Evening Sermon - 27th September 2026 - The City Without Walls: God's Vision for His Church

We're gonna turn in our Bibles if we could to Zechariah chapter two.

Zechariah chapter two and we're going to read the whole chapter.

Zechariah chapter two and this is the third vision that Zechariah has.

And I lifted my eyes and saw and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.

Then I said where are you going?

And he said to me to measure Jerusalem to see what is its width and what is its length.

And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward and another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, run, say to the young man, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls because of the multitude of the people and the livestock in it.

And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in the midst.

Up, up, flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord, for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord.

Up, escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.

For thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.

Behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall become plunder for those who serve them.

Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me.

Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord.

And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in your midst and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.

And the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the Holy Land and will again choose Jerusalem.

Be silent all flesh before the Lord for he has raised himself from his holy dwelling.

Now the book of Zechariah as we look at it focuses very specifically on the city of Jerusalem.

The prophet was one of those who returned to Jerusalem around five eighty three BC to restore the city after its desolation some fifty years earlier at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

They had not come to reestablish the nation of Israel.

They hadn't come to reestablish the Davidic monarchy but rather to restore what had been for four hundred years the very center of Jewish life, the city of Jerusalem.

Now Jerusalem's significance of course goes way back into the Old Testament since David's establishment of the city as Israel's capital and the home of the Ark of the Covenant in the tenth century BC and especially after the construction of Solomon's Temple on Mount Zion, the city was the spiritual center of God's people and God dwelt in Jerusalem and there the people came to worship.

But as the record of the prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah shows there was a false sense of security which arose over time.

The people came to believe that no matter how great their sins were Jerusalem as God's city would never fall.

And the events of five eighty six BC changed all that.

God allowed Jerusalem's walls to be breached, the giant stones of the temple were toppled, the city's walls were broken down and the people fell by the sword.

And this experience might have led to a decline in the spiritual importance of the city because the city was left in absolute desolation.

Donald E.

Guyan in one of his commentaries on the book of Zechariah says this, The events of history have thoroughly demonstrated the falseness of any belief in Jerusalem's invulnerability and the prophets had already explained the inadequacy of such a belief.

If anything new was to come out of that devastating experience presumably it ought to have been a theology and practice that de emphasized Jerusalem since it had been the site of their greatest failure.

But the prophets labored hard to keep the people from losing their interest in the city of God.

Isaiah for instance spoke to his generation that would return and he spoke these words in Isaiah chapter 52 in verse one as he thinks of them returning.

He says, Awake awake on your strength, O Zion.

Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.

Thinking of the children of Israel returning.

And from the perspective of the New Testament we see why the theme of the holy city was so important because it pointed to something greater to come.

The New Testament church, the eternal city of God that's in heaven.

And Abraham of course is the model of faith because if you remember we're told in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 10, he was looking forward to a city with foundations whose designer and builder is God.

We're told in Hebrews twelve twenty two, it tells us the early Christians, You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God.

And the city of Jerusalem was not an end in itself, but it was an important means that God wanted restored and a model for God's future work in the church.

It was there pictorially.

It was there symbolically for something greater that was to come.

This brings us to the heart of our study in Zachariah's third vision a message that we can rightly title this evening The Church God Sees.

And here God overturns the mere human measurement of His people and He sets before us His own expansive purposes.

And in this chapter we see four important truths concerning the church.

First of all, we see God's perspective on the church correcting our limited worldly measuring lines with His own great measuring lines.

Secondly, we see God's vision for the church, a vast ever expanding city without walls open and overflowing with people.

And then thirdly, we see God's presence in the church Himself, the wall of fire around her and the glory in her midst.

And then fourthly and finally we see God's invitation to join the church, the urgent call to flee the fearing city of this world and take our place in the everlasting city of God.

And may the Lord as as we think of these things use this vision to lift our eyes from the rubble of human expectation to the magnificent future he has planned for his church.

So first of all, I want you to see God's perspective on the church.

God's perspective on the church.

