November 10 Sermon Bones (just the skeleton of the message)

·         Scripture: Zechariah 4:1-6, 10b-14

·         Message/Theme: We are the light of the world, and  this is accomplished "not by might, or by power, but by Thy Spirit."

Introduction: Why Build the house?

·         Examples of Spite houses

§  The neighbor won't buy the tiny parcel next to them, so they build a 5 foot 

wide house on the property to prove that it was usable for something... you 

can imagine the conversation... 

§  or those who build just so another person can't have it.

·         Why build the Temple in Haggai and Zechariah's time?  Nothing to do with Spite, 

but a good question. We built a new Sanctuary, do you think those prophets imagined 

it would be used for youth group vicious broom ball?

·         Why build the Temple in Haggai and Zechariah's time?

Let's back up our timeline of Israel's history a little bit.  The timeline often matters because 

the prophets don't speak in a political or theological vacuum.  Imagine where David is on 

the timeline... 500 years before Zechariah and 1,000 years before Christ.

I) David Wants to Build God a House

·         King David brought a God-centered revival to the nation of Israel that climaxed 

when he brought the ark of the covenant of God into Jerusalem, his new capital city. 

“After David was settled in his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, ‘Here I am, living 

in a house of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.’ Nathan 

replied to David, ‘Whatever you have in mind, do it, for God is with you’” (1 Chronicles 

17:1–2). 

·         David’s motives were pure and good. God was certainly deserving of something 

better than a tent. But God spoke to Nathan, telling him that David should wait. God’s 

message back to David was completely unexpected. He would welcome David’s 

desire to build a temple but there was something more important on God’s agenda. 

Instead, God will build David's house

·         “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you 

from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. 

I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from 

before you. Now I will make your name like the names of the greatest men on earth. And 

I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home

 of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, 

as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over 

my people Israel. I will also subdue all your enemies.’” 

God was building a House for David.  This is the heart of the Davidic Covenant:  God 

promises David that a descendant of his would always sit as King over Israel (we 

remember that Jesus is from the house of David). And not only David, but for His people.

·         The temple which David envisioned was eventually built, and it fulfills a great 

purpose in the plan of God. But sometimes the danger in building a temple or a 

church building is that people begin to think that that is where God is. 

·         God’s priority has never been his own dwelling place. Remember when David's

 father Jesse summoned him in from the fields and Samuel had come to anoint him 

king to replace Saul. Remember when he fought Goliath and eluded the murderous 

Saul in the wild frontier of Judah, and when he hid out among the Philistines. David 

knew without a doubt that God had always been with him. 

·         I think of some places I have seen God this week specifically...

David already knew that God was not relegated to a temple... God loved David 

because he was a man after his own heart.  Haggai (contemporary of Zechariah) 

pushes for the building of the Temple because he know that the people were more 

concerned about their own houses, and not with God.  Their hearts were far from God.

·         God's home is among them (already), or should be, and the temple was a sign of that. 

Words of Hope and Restoration....

·         The book of Zechariah is filled with language of David... Because they were 

talking about building a House for God at that time.  They were talking about fulfilling 

promises/Covenants. They were talking about restoring/establishing Israel.  They were 

talking about having a "heart for God." They were in their own land again after the 

years of exile, much like the Israelites before David’s reign, but they were pressured by 

wicked people all around them. They were vassals of a Persian king, and their future 

seemed tenuous. David’s story, 500 years old, was hope for them, because God doesn’t 

change. The past was prophecy: just as God raised up David to provide a safe land for 

his people, so God would do it again. 

II) Zechariah's Fifth Vision

·         There are 8 visions in the book, and many oracles (prophetic words).  

·         Zechariah 4:6 is probably the most frequently preached verses in the last two 

centuries from Zechariah. In this fifth vision of the prophet is so strange and difficult 

to understand that it is largely ignored. Verse 6 is, however, the key to the passage. It 

explains in words what Zechariah sees in the vision.

·         Zechariah is given a vision of a golden lamp stand. This is not the well-known seven

 branched Jewish menorah, nor is it like the lamp stand designed for the tabernacle in 

Exodus 25. It is not related to Solomon's temple lamp stands in 1 Kings 7. Rather, as we 

know from similar lamps found by archaeologists, this is a cylindrical column, probably 

tapered upward, on top of which is an oil bowl. Around the rim of this bowl are seven 

smaller bowls, each with seven pinches and each with seven wicks, making a total of 

49 lights. On each side of the main part is an olive tree with a branch overshadowing 

the bowl, so it feeds oil directly through a golden pipe. The whole lamp stand is 

distinguished by the fact that it is made of costly metal and receives its liquid fuel 

directly from the olive trees without the necessity of human processing of the oil from 

the olives. ["Not by might, nor by power..."]

·         Obviously the prophet is as puzzled by the sight of the lamp stand and of the olive 

trees as we are. Three times he asks the interpreting angel to explain the vision and 

specifically what the olive trees signify. But the answer is not immediately given. Finally 

comes the saying about the lights of the seven small bowls. Only at the very end of our 

passage is there an explanation of the olive trees (verse 14).

