So, as I said, we're going to spend probably up until September exploring episodes from the life of Elijah together, and his is a remarkable life.
He'll witness great encounters with God, great expressions of God's power, and he will hear God speak in a whisper.
And he, of course, returns to heaven in a fiery chariot.
He's a big figure in the Old Testament.
He's a big figure in the New Testament.
As the storyline of the Old Testament continues, there is this anticipation that before the Lord comes in power, there will be another prophet like Elijah who will prepare the way.
And then we come into the New Testament, and we even hear it from Jesus himself.
That ministry, that second Elijah, that's John the Baptist.
And then we turn to a book like the book of James, and we're presented with Elijah as an example from this story of a prayer of faith, a man who prays, believing, and God hears, and God answers.
There's a remarkable life written large across the pages of the Bible.
And he arrives on the scene at a low point, one of the many low points in Israel's spiritual life.
And they have turned from faith to idolatry.
No longer trusting wholeheartedly in the God of the covenant, now they have turned to the gods of Canaan.
And they've been led into that in large measure by King Ahab and his wife, Queen Jezebel.
And so part of the feature of Elijah's life, Elijah the prophet, is as a servant of the Lord, he's going to suffer.
And we'll see this as the weeks go by.
Ahab gives him a nickname, the Troubler of Israel.
He has a very low reputation of low impression of Elijah.
Now Jezebel will put a price on his head.
And Elijah the prophet, who looks to stay faithful to his God, will have to live with the pain of seeing the people of Israel's divided hearts.
Can't quite decide who they should worship.
Of course, when we come to a story like Elijah's, we're separated from him by long ages of history and culture.
And so he can come across as a very different figure.
The time and place can seem very different to ours, which of course it is.
But we'll see similarities and parallels as well.
We discover timeless truths in the story of Elijah.
That at different points, as God's church, I think will challenge us.
At other points, will encourage us.
So we're going to see over and over again, there is an unchanging God.
A God of absolute holiness.
A God who tolerates no rivals for worship.
And yet, even when his people have walked so far away, here is another example of God extending compassion and grace.
Sending Elijah, seeking to draw rebels back to true worship and into relationship.
We'll see, I think, a number of times the unchanging temptation that runs not just from Elijah's day to ours, but from the beginnings of the fall into sin.
The temptation to look to find our security and life in someone or something other than the true God.
For them, it was Baal.
For us, as Calvin says, we have hearts that are idol factories.
And we're always being tempted to place our hope for security and life in something other than the true God.
And I think a story like Elijah reminds us that as a church, as the people of God, we have an unchanging call.
What is it that God wants of his people?
Well, he wants us to stand firm in faith.
He wants us to represent him in the way that we live lives of faith and obedience.
And we will see Elijah on different occasions standing up for God, being willing to be a man apart.
And we will hear him speak up for God.
A man expressing his loyalty and his faith, even as everyone else's hearts seem to be wavering.
That just like Elijah, we are invited as the people of God, as those who have known grace,
to call people out of a drought and famine, spiritually speaking, to the feast that Jesus himself offers.
But today in our little story here, I think the lesson that we can draw,
in the one hand, is negative that we will never find life-giving joy and satisfaction from anything else that we place our hopes in.
But positively, as we see it in the story of Elijah, we will find life and satisfaction as we turn to trust in the Lord our God.
I think that's the underlying message behind the confrontation with Ahab.
It's certainly the message that we get from Elijah's life in contrast to what everyone else is experiencing.
God is looking after him.
He's being provided for.
He's enjoying blessing while everyone else is experiencing drought and famine.
And ultimately, it's the message of the Lord Jesus.
It's what he gives to us in the gospel.
It's what he gave to the women of Samaria.
It's what he gave to the crowds in John chapter 6.
So, our sermon this evening, very simple.
One statement divided into two sections.
The first, from verse 1, the God who is alive.
Elijah said to Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, whom I serve,
there will be neither June or rain in the next few years except at my word.
So, this is the first time we come across Elijah.
He bursts into the national scene without any kind of formalities.
He's just here.
He's in the court of the king.
And he speaks.
