12/13/2015 The Word Of God Continues 2 Kings 2:1 18 Pastor Josh Sheldon

Good morning.

Good morning.

This morning's scripture is going to be found.

We're going to start in the New Testament, John chapter 6, beginning in verse 60.

John chapter 6 can be found on page 718 of your view Bible.

And then we're going to go to the New Testament and read from 2 Kings chapter 2.

Will you please stand?

John chapter 6, beginning in verse 60.

Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying.

Who can understand it?

To put this in context, Jesus had just explained that

unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life to live.

So again, I'll read you from 2 Kings, verse 60.

Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying.

Who can understand it?

When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, he said to them, Does this

offend you?

What then, if you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before?

It is the Spirit who gives life, and the flesh profits nothing.

The words that I speak to you are spirit.

They are life.

But there are some of you who do not believe.

For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray him.

And he said, Therefore, I say to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him

by my Father.

From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

Then Jesus said to the twelve, Do you also want to go away?

But Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Amen.

Turn, please, to 2 Kings, chapter 2.

It can be found on page 254 in the Hebrew Bible.

2 Kings, chapter 2, verse 1.

About to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah went with

Elisha from Gilgal.

Then Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, please.

For the Lord has sent me to Bethel.

But Elisha said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

So they went down to Bethel.

Now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came to Elisha and said to him, Do you know that the Lord

will take away your master from you today?

And he said, Yes, I know.

Keep silent.

Then Elisha said to him, Elisha, stay here, please.

For the Lord has sent me to Jericho.

But he said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

So they came to Jericho.

Now the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came to Elisha and said to him, Do you know

that the Lord will take away your master from you today?

So he answered, Yes, I know.

Keep silent.

Then Elisha said to him, Stay here, please.

For the Lord has sent me on to Jordan.

But he said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

So the two of them went on.

And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance, while the

two of them stood by the Jordan.

Now Elisha took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water.

And it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them went across, went over, sorry,

crossed over on dry ground.

And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elisha said to Elisha, Ask,

what may I do for you before I am taken away from you?

Elisha said, Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.

So he said, You have asked a hard thing.

Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so

for you.

But if not, it shall not be so.

Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with

horses of fire, and separated the two of them.

And Elisha went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

And Elisha saw it, and he cried out, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and his

horsemen.

So he saw him no more.

And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two, in two pieces.

He also took up the mantle of Elisha that had fallen from him, and went back and stood

by the bank of the Jordan.

Then he took the mantle of Elisha that had fallen from him and struck the water and said, Where is the Lord God

of Elisha?

And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that, and Elisha crossed over.

Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elisha

rests on Elisha.

And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.

Then they said to him, Look, now there are fifty strong men with your servants.

Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon

some mountain or into some valley.

And he said, You shall not send anyone.

But when they urged him, till he was ashamed, he said, Send them.

And therefore they sent fifty men.

And they searched for two days and did not find him.

But did not find him.

And when they came back to him where he had stayed in Jericho, he said to them, Did I not

say to you, Do not go?

Lord, let us pray.

Father in heaven, we come before you today.

Lord, we are anxious to hear what you have to say to us from your Word.

Through the preaching of your Word.

Lord, we are all men with feet of clay, weak and fallen.

But you are mighty, and you are a Pharaoh, and you make your strength known in our weakness.

So I pray, use the men who come before you this morning

to declare your Word and to lift up your name.

Yes, Lord.

Yes, our pastor.

Thank you, Father.

To bring people to a greater knowledge of you, a greater understanding of you.

Make that the case.

More so, to a greater living out of the truths that we learn.

Yes, Father.

Thank you.

Father, we pray that you would help us to be soft and light in this world.

That as we go from this place, we would live in such a way.

Father, I pray for strength and grace for our pastors who stand before us.

And may the devil have your spirit upon him.

Father, may your Word go forth with power.

May it change our lives.

I ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, John.

Well, I have, really as I said a few moments ago, nothing for you today

but this.

The Lord Jesus Christ.

We know that a sermon should have applications.

There should be a call to action as we hear the voice of God and our Savior in His Word, as we

see from His Word how to please Him.

And we should, at some level, be told, okay, therefore, go out and

do this or do that or behave in this manner.

This morning, I don't know quite what to tell you to do about the passage that, Lord willing, I will preach to you.

