Mike Bickle emphasizes the profound message of Zechariah 1, highlighting God's heart for His people and the necessity of repentance as a precursor to experiencing His grace. He asserts that while the book begins with a call to repentance and warnings of judgment, it ultimately reveals God's overwhelming zeal and love for Jerusalem, showcasing that true hope is rooted in aligning with God's heart. Bickle stresses the importance of delivering both the positive and negative aspects of God's message, as they are essential for understanding His grace and mercy. He encourages believers to recognize that God's promises are invitations that require a response, and that His character encompasses both love and judgment. The sermon ultimately calls for a commitment to proclaim the full message of God, reflecting His desire for relationship with His people.

Father we thank you in the name of Jesus for your word Lord we ask you for living Understanding we ask you for inspiration the name of Jesus Amen We're gonna look at Zechariah chapter 1 Now what I'm really wanting to do in this chapter even more than the others is aim for the heart God's heart in this passage and not look at all the details. I'm gonna leave some of the details just for you to read on your own I Want to tell the story and aim for God's heart Rather than just give all the breaking down of the details that are in the notes Zechariah 1 I Consider it to be a model This one chapter of the forerunner message the forerunner ministry Today the nature of God and And the nature of grace are under great assault in the earth today in the church I'm talking about I'm talking about the nature of God himself. What his personality is like and The nature of grace is being assaulted in the church by the church and Zechariah chapter 1 actually addresses a number of these issues And I want to spend a little bit of time on that and not so much time on just breaking down every verse Because I've done that in the notes a bit There's a lot of distortion today and a lot of confusion About what people call the negative dimensions of the grace of God particularly the subject of repentance and the subject of the judgment of God now repentance and Judgment are actually both part of the grace message Because when grace is resisted Because of the extravagance of what is offered there are consequences Zechariah Addresses this issue now The book of Zechariah. This is a big statement. I think I've thought about this a bit. I Think it's the most positive book in the entire Bible Now that's a big statement But I've gone through line by line in terms of percentage. It's about 99% positive or close and about 1% Negative it is Positive to an extreme. I don't know any other book. That's 14 chapters 99% positive Old or New Testament. I don't know if any other book like Zechariah, I mean even Song of Solomon's got a couple low spots But the surprising thing about this most positive book. It's shocking When you understand how positive it is it starts off negative one of the most negative parts of the book of the first few verses When he calls the nation to repent and he warns them of judgment Then 99% of the rest of the book is pure glory of God and how awesome and glorious everything's going to be and how much Help God is going to be to his people Paragraph a The book of Zechariah Emphasizes the zeal of God I consider that to be the theme of the book God's personality possessing zeal He is zealous for Jerusalem He's zealous for his people He's zealous for the land The father is zealous for the supremacy of his son in the earth These are themes that we find throughout the book of Zechariah but in paragraph C in this most positive book He starts off in a very surprising way out of character with the rest of the book telling them to repent and Giving them warnings about judgment. These two truths are Despised by much of the body of Christ the truth of repentance in the truth of judgment is despised in Context to magnifying the grace of God but there was no prophet who magnified the grace of God more than Zechariah did and The very fact of his emphasis in the beginning of this book in with these two negative elements makes a tremendous statement about God's heart Now this is probably the strongest repentance message in the Bible right here in Zechariah chapter 1 But it's the foundation for the message of hope. That's the point the authentic message of love and hope Must be rooted in people agreeing with God's heart there is no such thing as entering into the blessings of God without agreement with his heart and Agreement with this heart requires repentance that's all about love a Doctor that calls cancer by any other name isn't showing love if he covers it up in any way He is not being loving to the patient Now why does this book start in such a negative tone being such a positive book and of course the point is We have to live in agreement with God's heart in order to enter into the benefits of the grace of God God's promises Many of them are invitations not guarantees They're guarantees if we respond, but they're only invitations until we respond When God says I will do this and I will do that that is a guarantee if we respond But until we respond it is still an invitation Now a lot of folks over the years they stress the negative without the positive and They end up in a pessimism that can lead to legalism I'm talking about over the years some different Messengers of the Lord have risen up and they speak negative negative without the positives You don't see much of that today, but over