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Three Elements of Genuine Conversion Zechariah 12:10-11 By Massimo Lorenzini
[10]
I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem a
spirit of grace and supplications. Then they will look to me, whom they have
pierced, and they will mourn over him as one mourns over the only child, and
they will weep bitterly over him as one weeps over the firstborn. [11] On that
day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning of Haddad Rimmon
in the valley of Megiddon (my translation). Prodigal Son in “F Major” Feeling footloose and frisky, a featherbrained fellow forced his fond
father to fork over the farthings, and flew far to foreign fields and frittered
his fortune; feasting fabulously with faithless friends. Fleeced by his fellows
in folly, and facing famine, he found himself in a filthy farmyard. Fairly
famishing he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from fodder
fragments. “Phooey, my father’s flunkies fare far finer.” The frazzled fugitive
frankly faced facts, frustrated by failure and filled with foreboding, fled
forthwith to his family. Falling at his father’s feet, he forlornly fumbled,
“Father, I’ve flunked. I’ve fruitlessly forfeited family favor.” The farsighted
father, forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged the flunkies to
fetch a fatling from the flock and fix a feast. The fugitive’s faultfinding
brother frowned on fickle forgiveness of former folderol, but the faithful
father figured: “Filial fidelity is fine but the fugitive is found. What
forbids fervent festivity? Let flags be unfurled, let fanfares flare.” So
father=s forgiveness formed the foundation for the
former fugitive’s future fortitude. We’re all familiar
with the story of the prodigal son recorded in Luke 15:11-32. The prodigal son
had to learn about his father’s love the hard way and in the end he experienced
a genuine conversion and was restored to his father’s household with all of its
blessings. It’s very sad to say
that most people spend give more care to examining the produce they buy than
the condition of their own souls. Many people take more time to choose a
toaster or other product than they do their beliefs about God and how they can
know Him. Ray Comfort often asks non-Christians if they would sell their eyes for
a million dollars. No one ever says “yes” because they recognize that their
eyes are priceless and very precious to them. Comfort says that the eyes are
the windows of the soul and since the soul is eternal of how much greater value
is one’s soul? We need to be reminded of the preciousness of our souls and take
the time and care to examine this issue of genuine conversion because our
eternal souls are at stake. You might wonder why
I use the word “conversion” instead of “salvation.” These words refer to very
similar things, but they are distinct. Salvation refers to the great
deliverance from the guilt and the pollution of sin by Jesus Christ. It has
reference to justification, sanctification, and ultimately to glorification.
Conversion, on the other hand, has more to do with a sinner turning to God in
repentance and faith. Salvation is God’s objective work; conversion is our
subjective initial experience of salvation. So conversion is made up of
repentance and faith. These are really two sides of the same coin. Tails—we
turn tail on the corrupt fruits of unbelief; heads—we head straight for Jesus
and trust His promises. It may be you have
never experienced a genuine conversion of repentant faith in Christ alone for
salvation. Maybe you attend church out of habit or a sense of obligation to
your family, but you see no real relevance to God in your own life. You may
wonder why you don’t have any excitement about God, the church, or the Bible.
You may not think sin is such a big deal and you kind of like it more than
church. Or perhaps you do have a desire to know God personally, but you=re not sure about your salvation. You may
have doubts about whether or not you really are a Christian. Or maybe you have
no doubts at all. You are confident that you are a Christian and have had your
sins forgiven by God. Even so, we are exhorted by Scripture to examine
ourselves whether we are in the faith (2 Cor 13:5). Or maybe you’re concerned
for someone else in your life who professes to know Christ, but doesn’t really seem
to back it up with a life of obedience to God. Whatever your situation, I want
us to think about how we can know the genuineness of a claim to know God. I don’t want anyone
to hear these awful words from the lips of Jesus that He said in Matthew 7:21-23, 21 “Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but
he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will
say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast
out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And
then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness!’ ”[1] We’ve heard of the
“10:40 Window” which spans across North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia where
we find the greatest concentration of non-Christians in all the world. This is
an area that missionaries have targeted for special emphasis in world missions.
