Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

In 1882, construction began on a church in Barcelona called “La Sagrada Familia.”

Francisco de Paula del Villar was the architect initially commissioned to build this church.

However, he resigned only a year later, and the renowned architect, Antonio Gaudi, took over the project.

Gaudi, known for his extravagant and innovative designs, poured his heart and soul into this project.

He even took a whole year to design only one column type.

He was so consumed by this work, that when he was hit by a streetcar and died in 1926, no one recognized that it was him for a week.

They thought he was a homeless man.

Despite his efforts, the cathedral was only a quarter of the way finished at the time of his death in 1926.

I have visited this cathedral twice in my lifetime, once as a child, and once in 2009.

Today, it is about 70% done and is projected to be finished in 2026, mostly.

It will have taken 144 years to complete.

When asked why it took so long, Gaudi once responded that his client is not in a hurry (i.e.

God).

In reality, the project has been delayed so long due to protests, politics, civil wars, and funding issues (despite a $27 million a year budget).

In our passage, the reality is that God is in a hurry to finish His temple.

Why?

Because He knows how critical it is for His people to worship and to be a light unto the world.

You see, the nation of Israel had rebelled against the LORD.

The kingdom of the north, Israel, never had a good king, and thus they were exiled by the Assyrians, never to return to the land.

The kingdom of the south, Judah, lasted a little longer, because they had some godly kings.

But they too ended up being taken away from the land by the Babylonians in 605 BC to 586 BC.

According to Jeremiah, however, this was only to be temporary and last only 70 years.

So, in 538 BC, King Cyrus of Persia gives the decree that the Israelites can return to their land.

The first group of Jews returned to Jerusalem under the governorship of Zerubbabel in 537 BC.

Now, in 536 BC, the people laid the foundations of the house of the LORD, the temple.

Imagine after being gone from the land for 70 years, they must have been eager to see the temple rebuilt, but they quickly faced opposition.

Therefore, they halted the work of the temple and began to focus on their own houses and buildings.

They gave up.

But in August of 520 BC, God stirred the heart of the prophet Haggai to give the people of Israel a message of exhortation.

He rebuked them for focusing on themselves instead of God.

He even told them that the famine they were in was a result of this.

Around October of the very same year, God began to give visions to the prophet Zechariah.

There was a total of 8 visions.

These visions and oracles were calling the people to repent and return to the LORD.

Zechariah brought them a message of encouragement.

He was encouraging them in the place they were currently in, a place of rebuilding and hardship, but he was also giving them hope for their future Messiah and the last days.

And with the dual message of exhortation and encouragement, the people began to rebuild the Temple of the LORD so that they might worship Him.

The Vision (, )

The Vision

The Menorah

Description

The first thing that Zechariah sees when the angel asks him what he sees is a lampstand made completely of gold with its bowl on top of it and 7 lamps on the menorah.

It is very much like the menorah we have here behind me, with 7 branches, 3 on both sides and one in the middle.

However, our menorah does not have a bowl on top of it.

Where things get interesting as well is that each of the lamps has 7 spouts or conduits coming to them.

So, picture a menorah like the one here, with a bowl on top of it, and each lamp having 7 little conduits coming from the bowl to each lamp, for a total of 49.

In addition to this, Zechariah sees two olive trees, one on the right side of the menorah, and one on the left side.

History

Before we get into the differences of the menorah Zechariah saw here, let’s talk a bit about where it came from in the first place.

The menorah was one of the sacred objects that the LORD commanded Moses to have created for the tabernacle.

It was to be beaten out of pure gold and placed in the Holy Place, across from the table of the showbread and near the altar of incense in .

The daily worship went on in the Holy Place as the incense was continually burning, the lamps were continuously lit, and the showbread was put there daily.

Solomon expanded this and and had 10 large menorah’s, one on each side of the Holy Place (not the Holy of Holies).

After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, Titus took the menorah back to Rome as a symbol of his victory.

The menorah became one of the primary symbols to represent the temple in Jerusalem.

We see the menorah inscribed in many synagogues after the destruction of the temple.

I saw one on the architrave of the synagogue remains in Capernaum.

Even in the time of Zechariah, the menorah would have been representative of the temple.

Interpretation

What do these things represent?

Surely God didn’t just make them create all these things and perform these things for nothing.

Hebrews agrees and says that all of these things were shadows of what is in the heavenlies.

Well, we must first think about what the temple represented and what it was for.

You see, when man was created, he walked with God in the cool of the day in the garden of Eden.

Everything was whole and good.

But man sinned and was separated from God and no longer had His light and presence.

God began the plan of redemption through the family of Abraham.

And then, one of Abraham’s descendants, Moses, was given instructions on how to build a place where man would once again experience God - His presence and His light.

It was a place where Israel could have his sins covered and experience the presence of God.

It began with the tabernacle/tent in the wilderness and it was made permanent in Jerusalem under the reign of King Solomon, the son of David.

This temple was not only for Israel to experience God, but it was now even open to the foreigner to come and worship YHVH, if he so chose.

This is what the temple stood for - the place where man could worship God and experience His holy presence that was lost in the garden.

The temple itself represented heaven, with the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies specifically representing the presence of God.

The altar of incense represents the prayers of God’s people going up to Him continually, the showbread represented the communion that they now had with God, and the menorah represented the light of the knowledge of God in the world.

And when I speak of the knowledge of God, I don’t just mean knowing things about God, but knowing God in every way that we can know Him - mind, heart, soul, and strength.

We lost that light when we turned to our sins, and our hearts were darkened.

Israel was supposed to be the people that God used to bring that light back to the world, but they failed.

They rebelled against God, and this brought His judgment on them, and they were taken out of the land for 70 years and the temple of Solomon was destroyed.

The light was gone.

Now, Zechariah was seeing this vision of the menorah, but the main difference is that it had a contraption which connected it directly to the source of its fuel - the olive trees.

You see, the priests had to refill the oil in the lamp in the morning and in the evening so that it would remain lit all day.

But this heavenly menorah has no human intervention in the system.

It is perpetually lit because it is connected directly to the source and no human is involved in its being lit.

Now,

The light of the knowledge of God would again shine in the world and it would never go out, because God Himself was supplying the fuel.

No more would man have to strive to bring the light of God into the world, for He Himself would supply the fuel for that light and it would never go out again!

The joy that Zechariah must have felt at this sight!

In other words,

Application

The church, you and I, is now the place where the light of the LORD shines into this dark world.

Through Jesus Christ in us, we bring the knowledge of God to a world that is dying.

“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

We need do the good works of God that they may see and glorify Him.

The Olive Trees

Description

Let’s take a closer look at the olive trees.

Now, there is nothing very out of the ordinary with the olive trees, like there was with the menorah.

They seem to be ordinary olive trees, and if you have seen one before, you will have a very clear picture in your mind of what Zechariah was seeing.

The difference is that they have a sort of pipe attached to them which the golden oil comes straight out of the tree.