Light of the world - through the Spirit

·         What does all this mean? First, the lights of the lamp stand represent Israel, the 

Children of God, who are to shine forth in all the world. The New Israel, and the new 

age, is to be the light shining in the darkness which penetrates the gloom surrounding 

all peoples, which dispels the shadows from the valley of death, which draws all nations 

to worship the God of light in life. The people have no ability in themselves to give light 

to the people walking in the darkness. They must be fueled by the Spirit of God, here 

represented by the oil of the olives. ["Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit..."]

·         The task given to Israel in this vision is to be a light to the world, drawing all people 

to it in order to worship the God of Israel. That was Israel's task from the first -- to be a 

kingdom of priests, mediating the knowledge of God to the rest of humanity (Exodus

 19:6). ..when all the nations saw Israel's salvation through faith, they would be drawn to 

Israel's God (Zechariah 2:12, 8:20-23).

·         But that is also, of course, the task given to the church. Like Israel at Mount 

Sinai, Exodus 19, the church is a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation," called 

to "declare the wonderful deeds of him who called it out of darkness into his marvelous 

light" (1 Peter 2:9). Jesus and his teaching, made that calling very specific. You are the

light of the world he said in Matthew 5:15. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, 

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them 

to observe all that I have commanded you, Matthew 28:19-20.

·         The oil of Zechariah's vision is also not obscure in meeting. It is a pervasive image of the 

Holy Spirit and of the power of the Spirit that is supplied to God's people in abundant measure.

This vision of the prophet makes it very clear  that the church can be enabled to fulfill

 its mission, only by the power of God's Spirit working in it. The church cannot draw the

 world to the worship of Jesus Christ on its own power, it's own resources are inadequate for

 the task, no matter how strong it. The church will make disciples of all nations only by 

reliance on the Spirit.

God With Us (by the coming of Christ as well as by the Spirit)

·         From beginning to end, the Bible tells us of God’s grace in coming to us. We don’t have to 

go find him, nor do we build him a lavish temple so he’ll decide to live among us (which is how 

other religions conceive of their gods). In the very beginning, God walked with Adam and Eve 

in the Garden of Eden. The entire Old Testament is the history of God dwelling among his 

people. Then something even more wonderful happened. John 1:14 says of Jesus, “The Word 

became flesh and lived”—tented—“for awhile among us.” God came in person, in the flesh, to 

dwell among us. When Jesus departed, he promised, “I am with you always.” And remember 

when Jesus said in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three come together in my name, there 

am I with them.” Finally, at the end of time, Revelation 21:3 tells us that a loud voice will 

announce, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his 

people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

III) The Two Anointed Ones - the Two Olive Trees

·         The only ones in the Old Testament to be anointed with oil are the King and the High Priest...

 called by God to serve a certain purpose.

·         It is significant that the high priest are not named here. Zechariah has no hesitancy 

elsewhere to name Joshua as the high priest -- that name does not appear here. Neither is 

Zerubbabel identified with the Davidic King to come. Rather, Zechariah speaking of a future 

for the people of God, stretches beyond the sixth century BC. A glorious future that will truly 

come but is not yet.

·         So where does the Spirit come from? Once again the vision of Zechariah furnishes us the 

answer. The Spirit is mediated by those two figurative olive trees beside the lamp stand. 

In short, the Spirit of God comes through the mediation of the High Priest and the Davidic King, 

who have now been combined together in Jesus Christ. Christ is a high priest, claims the epistle

 to the Hebrews, and he's our a king, and asked the Gospels. The Spirit of God now comes to 

us from Jesus Christ. Indeed, the Spirit of God -- Christ returned to us, continuing his work on 

earth. The Church has the God-given task of being a light to the world drawing all people into 

fellowship of disciples only as it relies on the Spirit of Christ and not in its own power and efforts.

 ["Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit, says the Lord of hosts."]

CHRIST our High Priest and King

·         The book of Zechariah contains the clearest and the largest number of messianic (about the Messiah) passages among the Minor Prophets.  In that respect, only Isaiah had more messianic prophecies. 

·         Read Zechariah 9:9-12

9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!

Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See,

your king comes to you, righteous and

having salvation, gentle and riding on a

donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

10 I will take away the chariots from

Ephraim and the war-horses from

Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be

broken. He will proclaim peace to the

nations. His rule will extend from sea to

sea and from the River to the ends of

the earth.

11 As for you, because of the blood of my

covenant with you, I will free your

prisoners from the waterless pit.

12 Return to your fortress, O prisoners of

hope; even now I announce that I will

restore twice as much to you.

·         Other Messianic Prophecies in Zechariah

§  Zechariah 3:8; 6:12-13 The Branch

§  Zechariah 11:12-13  betrayed for thirty pieces of silver

§  Zechariah 12:10, look "on the one whom they have pierced"

§  Zechariah  13:1 The Cleansing Fountain 

§  Zechariah 13:7 The Shepherd Slain 

·         In the final vindication of Zechariah's prophetic calling and words, Christ poured out the 

Spirit on his church, mediating to his covenant people the power to shine forth in the world, 

declare the wonderful deeds of him who called them out of darkness into the marvelous light 

(1 Peter 2:9). Christ became Zechariah's promised high priest and Davidic king, the mediator of 

the Spirit to the people, our means of grace and our sure guarantor of glory.

Conclusion

·         Look back to our timeline

·         Where are we on the timeline? Right here... with this President, this School board, this 

location, these members, etc...

·         How are we to be a light to the world? ["Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit, says 

the Lord of hosts."]