Reviving God's Lampstand — Keith Malcomson

The Vision of the Golden Lampstand

Here this morning, I want you to turn with me to Zechariah chapter 4. Turning to Zechariah chapter 4 this morning, and as you do, I just want to thank Brother Suf again for just bringing very powerful messages over recent weeks.

Very important messages. It wasn't filling in the gap. It is the Lord speaking through a human vessel, whoever stands here. And I appreciate those messages, and I appreciate our brother preaching. It's been about five weeks, I think at least, since I preached in this pulpit on a Sunday.

And I'm going to come right back in and continue from where I left off. You'll remember the last message I preached here was the 21st century church looking at that golden candlestick. And if you haven't heard that or you've forgotten that message, please go back to it.

It's vital for this morning's message and for next Sunday morning's message, what I'm going to be dealing with, continuing looking at this golden lampstand. And we said that our entire series on these Sundays is called the 21st century church.

What is it going to look like? What does God want it to look like? What is God's plan for it? Can anyone describe what this church is going to look like? Well, I believe, as I said, that I can. And we're going to continue with this here this morning in Zechariah chapter 4.

And my message, this is part 5 of our series looking at the church of this hour. My message is reviving God's lampstand. Reviving God's lampstand. Zechariah chapter 4. And I'm not going to read this whole chapter the way I'd love to, but I'm going to deal with every single verse in it this morning.

Zechariah chapter 4. Just read in the first three verses. And the angel that talked with me, that is, Zechariah, came again and waked me as a man that is wakened out of sleep, and said unto me, What seest thou?

And I said, I have looked, and behold, a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps are upon the top thereof, and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.

Will you pray with me here this morning as we come to the Word of God? Father, I thank you by the Word of God for this vision. Lord God, this symbol, this teaching, this instruction of the golden candlestick, of the lampstand that stood in the midst of the tabernacle.

Lord God, we're asking of you that you show us the church of your dreams, the church of your Word, the church of the teaching of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. We want a clear vision of the golden lampstand.

Lord God, in a way that is going to impress itself upon our minds, our thinking, our desire, our prayers, our labors, our preaching, all that we do. Lord God, in our homes, in our workplace, in this church.

Lord God, that you would so impress us with this vision. Lord God, of what you desire in your church, that we can never be the same again in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. We're dealing with the golden lampstand in the Bible.

We already said about the golden candlestick that there is a teaching within the Bible. When we come to Revelation chapter 1 and verse 20, listen to what Jesus says. The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

So we see very clearly that the golden candlestick is a symbol. It is a spiritual prophetic symbol of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can never understand the church. You can never identify it.

You can't understand it. Unless you understand this golden candlestick. That is God's representation of what he desires in the local church and the church of every generation. Jesus was very clear. The seven golden candlesticks which you are looking at, which you see in vision, they are the seven churches in seven different times, seven different cultures, seven different peoples.

He literally says there is one symbol to represent each of those seven churches. Doesn't matter where you go. The church is to be conformed to the golden candlestick. And so we see that it is Christ's vision that every church, in every culture, in every generation, in every community, its symbol is the golden lampstand.

In other words, God is saying, that's what I desire. That is my plan. That is my mind. That is my teaching. When we see the church in the New Testament is represented by a golden lampstand or candlestick as it is in our Bible, you need to go back into the Old Testament to begin to understand about this golden lampstand.

In our last message, we looked at Exodus 25. We didn't get very far, but we began to show that golden candlestick standing in the tabernacle or in the temple. When you begin to look at that, you will understand the church of the New Testament.

You have to go back and follow the teaching of the Holy Spirit. And so we see the teaching, the mind, the instruction of the Holy Spirit about the lampstand in Exodus 25. Next, we see it in Zechariah 4 that we're going to deal with this morning.

And then you come to the New Testament, to Revelation chapter 1 and 3, and you begin to see God's plan for the church. If you don't go back to Exodus 25 and see the plan of God, the instruction of God, the desire of God, you don't understand what God desires in the church.

And it's the same with Zechariah 4. Unless we go back and see this message about the golden candlestick here in Zechariah 4, you can not understand God's mind for the church in the New Testament. It all flows as one.

