So this evening we're going to look at this story, the next story in the life of Elisha.
So that we can see what it is to have faith in the God of resurrection life.
But we're going to begin by thinking about airline pilots.
I am told that very early on in pilot school, pilot training,
a vital skill that they need to learn is the ability to fly by their instruments,
to be able to look at those super complicated dials and controls in order to fly straight,
to land safely, to know where they're going in any weather conditions.
You know, when the storm clouds come in, when the fog gathers, when you can't see naturally,
you need to be able to fly by the instruments.
And there's something helpful, I think, in that as we think about the picture of our own lives
as something of a journey.
Times in our lives when those storm clouds gather.
And at that point we will find ourselves instinctively turning to something
to give us guidance and stability.
What is it that will keep us steady?
What is it that will guide us home safely?
We perhaps recognize that many people in our world are in a moment where they have rejected
ideas of God and ultimate meaning and higher purpose.
And lots of people are beginning to see, this is not working for me.
There's that sense of instability, especially perhaps in times of trouble.
And so you listen to commentators on society and they say, well, we're living in the age of anxiety.
Whether that's about the environment or politics or about our own financial situation.
Or people will say, we live in the age of consumption.
And so we've never had it better and we're always consuming more.
But the things that we are consuming are not tracking with happiness,
but rather we're becoming more anxious and struggling with more fears.
We live in what's known as the disenchanted age.
We're being told, people have been told for years, there is nothing beyond ourselves.
So just kind of make what you can of the world.
But again, people are beginning to wrestle with this reality of knowing that there is something more.
And so we live in a really interesting moment where people are turning to consider the spiritual
and people are looking and seeking for transcendence.
Where can hope be found?
It's a question in every age and it's certainly a question in ours.
It was a question in the time of Elisha as well.
We have seen, especially in the time of Elijah, that most of the people in Israel,
as they were looking for hope, had turned to the idol Baal.
But it wasn't just then that people turned to idols.
There's that instinct within our hearts at all times.
If we think about Martin Luther, I think, has a really helpful definition of idolatry.
Whatever we expect to provide all good and in which we take refuge in our distress,
that's what our idol is.
And so again, people are still looking for where am I going to find ultimate good?
Where am I going to find a safe refuge?
But outside of the God of the Bible, people are failing to provide and find solid hope.
And in that setting, and relevant for our setting, we see in this woman from Shunem a picture of faith.
Here is a woman who knows her God.
And as we see, she lives for her God.
And when things go wrong in her life, and they absolutely do, she runs to her God to find hope.
And for us, as we pick up her story, and as we see the beginning and the end,
we know that there is wonderful joy beyond the sorrow.
And the story as a whole offers hope to us too, especially as we think about it in light of the gospel.
When we think about the reality that God has sent His man Jesus to offer us renewal and resurrection life.
He is God's final prophet.
He is God's final word.
And to lay hold on Him is to lay hold on a hope that will not fail.
That in knowing God through His Son Jesus, we find that stability that we are looking for.
We find that direction and meaning in the fog.
And we have the promise of a true homecoming.
And the joy of resurrection life.
So we're going to do a couple of things this evening.
First, we're going to put faith in focus.
And then we'll think about having faith in the God of resurrection life.
So, to our story, verse 8.
One day, Elisha went to Shunem and a well-to-do woman was there who urged him to stay for a meal.
So it's interesting.
If you were here last week, we saw Elisha encountering a poor, starving woman.
This time, a well-to-do woman who has enough to offer generous hospitality.
God's going to show grace to them both.
God's going to exercise His power in both of their stories, which always reminds us that God's grace runs wide.
His kingdom is wide.
Here is a woman who lives for God's glory.
Here is a woman who's learned to rest in God's grace to her.
And we see it, first of all, in her service.
She urges Elisha to stay for a meal.
And then she said to her husband in verse 9,
I know this man who comes our way is a holy man of God.