history there have been plenty of those They speak the negatives without the positives and they lead people to pessimism and eventually into legalism But the other extreme are the people that speak the positives, but none of the negatives And that group will lead people into presumption not pessimism, but presumption and Often if taken to an extreme, I mean it will lead to apostasy the denying of the faith What the Bible calls us to do is to preach the positive with the negatives Not one without the other but the biblical message together Now that's the mandate of the Bible and that's what God tells Zechariah a couple times right here in verse 3 and again in verse 14 he Commands him to tell this message and the reason he commands him. He says Zachariah. I want you to say this. He's a young man Most of the people he's saying this to our leaders that are older than him political leaders spiritual leaders And he has a natural timidity. He has a natural hesitation But God says I'm commanding you to give this message Zechariah give the whole message and as a as a Ministry of spiritual family we are committed to giving the whole message Not the negative without the positive and not the positive about the negative but the biblical Presentation we find it here in Zechariah 1 the positive but with the negatives that accent the positives Because without the negatives without coming into agreement without repenting without the reality of Understanding the consequences of not agreeing with God We will never enter into the full blessing without repenting and coming into the agreement with God's heart Paragraph D God's emotions are highlighted in Zechariah 1 Particularly his zeal and of course, that's the the main emotion of God in the book is fiery desire another Emotion of God in Zechariah 1 is his anger Another is his mercy and the next is his patience Now these four emotions are characteristics of God is maybe a better way to say it They are not in contradiction with each other at all God's anger is not in contradiction with God's mercy, but rather they are a perfect expression of the Unified heart of God. He never suspends one attribute to exercise another You've heard people wrongly say God in the Old Testament was a God of anger God in the New Testament. It's a God of love completely wrong God in the Old Testament was a God of love that has anger He has anger because he's love the God of the New Testament is the identical same God He has anger because he's a God of love Some say God in the Old Testament judges God in the New Testament shows grace God showed abundant grace in the Old Testament and God reveals abundant judgment in the New Testament There are no contradiction. I've heard people say well When you read the four Gospels You don't ever see Jesus judging anybody in the four Gospels So the conclusion which is a wrong conclusion But it's a common conclusion is that the Jesus of the New Testament doesn't judge Because we're in the four Gospels the Jesus judge anybody But the bigger testimony of Scripture is this John chapter 5 says it really clear verse 22 to 27. I don't have that in the notes But John 5 22 to 27 God wanted to give judgment To a man he wanted men to be judged by a man God says I don't want to do the judging. I want a man to judge men so he gave judgment to his son Jesus to execute judgment, but Before Jesus would execute the judgment first He would bear the judgment He would come under the judgment himself so that he gave a remedy and a solution to be free from judgment That's what he offered in his earthly ministry. Then when he ascended to the right hand of the Father Psalm 110 tells us that he's judging his enemies From his place of the ascension at the right hand of the Father Psalm 110 because Jesus Would not judge men till he bore the judgment and gave men Freedom a way to be free from judgment and so in his earthly ministry He did not judge because he was becoming the Lamb of God to bear the judgment But in his ascension Psalm 110, he is judging his enemies bringing them under his footstool together with the Father and So the ascended Christ is a judge But he's only a judge after he's been judged and after he became man Because God wanted the Son of Man to be the judge But the Son of Man during his earthly ministry had not offered himself up to be the solution To cause people to be free from judgment. And so the idea that Jesus did not judge In the four Gospels is because he doesn't judge the nations and tell his ascended place Psalm 110 the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament a New Testament doctrine at the right hand of the Father Ascended Jesus does works of judgment So that is a clear New Testament doctrine and Zechariah 1 he takes this up in a quite direct way Now the reason I'm not going to spend a lot more time on this But I want to I wanted to contextualize the positive which is 99% the book But I wanted to contextualize it in this Reality that Zechariah sold the value of calling to repentance and he preached on judgment he did not shy away from this matter of fact God commanded him to and And we want to take a stand on wherever the Word of God takes a stand I Look at paragraph D again before emotions His zeal his anger his mercy his patience. He says in Zechariah 1 14 proclaim this he's being commanded by God to teach on the zeal of God and At the zeal of God particularly for Jerusalem and the people of Jerusalem and the purpose of Jerusalem But the zeal of God is not Exhausted in his commitment to Jerusalem. God's heart is filled with zeal for his larger