As you look at the golden candlestick, you begin to understand God's plan for the 21st century church. I know His plan. I know the church He wants. I know what He desires in this hour. And anyone who excuses the church, minimizes what He says about it, you have left the plan, the pattern, and the purpose of God.

Revival and the Restoration of God's People

Here, before I go to three key points in this chapter of Zechariah chapter 4, let me just point out the historical spiritual background of this chapter, chapter Zechariah chapter 4. I want to show you a history of revival.

That is the backdrop for looking at the vision of the golden candlestick in Zechariah 4. What is the backdrop? The history, God's history of spiritual revival amongst His people. You will not understand the golden candlestick of Zechariah chapter 4 unless you realize this is the backdrop.

This is God's plan and God's purpose. My message this morning, reviving God's lampstand. When His people depart and become something different, He always brings them back to the same symbol, the golden lampstand.

In Zechariah 4, we see the restoration and recovery of God's people once again. If you're going to understand this, you need to understand the book of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah. When you put all these books together right at the center of it, God gives a vision of the golden candlestick.

That ought to impress us in a dynamic way. When you look at the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, in the period of a hundred years, you at least have four mighty revivals. And in fact, I can count five, a fifth one, if reformation is included within them.

Within a period of a hundred years, you had God intervene in His people, revive them, and bring them back to His plan. Every time they departed, He brought them back. You see, first in the Bible, we see that Jeremiah prophesied that the people were going to go into Babylon.

The temple was going to be burnt down. Jerusalem would be destroyed. The people would be carried off, not just once, but again and again. They would get carried down over a 20-year period into the city of Babylon.

And there they would be prisoners. At the end of those 70 years, Daniel the prophet, about two years before the end, begins praying. He begins to say, it's near the 70 years. God said He would restore His people again.

It is time. And he began to pray. We know in answer to those prayers, God stirred up the heart of King Cyrus of Babylon and of the Medo-Persian Empire to give a command. God stirred the heart of a secular political leader to give this command to say, go build your temple in Jerusalem.

Listen carefully for a second. I'm giving you the backdrop on the vision in Zechariah 4. There were four clear, distinct revivals. The first one was when Zerubbabel, the governor, and Joshua the high priest led back 42 ,000 people.

This was at the end of the initial 70 years when God says, I'm going to begin to restore, to rebuild my people. But He took 100 years to do that. Don't tell me that God doesn't work from generation to generation, that He'll work in that generation, then things go quiet.

And then God moves again. He has different revivals, different vessels, different churches that He uses from generation to generation. And so this governor called Zerubbabel led back 42 ,000 as well as 7 ,000 servants, almost 50 ,000 people.

This is the beginning of the first revival. One out of every eight of those people was a priest. He was in ministry and functioning to serve unto God. Zerubbabel was of the royal line of the house of David.

He had royal blood flowing through his veins. And he led the people back on an 800 mile journey. You know what Zerubbabel's name means? It means seed or offspring of Babylon. You're a child of Babylon.

You're born in Babylon, raised in Babylon. You grew up in Babylon and now he's left Babylon. He never changed his name. He kept that name Zerubbabel. He had royal blood and he had a sovereign God-given vision.

He was born in Babylon, but Babylon was not in him. He had a vision of revival, restoration, of seeing a recovery of God's plan. His great grandfather was a king. And listen to this. When you go to Matthew chapter one and Luke chapter three, you find out that Zerubbabel is in the family genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So he was in that royal line that would come right down to Jesus Christ himself. In this first revival that Zerubbabel led back, they immediately built the altar. As soon as they got back there, the first thing before anything, the altar represented the cross.

That's where true revival begins. Make sure the altar is there. The blood, the cross, sacrifice. Make sure that is center stage. And then we build everything around it. The church of our day makes worship the center, entertainment and names.

We need to get back to the cross if we're going to restore the body of Christ again. They immediately set up that altar on its own base. We're told that people feared God. They made sacrifices. They worship around that altar.

And then that led to them laying the foundation of the temple. It was ground level. They began to lay it and the people rejoiced. That's Ezra chapter one through to Ezra chapter four. But you know what happened?

