Zech 8:1-23

REVIVAL AND THE NEED TODAY

During the Babylonian captivity, Jews established new fast days to mourn Jerusalem's fate, the temple's destruction, and Gedaliah's murder. Now, back in their land and nearing completion of their new temple, they questioned whether to maintain these fasts. They sought counsel from priests and prophets in Jerusalem, seeking divine guidance on continuing these practices. One great commentator said “when we're in doubt as to any case of duty, we should spread it before the Lord.” That's good advice. When you're wondering as to your duty, go and find it out from God.

We don't need to travel to Jerusalem or consult earthly prophets. Instead, we have the Word of God, as Apostle Peter calls it, “the day star” a guiding light in dark times. We should heed its teachings. What the Lord says in Scripture—interpreted as intended by the Bible—matters. We shouldn't twist its meaning like some in the past, leading to delusion by the devil. Seek clarity from Scripture; it's God's word, illuminating our path, as commentator T.V. Moore said, “When the fire descends from heaven on the altar, its light will enable us to see clearly. We walk safely when we walk in the light of the word of God.”

These seekers wisely sought guidance from the Lord through prophets, questioning whether to continue the fasts established after Jerusalem's fall. Zechariah the prophet provided a comprehensive answer, addressing immediate concerns and hinting at future fulfilment.

The Lord's response was twofold, both negative and positive. The negative aspects begin in chapter 7 onwards, with a call to repentance. The Lord declares that He never commanded these feasts; they were initiated by the people without true repentance.

In chapter 8, the Lord shifts to a positive tone, promising blessings for Zion despite her past wickedness and spiritual infidelity. He pledges to return and restore prosperity to Zion.

Zechariah's message about the distant future aimed to impact his contemporary audience. Prophecy wasn't solely for the future but intended to affect the present. The Lord's dealings with the Jews foreshadowed His eventual glorious return to Jerusalem, holding significant relevance for us today.

We anticipate Christ's coming, yet we needn't wait passively for blessings and revival. It's a misinterpretation to believe we must sit idle until the Lord's return. The Scriptures suggest otherwise; we can experience God's power now, offering a foretaste of His future glory. TV Moore: “God's presence in heaven creates all its bliss.” Understand that. The happiness of heaven doesn't come from fluttering angels. The happiness of heaven doesn't come from great singing. It's a mark of it. It's not the essence of it or the cause of it.

The happiness of heaven does not come because there's gold in the streets or there are pearl gates to the New Jerusalem. The happiness of heaven comes from the immediate, sinless enjoyment of the presence of our God. The presence of God in heaven creates all its bliss. Let's seek such foretastes in our lives as we reflect on the revival depicted in Zechariah 8 and its contemporary relevance.

I. THE RETURN OF THE LORD'S PRESENCE

II. THE INGATHERING OF THE LORD’S PEOPLE

III. THE PROSPERITY OF THE LORD’S WORK IV. THE UNITY OF THE LORDS PEOPLE

I. THE RETURN OF THE LORD'S PRESENCE

Let me point out from this chapter that the first element in a true work of spiritual revival is the return of the Lord's presence. Verse 2 and verse 3, “I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy. I was jealous with great fury. Thus saith the Lord, I am returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem”, the return of the Lord's presence.

You see, the Lord had been grieved by sin, and he had withdrawn the sensible signs of his presence. He had withdrawn the signs of his glory. You go back to the prophecy of Ezekiel, and there you have the picture of the retreating glory, the glory of God moving from over the temple further and further and further away. It was as if the Lord moved a little bit at a time and stopped for a while as if to say, “is there anyone who even notices? Is there anybody who even cares that the glory is departing? Is there no one to stand in the gap? Is there no one to raise his voice in supplication? Is there no one to call a time of prayer and fasting and yearning before God to cry, Lord, do not remove your glory?” The glory departed, and the captivity ensued. That's what had happened in Judah.

The prophet Isaiah had spoken along those lines. “Your iniquities”,he says in chapter 59 and 2, “your iniquities have separated between you and your God. Your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear you.” The Lord was jealous, and he withdrew himself. You think of how the 78th Psalm puts it? “Israel provoked him to anger with their high places.” I'm reading at verse 58. “They moved him to jealousy with their grave and images. When the Lord heard this, he was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men, and delivered his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemy's hand. He gave his people over also unto the sword, and he was wroth with his inheritance.”