Today we have people talking about the “7:21 Window.” This has reference to
Matthew 7:21 and the reality of false converts who think they are saved when in
reality they are not. They call the “intra-evangelism.” We now recognize the
need to evangelize people within the church because there are so many false
Christians. The results of mass evangelism demonstrate a 84-97% fall-away rate.
So many who make a profession of faith and claim to be Christians fall-away
from the faith because they were never truly converted in their hearts. We must
examine ourselves in light of God’s Holy Word to see if we really have
experienced a genuine conversion. Now as we consider
our text in Zechariah 12:10-11, allow me to provide some background for this
passage of God’s Word. You may know something about ancient Israel’s history.
For many, though, it’s just a jumble of names and dates and it’s difficult to
put it all together. Let’s do just a quick tour of the history of Judah’s exile
and return. It was during the reign of Israel’s fourth king, Rehoboam, that the
nation divided into Northern and Southern kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom, called
Israel, was sent into exile by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. In 605, Assyria was
toppled by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian, at the Battle of Carchemish (about
250 miles north of Damascus).
The Southern Kingdom
was called Judah. God used Babylon to bring judgment upon them for their
persistent sins. Jeremiah prophesied that Judah would go into exile for 70
years for their violation of their covenant with God. This 70-year exile began
in 605 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar began his invasion and siege of Judah and
Jerusalem and lasted until 536 when the Jews began to return to the land and
began to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. In 586 B.C.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, destroyed Jerusalem and its temple, and exiled
many of Judah=s leaders to Babylon. Later, God raised up
Cyrus, the Persian king, to defeat Babylon (539) and to release the Jews from
captivity. Cyrus also returned the temple vessels and furnishings that
Nebuchadnezzar had plundered and permitted the Jews to rebuild their temple
with Persian funding (Ezra 6:3-5). Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
and Daniel all prophesied during the Babylonian exile. What books of the Old
Testament were written after the Babylonian exile and tell us about Israel=s history during that time? Ezra/Nehemiah,
Esther (the last books of the historical books of the OT), Haggai, Zechariah,
and Malachi (the last books of the Minor Prophets). Zechariah, like
Haggai, prophesied during the reign of Darius I, King of Persia (521-486 B.C.).
Although many of the Hebrews had returned from Babylonian exile, there was very
little restoration of Jerusalem. The Jewish community had a promised beginning
during the first restoration effort under Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel
the governor (ca. 537 or 536 B.C.), but by Zechariah=s time they had become discouraged and the
whole restoration effort was brought to a halt for sixteen years between 536
and 520 B.C. During this time the city walls and the temple continued to lay in
ruins. In response, God sent two prophets to encourage the completion of the
restoration effort. Haggai, prophesying
for only four months in 520 B.C., was able to rouse the people to begin the
temple reconstruction. Zechariah complemented Haggai=s message in calling for a spiritual
restoration. His ministry began two months after Haggai=s and lasted until 518 B.C. Both Haggai and
Zechariah are referred to in Ezra 5:2 as supporting and encouraging the
restoration work until the temple was completed and rededicated during the
Passover Feast of 515 B.C. Zechariah was a Levite
who was born in Babylon (Neh 12:1, 16). He was the son of Berekiah and the
grandson if Iddo the priest (Zech 1:1). Therefore, it’s possible that, in
addition to being a prophet, he was also a priest. And, unlike Haggai,
Zechariah was probably a young man (Zech 2:4). Zechariah=s name means “Yahweh remembers.” Because God
remembers, there is hope for the people of Israel. God will remember his
covenant that he made with Abraham and King David. He will keep his promises to
restore the nation of Israel in the land with the Messiah seated on the throne
of David. So, Zechariah
prophesied during a time of discouragement for the Jews. The restoration of
Jerusalem and the temple was not yet complete. The people of Judah needed to
know that the Lord had not forsaken them. It is against this dark backdrop that
the hope given in Zechariah=s
prophecy shines forth. Zechariah=s
message included a call to repentance (1:1-6), but mainly consisted of
encouragement that God would provide both physical and spiritual salvation (12)
and also establish his reign on the earth through his Messiah (14:9-21). With these issues in
mind, let’s read the text for this message which is Zechariah 12:10-11: “ ‘And
I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit
of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes,
they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as
one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in
Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.’ ” Zechariah predicted,
by the power of the Holy Spirit, that Israel will experience genuine conversion
on the last day. The Apostle Paul also testified concerning this in Romans
11:25-27 where he said, 25 For I do not desire,
brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise
in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the
fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel
will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He
will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 27 For this is My
covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” God promised a genuine conversion to Israel
in numerous other places in the Old Testament. ·
Deut 30:6, And
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, that you
may live. ·
Jer 24:7, Then
I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My
people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole
heart. ·
Ezek 11:19-20, 19 Then
I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take
the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that
they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall
be My people, and I will be their God. ·
Ezek 36:26-27, 26 I
will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the
heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I
will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you
will keep My judgments and do them. As we apply the principles from Zechariah’s
prophecy to today, we learn how we too can experience God’s salvation. You
might ask, “How can I be sure of experiencing the real thing. How can I know if
I have or someone else has experienced a genuine conversion?” Our text gives us
three elements that mark genuine conversion. GENUINE
CONVERSION IS INITIATED BY GOD=S
SOVEREIGN GRACE The first element is that genuine conversion
is initiated by God’s sovereign grace. Look again at verse 10a: “ ‘And I will
pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of
grace and supplication.’ ” Now the subject doing the pouring is the Lord. We
see in verses 1 and 4, the Lord is speaking in the first person which continues
on into our text in verse 10. The
object of the outpouring is “the house of David” and the “inhabitants of
Jerusalem.” Both of these phrases are what we call “metonymy” which is a
literary device that uses a word closely related to what it represents, such as
the White House being representative of the presidency. The “house of David”
represents those with high or royal status while the “inhabitants of Jerusalem”
represents the entire covenant people. The Lord initiates the conversion of
Israel by pouring out a spirit of grace and supplication. All of the predicted
events in our text stem from God’s initiative. God is the one who makes the
first move in conversion. The Jews will not look to the pierced one until God
first pours out upon them a spirit of grace and supplication. The word translated “pour” or “pour out” can
be used literally as in the pouring out of water, blood, or dust. It can also
be used metaphorically, as is the case in our text, as in the pouring out of
one=s heart or complaint. When God is the
subject, it usually describes God pouring out his wrath. Only four instances
have God as the subject and spirit as the object. Three of these (Ezek 39:29;
Joel 2:28, 29), describe God pouring out his Spirit while our text in Zechariah
describes God pouring out “a spirit.” One Hebrew lexicon explained its usage by
saying that it, “does not mean a gradual pouring as required, but rather a
sudden, massive spillage.”
Metaphorically, Zechariah pictures God as imparting fully the “spirit of
grace and supplications.” The “spirit” here is probably not a direct reference
to the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity. Rather it appears to be,
as one commentator explained, “a persuasion or conviction from YHWH that
prompts a course of action. . . . This means that there is divine motivation to
repentance, that is not something worked up by the people themselves.” Another
wrote, “In that day Yahweh will pour out on the house of David and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of eagerness to obtain ‘grace’
(forgiveness).” So even though it seems that our text in
Zechariah does not directly point to the Holy Spirit, it does so indirectly for
all genuine conversion is brought about by the Holy Spirit. A biblical
illustration for this is Peter’s quoting of Joel on the day of Pentecost
recorded in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit had just come upon the believers in
Jerusalem and they began to speak in various languages. The Jews who were
gathered in Jerusalem heard them and accused them of being drunk. The text
records, But Peter, standing up with the eleven,
raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem,
let this be made known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as
you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was
spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, says
God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall
dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My
Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy” (Acts 2:14-18). So we see here that what happened on the day
of Pentecost was a pouring out of God’s Spirit. This wasn’t necessarily a
complete fulfillment of the Joel prophecy, but an illustration to the mocking
Jews that what had taken place was not fanaticism or drunkenness but a
legitimate outpouring of the Spirit of God by the sovereign grace of God. A day at sea in a sailboat would be an
exhilarating experience. Imagine the endless blue sky, a few billowy clouds,
tropical temperatures. All is well. But you haven’t sailed yet. You secure the
sail and position yourself for movement across the sea, but nothing happens.
