The Budding Branch of Zechariah - Prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes! Dr. Erez Soref

[Music] [Applause] [Music] now eventually i want to share with you uh from zechariah chapter three one of the in my view one of the most amazing passages in in the entire hebrew bible but before we get there i want to start with a short lesson in demographics uh jewish demographics in the last 100 years in fact i want to go back to 1939 just before world war ii in 1939 there are approximately 16 and a half million jewish people in the entire world of them at least 10 million are in europe europe is the center of the jewish world at that time only a very very small part is in israel this is part of my family where my great parents late grandparents were already in israel at the time and actually among the 10 million that are in europe that's where the center of the jewish world it was at the time is also my wife's family and they are among the several tens of thousands some people even say a quarter of a million jewish believers in jesus now when the nazi regime came to power the holocaust took place the systematic uh murder of six million jews among them the great majority of the jewish believers of the day and so after world war ii the world center of judaism has moved from europe to the united states in 1948 when the young state of israel is established there is about only about 10 and a half million jewish people left throughout the world and in the state of israel at that time there is less than 10 less than 1 million it's 18 850 000 jewish people resided in israel now just recently oh by the way in 1948 there's only 23 only 23 followers of jesus in the entire country of israel 23 and my wife's family again i'm talking about my wife you know she's you would have enjoyed meeting her she's also much much prettier than me uh her family are among those 23. so 73 years ahead of it i mean we're moving forward israel just celebrated its 73rd birthday and right now there are approximately 13 and a half million jewish people in the world so as as the people we have not yet recuperated from the holocaust numerically speaking of those 30 and a half million 7.2 million reside in israel now this is significant because more than 50 percent of all the jews in the world reside in israel i'll put it another way there are more jewish people that reside in israel today than in the rest of the world combined now why am i making such a big deal out of it because god said he would do it and it seemed absolutely and in every way unthinkable unfathomable and so you know most interpreters of scriptures throughout church history would say well god must have meant it metaphorically because it just can't happen but you know god takes what he says very seriously and we live in a day we're blessed to live in a day and age that we see this unfolding before our very eyes now one other reason that this is so important is because this situation that more you know that most the majority of jewish people reside in israel has not existed since the time of jesus himself beyond all that also spiritually speaking you know from the 23 jewish believers in israel today 73 years forward there are more than 30 000 and personally i think that it's the number is based on a research project we did a couple of years ago um and we've taken a very conservative approach i think this is there's a lot more than that but even even if we go with this number the growth is is dramatic is exponential today there are more than 300 gatherings congregations and churches of jewish believers in the land of israel and there is a form and i'll tell you about in just a second a form of an awakening of jewish people to the messiah you know 30 years ago when i started following jesus i enrolled in university and local university in israel and i would tell my friends about jesus and and you know who it is when you're in your your hometown in your country and people look at you and they hear the way you speak they realize that you you're i mean they put a tab on you right away so they hear the way i speak hebrew they look at me they realize i'm jewish and they tell me every time in heaven every time never fail you're jewish how can we talk to us about jesus i mean who's ever heard about something like this because jewish people don't believe in jesus i would get that each and every time you know now when we talk to people about jesus still the response is not always positive but everybody's heard that there's a growing group of jewish people that are followers of yeshua of nazareth so there's not just a numerical change but also a qualitative change that i want to tell you about so you know for us about 10 years ago we have realized when we wanted when we were praying about continually reaching our people we have realized that the town square the city square has moved from out there from the streets and no longer there the city square is here that's where people are now i'm not saying it's good i'm just saying that's the way it is and i think this year of covid exacerbated our sense that this is like this so about 10 years ago we start investing a lot of efforts manpower uh creative minds and energy in producing material that is high quality media content to tell our people about jesus and we did testimonials like the ones that you have seen the one that's on the screen as well we have a lot of apologetic material a lot of biblical teaching and a couple of interesting factors so first of all you know again i'm still with numbers and i'm going to tell you about the qualitative difference but still with numbers israel is a state with 9 million people hebrew is the main language so from 9 