So much did God hate Israel's sin. I want to tell you, my friend, God still hates sin in his people. The New Testament counterpart to Israel is the church of Christ. He calls the church the Israel of God.

So when we read of God hating the sin of his people, in New Testament terms we're talking about God hating the sin of his church. The message is very plain and simple that a wicked and a worldly spirit drives away the Holy Spirit. What a picture this is of the departing glory of the Holy Spirit withdrawing from the place that he once blessed. And again we must consider those words of Isaiah, your iniquities have separated between you and your God. Your sin has hid his face from you that he will not hear you. And if the glory departs from a church, it's because of the sin of the church.

It's true, first of all, on an individual basis. How would you sum up the life of Samson? You sum up the life of Samson as a life lived in the experience of the power and the glory of God, and yet that glory departed because of sin. How many individual Christians are living like that? How many of us here this morning are living like Samson with his locks shorn? How many Christians are here today, and your only experience of the blessing of God is in the past? You look back to when you used to be on fire for God. You look back to when it used to be true that the prayer meeting was a delight. When you gave yourself to the service of the King, when God was real and the power was real and the blessing was real and the fruit was real, but today it's all a memory. And you're like Samson lying, either in the lap of Delilah, the Delilah of this world or whatever it is that's come between you and the Lord. You've lost your locks. You've lost your power. The glory has departed.

Oh, you still struggle out of Delilah's lap and say, I'll go forward. I'd be just as I was at other times. I think those words concerning Samson are some of the most awful in Scripture. He wist not. He wist not that the Lord had departed from him. Oh, my friend, it's bad enough for the glory to depart. It's bad enough to lose the sense of the Lord's presence and power. It's bad enough for a Christian to lose out with God, to be so insensitive, to be so brutish in his conscience that he doesn't even recognize it. Man, that's terrible beyond words.

It's true not only in the individual life, but it's true in the life of the church. Take the church of Ephesus, a great church, the church that the Lord had spoken to of His fullness, the great Ephesian epistle is an epistle about the fullness of Christ. These people lived high in spiritual blessing. I believe the Ephesian church was a church that was living in its daily experience of the heavenly places on a level that very few churches in history have ever reached. They were Orthodox. They were militant. They were mighty.

But they began to lose their first love. They began to lose their first love. And what happened? The candlestick, the lampstand was removed. They lost out and the glory was gone.

Now, the answer to this is not some self-concocted spirituality, as the Jews thought to do with their own fast days that they added to the Holy Calendar of God. And let me say the answer to this is not in vainly lamenting the passing of the glory. Christians sitting in church saying, well, things are not what they used to be. We don't see what our forefathers saw. Oh, it's terrible. It's terrible. It's terrible. That's not the answer. Yearning for the old days, wishing that we were back in another day. That does nobody any good. That is Just an excuse.

What is the answer? The answer is repentance. The answer is repentance. In 1 Peter 4 great text, the time has come, the judgment must begin from the house of God. Peter's announcing this with great urgency. It's time for Christians to start taking sin seriously. It's time for Christians to start paying some real, serious attention to the things that are grieving away the Spirit of God. It's time for us to get to the place of self-examination of heart confession and of true repentance as Christians. That's the core. Get back to the cause of the departing glory. What was it? In Israel's case, in Judah's case, it was a despising of a very particular message from God when the Lord says, get back to that message.

Now let's be honest with ourselves today. What is it that's caused the loss of glory? What is it that's caused the loss of joy? What is it in your life or mine? Let's stand before our God in simple honesty of heart. What is it that has come between us and our God to cause the glory to be departing? Let's put our finger on it. Don't try this hypocritical nonsense of inventing some other spirituality so that we can parade it before God and say, look, “Lord, I've invented a fast day. Look, Lord, I'm trying to be holy here while all the time the heart of the matter goes untouched.”

