A Vision of Jesus
Repent and Return

Below is an automated transcript of this message

Good morning, church. We’re continuing our series today through the book of Zechariah. We will be in Zechariah, chapter three today.

We’ve entitled this series, “Repent and Return.” The theme comes from chapter one, in the early verses, where the people of Israel have returned from exile in Babylon. But, have they returned to the Lord? The Lord says that if you’ll return to Me, I’ll return to you. This is the theme of the book.

In today’s chapter, we’ve entitled this particular message, “A Vision of Jesus.” You will see why as we dig into the truth, as we consider the word of God. It’s certainly a book about us. It’s a book about things in the world, creation and so forth, but it’s primarily a book about God. Specifically, it’s primarily a book about Jesus and about how we can recognize Him and know Him. Today, especially, I think you’ll be glad to be here and read chapter three of Zechariah. It describes a vision of the coming Messiah.

Many of us, today, are looking for something. We’re looking for something that would fulfill us, something that would bring us peace and satisfy our souls. We look in so many places as we’re growing up; we’ll look for something or someone that we think will fill our loneliness or give us purpose. But what we find, over time, is that nothing seems to completely satisfy. This is why the bible is about Jesus because we believe that Jesus is the only one that will truly satisfy our souls and our deepest longings.

I think it was in the 4th century AD, that a man, named Augustine, wrote this. He said, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts our restless until they find their rest in Thee.” We were made for God. This is why we have this hole in our lives that we’re looking for.

As we’re looking at Zechariah chapter three today, we can be reminded that the people of God had been in exile for 70 years, away from their homeland of Jerusalem. Now, they’re back. More than any other generation, this particular generation is looking for a Messiah. They had heard for centuries that the Messiah would come, but this particular generation has been stripped of its identity. There is no king on the throne at this time. In fact, they’re under Persian rule now. They’re looking for one who would redeem them, who would set them free. They’re looking for a Messiah. They are asking their prophets, the prophet Haggai and prophet Zachariah, “When’s He coming?” Instead of answering that question in chapter three, the vision that Zechariah gets, it’s not so much when He is coming, but what He’s going to look like, so you’ll recognize Him when He does come and you can prepare yourself for His coming. This is what we will see in Zechariah, chapter three. The prophet sees his fourth vision of eight visions.

If you’ll remember, last week, we said we had a pretty precise date on when this was written. This was written on February 15, 520 BC. Apparently, Zechariah was up all night. He had eight night visions in a row. We have covered three of them already. We will be covering the fourth one now, in chapter three. This kind of sits at the midpoint. The first three visions were pretty strange.

The fourth and fifth vision are a little bit more normal. The fourth vision is about a real person that lived during Zechariah’s day named Joshua. He was the high priest. The fifth vision will be, primarily, about a man named Zerubbabel, who also lived during that time. The last three visions will get strange again. So, the first three visions are strange. The fourth and fifth visions are kind of real. And then, visions six through eight are strange again. We have these two visions in the middle.

We’re covering the fourth vision; as I read it today, you might think, “Well this one’s pretty strange, too.” It’s not as strange; it is about a real person named Joshua. In Zechariah, chapter three, Joshua is the high priest that Zechariah sees in this vision. Zechariah learned that the vision of Joshua was not just about him as a real person, but it was, also, a sign. It was a foreshadowing, a pointing to the Messiah that was to come and His work of salvation.

I believe, as we look at chapter three, we can recognize Jesus as the fulfillment of this Messianic prophecy and of this promise. As we look today, I think the text gives us four reasons that we can recognize Jesus as its fulfillment. Let’s dig in. Let’s look for Jesus in this chapter.

Zechariah 3:1-10 (ESV) 1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accusehim him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by. 6 And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, 7 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. 8 Hear 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. 9 For behold, on the stone that I have set 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. 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 fig tree.” This is God’s word.

How Jesus is the fulfillment of this Messianic vision: 1. Jesus is the counsel for our defense.

