April 3, 2026 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Zechariah 3:8-9 (NIV84) “GONE IN A SINGLE DAY!”

 

GOOD FRIDAY

April 3, 2026

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Zechariah 3:8-9 (NIV84)

 

“GONE IN A SINGLE DAY!”

 

          If you were at our Midweek Lenten services you know that we have been looking at prophecies from the Old Testament prophet Zechariah. He’s called the Holy Week prophet. Some 500 years before Jesus was born God had Zechariah point us to what Jesus would do as our Savior with many of the pointed prophecies finding fulfillment during Holy Week. Today’s is fittingly a Good Friday prophecy. Here is how it happened. God showed Zechariah a vision of the High Priest Joshua being accused by Satan. Joshua was covered in filthy clothes which symbolized his sin and the sins of the people. Then the Lord exchanged Joshua’s filthy clothes with clean pure richly ornament clothes which symbolized the righteousness of Christ. Then came this prophecy.

 

Zechariah 3:8-9 "Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. ⁹See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.”

 

“GONE IN A SINGLE DAY!”

 

          This is prophecy. Filled with symbolism. But it is not new symbolism. It has been used elsewhere. Joshua and his associates, the priests. They were symbols of Jesus the great High priest. Joshua and the priests had made animal sacrifices for the sins of the people over and over and over again. Why? Those sacrifices did not take away any sins. They were symbolic of what was to come. Jesus. Then there is the servant called the Branch. Nothing new here either. The Root of Jesse. The Branch from David’s Stem. Same thing. The Messiah who was a descendant of David, the son of Jesse. From Him God’s church would branch out and grow. He is also called the stone with seven eyes. Jesus is the cornerstone, the stone that causes people to stumble if they reject Him and He sees all. And then the inscription that is engraved so it can not be changed. I will remove the sin of this land/world in a single day. Gone in a single day.

 

          The historians record for us some pretty impressive single day losses. You are familiar with Black Friday, a day when merchants gain a lot of money and consumers lose it. Some of you may have heard of Black Monday or Black Tuesday or Black Thursday. Those are days when the stock market had its biggest single day loss. On the worst, gone in a single day was 22% of wealth. Some people who invested in single stocks found their entire life savings gone in a single day. Or think of some of the wildfires that have plagued our west coast. In a single day thousands of acres of forest and thousands of homes and millions of dollars of property gone. Gone in a single day. To end World War 2 in the Pacific, President Truman ordered the use of atomic bombs. The first fell on Hiroshima. Gone in a single day, 70,000 people. Many more deaths occurred later.

 

          Gone in a single day. Did you notice something in common with all those single day losses? Lives were ruined and lost. That’s what sinful man can easily accomplish. Destruction. Greed ultimately drives stock market crashes. Many of the wildfires were caused by man’s foolish use of fire although, a squirrel chewing on a wire can do the same. War. Zechariah’s prophecy pointed to something different. This gone in a single day would not ruin lives. It would save them. What was gone in a single day? The sins of the world. When? The day we are celebrating. How? Jesus, the Righteous Branch. All those Old Testament priests with all their always repeated sin sacrifices were symbolic, pictures or what Jesus would do. Jesus is the Lamb of God. He offered Himself. He stayed on the cross in agony. For three hours darkness covered the land as God was forsaken by God. For one purpose. To take away the sins of the world. Every pastor’s sins. Every member’s sins. Every parent’s sins. Every child’s sins. Every everyone’s sins. Yours and mine. Every sin committed. Every one that would be. Gone in a single day. Just as was told in prophecy. It is finished. No more payment for sin is required. No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Our sins have been removed, gone in a single day. And the result is not destruction but salvation. Life. New life now. We don’t exist to serve self and sin, we get to serve Jesus. New and perfect life to come. Come back on Sunday to hear about that! Gone in a single day. Not our doing. Jesus did it. What’s left to say but thank you Jesus. Let’s do that now by singing a fitting Good Friday hymn, Thank You Jesus!