We’re going to be reading Zechariah chapter 4 together. What a great section of Scripture! When I began, I called it the white pages because it’s a part of our Bibles that often are unopened and unused. Just today someone asked me, “It doesn’t seem like I remember any churches preaching through Zechariah. What caused you guys to preach through Zechariah?” They were excited about it, but they were curious because it’s not a section of Scripture we often devote a series of Sunday mornings to consider. But what a great message! We need hope and the message calls us to return to hope, to return to an eager expectation of what is ahead of us. You’re not going to get that by reading the news online. You’re not going to get that by reading most posts on social media. You’re going to get that by reading Zechariah.

Before we read this together, I kind of gave an encouragement, or maybe a challenge. This book, I believe God will use in your life more deeply if you set aside about a half hour each week and just read from chapter 1 all the way to the end of Zechariah chapter 14 in one setting. It’s a little complicated because of some of the images. We’re going to talk about one of those images today. These images are unfamiliar and a little foreign to us. But actually, they’re pretty simple images and once we capture them, I think they’ll actually help us remember the message. So anyway, I would encourage you to take some time aside each week to sit down for a half hour each week and read through this. Then begin to talk about what you’re learning with other friends and family.

We’re in Zechariah 4. This is the fifth of eight visions that Zechariah receives in one evening. So on one night God is going to come and give him eight specific visions. Thankfully, he’s going to give him an interpreting angel that helps him also understand. If he hadn’t have done that, then you and I would be really at a loss, too. Thankfully, he has given him this interpreting angel.

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 top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips (seven pipes or channels) on each of the lamps that are on 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.”

What a vision!

Doing God’s work is not for wimps. The work of the Lord brings multiplied discouragements, severe conflicts and painful heartaches that we would absolutely avoid if we simply did not involve ourselves in the work of the Lord, in God’s purposes. Anyone who invests themselves in Christian ministry will at some point in their lives think, “This is not fun. This work brings into my life an unbearable amount of pain and problems. Why should I continue in it?” Zechariah 4 is God’s answer to that question. Zechariah writes this chapter to encourage two specific spiritual laborers, two specific leaders of God’s people. These are leaders who have grown discouraged in the work that God gave them to do. Those leaders’ names are Zerubbabel and Joshua. Zerubbabel is the governor who leads the people administratively. Joshua is the high priest who leads the people spiritually.

God commissioned Zerubbabel and Joshua some 18 years earlier to Zechariah 4, to go back to Jerusalem, as they were living in the land of Babylon. They were exiles there, but God commissioned them to go back to Jerusalem, and as they went back, to lead a group of people. It turns out that about 50,000 Jews left the land of Babylon with them to go back to Jerusalem, to accomplish a specific work. That first work is to rebuild the Temple of the living God. As Zerubbabel and Joshua arrive in Jerusalem, they begin the work. They begin laying the foundation. In fact, they complete the foundation of the temple, but shortly after completing the foundation of the temple, they face incredible opposition from the Samaritans and some other huge obstacles that are standing in their way. In discouragement and in fear they cease the work of the Lord. Work on the temple stops.

Remember, this is 50,000 people who have uprooted their lives from Babylon to enter back into a land that they had not dwelled in for 70 years or a little bit less, perhaps. Now they’ve decided, “Well, we know why we came back. God told us to rebuild the temple, to have Him at the center of our community. But that didn’t work out so well, so let’s just make the best of it.” For 16 years, they’re building businesses. They’re building their own homes. At some point, they have neglected the work of God to the point that it no longer is even a conversation piece. It’s no longer in their thoughts. It’s no longer in their minds and upon their hearts. So God sends a prophet by the name of Haggai to confront Zerubbabel and Joshua and the people for this lost focus, for having a focus that is now self-serving. In Haggai 1 we read,

Haggai 1:3-4 Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

He said, “I see you’ve built great houses for yourself. They’re really nice. You have really nice kitchens with the big island and the marble tops. All that is great! But all the while, where is the temple? The house of the Lord is still in ruins. It’s just the foundation has been built. The walls haven’t even begun to be built.” What happens when Haggai presents this message to the people? Well, remarkably, there is a revival.