But I will tell you this.

2 Kings 2 is about Jesus Christ.

We've heard read about the chariot and the horses of fire that separated Elijah and Elisha and then

took Elijah up to heaven.

And we're going to look at the events leading up to that.

But make no mistake.

Despite this unique way in which Elijah was taken up

and the call of Elisha, my father, my father, the chariots and the horses of Israel,

be sure of this.

Jesus Christ revealing our Lord and Savior, that is the reason, that

is the sole reason that the Holy Spirit ensured, made

certain, that we have this historical record in Scripture.

The facts of what occurred in time and space.

And if it shows forth anything other than Jesus Christ, then we've mishandled

that Word.

We have not rightly divided the Word of Truth.

I'm convinced this passage, Lord willing, I will be able to show you, is about Jesus Christ.

And that's the application of it.

It's to know that when we handle the Scripture, we're handling Jesus Christ.

When we look at the end of Elijah, we are seeing something of the Lord Jesus Christ as

we go through this.

His glorious person and his work shine bright and clear in this prophet, in Elijah.

So plainly foreshadowing Jesus Christ, it seems it can hardly be missed.

If we see him, if we see Jesus, if after this message we leave saying with the apostle, but

we see Jesus, then I'll have discharged my duty before God and men.

If all we get today is a fresh vision of God's only begotten Son,

then it's enough.

It's the continuity of the work of God that drives this passage.

The events in our Bible are not haphazard collections for which a storyline was somehow contrived.

But they are a unified whole, bound together by this single theme.

It's the coming of Jesus Christ, anticipated in the Old Testament, recorded in the Gospel,

broadcast in the Book of Acts, and then explained to us in the epistles, in the letters of the apostles.

Now the prophet Elijah, at the beginning of this chapter, he's about to be taken away in this whirlwind.

The Word of God, so faithfully and boldly proclaimed by him, is about to depart the land.

He had founded schools of prophets, presumably with Elisha.

Young men being trained to know God's Word and be able to preach it and to apply it.

Now they were aware that their teacher Elijah would soon depart, that the

Lord would take him away.

The question is, the question at the beginning of this,

is a question almost of crisis.

Will the Word of God be no more?

Who will take up the work begun by this greatest of prophets?

When Elijah answered, the Lord said, I alone am left.

Which we handled a few weeks ago.

Who will take it up?

Will anyone take it up?

Or is this land, this apostate land, this backsliding land, to be completely devoid

of the plumb line that is that Word of God?

Well the passage before us which John just read to you, it answers that question.

Now most of us know this story of Elijah being taken up to heaven, physically and literally, in this

chariot of fire.

And incredible as that was though, as incredible as that is, it's not the main

point.

Do you notice how little text there is that covers that ascension?

Notice how much built up to it.

And then they're on the west side, the east side of the Jordan.

This chariot comes down, separates the two of them.

Elijah goes up.

Elisha says, my father, my father, and so forth.

That's it.

The focus of this farewell to Elijah is on the one who takes his place.

It's on Elisha.

It's not to disregard Elijah or his part here, but rather to be sure we're focused on what the author of

this inspired record would have us to see, and that's this.

The Word of God will continue.

The Word of God will go forth.

God is not through with his people.

Elijah will give way to Elisha, through whom God will continue delivering his word to the apostate nation,

and he will fulfill the prophecies that he made concerning especially Ahab's dynasty.

For us who are still waiting God's final call to us, whether to bring us home to himself or keep us here for a

time, we can be sure that he has not left us orphans, but continues to care for us by his

Holy Spirit and by this, by keeping his word before us.

If you're here this day, and if I'm preaching this word as faithfully and as accurately as I can,

then God Almighty, as he did even through Elisha, though I'm no Elisha, is keeping

you with God's word center stage, just as he will,

as we shall see, for Israel and through Elijah's successor.

Elijah takes Elisha on this God -ordained tour of the schools they had founded.

These men are called sons of the prophets.

They're not prophets in the sense of those who are speaking directly for God through direct plenary, as we

call it, inspiration.

They're sons of the prophets because they are disciples of Elijah and Elisha.

They're sons of the prophets in that they want to do those sorts of works.

They're being trained to know God's word, to preach God's word.