purposes and for all of his people Paragraph II He was commanded to proclaim this and So as those saying yes to the whole message, particularly the forerunner message preparing people for the return of the Lord We must be committed to pray proclaiming the whole message no matter how unpopular it is in some circles paragraph F Now the negative part of the Lord's view towards Israel and he had some negative views and his views Negative towards the nation's there are negative views they were difficult for all the prophets to say and Zechariah was no exception again Being a young man. He's talking to political and spiritual leaders that are probably twice his age with a whole lot more Authority in the city in the nation than he had But God says I command you to say these things to them He needed to be commanded because they he would naturally be tempted to men and minimize it. It's interesting I have the verse here that Jesus mentions in Matthew 23 verse 35 that the city Later on in Zechariah's life actually turned on him because of his messaging. I Mean here we have the most positive prophetic book but at the end of his life he Infuriated the leaders by a few of the things that he said and it infuriated him such a degree They murdered him in the very temple site that he prophesied the building of but the point I want to make is he would not draw back Regardless what it cost him Let's look at Roman number two Paragraph B. Let's look at the now it gives the the dating of this Message and I'm taking this occasion to lay out Just kind of a real quick overview the four messages of Haggai and The first two messages of Zechariah because they all take place in about a six-month period of time Zechariah gave five messages but his first two and Haggai's for the six of them happened in a six-month period Right when they were starting to build the house of prayer the first one Was a positive message you'll read these on your own The second one was a positive message The third one was a negative message The fourth one was a negative message The fifth one was a positive message the point that I'm wanting to make isn't to break these down right now Though that would be a worthy thing to do But that's for another time these six messages that were strategically given to Motivate the people to be steadfast in their obedience and to embrace hard work even in days of smallness These six messages we need to devour them But the point I'm making right now is How strategic the positive and the negative come together? Because the trend today The growing trend not everybody but the trends getting bigger to only say the positive and to only say the positive without the negative is to give a non-biblical message You don't have to say everything in every message But the whole testimony of Scripture has both dimensions of it. Okay, let's look at Roman numeral three Now we're going to start just to look at the verses themselves. I I gave that Introduction Because I want us to get the the sense of how important Zechariah again Zechariah one is a model chapter for the forerunner ministry and it has the extremes of the positive and the negative All brought together. So here in Roman numeral three, he's calling the two repentance and he's warning them of judgment from verse 1 to 6 Now that's again the most positive prophetic book probably the most positive book in the Bible percentage wise in terms of positive material Again, I haven't Scientifically studied that out, but I think it is First he calls them to repentance He says return to me Verse 1 the Lord the Word of the Lord came to Zechariah. The Lord has been very angry with your fathers Therefore say to them Return to me and I will return to you Now the God that was angry very angry with Israel. He can still become very angry with his people The God of love has the capacity to be very angry because his love is so deep and so intense And his anger is not a human anger but So that you get this in context He was angry with their fathers because their fathers were worshiping demons in the temple Ezekiel 8 you can read it. They were actually in the temple Where the Shekinah glory of God was worshiping demons So that's the context of which God was very angry So if you get stirred up because you think hey, this is great stuff You want to be a prophet you want to go tell somebody woes says the Lord to the body of Christ You're very angry Make sure if you're going to use the word very angry make sure that church is worshiping demons or don't use the word very angry And it's not the God of the Old Testament was very angry any of his people that worship demons in the New Testament He will be very angry at them. Then he tells them return to me which means repent Then he go then he gives them the motivation he goes return to me and I'll return to you that's the whole The whole scope of blessing every dimension of blessing the whole book Really is an elaboration of this phrase. I will return back to you Jerusalem. I mean the next 14 chapters are 99% I will return to you. This is what I will do if you will return to me, but they do have to return to God Repentance is Non-negotiable and a repentance isn't just something we do when we come into the kingdom We live in an attitude of repentance whenever we are in disagreement with God's heart and God's will Now that only makes sense to most people But there are people actually teaching that in the grace of God We don't repent anymore because we're in the grace of God with the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus It's very dangerous