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Chris Osborne, Professor of Preaching and Pastoral Ministry, and James T. Draper Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Southwestern Seminary, preached from Zechariah in SWBTS Chapel on November 6, 2025.
So open your Bibles. Please to the book of Zechariah. We’re going to look at the first eight chapters. It is how it’s divided. I don’t generally do eight verses, much less eight chapters, so this is a little difficult for me. I did, though, check what Augustine said about it. No, just, I don’t know what Augustine said about it. I just say that because the systematic guys salivate whenever I say that name. I enjoy going to Washington, DC. I enjoy it. I love the museums, Smithsonian. I love the Spy Museum. It’s my favorite. Very interactive. You have the change in the guard. You have the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Arlington seminary, Evans grill. There’s just all sorts of cool things to visit. But if you told me tomorrow that they were moving DC, moving the capital to some other city that would be better, like, say, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, if they were to move it somewhere like that. I don’t care. I have not a single bit of emotional tie to Washington, DC.
But if you’re a Jew, you are deeply and passionately committed and attached to Jerusalem. It’s the passion of your life that was from the day David founded it, or captured it. Until today, we’re taking our 10th tour group to Israel in December, and we happened to be there the year that Trump had agreed that Jerusalem was the capital. I have in my office a couple of newspapers headlines from the Jerusalem Post where they talk about they have a picture of Trump, picture of pence. They’re still, to this day, passionate about Jerusalem, which is why it’s hard to understand why we have eight chapters in this first section of the book. Should have only been two. What Dr doctor, he read, is the essence. This is what the Lord says, in mercy, I return to Jerusalem. My house will be rebuilt within it. This is a declaration of Lord of Armies, verse 17, chapter one. This is what the Lord of Armies says, My cities will again overflow with prosperity. The Lord will eat once more comfort Zion and again. Choose Jerusalem if you’re a Jew. That is absolute life to you. God’s going to take us back.
He’s going to rebuild Jerusalem. He’s going to make it great again. We’ve been out for 70 years. He turned on us, but he’s back. You are deep. You are ready to go. You don’t need to hear anything else. And so, sure enough, you’ve got this promise. But then look in chapter two, verse six, here’s what he says, Listen, listen, flee from the land of the north. This is the Lord’s declaration. I have scattered you like the four winds of heaven. This is the Lord’s declaration. Listen, Zion, escape you who are living with daughter. Babylon, for the Lord of army, says this, in pursuit of his glory, He sent me against the nations plundering you. Whoever touches you touches the pupil of my eye, so you don’t need it. But those two chapters, what God says is, I’m going to rebuild the capital that you love, this place you adore. I’m going to rebuild it. My eye is on you. I care about you. I adore you. So what I want you to do is where you are in exile. I want you to come home and come back to Jerusalem, come back. Really. Should have been enough, but you have six more chapters. Listen to what he says.
Chapter three, verse eight. Listen high priest, Joshua and your colleagues before you, sitting before you indeed. These men are a sign that I am about to bring my servant the BRANCH. Notice the stone I’ve set before Joshua, and that one stone are seven eyes. I will engrave an inscription on it. This is the declaration of Lord of Armies. I will take away the iniquity of this land in a single day. He adds this says, Look, I’m going to restore the city, but just for a little more incentive, incentivizing, I’m going to put my Messiah in this city, and I’m going to in one day, get rid of all your sin. What a great. Promise doesn’t stop there. You go to chapter four, beginning verse four, ask the angel who’s speaking with me, what are these, my Lord? Don’t you know what they are? Replied the angel, no, my Lord, He answered me, this is the word of the Lord. Is a rubable not by strength or by my but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Armies. God adds another thing. He says, Look, I don’t care who your human leader is.
I’m the one behind this deal. It’s my spirit that’s going to bring the branch. It is my spirit that’s going to rebuild Jerusalem. It is my spirit that’s going to honor it when you come home. Doesn’t stop there. Look, in chapter six, verse 15, the people who are far off will come and build the Lord’s temple. You will know that the Lord of Armies has sent me to you. This will happen when you fully obey the Lord your God. He says, Look, it’s not just you. Everybody’s going to come. You’re going to bless the entire world. Still not done. Chapter Eight, he has a long section. I love what he says in verse five, the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in them.
The Lord of Armies says this, though it may seem impossible to remnant of these people in those days, should it also seem impossible to me? So why all the extra incentivizing they love Jerusalem and the fact that God says I’m going to bring you back home? That is just holiness to them, but he goes on for six more chapters. Why? Why does God have to practically beg them to come home to the capital they love what he’s promised them is, I have a purpose for you back home. You will be a part of the rebuilding of My Kingdom. My glory will reside there as you honor the branch, the Messiah, the king. That’s his promise. Why does it take eight chapters? If you were one of the ones that were alive when the exile first occurred, this is a dream to you get to go back home, but if you’re 45 years old and you were born in the 15th year of the exile, Jerusalem is a story.
