St Theodore's

Wattle Park

     
 
  Sermon of the Week   
    October 10  
    Dealing With Guilt Zechariah 3 
     
  I want to talk today about guilt. You've no doubt all felt it from time to time. Some probably more than others. It's one of the two great motivators of our modern life. Just look at the ads you see on TV. If you analyse them you'll find that most of them use either greed, in one of it's many forms, or guilt. You may have seen that ad for a new cleaning cloth, where you're shown a day in the life of a dishcloth. It's used to wipe up the milk on the bench, a spill on the floor, the cat jumps up on the bench and licks off some food that's been left behind, then the dishcloth is used to wipe away what's left, then to your horror you see the same cloth being used to wipe down the baby's high chair! Don't you feel guilty when you realise that this has been depicting the sort of thing that happens in your kitchen! You'd better go out straight away and buy the new anti-germ dish cloth that they're advertising!
  But of course the problem of guilt isn't just what we have thrust upon us by advertising. We see the results of it in so many areas of life. People suffering from low-self-esteem, who think that they're failures, who feel guilty because they can't do what others expect of them, or what they expect of themselves. People who are workaholics as they try to make up for their shortcomings. People who suffer from stress related illnesses. People who are perfectionists. Others who give up and simply fall into self-indulgence rather than fight it. (a spiral) I read somewhere recently, a psychologist saying that most of his patients could be cured if he could convince them that the guilt they felt wasn't real. So we live in a world where one of the greatest problems, one of the most powerful forces we feel, is guilt. So what do we, as Christians, have to say to this situation? What does the Bible have to say?
  Well, that's where we come to, today, in our series on Zechariah. "Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him." (Zech 3:1) We've had the call to return to the Lord, to learn from their past experience (ch1). We've read the promise of God to restore the fortunes of Jerusalem (ch 2), and now we come to a vision of God's courtroom, as we prepare to discover how God will bring this restoration to be.
  Stand Before the Lord.
  What we find is Joshua the high priest, the same man Ezra refers to as Jeshua (Ezra 2:2), standing before God, with Satan accusing him. So what is he being accused of? Well, it may be that he stands there as the representative of the priests of Israel who have led the people astray and have defiled the worship of God. On the other hand as the high priest he stands as the representative of the people, so perhaps the accusation has to do with the way the nation has turned away from worshipping God to idols. Let me read you the account in 2 Chronicles 36:13-16, of the final state of Israel before the Babylonians captured the city: "Zedekiah also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel. 14All the leading priests and the people also were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the LORD that he had consecrated in Jerusalem. 15The LORD, the God of their ancestors, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place; 16but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against his people became so great that there was no remedy." So there was plenty for Satan to accuse him of wasn't there? (mocking, etc)
  What we see here is something that we all experience from time to time. Satan comes and accuses us of disobeying God. The trouble is, too often we get confused between what's real guilt and what's false guilt. All too often we fell guilty for things that don't really entail guilt. I remember getting on the tram one day several years ago and discovering that I was wearing brown shoes with gray trousers and a blue shirt and being incredibly embarrassed that I could be so poorly colour co-ordinated. But you know I still haven't found the commandment about being colour co-ordinated. Or not wearing stripes with checks, or not wearing socks with sandals. But we feel incredibly guilty if someone points out some faux pas like that, don't we? Some people feel guilty if their house is untidy, or if the lawn isn't mown. And Satan takes delight in accusing us of these trivial things, because he knows how much they distract us from the important things in our lives.
  So how do we work out whether the guilt we're feeling is real or not? Well, clearly our conscience isn't always a good guide. At times it'll convince us that something is wrong just because the latest TV ad tells us so. So how will we know? Only by going to God's word and asking him. You see, as we'll see in a moment, Joshua is standing in the right place to face Satan's accusations. He's standing before the Lord. If you want to know whether the guilt you're feeling is real or not, then bring it to the Lord for his examination. Only God can say whether something is wrong or not. Satan can accuse, but he can't condemn. So here's the first answer we find to the problem of guilt: Stand before the Lord.
  Know God's Choice
  As he stands before the Lord, and as Satan brings his accusation, what happens? The LORD says: "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?" Satan is rebuked, not because his accusations are without foundation. As we just saw, his accusations are well-founded. No, he's rebuked because he fails to understand the call, the choice, of God. And notice what that choice is. The Lord has chosen Jerusalem. Satan thought he was on solid ground accusing Joshua, as a representative of Israel, for all the sins that had led to the downfall of Jerusalem, but in fact he's misread the situation. Far from his rejection of Jerusalem being final, God has again chosen it and with it Joshua and the people of God, despite their sin. It's his gracious choice that's what matters here you see?
  So what about Joshua's guilt? Is God just going to ignore it? Well, we'll see what happens to that in a moment. But first let's think again about our own day. How do we read this today? Well, we're in a similar situation aren't we? We too are faced with Satan's accusations. Yet we too are the objects of God's choice. You might like to keep one finger in this passage while you turn to Rom 8:28. There we read: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is to condemn?" (NRSV)
  You see, it matters a lot that God has chosen you. If he's chosen you and sent his son to die for you, none of Satan's accusations will carry any weight, will they?
  So when you're faced by feelings of guilt, first stand before the Lord, and second, know God's choice of you.
  Receive God's Forgiveness
  But of course it isn't enough to simply know God's choice of us, we also need to experience God's forgiveness. "3Now Joshua was dressed with filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4The angel said to those who were standing before him, 'Take off his filthy clothes.'"
