The Work of God in Elijah

Good morning, again, Ambassadors, it’s a joy to be with you! I recognize that this is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, so we are especially glad you are all here with us this morning. I hope that you’ll join us for our church lunch immediately following the service today. Welcome to our Graceland kids as well! Every month, we get to enjoy bringing in our K-5 students and have them experience the gathering of God’s church in worship for a short while. I promise to do my best to not be boring, but I’m sure that the story we have for today will prove fascinating enough!

Before we dive into our new series and text, I wanted to say a few words about Memorial Day - which is, of course, tomorrow. Now, I’m not one for being overly patriotic during our worship gatherings, but memorials and remembrances are an important part of the Christian story, as well as the national story. I would like to convey my thanks and gratitude for the sacrifices that were made on my behalf, the behalf of my children, and truly on the behalf of everyone in this room. For centuries, our way of life and our freedom to worship God has been protected by the millions who have lost their lives in our defense. We give thanks to God for raising up these brave people. If it wasn’t for their courage, our free right to worship would undoubtedly be in jeopardy or possibly extinct. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” We can be grateful that so many have chosen to speak and act on our behalf.

Of course, Jesus was and is the One who has acted on our behalf in the greatest sense, sacrificing his perfect life and taking the punishment for our sin so that we might be free to worship God forever. The theme behind Memorial Day is so perfectly summed up by Jesus Himself where He says:

John 15:13 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Well, thankful as we are on this Memorial Day weekend, it’s time for us to begin a new series. We’ve finished the book of Luke together, and will have a set of mini-series throughout the summer, featuring various speakers on a wide range of topics. This morning, we’ll begin a 3 week journey in the Old Testament, studying the lives of 3 important figures in the history of God’s people. My goal for us is to renew our love for the stories of the Old Testament, and once again see the connecting points of Jewish history and the promise of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The title of our series, despite being in the New Testament, is “Jesus, our Prophet, Priest, and King.” This week we are looking at how God used the prophet Elijah to point us to Himself, and ultimately, Jesus as our perfect Prophet. Next week, we’ll take a look at Samuel the Priest, and in the third week, David the King.

Whenever we read the Old Testament, it should be as if we see Jesus in and through it. It was in that we first see the promise of Christ. But if we were just reading through Genesis for the first time without knowing who Jesus was, that would be pretty hard to spot.

Some background on our story today. We will be mainly discussing Ahab and Elijah. Israel in the North was in a terrible state throughout much of the split kingdom era, especially under awful kings like Ahab. Ahab was especially awful because of the influence of his queen, the pagan Jezebel. Under Ahab and Jezebel, Israel underwent incredible religious persecution and was forced to worship Baal. It was during this persecution that God sent a drought and through Elijah brought people back to Himself. We are about to see a massive showdown between Ahab and Elijah - well, really it was between bunch of posers and the God of creation.

Without further delay, let’s dive into the text!

1 Kings 18:

1 Kings 18:20–40 ESV

So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.” Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention. Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed. And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water. And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.

What an amazing story! This is my favorite Old Testament story because it really goes the furthest in combining the supernatural work of God with the supernatural faith of His prophet. Elijah’s confidence in what God was doing is unmatched here. As you read through the story, he almost seems cocky. In reality, Elijah’s actions and words throughout this entire episode embodies the confidence that he as the prophet would have in the Lord. What type of confidence must we have in God in the same way? Perhaps our own confidence shouldn’t be that much different from Elijah, who had not yet read or heard of the Messiah, Jesus. We may not be having audible conversations with God, but we have the fullness of His Word and the revealing of His Son to lean on each and every day.

He knew God would come through as long as he was obedient. God would come through because that was what God wanted, not because Elijah decided he wanted something and then proceeded to do everything right. God moved for His own glory and made Elijah the benefactor of that move. That leads my to my key point today.

The power of the prophet is in the proof.

Elijah’s success on Mt. Carmel was by no means the only significant part of his ministry, but his success as a prophet to Israel certainly hinged on this event. The power of the prophet, the effectiveness of the message, relies on the proof. In our own lives as Christians, we see the proof in what God has been doing and how He has been orchestrating things to be worked out for our good and His glory.

So What?

So what’s the big deal about what’s going on here? So what do we need to take away from this?

First, it’s important to see that God was faithful to Elijah through Elijah’s obedience and boldness. Your position may not be as a prophet, but the God who used Elijah and worked in Elijah is the same today for His people. We have so much to be thankful for in Elijah’s story, because it is stories like this that remind us of how good our God is. He is faithful.

Further evidence of God’s faithfulness was the promise he kept to send the greatest Prophet, Jesus. Jesus who is not just a prophet, but a prophet nonetheless. We read here in

Deuteronomy 18:15–22 ESV

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 18:15-22

This passage foretells of Jesus and furthers the idea that the power is in the proof. Moses assures that this Prophet, Jesus, would

Second, we must see how Jesus is the perfect prophet. Jesus’ roles in our lives as risen Savior are as priest, prophet and king. As prophet, Jesus is our

Judge

Foreteller

Communicator

If the power of the prophet is in the proof, then we can judge the effectiveness of Christ’s ministry on the work He’s done in these 3 areas. First, as our Judge, He came to earth to judge the sins of the world; not only to judge them, but to pay for them. Secondly, He not only foretold his own death and resurrection, He prophesied about many things including the destruction of the actual temple, which still stands in ruins today in Jerusalem. Third, today he communicates to us through the Spirit and through the Scriptures, and for as our mediator before the Father. I’d say in all 3 of these prophetic categories, it doesn’t get better than Jesus.

And that’s really the point we are getting at today. We give thanks to God for his faithfulness in Elijah’s life. We see the seriousness God has for His rightful worship. But more than anything, it doesn’t get better than Jesus, our Prophet, Our Priest, Our King, Our Lord, Our Savior, Our Redeemer, Our Everything.