distorted false doctrine Paragraph 1 I have written here the obvious John the Baptist Jesus the Apostles. They all preach repentance Jesus preached repentance in the book of Revelation to five of the seven churches 60 years 70 years after Pentecost, whatever. We don't know the exact time the book relation Jesus appeared on the island of Patmos and he said go tell them to repent Now Jesus understood the New Covenant and he understood the grace of God and he told his people to repent paragraph B He says don't be like your fathers in other words Don't be like the the the man who caused the tragedy of the Babylonian captivity He says if you respond to me like they did you will have the same crisis they had because I the Lord I do not change He didn't change in the New Covenant. His personality is the same forever He can have no shifting or or or changing at all. Not even the remotest change could happen in God He said this verse 6 He said surely my words he's talking about his promise to judge Did they not overtake your fathers in other words I warned them for generations if they did not obey me they would go into captivity and he said Though I took my I was patient. I gave them generations and When God shows his patience some people assume God's not paying attention or God changed his mind The fact that he's patient even with America doesn't mean things are okay He will let generations go while things are building and he's giving every opportunity for repentance But he told them verse 6 He goes look at history. Look at a thousand years. Look at 2,000 years Do not my words Eventually overtake the people in other words when I threaten judgment or I promise blessing Both of them will come to pass and overtake the people according to their response It will happen Paragraph 1 God's words overtook Israel his word will always Judge rebellion always it will judge rebellion in the church. It'll judge rebellion outside the church. His word will not return to him void When he sent his word of blessing or his word of threatening Even if it takes a long time before it's manifest It will never return without accomplishing what that word was said to accomplish and what that does it gives us tremendous Confidence in God and it gives us the fear of God We have confidence but with the fear of God We don't have a carnal confidence Because God is like a you know a Santa Claus in the sky because it's the New Covenant His personality has not changed one degree. He is the same and he will always be the same number three Zechariah the young man again, here's this young man Probably again is mid-twenties talking to men much older much more powerful in the society than he was And he's threatening them of judgment if they don't change their spiritual life Verse number three. Here's the good news. There's positive the people returned The generation he's talking to this young prophet. They actually repented the point is this We need to be faithful to preach The grace message which has extreme positive, but it has the element of negative when grace is refused And if we are faithful to proclaim it people will respond and Fruit will be born if we will be faithful to proclaim the Word of God and right here We see this some of them did change. I mean the generation changed eventually within a few decades Two three four, we don't know maybe longer His peers killed him. They went back. I mean but for a while They really changed for maybe 10 20 30 years But eventually they were infuriated by his prophetic preaching. Let's look at Roman numeral five Okay, let's begin to look at the vision now the first vision now Zechariah Most of you know this have you studied a little bit in? one night Zechariah has eight visions in one night. I Mean, it's the most Remarkable night. I don't know who had eight visions in one night That are in the Word of God. I Mean Zechariah one two, three, four five six six chapters eight visions one night The next morning When he woke up or whatever he did He had some visitors that he was to go speak the message, I mean, could you imagine giving all six chapters? Some visitors from out of town came. We'll look at that in chapter 6 He ho he meets with them. I wonder if he told them all six Chapters worth of revelatory information. I mean Wow But anyway, this is the first vision of the night The night is young now. Why do we care about these eight visions? Well, they give us insight into what God's like again, this principle like kind but lesser degree Whatever God will do in Jerusalem positive or negative. He will do in all the nations of the earth to a lesser degree Because it's what's in his heart it's how he thinks and he can't ever change So when we study even the one city we give up we get an insight to the bigger Spheres of what's happening in the kingdom and how God will respond to cities nations of people We see in these visions how he responds to Joshua the high priest Zerubbabel the governor we know how he responds to his leaders so it becomes very personal in our own individual lives as Well as it gives us insight into what's actually happening in God's city Jerusalem as well These eight visions they tell us where he's going where he's leading history They tell us what he's going to do to bring his people to victory. He shows extreme mercy He has brilliant ideas. He breaks in and judgment. He gives assurance of victory As we study these eight these eight visions in these six chapters We see God's wisdom. We see his zeal. We see his tenderness. We see his plans for the nations of the earth as Well as what he's doing in