Haggai 1:12 Then Zerubbabel…and Joshua…, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.

“Okay. You told us and now it’s called to mind. Our hearts are stirred up. We’re in!” So the work on the Temple begins afresh. Imagine for a moment, this group of 50,000 Jewish people working together to build this huge temple in Jerusalem. Remember that Jerusalem rests upon a high mountain. So each stone to place on the wall has to be gathered from somewhere, likely in the valley or away, and carried up this huge mountain, stone by stone, to set upon the wall in place. The work is slow and arduous. The resources are few. This is not a rich group of people. The opposition remains strong. There are still external threats and they don’t have a powerful army to protect them. All of those obstacles are still in place. Two months later, after this revival and after they have begun in earnest to work back on the house of God, Zerubbabel and Joshua are once again getting discouraged.

As you learned last week, Satan himself actively is at work to discourage God’s servants. That’s what he always is about. Discouragement is one of the most useful tools in Satan’s toolbox to disrupt God’s work. So in chapter 2 of Haggai, this message comes.

Haggai 2:4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua,

You guys need to hold together. Do not let discouragement overtake you. Persevere!

Haggai 2:4 Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you,

That’s Haggai’s message.

Haggai 2:5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.

My Spirit, who accomplished that amazing work to deliver you from Egypt remains in your midst. My Spirit is working. Fear not.
God knows the power discouragement can have over us. That’s why He sends Haggai and Zechariah to a people who were doing really, really important work for God, but who were discouraged. They needed a message of hope. They needed to be energized. They needed to be encouraged to persevere in God’s work, to keep their focus on the Lord. They needed a spiritual boost. Without encouragement, God’s servants will once again back away from the work of the Lord and they’ll begin to focus simply on their secular interests, their own little businesses, their own little houses, their own little temporal dwelling, and forget the eternal. They will forget that life is to be all about the Lord. Here’s my question for you today. Are you discouraged? Are you tempted to back away from God’s work because of some opposition, because of some obstacle, or because of some conflict?

Today, I pray this message gives strength and encouragement to every person who is here today. But I focus my thoughts specifically toward one group of people. You are part of this group if you possess these three qualities. First, you love God. You love the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Secondly, you love God’s people. You love His church. Thirdly, you are laboring intensely for the health of God’s church and for the mission of God’s church. You are all in. You are invested. If you possess these three qualities, this message is specifically for you. I know that at some point, if you possess these qualities, you’re going to get discouraged. Perhaps that day is today. It’s been a tough couple years for many who are active in God’s work, for a lot of reasons. Perhaps that is today. If it’s not today, I believe it will be a day.

I don’t know anybody who has those three qualities who at some point doesn’t experience such severe temptation and discouragement to say, “Okay, I’m backing away. That used to be my life, but that’s not going to be my life anymore. I need it easier and I can avoid all of this conflict, all of this trouble, all of this heartache just simply by backing away.” You know, there is actually a bit of truth to that. You can avoid all of that conflict. But in avoiding that conflict, you disconnect yourself from the Lord and you disconnect yourself from eternity. If you possess these qualities, I pray that you will leave here with your burdens lightened, your heart energized and your hands eager to dig in deeper to God’s church and to His mission.

If you do not possess these qualities, perhaps it’s because you do not yet know Jesus Christ as your Savior, as your Lord. You’ve not yet experienced the life of God in your soul. If that is the case, I pray that you will hear the hope today that the Messiah offers and that you will be drawn by Him and by God’s Spirit to Christ. I pray that this day will bring the life of God into your soul as you would place your faith in Jesus.