million people our hebrew content hebrew only content has been viewed more than 36 million times how many stadiums do you have to feel for that this last year alone you know because of covid you know the proximity to sickness the proximity to death it drove a lot of people to think existentially about life about god and this year alone this last year alone our videos have been viewed more than 6.3 million now we've started doing those testimonials in english like you've seen actually the english is actually a very small part of what we do the vast majority is in hebrew a little bit in arabic as well in other languages but the english videos or the total viewership is more than 173 million views for those videos so just tremendous tremendous exposure now over the last several years we've realized you know in israel there's a significant majority 20 that are arab mostly muslim and the the jews and arabs you know we don't get along we have a family feud of 4 000 years but we really felt that god is calling us to share the message of salvation not just with the jewish people that reside in israel but our one billion arab neighbors in the in the middle east so we started producing testimonials of muslims that have turned to christ and uh that had a tremendous tremendous effect [Music] now the really the the most amazing thing in all this is a qualitative difference qualitative difference you know in in in the way the gospel is reaching the jewish people since the reformation then um you know when people start reading their bibles they realize that god says the gospel is for all people but to the jew first missionaries started coming to the jewish people but we were very suspicious because you know those missionaries didn't look like us they didn't talk like us not to mention painful history between the traditional church and the jewish people and they didn't know our customs they know our language so oh the irony the jewish people said oh they try to bring us a foreign god the irony again so jewish people did not largely accept that and they told the missionaries go back to where you come from this is us and this is them well now the the testimony to jewish people by and large comes from within you know we tell our families our friends our neighbors about yeshua from nazareth and we look like them we talk like them i mean we're part of it and the dynamic has changed it's not us in them anymore it's us and us again something that takes us straight back to the new testament to the book of acts and um so that's kind of the qualitative difference we that we get to live through so a couple of quick pictures just uh um some of my favorites so this event happened a couple of years ago um and this is the sea of galilee behind us it was the baptism of those four young guys the guy that's standing next to me i'm on the right the guy next to me is one of israel's surf champions he has become a follower of jesus yes israel has a real surf culture by the way soquel should come and test it out besides holy places we have uh some great beaches the guy next to him is a a young arab businessman and he was hearing about jesus and kind of logged in to look at to try and find about jesus and then he sees all those testimonials of jewish people that are believers in jesus he's like my goodness the jews are believing in jesus now i gotta check it out and so he becomes the follower of jesus as well the guy next to him is the jewish fitness instructor the guy next the guy on the left is a jewish businessman all are followers of jesus uh now the next picture you heard ray mention our bible college and we get we were blessed we're really blessed to serve both jewish believers and arab believers um a little test try to tell me in this picture i'll give you a hint it's a mixed picture of of some of the senior pastors in israel actually and um it's in their graduation ceremony we had a program especially for senior pastors can you tell me who's a jew and who's an arab take a good look can you tell me who's a jew and who's an arab it's a trick question because we all kind of look alike right well kind of a little bit suntan or whatever and um but it is a mix a mixed picture and so we're blessed to celebrate our unity in the messiah on a regular basis so that's a little bit of what's going on and um if you want to hear more um my colleague lia lia say hi lia is here as well you're welcome to talk to her and um there's going to be we we're outta we out of these as ray said but there's going to be a qr code at the end that you can scan with your phone if you want to learn more okay and with that i want to turn to the book of zechariah and zechariah we're going to look at chapter 3. now zechariah one of the most one of the latest prophets in the entire hebrew bible his name means god remembers it's very symbolic because zechariah himself was born in babylon you know in the exile but he immigrated back to israel with his grandfather who was an important a leader of an important priestly family zechariah is a priest and becomes the leader of this priestly family his prophecy is is in a prominent place among the prophets of the hebrew bible many of the jewish sages and also some christian scholars called zechariah the summation or summary of all the scripture of all the other prophets and why the reason why is because zechariah is taking themes from the former prophets and through god's spirit god have zechariah apply it and expand the meaning of it and it's particularly regarding the nature and mission of the messiah himself he's a contemporary of hagiai and also of um of malachi so really the the last prophets of the hebrew bible zechariah's prophecy is loaded with