Sermons 2024

Video

Text: Zechariah 9:9-12

Outline
1.    Your King comes to save you
2.    A King of Peace because of blood

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament Lesson of Zechariah chapter nine verses nine through twelve.

Boys and Girls, I pray that you are doing well today. What do I have here? I have a pencil. Do you think this pencil is working well? Nope, not at all. Why? Because the tip is broken off. It will not longer work. In a similar way, God describes the enemies of the people of Israel in our text. They are broken. They can no longer hurt His people. Because God has come to save Israel with His salvation. How does God save Israel? How does He save us today? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    Your King comes to save you

Zechariah opens our text with a very familiar refrain which Saint Paul uses in Philippians. He calls on the people of Israel to rejoice. They are told to shout aloud, to rejoice so much that they shout themselves hoarse. They are so excited that their king is coming to them.  Shouting is impressive, and in our day and age we do much of it. Shouting thrives at sporting events. Imagine any kind of athletic game played without shouting. Would the effort even be any fun at all if there was no shouting? People often shout themselves hoarse. From their living rooms they even shout at a glass television screen that mirrors an event taking place hundreds of miles away!

If we are that excited over a sporting event, how much more should we shout at our King coming to us? Jesus comes as our king. He comes as our Savior to give us the ultimate peace because of His eternal authority. He dispenses the sweetness and the mercy of God. He is just, because He justifies. He is Savior, because He saves. These are qualities which no king could ever bring to his throne. They are qualities far greater than those which befit a man. Moreover, all of these properties are spiritual and depict a spiritual kingdom, which the coming and accession of this just King reveal.  He comes to give peace. He comes to “cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”   There shall be no more war. Nothing but peace around the world.

Many times, we desire this kind of earthly peace. It is something that many people around the world desire and seek after. How can we get it? Many think that we can get it if we just work hard enough. Take for example the song Love Train by The O’Jays. It was so popular that it made people desire love shown in peace by holding hands around the world. Even if two groups are diametrically opposed to each other, people think that they can have peace with enough work, with enough talks. If we just sit down and talk things out, surely, we can find something that we can agree on. If Hamas and Israel can just talk things out, we will have peace. If the Democrats and Republicans can just talk, we will be a happier and more prosperous nation. If Russia and Ukraine just talk, then they will have peace instead of constant warfare. Well, how is all that working out? We can desire peace and strive for it as much as we want, but because of our fallen natures and fallen world. It is not something that we can bring about by ourselves.

A King of Peace because of blood

So how do we get true lasting peace? We get true peace because Jesus gives us His peace signed in blood. It is a peace given, not because of anything we have done, but given because of the new covenant that God makes with us. “As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double. 13For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow.    I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword.   

This is a covenant that God makes with His people. One that is signed with His blood, blood greater than bulls and goats, the blood of Jesus shed upon the cross of Calvary. Jesus’ holy, innocent, and precious blood covers every single one of our sins. He takes the punishment of our sins, reconciles us to God, and gives us His peace now and forever.

We have peace forever with God because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have it now, even though it has yet to be fully realized. As we live in this fallen world, with our sinful natures, we rightly strive for peace with everyone. As Saint Paul writes, So long as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. We do this, realizing that it will not always happen upon this earth. Thus we look forward to the day when true peace will be fully realized. The day when Jesus will come again in power and glory and give everlasting peace. We long for the day when world-wide peace will be a reality.

Until that day comes, strive for peace, knowing that in and through Jesus Christ, His death, and resurrection from the dead you have peace with God now and forever.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.