Manlike Us

ELIJAH: A MAN LIKE US

1 Kings 17:1,2; James 5 :17

INTRODUCTION

1. Suppose we were looking for person to fill a leadership position in our church. Resumes started coming. One of them read something like this:

Occupation: Prophet
Spiritual gift of prayer

Prayed and it didn’t rain for 3 ½ years
Prayed and fire consumed water soaked altar and sacrifice
Prayed and drought ended

Gift of miracles:

Multiplied food to sustain a family for over 3 year drought and famine
Raised the dead
Parted the Jordan River

Translated into heaven rather than experience phy death

2. I think that would qualify them to be on our leadership team. What do you think? We’d just take a chance on him. These are some of the spiritual feats of one of the great prophets in the OT – Elijah. When we look at most of the biblical heroes we get a crick in our neck because we’ve placed them high on a pedestal. They are the spiritual elite. We place them several notches above us mere mortals. We are not worthy to carry their shoes and certainly not fill them. The Bible contains a long list of spiritual giants: Joseph, Moses, Daniel, David, the prophets, Paul.. About all we can do is read their resumes, shake our head in wonderment and awe and put some more ben gay on our sore neck.

3. This spiritual giant Elijah burst on the scene in 1 Kgs 17. He immediately confronted King Ahab and told him, in the name of God, it is not going to rain again until I say so. For 3 ½ years there was no rain in Is. Drought brought about food shortages and famine. Elijah was # 1 on Ahab and Jezebel’s most wanted list. Their hostile relationship resulted in a great confrontation on Mt Carmel where Elijah, as God’s representative, destroyed the prophets of Baal and proved beyond a shadow of doubt that God is the only God.

4. Before we lift Elijah too high on the pedestal, did you hear James’ description of him? He was a man like us. He was a human being just like us. He has the same nature as we. He accomplished spiritual victories not because of who he was but WHOSE he was. He had passions, feelings, and sufferings like us. No matter what your spiritual resume might be, Elijah’s life story is applicable to us common mortals. Elijah teaches us that we can be people whom God uses to do mighty things for His Kingdom.

5. Let’s take a detailed look at Elijah who is a man like us. His story will challenge us, comfort us, renew us and encourage us in our walk to become the kind of servant that honors God.

I. HISTORICAL CONTEXT

A. POLITICAL/SPIRITUALLY

1. We need to put Elijah in his political and religious context so that we can fully understand and appreciate him. 150 years before Elijah, the nation of Is divided into northern kingdom we call Is and the Southern kingdom we call Judah. Jeroboam rebelled against King Solomon. He untied10 tribes to the N and established the northern kingdom with Samaria as its capital city. He began a long lineage of evil kings. Jeroboam led Is into idolatry. He ordained his own priests. He set up high places throughout the land for people to worship. In Elijah’s day, Ahab was the King of Is. He was the 8th king in this lineage of evil. What a tragic figure. Look how the Bible describes him: 30 Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. 31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. 32 He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him. 1 Kings 16:30-33 (NIV) Ahab led Is deeper into idolatry and sin and further from God.

2. King Ahab imported the Phoenician god Baal when he married the foreigner Jezebel. He built a temple to Baal, set up altars and brought in numerous prophets of Baal. Who was Baal? Baal was the weather god. Baal supposedly determined the seasons of rain. Thunder was his voice. Lightning was his weapon. Because this was an agricultural society, Baal was also the god of fertility. He joined his female deity, Asherah, to invoke these life-giving qualities. Baal worshippers experienced these life qualities by engaging in perverted sexual relations with temple prostitutes.

3. In 1 Kgs 17, Elijah burst upon this scene of darkness to confront the evil Ahab. Elijah will show us the darker the circumstance, the brighter Christians shine. God uses the events recorded in 1 and 2nd Kings to mold Elijah’s character and trust so he could be a useful instrument for God’s kingdom.

4. I certainly don’t have to tell you that we live in dark times. Sin and evil abound. Idolatry is rampant. We might not set up altars in our homes but our society worships many idols such as money, self, success, power, prestige. God places us in dark times and difficult circumstances to mold us into people of character and trust so we might be children of light to shine like the stars in a crooked and depraved world.