the city of Jerusalem Okay, let's look Roman number five the first vision. Now. This is a glorious vision Zechariah he sees a man riding a red horse And this man is riding a red horse in a grove of myrtle trees and he's in a valley and There's a team of horses following this man on a red horse. That's how that's kind of the snapshot Now this man is none other than the Lord himself most conservative commentaries agree that this is The pre-incarnate Christ the angel of the Lord ahead of time Before he took up his humanity before he was incarnate in the womb of Mary He would appear as a man or as the angel of the Lord throughout the Old Testament verse 8 I saw by night Behold a man and if you read the vision carefully, we're not going to break it down that careful tonight But if you read the vision carefully and I and I and I and I give you a Some direction if you're new with this in the notes But this man is mentioned twice and the angel the Lord is mentioned twice And if you read him carefully, you will find that they are the same person the man and the angel of the Lord Which is none other than the pre-incarnate Christ Jesus before he took upon the form of a man verse 8 I saw by night behold a man Riding a red war horse is what he's riding when you get the whole picture It's a military context. It's a war horse. He's the captain of the armies of the Lord. He has a host of Horses behind him. He's leading that Heavenly army and this is just a snapshot of some of the leadership of that army. I love this phrase behold a man this man Starts the first vision of the eight and interesting at the end of the eight visions Zechariah 6 it ends with behold a man the branch of the Lord the Messiah So the eight visions begins with behold a man and it ends with behold a man The hope of Jerusalem is a man a man that's on a war horse That is fully engaged with the conflict going around Jerusalem The hope of the nation's is a man But the nation's can rejoice in that man but the the nation's also need to be careful because the man's on a red horse and he's in a posture ready to intervene When the Gentile nations oppress the city of Jerusalem He's postured ready to go Now he doesn't manifest His judgments in History until his perfect timing, but he's always postured his personality is fully suited For love and for intervention to stop everything that hinders love verse 8 This man's writing a red War horse and again, I'm filling in the gaps. You can read the details later and This horse stood among the myrtle trees The myrtle trees is symbolic of Israel and he's in a valley Most translations would say among the myrtle trees in a valley so this man postured for war Fully engaged with Israel He's postured as being among Israel it's like in Revelation 1 Jesus is among the candlesticks. He's among the church, even though much of the church is not aware consciously He's deeply involved with what they're doing Israel's not so aware that he is among them Israel's not so aware He is deeply engaged with the affairs of what's happening The nations are not very aware that Jesus is among that nation Right now as the nations are mounting up. They have no idea. There is a man Who's fully God and fully man? Who has the power of that red war horse at his disposal and he's amidst the people of Israel ready to take action now because of his patience Because he fulfills his plan in the That theater of human history where he lets time unfold First perfect counsels of his will to come to pass the nation's begin to assume he's not involved They mistake his patience for disinterest That's a fatal mistake We're saying behind him There were other horses They're all under his authority and we find out in a few moments in verse 11, they are God's patrol They go to and fro across the earth But not just checking things out far more than just observing They have the authority to enforce God's plan among the nations. They are Invested with authority and they they're under the authority of the man on the red horse Israel's in a lot better condition Then they understand they could see what Zechariah saw their hearts would be filled with joy That man is among them now in the spirit Verse 9 So Zechariah says to the interpreting angel and by the way this interpreting angel says kind of Helper in all eight visions He's with him all the time the interpreting angel answers his questions and so Zechariah says what are these and That's a great question Because the Holy Spirit is willing to tell us about those horses Meaning the heavenly strategy to break in to stop the oppressive Gentile nations if we wanted insight He will give us more insight We simply ask the same question that Zechariah asks, what are these? I've throughout this study. I've paused and said Lord give me living understanding Into the arsenal of heaven that's about to be engaged in the conflict in the nations. I want to see what you see. I Want to understand and the Lord would say ask me and I'll tell you more Do what Zechariah did ask me Don't wait for an open vision to ask he had the open vision ask about his just like he did the question is just as valid So I borrow this question What are these I don't need the same vision. I've got his written down I've got the indwelling spirit. I've got a better position. He had the open vision. I have the indwelling spirit With his open vision Recorded in the Bible the indwelling spirit. I can ask the same question. I could get more understanding than he had and We have the whole testimony of Scripture. Whereas Zechariah only had part of the scripture in his