Why? You need a breeze. It’s possible to hoist the sail of faith when
no wind is blowing. But such faith produces no result. The Greek word “pnuema”
is translated “Spirit” or “wind” depending on context. John 3:8, “The wind
[“pnuema”] blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know
where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the
Spirit [“pnuema”].” Jesus here compares the work of the Spirit in regeneration
with the unpredictability of the wind, yet the effects of it are unmistakable
and undeniable. Many people mistakenly believe that they can
be converted at will. They say, “Yeah I know I’m not saved, but I know that I
can call on God to save me at any time I wish.” Not so, according to Jesus! He
said that you need the work of God’s Spirit to be born again and you cannot
control that any more that you can control the wind. Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the
Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.” Three times the
writer of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 95 saying, “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit
says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts….’ ” In 2 Corinthians 6:2 Paul quotes from Isaiah
49 saying, “For
He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I
have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of
salvation.” In Proverbs 1:20-23, wisdom is personified as
pleading with sinners saying, 20 Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open
squares. 21 She cries out in the chief concourses, At the
openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words: 22 “How
long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their
scorning, And fools hate knowledge. 23 Turn at my rebuke;
Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.” Why does God give such a sense of urgency in conversion? Because there
is a time when it is too late. Wisdom finishes her call in Proverbs 1:24-32
saying, 24 “Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my
hand and no one regarded, 25 Because you disdained all my
counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, 26 I also will
laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, 27 When
your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.” 28 Then they will
call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will
not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge And did not
choose the fear of the Lord, 30 They would have none of my
counsel And despised my every rebuke. 31 Therefore they
shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own
fancies. 32 For the turning away of the simple will slay
them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them. In Genesis 6:3 God told the most wicked
generation, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever.” In verse 7 God said,
“I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.” The
Apostle Peter uses the Great Flood as an example that God will judge the world
again in 2 Peter 3 saying, scoffers will come in the last days, walking
according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the
promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue
as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this
they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the
earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the
world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But
the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are
reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Paul warns us in 2 Thessalonians 1 that the
time is coming when God will judge sinners, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven
with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance
on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power… It is nothing but rebellious, prideful,
wicked presumption to think that you can put off the call of God to repent and
turn to Christ in faith just so you can continue in your sinful independence
from God. You have no guarantee that God’s grace will be offered to you another
minute after you refuse Him. In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus said, “Enter by the
narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to
destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because
narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are
few who find it.” I used to drive the freeways of L.A. County a
lot. I was often in areas I was unfamiliar with and I would often use the
carpool lane to get through the heavy traffic. The carpool lanes in L.A. are
different than the Bay Area because you can only enter and exit at designated
sections. There is a heavy fine for violating this. And sometimes I would stay
in the carpool lane too long and miss my exit. I hated when that happened. And
if you stay in your lane on the wide road that leads to destruction, you have
no guarantee that will you have another opportunity to exit onto the narrow
road that leads to life. You need God’s Spirit to enable you to come
to Christ. If the Spirit of God is calling you today, do not harden your heart!
You cannot come to Christ apart from God’s Spirit filling your sail of faith to
move you to salvation. You can think of it this way, prior to
conversion you are in the spiritual doldrums. The doldrums refers to an area of
the ocean near the equator where there is little or no wind. Solar radiation
near the equator heats the air and it rises up into the atmosphere. The rising
air then travels north and south toward the poles. From approximately 20E to 30E North and South latitude, the air sinks.