In that sense, they are prophets, not in the traditional sense as an Ezekiel or an Isaiah or an Elijah

or an Elisha.

Elisha is with his mentor on this tour of those schools, and they go first

to Bethel, then to Jericho, and from Jericho they go to the Jordan, followed there at a distance

by these students, by these sons of the prophets from the Jericho seminary, if you will.

Well, they cross the Jordan, just the two of them, Elijah, Elisha, and on the east side of the river, the transition

between the two is completed.

And this final journey begins with Elijah making this odd request of Elisha.

You heard it a few times.

Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel.

Interesting that he would make it a request.

Stay here, please, for the Lord God Almighty has sent me on.

It sounds like to go with Elijah would be to disobey God himself.

We need to ask, why has he been sent to Bethel?

We're not told specifically.

We do know that if the Lord revealed it to him, that he was to go there, that it was with a

purpose.

And Lord willing, we'll surmise that as we examine this text.

But why ask him to stay there as he goes on?

Why does Elijah tell him, you stay here, for the Lord has sent me there?

Well, Elisha is being given the chance to annul his call, really.

Stay here while I go where the Lord has directed me.

Elisha has been with him since he'd been first called.

Back in 1 Kings 19 .21, where it says that Elisha became

Elijah's servant.

And the way it's written, that word for became speaks of this continuing, unending action.

Elisha had been with him from the beginning.

And now he says, don't be with me.

Don't be with me.

Don't go with me where the Lord has directed me to go.

We've been with him all this time, but now, to put it sort of in our phraseology,

it's time to take it to the next level.

Will he stay at his master's side to the end?

Will he stay the course?

I mean, he knew Elijah's departure was imminent.

And this is sort of a last chance for him.

With Elijah gone, would he stay in the ministry?

Would he do the work being handed off to him?

In words reminiscent, though, of what Ruth told Naomi, he says, as the Lord lives

and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

As the Lord lives, as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

Go first to Bethel, a place with huge significance in the Bible.

And that's where Abraham built his first altar.

It's where Jacob saw the angels ascending to and descending from heaven.

It's also the site where Jeroboam set up one of his two golden calves.

Here, Elijah and Elisha had established a training ground for these sons of the prophets, these prophets of

the true and living God, people who would represent him.

It's their first stop.

Elisha is greeted by these sons of the prophets with this news.

Do you know that the Lord will take your master from over you today?

And he says, yes, I know.

Keep silent.

Nothing else is recorded of that visit.

They arrive.

The young men ask Elisha this one question.

He gives this odd response that he knows and he doesn't want to hear anymore about it.

And that's all we have.

Then they just go on.

And when they go on, Elisha repeats himself to Elisha.

Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on.

And he elicits the same response from Elisha as before.

As you live and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

He goes with them.

They go to Jericho, and everything that happened at Bethel is there repeated.

The prophets ask Elisha if he knows that.

By the word of God, this is Elisha's last day.

And he again says he knows and he demands silence.

And then, of course, the Lord next sends them over the Jordan.

And Elisha there will again be offered the chance to stay behind in the same words as before, and he'll

decline the offer, repeating what he had said earlier.

Now, before we take this up, we should be sure that we know what's really happening here.

What was the purpose behind Elisha taking Elisha to these two schools?

Despite the fact that he's clearly the chief figure there, he being Elisha, he

doesn't say a word.

What's this about?

Why won't Elisha leave as he's been asked to do?

Why does Elisha keep asking him?

Why does Elisha want to be alone?

Many commentators, Kiel and Delitzsch, to name just one, they suggest that it was Elisha's humility

that made him want to be solitary at this time.

The idea is that he was afraid that if Elisha saw this magnificent transition from earth to heaven,

that Elisha would then give the glory to Elijah.

That he would revere Elijah and not the God of Elijah.

He would lose his focus on the Lord if he saw something so amazing.

I don't think that fits our text very well.

Nor does it fit what we've learned of Elijah in the last few months.

He was always in God's will.

He never failed to be in God's will.

He was always doing what he should be.

This whole tour, every step of it, was ordained by God and specifically revealed to

Elijah.

The Lord has sent me, he said each time.

It only remains really to figure out the reason behind this tour.

And I think the context makes it clear.

See, other than God, who's directing every step, there are three characters here.