  I want you to notice two things about what happens here. First of all, his clothes really are filthy. That is, his sin is real. The word that's used actually means dung-spattered. Our translation has sanitised it for us. The result is that as high priest Joshua is unable to serve. Nothing unclean was allowed anywhere near the Sanctuary, so the result of his sin is that he's unable to act as high priest, and as a result it means that the people have no way of being made right with God. So as is often the case, this sin, this uncleanness, has wide-reaching ramifications. But secondly, notice that the sin is portrayed as being like an outer garment. It's something that can be removed, It can be cleansed. Joshua can be made acceptable to God again. The sin isn't part of who he is. Do you ever find yourself saying something like: "Oh I'm a terrible person. I can never do anything right." Generalising statements that move from what you do, to what you are. Telling yourself that sin is what you are, rather than what you put on. Now I know that "Clothes make the man!" but please remember that sin doesn't make the person. No-one is irredeemable. Our sin doesn't stop us from being in the image of God, it simply soils that image. What did we discover earlier this year as we were studying 1 John? "If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9 NRSV) That's all unrighteousness. Even that sin you'd rather no-one knew about. Even that sin that you find yourself doing over and over again. There's a story of a time Martin Luther had a dream of Satan reading a long scroll with all his sins on it. Finally Luther jumped up and said 'It's all true, Satan, and there are many more sins that only God knows about; but write at the bottom of your list, "the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from all sin"' and at that Satan fled.
  Before we move on, notice that the removal of sin is done at God's behest, not Joshua's. Joshua could no more cleanse himself than we can. Someone had to take the filthy clothes from him, and that someone is God himself, through his Son Jesus Christ.
  So when you're worried by guilt, stand before God, know God's choice, and receive God's forgiveness.
  Receive God's Acceptance
  But look at what happens now. "to Joshua he said, "See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you with festal apparel." 5And I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with the apparel; and the angel of the LORD was standing by."
  Not only is Joshua cleansed from sin, but now as a sign of God's acceptance he's clothed with rich apparel and a clean turban is put on his head. The turban is part of his high priestly outfit. It had a plaque on the front of it that read 'Holy to the Lord' as a sign that the high priest was set apart for the task of bringing sacrifices for the sins of the people. So Joshua not only has his sins forgiven, he's also reinstated as the high priest. So can you see that for the people this is a twofold remedy. As their representative, his sins being forgiven also signifies their sins being forgiven, but his reinstatement also means that their access to God is now restored.
  This idea of putting on new clothes as a sign of acceptance is an idea that, you may remember, Jesus uses in the parable of the prodigal son. It's not just that we're forgiven, you see, but that God accepts us back. That he restores us to where we were before. Here's how Paul puts it in 2 Cor 5:20-21 "So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." God has not only taken away my sin and your sin, he's replaced it with something else. What is it? 'so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.' He's clothed us with the righteousness of God. So when you're faced with feelings of guilt, stand before the Lord, know God's choice, receive God's forgiveness, and just as important, receive God's acceptance. Know that he's made you righteous in his sight.
  Know Jesus Christ
  Well, having seen this vision, we're now given an insight into how it's to come about. "Then the angel of the LORD assured Joshua, saying 7'Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. 8Now listen, Joshua, high priest, you and your colleagues who sit before you! For they are an omen of things to come: I am going to bring my servant the Branch. 9For on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven facets, I will engrave its inscription, says the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the guilt of this land in a single day. 10On that day, says the LORD of hosts, you shall invite each other to come under your vine and fig tree.'" Suddenly we discover that Joshua and his colleagues are an omen or a symbol of what's to come. Yes, God is about to restore Jerusalem as his dwelling place, but he has a far more glorious plan in mind.
  From a vision of Joshua the high priest being reinstated we jump to a series of references that can only point to the coming Messiah. He's 'my servant,' a term that's used some 20 times in Isaiah alone to refer to the Messiah. He's the Branch, that is, the one through whom all the promises of God to David would be fulfilled. So as the branch he'll be a king from the line of David.
  But then there's this reference to a stone with 7 facets. This might literally be the stone that will form the foundation of the temple that Joshua is helping build, but the stone is also an idea that is used to refer to the coming Messiah: (Isa 28:16 NRSV) "therefore thus says the Lord GOD, See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: "One who trusts will not panic."" So this stone with seven facets, a sign of perfection, is again a pointer to something, someone, that is yet to come, who will remove the guilt of the land in a single day. Well, you don't have to be too clever, this side of the cross at least, to work out that he's referring to Jesus Christ, do you? What we've seen take place in the vision, is a foretaste of what God would do on that first Easter day. For Joshua, the cleansing is contingent on him and the people walking in God's way and keeping his requirements. But now the cleansing that Jesus brings is final. On that one day, his death and resurrection have removed our guilt. They've paved the way for us to enjoy God's presence with us forever, which is the meaning of each of us inviting the other to come under our vine and fig tree. It's a picture of living a life where we enjoy God's blessing.
  So what we find here, not for the last time, I might add, is that the promises made through Zechariah point us forward to the things that God will do through Jesus Christ. What we discover here is the gospel of Jesus Christ in fact. More specifically, we find the freedom that that gospel brings. Freedom from guilt, freedom from the pressures f those around us, freedom from our over strict consciences, freedom to serve God, knowing that he's forgiven our sins, that he's accepted us for who we are, that he's clothed us with his righteousness, and that he now enables us to serve him freely. How will you respond, next time you're feeling guilty? Stand before the Lord, let him examine you; know that he has chosen you to be one of his people; know the forgiveness that he offers; know his acceptance of you; know Jesus Christ.
             
 
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  • I would like to acknowledge and thank the Rev Dr Peter Adam, Vicar of St Judes Carlton, upon whose original work much of this series on Zechariah is based.