Little taste of heaven, amen? Thank you musicians for leading us so well and with such excellence and humility. And thank you congregation for singing the way you do.

We come now to the pinnacle of a worship service where we have the opportunity to look into the word of God. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Zechariah chapter six, we find ourselves now in verses nine through 15, as we continue to look into what the Spirit of God has for us in this amazing book that is many times called "The revelation of the Old Testament." And I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, "The Future Coronation of the King-Priest."

And may I just say that all week long, you've been in the world, and virtually everything in the world is designed to distract you from worshiping and serving the Lord. Everything points you in the wrong direction. Today, we're going to do everything we can to go back in the right direction; and that is certainly my goal this morning - to point you to the glory of God and the future consummation of all things when our Lord and Savior, the King-Priest, Jesus Christ, returns. So let me read the passage to you, Zechariah six, beginning in verse nine,

"The word of the Lord also came to me, saying,

'Take an offering from the exiles, from Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah; and you go the same day and enter the house of Josiah, the Son of Zephaniah, where they have arrived from Babylon.

Take silver and gold, make an ornate crown and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

Then say to him, "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the Lord.

Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the LORD, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.'"

Now the crown will become a reminder in the temple of the LORD to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen the son of Zephaniah.

Those who are far off will come and build the temple of the LORD.' Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And it will take place if you completely obey the LORD your God."

This is a fascinating historical event that God has disclosed to us, and he has done so for the purpose of pointing us to what is going to happen in the future. Through all of this symbolism, we are going to see the future coronation of the king. Indeed, this is a dramatic portrayal of the manifestation of Christ in his kingdom glory; His majestic coronation and the inauguration of the millennial kingdom; a powerful motivation for those exiles.

And you must remember that God remembers his covenant promises - the covenant promises that he gave to Abraham, that he gave to David - the New Covenant. All promise to the nation of Israel, and all find their fulfillment in the millennial age. And this is why I might add, from the outset, that I am devoted to these determinative covenants set forth in Scripture, and not the covenants of Reformed theology that have been constructed by men. The biblical covenants - the covenant of that God gave to Abraham, that he gave to David in the New Covenant, even the Palestinian covenant - all of those things are the key to understanding bible prophecy; and all of them point to a restored future Israel under the messianic King-Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of that is typified in the crowning of Joshua, the high priest in this passage, as you will see.

And I might also add that that I do not believe the church is Israel, but Israel intersects with the church in this particular age in which we live. In that current believing Jewish people - the remnant of Israel today - referred to as quote, "the Israel of God" in Galatians 61:6 is part of the church, along with all believing Gentiles. But ethnic, national, territorial Israel, as a corporate entity, is currently living in unbelief and awaits national salvation, as we read in many passages, especially Romans, 11:26.

And bear in mind the purpose of Israel's covenants was to eventually bless Gentiles as well as Jews, and I'm thankful for that as a Gentile, aren't you? Most of you in here, we don't have too many Jews here from that background, but most of us are Gentiles; and therefore, there's is a partial fulfillment, shall we say, of the covenant promises that God gave to Israel in the church age. In fact, Michael Vlach says, quote, "This involves spiritual blessings such as messianic salvation, the permanent indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit, and Jew/Gentile equality and salvation, but the fulfillment of restoration promises to Israel and nations, along with physical blessings and land promises for Israel, awaits the second coming of Jesus and his earthly kingdom." End quote.

Now what we have here in this amazing passage of scripture is really the magnificent capstone of the eight visions that God gave to Zechariah prior to this particular text, this particular event, and of course, that ended, if you remember the eighth vision, you have the horse chariots, the angelic warriors, executing divine judgment upon the nations, overthrowing the Gentile nations, all of that being a part of the pre-kingdom judgments. And we saw that in chapter six, the first eight verses.

But now we come to this capstone. In other words, what follows that incredible prophetic sequence, and I want to have you look at this with me under three headings that I have given you, and I hope this will be helpful to you, just some concepts here to hang your ideas and your understanding on. We're going to see, first of all, the prophetic symbolism of an historical event; and then secondly, the Messianic implications of the prophetic symbolism; and then thirdly, the permanent memorial of the coming King-Priest. Sorry, those were a little bit wordy, but rather than giving you something short, kind of bumper sticker, I thought I'd just go ahead and lay it out there, and it'll help you understand this, I hope.