There's Elijah, there's Elisha, and there's the sons of the prophets.

Elijah about to leave.

Elijah proving he will stay.

And the sons of the prophet are watching all this.

Elijah is introducing the young men to their new master.

Their soon -to -be master.

They already knew who he was.

They were called sons of the prophets.

So plural.

The school was founded by both of these men, Elijah and Elisha.

And now they're seeing that Elisha will take over.

They're seeing the one that when Elijah is gone, that they must follow.

This whole passage, if not the whole chapter, is about this continuing mission of

God to have his word proclaimed.

Elijah's final moment on earth is, in my estimation, really only a footnote here.

They get there, the cherry comes, divides him, takes him up, done.

This is about the continuity of God's work for the people that he intends to hear his word.

That's what it's been about from the beginning.

Elisha was asked twice whether he was aware of what God was about to do.

Do you know that the Lord is about to take your master from over you today?

And he says, yes, I know.

Keep silent.

What's he saying here?

There's two things he's saying, and they're both really important.

First, he's saying, yes, I know what you know.

I know what you know.

It reminds me of Paul when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 11 5,.

For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles.

He has their knowledge.

He has their ability.

He knows the Lord.

You're not going to tell Paul anything new.

They weren't testing Elisha the way the false apostles did Paul, but they

needed to see that Elisha was qualified to take on this and continue the work of Elisha, of their

master.

Do you not know?

Yes, I know what you know.

Then he says, keep silent.

What's that about?

Often it's explained as Elisha being so emotionally overwrought at the thought of losing Elisha that he can't stand to

hear anymore about it.

I know, I know.

Don't tell me anymore.

I can't take hearing it again.

I know what's going to happen.

Give me a moment to deal with this, or something like that.

It seems better to me to see Elisha as taking command.

He's saying, first, yes, I too have had revealed to me this knowledge.

But second, in the command voice, he says, in essence, I will soon be your teacher and your master.

Do not presume to teach me.

In a short while, it's going to be quite the opposite situation.

There will come an incontrovertible testimony when they actually see Elisha hand over his ministry to Elisha,

when that mantle is passed to him.

But that doesn't stand alone.

Before that final affirmation, there was this tour when they saw Elisha confirming

his successor.

You see, the Lord, not Elisha, chose Elisha.

The Lord made that choice.

I mean, in 1 Kings 19, I referred to it a moment ago, but that's where the Lord tells Elisha to anoint

Elisha as his successor, which he does.

And immediately, Elisha followed him.

And as I said, that word for followed is a continuous action.

He's been with him throughout.

Now the Lord tells Elisha to take this tour, this journey, and I think he's giving Elisha

this chance to bow out.

Stay here.

Let's leave off the please for a moment.

Stay here.

The Lord has sent me on.

And Elisha has the chance to stay there and not take up this difficult ministry in this

land that is so violently opposed to the gospel he represents.

The Lord doesn't just hand things off to whoever happens to be available.

I mean, let not any man presume to be his servant without confirmation according to the scriptures.

Let's think of the Lord Jesus Christ and when he named his successors.

In Luke, we read, Now it came to pass in those days that Jesus went out to the mountain to pray and continued

all night in prayer to God.

And when it was day, he called his disciples to himself and from them he chose twelve whom he also named apostles.

I'll skip the names.

Names them all, ending with Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor.

The Lord Jesus Christ himself, the son of God, prayed before naming the men who would take up his work

after he was gone.

The men he called trained, certified.

The men who founded the church, the men who founded this church, which is his very body, the men who

would preach the forgiveness of sins by faith in Christ, the men who would testify to his resurrection, each

one chosen by God, as was Elisha.

The young men who would learn from him and serve him needed to see this.

And that's the purpose for this tour that they're on, going to these schools.

Elijah is, in essence, saying to these young men, you've been my disciple, now you're going to be

his disciples.

So now we come to this third direction from God to Elisha.

It starts in exactly the same way, but this time the place is different.

Say here, please, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.

And again, Elisha, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

But in this one, I want us to note, the 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood

facing them at a distance.

Very important.

They're going to see what happens next.

And it's this.

Now, Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, struck the water, and it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them

crossed over on dry ground.

Now, of course, this act recreates one of the great moments in biblical history.

It's just the crossing of the Red Sea.