Then, the air flows along the surface of the earth back toward the equator. So
along these three areas, the equator, the Tropic of Cancer, and the Tropic of
Capricorn there are these areas where the air is either rising or settling, but
not blowing. Along the equator this is called the doldrums. Along the tropics
it is called the horse latitudes. These areas were a great hazard to sailors of
old who relied on winds to fill their sails and drive their ships. They would
sometimes go for days or even weeks in the doldrums. This would often lead to
shortages of food and water and many died there. The old sailing ships had no
motors to propel them. They simply were at the mercies of the winds. There
could be no movement of the ships unless it was initiated by the winds. The reason the still seas along the tropics
are called horse latitudes is because during the days when Spanish sailing
vessels transported horses to the West Indies, ships would often become stilled
in mid-ocean in this latitude. In an effort to lighten the ships and conserve
drinking water the crews were forced to throw their horses overboard. I’d like
to recite a very short but graphic poem named “Horse Latitudes” that can help
you picture the deadly conditions of the horse latitudes. You may be familiar
with it as it appears as one of the tracks on the 1960s record “Strange Days”
by The Doors When the still sea conspires an armor And her sullen and aborted Currents breed tiny monsters True sailing is dead Awkward instant And the first animal is jettisoned Legs furiously pumping Their stiff green gallop And heads bob up Poise Delicate Pause Consent In mute nostril agony Carefully refined And sealed over This deadly situation is analogous to
conversion. We are at the mercy of God to fill our sails with his Spirit. We
cannot move out of the spiritual doldrums until and unless God graciously pours
out upon us a spirit of grace and supplications. Without God’s initiative,
there can be no conversion. As God’s Word tells us in Romans 3:10-11, “As it is
written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands;
there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have
together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.’ ” Also
Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him”
(John 6:44). If God were to leave you in your unregenerate
state, without taking the initiative to give you new life, a new nature, a new
love for God, you would remain in the spiritual doldrums. On your own, apart
from the grace and mercy of God, you have no interest in Christ or your sin
problem. You would simply languish in the still sea and die there. Even if you
had a giant fan on board with which you could fill your sails and flee the
deadly sea, you would not do it anymore than you will perfectly keep the law of
God. You are not able to save yourself and you have no interest in looking upon
Christ to save you either apart from God’s grace to grant you the new birth.
This is why “you must be born again (John 3:3). Conversion is a condition for
salvation; but regeneration is a condition for conversion. Do you really think you are able to meet the
conditions for conversion on your own? Here’s but a few of the conditions that
Jesus lays out for you: ·
Matt 7:21, “Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but
he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” ·
Matt 16:24-25,
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” ·
Matt 10:37, “He
who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves
son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” ·
Luke 14:33, “So
likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My
disciple.” The Sermon on the Mount teaches us the extent
of the righteousness that God requires of us. In this sermon, Jesus tells us
why we need to be converted. In Matthew 5:20 Jesus said, “For I say to you, that
unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” How must have
these words sounded in the ears of those first century Jewish hearers? The
scribes and Pharisees were the paragons of righteousness. How could those
hearers ever have a righteousness that exceeded theirs? The following is a summary of the several
lessons Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Use these points to consider
if you have the righteousness that can give you a right standing with an
infinitely righteous God: ·
Have you ever
had hatred in your heart towards another? ·
Have you ever
cursed another? Have you ever withheld forgiveness from another? Have you ever
lusted, thereby committing adultery in your heart? ·
Have you ever
illegitimately divorced your spouse thereby causing them to commit adultery if
they remarried along with their new spouse? ·
Have you ever
not kept your word? ·
Have you ever
been unloving toward an enemy? ·
Matt 5:48,
“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Do you see why you need to be converted? Do
you not sense your need for God to have mercy on you and transform you? Don’t
you realize how much you need to be born again? On your own you’re a God-hater.