day. I Charge you Take this question, what are these throughout these eight vision and ask them repeatedly I Want to be a messenger of the Lord's heart and purposes I want to ask for insight on the things That God's prophets were asking insight on So the angel who talked with me this interpreting angels what most commentators refer to him as he goes I'll show you I Will show you what these horses are but while the angel was about to explain these In forcing angels, he's warring angels on horses what they were about verse 10 the man on The red horse among the myrtle trees. He speaks up So the angel said, you know what you better answer that you are the captain of the armies of the Lord You are him. So the angel backs off verse 10 the man answers the question and he said these horses and the angels riding the horses They are the ones whom the father has sent To patrol the earth to walk to and fro across the earth verse 11 they answered these angelic riders on the horses They answered the angel the Lord. Well, it was the man that was talking to him in verse 10 now It's the angel the Lord their dialoguing and most conservative commentators Agree that the man and the angel the Lord are the same That sounds right to me It's the angel the Lord who stood among the myrtle trees verse 11 Well in verse 8, it was a man among the myrtle trees here. It's an angel, which is it? It's both It's the pre-incarnate Christ so the angelic patrol These angelic enforcers of God's will in the nation again. It's more than observation They have authority to execute God's will These are Angels that are near to Jesus and his government over the earth. These are not lower-ranking angels And they said well We've gone throughout the earth and they give an interesting statement The earth is quiet and resting Now what I believe that means because history Bears the record there were small Conflicts even at that time. This is 520 BC So the angels these angelic riders on these horses They were not saying there are no conflicts anywhere What I think they're saying I believe strongly Is that God's? Plan for history that was set forth in Daniel chapter 2 and Daniel chapter 7 the called the times of the Gentiles That plan is unfolding According to God's will and there are no nations that are disrupting that plan Persia is the leading nation and nobody is about to overthrow them. I think that's what they're really saying The angels are not because that matters in a moment. You'll see The angels are not saying there are no military conflicts anywhere in the world. That's not the testimony. They're saying there is no Overwhelming Force that's rising up to challenge Persian 520 BC everything is according to the plan the times of the Gentiles are unfolding as Told the Prophet Daniel back in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 about 30 years ago. God showed Daniel the plan of the nations These angels came along and said it's all according to plan Nobody's going to unseat Persia right now. Things are peaceful in terms of that magnitude paragraph B again, the man if you read it carefully, I Let's go to Paragraph G the answer Again The angels went on patrol across the earth. They said no Nation is rising up to disrupt God's bigger plans Cyrus the king of Persia has just defeated Babylon Nobody can challenge Persia at this point in time to uproot them that's coming down the road Things are going as planned Roman numeral six Let's go forward a little bit. I was just looking at the notes. I've covered all these other points the color of the horses the color of the horses Probably speak of their mission the varied Expressions of God's authority in the nation's particularly in the realm of judgment now these Angelic Beings on the horses are patrolling the earth. So that suggests a military Context there's no doubt in my mind. That's what it is down to paragraph D in Zechariah The color of the horses are not made clear Zechariah 1 and Zechariah 6 we see those sets of horses. We see them twice Zechariah 1 They're maintaining God's order things are going to plan Zechariah 6 they're intervening and they're judging the nation's So we see the horses twice chapter 1 and chapter 6, but we never gain insight Into what the meaning of their color is There's no indication at all but 500 years later approximately a little bit longer but 500 plus a few years John the Apostle sees the horses But when John sees the horses the Holy Spirit makes it clear to him What the colors mean in terms of the mission of the horses? so if we use Scripture To interpret Scripture we can take the meaning of the colors in chapter 6 a book of Revelation and we can apply them to Zechariah 1 and Zechariah 6 and I have a little bit of information there We're going to skip that for now, but that's just to kind of get you started in that direction. I want to understand these horses and I don't mean the Angelic nuances, that's not what I mean, but this horse different that horse. I want to know With greater clarity what God wants to say about his judgment of the nation's in the movement of the nation's related to his grand glorious plan of Exercising dominion over the whole earth from Jerusalem. I want to understand it more So I'm asking the Lord I want to know these things He says well ask me study the scripture and ask me and in context of searching it out I'll give you more information over time and that's his answer to everyone now some people They don't want to search the scripture they just want an audible voice directive But the testimony of Scripture says that in the searching