Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep will be Scattered


Sermon by David Strain on July 14, 2014 Zechariah 13:7-9

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Now let me invite you please to turn in your Bibles to the prophecy of Zechariah, chapter 13.  Zechariah chapter 13.  We’ll read verses 7 through 9 together.  You’ll find it on page 799 in the church Bibles.  Before we do, let’s again bow our heads as we pray.

 

O Lord, You have the words of eternal life.  To whom else can we turn but to You?  Would You give us ears now to hear what the Spirit says to His church, to the comfort and encouragement of every believing heart, to the alarm of all who do not know Jesus, and to their drawing from sin and self to the only Savior of sinners?  Come and work by Your Spirit for Your glory, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

Zechariah chapter 13 reading from verse 7.  This is what Word of Almighty God:

 

“’Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,’ declares the LORD of hosts.

 

‘Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.  In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive.  And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested.  They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

 

Amen, and thanks be to God for His holy and inerrant Word.

 

Well do keep your Bibles open at Zechariah 13 verses 7 to 9.  If you can think back a few weeks since last we were in Zechariah you will recall that we had begun to deal with the concluding oracle of Zechariah’s prophecy running from the beginning of chapter 12 to the end of his book.  And we saw how, in chapter 12 all the way through the sixth verse of chapter 13, the focus of the prophet rests on the way that God will deal with His people when His servant, the one who we know as the Lord Jesus, is pierced for the sin of His people.  In the wake of the coming of Jesus, here’s how God will deal with His church – He will, we saw, preserve His people in verses 1 through 9 of chapter 12.  He will convert His people in verses 10 to 14 of chapter 12.  And He will cleanse His people in verses 1 to 6 of chapter 13.  And as we consider now the last verses of the thirteenth chapter we’re going to see how Zechariah comes back to that same message, this time in a slightly different way, in what is a short, self-contained poem that very dramatically illustrates what we ought to expect in the normal Christian life; what we ought to except in the normal Christian life.

 

One of the things that I was not at all prepared for when I first began in ministry about twelve years or so ago in London was the sheer volume of crisis marriage counseling I had to do.  Almost without fail, maybe there was a month or two in five years when I was not engaged in counseling couples that were in crisis.  And there were various issues that caused those crises but often, almost invariably, beneath them all were unmet and unrealistic expectations.  Their expectations were all wrong and so they found themselves eventually in crisis.  And I think the same can be said for many of us, actually, in the Christian life.  We may have faulty expectations about what it will look like to live the life of a disciple.  And Zechariah 13:6-9 aims to help us adjust our expectations so that we can be ready for the realities of the Christian life in both its trials and its wonderful blessings.

 

The Work of Christ

 

Let’s take a look at it together – Zechariah 13 verses 7 to 9.  The text has two major divisions.  In verse 7 the focus falls on the work of Christ and then in 8 to 9, in light of the work of Christ, here is the life of a Christian or the life of the church.  Let’s look at verse 7 first of all, very briefly – the work of Christ.  And the first word of verse 7 in Hebrew highlights the drama.  It is the word, “sword.”  The sword is personified and addressed directly by God as though it had a mind and will of its own.  God calls the sword to awaken against “my servant,” He says.  We’ve met, of course, this figure – sorry, against “the shepherd.”  We’ve met this figure of God’s shepherd back in chapters 9 through 11.  He was the repeat motif of that earlier oracle in the book of Zechariah.  And we know who He is, don’t we?  He is, John 10 and verse 11, He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. He is the Lord Jesus Christ.  And here we learn that the Shepherd Messiah, the Lord Jesus, will endure the sword.  The sword is shorthand, if you like, for judicial suffering and death.  And the thing to notice here is that it is the Lord God Himself who calls for the awakening of the sword against His own Shepherd. 

 

And if that’s not astonishing enough, notice how this Shepherd is further described in the second part of the opening clauses of verse 7.  “He is the man,” God says, “who stands next to Me.”  That is, “He is My peer, My peer.”  That’s what the word means; a close relative, companion, associate, equal.  The Shepherd is the Lord’s peer.  He is the God-Man.  That’s what’s being alluded to – equal with the Father.  And the Lord “lays upon Him the iniquity of us all.”  It was the will of the Lord to crush Him.  “He has put Him to grief” – Isaiah 53 and verse 10. Sometimes we find ourselves with a sort of imprecise way of thinking about the Gospel that imagines a division between God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus loves us. Jesus died for us.  But the Father, He remains aloof, unfeeling, grudging in His mercy perhaps, miserly with His love.  Jesus we can relate to, but the Father, has He become unapproachable and distant in your thinking?  Perhaps you had a father, an earthly father, who was like that and so it’s now awfully tempting for you to fall into that same way of thinking about God the Father – aloof, distant, grudging with His love. 

