Session 2 Sermon 5

Message

"And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here" (1 Kings 18:8).

 

Introduction

I like the King James Version for our text Scripture because of its emphasis. As you can see, "is here " is italicized which means it was added by the translators; thus, what was said by Elijah once and Obadiah twice was simply "Behold Elijah!" Do you hear the boldness in Elijah's word?

Boldness in Relationship

Elijah's boldness is rooted in his expanding revelation of God shared in sermon one: The transition found in 1 Kings 17:1 and 1 Kings 18:15—"As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand" to "As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand"

1. The famine predicted in 17:1, now realized, and is about to be terminated
   
   1. Ahab
      
      1. Searched in every region for Elijah
         
         1. Never comprehended it was God's judgment and not man's (as seen in his statement to Elijah upon meeting him, 18:17)
            
      2. Tried to overcome famine in himself and for himself
         
         1. We may find grass…(v. 5)
            
   2. Elijah
      
      1. Miraculously sustained by the creek
         
      2. Miraculously sustained at the widow's
         
         1. Miraculously raised the son
            

Thus, during the 42 months of famine Ahab grew even harsher in his feelings away from God and toward Elijah (not showing up following Obadiah's word would have been a death sentence for Obadiah) while Elijah grew closer and then closer to the Lord—so close there was the very apparent holy boldness seen in his statement: "Behold Elijah."

A Holy Boldness

The word boldness properly means boldness in speech (Thayer's).

1. Boldness begins
   
   1. in the blood, "having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," (Heb. 10:19)
      
   2. continues in prayer, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16)
      
   3. is seen in action, "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13)
      
2. Illustrated
   
   1. Acts 4:29-31
      

Elijah versus The Spirit of Elijah

Watchman Nee writes in God's Work:

"In the Old Testament we see two varieties of prophets: (1) those who foretold future events, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; and (2) those, like Elijah and Elisha, whose work for the most part was not to disclose future events but to explain present ones. They were to set forth what God's thought was in His present acts—why He was doing what He was doing. They were to explain God's actions, as it were, and, in view of what God was doing and what was in His mind, to exhort the people. John the Baptist was the most prominent of these prophets in the New Testament; like the others before him, John set forth the present mind of God" (page 28).

1. The Similar: The Present mind of God—Repentance
   
   1. Elijah (1 Kings 18:37)
      
   2. John the Baptist (Matthew 3:8)
      
      1. "John's way is the way of death. There is nothing good in man that by repenting he can return to. The whole structure must disintegrate, and man must stand naked before God" (The Elijah Task, Charisma House, pages 11, 12).
         
         1. The bareness (nakedness) of the land in Ahab's Israel typified the spiritual bareness of John's and neither could find true repentance outside of death—death to Baal's prophets in Ahab's day; death and rebirth in John's.
            
2. The Difference: I am and I am not
   
   1. I am
      
      1. Text Scripture
         
   2. I am not
      
      1. John 1:21
         
         1. Legitimate question
            
            1. Attire and message
               
            2. Question rooted in John actually being Elijah
               
         2. John was Elijah in spirit
            
            1. Matthew 11:14
               
      2. John was to point to Another
         
         1. Not talk about himself, his function was to point to another
            
         2. A voice
            

Close

For us, whether we are encouraging the Obadiah's or confronting the Ahab's our word is not "Behold Elijah" but "Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).