Let's not sink into that folly and hypocrisy. We can all do that. You can sit there, and I don't know your heart. But God knows it and you know it well enough. But you know that if you have lost out with God, it's very easy for you to sit and just shield yourself even from the preached word. By the way, that's a symptom of your disease. Just shielding yourself from the preached word. And you can say, well, and you can trot out this and that and the other thing as things that you're trying to do right, then you can defend yourself. You can justify yourself.

Let me say this to you, if you're a Christian today, and you are not in the place you once were and ought to be with God, you know it in your heart, and what's more, I believe you could put your finger in where you started to go wrong. The Lord says Revelation 2, remember from whence thou art fallen, repent and do the first works. In Hosea 10 verse 12, he says, sow to yourselves in righteousness and reap and mercy, break up your fellow ground for it's time to seek the Lord until he come and reign righteousness upon you. That's the message, repentance, and then the Lord will return in his glory and in his power. Zech 1:16 has a glorious promise to this effect. Thus saith the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies. My house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts.

The prophet Zephaniah. In chapter 3, it deals with the same thing. Verse 17, the Lord is in the midst of thee. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will see if he will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing.

What is revival? Revival is first of all the return of the Lord's presence because in the mercy of God, he has dealt with his people regarding those things that caused the glory to depart.

II. THE INGATHERING OF THE LORD’S PEOPLE

But in verses four through eight, we discover that the second element in revival is the in-gathering of the Lord's people. Verse 4 through 8, there shall yet be old men, old women, and then verse 5, boys and girls. The people of God gathered in. Now I understand that the reference here is to the security that Jerusalem would experience, that it would no longer be a city ravaged by war and ravaged by battles and invasions with its population constantly being decimated, that it would live in populated security. The Lord would bring his people and they would live there and they would flourish there.

Verse 6, the Lord intimates that this seems to be impossible. It says, if this is marvelous, this is a thing that you would say is a marvel or a miracle, we would say impossible. If this seems impossible in your eyes, shouldn't it be the same in God's eyes? Can God not do what he promises? This is an impossible work, but it's the work that God does. And what is it? It's the work of populating his church.

Verse 4 and 5 he brings in people of all ages. Verse 7, he brings people from all backgrounds from the east country and from the west country. He says, behold, I will save of my people. This is the second element in revival as he gathers in his people of all ages, of all kinds and from all backgrounds. It's one of the great and thrilling things in the histories of revival. When you read of revivals, just how the Lord fulfills those very elements in the prophecy. In the great Ulster revival of 1859, one of the outstanding features was the number of children and young people who were saved. And as they came to Christ, they were given a maturity that was just beyond belief and certainly beyond rational explanation that children suddenly saved and brought in would pray like ancient saints. Where did they get their vocabulary? Where did they get their deep experience? They got it in the knowledge of the God who saved them in the midst of that great revival.

That's what God does in revival, and as I indicated from verses 4 and 5, the Lord not only populates his church, but he leads the converts to enjoy the security they have in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the second element in revival, the in-gathering of the Lord's people. "I will save of my people." That sovereign I will of God, how we need to pray for that. This is not some program of man to drum up conversions. This is not some high-powered evangelism that knows how to pull the psychological strings to get people to do certain things that makes it look as if there's a great move of God. This is God moving and bringing in his people, creating in many cases a desire for the gospel where there was no desire. Giving a great fear of God where before there was only a blasphemous spirit, causing feet to come to the house of God that have not darkened the church door in years. Only God can do that.

Oh, it's not to say we shouldn't witness — the very opposite is true, we ought to. We must take the gospel to each and every creature we can, for that's the command of our Saviour. But oh, we must pray for the mighty move of the Spirit as God populates His church and does a work that to the carnal mind is impossible.

III. THE PROSPERITY OF THE LORD’S WORK

In verses 9 through 15, we encounter the third element of revival: the prosperity of the Lord's work. The Lord urges those who hear His words to be strong, promising, "Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words." He contrasts past oppression and affliction with a future of prosperity, declaring, "the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit, the ground shall give her increase, the heavens shall give their due, and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things." This promise underscores that revival yields genuine fruit, not merely chaff. While some may focus on the chaff, it's a misrepresentation of the overall impact of revival. In fact, revival often produces more genuine fruit and less chaff than at any other time in church history. And importantly, this fruit isn't left vulnerable to the world and Satan's influence.You remember the promise of Isaiah 65:22, "They shall not build and another inhabit, they shall not plant and another eat." What did the Lord Jesus say to His disciples in John 15:16? He ordained them to go and bring forth fruit, and that their fruit should remain. That's the will of God.