Or perhaps you do not possess these qualities because you do know God through Jesus, but like this group who 16 years earlier had grown disconnected from God’s eternal purposes and allowed sort of a temporal focus to be the priority, perhaps you have given yourself over to discouragement already and your life is now mostly bound to this world. I pray that you will be encouraged by hearing the promise of God from Zechariah. I pray that even what we talked about in chapter 1 where God says this first message, “Return to me and I will return to you.” If you’ve wandered away, that’s where the people had been. They had wandered away from God so far that it wasn’t that they were completely without Him, but they had wandered away from Him being center, from Him being living every day with them. He says, “Return to me. Turn away from this self-centered focus and I will return to you.” You can have this kind of life. That’s what God offers through Christ. That’s the gospel message.

The message of Zechariah is not remote or distant to me. It is up close and it is personal. I find that Zechariah 4 is one that I often need. I think I’m going to return back to it over and over for the rest of my life. On a number of occasions throughout my 35 years as a pastor, I have often been discouraged. I’ve contemplated quitting ministry altogether. That has happened. So what do I do? What keeps me from quitting? What kept Zerubbabel and Joshua ultimately from quitting? What will keep you from quitting? I think God provides an amazing answer for that here in Zechariah 4.

The main idea we’re going to chase here is the call of God to be strong in the Lord, knowing that He will supply everything we need to do His will. Be strong in the Lord! There are five truths here from this fifth vision that Zechariah has, that really strengthen us and encourage us in God’s work in our worship of the Lord. God gives Zechariah a series of eight visions. They’re all given to him on this single night. He sends an interpreting angel to help Zechariah understand the meaning of these visions. As we open chapter 4, four of those visions have already been recorded.

1 And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep.

I love this image! I say often of my wonderful times with my grandchildren. So about once a week, on a morning, we get together with my oldest grandson. We usually play a bunch of games. It’s a pretty active morning. We get on the floor and do all kinds of fun things. After about three or four hours of that, I am kind of tired. I’m just actually worn out. So one of the things that I know he loves to do is he loves watching Pooh Bear videos. So we have access to some Pooh Bear. I do that not because it’s my favorite activity. I do that because I know this is a time when I’ll be able to sit with him. He’ll sit down and we’ll be right together. While he watches, I can let my eyes sort of close and drift into a pleasant respite. I’m still with him, but I’m also taking a little bit of a nap.

Now, Malakai wants me to be all in when I’m with him. Oftentimes he is so focused on Pooh Bear that he doesn’t see me sleeping. But if he does, Malakai stands up on the couch, he gets in my face, and he goes, “Roar!” I laugh and I say, “You caught me again.” This is the picture. I think it’s been a long night of visions. I think it’s exhausting to Zechariah as he has received these visions and felt the impact upon their life. He takes a little bit of a respite and he falls asleep and the angel comes and says, “Roar! I have more to tell you.”

Just as an aside, in the Scripture, there are two people who are recorded as falling asleep as they hear the Word of the Lord. Zechariah is one of those and then there is a guy by the name of Eutychus in Acts 20. These are not meant to be an encouragement for people to fall asleep as they’re listening to the Word of the Lord. I just have to make that mention. Each time, some things happened. On one, God sent an angel to wake him up. On the other, he fell out of a window and he died. Now fortunately, God rose him from the dead. But nothing good happens when you fall asleep listening to the Word of the Lord. (Laughter!)

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 top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on 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.”

I love his humility. He doesn’t pretend to know what they are for. “I don’t know. I have no idea.”

