THE ELIJAH CONNECTION

Elijah was one of the most colorful prophets in the OT. He is known for various reasons:

His wardrobe consisting of clothing made from camel’s hair

His diet consisting of locusts and honey

His boldness in opposing sin and idolatry

His miraculous works (or rather God’s miraculous works performed through him)

His relationship with Gentiles

His ascension into heaven

I remember as a teen, when I was beginning to spend a regular time in the Scriptures, I wanted to read about Elijah. But I didn’t know which book of the OT contained his account. So I looked his name up in the back of my Bible, and found that he was mentioned in 2 Chronicles. So I read through that book, only to find a passing reference to him. Eventually I learned that his story was contained in 1, 2 Kings.

In our passage from last week we saw that Moses and Elijah had appeared on the Mountain of Transfiguration, and they they spoke with Jesus about His coming sufferings. Apparently this visitation caused the disciples, who had witnessed this scene, to ask about the coming of Elijah.

I believe that the main point of our passage for this morning, , has to do with the suffering of Messiah. As we meditate on this passage we will see that Christ’s suffering was foreseen in the transfiguration, his resurrection, and the suffering of Elijah.

SUFFERING FORESEEN IN THE TRANSFIGURATION

Why do I say that Jesus’ suffering was foreseen in the transfiguration? Because that is the topic in which Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus about.

… [They] were speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

As I mentioned last week, we do not know what aspect of Jesus’ suffering these men addressed on that holy mountain. But we do know that it was the main topic of their conversation.

The Greek term translated departure is the same term used in the Septuagint for Exodus. Moses led in the exodus from slavery in Egypt. But Jesus was to lead in a far greater exodus, the exodus from slavery to sin!

John 1:17 NASB95PARA

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

John MacArthur wrote:

“It is significant that the discussion was about Christ’s saving work through His death, because that was the central work of His ministry, yet the truth the disciples found most difficult to accept.”

Let’s consider now how Christ’s suffering was foreseen in His resurrection from the dead.

SUFFERING FORESEEN IN THE RESURRECTION

Notice verse 9. Why did Jesus forbid the disciples to tell about the transfiguration until after His resurrection? This must have been a very hard secret for them to keep.

The story might cause the people to take Him by force and make Him king — thereby subverting the cross

The strongest evidence for Jesus’ messiahship would be His resurrection

Romans 1:4 NIV84

and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

As we have mentioned before, and probably will mention again, Jesus took great care to ensure that He completed the mission for which He was sent during His first advent — to be the ransom for the many. That first phase of His mission could not be bypassed. It had to be completed just as the Father had designed from before the foundation of the world.

Mark informs us of something else within this context:

Mark 9:10 NASB95PARA

They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant.

It seems that the three disciples who traveled with Jesus to this holy mountain did not understand that Messiah must suffer and die.

All of this led the disciples to ask Jesus about Elijah.

SUFFERING FORESEEN IN THE ELIJAH CONNECTION

I think that I can understand why the disciples would ask Jesus about Elijah, since the appearance of Moses and Elijah together must have reminded them of the closing words of the OT cannon.

Malachi 4:5–6 NASB95PARA

“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

Malachi 4:4–6 NASB95PARA

“Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

It seems that they must have been wondering if their appearance at the Transfiguration was the fulfillment of this prophecy. Their question and or confusion may have been chronological in nature. In other words, they understood that Elijah was to come first and then Messiah.

Malachi 3:1 NASB95PARA

“Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.

They may well have understood Isaiah’s prophecy about the voice in the wilderness crying out “Prepare the way for the Lord” to have been what the coming Elijah would do.

If the scribes teaching about these things was correct, then why had Jesus Messiah come first and then Elijah came later (assuming they thought the appearance of Elijah on the Mt. of Transfiguration was the coming of Elijah).

Further, how could it be that Elijah had already restored true worship, and brought about a state of justice, as promised? If that had truly happened, then how could Messiah be rejected and killed?

“With the prophecy [of Malachi] in mind,” points out R.C. Sproul, “the Jewish people had awaited the return of Elijah for four hundred years. Whenever they celebrated the Passover, they kept one chair empty in case Elijah came that night. Jewish people still do this when they celebrate the seder meal. They are still waiting for Elijah.”

And of course, the disciples were immersed in the Jewish mindset of that day. It seems that the disciples struggled to find a framework in which they can believe that the Messiah could die (D.A. Carson).

