All right, so we're gonna begin at Zechariah chapter nine. We're gonna read verses one through 10. It says, the burden of the word of the Lord against the land of Hadrach and Damascus, its resting place, for the eyes of men and all the tribes of Israel are on the Lord, also against Hamath. which borders on it, and against Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise. For Tyre built herself a tower, heaped up silver like the dust, and gold like the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will cast her out. He will destroy her power in the sea, and she will be devoured by fire. Ashkelon shall see it and fear. Gaza also shall be very sorrowful, and Ekron, for he dried up her expectation. The king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. A mixed race shall settle in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. I will take away the blood from his mouth and the abominations from between his teeth, but he who remains, even he shall be for our God and shall be like a leader in Judah, an Ekron like a Jebusite. I will camp around my house because of the army, because of him who passes by and him who returns. No more shall an oppressor pass through them, for now I have seen with my eyes. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. In Zechariah's first six chapters, he received nighttime visions aimed at encouraging the people to rebuild the temple because God would bless it. God promised he would fill it with his glory. And then in Zechariah chapter seven and eight, we saw four sermons where Zechariah answered a question and essentially showed that God promises to turn fasting into feasting. He promises to turn mourning into celebration. But now as we get to Zechariah 9, all of that is left behind. Beginning at Zechariah 9, there's no more messages about rebuilding the temple. There are no more visions. Joshua, the high priest, there's no mention of him. Zerubbabel, the governor, gets left behind. The final chapters of Zechariah are singularly focused on God's plan for the future, specifically for the coming of the Messiah King. Zechariah declares his expectation of the coming Messiah by employing the words in verse 1, the burden of the word of the Lord. The word burden there It's sometimes translated as oracle, or message, or prophecy. But I really like the use of the word burden. That's what the root of this word intends. It's the Hebrew word masah, which means to bear up or to lift up. You've heard me pray using that idea. I'll pray something like asking the Lord to allow me to lay down the burden of His Word before His people and that you would hear it and that you would lift it up. That's Zachariah's idea as he uses these words in verse 1. He's received a prophetic word from the Lord, and he is lifting it up to the people, and he wants them to receive it and to carry it with them. So, let's look into this burden this morning. In the first eight verses, verses one through eight, we'll see that a conquering king is coming. When you read through verses one through eight, you'll easily be able to identify about a dozen references to geographical regions or cities. And there is a king coming to conquer them all. That conquering king that is coming in verses one through eight is not the Lord Jesus. Now, let's press pause on that thought for a moment. and talk about the nature of prophetic messages in the Old Testament. When the prophets of God looked into the future, how far into the future were they looking? It's not always easy to know. It's been described by others, and I think this is a great way of understanding it. It's been described as looking off into the distance and seeing mountain peaks. A few years ago when our family went to Colorado, I was just amazed at getting to see the Rocky Mountains for the first time. You could see them a long way off. They're out in the distance, and you look at them, but you go, well, OK, how far in the distance are they? As you look and you see a mountain peak, one might be 10 to 20 miles away. Another one could be 50 or 60 miles away. And it's hard to differentiate until you're right there at them. They all blend together. The Old Testament prophets, sometimes they received their message from the Lord in looking at the future and they didn't always have perfect clarity about sort of all of the mountain peaks that they were looking at. They began to speak prophetically about the future. and what they see, and some of that future was closer than others. Some of those mountain peaks that they're seeing were quite far off. And in hindsight, we can look at these and sort of pick out and see individual time frames. So if we sort of continue that analogy, Zachariah is gonna see some mountain peaks later in this chapter, but in verses one through eight, he's essentially, you know, if we were using this analogy, he's essentially seeing the foothills, right? He's seeing some things that are in the not-too-distant future, as long as we can call 200 years down the road the not-too-distant future. This first section of Zechariah's burden predicts the rise of a man known as Alexander the Great. And it describes, I think, his army marching across the known world. It begins in verse one with the word against the land of Hadrach. And that is a word that's not found elsewhere in the Old Testament. In fact, the only other reference we know about it in history is from outside the Bible, which identifies this place as a land that would have been far, far north of Israel. And so this military march described in the first eight verses, it begins far north of Israel, and it comes down in verse one to Damascus, the capital of Syria. It continues in verse two, Hamath, a place closer to Israel, but still to the north. And then in the end of verse two, it descends down to Tyre and Sidon, which are two cities close but still north of Israel along the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. And it continues down in verse 5 going south to Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron, cities of Philistia. Verses 1-8 reads like a list of conquered locations as some military leader descends down