 

That is not at all the teaching of this text, is it?  The cross, the cross was the Father’s idea.  The cross was the Father’s idea.  It is the pulpit of the Father’s love.  The afflictions of the Shepherd for the salvation of the sheep was the plan of the Father.  “God so loved the world that He gave His Son.”  “God has demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”  “Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us that we should be called sons of God.”  The cross is the pulpit of the Father’s love and we ought never to be able to read a verse like verse 7 without wondering and marveling, without worshiping at the inscrutable mystery of what must it have meant for the Father to ordain and for the Son of embrace the sword – the judicial death of the cross for the love of your soul.  So here’s a precious reminder of the cross and the wonderful harmony and agreement of the Father and the Son of the Lord and His co-equal Shepherd as together they purpose your redemption by means of Calvary. 

 

The Life of the Church

 

But the great burden of this passage, as precious as these glimpses of the cross are, the great burden of this passage is not really to expound the meaning of the cross so much as it is to help us understand in light of the cross, in the wake of the striking of the Shepherd, what does it mean to be a sheep in His fold?  What is the normal Christian life in light of the cross of Jesus Christ?  If verse 7 is about the work of Christ, verses 8 and 9 are about the life of a Christian.

 

And Zechariah highlights four things that I want you to see and we’re going to deal with them really rather briefly.  First, there is the reality of persecution.  That is, that’s what we see in verses 7 and 8 – the reality of persecution.  Then there’s the purpose of trials in the first part of verse 9. Then there’s the promise of prayer in the second part of verse 9.  And finally at the end of the passage, at the apex and summit of it all, there’s the intimacy of God’s covenant.  The reality of persecution, the purpose of trials, the promise of prayer, the intimacy of God’s covenant. 

 

I. The Reality of Persecution

 

First of all, then, the reality of persecution.  “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.  In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish and one third shall be left alive.”  When the shepherd is stricken the sheep are scattered, decimated even, till only a remnant, a third part, is left.  It’s a passage Jesus Himself quotes in Matthew 26:31 when He predicted to His disciples His arrest and crucifixion.  “You will all fall away because of Me this night,” He told them, and then He quotes Zechariah 13 and verse 7.  “I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.”  Even Peter, remember Peter protesting nothing like that would ever happen to him.  Even Peter would deny his Master three times.  In the wake of the cross the sheep are scattered and this initial scattering comes in fear and shame and disillusionment and betrayal even.  And later after the resurrection of Christ and the disciples are restored, the hostility of the world that was first turned against the Shepherd is now turned against the sheep, even escalating in its scope and ferocity as they are once more scattered.  In Acts chapter 8 verses 1 through 4 in the wake of the persecutions led by Saul of Tarsus, the believers in Jerusalem, Luke says, were all scattered throughout all the regions of Judea and Samaria and he adds, “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the Word.”  The hostility of the world to the rule of God that led to the cross now turns with all its hostility and animas against those who follow and stand in the good of the cross of Christ.

 

And yet we’re told here despite the opposition of a hostile world, God will preserve a remnant.  There will remain a third who shall be left alive.  The people of God, however beleaguered and small their number, will always remain a remnant in the world bearing witness and testimony to the grace of God in the Gospel.  As we adjust our expectations of what the Christian life looks like this side of the cross and the empty tomb, this is the first great lesson Zechariah would teach us – expect persecution, expect opposition, expect the world to push back on all who seek to be faithful to their Master.  That was Paul’s message to the churches that he planted in Lystra and Iconium and Antioch in Acts 14:22, wasn’t it?  Listen to Luke’s account of Paul’s ministry of discipleship in the churches.  He plants the churches there then he returns to visit them and minister among them and Luke says that “he went, strengthening the soul of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith.”  It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  The kind of ministry we all want – strengthening our souls, encouraging us to continue in the faith.  But then Luke tells us, he gives us a summary of how he did that, his actual message.  Here it is.  “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”  If Luke thinks that’s encouragement, maybe he’s a Scotsman.  Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.  But he’s not being gloomy or negative; he is helping the churches get their expectations right, to be real about the nature of the Christian life.  Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.  Understand that as the Shepherd is stricken the sheep will be scattered.  John 15:20, “Jesus said, ‘Remember I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.  If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.’”  To follow Jesus is to follow Him through suffering.