Egypt was a land of idols and false religions, as was at that time Israel.

The Israelites followed Moses out of that dark land, as Elisha just did Elijah when they crossed the

Jordan.

And now he's safe on the east side of the river, as Israel is safe on the east side of the Red

Sea.

Elijah's mantle had the same effect as Moses' rod, both by the power of God

allowing this dry crossing.

The 50 sons of the prophets saw all this.

They're too far away to hear what happened next.

They couldn't hear the words that were being said, but they could see everything that happened.

Elisha, you see, Elisha has shown his mettle by staying with Elijah.

The disciples he will soon inherit have met their new teacher, and now here he is with Elijah on the east

side of the Jordan.

The word of God has left Israel.

Elisha's final opportunity to back out is at hand.

He is outside of Israel's border.

He's safe from the strains that await him if he returns.

It's like Moses and Midian.

He can stay there.

He can live out his days in relative peace.

Elijah will soon be taken away, and the wayward nation left to its final plunge without again hearing

from the God who delivered them from Egypt.

The word of God is outside the border of God's people.

It turns to him.

Now this is just between the two of them.

Ask, what may I do for you?

The fate of a nation rests on the answer here.

What may I do for you?

The continuance of the greatest prophet's work depends on what Elisha says.

What will he have from his mentor?

Elisha's answer reminds us of Solomon's.

When God asked him, whatever he said, whatever you want, ask of me, and I will give it to you.

And Solomon asked for what?

He asked for wisdom so he could rule his great people in a way that would bring honor to God.

The answer pleased the Lord, and he gave him his request and so much more.

Elisha answers in that God -honoring vein.

Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.

In other words, to carry on Elijah's work, which had to be carried on, he would need to conduct

himself as Elijah had conducted himself.

He asks to be considered as a son who stands first in line to receive the inheritance.

He wants to carry on the work of his spiritual father just as Paul wanted Timothy to do for him.

I mean, is there anything that would please a mentor more than this, to have a disciple want to imitate him?

As Paul said to the church, imitate me as I imitate Jesus Christ.

Is there anything more necessary than for the successor to follow the ways of his predecessor?

Now, Elijah answers that he had asked a hard thing.

He means that this is not his to give.

The choice of who will speak for God, in this case under direct inspiration from God's mouth to his, this is

not his decision, it is God's decision.

That's why it's a hard thing.

It's not mine to give you.

It gives him a sign to know if it will happen or not.

But what he's saying is if the Lord will bless your request, if the Lord gives his

assent, this will be the sign to you.

If you see me when I'm taken from you, it shall be so, but if not, it shall not be so.

It sounds like an odd condition.

If you see, then yes, if not, then no.

But he's simply putting the onus on God.

If God should allow him to witness his removal, then he would take up the work of Elijah in the spirit of

Elijah.

God would be affirming him.

A final affirmation, if you will.

And now's a good time for us to stop for just a moment.

Stop for just a moment and consider the whole of scripture.

I mean, if we don't find Jesus in whatever portion we consider, in a way, we've wasted our time.

Stop and consider how this prophet, nowhere more profoundly than in 2 Kings 2,

anticipates our Savior, Jesus Christ.

First, there are the announcements of Elijah's imminent exodus from earth to heaven.

It's announced three times.

First in verse 3 with the sons of the prophet in Bethel.

Second, the same words are used with the Jericho prophets in verse 5.

And third and last, Elijah asks Elisha, what may I do for you

before I am taken away?

There's three announcements made that Elijah is about to be taken away.

Now to Jesus.

Now let's turn our thoughts to Jesus.

I mean, in 2 Kings 2, Elijah begins his God -ordained journey.

And knowing that he is journeying to the close of his earthly stay, he goes with a single -minded purpose,

to obey the Lord.

Well, in Luke 9, verse 51, we read this.

To go to the place of his taking up, to fulfill God's word, to finish his journey.

Do you see the correlation between that and 2 Kings 2, verse 1?

When the time had come for Elijah to be taken up in the whirlwind, to end his time here on earth,

that he goes where the Lord told him to go, which is the place where he would end his time here, where he'd be taken up.

Three announcements to Elijah.

Three announcements.

In all three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

In all three of them, there's recorded exactly three announcements to the disciples of

Jesus' impending departure.