from the north and marches toward Jerusalem. And that's exactly what's gonna happen about 200 years in Zachariah's future as Alexander the Great from Macedon assembles a Greek army, marches it south against the Persian Empire. And we read this and we go, well, okay, could Zachariah really be talking about Alexander 200 years before Alexander is born? Well, yes, of course he could because God is the one who's talking here. In fact, we're not gonna get that far this morning, but glance down at verse 13 in Zechariah 9, and you'll actually see a reference to Greece. When Zechariah is writing this, there is no such thing as a Greece on the world map. He is using a word here that would not have been well understood to the original people who read this. It's gonna be a couple hundred years before There is something called Greece, but in Zacharias time, it's just a bunch of individual cities way, way up north, way up north of Israel. And none of those cities are called Greece. They're called things like Corinth and Athens and Sparta. So I'm content to say that Zachariah is receiving this prophetic information that is future to him because he is inspired by the timeless, all-knowing Holy Spirit of God. Now in verses one through eight, it describes this portion of the military campaign of Alexander the Great. Tyre specifically is called out in verses 2 and down through verse 4. And Tyre was famous for the way Alexander the Great conquered it. He conquered what was considered the unconquerable city. Now, Tyre was not always considered unconquerable. They had been beaten a few times, and in the process, they learned their lesson. There was the old city of Tyre that was built right on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. That got conquered several times. And so after learning their lesson, the people picked up and moved out to an island just into the water, about a half a mile into the sea. And they made their city new Tyre on that island. And when you get out there about a half a mile to that island, the city is surrounded by these high cliff walls, and it was considered undefeatable. The Assyrians tried to conquer Tyre, and they wasted five years in the effort. The Babylonians laughed at that and said, oh, we can do it. And 13 years later, they gave up. Alexander the Great brought his army down against Tyre in January of 332 BC, and by July, it was over. He surrounded, blockaded the city with naval vessels he had taken from other cities he conquered. And then he went to old Tyre on the mainland, pulled down the buildings, used the rubble and ruins to build a land bridge a half a mile out to the new city of Tyre. And he went and conquered it and destroyed it and burned it to the ground. But for all of Alexander's might, he was nothing but a tool in the Lord's hand. Look at verses three and four. For Tyre built herself a tower, heaped up silver like dust and gold like the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will cast her out. He will destroy her power in the sea, and she will be devoured by fire. Alexander only conquered Tyre because the Lord God used him to conquer Tyre. And later, as this military campaign continues south, later when Alexander comes to Jerusalem, he is uncommonly kind to the city of Jerusalem. Now you can say that Alexander did that because he had bigger fish to fry. You could say he was kind to Jerusalem because the residents of Jerusalem wisely threw open their doors and welcomed him without a fight. But God says it happened because of the way he's going to protect his people. Look at verse eight. I will camp around my house because of the army, because of him who passes by and him who returns. No more shall an oppressor pass through them, for now I have seen with my eyes. Alexander's army is gonna come and it's gonna go, And some of it is gonna come and pass right back by again and never engage in battle against Jerusalem. So verses one through eight describes there is a king coming and he is going to be great. But starting in verse nine, the king is coming and he is going to be even greater. Rejoice, your king is coming. Verse nine. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. Listen, a king is coming against the enemies of God's people. And that conquering king is gonna be used as a tool in God's hand. He is going to accomplish God's plan, but he's just gonna walk by Jerusalem as he comes and goes, because God's plan also includes in verse nine, your king is coming to you. So if we continue with our prophetic illustration about mountain ranges, Zechariah's prophecy about Alexander the Great was looking out and seeing sort of the foothills, but now Zechariah sees this distant peak and sees the coming of the Messiah king to Jerusalem. Your king is coming to you. Leading up to that promise in verse nine of your king is coming to you, There are three descriptive commands given to the daughters of Zion, the daughter of Jerusalem. You know, Zion is the name of the mountain and Jerusalem is the name of the city. This is not giving command to all the girls there. This is just saying, you know, this daughter of Zion, daughter of Jerusalem is personifying the people of God. They are collectively given three commands. First, rejoice greatly. The coming of the Messiah, King Jesus, is cause for celebration. Rejoice greatly is not just saying, you know, adjust yourself to have a happy attitude. It is a call to ready yourself for an emotional outburst. Like if Alexander the Great had his Macedonian army bearing down on you, you would have cause for fear and quaking, but through God's protection and plan, Messiah King Jesus is coming and that ought to be a cause for celebration to erupt in your heart. Jesus is coming. More than that, this celebration should erupt from their mouths as well. The second command here is shout. Now if your heart has been adjusted and set on the expectation that the Messiah King is going to come, As soon as he is revealed, everything that's inside ought to burst outside. The coming of Messiah King Jesus is a cause for celebration in your heart, but it is a cause for exaltation. So the command here is to