It’s not a memory. You’ve never been to Jerusalem. You’ve never been to Israel. You have no emotional attachment to the city because you’ve never been there. It’s a story. You’ve heard about Abraham and Isaac. You know about Mount Moriah, you know about David. You’ve heard the story, but you have no attachment because you’ve never been there. You have if you’re 45 years old, living anywhere, baby into Persia. If you’re 45 you’ve already built your life, married, you’ve had children, you’ve established a business, whether you’re ranching, farming, some sort of marketplace thing, you’ve established your business. You’ve literally, physically built your home.
You built the furniture, you put in it. So when you read this, you understand, if I go to the city I’ve never been to, I’ve got to literally give everything I have completely up. There’s no moving vans in this day. I can’t take my house, can’t take my furniture, can’t take my business. I’m used to the customs and the culture here. I’ve got the language down, and now you’re telling me I’ve got to go to the land I’ve never been to start completely over. I’ve got to rebuild a house, I’ve got to rebuild furniture, I’ve got to re establish a business in a land I’ve never been to and holds no emotional attachment for me, except for a story. Why would I go home? There are two things you have to believe about this to leave where they are and go to Jerusalem. There are two things you have to believe. One is, you got to believe that God’s actually going to do what he says he’s going to do. He’s going to fill Jerusalem back.
Boys and girls will be playing in the street. The branch is going to come. You’ve got to. Believe all that that your purpose. He has a purpose for you in going home to rebuild the kingdom so his glory can shine as you honor His Messiah. You got to believe that. But here’s the second thing you have to believe now, listen, you have to believe that all of that is worth your sacrifice. You have to believe both of us. You have to believe God’s going to honor his word, and you have to believe that it’s worth you giving up everything you have here to go here and completely start over. You’ve got to believe that that it’s absolutely worth it. I love this book because that is the principle and the promise you’re going to have to live on in the ministry. You even though we’re not in Nigeria or anywhere like that, American church ministry is difficult. It is sacrificial. You’re here because you’re at the beginning of that call. It’s almost like you’re in Babylon. God’s calling you. You come here, you’re prepping, but at some point you’re going to leave this school and you’re going to step out into the ministry, and when you do, you’re going to understand it is absolutely sacrificial.
It’s not an easy life. Your time is gone. I don’t know how many times my wife and I would be on vacation somewhere, get a phone calls. Jim had died. They wanted me to come back and do the funeral. I have to leave vacation, leave my family, go back, do the funeral, meet them later on the vacation. I can’t tell you how many times my wife and I still joke about that you’re going to be sitting at the supper table. Get a phone call, been a car wreck, one of your church members, you got to leave and go somebody’s having surgery. Seven o’clock in the morning. You got to get up, drive to that hospital and be there at 530 to pray with them before they go. Under your time is not your own. It’s gone. But the real hard thing is what I call the washing machine oscillation. Your emotions are just going to do this. All of your ministry are going to be really great days, really, really hard days, great day and a hard day, and they go back and forth. You can preach Sunday, have 25 people join four by salvation.
You go home. It’s great. You’re excited. It’s been a great day. Walk into the office. Monday morning, your secretary goes boy. Yesterday was great. Your sermon was awesome. God moved. It was great to see all those people join those people being saved. It’s just so good. And then at 10 o’clock, your secretary is going to buzz you and say, there’s a phone call from Bob. You’re going to pick it up. Here’s the first thing Bob’s going to say to you and say, you know, brother, Chris, I feel like you need to know. Now, when you hear that phrase, it’s not good, and then you’re going to hear this phrase, I just think you need to know. There are a lot of people talking now, let me tell you what that means.
Means that person on the other end of the phone and two other people, but that’s what they’re going to tell you. And he’s going to say, you know, brother Christian, a lot of people talking, I just think you need to know a lot of people saying that you really shouldn’t be the pastor here now, when you hang up phone up the rest of the week, not just the rest of money. The rest of the week, you’re going to be captivated by that phone call, not by what happened on Sunday. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s absolutely true, and then just the vagaries of ministry. I was 29 when I went to my third church in Midland, Texas, my wife and wife and I became very close to a couple bill and Faye. Height.