And I also want to add from the outset, I hope this will be encouraging to you. It certainly is to me. Every twice-born saint long for Christ's return. I hope you do. If you don't, there's something terribly wrong with your faith, and I have dealt a lot, even this week, with people struggling with serious issues, some of them life threatening issues, and what a joy it is to be able to remind them that Jesus is in control and he's coming again.

In fact, my mind went to a hymn. I don't think we've sung it in a long time, maybe ever, but it's "Come Quickly Lord" by Chris Anderson. Let me give you just the lyrics to get your mind going in the right direction. Here it says,

Creation groans beneath the curse—
Rebellion’s just reward.
We long to see the fall reversed
And Eden’s joys restored.

We joy to fix our gaze on Christ,
Though now our view is dim.
We long for heaven’s grandest prize:
To see and be like Him!

And the chorus goes:

Come quickly, Lord! Make all things new!
Redeem the church, Your bride.
With longing eyes we look for You,
For home is at Your side!

Whenever I'm, especially overseas, it doesn't take long for me to get homesick, and I long to get home. Can't wait to drive down the road and see that house and to be with my family. But folks, even more so, because this place is not my home, I long for heaven. I long for Christ. Oh. What a soul-exhilarating joy; what peace, what comfort, what hope we have knowing that Jesus is King, he is coming again, and he's going to make all things new. I'm reminded of First John three, beginning in verse two, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure." And I trust that you are all living in light of Christ's return.

So let's look, first of all, number one, at the prophetic symbolism of this historical event. And by the way, this is common, when you study Bible prophecy, there's a common prophetic sequence. There is judgment, and judgment is followed by blessing. And that's what we've had. We've had eight visions that culminated in judgment prophesying, what's going to happen, yet future. And now we have the blessing, the coronation of the king. So notice verse nine, "The word of the LORD also came to me, saying, 'Take an offering.'" Literally, receive an offering, accept an offering, "'...from the exiles, from Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah; and you go...'"The grammar in the original is "you go and no other,"yYou go alone "...the same day and enter the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah, where they have arrived from Babylon.'"

Now, what's going on here? There's an actual caravan now that has come from Babylon back to Jerusalem; another caravan of God's people returning to their homeland. And it's interesting that it just happened to come on the same day that Zechariah visions had concluded. What a coincidence, right? Now we see God's providence at work here. Now bear in mind that if you travel from Babylon to Jerusalem, you're going to go about 900 miles, and you're going to do that riding horses and camels. And I know, as a horseman, having spent a lot of time on a horse, sometimes as much as 14 hours in a day, that you can travel about 26 miles a day on a horse; a camel, they say it's about 25 miles. They're a little bit slower. You weigh them down with lots of supplies for a journey like this, and it's going to take a long time. It's estimated that this, that this trip, would have taken about four months. And in order to do this, you not only have to have the steed that you're riding or the camel that you're riding, you have to have a huge pack train, and you have to have lots of people who are wranglers, who will help load and unload and set up camp every night; set up the tents, cook the food. I know what that's like. I know what that's like, many times I've been in the mountains with a packed string of 15 to 25 horses, and it's a lot of work. And so you can imagine what was going on here.

And so you add to that, by the way, that a lot of the people would have had to have walked because they can't ride all day long. I know that from having people that don't know much about horses. They come, they want to go for a ride, I've learned that after 45 minutes an hour max on a horse, there's not enough Advil in the world to take care of them. And so after about that, they're walking; so you learn not to take them too far. So you may have had women and children, maybe some elderly. You're going to have to stop along the way. You're going to have to bring your own livestock in order to kill them and eat, because this is a long journey.

So you have these weary exiles returning to Jerusalem from Babylon. They're exhausted, and obviously the delegation was perfectly timed on the precise day that the conclusion of Zechariah's visions had occurred, and obviously God had prepared him for this event, as we will see. By the way, as I think about this, it's fascinating to realize that God's providence is always at work long before events occur in our lives. Something happens in your life. And if you look back, you will think, "wow, look at all the things that God has been doing down through the years to bring me to this point, whether it's good or bad.  And that tells you that his providence is also way ahead of you, and that's what's going here. God's timing is always perfect. There's no such thing as a coincidence when it comes to God's purpose, and we all have a role to play in his grand design. Zechariah is beginning to see what his was, and as well as these priests that are coming and other people. You might want to ask yourself, what is the role that I'm playing in God's grand design? Am I serving him, and am I honoring in him, or am I just along for the ride?