shout. This is a loud shout of jubilant triumph and gladness. So the first command is rejoice greatly. The second is shout loudly. The third command is to watch expectantly. Behold, your king is coming to you. Behold simply means look. Listen, I'm gonna say something that should make sense. If the king is coming, that means the king's not here yet, right? but if your heart desires the King's coming, you're rejoicing at the idea of His arrival, you are ready to erupt with loud shouts of praise and adoration, what else are you going to do but watch, to look, to behold, right? Keep an eye out for the King's coming. These three commands of, Celebration, exaltation, and observation lead into that promise of your King is coming to you. Arising out of that promise are four descriptive expectations of the Messiah King. Or said another way, if Zachariah said, watch, your King is coming, then what exactly are they supposed to watch for? How will the people know Messiah King when he comes? Zechariah gives four descriptive expectations. First, in verse nine, he is righteous. The word just there in verse nine. He is just simply means righteous. It's the Hebrew word tzaddik, which describes a person who is just, innocent, in the right, he's virtuous, he's fair, or in short, he's righteous. He is righteous and only does what is right. He is just, and justice is what he does. So Jesus is the king of righteousness that was promised to David to establish justice on the throne of David. Jesus is the righteous ruler who was promised to Judah in Genesis chapter 49. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through his righteousness. Jesus is gonna fulfill the prophecy of the prophet Amos who said the day is coming when true justice is going to pour down like water. This is what they should watch for. It should be easy enough to identify because never has the world known a king like this. Every earthly ruler has either embraced injustice by choice or they have displayed injustice through their inability to do true righteousness on their own. Kings serve themselves, but this Messiah King is coming with righteousness. He is just, he is always doing what is right for his people. He is acting justly against unrighteousness. He rules in perfect equity at all times. Second, he is Savior. He is just and having salvation. The word for salvation here comes in the passive form, and it means that the coming Messiah King is endowed with salvation. He possesses salvation. Salvation is part of his nature, so saving is what he does. In fact, this is fulfilled in his very name. Joseph was told to take Mary as your wife because she will have a child and you will name him Jesus. Yahweh is salvation because he will save his people from their sins. This righteous King is coming to save His people. Deliverance is found in Him alone. Rescue from the wrath of God is found in Him alone. Salvation and eternal life is in Messiah King Jesus and it's nowhere else. He is righteous, He is Savior. The third description here is He is humble. You get the idea of His humility. with that word lowly in verse nine. Jesus once described himself this way. You know what he said? Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you'll find rest for your souls. This lowly, this humble nature of the Lord Jesus is what they should watch for, and it is in contrast to earthly political leaders. You would be hard-pressed to honestly identify any king, president, senator, governor, congressman, or even a mayor as humble. They don't exhibit humility. We don't expect humility. We seem to embrace arrogance and superiority as a character trait worth having. We've got it wrong. King Jesus is humble and there's our ideal. Now this makes sense, of course, since Zachariah is giving the people a list of descriptive expectations, right? He said, look, your king is coming and here's how you'll identify him. If humility was common, if humility was something we saw everywhere, it wouldn't be a way to identify the Messiah king. It's strange how people missed this when they saw Jesus and saw that he didn't come to be served but to serve others. That show of humility didn't spark their attention and call their mind to this. So he's righteous, he's savior, he's humble. Fourthly, he is peaceful. Now I can't point you to a word in verse nine of our text that's going, you'll find the word peaceful or something similar. All I can do is tell you what Zachariah's description means. He is lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. was not unheard of for kings and royal families to ride on donkeys, but it was only when they wanted to make a specific statement. If they did it home in their homeland, it was the statement that I am at peace here. If they did it away from home, it was the statement of I am coming in peace. In ancient times, in that region, a king coming in peace would ride on a donkey rather than a war horse. Now this is interesting just to me, because the history nerd here. In contrast, in the context of Zachariah 9, because probably the most famous war horse in history was written by Alexander the Great, back in verses one through eight. We still know his horse's name, it was Bucephalus. He came in riding this massive black stallion. When you saw Alexander showing up on that stallion, you would know he's not peaceful. This is not the Messiah king we're looking for. But Jesus, if people were watching for him, Jesus would identify himself as the Messiah King when he rode into Jerusalem just like this in peace on the back of a donkey. Look at Matthew chapter 21. You did bookmark it, right? Matthew chapter 21. entering into his final week before being crucified. Jesus comes and spends that week at Jerusalem and here's how he enters the city. Matthew 21, starting at verse one says, now when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethpage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, Go into the village opposite you, and immediate you'll find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord has need of them, and immediately he will send them. All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. That