prophetic pictures and images and very helpful to to study it before you read the book of revelation there's a lot of the images that are corresponding he talks in detail about the messiah and in chapter three the chapter i want to talk to you about there are in a very concise manner we're going to unpack it a little bit but it's some of the the most amazing prophecies about the messiah so more than 40 times the book is mentioned in the um in the new testament and um the first six chapters of the book of zechariah contain eight visions that god has given him in a single night now he's a young man we don't know how old but whether he's a teenager or a young adult whatever but in a single night try to imagine god gives them eight visions and so um those eight visions have a common theme and a common goal and they portray they look to the nature and mission of the messiah uh it's a short chapter chapter three chapter three we're going to look at the fourth out of eight visions it has 10 verses and we're going to read them and go through them one by one okay so zechariah chapter 3 and verse 1. then he zechariah is talking about god here then he showed me joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the lord and satan standing at his right hand to accuse him so the scene in this vision is in this vision is such that god is showing the prophet a judgment scenery or judgment scene there's a judge there's an accuser and there's the um you know the person that they're accused and the person that is accused is no other than the high priest of israel at time joshua son of jose deck he is the highest spiritual authority in in israel at a time the high priest is the highest spiritual authority in the mosaic covenant and as we'll see in in verse 3 he's covered with very very very filthy garments he's standing before the judgment seat but he's not standing as a private person it is emphasized in the verse in this verse and in the rest of the chapter that he's he's standing there in his position as the high priest and the high priest has the names you may remember this of the nation of israel on his shoulders and on his heart in a breastplate so the high priest represents the nation of israel much like our high priest in the new covenant jesus himself represents us who are his priests we'll mention this in just a little bit so joshua the high priest is standing there and he's standing before the angel of the lord in chapter one we're not going to go there for time's sake but zechariah is teaching us and he's showing us how the angel of the lord is mentioned in moses and he's mentioned in abe with abram and with hagar and and many others in the hebrew bible is none other than the pre-incarnate christ the pre-incarnate messiah and he is on the judgment seat before him stands joshua now the expression standing before is an interesting expression in and of itself it expresses attendance upon so you're standing before someone who's greater than you again this is the high priest the highest virtual authority standing before the king of kings so he's at the service or attending upon someone greater than he we find this expression with joseph before pharaoh standing before pharaoh um joshua before moses david before king saul and so on and so on so he's there in his capacity as priest and to serve now we see that the enemy of our souls satan the fallen angel satan is standing at the right hand of joshua and he is accusing him it's not clear exactly what he's saying we're not told what's the exact accusation but um he's sitting on the right hand we see in psalm 109 verse 6 we read appoint a wicked man over him and let an accuser stand at his right hand so that's kind of corresponds with the scene here um you know the word accused in hebrew actually is to satanize him literally that's the literal translation so that's the nature of satan to accuse us and um you know in other places in scripture we see the nature of satan and the type of accusation that that he brings and he brings the same accusations to each one of us you know he says and really the one he accuses is not joshua and it's not us it's god himself he says god these are the ones you're choosing you're choosing them look at their behavior look at their speech look at their heart how can you choose them they're this they're that they're the other and satan by the way is very good to manipulate our own conscience and accuse us before our own conscience now we see the reality of spiritual forces on high you know they're present they're active we see that also in the book of job you know satan is allowed to appear before before god and accuse but the amazing thing is that we have a defender in the judge himself so verse 2 then the lord said to satan the lord rebuke you satan indeed the lord who has chosen jerusalem rebuke you is this not a brand plucked from the fire okay so listen carefully something extremely encouraging because the enemy may accuse us but it is not within his power to condemn us say it again he can accuse us but it is not within his power to condemn us and our defender great encouragement is the judge himself so two times in this verse the messiah is rebuking satan we see that the lord the word the lord is yahuweh jehovah himself rebukes satan two times and what an encouragement is is that the judge is also the defense attorney as it were we read in isaiah chapter 50 verses 8-9 he who vindicates me is near who will contend with me let us stand up to each other who has a case against me let him draw near to me behold the lord god helps me who is he who condemns me behold they will all wear out like a garment the moth will eat them so the language is a little complex