 

II. The Purpose of Trials

 

And that brings us to the second thing to see in this passage about the life of a Christian.  First there’s the reality of persecution, then secondly the purpose of trials.  The remnant of God’s people, verse 9, will pass through the crucible of suffering, but it is not purposeless suffering, is it?  Look at the language that is used.  “I will put this third into the fire and refine them, as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested.”  If we are to expect sufferings as we follow the Good Shepherd, doesn’t it help to know that those sufferings are not pointless, endless things, empty things, meaningless things?  Not at all.  They are part of a refining work of God in your life.  Part of the secret of weathering the many tribulations through which we must all pass in order to enter the kingdom of heaven is learning how to interpret them correctly.  What is God doing through our sore afflictions?  It’s 1 Peter 1:6-7 isn’t it?  The believers in Asia to whom Peter wrote were rejoicing in salvation.  “Though now for a little while,” he says, “you’ve been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  You’re in the refiner.  You’re in God’s refinery.  That’s the Christian life.  That’s what the tribulations and the trials that will come your way are in God’s purpose.  We’re in the refinery to burn off the dross so that our faith in Jesus might be found to praise and glory and honor at last.

 

You know what God is saying to you in Zechariah 13:8, beleaguered and suffering brother or sister, isn’t He saying, “When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie, My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply.  The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.  I’m teaching you to trust Me.  I’m teaching you to trust Me, to lean on nothing and no one for ultimate rest and hope and joy but Me.  I’m teaching you to trust Me.”

 

III. The Promise of Prayer

 

The reality of persecution, the purpose of trials, and then thirdly the promise of prayer.  What else marks the Christian life?  What else ought the sheep in the Good Shepherd’s flock to expect?  Not just suffering.  Look at the second half of verse 9 – “They will call upon Me and I will answer them.” There are many parts of Scripture, not a few of them in the book of Zechariah as we’ve seen, that are complicated and hard to understand.  This is not one of them.  What could be simpler and sweeter than these words, “You will call on My name and I will answer you”?  As you follow Jesus through the valley of suffering and tribulation and trials, as He refines you in the painful crucible of affliction, here’s a promise to cling to, “Call on Me in the day of trouble and I will answer you,” Psalm 50 and verse 15.  “Before they call I will answer. While they are yet speaking I will hear” – Isaiah 65 and verse 24.  “Ask Me anything in My name and I will do it” – John 14 and verse 14.  Prayer is part of God’s provision for us in our suffering. 

 

When our children get sick or when they hurt themselves, when they’re troubled and scared, aren’t we the first ones they run to for help and comfort and counsel and healing and support?  And we’d be wounded as parents, wouldn’t we, we’d be wounded if they did anything else.  It would break our hearts if our children kept their pains to themselves or turned with them to someone else instead of coming to us.  How much more must it grieve the heart of Abba Father when, in the depths of our trials, we turn every which way but to Him when He has said to us, “Call on Me.  Call on Me.  I will answer”?  Let us with confidence draw near the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.  We double our hurt when we try to bear our trials without running to God with them in prayer. 

 

IV. The Intimacy of the Covenant

 

The reality of persecution, the purpose of trials, the promise of prayer and then finally the intimacy of the covenant.  As the passage progresses it’s almost as though we were climbing up the steep slope up out of the gloom of a deep valley.  It starts, doesn’t it, in the darkness of the shadow of the cross and the sufferings of our Savior and the scattering of the church.  But then we learn that those afflictions are not nearly so bleak as they at first appear.  They are God’s refinery by which He teaches us to persevere and cling to Him.  And then He gives us this wonderful promise.  We climb a little higher out of the gloom.  A wonderful promise, “Call on Me, call on Me; I will answer you!”  And then at last we find ourselves on the summit, out of the shadows completely in the pristine light of Gospel truth.  The last part of verse 9, “I will say, ‘They are My people’ and they will say, ‘He is my God.’” Those are words that really ring across the Scriptures.  They stand right at the heart of the covenant of grace.  They appear for the first time in Exodus 6 and verse 7.  They are repeated again in Leviticus 26:12 in the context of the covenant with Moses and Israel.  They are echoed in the words of Ruth.  Remember when Ruth is converted and says to Naomi, “Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.”  in Jeremiah, on the brink of Israel’s judgment, they’re about to be taken into exile.  Three times the promise of God’s commitment to being the God of His people is repeated – Jeremiah 7:23, 11:4, and 30 verse 22.  And then in Ezekiel 36 and verse 28 and the promise of the new covenant, the covenant within which we live and enjoy the blessings of God’s grace, these same words occur again, “I will be your God; you will be My people.”  They describe the very heart of the relationship between God and sinners by His grace.  They are, if you like, the marriage vows of the covenant of grace.  God takes us, He takes us to be His own, to have and to hold from this day forth and forever and we take Him to be our God.  Like a marriage, these words speak to us of intimacy and union and communion.