And as we think about even just this verse, the story is inviting us to do some compare
and contrast between some different figures that we will encounter.
And I want us, as we're thinking about this for ourselves, also to think about the first
hearers of this story, the people of Israel, as they find themselves deciding which path
will I follow when it comes to my worship.
Am I going to choose Canaan's gods or am I going to choose the covenant god?
And how would this opening story challenge, correct, teach them, and what does it do for us?
Think about the time in which we live.
We're bombarded in so many different ways by messages that would say, have this, have
me, and you will have life.
So, advertising is built on it.
Social media influence is driven by it.
The battle that goes on in our sinful hearts as well.
We're always recognizing, because we're made as worshiping beings, I need something.
That will give me security, that will give me meaning, that will give me hope, that will
give me life.
And again, that temptation within our hearts is to go in another direction and to wander
from the living God.
And so, we have in these verses a compare and contrast to help us to reflect.
The first contrast is between Elijah and Ahab, of course.
King Ahab has just been introduced in 1 Kings 16.
If you want to turn a page back in your Bible, we discover the whole of chapter 16 actually
is a picture of here are some years of instability within the nation of Israel because they've
got a whole chain of kings who are not following God in loyalty.
And so, their reigns don't last long and there's civil unrest and there's fighting over the throne.
There's a whole chain of wicked kings, but when we come to Ahab, he's the lowest of the low.
Chapter 16, verse 30, Ahab, son of Omri, did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than those
before him.
Verse 33, Ahab did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all
the kings before him.
He marries a pagan woman who leads him into idolatry.
He sets up all these Asherah poles and these Baals and he turns the nation towards false
worship.
He's a powerful figure.
Clearly, he's the king.
He sits in the palace.
He sits on David's throne.
But unlike David, he is a false worship leader.
Israel's king was to lead the people to worship God.
He's a false worship leader.
So, there's Ahab on the one hand and then there's Elijah.
Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe and Gilead.
Bible commentators and scholars can't even decide where this place is, but it's clearly
a middle of nowhere kind of a place.
He has no background.
He has no credentials.
He has no family lineage of being a prophet or anything like that.
But what we are invited to see about Ahab is that he is a willing, obedient servant of
the Lord.
He is someone who is concerned for the true glory of God.
And in the end of the day, that's what matters.
Remember what Paul wrote to the folks in Corinth.
God doesn't typically choose those who are wise and those who are strong and those who are
powerful.
Rather, he chooses the weak to confine the strong, to demonstrate his grace so that he
gets the glory.
In a sense, we see Elijah like Jesus, the servant of the Lord.
He had no beauty or comeliness that people would desire him.
But he came willing, obedient, concerned for the glory of God.
Second contrast within our text is between the two gods.
It's not so much a contrast as a God context.
Between the Lord God and Baal.
And this is where we need just a little bit of background into Canaanite worship.
Because Baal, he was one of their major gods.
He was the god of storm and weather and fertility.
And so the message in Canaan was, you need to worship Baal.
And if Baal doesn't get worship, then he won't send rain.
And if he doesn't send rain, then we don't have crops.
Without crops, there's no food.
Without food, there's no life.
And so for the people of Israel living in Canaan, gradually they came to believe that, well, if
that's the message, then we better at least hedge our bets because we don't want to miss
out on the rain and the crops and the food and the life.
Fear, the desire for security, the desire for wealth, drove Ahab and drove Israel to join
their culture in false worship.
And it's probably true for our own hearts that there are those same pools on us.
We have that desire for security and wealth, and sometimes there is fear also.
And it can be easy for us to think, well, if I just had money or if I just had success or
status or the right job, then I would have that security.
And our hearts can be drawn from God.
Well, into that setting, that setting where Baal is being presented as the God of weather
and storm and crops and life, the Lord God throws down the gauntlet, doesn't he, in verse
one?
There will be neither dew nor rain except at my word.
Who gives the dew, who gives the rain, who controls the weather, who's responsible for bringing life or
withholding the rains?
It's not Baal, but God.
That's the message Elijah delivers.
And we need to hear this as well, I think, in the context of God's covenant that he's made with his
people.
He's the Lord God.
That's his covenant name.
And God must always be faithful to his covenant word.