but it echoes what we read in the new testament in romans chapter 8 verses 33-34 who will bring charge against god's elect god is the one who justifies who is the one who condemns christ jesus is he who died yes rather was raised who is at the right hand of god who also intercedes for us hallelujah if god is for us who is against us and that's exactly what we see here satan still hates the nation of israel he still hates the church of the messiah and still doing his best as the accuser of the brethren but this is a tremendous tremendous encouragement that god sees us through the spectacles of the messiah himself uh the end of the verse is very interesting you know the expression itself a brand plucked from the fire is actually found in amos chapter 4 verse 11. it's actually a quote of the same expression in hebrew but the point is what god is saying you cannot touch them why because i have promised not because they're worthy not because they're strong not because they're wise because i have promised to the forefathers and we see that the theme that goes out throughout the scripture when god says something he actually means it he actually gonna do it uh tremendous i think encouragement you know that god actually means shouldn't surprise us but um you know that's uh that's who he is so let's go to verses three and four now joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angels he spoke and said to those who were standing before him saying remove the filthy garments from him again he said to him see i have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festival robes so a few interesting um things and expression in those couple of verses first of all the expression that is translated as filthy garments you know the express the the translation is actually gentle and the actual expression is clothes that are covered with extra men with feces so that's that's kind of the the ultimate uncleanness of the high priest representing the nation of israel the ultimate uncleanness before the judge so in other words the the accusations apparently are not completely false or they're not false but we see that i mean we see by the way this is kind of echoes again echoes uh zechariah is echoing uh isaiah chapter 30 uh uh sorry 64 verse 5 we read that for all of us have become like one who is unclean and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment have you ever felt that your most righteous deed and righteous state of mind is like filthy garments and that's that's what happening here but here's the big but however we read in isaiah 61 verse 10 i will rejoice greatly in the lord my soul will exult in my god for he has clothed me with garments of salvation this is our song this is the song of the redeemed so god says to the angels that serve him to stand before him to serve him he says remove the filthy garments and put on the festival robes does that remind you of a parable from the new testament it reminds us of the parable of the prodigal son right when the father sees him he says remove the filthy garments give him the festival robes and so the messiah is speaking here at the at the end of verse 4 he's speaking to joshua and say see i've taken your iniquity away from you because that's what the dirty clothes symbolize the lowly uh spiritual state of the nation of israel and um and his as the high priest so praise god then i said let them put a clean turban on his head so they put a clean turban on his head and clothe them with garments while the angel of the lord was standing by so this is one of those instances we we actually see it in the first chapters of zechariah that the the prophet cannot contain himself anymore i mean he's so much in the vision he says can he burst in he says well well he has all the garments he has all the all the all the out for the special outfit of the high priest but he misses the special head covering the mitra or there's a special word for that in english it says you got to give it to him it's it's a it's a white color head covering and it has the gold plate on the forehead that said holy unto the lord so zechariah is reminding you know the the angel of the lord of of the missing uh article as it were and and god you know accepts it and so joshua is finally standing in his full garb as the high priest and he's ready to serve god in that capacity and that signifies for us you know the day when on a national level israel will see the messiah for who he is and be ready to serve its role in its role and by the way we as the church of of the messiahs are going to be with the lord already so that's what's going to happen and zechariah is talking about it in chapter 12. now in the following verses we actually see an echo we see a picture that also talks to us and i mentioned of course yeshua jesus he is our high priest but with the high priest is also a priesthood and the priesthood is us in the new testament it's called priesthood of all believers all of us are priests of the new covenant which means we have a spiritual responsibility as it were to a lost world out there to teach them god's ways and god's word and to teach them the good news of the messiah so in the following verses god is speaking to joshua and telling him of the of his promises to him as the high priest verses six and seven and the angel of the lord admonished joshua saying admonishes solemnly speaking to him saying thus says the lord of hosts if you will walk in my ways and if you will perform my service then you will also govern my house and also have charge of my courts and i will grant you free access among those who are standing here so if this is a solemn you know message from god to joshua if you walk in my ways in your