God spoke to Zechariah about the city of Jerusalem in this third vision and it was given to the prophet around five twenty BC.

The first vision is recorded, if you remember, in chapter one verses seven to 17 in which God promises to return to Jerusalem to build and to bless.

The second vision occurs in chapter one verses 18 to 21 which we looked at last week and it's an assurance of God's ability to overcome those who threaten to attack and scatter His people.

The first vision is about blessing and the second vision is all about security.

The third vision picks up on a statement made in the first vision about God's planning to build up the city.

We read in verse 16 of chapter one, the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.

And then we move into chapter two and we meet the man with the measuring line.

Verses one and two of chapter two, and I lifted my eyes and saw and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.

And then I said, where are you going?

He said to me, To measure Jerusalem to see what is its width and what is its length.

Now there are a variety of opinions regarding the identity of this man who's got the measuring line.

Most commentators see him as one of the many angelic messengers who populated Zechariah's visions.

And the point of the measuring line is that Jerusalem so desolate and ruined in Zechariah's time would be built up and it would be inhabited.

And there's another view however that makes good sense in the context of this third vision.

Bible scholar Elizabeth Aktemeyer sees this figure with the measuring line as a visionary symbol of human expectations for the city.

A measurement of the width and the length of Jerusalem according to human reckoning.

And she says this, This man has believed the prophet's message that Jerusalem will be rebuilt.

He expects the new Jerusalem to be no different from the old and he would therefore conform its measurements to those that it had before the fall.

And this view makes sense because of what happens next.

Look at what we're told in verses three and four of chapter two.

And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward and another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, run, say to that young man, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls because of the multitude of the people and the livestock in it.

And here the human perspective is corrected by God's perspective on the city.

With great urgency, the angel is sent to stop the man measuring for the wall he assumed would be built around the city.

This presents a point that should really be taken in by us and applied to our hearts today.

From what source are we to get our perspective on the church?

Is it on ourselves or is it on God?

What should provide our vision and aspiring expectation regarding ourselves as the people of God?

And there are really only two choices which I've already alluded to.

And those two choices are either a perspective from man or a perspective from God.

And if we're to take our view of the church from man, we might listen to the measurements of the world.

Perhaps the sociological surveys that are done.

And they're common of course today.

They tell us how many of us there are.

The beliefs that are popular within the church, the heresies that are rising in the church.

And at best these tell us only what is, but they don't tell us what ought to be.

What ought to be.

And looking at these surveys, we often feel the way Zechariah did as he surveyed the toppled ruins of a once glorious Jerusalem.

The situation seems worse all the time or getting worse all the time with little hope of improvement.

Indeed, whenever we view the church through human yardsticks as the man with the measuring line was doing in Jerusalem in Zachariah's vision, we end up limiting God by our meager worldly appraisal of what can actually be achieved.

And Zachariah's vision reminds us that we need our measuring line to be corrected and controlled by God's measurements.

It's to him that we must turn for a vision of the church both in terms of what it ought to be and in terms of what it will be.

And specifically it's from the Bible that we learn what the church really is.

What is its expectation or what its expectation should be and what God intends to do in it and through it.

The church we're told in Isaiah chapter 60 and verse 21 is the shoot that God has planted.

God says the work of my hands for the display of my splendor.

And the church is the beloved bride of Christ.

It's the body of Christ that's the flock over which God is shepherd precious to Him and purchased with His blood in which God intends to display His manifold wisdom to the heavenly realms.

It's all set out in Scripture.

What's your vision for the church?

Look at the Bible.

What's the truth concerning the church?

It's how God has a perspective on it and it's getting your mind engaged with His perspective and not your own ideas.

And what's true of the church is also true of us as individuals.

Our expectations for ourselves derived from the world are always lower than God's expectations.

We want to be comfortable.

We want to be happy.

We want to be secure.

But God intends for us to bear and reflect His own glory forever and that's why He refines our character and faith in trials and tribulations and in difficulties.

God's perspective on the church.

But then secondly I want you to see God's vision for the church, God's vision for the church.