So picture this for a moment. I’m going to show a picture on the screen in just a moment, but I kind of want you to do the mental work because once we see a picture, it kind of takes away from I think, the benefit. That’s why I encourage you to read these ahead of time so you can get these images a bit in your head before we study them. Imagine this lampstand. It’s like the lampstand that is in the temple or the tabernacle in Moses’ day and then in Solomon’s day. It’s like a menorah. It has seven candlesticks coming from the one lamp, seven individual lamps. Picture that. On top of it is a bowl. Underneath this bowl has these pipes, these channels that come from it and flow into each of the individual candlesticks. Then there are these two olive trees, one on the right and one on the left of each of the bowls. Olive trees are the means by which you produce oil. So it’s olive oil that is used in lamps throughout the Middle East at this time. This olive tree is producing oil actively, ongoing. So there are little channels going from each olive tree into the bowl. So the bowl is constantly being filled with oil from the olive trees. It’s never running dry because the olives are living trees. Then the lamps are constantly being filled from the oil that is in this bowl, each separately. Here is a picture.

I think this is a picture that I appreciate the most. It’s a single branch from each tree as well that is particularly the source of the oil. So anyway, catch that.

I love that Zechariah asks the question. I think it’s right for us to ask questions and not being afraid of saying, “The truth is, I really don’t know what this passage of Scripture means. I need some help.” I love how much God loves to help us understand His Word. He sends an angel to Zechariah and He gives us the Spirit today.

Stop for a moment and think about this vision. I think it’s right for us to consider for a moment because it might be, and this is where a lot of us might be, because it seems so distant. The meaning seems so hard that it’s like we start checking out. We might say, “I have such a hard time thinking about this. My brain hurts. I think I’m just going to back away from allowing my brain to work to think about what is the message?” Especially since this is kind of a crazy vision, we don’t have these lampstands today. We don’t have olive trees in central Illinois. Everything seems really foreign to us. This is a vision that took place 2600 years ago to a guy named Zechariah. What does this have to do with my life today? It’s easy to ask that question. I want to encourage you with

Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction,

This is one of those things that was written in former days, 2600 years ago. Paul is only writing about 600 years after the fact. We’re reading it 2600 years after the fact. But what Paul is saying to the people gathered in the church at Rome is that when Zechariah wrote this, God wrote it for you. It’s very personal. He wrote it for them, too. But He wrote it for you, for your instruction. Isn’t that a great encouragement? Everything written in here is not distant. It’s not like a textbook where we say, “I have to find some interesting information.” No, when Zechariah is writing this, God actually wrote it for you. That’s amazing, isn’t it? He wrote it so that we would learn something about God and learn something about His plan. Then Paul goes on to say

Romans 15:4 …that through endurance

In other words, through perseverance. It’s perseverance that I believe ultimately God brings, but through perseverance

Romans 15:4 …and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

There it is! It’s hope. We need hope. We need to be able to look at our future and say our future is going to be great. I’m on a journey right now that the road is kind of tough and hard, but it’s going to lead to somewhere really, really amazing. That’s what I’m fixing my heart upon.”

Everyone needs hope! We try to get hope in all kinds of places. We look to get hope from politicians. We look to get some hope from social media. We look to get hope from our jobs our families, our friendships. We look to get hope from some motivational books and videos. We look to gain hope from self-help or meditation techniques. All of these places we look for hope, but there is really only one place we can find it. It’s Jesus Christ. God gave us the Scriptures so that we can connect to Him in a real living way and have hope. This vision I believe, will provide us with hope so we will endure. Let’s look at some messages, and we’ll see how far we can get here.

The Lampstand: God brings light into the world.

The lampstand is instructed by God to be placed in the tabernacle and in the temple. Its function was to provide light so that the priests could see inside the temple. Remember that the room, the Holy Place didn’t have windows. They needed light. God provided light for them so that the priests could then place incense on the altar every morning and every night.

But the lampstand was placed in there also symbolically to teach that the world is full of darkness and that God provides light and that the darkness will lead us to despair, but that light provides us with hope. Without spiritual light, God is saying we would be in absolute spiritual darkness without God, without knowledge of His Person or His will. We would be swimming in a sea of lies because we would be separated from His truth. We would be alienated from Him in such a way that we would have no path to connect ourselves to our ultimate purpose, to the ultimate treasure. So God in love provides light. That’s why in this vision, here is this lampstand. God is providing light.