should sound familiar to us. So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them and set him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And so let's ask, when we think about Zechariah chapter nine, were the people watching for this? Were they listening to Zechariah still? The answer to that is apparently yes. They watch Jesus enter Jerusalem as the peaceful king riding on a donkey and they respond with Zachariah's command to rejoice greatly, shout with praises. And so then what happens? Well, Jesus rode victoriously into the city of Jerusalem, and there were these triumphant shouts and accolades from the crowd, and everybody there was happy. Everybody there was shouting and excited, except for the man who was riding on the donkey. If anyone had bothered to look at him, Luke 19 verses 41 and 42 says, as they drew near to the city, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, if you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes. This Messiah King Jesus came in righteousness and in humility and in peace and he brings salvation and yet the people did not want the righteousness of God that would actually change the behavior. They didn't want salvation from their sins. They didn't think they needed peace with God which is the peace that Jesus brings. And so in his humility and in his righteousness he would go to the temple He would be arrested, He would be beaten, He would be tortured, He would be crucified, He would shed His blood on the cross for sinners so that true salvation and peace are still found in this Messiah King by repenting of your sins and submitting your life to Him. When you think about that, do you consider it just unthinkable that people would shout his praises as he rode into the city of Jerusalem only to ultimately reject the call to repent and to believe and to receive his salvation? Why should we consider that to be unthinkable? when you have seen the same thing happen. You have seen it, and in fact, no doubt some of you are doing it. Right, go ahead and open your blue hymn book, and we're gonna sing Rejoice the Lord is King. And by that simple act of singing out and rejoicing, that's going to ensure that there is repentance and trust in your heart. You know it doesn't work that way. Friend, I would implore you to evaluate your own life and make sure that you are not rejoicing and rejecting just like them. Okay, back in Zechariah chapter nine, we've seen there's a king coming, we've seen the king is coming. In verse 10, we see the king is coming again. If you follow our prophetic illustration of Zachariah's vision. Verses one through eight, he kind of sees the foothills a couple hundred years in the future. Verse nine, he sees this major mountain peak in the distant future. He sees the righteous king riding into Jerusalem. In verse 10, he sees, I think, another mountain peak. And it's one that is still future to us. Verse 10 says, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. We know verses nine and 10 are different moments in time because of the description of what the Messiah King does. In verse nine, Zechariah sees his first coming. He rides into Jerusalem. He brings peace. He brings salvation. He brings righteousness. But in verse 10, Zechariah sees Jesus' second coming. where he establishes peace on earth and rules a worldwide kingdom. Don't miss a little pronoun play happening here in verses nine and 10. In verse nine, there is a promise from God that the king is coming, but verse 10 begins with God saying, I will, because of course this coming king is God in the flesh. We can see in verse 10 when Jesus comes again, he will establish worldwide peace. Ephraim in verse 10 is a reference to the northern portion of Israel. Jerusalem is the capital down in the southern portion of Israel. This king, it says, is going to cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse, or the war horse, from Jerusalem and the battle bow, think bow and arrow, right? The battle bow shall be cut off. Essentially it describes that the Messiah King is going to destroy the need for chariots or war horses or weapons because, in verse 10, he shall speak peace to the nations. The coming kingdom of Messiah King Jesus will be one of peace because he authoritatively declares peace. That, when it says he speaks peace to the nations, literally Gentiles is the word there. He speaks peace to the Gentiles. That does not mean Jesus is going to enter into peace talks and Negotiate a peaceful settlement that is not describing that he's going to negotiate. He is going to dominate. He will speak with absolute authority and people will not need weapons of war because nations won't dare come against his people. And with that authoritative command at His return, the Lord Jesus will rule and reign in all places. It says His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. So which seas? All of them. Which river? Well, if you were one of Zachariah's earliest readers, you probably would have thought the river Euphrates, but the reality is it doesn't matter. You just look at a globe and pick out whatever river is your favorite. It can even be the Illinois River if you want to. You start at that river, go one direction till you get to the end of the earth, you know where you're gonna end up, right back at the river where you started. This is a description that the Lord Jesus will rule and reign everywhere. If you want a vision for world peace, Zechariah's got it for you. The world will find peace when the Lord Jesus returns to rule and reign as Messiah King in Jerusalem. This world will be at peace at His return and His declaration when He authoritatively speaks peace to the nations and rules every inch of this globe with incontestable authority. He made it all. He owns it all. He'll rule it all. And so in many ways, Zachariah's message in verse nine to those people who were awaiting the first coming of the Messiah King applies equally to us who are awaiting the second coming of the Messiah King. Rejoice greatly, shout, for your King is coming. We have the expectation of the return of this Messiah King and he will rule and reign over us as well.