So this is what's going on. And he says, now, "Take an offering," again, receive an offering; accept it from the exiles. So obviously, what's happening here is this caravan is bringing donations for the construction of the temple that they had been commanded to do. "Take it from Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah." By the way, these names, they have godly significance. These would have been men of honor. We're going to see that they were actually priests; highly esteemed, faithful servants of the Lord. And this is why the Babylonian brothers - theJewish people there - had chosen them to take this arduous journey to deliver these donations, much of which was also coming from the Gentiles. And these men were also, as I say, associated with the priesthood. We read about this and Ezra 2:36 and also verses 59 and 60.

And so these were men, and other people, that obeyed God's command in Zechariah two, verses six through seven, to "flee from Babylon." Get out of there, "...escape, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon" In other words, run from that pagan culture, remove yourself, separate yourself from that wickedness.

Now Heldai means "the Lord's world." Tobijah means "Yahweh is good," and Jedaiah means "Yahweh knows." These are all very important, especially to the Jewish people, because this would always send a message. And so combined, these names underscore the reality that all the world belongs to Yahweh. In other words, his dominion knows no bounds, and his goodness and his omniscience are equally without limit; and none of this would have escaped the notice of the covenant people. Just their names alone would provide profound encouragement to them.

So he says, "'...and you go,'" in other words, you and no other. And the reason for that is because you are the one that has been divinely prepared for all that is about to happen. So, "'...you go the same day and enter the house of Josiah.'" Josiah means "the Lord supports"..."'the son of Zephaniah,'" which means "the Lord conceals," or "hides," and he says, "'...where they have arrived from Babylon'" Now, little did they know the deeper implications - the prophetic implications - of their names, especially as they would relate to the stunning events that are about to transpire.

Now, don't lose the big picture. And here I'm going to quote Merrill Unger. I thought he stated it so well, quote, "With the whole grand panorama of Israel's future glory, as portrayed so vividly in the eight-night visions, still vibrant in Zechariah's consciousness, the Prophet was now to see an event enacted that would summarize the grand scope of all those visions - the Messiah crowned as King-Priest in the future kingdom. Moreover, the visitors from afar off Babylon were princely gifts for the temple, were a precursor of the vast numbers of Gentiles in the millennial age, who would bring their homage to the King and their wealth to build His temple in that glad future day which the Prophet envisioned." End quote.

As you think about it, we see a similar illustration with the Gentiles being brought into the church after the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will recall in John 12, beginning in verse 20 and through verse 24 there were Greeks, remember that came to Philip and said, "'Sir, we wish to see Jesus.'" So these priests gather with another priest, Josiah, at his house to make necessary preparations to serve the Lord, and little did they know that what they were about to witness - what they were about to hear from the Lord, through his prophet, Zechariah - would include making preparations for an unprecedented coronation ceremony.

Now next notice the instructions God gave them through his prophet, verse 11, "'Take silver and gold, make an ornate crown.'" Now let me stop here. Technically in the Hebrew, the crown is plural, "crowns," although it was only one crown, as we see later on in verse 14. The Septuagint and other translations, ancient translations, translated as one crown. But it was made up, you must understand, of different circles or different ringlets of the jeweled gold and silver. And they were put together in kind of one composite crown. By the way, when Jesus returns, he will have the same type of thing on his head, whether symbolically or literally. It says in Revelation 19:12, "On His head are many diadems."

So again, verse 11, "'Take silver and gold, make an ornate crown and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehoshaphat, the high priest. Now, folks, this is absolutely unimaginable. This would have been abhorrent to the Jewish people, because priests were never allowed to be king, and kings were never allowed to be priests. There was a strict separation between them, between those two offices. You remember when King Uzziah acted presumptuously as a priest and burned incense before the Lord and he was stricken with leprosy and died in Second Chronicles 26, and remember now kings represented God before the nation, and they had to come from the tribe of Judah. They had to be a descendant of David. But in this context, that would have been Zerubbabel, who was the governor, because there was no king in Israel, and he was just the governor. But they're not putting the crown...God's not putting the crown on his head. And that there's a reason for that. That would indicate that somehow, he was the heir to the Davidic dynasty, and the Davidic kingdom was about to be established. And that's very misleading, because that's not what was about to happen.