Opposition came against the work of God. It had only just begun. The altar is in place. The foundation of the temple is in place. And then the devil opposes. And for the next 16 years, nothing happens.

They're men of God. They're revived. It was a real move of God. But it comes to an utter standstill. The second revival begins 16 years after the initial work under Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel, Joshua, all the same people are there.

Some have died. Some have been born. But it's all the same people. But for 14 years, they never moved forward. There was no movement of God forward. And in the second movement, once they begin, and we're going to look at this more closely.

At this second time, the foundation was there. Do you realize if God ever does something in a previous generation, it's still there. That work is still there. When the next revival or the next move comes, the altar was there.

The foundation was there. But there was a 16-year delay. And now the work begins to build again. It's been on pause. It has been hindered. It was stopped by the opposition of the enemy and the flesh of God's people.

It comes to a standstill. The third one happened about 70 years after Zerubbabel initially left. And it was actually under Ezra, the man of God. He led another 7 ,000 people back to Jerusalem. And he restored the Word of God.

He preached the Word of God. He impacted the marriages of God's people. The fourth revival was just a short time later when Nehemiah came to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And the fifth one that I've mentioned is at the end of Nehemiah's life when he comes back and he sees that the people have compromised.

And he tears his hair out and he stirs everything again. Five moves of God. Five works of revival in a period of 100 years. But listen, I'm giving you the context of the golden candlestick. When I said that first revival come to a standstill, they accomplished much.

They seen a work in a period of about a year. Everyone was rejoicing. They're moving forward. They knew God's plan. We've got to build the house of God. But the enemy attacked them. It says in Ezra chapter 4 that the people of the land weakened the hands of the people.

That means to stop them from working. To cause you to fail. Bring you to a place where you've got no strength to work on the house of God. To be still. To be stopped in your tracks. Do you know the enemy can do that?

And the world can do that. And people in your family can do that. Where you're moving forward. You're filled with God. You're filled with faith. You're going, we're going to build a house for God. You can be stopped in your tracks for 14 years in your life.

Do you know 14 years in your life is a long time? That the devil could paralyze you. He could hinder you. He could stop you in your tracks. You say, that would never happen to me. I tell you, you're dealing with a real enemy.

It also said they troubled them in building. It means to terrify. To cause you to tremble. To create anxiety. Do you know most people today, if you ask, we're going to see Christ build this church in this hour.

They say, oh no, we can't get on flights. And we can't travel. And look at all the restrictions. And I'm losing my job. And all of this is coming. And they've lost a vision of the golden candlestick. They're looking at all the problems.

All the troubles. They're filled with fear and anxiety. Do you know that's a strategy of the enemy? To stop work on the church of God. To bring it to a standstill. Where you're so scared of all that's happening in the nations.

Politically and spiritually and socially. You come to a standstill. It says also in Ezra 4 that they hired counselors against them. To frustrate their purpose. These men that they hired, the counselors, were men of intelligence or eloquence.

Or they were lawyers, legally minded. They were hired to do what? To frustrate them. It means to break them up. To dissolve them. To stop the unity. To stop them moving forward with a purpose. And do you know what?

It was 16 years from when they came back until the work of God would start again. That's an awful long time. Saints of God, we can't afford to lose such a period of time. And it also says, then ceased the work in the house of God, which was at Jerusalem.

So it ceased under the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. You see, for that period of time, 14, 15 years at least, the work ceased. Came to an end. The foundation is in place. The altar is in place.

But nothing goes further. There was a plan in God's heart to build a temple, to build a house. It's in the Word of God. And yet they rested satisfied for 14 or 15 years, building their own homes, their own business, raising their own families, and they forgot about God's plan and vision to revive his church, restore his church, and to build his church again.

Awakened to a Vision of the Church

I've got three points here from this chapter, Zechariah 4, I want to take you to. This is my first point. Awakened to a vision. Awakened to a vision. This was Zechariah's fifth vision. He had eight in total, all in one single night.

One after the other, he had these eight visions. Remember, it started with the horses and went through to the horses with chariots. That was his eight visions in one night, all together, one after another.