If this prophecy tells us that the human perspective must be overruled by God's perspective it also gives God's vision for His city.

We learn this from the angel who gave instruction to the angel who served as an interpreter for Zechariah.

If you look at verse four there it says, Run, say to the young man, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls because of the multitude of people and livestock in it.

And there's a great description of the church here, a city without walls.

And the most immediate meaning has to do with the sheer abundance of people and provision God intends for this city.

He doesn't envisage or envision a modest enterprise easily encompassed by walls.

Literally the angel says the city will be as a walled village because of the expanse of her people and beasts.

And the idea is that of an ever growing urban sprawl and the way that cities today keep growing outwardly.

You know some commentators argue that this prophecy has never been found in a literal sense, in an earthly fulfillment and therefore they point to some future time perhaps in a national Israel or in a millennial kingdom after Christ's return.

But I would respond by pointing out that the basic idea was fulfilled in the years following Zechariah for the rebuilding of Jerusalem was such that it was reestablished.

That the nation did grow, the nation did prosper barely in a way that Zachariah would have hoped, but this vision of expansion is fulfilled in the church of Jesus Christ.

Think of the age of the apostles.

Jesus sent them first to preach the gospel in Jerusalem, but He directed them to move outward from that to witness to all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth, and that's exactly what happened.

The book of Acts records the expansion of the gospel out from the Jews to the God fearing Gentiles to the Samaritans and finally to the pagan Gentiles and across the ancient world to Rome itself.

And this is the very thing that the angels showed Zechariah, an ever spreading city of God.

And today that city has expanded to every continent on earth.

And the vision forcefully confronts us if we're pessimistic about the success of the gospel.

It's easy for us to think of the church in a beleaguered state to see ourselves as weak and besieged and therefore to become inward focused and even pessimistic.

But God tells us as He told Zechariah that his city will be vast because of the multitudes brought in and we're engaged in gospel labor and a giant divine enterprise that is designed as God said to Abraham to bring blessing to all the peoples of the earth.

Remember, go back to Genesis chapter 12.

And that must have been a staggering thought to Zechariah, part of the small and weak remnant that had returned to reestablish this broken, wrecked, ruined city.

And like us the prophet needed God to lift his eyes above the present struggles to see God's own vision for His own city.

And to quote Elizabeth Aktemeyer again, she says, So few seem to take the word to heart and the body of Christ appears weak over against the powers and propaganda of the world.

She continues, But here is another picture, God's redeemed crowding the streets of the New Jerusalem bursting out beyond the city limits, covering the surrounding hills as the sun covers the seashore.

The most obvious meaning of this description is numerical expansion but surely this idea of a city without walls speaks of the very character of the church as well.

We are a city, yes, we have a certain society with our own cultures, our own way of speaking, our own way of acting, and we shouldn't be troubled by that.

We shouldn't be troubled to be different or peculiar.

Yet ours is a city without walls, that is without needless barriers open to all who will come inviting those who will inquire.

And the churches to be the farthest thing from a secret or a closed society instead, we're a city without walls freely sharing our secrets and inviting all to come in.

Isn't that what happened?

And isn't that what we find in the age of the apostles?

Israel had been a city with walls.

It had been caught up with all sorts of restrictions, circumcision and prohibitions and table fellowship were all about at this time.

And we read in Acts and the epistles we find all of these temporary regulations are abolished as the church spread outward into the world, openly inviting all who would come.

And in the greatest contrast to the walled Judaism Paul writes, Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian and sentient slave free, but Christ is all and in all.

And this is the way it must be today as well.

All must feel free to come, be welcomed, feel loved, And yes, they must hear God's message.

They must hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Saviour from sin.

But there must be no barrier see of that of their own unbelief and that must be powerfully confronted of course with God's Word and God's grace and they can be found in the church.

They can be saved.

God's vision for the church.

But then thirdly I want you to see God's presence in His city.

God's presence in His city or God's presence in His church and this vision begs a question that would have been obvious in Zacharias time, if the city had no walls, where's the protection?