Let me read them to you.

I'll take them all from Matthew, but Luke and Mark both have a corresponding verse.

Matthew 16, 21.

From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things

from the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day.

Matthew 17, 22.

Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they

will kill him.

And the third day he will be raised up.

And they were exceedingly sorrowful.

And there's only one more.

Chapter 17.

I'm sorry, I lost my reference there, but I can quote it correctly.

Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the 12 disciples aside on the road and said to them, behold,

we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to

death and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify.

And the third day he will rise again.

So now we can see why Elisha had to see Elijah taken up.

That odd condition that Elijah gave him.

Now I think we can see the reason for it.

He would carry on Elijah's work just as the apostles would carry on Jesus's work.

No other prophet in all scripture hands his ministry off to someone as Elijah did to Elisha.

It was a work that had to continue.

Elisha's character, as we'll see as we go through to 2 Kings chapter 13, it was such that he probably

would have continued no matter what.

But just like the apostles, he needed to know that he was preaching words of eternal consequence.

Words that are life itself.

Seeing his teacher transported was as necessary for him as for the apostles to

see Jesus ascend when he did.

Elisha had to see Elijah go bodily to heaven for the

same reason the apostles needed to see Jesus ascend on the cloud.

They needed to be sure of what they were preaching.

They needed to be sure of what they were going to die for.

The death, the burial, the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ

into glory.

What of the 50 prophets from Jericho?

Is there a correspondence to the New Testament of them?

Is this whole thing prefiguring so much that we have in the historical records of the New

Testament?

What of them?

They stood facing those two.

As verse 7 says, they stood there at a distance facing them, watching Elijah and

Elisha.

They saw the whole thing.

See, our Bibles are not archives of random stories.

They are the Word of God.

They are the unified whole with a single message that has to lead us to Jesus Christ.

And so it's proper to look for these biblical themes to repeat as we did a moment ago with the three

announcements.

And we need to be disciplined about this.

We need to guard ourselves against contrivances and allegories that the Holy Spirit never intended.

But do not these 50 prophets who are going to see this handoff from Elijah to Elisha,

who are going to see Elijah raised up and gone into heaven,

do they not correspond to what we read in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 6,

where the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ showed Himself to over 500 witnesses?

See, God doesn't leave Himself without a witness.

These men who would follow this prophet, Elisha, they needed to be sure

of what they were preaching.

They needed to be sure of the promises of God.

They needed to see it.

God showed it to them.

Just as 500 witnesses saw the resurrected Lord, just as the apostles saw Him ascend into heaven.

I mean, this is exactly what Peter meant when he wrote, For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made

known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

They were eyewitnesses, as was Elisha.

They could point to over 500 confirming testimonies as Elisha could to the 50.

In essence, he could say to anybody who detracted, we're not making this up.

We saw this.

Lord willing, on the 27th of this month when we come back to this chapter,

we'll talk about the search that was made for Elisha.

I think you can see from how I'm preaching this passage, this part of it, where I'm gonna go with that.

I'm not gonna give it away now, but I don't think it's a great secret if you see where we're going with this.

There's one more detail that I wanna cover before we close.

The mantle fell from Elisha and Elisha picked it up.

And it strikes me here that Elisha didn't take it off and give it to him.

It's all in the passive.

The mantle had fallen off.

Elisha didn't take it off.

It had fallen off.

God, not Elisha, God named the next prophet of Israel.

God, not Elisha, ensured that his word would continue to be preached to this backslidden nation.

Elisha, I think, more closely resembles Christ than any Old Testament prophet or figure, except for

King David himself.

But as Peter said at Pentecost, David died and was buried.

His tomb was there in Jerusalem, and his body was in it.

You can go see it.

It's basically what he said.

Elisha didn't die, as we'll see when we continue in this chapter of 2 Kings.

His body, like Christ's, was not found.

So many correspondences between Jesus and Elisha.

So many correspondences between what happens in 2 Kings and the founding of the church in the book

of Acts.

So much of Jesus showing through in this prophet Elisha, who stood before kings and

faithfully proclaimed the word of God, really proclaimed the gospel of God's forgiveness.

As even wicked king Ahab repented and didn't avoid judgment but delayed it.

God's showing his grace.

God's showing his mercy.

