was born there came the famous sacrifice Isaac episode. If we look at the text of Scripture, rather than listen to most sermons on the matter, we see that Abraham acted in perfect faith, he was willing to obey God without question, and he knew that Isaac would live. And at the end of it God approved of Abraham (Gen 22:15-18).

And all of us are commanded to believe in Christ, and if we do so we become children of God, completely justified, completely accepted.

So, let us be encouraged by the story of Zechariah. There is always a way forward with God, and it is called faith in Christ.

Zechariah 7:10,11 - Do not oppress

7:10

The general commands to administer justice and mercy are now fleshed out. They are not to oppress the weak or stranger, and not to devise evil plans against others “in your heart”. The sermon on the mount is sometimes portrayed as Jesus going against the Law, such sentiments demonstrate only a lack of understanding on the part of the person making the statement. Jesus may well, indeed probably was, going against some of the rabbinical teaching on the Law, but He most definitely was not going against the Law. The Old Testament was always concerned about what goes on in a man or woman’s heart. The commands here are all negative, ie do not.

7:11

The commands in v10 were all do nots, and this was because of the hardness of the heart of the people, which is demonstrated explicitly here. The people had no interest in hearing the true word of God, another tragic example of the truth of John 3:19. They did not want to hear, and made sure that they could not hear. What they were doing was shutting out the word of life.

Galatians 1:16,17 - That I might preach the gospel

1:16

Note that God did not just reveal His Son “to” Paul, but revealed Him “in” Paul, though ESV actually translates in as “to”, but with a footnote. Whatever the best way to translate it is, the revelation was much more than just some ideas being made know to Paul, Christ revealed Himself. We should all take note of this, both for our own relationship with Christ, and for those who we work with, whether they be people we are witnessing to, or believers that we are discipling. God revealed Christ to Paul in order that he could preach the gospel to the Gentiles. When this revelation happened, and this includes Ananias coming to see Paul, as well as the Damascus road incident itself, Paul did not consult anyone, rather he prayed to God and studied the Scriptures.

1:17

The journey to Arabia presumably occurred between Acts 9:25 and 26. Arabia includes much of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. Then Paul returned to Damascus. The accounts in Acts, as indeed the gospels as well, telescope many events. Ie they do not give 700 page biographies covering every little detail.

Zechariah 7:6-9 - Show kindness and mercy

7:6,7

They are then urged to look at the times when they weren’t fasting and mourning, but feasting. What were they doing then? Just living for themselves. So whether they were feasting or fasting they were doing it for themselves. This is not to say that we should never fast nor feast, but we need to live for God all of the time. They had been through terrible times and were still in pretty straitened circumstances, but during times of peace and prosperity the prophets warned them that they were not living for God (eg see Amos), but they paid no heed. In short, the question of whether to have a particular fast or not was neither here nor there, it was of the utmost irrelevance.

7:8,9

We now come to what really does matter, to the issue that the people should be concerned with. As humans we have a great capacity for finding an excuse to neglect what is truly important and focus on triviality instead. What the Lord wanted was for them to administer true justice, and show compassion and mercy towards each other. And these were what God had been saying through the prophets for many years, and what the Law was all about. Indeed, there is a very close connection with Micah 6:8. It is especially worth noting that justice and mercy/compassion go together. We have a terrible habit of over emphasising one of these at the expense of the other. The Bible does not do this, and if we do it then our teaching and practice is unbiblical.

Galatians 1:15 - Set apart before I was born

1:15

Paul’s becoming a Christian and becoming an apostle was all down to the will of God. There are arguments about Calvinist and Armenian approaches to understanding the sovereignty of God and free will. I have said this many time before, and will say it again because I believe it is so important, and because I believe if we get hooked on Calvinism, hooked on Arminianism, or hooked on Molinism we end up a blind alley. The Bible teaches the sovereignty of God on every page, it also teaches human responsibility on every page. That should be the foundation of all our thinking, not any philosophical understanding (which is inevitably a severely limited understanding). Moreover, “human responsibility” is a far better way of looking at things than “human free will”, or “libertarian free will”. Thinking of things in term of “libertarian free will”, or worse, “human autonomy”,  also leads you up a blind alley.

But let’s look at the matter in hand, Paul’s conversion. The event itself (Acts 9) and the various accounts in Acts and here make it plain that Paul’s conversion was all down to the will of God. God had set Paul apart before he was even born and he was called by grace.