Where's the protection?

What about the hostile forces on the outside?

The answer is stunning in its simplicity and power.

Look at verse five, what does it say?

God says, I will be to her a wall of fire all around her.

And Jerusalem had a great wall before, but that didn't keep her from destruction, that didn't keep her from being overrun.

Walls alone never provide real protection.

And that's not just true spiritually, but it's true militarily.

As Genghis Khan is said to have remarked, It's not the stokeness of the walls, but the spirit of the defenders that determines the strength of a city.

And the reality was not lost in Zechariah.

And to quote Elizabeth Aktemeyer again, she writes of this vision, Lying at the young man's feet are the stones and the rubble of the old walls that furnished no protection.

Zechariah projects that picture into a lesson for the future.

She says the only sure defense for Israel is God Himself, who will be like a wall of fire round about His people.

And we're intended to recall the pillar of fire that guided Israel through the Exodus and so shall God always be for His church even surrounding us with that Almighty presence.

And this is why it's the greatest folly for Christians to rely on worldly sources of protection and strength.

The Old Testament made this point over and over again when Israel's king sought worldly power instead of God's favor, He invariably brought about their defeat.

But when the people humbled themselves before God in prayer, the Lord Himself came to their defense.

And God always says to His people what He said to the faithful king Jehoshaphat, Stand firm, hold your position and see the salvation of the Lord.

Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed.

The Lord will be with you.

And think of the walls we Christians tend to erect around our own lives, none of which offers the kind of security only God can give, money, position, relationships, political leverage.

Take the example here of the political process taking this last example, we're surely allowed to participate in a political process.

Of course we are, But you know sometimes instead of bombarding Stormont and Westminster with carefully crafted objections we would do better to live out our faith boldly before the world while we seek help from God in fervent prayer.

God alone is the protector of His church and He is an all sufficient defender and the whole church history bears this out for as Jesus told Peter the gates of hell will not prevail against his church.

But some will reply, well the church might be persecuted and yes God will preserve his church in persecution.

Consider the church in The Sudan, one of the war torn villages there, Chali, which was also one of the first missionary stations in that country from which the Odok tribes were thoroughly converted to Christianity.

Way back in 1996 Charlie was attacked by forces, Islamic national government forces, and the church there was blown apart.

Bibles were gleefully torn up on the pages used to rule cigarettes.

And most of the men were killed.

Some were crucified while the women were taken and abused.

And all this was because of their Christian faith.

And this may lead some to question God's ability to protect his own.

But the Odoks themselves don't question this about God at all.

When they recaptured Cali or when the rebels recaptured Cali in 2000 the Christians returned.

And the first thing that they did was to rebuild the church.

And there they gathered to worship and pray and worship God.

And of God's sufficiency for them their pastor Simon Mahmoud remarked, he said, We have nothing but we have everything.

We have nothing but we have everything and God is able to protect and prosper His church in the face of the sword.

What about the pen?

God can preserve His church from the assaults of intellectuals and sophisticated unbelief.

One man who thought God could not was the French atheist Voltaire if you remember whose writings were very popular during the enlightenment.

And he wrote that in fifty years from his time no one would remember Christianity.

In twenty years he said Christianity will be no more.

My single hand shall destroy the edifice and it will destroy the writings of the 12 apostles.

But you know twenty years passed and Christianity remained.

And Voltaire however, he died and he did die.

He even in his death remembered Christianity.

He cursed Christ in his death.

But you know fifty years after Voltaire's famous boast, the house from which he had assaulted God's church with his pen became the headquarters of the Geneva Bible Society from which the church was mass producing and disseminating Bibles.

What God promised for His church, He also promises for each of His people individually.

We can think this evening of Psalm 121.

It's used to comfort us all isn't it?

The Lord will keep you from all evil.

He will keep your life.

The Lord will keep you in your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

God's presence first means protection.

Zechariah two:five goes on to say much more, I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.

And surely Zachariah would think of the return of God's spirit, His glory to the temple, the people were to be rebuilding Jerusalem.

