By My Spirit, Says The Lord Of Hosts (Zechariah 4:1-14, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16)
Rev. William L. Barron, February 19, 2023Part of the Morning Worship at North Greenville Church series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
The lampstand is called a menorah, and in this vision the menorah had a bowl above with seven pipes fueling the lamps. This was something more than a common menorah used to light the temple. The lampstand in the vision is the witness of God outside the temple, the witness to the world. We remember that we must not be anxious about defending our witness to the truth of the gospel (Luke 12). This lampstand vision foretells that the temple will be rebuilt, and that God will be with them in the spirit of Isaiah 9, Emmanuel. Jesus is the light of the world, and within His church, we are now the light of the world. We are to witness what God is doing. Vs. 6 proclaims to Zerubbabel that the restoration will be accomplished by the Holy Spirit, and that this light will go forth by the Spirit as well. The Persian emperor Darius would be pushed by the Spirit to support the work of finishing the temple. The Lord's moves forward in small things (vs. 10). Paul preached a simple, not flowery, gospel, spoken plainly. The Spirit enables the light of truth to be spoken, and for us to live the Christian life. The two olive trees in the vision are the two sons of oil: Zerubbabel the civic leader and Joshua, the high priest in the temple. Oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit. Jesus comes and fulfills both offices, king and priest. Jesus is a priest not of Levi, but of the order of Melchizedek, with no beginning or end. Are we trustworthy and faithful to our calling, shining forth for Christ?
| Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
|---|---|---|
| « My Plucked Firebrand | None | Sin Discovered, Judged and Removed » |
Zechariah 4 (Listen)
4:1 And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. 3 And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” 4 And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. 7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
8 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 10 For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.
“These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth.” 11 Then I said to him, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” 12 And a second time I answered and said to him, “What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?” 13 He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 14 Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
(ESV)
1 Corinthians 2 (Listen)
2:1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
(ESV)