You don’t hunger and thirst for righteousness. You are not able to deny
yourself and follow Christ in perfect obedience. You must be born again. Everything
in your sinful pride is allied against sovereign grace. It’s not an exaggeration to say that carnal
reasoning hates the merits of Christ. Apart from grace, you would rather do
anything than be saved by Christ alone, because you would rather do anything
that be obligated to Him and owe all to Him and worship Him alone for His
sovereign grace upon you! Give God glory in your honest confession, that you
don’t have it within yourself to cast yourself upon Christ alone for a right
standing with God! You need grace. You must have it or perish forever! Don’t resist the Holy Spirit one second
longer, “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His
voice, do not harden your hearts’ ”(Heb. 3:7-8a). By nature we run and hide from the presence
of God, just like Adam did in the Garden of Eden. Jeremiah 23:24: “Can anyone hide himself in secret
places, So I shall not see him?" says the Lord; "Do I not fill heaven
and earth?" says the Lord.” We must stop running and trying to hide from
our Maker who seeks our good and His glory in our lives. GENUINE
CONVERSION IS BASED ON FAITH IN GOD’S MESSIAH So the first element that marks genuine
conversion is that it is initiated by God’s sovereign grace. The second element
is, genuine conversion is based on faith in God’s Messiah. Look at verse 10b:
“then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as
one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a
firstborn.” The text says the people will “look” on or to the Lord. Literally,
it means to look visually at something or in a specific direction. It also has a figurative meaning which is
highly dependent upon context. The meaning is drawn from the object. In this
sense, it can mean to show regard for, pay attention to, obey, trust in
something or someone, or to look in confidence towards. The emphasis, then, is
not on looking “on” (or “at”) the Messiah literally but on looking “to” the
Messiah in faith (cf. Num 21:9; Isa 45:22; John 3:14-15). The object of the people’s faith is “Me whom
they pierced.” The idea of God being pierced has troubled some interpreters.
But there’s no reason not to see this fulfilled in Christ, the second person of
the Godhead. Indeed, that is how this passage is understood in the New
Testament. John 19:34, 37 reads, “But one of the soldiers pierced His side with
a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. . . . And again another
Scripture says, ‘They shall look on Him whom they pierced.’ ” Also, Revelation
1:7 reads, “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even
they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of
Him. Even so, Amen.” What an amazing prediction! Five and a half centuries
before Christ, Zechariah predicted Messiah’s piercing and in the future Day of
the Lord the remnant of Israel will recognize Jesus as the one they pierced and
mourn greatly for him in genuine conversion and repentance. This also corresponds with the Suffering
Servant passage of Isaiah 53. This is the clearest presentation of the
suffering of Christ on our behalf in the entire Old Testament. In verse 5 it
speaks of Messiah being “pierced through for our transgressions” (so the NIV,
NASB, NKJV footnote). This was predicted over 700 years before it came to pass!
Also, in Psalm 22:16 we read, “They pierced my hands and feet.” This was
written about 1000 B.C. It’s amazing to think that God’s Word predicted the
piercing of the Messiah so long before it actually took place. Back to our text in Zechariah, notice also
that this passage clearly anticipates a two-fold advent of Messiah: (1) When He
was pierced; (2) When the Jews will recognize and trust in Him. Next we observe
a change from the first person pronoun to the third person with “they will
mourn for Him.” This change in pronoun is a grammatical, stylistic feature
without a change of the subject. The Lord is the speaker throughout this
passage. He is the one who is pierced and he is the one for whom the people
will mourn in repentance. This feature is not uncommon in Hebrew composition,
especially in poetic and prophetic language.
The phrases “only son” and “firstborn”
signify that the mourning and grieving will be very great since a firstborn son
was always highly treasured among the Israelites. These phrases are also
reminiscent of Jesus Christ who is the “only begotten Son” (John 3:16) as well
as the “firstborn over all creation” (Col 1:15) and the “firstborn from the
dead” (Col 1:18). Jesus is the pierced one of Zechariah and in order to
experience genuine conversion you must place your faith in him believing that
he died on the cross on your behalf to fulfill the penalty for your sins. It’s
not enough just to acknowledge this as factual truth. It’s not enough to come
from a Christian family. It’s not enough to attend church regularly. You must
embrace Christ personally as your Savior and Lord. Jesus is the only God-ordained object of
faith for salvation. Acts 4:12 says regarding Jesus, “Nor is there salvation in
any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we
must be saved.” Jesus is God’s Messiah. He is God’s chosen means of salvation
for all people everywhere and for all time. All genuine conversion is based on
faith in God=s Messiah. Have you ever come to a point in
your life when you looked to Jesus as your only hope of salvation? Was there ever a time when you embraced Christ
as your personal Savior? Was there ever a time when you didn’t just look at
Christ and put him back on the shelf like the unused medicine but rather you
acted upon your belief and took Christ as your one and only hope of salvation?
