Zechariah 3:1-5 Then he showed me Joshua the
high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at
his right hand to accuse him. 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?” Now Joshua was
standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 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.” 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.
This last Sunday, our
church’s Youth Pastor Kevin Kress preached his first Sunday Sermon. He
explained to us that the Bible is a story about God rescuing us. Rescued from
what? Romans 3:23 tells us: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We all have filthy garments and dirty laundry and are
sorting through sin together. Sin is a problem we cannot fix because there is
no temporary fix for a permanent problem. Why is it that we turn to false gods
and idols in search for fulfillment apart from God? Everyone knows that they
are not perfect, nobody is perfect. We tend to think that God could never
forgive us for all of the sinful things that we’ve done that will keep us from
the forgiveness of God, but this is a lie of Satan stating “How could God forgive
a sinner like you?”
The name Joshua translates as savior, rescuer or deliverer. Like
Joshua, God will make a way for us to return. In the grand scheme of deliverer,
rescuer and savior, God does not look at our sin and say: “That is disgusting”,
but instead says: “Let me help you with that problem” to change from totally
dirty to clean. “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.” God takes away the
sin and guilt of His people to return from exile and restore us unto Himself.
God asks us for obedience.
Zechariah 3:6-9 And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua, “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. 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. 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.”
Hundreds of years before the
coming of God’s Messiah, Zechariah “called the shot” that Jesus Christ, the
Branch and single stone would remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. God always calls
His shots and puts our filthiness on the Cross. Sending a Savior who is ready
and willing to take us back. We do not identify ourselves with our sin. What we
do is not who we are. Sin is not us. All
our sins are placed upon Jesus and died with Him. What remains? Forgiveness. Forgiveness means
that we change entirely; putting on the new self.
Ephesians
4:22-24 “ You were taught, with regard to your former way of
life, to put off your old self, which is
being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made
new in the attitude of your minds; and to put
on the new self, created to
be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Where do you stand with the
Lord? Are you handing over your dirty laundry daily to the Lord or getting used
to them being on, like they are comfortable? Know that your sin puts a block
and distance between you and God. Take off your filthy garments called sin and
throw them away, not leaving them on the side to go back to. Putting on Jesus
Christ as Savior and Lord is better than anything that this world can offer.
And do what it takes to stay walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:24-25). Join
and build communities of accountability, enter small groups at your church,
open your Bible in daily devotion time and prayer. When it comes to our dirty
laundry of sin, take them off, let them go, return to God and allow the Lord to
take them away.
Colossians 3:9-11 “ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
In Christ, Brian