And we're even given the date of it in the Bible. The Bible gives us the day, the night, that he received those visions. But do you know what? This fifth vision is about the golden candlestick. And the context of it is, it's at the time where they have stopped.

It's now 16 years from they first came back. The workers at a standstill. And this is the time that the angel of the Lord comes to Zechariah. This is when it happens. It's when God is beginning to stir his people again, to say, build the house of God.

And that's why I've called this first point, awakened to a vision. Follow with me in Zechariah 4 in verse 1. And it says, and the angel talked with me again. It's all in the same night. He talked to him again.

And he waked me. The poor man had fallen asleep in the midst of the night. And the angel had to waken him up as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. This is why I called it awakened to a vision. God is just about to show him a vision of a golden candlestick.

It is significant that it's happening here. Look at the context. God's work came to a standstill. All of this vision of God and burden of God for his house. And yet God's people are not laboring. They're not giving themselves to this.

They have lost the vision of the golden candlestick. But here's Zechariah the prophet. The angel wakes him up to see a vision of the golden candlestick. I believe in the church in this hour. We have a big need for an awakening of preachers to see the golden candlestick again.

Every church, every preacher, every Christian, we have lost the vision. We have settled down. We've got tired. We're worried. We're filled with anxiety. We're looking at the troubles of the nations. We're told about Cyrus and Darius.

And you know what? We're there paralyzed. Do you know where God starts? With a prophet of God, a young prophet from a new generation. God will go seeking himself for a new vessel, someone who he can waken up.

And you know what he does? He says, I'm going to show you this candlestick. If you're going to preach this, people, if you're going to make a difference, I've got to waken you up to the golden candlestick.

Can I ask you, are you awake to this golden candlestick? Can you see it? Do you understand that? Do you hear what God is saying? Do you know what he's saying? This is my people. This is my church. I'll never settle for anything else.

And so we see Zechariah awakened to behold the vision. Verse two. And he, the angel said unto me, what seest thou? And I said, I've looked and behold a candlestick all of gold with a bowl upon the top of it and his seven lamps thereon and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof.

This is the lampstand. Don't get the wrong picture in your mind of the candlestick with candles on it. There's no candles on this candlestick. It is a golden lampstand through and through. It is oil flowing through it and burning with seven flames on top of it.

That's what the golden candlestick was. In God's house, it stood about two meters high made of one bit of gold. And you know what it represents? God's people. In Zechariah's day, God has shown him a vision.

He said, what am I looking at? He sees this golden candlestick. He sees all these things going on and he said, what is this? He asked the angel. The angel said, what do you see? And then he's asking the angel, what is this?

You know what I believe most preachers in this are and I'm sorry to say things like this. Most preachers do not know what the church is. They don't know God's plan for the church. They wanna reinvent the church.

They want to change the church. They want to create a new style of everything. You know what? They're apostates who have no desire to come back to the golden candlestick. But here's a prophet who's gonna preach.

He's a young preacher. And you know what? Before he ever preaches, he's gotta see what that golden candlestick is. I've met young guys wanting to preach. I go, sure, you don't know anything. You don't know.

And you don't even know what you're gonna be. You don't know what the church is gonna be. You haven't lived anything of a life, but you're gonna go tell everyone how they should live. You know what? You need an experience with God where he shows you that golden candlestick.

Oh, for a generation in this hour, they'll waken up and begin to see this is what God always wanted. He wanted nothing else than a golden candlestick. And so he begins to see this golden candlestick. And notice here, there is a bowl above it.

There's a golden bowl above the golden candlestick. And there's seven pipes coming from that bowl. An oil is held in that bowl. And the pipes carry the oil down into this golden candlestick. Look further in verse three what it says.

And two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on the left side thereof. And so you see these two living, growing olive trees, either side. And so I answered and speak to the angel and who talked with me saying, what are these my Lord?

Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, knowest now not what these be? And I said, know my Lord. Do you know what the Lord's doing? Trying to stir him to ask some questions. You know the problem with too many in the church, they don't ask questions.

Where is the glory? Why are we not seeing revival? Why are family members not being saved? If you can sleep at night, that doesn't bother you. There's something wrong with you. If you can go through and say, well, sure the Lord's in control.

He knows there's something wrong with you. You see this prophet is saying, what is this? I want to understand it. That's the only people God ever speaks to is those who inquire of him. He is looking here at these two olive trees.

And you know what's happening? The olive trees, and we're going to see it a bit later. They are pouring oil. They are hanging over. Their branches are hanging over into this bowl and they're dripping it live with oil.

They're pouring oil into that basin hanging above and it's getting fed into the golden candlestick. Do you know that what you get out of an olive tree? You get olive oil, of course. An olive tree grows tall and old.

You find many of them in Israel and elsewhere. They're a thousand years old. A thousand years old. If you were to go to the garden of Gethsemane, today it's filled with trees that are a thousand years old.

You'll find them in different other countries of the world. They have been there generation after generation after generation. They have very, very deep roots that go very, very deep down into the ground.

They have withstood many storms in every generation. And in fact, they can even grow in deserts and prosper. This is a picture of God's plan for His church since we need to awaken to a vision of how the church functions.

If a church is dead, someone killed it. Do you realize if our meetings are dead, if there's no power in our gatherings, there is a reason for that. There is a cause of that. Things don't just happen by chance.

You need to understand the functioning of this golden candlestick. In Romans 11, we see the olive tree there. We're told that Israel was a branch, a natural branch on that tree. It wasn't the root. It wasn't the main tree.

It was a branch. And we're told in Romans 11 that that branch has been cut out 2 ,000 years ago, but it's gonna get grafted back in. And we're told that the church, the Gentiles were a wild branch. They've been grafted into that olive tree.

They're not natural. They've been grafted in. And God warns, and I've never heard a sermon preached on this. He actually warns the Gentiles, the church, beware, Israel got cut out. You better beware lest you get cut out.

Never heard anyone preach just a sermon on that. What a shocking thing. When we see this tree symbolizes God's people, not just Israel, not just the church, but it symbolizes God's work down through the ages.

The emblem of Israel as a nation today, if you look it up in Wikipedia or something else, you'll see the symbol of the national state of Israel is a golden candlestick with two olive trees at either side.

Where did they get that from? Zechariah chapter four. It is the symbol of the nation of Israel. And so we see these two living, growing trees, pouring oil into the candlestick, not by man's hand, but we see all of this in vision.

Church, I want to see a real candlestick function in Limerick city again, but we need our eyes open. You need to understand that oil has to flow into this candlestick. There's got to be a fire burning.

We've got to make sure that these olive trees are living and alive. That's my first point. Awaken to a vision, a revived church. You say, well, I'm dead and dry and barren. That's not God's will for you.

God has a vision of what he desires in your life. You go, I have no desire to pray. That isn't God's will for your life. If you accept that, you're letting spiritual death in on you. You say, I've lost my desire for holiness and purity.

I don't see God's plan for my marriage or the church or for ministry. You need to get back to this book. You need a fresh vision. You need that angel to come and tap you on the shoulder again. This is what I desire.

Whatever you satisfy yourself with and settle down and say, I'll accept that. You will die in spiritual death. We need to awaken to a real vision. What does a Christian look like? What does a preacher look like?

If you don't study this, how can you be a preacher? You see, there's no way you can be a preacher unless you act according to this. My second point, rebuilding the house of God. First, we have the angel awakening Zechariah and showing him the vision.

Rebuilding the House of God by the Spirit

Think about it. God is going to rebuild the work in Jerusalem. What symbol does he use? He uses the symbol of the golden candlestick and the two olive trees to say, I want to build a physical, literal temple in Jerusalem.

Look at verse six. Then he, the angel, speak unto me saying, this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord. God wakens up this prophet, this preacher, this man of God, this young man of God.

And he shows him the vision of the golden candlestick and the two olive trees pouring oil in. It's a whole living thing. This is God's desire. Next of all, he gives him a word. I'm giving you a word to give to Zerubbabel.

Zerubbabel is the old man of God. He's now mature. He's an older man who led the people back. He is the governor. He has authority, governmental authority amongst God's people. He is a leader. There's Joshua who is the high priest.

And he says to this young prophet, I am giving you a word, showing you this vision. I'm giving you a word for Zerubbabel, the leader, the governor, the leadership of this revival that God is stirring up sovereignly.

What does he say unto him? I want you to go to Zerubbabel. And I want you to say, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts. Do you realize what he's saying here? This work that I'm about to do, 14 years of opposition.

Saints, have you ever been opposed in your Christian life? Have you ever stole something that you once had? Your passion, your fire, your desire, your evangelistic zeal. Do you desire to get it back? Do you long for it?

How do you get back there? Well, Zechariah's got a word to give to the leadership. He said, it's not going to be by might nor by power. God is going to build his church again. You know, in this generation, I know that God is going to build this church.

I know God is going to revive his work again. I know God is going to show us a vision of the golden candlestick. And you know what? I know it's coming, but how can it be accomplished? You say, how are we going to see the church revived?

You can hardly find a church in a city now. You can search like Brother Joshua. You can search an entire city and you cannot. You go from church to church to church. Games, entertainment, compromise, unbiblical things going on.

And you go, where is the golden candlestick? God is going to revive his candlestick again, like in Zechariah's day. But he's got to show someone the vision. He's got to stir up his people. He's got to waken them up again and say, I'm not satisfied.

It's not okay how things are. He wants to stir them again, but it's not going to be by might. You're not going to just make a decision or resolve or try harder. You know what he says? Not by might. The word might there means an army or collective strength.

Many soldiers coming together, standing together, fighting together. He said, it's not going to be by that means. You think you're going to fight and defeat all those enemies that have hindered you 14 years?

You think you're going to get an army together and go to war? Do you know what the word of the Lord is? It won't be by might. It won't be by aggressive military force. He also said it won't be by power.

That means personal individual strength, force, strength, might, exerting yourself. He said, it will not be like that. How many Christians have said, I'm going to try harder in the field and went, I'll give up.

I'll never be free of the sin. I'll never be free of this character trait. I'll never, I've tried. I'll resolve again, but I know I'll fail. You know what? You're in a very wrong basis there. You're looking at yourself.

And you know what? Your resources are limited. Even if you have a whole army, you know what? I'll never accomplish this. All the money on the earth won't accomplish this. All the Christians gathering together in a big gathering won't accomplish this.

All of you exerting your energy will not do this. It's not by effort or energy or plans or numbers or organizations or more conferences or greater preachers or more teaching. You know what the Lord says?

It's not by human ingenuity. It's not by human strength. It's not by numbers. It's going to be by my spirit, saith the Lord. When you look at that golden candlestick and the oil being poured in, I mean oil, that oil represents the Holy Spirit.

You need oil and the candlestick to burn with fire, to bring light, to bring the revelation of Christ. And you know what he's saying here? He said, by my spirit. It's going to be a work of the Holy Spirit.

Just wait until the spirit of God comes again to this church. You may say it's impossible. We're worn out. We've given in the fight. 14 years we're here. Praise God for the foundation. Look, praise God for the altar.

It's in its place. But you haven't advanced in 14 years as the church of God. But you know what? I'm going to show you the golden candlestick again. I'm going to show you a candlestick filled with oil, filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's going to be by my power, by my spirit, saith the Lord. He goes further in verse 7. Who art thou, O great mountain? This is the continuing word to Zerubbabel. Zechariah, you better deliver this to a preacher.

You know what? I do believe in this, sir. I've got a message for pastors and preachers and leaders as much as any Christian. You see, there's many preachers out there have grown discouraged. The people they have to handle.

The people they have to lead. What a bunch. They're worn out. They're tired. The work of God isn't moving forward. There's no souls being saved. You know what? That's a very dangerous time when you're in that position.

Do you realize what all this opposition was? It was like a great mountain. That's why you need to know it's by my spirit, saith the Lord. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, thou shalt become a plain.

All the opposition. But Brother Keith, you don't realize that with all the laws and all the legislation and all that's happening in our world, it's going to stop the church functioning normally. Who says?

We act like that. We believe it. You know, all these Christians removed themselves from YouTube. They go, you know what? YouTube's going to throw us off. So they removed themselves. That's the stupidest thing I ever heard in my life.