Let’s look at Jesus’ explanation of the OT teaching about Elijah.

Elijah’s Future Coming

First, Jesus alluded to a yet future coming of Elijah. Notice verse 11 — “Elijah is coming and will restore all things.” Did you notice that this is written in the future tense?

If there is to be a yet future coming of Elijah, when would that be? In there are two unnamed witnesses who show up during the Tribulation period. Though they are unnamed their description leads many to believe that they are Moses and Elijah. And in that context they do prepare the way for Messiah to “come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and … repay every man according to his deeds.”

Elijah’s Connection with John the Baptist

In the Gospel of John, when asked if he was Elijah, John the Baptist stated that he was not. And yet Jesus said that he was the Elijah figure in

John 1:21 NASB95PARA

They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

Matthew 11:14 NASB95PARA

And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.

Liberal scholars will jump at this seeming contradiction to say that the Word is not infallible or inerrant. But certainly there is an explanation. John was not the reincarnation of Elijah. When his father, Zacharias received the announcement that he and his wife would have a child in their old age, the angel told him:

Luke 1:17 NIV84

And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

John’s ministry as the forerunner of Jesus was in the mold of the one, spoken of by Isaiah who would prepare the Lord’s way.

Matthew 3:3 NASB95PARA

For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight!’ ”

Isaiah 40:3 NASB95PARA

A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

Jesus affirmed that the scribes understood correctly that Elijah would precede Messiah.

Matthew 17:11 NKJV

Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things.

However, the scribes did not recognize that Elijah had already come. The Jewish leadership did not recognize that John the Baptist was the Elijah-like figure who was the forerunner to Messiah.

John’s Maltreatment is Connected to Jesus’s Future Suffering

D. A. Carson asked: “If John the Baptist’s restoration of “all things” did not prevent his own death, why should Messiah be any better received?”

Jesus seems to have wanted the disciples to focus on John’s past Elijah-like ministry, not the recent appearance of Elijah on the Mt. of Transfiguration. Doing so will help them to realize how John’s death foreshadowed the death of Jesus (Turner).

THE DISCIPLE’S UNDERSTANDING

According to verse 13, the disciples understood that Jesus was referring to John the Baptist. That may be the limit of their present understanding, for their future actions will betray their grasp of the importance of the suffering of Christ.

1 Peter 2:24 NKJV

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

Or his statements in his message that was delivered on the Day of Pentecost:

R.C. Sproul wrote: “Jesus’s words were a sobering wake-up call for Peter, James, and John. ‘Just as John was treated, so the Jews are going to treat Me,’ He said. ‘So, in spite of the glory you have just seen on the mountain, this is not a time for a theology of glory. It is a time for a theology of the cross. That is the way My Father has ordained that the restoration of all things should come to pass.’ Therefore, Jesus set His face as a flint toward Jerusalem.”

Acts 2:22–23 NASB95PARA

“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

Acts 2:22–24 NASB95PARA

“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

Though the apostles did not fully understand Jesus at that time, after His resurrection they came to understand the importance of the suffering and death of Christ. Consider Peter’s statement in his first epistle:

R.C. Sproul wrote: “Jesus’s words were a sobering wake-up call for Peter, James, and John. ‘Just as John was treated, so the Jews are going to treat Me,’ He said. ‘So, in spite of the glory you have just seen on the mountain, this is not a time for a theology of glory. It is a time for a theology of the cross. That is the way My Father has ordained that the restoration of all things should come to pass.’ Therefore, Jesus set His face as a flint toward Jerusalem.”

1 Peter 2:24 NKJV

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

Or his statements in his message that was delivered on the Day of Pentecost:

Acts 2:22–24 NASB95PARA

“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

I love that statement that it was impossible for Christ to be held prisoner by the power of death. That is not only true for Jesus, but it is true for everyone who has been united with Christ by baptism into His death.

Romans 6:3–4 NASB95PARA

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

How does one become united with Christ in His death? We become united with Christ in His death by placing our faith in Him. That means we rely on His perfect life and not our own imperfect life; it means we rely on His deity and not our own humanity; it means we relay on His death as our sin bearer and not our own death; it means that we rely on His resurrection from the dead. If we do so then we too will rise again with Christ.

Believer, this also means that our lives need to change to reflect that newness of life that we have been granted. And key part of this change is to reflect on the meaning of the cross of Christ. Let’s pray.

Closing Song: No. 324 — When I Survey the Wondrous Cross