There are two New Testament helps to understand the meaning of light as a symbol. The first is Matthew 5. Jesus teaches the disciples
Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world.

That’s who we are as His church.

Matthew 5:14-16 …A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way,

Because God has called us to be light to the world, without which, if God’s people don’t shine brightly, if we become a city that hides itself from the rest of the world, then woe is the darkness that invades. I frankly think that a lot of the darkness that we are experiencing has nothing to do with the blame of the darkness of the world. It has everything to do with the reticence of God’s people to be light, to speak the truth about God and about Jesus Christ in every sphere. He says

Matthew 5:16 …let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

God wants the discouraged Zerubbabel to know that the work he is doing is eternally significant. It is impactful. It is as impactful as a light shining in a dark place. When we engage in the work of God, we engage in God’s design to bring light into a dark world. We know our world needs light. We know it is swimming in a sea of deceit. But guess what? The world will never come out of its darkness simply by condemnation and by castigation. The world comes out of its darkness as we become faithful to present Christ, who is the light of the world, to the world. God calls us, His church, to be the light.

Discouragement fades when we know that God is using us to bring light to the world. So if we’re discouraged, we can know this is the place where I can have eternal impact upon the people in the world around me. There is no other place that I can do that. I need to be connected to the work of God. That encourages us because we all desire to live lives of purpose. God is saying to Zerubbabel, “Trust me. Your labor for me will bring light to this world.”

Satan, in his discouragement, loves to whisper, “You are not making any difference at all by continuing in the work of God. You might as well quit. Our response on the basis of the candlestick image is, “By God’s grace, I am bringing light into a world of darkness. I am making an eternal difference.” I might not be able to see that, but I can trust it because this world needs light and I’m going to be one of those whom God has called faithfully to bring light into the world. The second Scripture is

John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

We are lights in a derivative sense. In other words, the light isn’t sourced inside of us. We derive the light. The light is sourced in Jesus. God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all. How are we lights? Simply by being connected to Christ and then we become like mirrors. Jesus is the sun. That’s the way in which He is light. We’re light too, but how? By being a mirror. It’s not because we have light inside of us that is sourced in us. It’s sourced in God and we become reflectors of the light that Jesus provides for us through our relationship with Him. So apart from Jesus, there is no light.

So the big question for every person is what have I done with Jesus Christ? What have I done with the light that God has sent to help me see Him, to help me see what is true? The light of Jesus shows us two important matters. Jesus’ light shows us first who we are. That is, we are desperate sinners in need of God’s grace. That’s who we are. That’s a reality. Secondly, Jesus’ light shows us who Jesus is. He is a sufficient Savior who offers grace to bring us life. If you’ve not received Jesus by faith, I urge you to turn toward Him as the light. If you turn away from the only light that can help you see God and know Him, you will be without hope. Turn toward Christ! Jesus was clear about what the world largely, in the majority, does with the light. Jesus says

John 3:19-21 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

What Jesus is teaching us here is that everyone is going to stand before God to give an account of our life. Here is the one means by which you can measure whether you possess the righteousness of God in Christ or whether you continue in wickedness and you’ll be declared wicked. What do you do with the light? There is only one reason why you’d turn away from Jesus as the light and say, “I don’t think I need Jesus,” after having seen Him. That’s because you love darkness. You might say, “I don’t love darkness,” but that’s what God says. You might define darkness differently than God does, but the way God defines darkness is He says there is only one reason why anyone hears the Gospel, hears about Jesus and turns away from Him. It’s because they love darkness rather than light. Why do you love darkness rather than light? Because your deeds are evil. It’s because you want to continue to do what you want to do. So the Gospel calls us all to repent, to turn from our own way and to turn toward Christ, who is the light. In His light, we actually have life. What happens to a plant when you put it in a dark room? It dies. Life needs light. Jesus is the light and that’s why He offers life to us.