And here we come to a case of asking the wrong question. We want to ask “could Paul have refused the call of God”? From all that Scripture records the answer has to be no, moreover, Scripture does not even contemplate the question. As far as the Bible is concerned it is a stupid question. Seeking to answer it in the terms within which we normally consider this sort of question profits us nothing. Does this mean that Paul was an automaton, mindlessly following the path God had chosen for him? Again the answer has to be an emphatic no, from the book of Acts, and all of Paul’s writings, nothing could be further from the truth. Paul was fully alive!

This morning (12 August, 2018) I heard a podcast from a Q&A session at the Refuel Conference and heard what I thought was an excellent description of how the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man go together. We so often set one against the other, or we see it is “both and” (which is nearer the truth than making a choice between the two). Instead it was suggested that we look at it like music, where two notes both completely fill the sound. They don’t work against each other, don’t cancel each other out, one does not dominate the other, but the fullness of both fills the sound. So it is with the sovereignty of God and human responsibility. They work together.

Zechariah 7:1-5 - Why did you fast?

7:1-3

This is two years after his first message (1:1). Some people had come from Bethel to inquire of the prophets and priests whether or not they should continue to “mourn and fast” in the fifth months. This particular mourning and fasting was associated with the fall of Jerusalem after the Babylonian conquest.

7:4,5

The fasting and mourning had been going on since the fall of Jerusalem. Ostensibly it would seem as though it was a godly thing to do, but here the word of the Lord comes to Zechariah, asking the people what they were really fasting for. Were they doing it for the Lord? Ie were that mourning because they had sinned against God, and in their sinning had brought disgrace to the name of the Lord, and so had disrupted God’s plans? Or were they in mourning because of their own loss? I think we can probably guess what the answer was. This teaches us things about our own reaction to sin. Sometimes when we sin we are “found out”, we feel terrible, maybe there are very bad consequences for us. But why do we feel terrible? Is it just because we have been humiliated or suffered loss, or is it because we have let the Lord down? We need to get to the point where we realise that we are not our own, we have life in order to give glory to God. That needs to be our raison d’etre. We need to have a God-centered view of ourselves and of life, not a self-centered view.

Galatians 1:13,14 - I was advancing in Judaism

1:13

Paul does not try to put any gloss on his past life, but is completely open about what he was like and what he tried to do. He violently persecuted the church and tried to destroy it. In Paul we see how God completely transforms a man, and we also see how God completely forgives a man. His actions were completely opposed to Christ, and caused much harm to Christians. There was no excuse for him, but in Christ he is made righteous.

1:14

Some may have tried to make the argument that Paul was promoting Christianity because he was a “failed Jew”, or not being successful enough in making progress in Judaism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Paul was advancing ahead of many people of his age. He was extremely zealous for the “traditions of the my fathers”. Paul’s life was all about traditional Judaism, and he was very good at it!

Zechariah 6:14,15 - If you will obey the Lord

6:14

The three returnees from Babylon were to be given the crown, with a fourth person, Hen, now being mentioned. It is given as a memorial in the temple of the Lord. There was to be several hundred years between the completion of the second temple and the coming of Christ. This crown was a reminder of what was to come, a reminder that the second temple was not “it”, but only a shadow of “it”. This was actually something that many of the Jews did grasp, at least to some extent. They realised, or at least suspected, that the temple and the return from Babylon could not be the fulfilment of God’s plans, there had to be so much more.

6:15

We then get a reference to those far away. We can see this as referring to the Gentiles, with people from all corners of the globe coming into the kingdom and so helping to build the true temple of the Lord. “This will happen if you diligently obey the Lord your God”. There is nowhere in the Bible where it says “obedience does not matter”, so any teaching or theology that does say this is deeply flawed.

Galatians 1:11,12 - Not man's gospel

1:11

“The gospel is not man’s gospel”. This is a fundamental point, and whether or not someone accepts this is a fundamental dividing line. We see many individuals and we see many churches that treat the gospel as if it was man made, and treat the Bible as if it was a human book. So from their perspective we are free to choose which parts of the Bible we accept or reject. If we have “superior” wisdom or knowledge than our ancestors then we should adopt our teaching. If society has “superior” wisdom then we should choose society’s wisdom over the Bible. This is the line that has been adopted by liberal scholars and churches for the last two hundred years or so. Today it is seen most clearly in the attitude towards LGBT issues. If we follow this line then we are saying that the Bible is not inspired, it is not God’s word. In fact we are saying God has not spoken.

We need to treat the gospel and the Bible as God breathed. The gospel was given by God, it was not man’s idea. Jesus came as the Son of God, sent by the Father, filled with the Holy Spirit. He acted in complete and perfect obedience to the Father, died on a cross for our sins and was raised by God from the dead. He sent the Holy Spirit. Christianity is a revealed religion, the gospel is a revealed message. This does not mean we do not use our brains. Paul certainly used his, and there have been and are many great thinkers who are Bible believing Christians. But our starting point in all things is that the Bible is the revealed word of God.