So kings represented God before the nation, priests represented the nation to God, and the priests had to come from the tribe of Levi. And certainly, Joshua, the high priest, came from the tribe of Levi, but that meant he couldn't be king. So obviously, what is happening here by giving a priest kingly dignity is being done, typically. It's a type. It's pointing to something, pointing to the Messiah King-Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, his ascension work at the cross, and ascension to, I should say, his atoning work at the cross, and his ascension to the right hand of the Father is the precursor of his future reign over Israel and the nations.

And remember how this was illustrated in the fourth vision? I'm sure you don't remember the fourth vision but let me remind you of that a little bit. There was the great symbolism of the two olive trees representing the two offices of those two men, and together they prefigured the Messiah, the Priest-King, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Ezekiel described the Messiah as the one who would wear the turban and the crown, Ezekiel 21 verses 26 and seven. The turban, by the way, was, was what the priest wore. The crown, obviously, is what the king wore. And later on, we know in verse 13 here in Zechariah six, it says, "Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the LORD, and He will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.'"

Now, an important reminder, in Psalm 110 David said that the Messiah would come from the order of Melchizedek, a man who was both a king and a priest. You remember that back in Genesis 14; and this, of course, was prior to the Levitical priesthood, which was ordained for the Old Covenant, the covenant of the Law; but God ordained the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ for the new covenant. You go to Hebrews chapter five through chapter seven, and it makes it clear that Melchizedek was an ancient type of the superior anti-type that he prefigured, namely the Messiah, the Priest-King, the Lord Jesus. And you may recall that the priesthood of Melchizedek was superior to the Levitical priesthood because his priesthood was royal; it was universal. It was characterized by righteousness and peace, and it was without genealogy; it was eternal.

So with that in mind, we come back to verse 11. "'Take silver and gold, make an ornate crown, set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Then say to him, "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the LORD.'"'"  And of course, what we see here is Joshua prefigures the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory.

Now here we move from our first point, the prophetic symbolism of an historical event, to the messianic implications of the prophetic symbolism. Now, if you go back to Zechariah, chapter three and verse eight in that fourth vision we read, "'"...I'm going to bring in My servant, the Branch."'" The "Branch" - "ṣemaḥ" in Hebrew. It means "a shoot" or "a sprout." "ṣemaḥ" means to branch out, or to sprout out like in a growing plant. And remember there in Zechariah 6:12, the Branch is a proper name. It's referring to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who obviously sprouted out from absolute obscurity, from the fallen trunk of David; grew up as a tender plant, bore much fruit, and will eventually rule the nations from his own land and nation. Isaiah 53 and verse two, you're familiar with the passage, "For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground;" Isaiah 61 and verse 11, "For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations." And this is a glorious reference to his saving work of redemption and the restoration of all things under his sovereign rule.

Jeremiah 23, verse five and following,

"'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'When I will raise up for David, a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land.

In His days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, The LORD our righteousness."'"

And in Jeremiah 33 beginning in verse 14, once again,

"'Behold, days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

In those days and at that time, I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He will execute justice and righteousness on the earth.'"

And we know that in the final days of Daniel's 70th week, the pre- kingdom judgments -  thetime of the tribulation when Israel's sufferings will reach their climax - we read the words of the prophet in Isaiah, chapter four, beginning in verse two.

"In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel.

It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy - everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem

When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning."

So again, as we come back to the text, we see that he's to take the silver and gold, make this crown, put it on the head of the high priest.

And then in verse 12, "'Behold, a man whose name is Branch,'" he says, "'For He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the LORD.'" Now this can't be the temple of that day that was to be finished by Zerubbabel in that day, consistent with chapter four and verse nine; and it can't be a reference to some spiritual temple, namely the church, as some would say, there is no exegetical reason to spiritualize this, especially given the context, as well as the preponderance of millennial temple prophecies that we see in Isaiah, chapter two, Isaiah chapter 56, Ezekiel 40 through 48, the great descriptions of the future temple; Micah four, beginning in verse one through verse seven.