Maybe you haven’t, but you want to today. You can trust in Christ today. Don’t
hesitate or put it off for another day. Make your commitment to trust Christ
right now. GENUINE
CONVERSION IS ACCOMPANIED WITH GODLY SORROW AND REPENTANCE Remember, the second element of genuine conversion
is that it’s based on faith in God’s Messiah. The third element is that genuine
conversion is accompanied by godly sorrow and repentance. Look at verse 11: “In
that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at
Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.” “In that day” refers to the siege predicted
against Judah and Jerusalem in verse 2. This siege is believed to occur in the
future, shortly before the visible return of Christ to earth. Some place the
actual conversion of the remnant Jewish community during the middle of the
seven-year tribulation following the battle of Gog (Ezek 38-39). “In Jerusalem”
is possibly another case of metonymy for the remnant Jewish people. The identity of Hadad Rimmon has been the matter of much debate. Hadad, whose cognomen was Ramman, was the head of the Aramaic pantheon. Some scholars identify the Hadad Rimmon of Zechariah 12:11 with this god and the mourning mentioned there with the ritual mourning of this god. Lexically, Hadad Rimmon may be a place in the plain of Megiddo named after Semitic weather gods, though the preponderance of evidence leans toward a deity name made up of a combination of two gods similar in nature, Hadad and Rimmon. Most likely, the reference is to a location
in the plains of Megiddo where King Josiah was slain (2 Chron 35:20-27). In
this understanding, the mourning over the recognition of Israel’s pierced
Messiah will be like that of the mourning over good King Josiah who was slain
in 609 B.C. by Pharaoh Necho. Whatever the meaning is, the mourning is clearly
said to be very great as it says verse 11, “In that day there shall be a great
mourning.” The mourning of the people expresses their profound sorrow and
repentance over their previous rejection and piercing of their Messiah (Isa
53:1-12). Godly sorrow and repentance accompanies genuine conversion and such
is the case here. Imagine a terrorist who has taken hostages is
holed up in a building. The authorities try to persuade him to surrender and
release the hostages. The terrorist says he is sorry for what he has done and
would like to surrender. Yet he continues to kill the hostages one by one and
shoot at the police who are trying to stop him. Could his claim to surrender be
believed? Of course not! If he was serious about his sorrow and desire to
surrender, he would drop the gun and walk out of the building with his arms in
the air. And yet, how many people claim to be sorry
for their sins and wish to honor God with their lives yet they continue to be
unrepentant? They continue to walk according to their own desires and
understanding rather than submitting to God. How about you? Has your conversion
been marked by godly sorrow and repentance? Have you forsaken your sinful
rebellion and turned to follow Christ with all that you are? If not, then you
have not experienced a genuine conversion. For genuine conversion is always
accompanied by godly sorrow for sin and repentance resulting in good works. Theologian Charles Hodge said, The sure test of the quality of any supposed
change of heart will be found in its permanent effects. ‘By their fruits you
shall know them’ is as applicable to the right method of judging ourselves as
of judging others. Whatever, therefore, may have been our inward experience,
whatever joy or sorrow we may have felt, unless we bring forth fruits meet for
repentance, our experience will profit us nothing. Repentance is incomplete
unless it leads to confession and restitution in cases of injury; unless it
causes us to forsake not merely outward sins, which others notice, but those
which lie concealed in the heart; unless it makes us choose the service of God
and live not for ourselves but for Him. There is no duty which is either more
obvious in itself, or more frequently asserted in the Word of God, than that of
repentance. So where do you find yourself today? Has this
message served to reinforce your confidence that you have indeed experienced a
genuine conversion? Or perhaps you now realize more than ever that you have not
experienced a genuine conversion? If the latter, allow me to tell you that God
wants to provide you with a genuine conversion. He was pierced to secure your
salvation. He has the power to regenerate you, to give you new life. If God is
dealing with you now to place your faith in his Son, you can and ought to do so
right now. If God is dealing with you to be broken over your sins and genuinely
repent of them, do it now. Agree with God that your sin deserves His just
punishment and that Jesus is offered to you as the only terms of peace. God
wants to provide you with a genuine conversion that is initiated by his
sovereign grace, based on faith in his Messiah, and accompanied by godly sorrow
and repentance. Won’t you call on Him in repentant faith? His promise is sure,
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I
will by no means cast out” (John 6:37). |