What a motivation this is for God's people that God will come to be the glory within His church.

We think forward to that final consummation if you're a member of the church.

Revelation 21, And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down from heaven from God having the glory of God.

Its radiance like the most rare jewel like a jasper clear as crystal and the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the lamb.

And given all that is still to come, how tragic it is when a church exalts in mere earthly riches.

Unlike the man in Zachariah's vision many today have adopted worldly ways of measuring the church.

And I've heard of these measurements the ABC of church success attendance buildings and cash.

And it's not true that the first question you is it not true that this this first question usually asked of the church is how many attend?

How many members do you have?

You know what we ought to be asking when we think of a vision for the church?

Is God present in your life?

Is he the source of your power and your protection?

Is his word proclaimed and adored?

Is God himself your glory and your strength?

And that's how the Bible assesses the church, and it's the way that we should be thinking as well.

Begins with us.

Thomas v.

Muir in his commentary on the the book of Zachariah says this.

We learn here the true glory of the church.

It's not in any external pomp or power of any kind, not in frowning battlements either of temporal or spiritual pretensions, not in rites and ceremonies, however moss grown and venerable, not in splendid cathedrals and glorious vestments, and the swell of music and the glitter of eloquence, but in the indwelling glory of the invisible God.

This applies as much to us as individuals as to the church.

Remember the words of Jeremiah, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord.

God's presence in his church.

And then fourthly and finally God's invitation to the church, God's invitation to the church.

We have sought God's perspective on the church.

We have seen God's vision for the church.

We have been shown God's presence in the church as our protection and as our glory, and we now turn to God's invitation to join the church, which is the prophet's own application of the text verses six and seven.

Up, up, flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord, for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord.

Up, escape the Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.

And you know an application of our passage, meaning of verses six and seven is clear.

After all the wonderful things God has said about his church, this city that neither has nor needs any walls, he now invites everyone to come to salvation.

And by this, he doesn't merely mean that you should seek an affiliation with some particular church, although perhaps you should, but that you should come in and therefore be actually in his city.

And there you should join in the everlasting communion of all the redeemed through faith in the savior God that he has actually sent.

And if you're not a Christian, if you have not come to to God in faith, God invites you to come out of the world and into His city.

Yes, He acknowledges this world and all it stands for seems to be so strong according to the man's measurements of it.

Its glory, its glittering, it seems to be sweet in its reward.

Paul writes, This world in its present form is passing away.

Indeed the day of judgment is coming and the day of judgment is such that Christ will consummate His church and all who are truly in will be with Him.

The invitation here in Zechariah chapter two verses six and seven is especially addressed to the Israelites who are still living in Babylon.

There were those who were still in Babylon who didn't want to return because life was so good.

They had forgotten their true citizenship.

How great a danger this poses to each of us.

If you're a Christian then you must love God's church, the city in which you hold eternal citizenship.

You must make God alone your glory, the joy of the Lord your strength.

You must offer all that you are and have to Him and to his great redemptive work through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And this is what will last forever long after every earthly fortress has fallen.

And so we offer ourselves to God for the building of his city.

And through faith in Christ, we have membership now in that city.

And though now we see that city only by faith, one day, one day we're going to see the church consummated in the way that it should be.

The throne of God and of the lamb will be in it, we're told.

And his servants will worship him, and they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more.

They will need no light or lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever.

Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, that they may enter the city by the gates.

God's invitation to join the church.

So to draw this all together in Zachariah's vision of the city, the city without walls, we have learned that our view of the church and of ourselves must be corrected by God's perspective rather than limiting things by human measurements.

We've seen the expansive vision for a vast, open, ever growing people who welcome all who will come.

And we've been assured that the Lord himself is our wall of fire and the glory in our midst, our only true protection and highest boast.

And we have heard his urgent invitation to leave every fading earthly refuge and take our place in the everlasting city that he's building.

These truths, I hope, lift our eyes from present weakness and worldly yardsticks to the magnificent future that God has secured for you and for me.

May God bless his word to our hearts.