And of course, this would have been so encouraging to them. Folks, you have to put yourself in their place. They're starting out kind of from scratch, trying to build their homes, and yet they know they're to build the temple, and the Samaritans are giving them all kinds of grief. It's difficult, it's difficult to live. But here they are, they're beginning to see that, "oh my, the temple is all part of God's purposes here. How encouraging this is it's this is important to God, our work is not in vain, and to know that one day the Lord Himself is going to build his temple in the millennial kingdom." My how encouraging. In fact, this is what we read in Isaiah two, beginning in verse two.

"Now it will come about that in the last days, the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills." In other words, there's going to be, there's going to be enormous geographical changes when the Lord returns. And it would appear that the mountain of the Lord will be the tallest place on the planet, "...and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.' For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war."

So yes, indeed, consistent with verse 13 here in Zechariah six. "'Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the LORD, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.'"'" The two offices - referring to the office of the priest and the king - both of which will reside together perfectly in the Messiah, perfect harmony, unlike what had happened down through history, with all of the corruption and the infighting between the priests and the king.

And I also find it rather fascinating, I don't want to make a huge deal out of this, but I can see something here in the order set forth in this historical event. I think it's rich in prophetic symbolism. Think about it,  Joshua was already the high priest, and the crown was then put on his head, and I see that the person of the Messiah must also first be priest before he can ascend the throne as king, because he must provide a way for his subjects to be reconciled to him, to be fitted, to be clothed in the proper garments of righteousness in order to enter into the kingdom; there has to be a cleansing, and that cleansing has to take place through a priest who offered himself as an atonement for sin.

And we see the sequences, in fact, in the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians two beginning in verse eight, "Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." There's the priest, there's the sacrifice of the priest himself. And then notice the royalty that comes after that. "For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." And today we know that the Lord Jesus, Christ exercises his high priestly office as he sits at the right hand of the Father. He is our advocate with the Father. There is only one mediator between God and man, it is the man, Christ Jesus. But a day is coming when he will rise from his royal throne in heaven, and he will take possession of his royal throne on Earth, and there he will rule in perfect righteousness as King of kings and Lord of lords, while at the same time functioning as priest upon his throne, as we see here in our text, as well as we could go to Hebrews five. My how I long for that day? I find myself not wanting to look at the news because it is so depressing, right? Your jaw just can't drop any further when you see, the idiocy, the buffoonery, the violence.

And I was thinking about that this week. You know, there's only one perfect form of government, and it is certainly not a democracy or an aristocracy. It is not socialism or communism, not some totalitarian rule or an absolute monarchy, a constitutional monarchy led by fallen men. I mean, all of those things have failed, right? I mean, probably the best of all of them has been our democracy, but that was designed for Christian people. The Constitution was written for Christian people, and we don't have a Christian nation. It's a nation filled with pagans and lot of people that are Christian in name only; very, very few people are truly believers in the United States. And today, we look and we see we're basically ruled by unelected bureaucrats and activist judges and the majority of our elected officials, especially on the left, are corrupt. They're unimaginably immoral. Many of them are addicted to alcohol and drugs, and some of them are so intellectually challenged. My goodness, their IQ has to be about room temperature. I mean, you just can't understand. I mean, how can anybody be that stupid? And yet these people are in office. Many of their policies are irrational, pathological liars, delusional people, trans affirming people, talk about a delusion, a death cult fighting for a woman's right to kill her unborn baby.

Folks, these people need Christ. They need the gospel, but we see the same kind of insanity in governments all around the world. You know, I would agree with many who would say that we're really on the brink of World War three. I was seeing from several different sources that the Pentagon has now sent about 25% of our entire fleet of B52 stealth bombers to the Middle East, a massive buildup of cargo planes, aerial refueling tankers, alongside key assets like the USS Carl Vinson and USS Harry S Truman, huge aircraft carriers the European Union. Do you realize, and I know this firsthand from people that have told me, the European Union is telling their citizens to store up food and water for a potential war with Russia. China's military buildup and the war games that we see with them are chilling, and yet we've got absolute idiots and authority over us in so many ways here in the United States, obsessed with the rights of self-loathing transgenders obsessed with pronouns. I mean, Rome is burning, and you're obsessed with pronouns?  People obsessed with somehow protecting illegal alien criminals, terrorists, and destroying Elon Musk and all of this crazy stuff.

Folks, these types of things are so absurd that they can only be attributed to Satan and his minions. So we await for the coming of our king when righteousness will reign, and the only perfect form of government is an absolute monarchy, ruled by the Priest-King, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there I'm reminded of Revelation 19, beginning in verse 15, describing when he comes,

"From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.