God's showing the value of true repentance.

So much of Jesus in Elisha.

Elisha, excuse me.

There are differences between the two, of course.

I mean, to begin with, Elisha was, as James makes clear, a man with a spirit like ours.

Jesus, on the other hand, though he came as God in the flesh, though he was born under the law, as Paul says in Galatians 4

.4, though he was the word of God who dwelt with us, well, Jesus' spirit was nothing like ours.

Better said, our spirit is nothing like his.

He dwelt in the flesh as we do.

He was tempted by all things as we are, yet without sin.

And so then, obviously, in that way, nothing like us or we, nothing like him.

But there's another difference.

I want you to see.

Elisha, unlike Jesus, wasn't resurrected.

Elisha, unlike Jesus, didn't die.

I mean, Jesus was resurrected for the simple reason that he did die.

Elisha never did.

I speak of the cross of Calvary.

I speak of Jesus Christ who went to the cross at Golgotha, and there, as he hung on that

cross, on the tree, as Peter calls it, suffered God's wrath for our sins.

There he died.

And let me just say this.

Jesus died for your sin.

Jesus died for your sins particularly, for your sin generally.

He died because you, because we are sin itself.

On the cross, the tree he went to according to his father's will, there he suffered the agony due from the

father and deserved by sinners.

On the cross, he paid God's price for sin in his own body.

The spotless Lamb of God, who though tempted in all ways as we are, yet without sin, became

sin for us, sin for me, sin for you, sin for Elijah, sin for Elisha.

What's the difference between Elijah and Elisha?

Elijah had a spirit like ours.

I'm sorry.

Elijah and Jesus.

What's the difference between Elijah and Jesus?

Elijah with a spirit like ours.

Well, Elijah, as great a prophet as he was,

there's one thing he could do nothing about.

Your sin.

Elijah could do nothing about your sin.

He could preach the word of God and point out sin and his word broadcasts our sin to us

as we read the prophet.

We see ourselves in his rebukes against the kings of Israel and the people who worship the false

gods.

We can see ourselves there, can we not?

He could show us our sin.

Let me ask you, what can he do about it?

Nothing.

He could do nothing about it.

And this is the eternal, the infinite difference between Elijah and any other prophet

and Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus Christ, who more clearly, more profoundly than all the prophets combined shows us our sin.

Jesus, different than all of them combined, could do something about it.

When he was on that cross, when he said it is finished, that God's wrath had been

fully expended upon him, that the entire price for God's fury and his

just penalty for your sin had been satisfied in him, in Jesus.

When Jesus Christ said it is finished, and the Father, for our justification, raised him up

from the dead, he could do something about our sin.

He could answer God for our sin.

He could place himself between us and a holy and just God whose wrath against

our sin is indescribable.

Elijah could do nothing about that.

Only Jesus did.

Only Jesus can.

Only Jesus does.

Jesus could do what Elijah could only hope for, which is to bring sinners to God, the

Father, and present them spotless before him.

I plead with you, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, turn to him.

Don't turn to your own self.

Don't try to pick yourself up and make yourself look good before God.

By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, not of anything you can do, not of anything you can think, not of any merit you can find.

Elijah, I believe, was the greatest of all the prophets.

He needed to be saved the same way you do, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by repentance for

his sins.

Does that sound odd to you, that I would say Elijah needs to repent of his sins?

Think of Isaiah chapter 6, when that great prophet saw the glorified God.

He saw Jesus Christ in his glory, and what did he say?

I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.

In other words, I am a sinner, and seeing the glory of God, I see that I am ruined before him.

Isaiah could do nothing about your sin.

Only Jesus Christ can.

Not Elijah, not Elisha, not you.

No man alive, but only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen?

Father, thank you again for the day that you've given us, for this record of the prophet Elijah.

We thank you, Father, for the so many correspondences between him and the Lord Jesus Christ that shine so clearly in your

scripture.

Let's pray, Father, for the encouragement to our souls by studying this great

prophet and all the ways that he shows us your son.

Father, I pray that you would increase our faith, that, Father, you would

grow us into the image of Jesus Christ who we seek to be like, that you would bring many

sinners to repentance so that today would be the day of salvation as all hope and self is lost

and given only over to Jesus Christ who died for our sins.

In his name we pray.

Amen.