we go to the furthest degree of our searching while asking all the time But in that context of searching while asking that's when living understanding comes so I Look at Zechariah 1 these horses Zechariah 6 Revelation 6 I go Lord. I want insight. I'm gonna ask what Zechariah asked and I I'm bad. You know, we're saying good. Those are good questions to ask. I have much to say about these My breaking in of history to stop the hostile Gentile nations. That's all in my plan I have much to say about it paragraph II We know the Red Horse Speaks of bloodshed in war So the man or the angel of the Lord the man among the myrtle trees The Lord himself, I believe he's on the Red Horse He's postured To break in he has the authority He has the insight He has the commitment to break into human history with war and with judgment to accomplish his purposes if I was talking to leaders in Israel And they said hey, what's up? I really wouldn't say this but just for the sake of the illustration I would say the man is on the Red Horse. You're not alone. You're in good position Call out to him because he's engaged. He has authorities paying attention. He's postured to intervene. I'd say something like that Probably I'd say hi. How are you doing? So I probably say but oh, I love this Behold the man on the Red Horse Israel, you're not alone Your hope is in this man He is ready. He has authority. He's postured. He's engaged and he has a whole arsenal. He has a whole Group of horses behind him ready for action in the spirit Waiting on the perfect timing of the Lord from a number seven. Now, this is interesting Verse 12 the angel of the Lord, which is the man among the myrtles trees on the Red Horse When he hears the report that the nations are at peace Meaning that nobody is disrupting The overall plan of the times of the Gentiles unfolding now. Nobody knows how long that's going to be Daniel saw the four nations Zechariah They know that something's going on. Nobody knows. I mean that was 2,500 years ago. Nobody knows at that time It's going to go on for a couple thousand years The Lord does look at the Lord's response The age of the Lord which is The Lord Jesus again in his Old Testament form He cries out to the father He's his father How long Will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which you were angry these 70 years? Then the Lord that would be the father in the New Testament language Talk to my interpreting angel. The father says go give the prophet these good and Comforting words. Here's my point Jesus Sees the times of the Gentiles He sees the season that they're in But he continues to intercede for pockets of mercy for Jerusalem He says I know Persia is in her place and everything is undisturbed But even now I'm not going to wait until Persia is defeated by Alexander the Great and then Alexander the Great Defeated by the Romans and then the Romans eventually replaced by the Antichrist Empire Jesus says father Even now I ask you for mercy to break in upon Jerusalem even now This is a season of favor because some people here's the bigger principle Some people will see what season we're in and they'll say well, it's a difficult season and This isn't the time for Israel to have full favor and full full mercy But Jesus said even while it's under the times of the Gentiles I'm interceding for pockets of mercy that the Lord would break in even now with surprising blessings for Israel even now What's interesting I don't have this on the notes but in Ezra chapter 5 verse 3 at The very time when Jesus is interceding this it says that Ezra 5 verse 3 at that very time And when you compare it all it's literally this time right here When this vision is happening when Jesus interceded God shifted the political situation and Took the oppression of the Persians off the situation in Jerusalem and gave them a financial Increase in blessing even while they were still under the times of the Gentiles now what I mean by that Now and I realize that some of you you're new with this and you're not even following what I'm talking about with this But I'm not just talking the basics but a few that are beyond the basics Then no matter what season we're in Jesus is interceding for breakthroughs of mercy even in a season where the full mercy is not yet coming No matter what season we're in We can imitate Jesus and believe God for Israel a great breakthrough or even for our own lives because that's the way he approaches things You can read the notes on that a little bit more We find out That Israel's under the times of the Gentiles, but the Maccabean Revolt breaks through and Israel gets a little bit of help Israel has these pockets of breakthrough through history Because the angel of the Lord the Lord himself is interceding and his people are interceding but if it's true for Israel It's true for the way that he runs his entire kingdom Even Before the season of full breakthrough breakthrough can still be given. That's what I hear from this passage right here Ezra chapter 5 and 6 a Tremendous breakthrough happened right then when the Lord was praying again. You can read that on your own Paragraph D. We'll just we'll just do this briefly The Lord gives comforting words. This is the father now speaks to the interpreting angel. He says the angel the Lord just interceded I Realize it's not the time for the full breakthrough But the father decrees to the interning angel go tell Zechariah. I do have a breakthrough coming right now It won't be the full breakthrough, but I'll give you the promise of the full But there will still be a partial