1:12

Paul does not give the details of the Damascus road experience here, though it is recounted several times in Acts, but he focuses on the main point. Christ revealed Himself to Paul. Paul was on his way to persecute some Christians, to persecute Christians in a new city, but Christ intervened directly and revealed to Paul who He was. See that Christ is the focal point, the centre, of the gospel.

Zechariah 6:12,13 - He shall branch out

6:12

The physical temple was only a shadow of the true temple. This does not mean that the physical temple and its rebuilding was of no importance or significance, it was. But to properly appreciate the importance and significance of the physical temple we need to understand its limitations and temporal nature, and the same applies to appreciating the Law. The Branch is a term used for the Messiah elsewhere in the Old Testament, such as Jeremiah 23:5 and 33:15, and Isaiah 4:2, 11:1. Zerubbabel would oversee the building of the second temple, and he did complete this work, but the Branch would go out into all the world and build the eternal temple, which is God’s people.

6:13

This Branch would sit on a throne and rule, He would be clothed with majesty. He would also be a priest, and a priest upon the throne. As mentioned earlier, there are those who seem troubled by this mixing of the kingship and priesthood. I do wonder if these people actually read the Bible. It seems quite clear from the text that kingship and priesthood are meant to be combined, that is the whole point! And the two aspects would work together in harmony. Jesus is our great high priest, and He is the one with all power and authority.

Galatians 1:10 - Pleasing man or pleasing God?

1:10

We are now going to enter a narrative section where Paul will explain and defend his apostleship. This verse forms a link between the opening of the letter and the narrative section. Note that Paul has just said it is the message that counts above all, not the messenger. Yet now he is going to spend some time justifying himself. Why is this? The reason is that the Judaisers would almost certainly have attacked Paul’s character. We certainly know that this happened in Corinth. We don’t know precisely what they accused him of, but can make various inferences from what we find Paul saying in this letter. It seems that one of accusations was that Paul was seeking to please men. And now we need to remind ourselves what the false teaching was, which is that the Galatians needed to be circumcised in order to truly please God. So the accusation may have been that Paul only said that the Galatians did not need to be circumcised because he was trying to please the Gentiles, to make himself and the message more acceptable to them. He was a man pleaser. Paul utterly rejects such accusations, and says that if he was trying to please man he most certainly would not be a servant of Jesus Christ. Too often we have the notion that we can make Christianity and the gospel “nice”, acceptable to man. This is not true, it is not the teaching of Jesus, it is not what we read about in the New Testament. Now man has not changed in the last two thousand years, he is still a rebellious sinner. The gospel preaches change, preaches acknowledging our guilt, preaches repenting of our sins, preaches putting our trust only in Christ. All this is naturally offensive to natural man.

So why does Paul defend himself when it is the message that counts above all? Because the messenger actually is important. It is important that we live lives of integrity. We are  not and cannot be perfect, but we must seek to live godly lives. For when a leader is proved to be a fraud it adversely affects the faith of people. The Galatians needed to trust Paul and to understand him so that they would be more likely to accept what he was going to say, and remember that he takes a pretty tough line with them in this letter. So Paul will now embark on a pretty lengthy explanation and defence of his ministry, in particular how he got the gospel, and his relation to the other apostles.

Zechariah 6:9-11 - Make a crown

6:9,10

This time there is no vision, instead the word of the Lord comes directly to Zechariah, and it names three specific exiles who have arrived from Babylon, we don’t know anything more about the three men. However, it is worthwhile looking at the context. First, as mentioned in the introduction, most Jews had not returned from Babylon at this time, so they tended to arrive in dribs and drabs. Then we should look at this in the context of Hag 2:8 where God declares that the silver and gold are His. Finally we should see this in the context of Ezra 6, especially verse 5, where Darius decrees that the silver and gold taken from the first temple is to be returned to Jerusalem. So it is possible that this verse ties in with those two.

6:11

The silver and gold is to be taken and made into a crown, and the crown is to be set upon the head of Joshua the high priest. Now some get upset here, saying that priests did not wear crowns, so it must mean Zerubbabel, the governor. The fact that priests did not wear crowns is the whole point of this section. God is declaring a new thing. The Messiah (referred to as the Branch in the next verse) would be both a king and a priest. If we go back to Samuel and the appointment of the first king, Saul, we see that Israel was never meant to have a king, for God Himself is their king. And in Hebrews we see that Jesus is the Great High Priest. The Levitical priesthood was never intended to be for all time, for a much greater priest was coming. Jesus Christ is both our king and our great high priest. This passage is so clearly prophetic.