I was reading, just in preparing my own heart for this passage of Scripture, a little booklet called The Great Revival in Ireland in 1859. It was written in 1859 by one of the preachers in it, the Samuel J. Muir of Ballymena in County Antrim. And he wrote this in response to some vicious criticisms even from Christians of the revival calling it a delusion and a work of the devil. "They give many, many insights into the work, but he said, 'The results are good.'"

The morally blind see, the lame walk, the impure are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead live, to the poor — the physically, intellectually, and especially poor — in thousands every day of the week the gospel is preached. The voice risen quarrelsome have become calm and powerful, enemies love one another, mouths that bellowed forth cursing and blasphemy now praise and bless God's holy name. The Sabbath breakers remember and keep holy the Lord's day. The impure have abandoned their pollutions, the drunkard is sober... Some publicans have abandoned their business. Many, very many, pray who were never known to do so before. The victims of apostasy are alarmed. Romanists and Unitarians have been turned to the Bible as the only guide, and to Jesus as the only divine Saviour. The godless multitude are awed into solemnity.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

IV. THE UNITY OF THE LORDS PEOPLE

In verse 16 and 17, you have the fourth element, which is the unity of the Lord's people. "These are the things you shall do: speak every man truth with his neighbor, and execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates, and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor and love no false oath. But these are all things that I hate." Look at these things, division, lying, hypocrisy, fighting, and slanders. These are the sins of the church.

Oh, when somebody in the church, whether he's a minister or an elder or a deacon or a member, when somebody commits adultery or steals, that grabs the headlines. It's something big and something terrible. We think of the prosperity gospel preachers with millions of dollars for thousands of people.

Now, those are great scandals, but let me tell you, as much as I detest them, at the end of the day, while the charismatics charlatans of this world have done enormous damage to the cause of Christ. The real, the real culprits are the things that we would never make into headlines, the things we harbour in our hearts, division of Christian lying, cheating, slandering, fighting, hypocrisy. These are the sins that grieve the Lord, that hurt the work of God, and that hold back the blessing of God.

But what a difference when revival comes. Blessing leaves no room for such follies. It was said of the Ulster 1859 revival about the converts that the great mark of the revival was this, the love that they had one for another. They said, these people are never happy unless they're in each other's company. They loved the fellowship of fellow believers. Revival cannot admit such follies as division and lying against brethren, fighting and slander.

But the text gives a warning even in times of revival. This is a command. These are the things that you shall do even in the midst of revival. Be very careful. Notice how he speaks. He speaks about truth. He speaks about justice. He speaks about peace. And he speaks about kindness. Those are the things that the Lord is looking for in this fellowship. These are the things the Lord is looking for in this church. Truth, justice, peace, and kindness. Paul took this up in Ephesians 4. That's how I know he means it to be applied to the local New Testament church. He says, "Speak every man truth with his neighbor."

He's actually quoting from Zechariah. This is what you've got to do. And then he goes on, "be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." When you have Christians running around with a chip on their shoulder, when you have Christians who just can't get over it, when you have Christians set against Christians, my the devil's having a few days.

The Lord says in Romans 12:10, "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honour, preferring one another." The Lord Jesus was even stronger in his statement. Take what he said in Mark 11:25, "When you stand praying, forgive if you've ought against any. That your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if you forgive not, if you do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses." So we have a lot of unforgiven Christians running around besides the contradiction, doesn't it? I'm talking about Christians whose fellowship with God is broken because their sin is coming between them and the Lord. And the only reason they can't get the sin dealt with is because of the bitterness and the wickedness of heart against their brethren in Christ, because God says it through his own dear son, if you're not willing to forgive your brethren, don't think that God's going to be forgiving you. He won't do it.