Let's make a small room for him.
So there are their meals.
She uses her resources to build an additional room up on the roof.
Her life is one that makes room to encourage and to serve God's prophet.
This is mission support.
Because she knows Elisha is God's man, God's representative, who is bringing God's word into her region.
So as she offers support and a base of operations, it becomes evident she wants the kingdom of God to grow.
She wants others to hear the true message from God that they might believe and trust.
Jesus would approve of her faith.
We know this because in Matthew 10, he says,
whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.
But then he goes on to say,
even a cup of water offered in my name, well, that'll get a reward too.
So her service is showing her faith.
But I think we can also say that her secure identity shows that she has a real faith in her God.
So here we find in verse 11 through to 13, first of all, Elisha and Gehazi are having a chat.
And then Elisha says to Gehazi, his servant, tell her,
you've gone to all this trouble for us.
Now what can be done for you?
Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?
So remember, she knows this is God's holy man.
She knows that Elisha works with God's power.
So when Elisha comes to her house and says to her, what can I do for you?
This is a massive offer.
This is a finding the golden ticket kind of a moment.
But the woman, even as she's offered like prestige and new connections,
how does she reply?
I have a home among my own people.
She is content.
She is content among her family, her connections within the community.
She has this privilege of knowing and serving the God of glory by welcoming Elisha.
God has given me this life and I'm content.
She has a secure identity because her faith is in God.
But we also see her faith and focus in her suffering.
Because there is this wonderful announcement that God would give her a son.
But this son that brings so much joy will also bring grief.
We know that principle, don't we?
Sometimes the gifts that we give or that we get,
they can bring both gladness and they can bring sadness.
We in our family, we can still remember getting our new puppy,
a cute little bundle of fluff, joy.
But then when you want to kind of settle down and just pet them and you discover
and you've brought into the house a tiny shark that wants to chew your arm off,
it's a little bit sad and frustrating.
Sometimes the gifts that we receive, they bring gladness and sadness.
And that's true of the gifts that God gives also.
That this wonderful, precious gift of a son will become, in time, a source of her grief.
We read of it, didn't we?
We read of the boy's sudden illness.
This promised, precious son, one day comes out to his father complaining,
my head, my head.
And he's carried home and he spends some hours in his mother's arms and he dies there.
And all of a sudden life has taken a very different, unexpected turn
and faith is shaken to the core.
And she is very honest.
We know in verse 27, as she arrives to meet Elisha, that her bitter distress is clear.
Verse 28, we hear her words,
Did I ask you for a son, my Lord?
Didn't I tell you don't raise my hopes?
So the storm clouds of grief, absolutely they've come rolling in.
The light of God's love and kindness perhaps isn't evident in her situation,
but she doesn't fall apart.
And she doesn't give way to bitterness,
but rather she runs to her God.
There's a very clear direction of travel in her life.
What does she do?
It's really interesting.
The first thing she does in verse 21 is she takes the boy and laid him on the bed of the man of God.
What's she saying there?
It's a recognition that she's going to bring this situation,
bring her son to the Lord through Elisha.
And then immediately that's what she does.
She saddles up and prepares for her journey.
And on this journey, she's not going to be distracted.
She doesn't tell her husband.
She tells her servant, make sure that we don't slow down.
When Gehazi comes and greets her, is everything okay?
We understand that no one else but God's prophet will do in her story.
But when she comes to God's man, when she reached the man of God at the mountain,
she took hold of his feet.
And she pours out her heart.
Because prayer is the breath of faith.
She says to him in verse 30,
As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.
Actually, the same words that Elisha spoke about Elijah back in chapter 2
when he knew that Elijah was going to be taken up to heaven.
As the storm clouds roll in,
as she flies by the instruments of her faith,
we see so clearly,
here is a woman who looks to God.
Here is God's man,
and therefore I am going to him with my problem,
with my lament.