And on his robe and on His thigh, he has a name written, '

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.'"

And folks, this is why we are commanded to pray "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Now back to the prophetic, messianic symbolism here in Zechariah six, verse 13, "'Yes, it is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.'" By the way, when it says the "counsel of peace," this doesn't mean that he's going to be there to give advice to people like when we think of a counselor, but rather the concept, and even the term in the original language, carries the idea of mutual advice and consultation that eventuates in peace, in "shalom"  in agreement. In other words, in this context, it speaks of the exercise of authority to accomplish the perfect peace between the two offices of priest and king; to provide direction for a specific course of action, an action of righteousness as he rules, and that's the result of shalom.

My mind goes to Psalm 85 verse nine, "Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land. Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Do you realize how foreign that is what we're talking about here? And certainly the people of the world that don't know Christ, I mean, the things of the Spirit are foolishness to them, right? And they cannot understand them. They can't. The only reason we can is by God's grace. But these words nourish our soul, folks. This is the hope that we have in Christ.

Isaiah used the same term for counsel in Isaiah 9:6 you know the passage, "His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." In Isaiah 19:17, and chapter 23 verse nine, it is used to express divine infallibility in judgment. And in Isaiah, 25 one and 46 verse 10, it is used to describe the perfect plan of redemption. So indeed, he will be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices. And this will occur when Christ returns as the rightful possessor of heaven and earth and take possession of his inheritance, as we read in Revelation five, one through chapter 19 and verse 16. And this is the man now, the man whose name is Branch. This is the son of man, the Lord Jesus Christ, "the last Adam," he's called, and "the second Adam," as we read in First Corinthians 15 verses 45 through 47; the only sovereign, the only divine intercessor, the eternal King and great high priest.

So we come now to our third and final little heading. We've seen the prophetic symbolism of the historical event, the Messianic implications of the prophetic symbolism, and now the permanent memorial of the coming King-Priest. Now verse 14, "'Now the crown will become a reminder.'" Could be translated "memorial." "In the temple of the LORD to Helem", which means strength. This is a sobriquet, or, in other words, a nickname, an epithet for Heldai In verse 10. Then he adds the name to Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen. Hen means graciousness. That's a nickname for Josiah, the son of Zephaniah.

By the way, it was common in antiquity for people to have two names. You will recall that that king Uzziah was also called Azariah. Simon was surnamed Peter; Saul was later Paul. We have things like that today. Robert is, many times called Bob. Bill is, you know, William. My mymind just went to the nicknames we have in our family for our family members. I will not give them to you, but we all know what those are like, right? And they all know who we're talking about but it's interesting here, especially the nickname here for Josiah, "Hen," which means graciousness, which was probably a way of describing his hospitality, because, you know, the whole crew is coming, or at least these priests are coming. Probably their families are coming to his place. But make no mistake, those ancient people, those covenant people of Israel, would know what these names meant, and this would have been a reminder. The character and conduct of the Messiah Priest-King, and how they too should be.

And it's fascinating, I did some research in some ancient documents, especially the Hebrew middot, which is kind of like an ancient encyclopedia that was written sometime late first century BC. And it tells us that these crowns that were made were preserved, and that they were, quote, "hung in window, in the windows in the height of the temple." So somehow, they were hung in a place where you could see them. And I searched and searched to find, you know, exactly where that would be. And I finally landed on a YouTube, listening to a Jewish rabbi scholar try to explain all of this in Hebrew. And he would interpret it in English. And he had a, you know, he could show an architectural rendering of the ancient temple, and he would try to show it may have been here, it may have been there. We're not real sure. And when it was all done, it's like, well, that's a big help. He doesn't know any more than I do. But the point is, they were somehow there for people to see. And by the way, his interpretation of this text is, I wrote some of it down, "This is the original fundraising model that God has given us." And he went on. This is a bit of a paraphrase, but I'm pretty close - what we do is we find rich people and tell them they need to give stuff so that we can use it for all the things that we do with our synagogues, in the temple and all these types of things. I think he missed the authorial intent of that particular text in Zechariah, but that's another whole story.