How important is the work of God? Without it, everyone would walk in darkness. We would, our neighbors would, our children would, our grandchildren would, our mom and dad would, our friends would. Everyone would walk in darkness. There would be no hope for the future. There would be no grace for our sinful past and we would have no direction for the present. So let’s move toward the light. Here’s the motivation we get from this lampstand. When you commit to doing the work of God in the church of God, you are investing your life in something deeply impactful and eternally lasting. That’s the truth.

The Olive Trees: God uses frail people in powerful ways.
3 And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”

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

These are the two ones who are commissioned.

who stand by the LORD of the whole earth.”

God could have built the Temple without using human hands, but He didn’t do it that way. So when He called His people in 538 BC out of Babylon to go back to Jerusalem, He commissioned two individuals. Who are those two individuals? They are Zerubbabel and Joshua. He said, “You’re going to lead this group back to Jerusalem and I’m going to use you to build the Temple, the temple that has been torn apart.” The Temple required Solomon in all of his glory, with all of his wealth and all of the might of his army to spend 7 ½ years with over 200,000 people at work. These were the best skilled people in the world. God says, “I’m going to take you guys who are a ragtag group of people living in exile, and I’m going to send you guys back there and you’re going to rebuild the Temple for me.” God loves to use frail people to do powerful things to accomplish an eternal work. Paul would say in

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

God’s design is that He would receive the glory. Isn’t that encouraging? When we get discouraged, we think, “Who am I? I don’t know what to do next in order to move forward the mission of God to win my neighborhood, to be part of a church and help her become strong and healthy. I don’t know what to do. Who am I? I don’t feel like I have very many gifts.” Then we go to the olive trees.

I love this because the olive trees are not manufacturing plants. How do the olive trees produce oil? It’s through the life. They’re just there and then God, who placed life in this world, brings life through them and out of them into the bowl where now then suddenly God uses that effort or just that being to bring light. Again, this is not a call to be passive. It’s a call to be dependent. This leads us to the third thing, which is

The Oil: God provides His Spirit to accomplish His work.

6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel:

This is probably the most famous verse in Zechariah.

Not by might,
In other words, not by the armies, because you don’t have any armies.

nor by power,

Because you only have a small group of people.

but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.

What He is saying is, “Do you think that I can use small things to do what’s great? The answer is I can and I will if you depend upon my Spirit. My Spirit is with you. My Spirit doesn’t depend upon a huge army. My Spirit doesn’t depend upon massive amounts of resources and finances and skilled people. If you have my Spirit, you have everything you need to accomplish my work.” Oil in the Bible is often a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Here the interpreting angel makes that symbol very clear by saying

by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.

God says, “I’m providing you with my Spirit to accomplish my work.” What He says to Zerubbabel, He says to us. We went through this amazing series about the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised, “I’m going to send you another just like me. He’s not only going to be with you, but He’s going to be in you.” All that is true of God’s Spirit is now ours through Christ. If we are committed to do God’s work for God’s glory, we will never lack God’s sufficient supply because He gives us His Spirit.

Satan, in the midst of doing work for the Lord, often whispers, “You lack a lot of skilled people. You lack a lot of financial resources. You have some strong opposition standing against you. You’re not going to be able to accomplish this. Give up! It’s futile. It’s going to be empty. You’re going to do all this and it’s going to be for nothing.” Here’s what we respond. “Not by might, not by power but by my Spirit says the Lord. I trust in Him!”

Psalm 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

Jeremiah 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.