You bring your gift to the altar. There's something between you and your brother, he says, leave your gift. Leave it. There's something more important than your gift. What? There's something more important than you coming personally to pray to get right with God. How can that be? He says, well, there is. Go and get right with your brother. And then you'll be in a position to get right with God.

Husbands and wives who live like two strangers, who hardly talk, who have little or no respect. Is it any wonder they can't pray together, can't worship together? The sins of your home, 1 Peter 3 makes this clear, will hinder your private fellowship with God. But children in defiance of their parents and reducing a spirit of bitterness and wickedness into the home cannot go on with God. You cannot be forgiven when the bitterness and the division reigns in your heart.

What should you do? You should understand that it's imperative that there be unity in the church, in the home, among the people of God. Unity is not only the fourth element in revival. It's a condition for keeping the blessing once we have it.

V. THE JOY IN THE LORDS SERVICE

The fifth element is verse 18 and 19. It's the joy of the Lord's service. Time forbids that we get into that, but note the terms joy, gladness and cheerful feasts. Fasts become festivals when revival comes. Religion is not a drudgery. Coming to church is not a drudgery.

Man, I have to say I get a little worried about Christians. And this church, I'm sure we'll have individuals who will disagree. In some places if the service goes above the one hour mark there is problem. People say they are too long in church.

Isn’t this hypocrisy ? The same hypocrite could sit in front of his TV on Saturday for three or four or five hours. I don't find the drunkards coming up to the bar man and saying the pub is open too long. I don't find the devotees of the rock culture coming up to the rock group and saying the concert's lasting too long. But oh, I find Christians who say this is God's word. This is God's worship. This is the most important thing in the world. But don't let it go over 60 minutes. It's sick and it's sinful.

One of the things you see in revival is that time doesn't matter anymore. And I don't know how it works. People in revival have always been criticized for neglecting their jobs, neglecting the things of time. Is it any wonder people neglect the things of time when they're still taken up with the things of eternity? But the amazing thing is the job gets done in better time and in better fashion and with better results. The economy strengthened. Everything strengthened when revival comes.

But at the same time, people give themselves day and night to prayer and praise and preaching and the enjoyment of God, the joy of the Lord's service, all that God would give us, that joy of Acts 5 where they departed even from the presence of the council and rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus.

VI. THE SPREAD OF THE LORDS GRACE

The final element in revival, verse 20 to 23, is the spread of the Lord's grace. Here's an amazing prophecy, I believe, has its spiritual fulfilment in revival. Now we plead with sinners and we say with Moses, come with us. Very often they say we're not interested. But in revival, sinners come and they say, we will go with you. We'll go with you. You read the history of revival and that's the thing, sinners come and they're pleading, lead me to Christ. We're told even the hardest sinners will be melted. Isaiah 60, verse 14, the sons of them that afflicted thee will come, bending unto thee, and they that despise thee will bow down at the soles of thy feet. They shall call thee the city of the Lord.

Sinners coming and begging to be led to Christ. Revival produces a mighty evangelism, not a program, but rather the Lord creating such a desire in sinners that they flock in great numbers to whoever will lead them to Christ or to wherever they will hear a word of salvation. That is real revival. I trust the Lord will send us a vital experience of it.

Well, now let's consider carefully what in us may hinder revival, repentance precedes revival. 2 Chronicles 7, 14, if my people which are called to my name, will what? Humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven. Like the Jews, we can get so caught up in trivial matters, volatile, self-imposed, fast days. We live in a cocoon of imagined spirituality while neglecting the real need of revival. Like Pharisees dotting the eyes, crossing the teeth, but blind all the time to what really matters. Then the Lord in a passage like this challenges us with gracious promise, promise of revival, promise of fullness. I hope we'll see we have need of it.

I hope furthermore today we'll see that the Lord can send it and we can have it. When we see what a glorious thing it is for the Lord to return to his people with his presence and his prosperity, gathering in souls, saving them, giving fruit that remains, bringing unity and joy and gladness among his people, giving a tremendous outreach to the work of God and great victory to its evangelism, when we catch the vision of that, can we settle down for anything less than God's best? I trust not. May God give us today a sight of what is possible, a sight of what is promised. May God give us that repentant prayerful heart that will not let God go until he blesses.

AMEN

Let's pray.