He is going to be my refuge in distress.
He is where I'm going to look to find good in this situation.
And she is not disappointed.
And that matters for us when we understand that for us,
the man of God we run to is none other than the Lord Jesus.
He is the one who is full of compassion.
He invites us to pour out our hearts to him,
to rest in his promise that he will be with us,
that he will show us mercy.
We look to our Lord and our Savior
for that renewal that we need,
for the promise of resurrection life in our experience.
So as God brings the woman's faith into focus for ourselves,
it helps us, I think, to reflect on our own faith
and to ask ourselves some questions.
As we see her sacrificial service,
and as we understand that she saw herself as a vehicle,
as a means for God's kingdom to be extended,
as we understand what the Bible says,
that the local church is God's plan,
his mission plan for spreading his glory,
and as we thought this morning,
we have the wonderful privilege of being united together
by God's grace within a local church family,
are we involving ourselves in that privilege that God gives?
Are we willing to serve and to commit ourselves?
Here we get a wonderful little picture
of how somebody can use their resources
for the good of others.
Here in particular, it was Elisha.
How can we use our home, our money, our time
as a tangible way to bless someone else?
I think we've been encouraged as a church
to see that from grace and peace.
It's not going to look the same for us,
but what will it look like?
How will we as individuals and as a collective
show that we want our life to be guided
by the glory of Jesus and a concern for his kingdom?
As we think about this woman's contentment
and her secure identity,
and as we recognize that we live in a time
where advertising and social media
is set up to fuel our discontent,
psychologists are talking about that.
You know, I read an article this week
on social comparison, advertising,
and consumer discontent.
It's not subtle.
It's deliberate.
How can we stand apart?
How can we show that we find our identity in Christ
and not the stuff that we purchase
and not in our digital presence?
When Paul wrote to Timothy,
he said to him,
godliness with contentment is great gain.
That's very countercultural,
to be godly and to be content.
But what a wonderful opportunity for us
to bear witness to the fact
that all we have is Christ.
All that we need is Christ.
We have something that money can't buy.
We have a secure identity
that is not based on the whims
of social media likes or dislikes.
Are we hearing,
are we preaching the gospel to ourselves
that we are saved by Christ?
We are united to Christ.
We are loved by our Father in heaven in Christ.
The Spirit dwells in us
that we belong to the Lord.
And when suffering comes,
and the Bible is so honest
and tells us that in a fallen,
in a broken world,
suffering does come.
Everybody hurts.
That in a life of faith,
we're not spared those hurts,
that tests and trials
do come our way.
What is our response?
Will we run to the God
whose ways we don't
and won't always understand?
Because we know that he is good
and he does what is good.
Can we trust that God has established
an everlasting covenant
to delight in doing us good,
even when we can't understand
how our present circumstance
could possibly be called good?
Are we able to have faith
that says with Paul,
I know that God works all things,
all things,
for the good of those who love him?
Can we pray with King David,
when I am afraid,
I put my trust in you,
in God whose word I praise,
in God I trust and am not afraid.
Can we follow the example
of Jesus our Savior
going through the unimaginable
spiritual agony
of bearing the sins of his people
and suffering the wrath of God
still able to cry,
my God, my God.
Because as Joe was reflecting with us
this morning,
a vital part of our witness
a vital part of our good news
is going to be communicating
how we are able to live with hope.
How is it that we don't fall apart?
And those moments
and those situations
give us the privilege
of pointing to Jesus,
our strength and our hope.
To point people to Jesus
who is God's great gift to the world,
his own son sent to save us,
the one who came to enter this broken world
to bring healing.
And every miracle that we find
in the life of Jesus
speaks to that great reality.
We remember the Jesus we encounter
in John chapter 11.
When Jesus encountered another family mourning,
Mary and Martha had lost their brother Lazarus.
And we're told at the beginning of the text,
Jesus will demonstrate his glory.