personal relationship with me and if you will perform my service in your your capacity your official capacity as high priest and his priest god says there are there are great promises there are great promises to you and he enumerates three of them he says you will govern my house you will govern my house talking about israel talking about the temple as we know from joshua the high priest days about 400 years later unfortunately you know the priesthood in israel has been corrupted we read about the sadducees the families of zedoc you know and unfortunately by jesus time it was you know they were corrupted it can happen to us i guess that's why i'm saying it because position and power can easily corrupt and we can easily take grace for granted as followers of the messiah and and abuse it and so he's saying to him you will govern my house you have charge of my courts responsibility in god's house and god says i will give you right of access among those who are standing here this is a promise of prominence of grading things among among others you know we read in the testament that for us as priests of the new covenant we will judge angels now we don't think about this much at this day and age but that's some of the reward that we will have when the messiah returns so this is the promises and in verse 8 you know verses 8 and 9 we see in a tremendously concise fashion what i referred to earlier as one of the most amazing messianic prophecies in the entire bible verse 8 here now o 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 so most of this verse is basically god saying to joshua and also to those that sit before him the other priests and spiritual leaders of the nation of israel you know there are men of assad standard important people people look up to them later on they're called in jewish um in the jewish world they call the sanhedrin the council of 71 sages that rule all the spiritual matters of israel and god is speaking to them in most of this verse and he's saying make sure that you truly listen you really hear what i'm about to say because of the great great great importance of this message and it's extremely concise because as the spiritual leaders of israel they should know what god is talking about and they should be able to connect the dots and the message is very very simple god says behold take attention i will bring my servant the branch now when god says my servant the man of sign the spiritual leaders should understand that he's referring to the servant that isaiah is talking about we meet the servant in isaiah chapter 42 you know he's the one that's not going to broke break a smoking reed we meet him in chapter 49 we meet it in chapter 53 as the one that is broken for our healing so they should know who he's talking about when he's talking about the servant and then you know we read about he says my servant the branch the second title the branch another messianic title we meet the branch first in isaiah chapter four and verse 2 where he is called the branch of god the son of god he's connected to god in a unique way we meet him again in jeremiah 23 and verse 5 where he's called the righteous branch and to make sure we don't miss it out we meet him again in jeremiah 33 and verse 15 where he's called david's righteous branch whose name is yahuweh jehovah our righteousness so he is the son of god he's god himself and he himself is our righteousness and they should be able the spiritual leaders of israel should be able to connect the dots there when god says my servant the branch this is the person that he is talking about for behold on the stone that i have said before joshua on a single stone with seven eyes i will engrave its inscription declares the lord of hosts and i will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day an amazing impactful first first of all i don't know if you noticed god is speaking here as the lord of hosts in all those verses the most the whole the all-powerful um god and he says behold again pay attention i'm gonna send you a stone the stone is another messianic title that we read about um uh first in isaiah in chapter 28 verse 15 therefore thus says the lord god behold i am laying in zion a stone a test a tested stone a costly cornerstone for the foundation firmly placed he who believes in it will not be disturbed so clear messianic reference already in isaiah and then in psalm 118 verse 22 quoted in the new testament the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone so the stone is the third image of the messiah that is talked about in those two verses and then it's it's kind of peculiar because the stone the stone notice is a single stone there's one like it there's none others like it it's singular it's singled out but it's kind of peculiar it has seven eyes and and what does that mean what what's the seven eyes so actually i find very interesting uh the interpretation of some jewish well-known commentators ancient jewish commentators that says that the eyes i mean the number seven it's seven it kind of the number that represents god and completeness and wholeness and the jewish commentators say it represents god's omniscience the fact that he sees all and he knows all but also that he takes special attention and care to this person to the stone the branch the servant pretty amazing and then god says what's he going to do to the stone notice god is doing it it's not a human hand god is doing it and he says i will engrave its inscription there is something that's inscripted on the stone now if you're a stonesmith okay and you have this large stone and you want to engrave it what do you do you take a chisel or a large nail and you put it on the stone and you hit