Friends, we will always experience disaster if we trust in our own resources. But we will never fail if we trust in God’s Spirit. There is a danger of hearing this and saying, “Yes, I know that. I’ve heard this before. Of course we’re trusting in God’s Spirit and we’re not relying on our own resources.” The truth is we often can be deceived by that. We might even think to ourselves, “I’m trusting in the Lord and trusting in God’s Spirit and relying on Him,” when really, we’re trusting in something else. How do we know whether we’re really dependent upon God’s Spirit? I won’t have time to tease this out very much, but I’m just going to state it. I believe that Scripture gives us five specific signs to give us evidence that we’re trusting in the Holy Spirit to work and not trusting in human resources.
First is Bible’s open. The Spirit wrote a Book. So if we’re trusting God’s Spirit, we have His book confidently open looking for direction, looking for correction, looking for instruction. Secondly, knees bent. We’re called to pray in the Spirit at all times. The Spirit produces a humility inside of us, a sense of God’s sufficiency that is evidenced in prayer. Third, and this is perhaps really big, heart’s call. The Spirit is the Spirit of peace. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. An anxious, fretful heart is not a fruit of the Spirit. If we’re anxious and fretful, it’s a sign that we are not trusting in the Spirit. We’re trusting in something else. Fourth, life holy. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit. A disobedient life is one that leans on its own understanding. It’s not really leaning on the Spirit and trusting in Him. Then, hands steadfast. The Holy Spirit never leads us to quit.

When I was a youth pastor in Texas, there are a number of things that took place that I never experienced before in ministry. It was the first time I was so deeply, deeply, deeply discouraged. There was a period of about six to eight months where I would come home and I would think, “I don’t think I should be in ministry. I don’t want to be in ministry.” I don’t know if I ever thought I shouldn’t be, but I would think, “I don’t want to be in ministry anymore. I don’t want this to be my life. It’s too hard and I’m not seeing a lot of great things happen.”

I remember one day I looked at the newspaper and I thought, “What would I do if I weren’t doing this?” For whatever reason, I thought optometry would be great. “I think that’s what I’m going to do.” Optometry is noble work. We have Dr. Fitch over here. Praise God for you, Dr. Fitch. It is noble work. So it’s not ignoble work. But as I thought about that and how God might use me in optometry and thinking of going into optometry and what can we do to get going on that, this settled conviction kept coming back to me. “Yes, you could do that, but that would be you doing that. What do I want you to do, Ritch?” When I asked that question, it was so clear. I knew what God wanted me to do. I thought, “But God, I’m miserable.” Yes, what did Jesus do? He was on the cross. He was pretty miserable for you. So at the end of that time, it was so clear. It was like, “Ritch, if I would have you be miserable every day for the rest of this natural life, am I worthy of it?” It’s pretty easy to answer that when you have your Bible open. Yes, you are worthy of that!

Thankfully, since that time I’ve experienced amazing joys. So don’t get me wrong. There are amazing joys. But that’s where I was. That was what I was struggling with. Would I be willing if it were miserable every day and I got no affirmation and I got all this condemnation, all this opposition, and it was just a struggle? Would God be worthy if I knew He wanted me to do this? The answer is yes. It became clear and I walked back away from that and it provided one of those stakes in my heart and my life that has held me to this day.

The Great Mountain: God’s grace overcomes any obstacle to His work.

This is perhaps my favorite verse in this passage!

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!’”

All of this is a prophecy at this point. We’re reading it after the fact, knowing that the temple was built. They were able to have a worshiping community again. They still had problems, as we’re going to see when we get to the New Testament, but God used it to bring light, to bring life to some people during that time. They were able to complete the temple. We know that. They didn’t know that. They’re still sitting there with just this foundation and they’re wondering, “How are we going to get this accomplished?”

7 Who are you, O great mountain?

The mountain represents all the obstacles that Zerubbabel faces in this task. The mountain seems to him unmoving and impassable. He looks at the mountain standing in front of him and he undoubtedly is thinking, “I can’t.” Here’s the deal. We have to expect mountains. When we don’t expect mountains, we get caught off guard, kind of like I did when I was twenty-five years old. I had experienced just all joys in ministry up to that point, for the most part. Now I face this mountain and opposition and conflict and concerns and trials.