And Jesus speaks words of truth
to Martha.
I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me will live
even though they die.
Do you believe this?
A question for Martha.
But it becomes a question for us all.
Do we believe that God gives hope
beyond death?
That he gives resurrection life?
On that day, he proved it.
Calling Lazarus from the grave.
And he would prove it in his own life.
The Lord of life
who rises from the dead in victory.
And so faith for us
focuses on the Lord Jesus.
That regardless of circumstances
to know that he is the Lord,
he is present,
he does supply grace,
he does speak words that are true
and words that speak life.
Well, let's flip from having faith
in focus in the context of the women
to think about faith in the God
of resurrection life.
Because what happens next
in the story is really striking.
You know, from time to time,
we will come across
or we'll hear powerful stories
of someone choosing to identify
with others in their suffering.
You know, maybe we hear
extreme examples on the news
of maybe doctors without borders
going into war zones
and risking everything
for the sake of patience.
Maybe closer to home.
You know, the powerful witness
of the body of Christ
caring for a new mom
or for a grieving family.
But the power of seeing
someone identify with
and stand with another.
Well, central to the hope
of this story
and actually central to
the hope that we have,
central to the hope
that we offer to the world
is this reality of God's prophet
coming so close
as to identify with this boy
in his death.
And through that action,
resurrection life comes.
So we'll pick up the action
as the woman reaches Elisha.
Verse 27,
Which reached the man of God
at the mountain.
She took hold of his feet.
Gehazi came over to push her away.
But the man of God said,
Leave her alone.
She's in bitter distress.
But the Lord has hidden it from me
and has not told me why.
That's significant, isn't it?
There is going to be
absolutely no doubt
within this story
who the power and glory belongs to.
And it's not to Elisha
because in this moment
we see his limited wisdom.
It belongs to Almighty God.
As the story moves on,
the cause of distress
is clear in verse 28
that the boy has died.
And so the question now becomes,
How will the boy be revived?
Will there be hope found in this story?
And if so, how?
And to think about the wider question,
How can the wreckage
and the rubble of our society,
of our life,
become something beautiful?
How can we see renewal
come out of the wreckage?
That's the tension within the story.
Well, we discover one way
that's not going to happen.
It's not going to happen
through the staff,
the stick.
In verse 29,
we discover that Elisha
sends Gehazi
to take Elisha's staff
and to lay the staff
on the boy's face.
But as we discover
in verse 31,
there was no sound,
no response.
The boy has not awakened.
The staff worked in Moses' day.
Remember in the book of Exodus,
power and glory of God
demonstrated through the symbol
of the staff.
It was held out
and judgments came.
It was held out
and the Red Sea parted.
Moses struck the rock
and water came gushing out.
But that's not how it works
in this story.
How will the boy be revived?
It's as the prophet
literally stretches himself out
to identify with him
in his death.
It's there in verse 34,
he lay on the boy
mouth to mouth,
eyes to eyes,
hands to hands.
As he stretched himself out
and the boy's body grew warm,
he walks around some more,
he stretched out on him
once more,
the boy sneezed
and opened his eyes.
God breathes life
as his prophet enters in
and identifies with him
in his day.
And this woman has the privilege
and the joy of resurrection life
because she ran to the God
of resurrection life.
It's amazing to see
in this single Old Testament story
so many truths revealed about God
that he is infinitely complex,
that he's always bigger
than our ability
to place him within a box.
So we discover
that he is good and gracious.
You know, often in the Bible
when somebody can't have a child
and then a child is given,
it's because the child to be born
will be so significant
within the storyline of redemption.
But not here.
God just wants to be kind
to this woman
because he loves to be kind
and generous.
We discover in verse 16
from the woman's words
a reminder that
God cannot mislead anybody.
God is absolute rock-solid truth.
And at the same time,
we discover
that God can perplex
and confuse us
because he does allow
unexpected and painful things
to happen.
