THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH
Number 21
DO NOT BE AFRAID
Zechariah 8:14-17
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ONE of the hardest things for many of us to deal with is a sense of fear before God. After all we know him to be the high and lofty one, who inhabits eternity and whose name is holy. We know him as the judge of all and the condemner of all who sin. We know God to be almighty and sovereign, and that he is able to do what he will with us. When Isaiah came into the temple and God revealed himself to him in all his majesty and holiness, Isaiah fell down in terror and fear, and felt that his end had come and everlasting death was upon him. The true Christian has a consciousness of two things. Firstly, the holiness and purity of God and his wrath poured out upon sin; and secondly, that he or she is one who knows he or she is a sinner falling far short of this glory of God, and deserving of judgement, and this can cause us to be afraid. 

If we are Christians also we know the grace of God in Christ, and that in Christ God has loved us with an everlasting love, and that through Christ he has visited his wrath against our sin upon Jesus, and so we are saved and brought into the joy of fellowship with God and the gift of eternal life. But there are times when the consciousness of our sin and sinfulness overwhelms us. To the world we may appear as those who express good and godly living, but because we have met with the Lord, we are conscious of how much we still fall short of the glory of God, and that there is sin even in our best actions. We are overwhelmed sometimes with the consciousness of the sinfulness of our fallen nature, and the sins which are in all our actions all the time. It is this consciousness that the devil so often uses to afflict us, and having caused us to fall then accuses us and causes us to fear that we have forfeited the grace and love of God. The devil is also so good at causing us to return to the lie that we need to prove by the goodness of our lives our worthiness to receive God's forgiving love again, and so we return to trusting in our works and find ourselves in a deeper morass of fear, because our works always fail. These are only some of the fears before God that may fill our hearts from time to time, and there are many variations of these fears, and because of this we become afraid before God, and fear death and hell again, and our souls are troubled. Some believers may find in all this a lack of faith, and in a sense this is so, but even if they do not have these fears, some of us do, and this needs dealing with.

The case of Israel in the time of Zechariah was something like this. They were very conscious of the fact that God had judged their nation for its sins, and this was the reason that Jerusalem was now desolate, and the temple destroyed. When things were not going very well as they worked at the building of the temple it was natural for them to feel that perhaps God was still judging them. Those who are seeking to live in the presence of God and live for him, by the very fact that they are seeking this way of life means that they have tender consciences before God, and feel their sins more than most, and so are more prone to know how much they deserve judgement. The desolation of Jerusalem all around them still was to these returning exiles a vivid reminder that God was holy and judged sin. Fear could very quickly rise in their hearts.

It is to this situation that the word of God through Zechariah is being spoken. God is saying that he indeed did determine to bring disaster upon the nation and show no pity, and this determination was truly reflected in the experience of judgement that the nation received, but now his determination was totally different and quite reversed. God determined now to do good to Jerusalem and Judah. God's previous determination was carried out, so now his determination to do good to his people was certain, and so his people need not be afraid.

This is the determination which God shows in the Gospel, and in the new way of grace he is declaring, and is the assurance we have in the Gospel in Jesus Christ. God tells us "Do not be afraid". And the truth is we do not need to be afraid any more. It is this assurance that is presented to us in these verses before us. Let us consider them together.

THE ASSURANCE IN THE GOSPEL.

God kept his promise to do good to his people in Christ, and the keeping of this promise is revealed in the Gospel. The work of God in Christ is of such a complete and full kind that it leaves no loophole for fear. We need to remind ourselves of this.

What is it that causes us to fear in the presence of God? It is the knowledge of our sins, and that God must in strict justice punish them. We fear because this means death for us and eternal damnation. In Christ God has completely and fully met this need and answered this problem.

Instead of asking us to satisfy his law in the only way that will gain God's favour and acceptance, which is to keep God's law perfectly, God gave his only begotten Son to fulfill all his law for us, not only in keeping the rules perfectly, but also in bearing the just punishment due for the sin of the whole world. This is real good for all who believe, because it means that our dependence for forgiveness and life depends on what Christ has done for us, and not what we can do or have done. Our works never can satisfy the demands of God's law. On the other hand Jesus perfectly and fully met the demands of God's holy Law in our place. Not only did he live a perfect life as our substitute and representative, but also he took responsibility for our sins. God laid our sins on Jesus. God made Jesus responsible for our sins, and so Jesus represented us before God, and received from God the just punishment for our sin. He could die in this vicarious way because he had no sin of his own to suffer for.