If you look at these opening verses, you can see that, what we have here in this vision, is what appears to be a heavenly courtroom scene. First of all, the high priest, Joshua, is standing before the Angel of the Lord. He’s, apparently, the defendant. Joshua is standing before the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord represents the judge, but we also find out that he, also, represents the counsel for the defense. We’ll see that in just a second. The prosecuting attorney, the accuser, is Satan. As we open up here, we’re in a heavenly courtroom here in Zechariah. The curtain was pulled back. Zechariah catches a vision of this, the fourth vision.

Who is this “Angel of the Lord?” First of all, the “Angel of the Lord,” as we’ve talked about over the last couple of weeks, we believe to be the pre-incarnate Christ. What we mean by that is, this is before Jesus took on human flesh and became one of us. Christ is the second person of the Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He has always existed. There never was a time when Christ was not. He was present before creation. He’s always been present. He is eternal. But there was a time, 2000 years ago, when he took on human flesh and became a man. This “Angel of the Lord” is speaking as if He is the Lord. Why? Because He is the Lord. He’s the pre-incarnate; this is before Christ came in the flesh.

We see Joshua, whose name, in the Hebrew, is yᵊhôšûaʿ which, when it’s given to us in English, is Jesus. It’s the same name; it means, “God’s salvation, Yahweh is salvation, Yahweh saves.” That’s what his name means.

If you read in Ezra 3:2 and Haggai 1:1, we can see that this man, Joshua, was a real person. He was part of the 47,000 refugee exiles who came back to Jerusalem from Babylon. He was the son of Jehozadak , who was the son of Seraiah. Now, Seraiah was the last high priest that was over the temple. When Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and murdered his grandfather Seraiah, he was the last active high priest under that period. Now, Jehozadak and his son, Joshua, go off to Babylon and Jehozadak never really gets to perform his duties as high priest.

Now, here’s Joshua; he’s probably an old man returning with the exiles. There’s no temple to serve him; Zechariah gets this vision of him, of God preparing him for that ministry. There’s two things that need to happen. The temple needs to be rebuilt, but the high priest needs to be recommissioned for this ministry to take place. Here, we have an encouraging word to Joshua; he is not clean, he is not prepared and he is not commissioned, but the Lord is going to get him ready. This encourages Joshua and it’s also a word to encourage the people.

Okay, so let me give you a chart because I can’t get through one of these without a chart. Here comes a chart . If you ever hear someone refer to the first temple, they’re talking about Solomon’s temple that was built around 960 BC. That temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. That’s temple number one. Now, Joshua would have been the one who came in; he would have been the first high priest under the second temple, which was built by Zerubbabel. Now, Zerubbabel was in the line of David. He would have been a king, but now he’s a governor. He’s the governor over the exiles who came back and he’s the one who commissions the temple to be rebuilt. They laid the foundation about 536 BC, but, because of people coming against them, the temple work had stopped. Now, prophets Zechariah and Haggai are contemporaries there preaching. Get back to work. Get the high priest ready. Get the temple ready. This has beenwritten around 536-516 BC. They rebuilt the temple. And so the second temple is called “Zerubbabel’s Temple.” Many would refer to Herod’s temple as a third temple. I tend to think of it not really as a third temple because Zerubbabel’s temple was never destroyed. It was just supersized by Herod. He expanded the temple mount and so he made it bigger. The third temple in my opinion, is the one that will be built before the time of the tribulation. The fourth temple would be “Ezekiel’s Temple,” the millennial temple. I usually don’t refer to Herod as the third; it’s more like Zarubabell’s temple, supersized. Here we have Joshua, a real person, who will be the first high priest to serve in the second temple.

The angel of the Lord is there and Satan is standing at his right hand to accuse him. The word, “Satan,” means “accuser, adversary, enemy of God.” Here, you’ll see that “Satan” is capitalized. Why is that? It’s because he’s a real person. He’s not just a symbol of evil; he’s a real being, a created being and he’s a fallen angel. His name was Lucifer, son of the morning star. That was his original name. He was one of the most beautiful and powerful angels in all of the heavens, but he rose up against God and said, “I will be like the most high,” and so, he was cast down. His name literally means, “accuser.”