Bill was, of all the people I’ve known in all my life, the single nicest man I’ve ever known. And so my wife and I developed great friendship with Bill and Faye. As a matter of fact, his picture is up in my office. And we developed this great friendship. Spent a lot of nights with him, laughed, cut up, just rich. He was a member of the country club, and so every Friday, he took me to the country club, and we ate at a seafood buffet every every Friday at lunch. I mean, we just had a rich relationship. So. Make a long story short, he developed some embolism issues, and they said he’s going to die. And so sure enough, one night, family called me. I got close to the kids, Karen, Judy, David and Karen called me and said, Listen, said Dad’s not going to make the night. So I go to the hospital, I walk in the room, and when I walk in, Bill’s eyes focus on me.
He is cognizant, but he can’t communicate, he can’t talk. He’s tried to write. He can’t do that anymore, and he’s just but his eyes are focused on me, and he’s agitated. And as I walk around the room speaking to the kids and their spouses, He’s following me around the room, and he’s just agitated. And so I think I looked at Karen, and I said, Look, I think, I think probably I need to go. And she said, No, why don’t you go sit down next to him? Still, hard for me, so I go and sit down next to him on the bed, and he stops the agitation. He takes his arm and he puts it around me just to say, Bye. So he dies. Shortly after that, I drive home, I have to stop. I’m weeping uncontrollably for like 20 minutes. I just I’m shot, so I have to do the funeral. And their question is, why would God take a guy as nice as dad? And I have the same question. So I have to do the funeral. And then here’s the tough thing about ministry. I’ll do the funeral on Thursday. I got to preach Sunday to a bunch of people coming with their Bibles open, saying, Okay, I’m struggling with stuff in my life. Tell me something from this that can get me through this week. And I’ve got to preach in the midst of horrific grief, that emotional oscillation is just crippling. And then on top of that, you have no money.
There is no money in the ministry. Zip, I learned that in my first church. I was in my last semester of seminary, and I took a church in Oakwood, Texas. So we were my wife, and I would drive down on Saturday, we’d drive back on Sunday night. So I’m driving back one Sunday night. And don’t listen to Dr McKellar. He exaggerates my driving speed, but I’m driving back and I’m speeding. Just a little highway patrolman pulls me over, comes the window. He says, Look, man, you’re speeding. I’m going to have to write you a ticket. Okay, so he comes back, got the ticket, he just about signed and he said, What are you doing here? You got a Fort Worth address?
I said, Yes, sir. I’m in my last semester at seminary. I just took a church in Oakwood. He said, Are you a memorial Baptist? I said, Yes, sir. He said, Oh, shoot son. You need the money and tore up the ticket. That was my first realization. You don’t make money in the ministry. So when you get out there and you deal with the time and the crush in your soul and you struggle to make ends meet, you’re going to want to quit. This is not the hard time. You’re prepping. John bazano, when he first entered the ministry, was pastor at first use, and before gregmont was and I think it was his father in law who said, I want you to write down the top 25 people you know in the ministry right now. So bizarre. Wrote them all down in the fly leaf of his Bible. He said, In five years, there were only three names left. Every time I pick up Facebook, somebody’s quit, somebody’s quitting. And I get it, I do.
It’s hard, but I want you to understand something, you quit for the same reason, some of these people are not going to go to Jerusalem if you quit, and I fear that a number of you will in the beginning, you’re in the beginning of the call, you’re prepping, and when you get out and start living there, what happened that Zechariah problem is exactly what’s going to happen to you. God’s going to move you somewhere so that his kingdom can be advanced through you. You so that His glory can shine through you as you honor his son. That’s his call for you. And when you get out there, it is going to be tough. I get it, but just be honest, if you do quit, it’s not because it’s hard.
It’s because either you don’t believe God is going to do what he promised Zechariah he would do, or you don’t think the sacrifice in your life is worth his call. That’s a real reason we quit. And I know it’s hard. I spent 43 years ago, and I understand it’s hard, but I will tell you this, the only days I would take back in my life are the days when I didn’t do it well. Every other day I wouldn’t take back, because when I look back, it’s the richest thing I could have done with my life. And I wanted to quit second church. I thought, if this is all there is to it, I don’t want to do it. I get it. But if you hang in there, everything God says to Zechariah about Israel is exactly what he’ll do with your ministry. He will place you where he wants you. He will impact the kingdom through you. He will get glory out of your life as you honor his son and your sacrifice will be worth all of that. Adrian Rogers made a statement one time. He said, We don’t need smaller problems. We need bigger people. I would tweak that a little and say we don’t need easier churches. We need stronger faith. Let’s pray.
Father again. I just ask you for everybody in this room, they’re in that call, they’re in that prep for it, and they will leave soon. Promise you made to Zechariah still true. The segments of that promise are still true for us, and so Father, as you enact those in our life and we face some hard times, let us trust that no matter what we face, it’s worth what you want to do in our life. And I just pray that those of us in this call will finish the call. I ask you that in Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.
