Your King Is Coming

House-Keeping:

Zechariah 9:9-13

Zechariah 13:1-2

Zechariah 13:9

Prayer Items:

Youth Group:

Other Items:

Hook

What is the most painful physical experience you’ve ever had?

What makes physical pain more manageable? (Meds, rest, knowing it will go away...)

How does pushing through pain help us?

The most painful experience for the Jewish people up until the time they were allowed to go back to the Promised Land was the Babylonian Conquest.

They lost their land;

They lost their freedom;

They lost their temple;

Those who were allowed to return to Canaan, for the most part were not part of the people who were conquered (most of that generation had died off), but the wounds still ran deep.

Now, they were back and the temple was started, but the work was halted because of the fear of those who were opposing the temple being built.

That fear that was passed down from the past generations probably began to take hold again.

We already saw the prophet Haggai challenging the people to restart the work on the temple last week. One of his contemporaries, Zechariah, would also have a word from the LORD for the people, urging them to not only finish the temple, but recognize God’s greater promises.

So, we turn to the book of Zechariah this morning.

Book

Introduction to the book of Zechariah:

The prophet Zechariah was born in Babylon and only saw Jerusalem for the first time when the exiles were allowed to return to Canaan by the Persian King Cyrus.

Like Haggai, he challenges to people to rebuild the temple.

Why had work on the temple stopped?

While Haggai was more focused on the practical aspects of rebuilding the temple, Zechariah was far more concerned about the theological significance of the temple.

The book itself is the longest of the latter prophets (don’t say minor prophets!). It’s split into two distinct sections:

Chapters 1-8 focus on the need to complete and restore the temple.

Chapters 9-14 are more focused on the eternal struggle between good and evil.

This morning, we will only focus on a small portion of this letter, focusing mainly on the restoration of Israel and the day of the Lord. More on that later.

Our Task This Morning:

This is an unfamiliar passage to everyone, except maybe me. So, it’s a great opportunity to learn a good hermeneutical approach to understanding passages of Scripture, particularly those that are unfamiliar to us.

Hermeneutics is the science and art of explaining and interpreting a passage.

You are going to have to do more work than normal today, as I’m not going to feed you the answers, unless you are way off base.

The Approach (adapted from Grasping God’s Word):

Their Town (“What did this mean to the people it was first written to?”)

The River (“What is different about their context from ours?” “What are some key words and phrases that should be understood?”)

The Bridge (“What are the timeless principles that are just as true today as they were back then?”)

The Cross (“How did/does Jesus fulfill this principle?” “How does this principle remind us of Jesus?”)

Our Town (“How does this principle apply to our lives?” “What specifically should I do in light of who Jesus is and/or what’s He’s done from this passage?”)

Your assignment today is to work together to craft a lesson for us, the leaders, using the worksheet I’ll give you.

I brought over some tools you can use to better understand the text.

I can be an occasional resource, but if I feel like you are not doing the work, I’m not going to feed you the answers.

Every single passage I put on this sheet needs to be reflected in some way to your timeless principle(s) and application.

Look

Have the group (or groups) share their findings.