In fact, if you could read this in the Hebrew, it would say that satan is standing at his right hand to “satan” him. Every time you see the word, “accuser,” in the English underneath it, is the word, “satan,” in Hebrew. He’s standing there as the accuser. He’s the one who still accuses believers today.

The person, known as the “angel of the Lord,” rebukes him. He rebukes him; He says it in a very particular way. He says in verse 2, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!” The prosecution stands but before he could say anything against Joshua, the defense attorney stands up, which I believe is the pre-incarnate Christ and rebukes him.

On what basis is He rebuking him” How is this a just courtroom scene if He tell the prosecution to shut up before he even starts? He explains, he says, “The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!” He has chosen them. We’ll unpack this and see why it’s a fair courtroom. We’ll see what God does in order to remove the stain from Joshua.

Then, he asked the question of the defense, continuing in verse 2, “Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Literally, this is a smoking stick, an ember that’s smoking, but soon to go out, pulled from the fire. Fire usually points to God’s judgment or discipline of which Joshua has now been plucked.

I would say, if we rightly understand this, we would have to all admit that every single one of us is like a brand plucked from the fire. For some of you, I can still smell the smoke on you when you came into the room. You’re coming in here to hear God’s word today; you’ve been through a tough season. That’s Joshua; he’s been in 70 years of exile. It’s like God said, ”I chose him. I pulled him out of the fire.” Some of you are shaking your head at me right now; you get that because you know where Joshua has been and you have been there. God defends him because He has chosen him. He has plucked him out; He has pulled him out. He’s got more to say, but that’s how He starts it.

This imagery is familiar. The prophet Amos uses it in Amos 4:11 (ESV) “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. We can see that the judgment is in view here, but he has been pulled out. The fire symbolizes discipline or judgment.

Jude 1:23 (ESV) “Save others by snatching them out of the fire,” is a word to believers, saying if you see someone that’s under judgment or under discipline, help get them out. This imagery is something you see in the Old and the New Testament.

I want you to look at verses one through five; this is the vision. Verses six through ten are the explanation of the vision. We’ve already unpacked verses one and two; we see that the pre-incarnate Jesus here is both judge and defense attorney. He’s the counsel for the defense. We’ve established that, but more than that, He’s even more because we’re going to see now how He is able to rebuke Satan.

Look at verse 8; it helps us understand who Joshua is, 8 “Hear 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.” What does that mean? Here’s the clue that Zechariah is given now. This is a vision talking about a real person, the high priest; Joshua is to be the high priest of this rebuilt temple. Not only that, he’s a foreshadowing of another person. He’s a sign pointing to a future person that’s yet to come.

“Men who are a sign.” Who is that person? He’s not finished; he tells you who that person is in verse 8, “…behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.” Now, how did that help us? Well, the word, “Branch,” refers to a Messianic title. Joshua points to the coming Messiah. Notice how the word, “Branch,” is capitalized in your text there.

There’s a couple of things to think about here: One is, this is just too easy. His name is Joshua, which is Jesus. It’s the same name. So that’s the first thing; his name is Joshua. That’s like a giveaway, right? He’s a sign, pointing to the Messiah.

Secondly, Joshua is the high priest now; why is that significant? It is because the high priest is the one who went into the Holy of Holies in the temple. The Holy of Holies is the place where the Ark of the Covenant was; he was the only one of the priests allowed to go in there, beyond the veil, where the Holy of Holies is and the ark of the covenant. It’s called the Mercy Seat of God. He would go in and sprinkle the blood of the lamb one day a year. He was only allowed to go in there one day a year. That was on the day that the Hebrews called the “yom kippur,” the day of atonement. He would go in on that day and he would go in as a representative of all the people bringing this blood in to pay for his sins and the sins of all the believers.

This was an action he would take vicariously . What does that word mean, “vicariously?” “Vicariously” has the idea of being the representative. This whole precinct thing was always pointing to the Messiah because He would come as the great high priest who would, vicariously as our representative, become one of us, die for us and pay for our sins. The imagery of the high priest and the imagery of Joshua all points to the “Branch.”