And he is able
to bring ultimate good
even from awful
and evil things.
And we discover
that he is the Lord of life,
he gave the gift of life,
and he is the Lord
of resurrection life.
And it's as if God
is saying to the woman
and saying to Israel
and saying to the church
and saying to us today,
trust me,
place your hope in me.
Don't place your hope
in a small, limited idol.
Rather, live by faith
in the God of the Bible,
the one who gives
resurrection life.
We read in Luke chapter 7.
So we fast forward
hundreds of years,
but we're still
in the same geographical area.
Shunem and Nain
are just two miles apart.
And here we find Jesus
coming into this
mountainous region,
and he comes upon
a funeral procession.
There's more grief
and there's mourning,
and Jesus canceled the funeral.
And how did he do it?
He identified
with the dead man.
He did what was unthinkable.
He touched the coffin.
And he spoke to the man
to command life.
And life came.
Remember what the crowd said?
A great prophet
has appeared among us.
God has come
to help his people.
Did they remember
the story passed down
from their region
of what Elisha had done
from the women of Shunem?
Perhaps.
But they understand
the connection
that when someone comes
and speaks to a dead man
and life comes,
this is a man from God.
And he's come to help
and to save.
And then we move
to another mountain.
We move to Mount Calvary.
And there we see
Jesus, the great prophet,
stretched out in death
to identify
with his people
so that in his death
and his resurrection,
we can find resurrection life
if we believe in him.
And that's only possible
because Jesus identifies
with us.
We know that
because he became
one of us.
He humbled himself
to add humanity
to his perfect divinity.
He entered into the world
that he made
to live that life
of perfect obedience
and perfect love
that you and I
should but can.
And he came
to take death
as the punishment
for law-breaking,
for our lack of love,
the punishment
that we should take,
but now we don't have to
if our faith is in Jesus.
He takes our humanity,
he takes our death,
he completes God's plan
of salvation
and by his wounds,
we are healed
because Jesus is the Lord
of resurrection life.
Risen from the dead,
he now gives spiritual life
in the place
of spiritual death
when we turn from our sin
to trust in him.
He gives us living hope
in place of despair
when our eyes are fixed
on him.
This is a story
that matters.
It matters
because it reminds us
that Jesus
is our hope
for salvation.
How can I be right
with God?
How can I be forgiven
of my sin?
How can I be welcomed
back into friendship
with the God
that I've turned
my back on?
It's through God's grace
to us in Jesus.
His finished work
on the cross.
His call
to repent
and believe.
But it also matters
for us
when we think
about the mission
of the church.
Because we are not
called into mission
to rely on our own
strength and power.
Rather,
we rely
on the power
of God.
We go
in the strength
of God's
gospel promises.
He is the one
who can change
the hardest heart.
He is the one
who can enter
into
the most broken
of lives.
He is the one
who is pleased.
He delights
to show grace
to those
who seem
the most unlikely
candidates.
And because
that's true
and because
it's God
who saves,
it's God
who gives
new life,
that gives us
confidence
that God
will save,
will give
new life
to all
He is calling.
And so we
can share faith,
we can present
the gospel,
trusting in the
God who can bring
life where
previously there
was death.
But it also
matters
when we find
ourselves
like this woman
going through
the storms
of life.
Because we know
it won't always
be sunshine
and smooth sailing
and Jesus
never promised
us that.
But in the
story of
the death
and resurrection
of the Lord
Jesus,
in His identifying
with us in order
to save us,
we have found
who we are to
fix our eyes on
as the right
source of our
hope,
none other than
the risen ruling
Lord Jesus.
There's where we
go for that hope
that will not fail.
So as God
reveals to us
through this story
His power to
bring resurrection
life,
He invites us
all to find
living hope
in Him,
to find that
powerful hope,
to find that
life and death
hope through
knowing Jesus
as our Lord
and our Savior.
Let's pray.
holy