Category: Zechariah

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Hear these words on Jesus’ lips as He came to the Last Supper. Mark 14:27 In chapter 14, deliverance is in the split ROCK! From Him flows the living water. Zechariah finishes with the Feast of Tabernacles – the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. The harvest will be completed.

SJA Notes

* Creator God, please show us what Your word means for us today.

“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;”

This is a message that we see enacted with Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who seeks and saves the lost.

Jesus knows this passage speaks of Him, when He tells those disciples with Him in the garden before He was betrayed,

“You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'”

We see in the striking the outworking of God’s great love for His people, that He would pour His wrath out on His beloved Son, fully man and fully God – So that we would be saved.

It is the message of Zechariah we have seen layered over and over,

“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.'”

How good it is that we can say of the creator God, the one who holds up the universe with His power today, that He chose to enter into covenant with us as a people, and to offer us salvation individually – That we can be born again into a right relationship with Him.

Hallelujah, what a God we have!

* God Above,

What a hard message it is of Your love, that You would strike Your Son, the Good Shepherd.

But what a joy it is for us, that in that striking, by His wounds – We are healed!

Thank You Lord.

What else have we to do but to cry out to You, to fall before You, to bear Your Name – You are our God, we are Your people.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

God’s promised deliverance of Israel comes about through faith in the One they have pierced. This is true for Jew and Gentile. On the Day of the Lord Jesus, God opened up a fountain for cleansing. This age is His Day!

SJA Notes

* Dear God, thank You for giving to us Your word. Please show us what You want for us today.

“On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.”

Here we read of a great fountain that brings salvation!

Jesus brings further depth to our understanding in John chapter 4,

“… But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

He is the living water, alive and pure, which wells up in us to eternal life (John 4).

His blood cleanses us from sin and uncleanness (1 John 1).

This is the good news, that Jesus saves us FROM our sin TO eternal life – Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

*  Lord Above,

Thank You that in Christ Jesus we have a cleansing fountain, the living water.

Thank You for saving us from our sin into eternal life.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Verses 3, 4 explain Christ’s coming, His ministry, His passion. God would provide the Good Shepherd Himself. All leaders need to take the admonition about worthless shepherds seriously.

SJA Notes

* Almighty God, thank You for Your precepts, Your laws, Your rules, Your commands. Please teach us today.

“Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock!”

This passage highlights the importance God places on good and right church leadership. The weight He gives the actions of those who are installed to lead God’s people.

Under-shepherds working under the will of the Good Shepherd.

Our God is very clear – Shepherds who follow after unjust gain, who pursue their own causes, who take bribes and pervert justice, preying on the weak and elderly, the widow and the orphan – These God despises.

Let us be encouraged to pray for our church leaders, for those who bring to us God’s word each week in corporate-together worship in the presence of our King.

* Father God,

Please uphold the leaders of our church families as they acquit themselves before You.

May they go about their responsibilities in earnest devotion to You, keeping faithful to You and Your commands.

Please restrict the evil of any hidden ravening wolves in our midst.

Please mark us all, whether leaders or not, as people of Your word! That as You write it on our hearts we might be growing toward You, strengthened in Your truth.

Amen.