So the point is this would have been a reminder to the people of the prophetic symbolism, as well as the historical event; the prophecies of Zechariah concerning the coronation of the future King-Priest, the Messiah. And I'm reminded again that Zechariah's name literally means "whom the Lord remembers." And these crowns displayed wherever...in the windows of the temple, wherever that would have been, would have been a profound memorial of the past, as well as pointing to the future.

And as you think about that, we understand this with the Lord's Supper, do we not? First Corinthians 11:26, we read, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death." There's retrospective, right? You're looking at the past until he comes. And there's prospective, there's the future. And so the crowns would have done the same thing in the temple.

Verse 14, "Now the crown will become a reminder in the temple of the LORD, to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen the son of Zephaniah." And the idea that you're remembering these men as well, you know, and they would want to emulate these men. And by the way, as I think about it, we all need to have those that we emulate in our life. Fathers, I hope your children look to you and say, "I want to be like my dad." Daughters, I hope you can look to your mom and say, "I want to be like my mom that will honor the Lord," or my grandfather or my grandmother, etc.

Folks, we all need godly mentors in our life. We all need godly mentors in our life, those, by the way, who you know personally and intimately and can speak directly with love and forthrightness into the deeply personal matters of your life. We all need that, and that would have been part of what is being said here.

Then in verse 15, it says, "'Those who are far off,'" in other words, the dispersed Israelites and believing Gentiles from all over the world, "'will come and build the temple of the LORD.' Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And it will take place if you completely obey the LORD your God." In other words, if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, your neighbor as yourself - that kind of love, by the way - is what validates genuine saving faith; not some prayer that you prayed or some aisle that you walked once upon a time, but what really validates genuine, true, authentic saving faith is the fruit that is born on the vine of your life. Your love for Christ, your love for his word, your burden for the lost, your longing to be like him, to live to the praise of his glory, and on and on it goes.

And of course, we see verse 15 being described in many other passages. In fact, it was prophesied all the way back in Deuteronomy chapter 30, where we read about the restoration of Israel to her land and fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, and also the changed heart consistent with the new covenant. Let me read a passage to you in Deuteronomy 30 beginning in verse four,

"'If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.

The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live."

In conclusion, this morning, I have to say that the specifics of this remarkable historical event - with all of its prophetic symbolism that points to the coronation of the Priest-King, and the establishment of his kingdom - all of these things are really summarized in what happened here when you think about it. For example, like the priests that returned from Babylon to Jerusalem with gifts, even from Gentiles, to build the temple, we know that in the days of the millennium when Christ returns, that both Jews and Gentiles will contribute to the building of millennial temple. You can see that in Isaiah 60, Isaiah 61 and Isaiah 62; Haggai two, verses seven through nine, Micah chapter four, verse 13.

And like those ancient exiles, the future exiles will also heed God's call of salvation and return from the four corners of the earth. And that remnant will also be totally devoted to the Lord from their heart, wanting to separate themselves from the wickedness, from the pagan idolatry and immorality and all the stuff that is a part of the world. And the future remnant will also be led in worship by priests appointed by the Lord.

And finally, the future remnant will joyfully abandon all of that wickedness, all of that idolatry, and they will serve Christ in all of his glory; and we see that kind of sequence pictured even in this historical event that the Spirit of God has given to us through his prophet. Folks, these are the promises of God, who cannot lie. This is the hope of the redeemed. This is the joy of the redeemed. I hope it is your hope. I hope it is your joy. I would encourage you to examine your heart, because if these things fall on deaf ears and just kind of boring, and I just can't believe people believe all this stuff and I really, I'm not that keen on you know, Jesus coming again. You know, I'm more concerned, you know that Tennessee win the national championship, or whatever it is - if that's you folks, there's something terribly wrong with your heart. There's something terribly wrong, and you need to really examine yourself to see if you're truly in the faith.

But those of us who know and love Christ, let's celebrate these things, and let's live in light ofthe reality that Jesus is coming again and taking us unto himself, amen? Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. May they bear much fruit to the praise of your glory in each of our lives. And Lord, if there be one here today that knows nothing of what it really means to be in relationship with you through faith in Christ, those that perhaps don't really have a clue what it means to really enjoy the soul, exhilarating reality of being united with Christ in saving faith, Lord, won't you please break their heart, make them miserable until they bow the knee to Jesus, until they be saved; Lord, we cry out to you on their behalf. So again, thank you for the hope that is ours in Christ, and Lord Jesus come quickly. Amen.