Why, “Branch?” This is imagery from Isaiah 11:1 (ESV) “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” Jesse was the father in the lineage of David; he’s the father of David. Somehow, David’s line has been cut off like a stump. That happened; Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Judah, but shoots are going to come off of the root and a Branch (capital B) is coming. That’s the Messiah; His title is “the Branch.”

Jeremiah takes up this same title. Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 23:5 (ESV) “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” Notice, he’s referring to the Branch as a he; that singular, masculine pronoun is pointing to the Branch, to this Branch. It is not just a branch; it is a person. “He shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” This phrase, this terminology would have been immediately recognizable by Zechariah and the people of God during this time. The Branch is the Messiah.

Here’s what Zechariah is saying: This vision you just saw about Joshua, he’s a real person that’s getting ready to be the high priest, but he’s also a foreshadowing, if you look close, of the Messiah that is to come. That’s what he’s saying.

In 1 John 2:1, we find that Jesus is the fulfillment of this. It says, 1 John 2:1 (NKJV) “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” He’s our counsel for the defense. He’s the one who says, ‘The Lord rebuke you, satan. I’ve chosen that one, that one’s mine.’

Now, some of us will hear the evil one whisper to us and tell us we’re not worthy. The truth is we’re not, but He has made us worthy because He’s chosen us. More than that, He has taken on our sins in our place. If you look at this, you can see that He is the one who becomes Joshua for us. In Hebrews 4, He is our great high priest. Hebrews 4:14-16 (ESV) 14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but onewho in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. He is our great high priest. He is the fulfillment of this sign. He’s the one who died in our place. Do you recognize Jesus as your defender, your counsel, your advocate? He is the one who stands between you and the accusation of sin.

2. Jesus cleanses us of our iniquity.

He’s our counsel for the defense. He’s the one who cleanses us. We’re in verses three and four now; we’ll be jumping down to verse nine to help interpret three and four, just as we jumped down to verse eight to help interpret one and two.

Joshua, the man, represents us first of all, because notice how he’s dressed in verse three, He stands before a Holy God and when the Holy God looks at him in verse three, he was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments, he’s filthy.

Who does he think he is, to come into the presence of the Holy One filthy? He can’t help it. Notice that Joshua never says a word. He’s silent before his accuser; he is silent before the Lord. He has no defense unless the Lord himself defends him. Joshua was standing before the angel clothed in filthy garments. The word, “filthy,” is worse than you can imagine. Literally, in the Hebrew, it has the idea of being smeared with excrement and with the internal parts of an animal. He was nasty. He’s in bad shape, He’s supposed to be the high priest, the one who represents all the people of God and he’s nasty. He’s filthy. He needs help.

You see, many times we think we’re good because we’re better than the person next to us. But no matter how good you think you are , the book of Isaiah says this, Isaiah 64:6 (NIV) “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Our very best is not good enough. He dressed the best he could to come before the Lord in this vision, but he was still clothed in filthy clothes.

4 “And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” Let’s get those filthy garments off; let’s clean him up. And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” This is very particular language: “I have taken your iniquity away from you.” Where do He put it? He put it upon Himself. That’s how He’s able to say to the evil one, “I rebuke you,” because of what He does.

Remember how we said that Joshua is a sign? We saw that in verse eight. Now, when we look down in verse nine, we see this, 9 “For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua,” So the word, “stone,” is another word that points to the Messiah. I talked about this last week, if I told you I had a dream of an eagle that had red, white and blue feathers, you would say that I had a dream about the US of A, because of the red, white and blue. Well, the “stone” is easily accessible to this Jewish audience, to Zechariah, because they have Daniel. They have other images like this.

Daniel says this, Daniel 2:34-35 (ESV) “As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces… the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” This was a prophecy concerning the coming Messiah.

Acts 4:11 (ESV) “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.” 1 Peter 2:6 (ESV) For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” This is the coming Messiah.