it to engrave what it is you want and and god is portraying to us begins to portray for us the um cross at golgotha and he's saying i mean i think the end of the verse is the most amazing it says i will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day the expression remove the sin is very unusual in the hebrew bible because sins in the mosaic covenant were not removed they were covered even king david says blessed is he whose sins are covered not removed so you know covering the sins is like a credit card when my kids were younger you know they would ask me to buy them things and sometimes i would say well um debt doesn't have money we can't buy it and so then you don't need money just do your credit card thing you know and it says so i would expect them to know when when dead buys something with a credit card then there's a payday and in a sense the removal of the sins is the payday of the um covering that took place for all those years and so god says something remarkable is going to remove the inequity remove the sin in a single day by the engraved stone so it's pretty amazing and isaiah is um talking about talking about it again in chapter 12 when he's talking about the nation of israel at the national level not as individuals that come to believe in the messiah but as a nation we shall look upon him whom we have pierced so that's kind of connecting to this now the last verse in this chapter is talking about what's going to happen what's going to happen when you know we recognize the stone the branch the servant when we realize who he is what his mission was and what he has accomplished on our behalf what's the result god says in verse 10 in that day declares the lord of hosts every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his victory so the expression under the vine and the fig tree uh which our fruit of the land of israel this is kind of where you enjoy the fruit of the land it portrays the picture of reversing the endemic curse and going of of genesis chapter three and going back to genesis chapters one and two when this is the way things are supposed to be and that men the man and the woman are ruling a perfect world as god's representative enjoying his goodness so this is the picture of when we understand accept fathom and live in the sacrifice of the messiah now as i draw to a close you know that um the spiritual leaders of our nation 2000 years ago they have not taken heed of zechariah's admonishment and as a nation we have rejected the messiah which kind of reminds me you know when i when i told my dad uh that i believe in jesus and i was i was trying to show him some of the some of the passages in the hebrew bible my dad's reaction was um well you think you found out something that all the sages of our nation who have been studying the bible for four thousand years have missed and um so it's not like i'm smarter than they but it's god's spirit that opened my eyes you know and many others from among the remnant [Music] but it is a mystery it is a mystery we read about it in romans chapter 11. you know uh i mean paul is talking about this mystery of israel in those chapters 9-11 and he says there's there's a veil right there's there's something that spiritually blocks our view from understanding this and paul is saying in in chapter 11 verses 11 and 12 he says well you know if in the blindness of the nation of israel and the rejection of the nation of israel of the messiah it's become it become a tremendous blessing to the nations because the message of god the message of the messiah he's saving grace went out throughout the world and paul is saying well just try to imagine how great a blessing how greater blessing it will be when as a nation israel will accept the messiah so that's when the reversal the reversal of the curse of sin you know that's that's kind of the picture that is portrayed for us and so as i close i would ask you to continue to pray for the jewish people and many of you probably have uh jewish neighbors jewish co-workers jewish neighbor just people that you know pray for them talk to them about the messiah in the hebrew bible because you know it may be hard to believe but you probably know the hebrew bible better than do than they do and they will be as amazed as i was when i discovered there's those people that are not even jewish and they know our scripture better than we do and that's kind of mind-boggling the jewish people so you know there are many good ways to bless the nation of israel we at one for israel firmly believe that the best way to bless israel is with jesus is with yeshua himself so as i pray and as i close you have on the screen there you can scan the barcode if you like and it will take you to our website one for israel org and we would love to hear from you please pray for us and pray for the remnant of jewish people that it will be as large and as healthy as possible so i will close and may i pray for you let's pray together alone in our god we we're just amazed at your patience at your grace at your faithfulness and who you are and we give you all the glory and father i just thank you that we can be here together with the mar not the family just want to pray a blessing on this place i pray that your message will continue to go out powerfully from this place to all of southern california and well beyond and also to the many jewish people in this area and around the world and in israel as well and we thank you and we praise you for you are the lord of hosts the true and living god in jesus name we pray amen amen thank you you

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Length: 41min 35sec (2495 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021