breakthrough now because you've cried out the angel of the Lord did Roman numeral 8 now verse 13 to 17 I would take these four verses and Identify it as the core message in terms of the four verses of the entire book of Zechariah the rest of Zechariah Actually elaborates and breaks down these three or four verses in detail so verse 13 The Lord says I have good and comforting words this the Lord here is the father So then the angel tells Zechariah Go proclaim these words and Here's where the message begins Don't just tell them good things are coming. Tell them I am zealous the message begins With the revelation I am zealous for you. Oh Jerusalem. I Burn with desire beloved the message has to be rooted in that revelation of God You can break down the message a bit Tell them Let's look at paragraph C the core message. I Have Burning desire zeal for my people and for the city and for my purpose number one He has zeal for the city Number two He has zeal to live in the city. I mean, can you imagine what he's telling Zechariah? He says I don't just like the city I'm gonna live there forever Go tell them I'm going to live there forever Beloved when we understand what that city means to Jesus it takes on a whole new significance to us number three Zechariah go tell him I'm zealous to build my temple I'm gonna build a worship center a global worship center when I return it will be the Epicenter of the whole Garden of Eden blessing filling the whole earth over the thousand-year reign of Christ He's gonna build that temple put his throne in it and from that place He will branch out and cover the earth with the glory of God from that one place Zechariah go tell them I'm gonna build that temple. Let me see. Let's go Quite a bit. Let's go to Roman number nine Just take just two three minutes here on the second vision So we're done with the first vision you can study the details The message is he's zealous He's interceding He's got a breakthrough There's partial breakthrough now while we're waiting for the full breakthrough at the coming of the Lord But we don't wait for the coming of the Lord before we believe him for more breakthrough. That's the message That's part of the message. I mean, there's many levels of message here. We're just touch skimming the surface The second vision is a very short one. We can do it very quickly Zechariah says okay again the night still young Second vision he's got he has six more to go Verse 18. I raised my eyes He might have thought the one vision was it he looks up as well. Here's another vision there's four horns and these four horns spoke of four aggressive nations that would persecute Israel And I asked the angel the same question, what are these again we want to ask that question all the time Tell me the nature give me insight under these and he said these are four empires in essence that Scattered Israel, that's who they are paragraph B these horns picture authority like I like an animal would attack and and Maybe they would Gouge somebody with their horns and and injure them. That's the idea There's these beasts coming with horns attacking Israel Speaking of four nations. I have it laid out there. These are probably the four according to most Hebrew commentaries these are the four Nations Comprising the times of the Gentiles you can read that on your own if that's a new idea to you Those of you that have studied prophecy a little bit you understand that's a that that's a just kind of a basic concept But if you're new with this study this page a little bit get familiar with those four nations paragraph H as He's continuing in the vision. He sees these four horn empires these hostile empires That are attacking and scattering Israel gouging them with their horns Hurting them, but verse 20 God has an answer He showed me four craftsmen Some translations say carpenters what one does a craftsman they're builders and they have hammers Now a hammer can shatter a brittle horn really easy So God says he's hostile horn nations I've already planned mice My strategy to stop them and I will use the craftsmen and their hammer They will shatter these nations and completely annihilate them It's already planned Zechariah Because Persia isn't the last nation that's going to attack you there's going to be more It's gonna be four primary ones But don't worry I have an answer for every one of them and As surely as a hammer can shatter the brittle horn Surely my plan will stop every opposing nation that comes against Israel what he says here in verse 20 The end of 20 21 these craftsmen are going to terrify these other hostile whore nations They will terrify them they will overpower them they will destroy them they will cast them down is the idea Will end with paragraph BM God promised in Jeremiah 30 verse 11 That Israel is indestructible Israel can be attacked and Gouged by the horns of hostile nations But those nations will come to an end and Israel will survive every single time. That's the miracle of history Nazi Germany might rise up as a brick beast in it with a without with a horn, but that nation will be shattered that Nazi Empire is what I'm talking about and The Nazi regime was completely obliterated Because God had already ordained it would happen and he promises in Jeremiah 30 verse 11 Though I make a full end of all the nations Where I've scattered you the nations that oppressed you even the nations I used to discipline you I will bring a full end to them, but I will never make a complete interview I will discipline you but you will recover every time because I have purposes with you forever Amen