We see, in verse nine, 9 “For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes,” Okay, that’s strange. Gary, you said this chapter wasn’t as strange. It’s not as strange, but I didn’t say it wasn’t entirely not strange. If you look at this here again, this is accessible to the Jewish reader. The number 7 was the number of completion. This is an image that points to someone who is all knowing, omniscient, all meaning, complete, all seeing. This stone sees and knows everything. This stone is the Lord; He will engrave it since it’s the stone. “I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts.” Apparently, the engraving is this, “I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.” There’s coming a day when this Branch, this Stone will remove sin in one day. This is what Zechariah is being told about this coming Messiah, this Branch and this Stone.

Remember what he said back in verse five, 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by. The filthy garments were images pointing to his sin. How do we know that? Verse four tells us, 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” So that pointed to the fact, “I have taken it away.” Well, where’d he put it? Put it on himself. So Joshua has a double meaning. Here is a real person during that day. Yes, he is really a high priest, but he’s also a picture of Jesus, the coming great high priest who would become one of us because we’re Joshua.

But then Jesus becomes one of us in order to take our sin debt from us. How is He able to rebuke satan? It’s because he paid for it; He took our sin and put it on himself. He will take it away. And so this is the imagery that we see him pointing to here.

Then, we have this idea of this engraving, “and I will engrave its inscription.” The early church fathers saw this as the scars upon Jesus’ body, that He was nailed by His hands and His feet and He has a scar on His side where His side was riven by the spear. It was like an engraving in his body.

Isaiah 49:16 (ESV) “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” There are many views about what this might be. Some say well the seven eyes actually are seven facets and the stone is a jewel that has seven cuts or seven facets on it. There’s different views. Some say it’s the inscription that goes on the turban.The way I perceive this passage is, first, I always tend to lean towards the ancient church fathers; I have kind of a preference for them. Secondly, I always lean towards something that tells me more about Jesus because I think the bible is primarily about Him.

If you take the time to read other commentators on this, you’ll get into some deep water right here. But I tend to land here , which is the simplest explanation, just letting you know where I’m getting here today. We see that, on a single day, our sin has taken care of.

On the 6th day of creation, humanity was created. And on the sixth day of Passion week, humanity was recreated and given a second chance, when the second Adam, Jesus, came and on a single day paid for our sin and took iniquity away. This is the single stone on a single day that made a new creation possible.

1 John 1:7-9 (ESV) “… and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. … If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” He is the one who takes our sin upon Himself.

Do you remember, in the book of John, chapter 11, Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, had died. He’d lay in the tomb for four days. Jesus comes to the tomb and He says, “Roll away the stone.” Lazarus’ sister, Martha, is concerned. She says, “But Lord , he stinketh,” as it says in the King James Version. The body’s been in there too long; let’s not do this. But Jesus says, “Roll the stone away.” When they roll the stone away, Jesus says, “Lazarus come forth.” When Lazarus comes forth, Jesus turns to the people around Him and he tells them to take off Lazarus’ grave clothes and let him go. Very similar language to today’s passage. Take off those old filthy rags, those old filthy clothes and let him go.

Do you recognize that Jesus’ blood, His sacrifice, is the only way to shut Satan’s mouth, so that he cannot accuse you. It’s the only way to get rid of those filthy clothes.

3. Jesus clothes us in His righteousness.

Jesus is our counselor, He cleanses us and He clothes us. We’re in the latter part of verse four and verse five. He says, in verse 4, “ And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you,from I will clothe you with pure vestments.” I will clothe you now. Not only does He take away the old, but he puts on new, righteous clothes.