II. WHAT KIND OF MAN WAS ELIJAH

A. MAN OF PRAYER

1. Who was Elijah? What kind of man was he? James tells us Elijah was a man like us. What does that mean? James introduces us to Elijah as a man of prayer. He prayed earnestly that it not rain and it didn’t. 3 ½ years later, he prayed for rain and it rained. Elijah was a man of prayer that resulted in being a great man of faith who was confident in God. It also resulted in a deep intimate relationship with God. These 2 qualities allowed God to mightily use Elijah. We like Elijah can develop them in our lives so we can please God in all we do.

2. Elijah bathed life with prayer. He was staying with a widow in Zarepheth during the famine. Her son died. She brought him to Elijah and demanded he do something. Elijah did. He prayed fervently. What’s so unusual about that? There is nothing unusual about the action of prayer. Do you remember what he prayed? He prayed that God would bring him back from the dead. God answered Elijah and the boy lived. What confidence he had in God. This is the 1st recorded resurrection. Why would he think about praying for this dead boy to come back to life? If he did, why did he think that God would answer him? Prayer built an intimate relationship with God.

3. Prayer will do the same for us. When we face difficult circumstances, and we will, or life in general, prayer should be our immediate course of action. We cry out to God—use this situation for your glory and my good. Jesus shows us the result of an intimate relationship with him and prayer: 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:12-14 (NIV)

3. Elijah was battling the enemy face to face on Mt Carmel. He engaged 450 prophets of Baal in a spiritual battle to determine once and for all who the real God was. God heard and answered by sending down fire and consuming the sacrifice. Elijah prayed in a very desperate moment of his life when he reached the point that life was no longer worth living. God provided for his needs and lifted him above the pit of despair and depression.

2. Elijah was a man like us. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16 (NIV) The power of Elijah’s prayer rested in his relationship with God. We don’t know anything about his life up until he’s introduced in Ch 17. We don’t know what his spiritual upbringing was like. We don’t know about his daily devotional life. We don’t know about his church involvement. We do know he knew God intimately and through prayer developed a deep relationship that allowed him to trust and obey God under the most difficult and life threatening situations. The lesson for us is obvious. We can do the same. Every Christian can pray. Every Christian can develop an intimate relationship with God where we too can trust and obey in whatever circumstances of life we find ourselves.

B. MAN OF SINGLE MINDED COMMITMENT

1. Elijah dedicated his life to make sure everyone knew that there was 1 and only 1 God. He was a man of single-minded commitment. This commitment allowed him to experience some tremendous spiritual victories. He miraculously multiplied a handful of flour and a little oil in a jug and fed a widow’s family and himself during the famine. He saved their lives. This commitment resulted in a great spiritual victory on top of Mt Carmel as he proved beyond a doubt that God was God. His single-minded commitment placed his life in danger. He was an enemy to Ahab and Jezebel. She put out a death warrant on his life. God rewarded his commitment by allowing him to bring Baalism to its knees. When his task on earth was complete, rather than taste the dregs of death, Elijah was translated into heaven on a chariot of fire.

2. God desires the same singled minded commitment from us. Today we would describe Elijah’s single-minded commitment in terms of Lordship. We would say Jesus was Lord over Elijah’s life. Jesus was master. Elijah was the obedient servant. Is that not what God wants from us? Our expression of faith in Christ is more than a cry to save our soul. It is the surrender to single-minded commitment with Jesus as Lord over our lives.

3. When we accept Christ as Savior we recognize our helplessness to do anything about our sin problem. We understand we are sinners and deserve eternal separation from God for all eternity in hell. We believe the good news that Jesus died on the Cross for our sin. He took upon himself our penalty of spiritual death. He closed the gap between sinful man and holy God. He bore our pain and suffering. By faith, we confessed Jesus as our savior and asked to forgive us. In that faith act, we also accepted him as our Lord. BE the lord, boss, leader, manager over our lives. We commit to single mindedness. This is the way Paul expressed it: So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV) And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17 (NIV)

4. Our vocational choice does not determine our Lordship. Our commitment does. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, Colossians 3:23 (NIV) Whether we are hus, wife, parent, child, Jesus wants to be Lord over our life. Whether we work in the church, factory, at school, department store, Jesus wants to be lord over our life.

5. Elijah was a man life us. He was a single minded in showing that God was the 1 and only 1 God. Is that not our mission? When Jesus is lord over our lives whatever situation we face, we can let our light shine in a depraved and crooked generation. We show clearly just as Elijah did on Mt Carmel, if you serve anyone other that the God of the Bible, you’ll be consumed in fire for all eternity.

