The Signs of God's Presence
The Gospel Project • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 744 viewsElijah confronts the idolatry of his day
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
As we come to this story in 1 Kings we have to ask the question, what is God doing by placing this historical event in the text?
As we come to this story in 1 Kings we have to ask the question, what is God doing by placing this historical event in the text?
We have a man of God.
We have an idolatrous and exceedingly wicked king. More wicked than those who had come before him.
We have an evil wife of a wicked king.
We see a false god in Baal.
We have false prophets.
We see the prophet of God confronting and speaking truth into the lives of the King and his wife.
We also see the prophet of God confronting the false prophets and bringing about judgment .
Where else do we see confrontation in the Biblical narrative up this point?
Noah confronts his generation
Moses confronts Pharaoh
Samuel confronts Saul
David confronts Goliath
In what ways are Christians to confront their respective culture and false teachers with the truth of divine revelation and the gospel?
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
Read 2 Peter 2:
Observations
Read
and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;
2 Peter 2:
Observations
These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
2 Peter 2:
Observations
God moves the hearts of His people to return to Him
God moves the hearts of His people to return to Him
Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” So with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two measures of seed. Then he arranged the wood and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four pitchers 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. The water flowed around the altar and he also filled the trench with water. At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and 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 heart back again.” 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. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.”
1 Kings
What should Christians believe as they pray to God?
God is One: The People of God knew, based upon God’s response that Yahweh, the Lord, is the only one true God.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Are we guilty of creating a god of our own liking in our hearts?
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
Elijah didn’t engage in political games with the prophets of Baal. He didn’t extend to them the sort of courtesy and respect that modern evangelical leaders seem to think we ought to extend to those spreading the toxic poison we see in our churches today.
Jesus called them vipers.
Paul called them ravenous wolves.
Peter compared them to pigs and dogs.
Jude Called them ungodly.
John warned us not to even give them a greeting.
We have even come to the place where evangelical leaders are doing all they can to take the sting out of homosexuality by hinting or outright tell us that it isn’t any different from heterosexual sin.
It isn’t out job to take the sting out of sin! Elijah never attempted to help rebellious sinners accept God’s Word by seemingly affirming people in their sin to a degree.
God provides strength for His servant to obey Him
God provides strength for His servant to obey Him
He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat.” Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
1 Kings
NOTE: Broom tree is actually the Hebrew word Rothem and was doubtless the shrub that the Arabs referred to as ratam. It’s shade was sparse and it would be the where one would avoid the full power of the desert sun if there were no other options. (It could be burned and used to make charcoal.)
In what ways have you identified with Elijah’s struggle?
What other person stands out as one who brought the message of God to the people and the response was identical?
He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
We seem to do all we can to avoid confronting the culture for all kinds of reasons, none of which will are good.
Persecution purifies the churches
Persecution purifies the churches
A persecution arose early in the 4th century under Diocletian. It was aimed at destroying church buildings and especially the Scriptures. Many Christians recanted the faith and surrendered the Scriptures in order to save their lives.
Even Peter denied Christ when facing persecution the first time. But after his conversion and empowerment with the Holy Spirit, he was crucified upside down for the sake of Christ!
Christ’s Humiliation: God the Son left His glorious state and came in the form of sinful flesh, and He experienced a humiliating death on a cross by becoming sin for us so that in Him we might become the children of God.
God reveals a remnant to His servant to encourage him
God reveals a remnant to His servant to encourage him
The Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram; and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. “It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. “Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
God spoke to Elijah
God spoke to Elijah
What are you doing here, Elijah?
God’s people had forsaken God’s covenant.
They had replaced God’s altars with foreign altars to foreign, false gods.
They have rejected and killed God’s prophets.
God encourages Elijah
God encourages Elijah
I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.” But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.
Paul’s application
Paul’s application
6-
But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, Eyes to see not and ears to hear not, Down to this very day.”
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
13
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
What are some steps you can take to prepare others for the kingdom work in the future?
The Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram; and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. “It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. “Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
1 Kings
He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat.” Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Why is a gospel community so important during seasons of despair?
The Gospel Community
The Gospel Community
Preaches the gospel
Baptizes converts
Disciples it’s members
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”