God says to Zerubbabel, “Yes, the mountain is there. You should expect the mountain to be there. But here’s what is going to happen, Zerubbabel. That mountain is going to become a plain. It’s going to get all flattened out. Trust me. There is going to be a day. Wait for it, Zerubbabel. Just keep after it. Don’t quit. There is going to be a day when that temple gets complete and there is a time for the last stone, the top stone.” I think it’s a stone that’s right in the corner. It’s the last stone to be laid. They’re finishing the project. I can imagine all 50,000 people surrounding. They know how hard it was. They know the opposition. They know their little resources. They know how they felt like quitting. Now this is being built for the glory of God and there is one more stone to set in place. That is called this top stone. As the top stone is set in place, people look back and what do they shout?

And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”

“This is accomplished by the grace of God and it is beautiful. It is amazing. It is awesome. We got to be part of that. We didn’t stop. The mountain stood in front of us, but look now. The mountain is like it’s become a plain.” Here’s the truth. No obstacle is able to successfully impede God’s sovereign grace at work. God always, always, always completes the work that He begins. Why? Because He is the Lord of hosts. He’s the Lord of armies. He’s all powerful.

Jeremiah 32:17 ‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.

We’ve seen the Lampstand. God brings light into the world. I hope that encourages you in the work of the Lord. We’ve seen the Olive Trees. God uses frail people in powerful ways. We’ve seen the Oil. God provides His Spirit to accomplish His work. We’ve seen this Great Mountain. God’s grace overcomes any obstacle. The last piece I park on is

The Day of Small Things: God uses the small to accomplish the great.

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,

I don’t think it’s a compliment to be a person who despised the day of small things. I think it’s like, “there were some of you that it was kind of tough to keep you going.” But whoever in the midst of the temple they say, “This is not a big thing. It’s not nearly as great as the temple I remember. I remember the temple of Solomon or I heard my parents talk about the temple. This is nothing.” Whatever the day of small things, it’s people who diminish what God is actually doing in the present because they don’t see its greatness. “There are only ten people that are coming to this fellowship group. There’s only this many resources. There’s only this many people that are hearing the gospel.” That’s the day of small things.

He says there is going to be a day when everyone who despised the day of small things, things that God was doing but they didn’t look impressive, like they should be put on the front page of the Journal Star. They’re small things. There is going to be a day when those who have despised the day of small things will rejoice. They’re going to say, “I didn’t see it, but look what God did!”

and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

All the Bible tells of God using really small things to accomplish great things. He used a baby in a basket to liberate a nation from enslavement in Egypt. He used a boy with one little stone in a little sling to set a mighty army in fleeing. He used five loaves and two fish to feed a multitude. He used a baby conceived in a virgin’s womb to bring the forgiveness of sins, to bring hope to the whole world. What things are now is not what they will be. Many big things will come to nothing. Things that are on the front page will be gone. So don’t be too impressed. Many little things will become eternally massive. So do not be discouraged.

I close with this from Revelation chapter 5. Here is the ultimate capstone on God’s plan. What is the last event, the last thing? Well, it is the capstone. Jesus is called both the foundation stone and the capstone in Scripture. It’s really all pointing us, everything in here is pointing us to Jesus Christ, who is our Messiah. Jesus is the light whom God sent into the world. Jesus came as a baby, but will reign as King. Jesus is the one anointed by the Spirit to do the Spirit’s work, ministering in power. Jesus is the one who overcomes the mountain of sin. Jesus one day will return in glory to rule and to reign.

Revelation 5:11-14 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Be encouraged, church! Now is not the time to get discouraged and give up. Now is the time to press in because this is how the story ends. God uses little things all adding up to one day seeing the capstone, Christ returning in power and glory, setting everything that is wrong, right, and establishing His kingdom for His honor and glory. Every knee will be bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord. Be encouraged! The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That is our future!