6. We live in dark times. Hope is fragile. Satan uses an illness, death, financial bondage, and broken relationship, addictions to undermine our trust and break our hearts of hope. The antidote is Lordship, single-minded commitment. When Jesus is Lord, our trust and confidence will not waver no matter the difficulty of the situation. Like Elijah, we will stand face to face with the enemy and be victorious.

7. Jesus is Lord of all or not Lord at all. You’ve hart that before. It is a reminder that God claims all of us, not merely our souls. He wants to be lord over our time, finances, relationships, actions, attitudes, thoughts, and emotions. We are tempted to let Jesus save our soul but we are the master of the rest. A story out of the Crusades illustrates this. Constantine hired mercenaries to help him fight this religion war. Before gong to war, they would be baptized. As they were immersed, they would hold their swards out of the water so they could remain lord over them. Sound familiar.

8. We get into the baptismal waters acknowledging Jesus as Sav but we hold out of the water our checkbook, relationships, attitudes, action, what we wear, what we do. This morning will you take an honest inventory? What are you holding out of the water right now? Is there some area of your life you need to yield to God’s authority and Jesus’ lordship? Our shame is not in acknowledging we don’t have a single-minded commitment, shame comes in knowing it but not wanting to change it.

C. MAN OF IMPERFECTION

1. Elijah was a man like us. A man of prayer. A man of single mindedness. Elijah was also an imperfect man, a sinner, a mere mortal. Elijah reminds us sinners are all God has to do his work. Check every resume of the spiritual giants and you’ll see flaws, shortcomings, sin. Despite that God used them in mighty ways to do the work of the Kingdom.

2. Elijah is like us –mortal, a sinner. We’ll look more in-depth in a later message when Elijah came to the point that life was not worth living. His prayer to God that he would die. Elijah was deep in the pit of despair and depression. He was so discouraged. Been there? He’d just come from the mountaintop spiritual victory over the prophets of baal. He proved God was the only God. God overcame evil. On the heels of this mighty victory, Jezebel threatened to kill him. He knew this was not an idle threat. In fear, he ran for his life. He ended up in the desert, alone, despondent, depressed. He told God he had had enough. I want to bail out of life.

3. Fear short-circuited his faith. Dark clouds of despair covered him. The light of life flickered ever so dimly. Life lost it hope and meaning. After such a powerful victory, we wonder how it could happen. Elijah is a man like us. How does it happen in our lives?

4. How often have the clouds of discouragement, depression or even despair covered you? Has the pit of life become so deep that you’ve said I’ve had enough. I just can’t take it anymore. We are going along, the sun is shining. We are bathing in God’s blessings and then crises roll over us like a water surge from a hurricane. We get out of one crisis only to face another and another. They come at us like the ever-ready bunny.

5. Sure we can all look back in brighter days to see God’s hand of blessing. We can name them one by one. We can see the victory in the past but at this moment in our journey, we hurt and want relief. We cry out, I’ve had enough.

6. We’ll see how God lifted Elijah out of the pit and continue to use him. Elijah is a man like us. There may very well be times in our spiritual journey we don’t shine very brightly. We give up on God and travel the lonely and treacherous path away from God. Elijah shows us that God is a God of 2nd, 3rd, 4th chances. God can still use us. God will use us.

7. You may be in the pit right now. Let me assure you of God embracing and forgiving love. Let God remove the dark cloud about you and restore you to faithful service. Come back on …. And see how God turned life around for Elijah and he will for you. You may be out of the pit. You’re on the journey up the mountain of victory. Rejoice. Continue the journey. If you’ve not been there yet, don’t get smug because your time may come in the moment you least expect it.

Conclusion

1. Elijah was a man just like us A man of prayer. A man of single-minded commitment. A mortal, sinner. A man used mightily by God to win the over evil, to show the power of God and the impotence of anything other that God.

2. God brought Elijah on the scene in the midst of spiritual darkness to show the bright light of hope and life. We are lights to the world. God has called us out to be His shining stars to a perverse and crooked generation. We can be to this generation what Elijah was to his, as we become a people of prayer that develops a deep intimate relationship with God that leads us to trust and obey. We can submit to Christ as Lord in every area of our life. Even when like Elijah or Peter we fall off the path, God is ready to renew us, restore us and use us to bring glory of his name.