Having removed Joshua’s filthy garments, he says, “I will clothe you with pure vestments.” I will do this for you. Pure vestments are not ordinary clothes. These are clothes fit for the setting of being the high priest. These are High Priest clothes. their splendid, their costly, they’re pure, their righteous. This is a strange thing that happens in verse five. Up until now, we haven’t heard from Zechariah in the earlier three visions. He is not asking any questions. But he hauls off right here in verse five and says, 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by. Zechariah had a suggestion. He gets involved. He decides to participate in the vision . He sees God preparing the high priest; Joshua has all of his clothes on him. Now, let’s top it off. Let’s put the turban on his head. I have a picture of what this may have looked like, what the high priestly garments may have looked like. I think it’s helpful to look at these sorts of things. You can see that there’s a turban on his head that’s made in a certain and particular fashion. There’s a gold medallion that’s set upon his forehead; it’s inscribed with the words, “Holy to the Lord.” God has made him holy. He was not holy, but God has made him holy.

You can see that he has a breastplate that has the 12 stones, each one representing the 12 tribes of Israel. If we could see in the breast pocket behind the breastplate, there’s a pouch there that has the Urim and the Thummim where he could make decisions as he prayed to the Lord and give guidance to the king. You can see the apron because he is bringing sacrifice. You can see bells along the bottom of his garment here. That is so his garment would make a ringing sound when he went into the Holy of Holies, because he was the only one allowed back there. They used to tie a little chain around his ankle, because if the bells stopped ringing, he probably did something wrong back there and they had a way of pulling him back out.

His garments are very particular. Zachariah looks and adds that all he needs now is the turban and they put it on his head. “They put a clean turban on his head and clothed them with garments. And the Angel of the Lord was standing by.” He was clothed in righteousness. In Isaiah, chapter 61, we see what the Messiah will say. In fact, this is the passage that Jesus turns to when He goes to the synagogue. Isaiah 61:10 (ESV) I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10 (ESV) “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” That’s what the Messiah will do for his people; He will give them new clothes of righteousness.

Paul writes this to the church at Corinth, 2 Corinthians 5:21 “ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus became like us; He took our sin so that we could receive His righteousness and be clothed in His righteousness. Jesus clothes us in His righteousness.

4. Jesus commissions us for His Kingdom ministry.

Having cleaned and clothed Joshua, He commissions him; He calls him to serve. We’re in verse six now. 6 “And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua.” This is a solemn occasion. He’s clean. Satan has been rebuked. He has his new clothes of righteousness on. He assures Joshua that he is ready to serve. He is going to commission Joshua to serve Him. He says, 7 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. This is the only “if then” statement in the vision. This is a conditional statement concerning his salvation. He was silent. He didn’t have to do anything to earn it, but just receive it. But now, here, it’s conditional. The calling is conditional because you have to say “yes” to it. Salvation is free, but the calling that he puts on us as Christians comes out of obedience. If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you have these blessings in your life. You shall rule my house; you will be the high priest over the temple. You have that role. You will be in charge of my courts. These are the courts surrounding the temple courts; you’ll be given the right of access. In other words, you’ll be allowed to go into the Holy of Holies. This will be yours. I’m commissioning you, now, Joshua.

This is a word of great encouragement to the real man, Joshua, but it’s also a great word of encouragement to us as believers. Because He’s saying to us, now that I have defended you, I have cleansed you. I have clothed you in righteousness, I’m asking you to follow Me and to accept My call, My commission to serve Me. I’ve made you worthy. You weren’t worthy, but I’ve made you worthy. That’s important to consider, because we often hear a voice that says, You’re not worthy. You’re not worthy.

You would think that after 30 years, I wouldn’t hear that voice. I’ve been preaching for 30 years. You’d think that I wouldn’t hear that voice. Satan still speaks, he still whispers to me. I’m talking about Satan or one of his minions. He says, you’re not ready. You didn’t study enough. You weren’t a very nice person this week. You’re not worthy to get in the pulpit. I could go on. It’s either him or me because I’m my own worst enemy. The flesh, which is the old nature will say, yeah, but you don’t feel that good today. Your new knees don’t feel so new today. You’re not very enthusiastic. What are you going to bring to the people that depend on hearing you preach the word of God?

This is just me. I cannot imagine what you go through. God has called each and everyone of you. I’m not unique. We’re all commissioned that follow Jesus, but yet, the evil one accuses us, the flesh accuses us, the world accuses us. How will we stand?