Our assurance so that we do not need to be afraid is in this fact that all the demands of the law of God against us have been met by Jesus, and met in full. Jesus lived and died before we were born. This means that when he died we were not born, but still Jesus and God, the Father, knew about all the sins we have committed and will commit, and Jesus accepted responsibility for them all. By this fact all the demands of God's justice has been satisfied in relationship to our sin, and God's law satisfied, and the wrath of God against our sin appeased.

God is a just God. He will never exact punishment for sin twice. So because Jesus has met the punishment we deserve for our sin in full, God can justly pronounce us righteous in his sight, receive us as his children into his heavenly kingdom. We have no need to be afraid because the work of our salvation is done and complete, and so the moment we believed we receive it all, and because our claim to it is paid for by Jesus, our sins can't deprive us of the promise and gift of life. Satan may accuse us, but like the great reformer at the reformation, Martyn Luther, we can say to the devil that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, so eternal life can't be taken from us.

If our hope of forgiveness was dependent in any fashion upon our doing then we would need to be afraid, because we can do nothing perfectly, not even the simplest or the smallest. Thank God that our hope of heaven and assurance of God's love depends not on us, but on what Christ has perfectly done for us.

This is truly a good thing and the best, most glorious thing, for God to do. There are no half measures with God. He is a perfect Saviour through Christ.

GOD'S DETERMINATION.

The determination of God to do us good in this way is seen in the length God was prepared to go to save sinners, and this is seen in the enormous cost which God was ready to accept to deliver us from death and hell.

Because nothing else was sufficient, and nothing else would achieve the result of the salvation of sinners, God was prepared to give us his only begotten Son. So determined was God to save us when we were found totally unable to contribute anything to our own salvation, that God was ready to bear the cost of sending his Son to suffer death and hell in the place of sinners..

God was so determined to do good in this gracious way that though the cost was so great he was determined to leave nothing to be done by us to gain salvation, because anything remaining for us to do would be imperfect, and salvation would not have been achieved. Jesus did it all, and he did it perfectly and completely, and this means we never need be afraid.

We are totally unable to compute the cost to God involved in the gift of his only begotten Son, given by God to total degradation, to shame and death, and in death suffer all the eternal sufferings of the damned, but if we can't compute it, we can in part appreciate it

THE RESPONSE TO SUCH GOODNESS.

In verse 16 God calls us to do certain things. Israel was called to do these things. This doing was not to contribute to the good so that salvation in part depended on us failing sinners. No! the things God asks us to do, are to be an expression of our love and gratitude to God for his wonderful goodness to us in Christ.

If we have received the good God has prepared for us through faith in Jesus, and that faith is genuine, then one thing is certain, and that is that we have received new life. The law of God has not come from outside of us and commanded a heart rebellious against the law, but the law of God has been written on our hearts through Christ so that we love the ways of the Lord, and desire to follow that way. Now, although the flesh wars against the spirit within us, yet the disposition of our hearts is to please God. What was a trial and impossible before, now has become desirable and possible.

Together with this we cannot have truly received the goodness of God in Christ, and experienced the peace which comes from sins forgiven, and not know the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. This love produces a response of love to Christ and God, and so our real desire is to live in a way that pleases our gracious God.

These things God presses on Israel and us in verse 16 and 17 revolve around the second part of the 10 commandments, and they are an expression of love for our neighbour, that is every one with whom we have contact. This does not mean God does not look for us to love him with all our heart, this still comes first. However these things called for here are an expression of the sort of love God has shown us expressed in the way we treat others. When Israel departed from God it was in this direction of treating others selfishly and deceitfully. The way we treat others - the love we show them - is an expression of the love we have learnt from God in the experience of his love for us. So if we want to please God by living these things God calls for, we shall find ourselves motivated and strengthened to do them the more we experience the love of God to us. The more we dwell on Christ's love for us, the more we will be filled with love for others, and the more we will filled with love for God and want to please him. Then our lives will be pleasing to God.

CONCLUSION.

It is a wonderful blessing to hear God say to us in Christ 'do not be afraid'. If God is our friend and we know it, then we can live life unafraid because we are in the hands of the Almighty, and we can face death unafraid, because it is the gateway into our Father's kingdom.

Let us take to heart this assurance by remembering God was and is determined to do us good, and by remembering how he has shown this good, and in dwelling upon the wonder and completeness of this good in the gift of Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord.