Sermon Central
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The Golden Candlestick Series
Contributed by Jerry Shirley on Sep 19, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: God is Light - The Formation, the Fuel, & the Flame - First we must SEE the Light, then we must BE the Light! Link inc. to formatted text, audio & video, spectacular PowerPoint Presentation.
The Golden Candlestick
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/GoldenCandlestick.html
Look to your left as you enter the Holy Place and you see this beautiful lampstand, the Menorah, with 7 flames illuminating the room. It is described in minute detail, the most striking detail perhaps being that it is made of one solid piece of gold. It wasn’t made in sections and then put together. By today’s standards it would be worth more than a million dollars.
The central shaft divided on both sides into 3 limbs, each like an almond branch, with intricate handiwork. Pure olive oil is in each bowl and a wick inside is lit. On each branch are ‘knops’ which is likely a fruit like shape. And the likeness of a flower is carved in each one.
The purpose is to illuminate the Holy Place. There are no windows and no natural light. Each morning and evening the priest would enter and would trim away the burnt part of the wick and adjust it. This is the place of the glory of God, and this light was like a supernatural source, not a natural one.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
These things, philosophy, science, logic, and human reasoning are natural light, but the supernatural light is Jesus, the light of the world!
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
The golden lampstand dispelled the darkness so the priest could do his job.
1. The Formation of the lamp stand.
It is probably the most perfect picture of Jesus of all the tabernacle furnishings. For God is light.
God is physical light. He was that pillar of fire that led them by night. And in heaven there’s no need for artificial light. Jesus is the light of heaven.
God is intellectual light. Any knowledge man gains is only because God has allowed ‘the light to come on’. Technology today has exploded and man is so proud of himself, but God is that light.
God is moral light. People live and walk in moral darkness.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Why is government and politics so opposed to common sense? Because of moral darkness.
We are to be the light of the world, and dispel the darkness so people can find their way.
If you are not saved and you don’t receive the light of God and walk into that light, the Bible says you will one day be cast into a place which although it is of fire, has no light, and is described as outer darkness, chains of darkness. That is a thick black existence that you can feel, and feel too well.
Jesus is God, and Jesus is also light...
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
A man named Saul was traveling a road of life one day when he saw a great light and it was Jesus. He was blinded by what he saw physically, but spiritually that day he saw the light and was converted. That made all the difference. It turned a wicked man into a believer. He used to be against Christ and now he’s for Him. Now he’s the apostle Paul!
Do you remember the day when you saw the light?
Do you see Jesus in this lampstand?
The knops like pomegranates speak of His fruitfulness.
The flowers remind us He’s the Lily of the Valley and the Rose of Sharon.
The bowls like almonds with olive oil speak of the resurrection. Remember when the authority of Aaron the High Priest was at stake? God took Aaron’s rod, a dead branch, and it budded like an olive branch, and we’ll see it next week inside the Ark of the Covenant.
This didn’t establish his priestly authority, it just confirmed it. And when Jesus rose from the dead it didn’t establish Him as the Son of God, He already IS that, it merely confirmed the fact.
v. 31 The lampstand was a beaten work of solid gold. The word beaten could be translated ‘hammered’, another picture of Christ and His cross.
The branches of this candlestick represent both the church and the individual Christian.
God gave John a remarkable vision...
12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