I’ll tell you how we stand. We have an advocate, we have a counsel for the defense who says, “I rebuke you. Get behind me in the name of Jesus, satan. Get behind me, satan. We have to say we are worthy because He has made us worthy. I’m not worthy to be up here, but He’s worthy and He lives in me, so He makes me worthy . I don’t speak my words. I speak His words. You’re worthy if you are in Christ. He makes you worthy. Preach the gospel to yourself. You’re free. You’re clean. You are clothed in righteousness. You are commissioned.

In Matthew chapter 28. We see what many call The Great Commission, Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV) 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” We’ve been given a commission. If you look at verse 10, you can kind of see a little bit of that commission. 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 fig tree.”

The fig tree and the vine are symbols of prosperity and peace. This is one of the things that would cause the first century Jews to get confused about who to look for in the Messiah because there are two threads of Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament. One is of a suffering servant, which we see much of here in chapter three, don’t we? But, we also catch a glimpse of the conquering king, which is the second thread of prophecy. We see in verse 10, His second coming. I think in verse 10, it says, “In that day,” we’re talking about the day of the Lord when Jesus returns and He brings peace and prosperity upon the Earth. But, in the meantime, we can still be preparing by inviting our neighbor to come over to His side and answer His commission. We can see that, in a single day, at His first coming, He took away iniquity. But “in that day,” there will be peace.

I see Jesus in this chapter. Oh, how did they miss it 500 years later when they had such clarity given to them through Zechariah? I think it was Jesus who said, Matthew 23:37, NIV: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets.” Zechariah, the son of Jehozadak was killed; the man who wrote this was murdered by his own people.

Do you see Jesus? Do you see Him revealed here? He’s our counselor. He cleanses, He clothes and He commissions us.

In 1863, a hymn originally entitled, “The Advocate,” was written and published by a pastor’s daughter named Charitie Lees Smith. The hymn later became known by its first line. I’m not sure what inspired Charitie, but I’d like to think she was studying Zechariah, chapter three. It goes like this:

BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD ABOVE Before the throne of God above When Satan tempts me to despair Behold Him there, the risen Lamb I have a strong and perfect plea And tells me of the guilt within My perfect, spotless righteousness A great High Priest whose name is love Upward I look and see Him there The great unchangeable I AM Who ever lives and pleads for me Who made an end to all my sin The King of Glory and of Grace My name is graven on His hands Because the sinless Savior died One with Himself I cannot die My name is written on His heart My sinful soul is counted free My soul is purchased by His blood I know that while in heaven He stands For God, the Just, is satisfied My life is hid with Christ on high No tongue can bid me thence depart (2x) To look on Him and pardon me (2x) With Christ my Savior and my God (2x)

This is a vision of Jesus. Do you know Him?

Let’s pray. Lord, I pray, first of all, for that person that came in today, far from God, but today they caught a glimpse of You, Jesus. Today, they heard Your invitation to come. Would you answer it, my friend, right where you are right in your seat, you can say “yes” to Jesus. This is why He came. He wants to take away your filthy clothes, your iniquity, your sin. He wants to give you His righteousness in its place. Would you say “yes” to Jesus ? Right now, just pray with me, “Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner; I need a Savior. I believe You died for my sin, that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. Come and live in me. Make me the person You want me to be, I want to be a child of God. Adopt me into Your family; forgive me my sin. I want You as my Savior and Lord.” If you’re praying that prayer, believing, He will save you. He’ll adopt you into His family. Others are here, and you know Jesus, you’re in relationship with Him, you’re a Christ follower but the evil one has crippled you. You’ve got some sin area in your past, some brokenness, you’re like “a burning stick pulled from the fire.” You feel disqualified. You feel unworthy right now. Would you hear the word of God? He says, “I rebuke you, Satan.” Walk in the calling that God has given you. Would you say ”yes” to it right now? Would you put your “yes” on the table? “Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord. Whatever You’ve called me to do, I will do, Lord.” We are your people. We love you. Thank you for this word in Jesus’ name. Amen.