 

And here I think really is the greatest lesson of them all for us regarding the Christian life in this passage.  Here’s the most important adjustment to our expectations this text teaches us to make – the principle blessing of belonging to Christ’s little flock, of being a sheep for whom the Good Shepherd lays down His life, has nothing to do with gifts of helps or answers to prayer that we will enjoy along the way wonderfully.  The chief benefit of following Jesus is that you get more than gifts; you get the Giver Himself.  You get more than Christ’s benefits; you get Christ the benefactor Himself.  God gives Himself to you in the Gospel.  You come to belong to Him and He comes to belong to you.  He is yours and you are His forever. 

 

God Himself: The Great Gift of the Gospel

I saw a wonderful picture the other day of a group of conservationists out on the ocean looking for whales. And they were all lined up along the side of their boat with their backs to the camera peering intently out into the waters looking for a whale.  And behind them but in front of the camera is this enormous whale leaping completely out of the water, his whole body out of the water, and they missed it!  Whale watchers!  They’re looking in the wrong place; they’re looking in the wrong direction.  Perhaps part of the reason the luster has gone off your Christian life, especially in the context of our sufferings and trials, is that you are looking for benefits and blessings and secondary fruit to beautify your life and ease your trials, but you’re looking in the wrong place.  Just out of view is the real Gift given to you – the glories of the God who gives Himself in Jesus Christ.  You’re looking in the wrong place.  The great gift of the Gospel is God Himself; that’s what you get.  Not blessings merely, you do wonderfully, but much more.  You get the God from whom all blessings flow to whom all praise belongs.

 

And that brings us full circle back to the opening lines of verse 7, doesn’t it?  If ever you needed proof of the greatest gift of the covenant of grace, for that gift is God Himself, giving Himself, you need look no further than the cross as the Father awakens the sword against the Shepherd, the Man who stands next to Him, His peer.  Here is God in love giving His Son.  Here is the Son loving us and giving Himself for you.  The great demonstration of the commitment of God to His marriage vow to take you as His own and to give Himself to be your God, the great demonstration of the utter dependability of that promise is the nail marks in the flesh of Jesus Christ now glorified at the Father’s right hand. 

 

Are you perhaps missing the wonder of all of that because you’re busy looking at the wrong direction or the wrong things?  You’re looking for blessings and you’ve missed the gift of the benefactor Himself.  Are your expectations all wrong?  Yes, there will be suffering and opposition and trials; it will be sore sometimes.  Many of you know better than I the reality of your sore afflictions.  But ours is a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God – “Call on Me.  I will answer you.” How will He, who gave Jesus for us, not also along with Him freely give us all things?  He has given Himself to you.  How will He not also along with Christ give you all things?  What won’t you ask?  What prayer won’t you venture to ask from such a God who gives all to you and for you?  What boldness should mark our praying!  What confidence!  What freedom!  How expansive should be our prayers; how full should be our articulation of every want, every longing, every pain and every trial.  He longs to hear you cry and He will answer for He has given His most precious thing to you and for you.  He has given you His Son. 

 

So as we turn together now to the Lord in prayer let us do so repenting of having looked so often in the wrong direction and pray the Lord to help us turn our gaze again back to the great gift of them all, the gift of Jesus Christ.  Let us pray.

 

Our Father, how we bless You for Christ who is the pearl of great price.  Forgive us, please, for looking for lesser joys and lesser treasures.  Instead, would You fill our whole horizons again with the loveliness and sufficiency of Jesus and then remind us as You show us Your commitment to being our God and taking us as Your people, remind us that there is nothing since You have given all this that is too big, too bold, too difficult to ask of You as we plumb the depths of trials and suffering and go through the refiner’s fire.  Draw near to us and hear us as we cry, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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