And in the book of Deuteronomy, in the book of Leviticus, we discover that within the covenant,
there are these terms.
You know, Israel is to live with the true God as their God.
And if they will do that, then they can experience and look for and expect blessing.
But if they turn away from God in disobedience, they can expect to experience curse.
It's spelled out really clearly in, for example, Leviticus chapter 26.
Again, if you're using a church Bible, it's there on page 130.
Now, but let me just read a couple of verses.
Chapter 26 begins this way.
Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves.
And do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it.
I am the Lord your God.
Really clear command.
Don't make any other idols.
Don't direct your worship anywhere other than to the true God.
Then in verse 3, if you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands,
I will send you rain in its season and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.
The God who truly does control the weather, who controls the rains that give the crops,
that give the life, promises blessing upon obedience.
But then, verse 18, and this is part of the punishments for disobedience.
If after all of this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.
I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.
Your strength will be spent in vain because your soil will not yield its crops,
nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit.
It's really, really clear that they have been acting in disobedience.
And this message, no June or rain, is the covenant God bringing judgment because of disobedience.
One more compare and contrast that's in the background in this section is Elijah and his fellow Israelites.
So, one of the striking features, I think, of Elijah's story is how often we see him standing by himself.
He stands alone, the man of God committed to God's word and faithfulness to the Lord God
against a backdrop of wickedness and false worship and a message from the palace that says,
stop talking or we'll kill you.
Where Israel fails, Elijah doesn't.
Israel did not stay devoted to God.
Israel clearly does not trust that the God of the Bible will provide for their needs.
They don't believe that life with him is the key to true life,
and so they turn to place their hopes elsewhere.
But Elijah doesn't do that.
And as Elijah stands, the man of faith and obedience in this setting,
he prepares us in a greater way for Jesus' ministry.
And this is where we understand that is good news.
Because where we fail,
because all too often as we think about our stories,
our hearts are divided in terms of where our worship and our loyalty goes.
We are guilty of disloyalty and disobedience.
We don't always keep God's law.
We don't always practice love for him and for our neighbor.
But where we fail and where we deserve curse,
Jesus perfectly succeeds.
And then on the cross, he takes our curse,
as he takes our sin,
so that he might give us his blessing.
And the wonderful message of the gospel is that
Jesus calls us back to himself,
calling us back to the source of true life,
to the God who is alive.
So before we move on to the next point,
just two things to underline.
Very basic.
One, the God of the Bible is the only true and living God.
I don't know how many people here are interested in golf.
Maybe not that many, but that's not too important.
But the number one golfer right now is Scotty Scheffler.
And he got people talking this week,
preparing for the British Open,
he was getting interviewed at a press conference.
And he basically talked about the golfer's life as,
his life,
as being not a fulfilling life.
He said, we're encouraged to give everything
to win these tournaments.
We give everything for two minutes of joy.
He came out and said,
what's the point of being the best player in the world?
Well, it's really interesting,
because I think he understands there,
and we can learn from his story,
the truth about counterfeit gods.
There is that message,
here are these things to aspire to.
They promise much,
but they fail to deliver.
What the world offers can't bear the weight of our expectations,
and is no help to us eternally.
Only the true and the living God won't disappoint,
won't fail us.
Only Jesus, the Son of God,
who died for our sin,
who rose for our salvation,
He is the only one who never fails.
He establishes the new covenant
in His broken body,
in His shed blood,
and you and I,
we can trust His word of promise
from here to eternity.
Our God will go before us.
He has gone before us.
The God of the Bible is the only true living God.
And secondly, I think from Elijah,
we have that reminder
that God's people are called to stand up
and speak up.
And it requires courage,
and it requires conviction.
In a sense,
the church is a bit like Elijah.
Our pedigree is not that high.
Our CV is not that impressive.
Our place in society as a church
is not much.
But Jesus, from heaven,
He sends the Spirit.
And the God of the Bible,
who plans all things,
plans that His church
be His representative witnesses
in this world.
And He gives us strength
to live by faith.
He gives us courage
to speak of His goodness
and His love.
Enabling us to speak
to the people around us.
The people who are anxious.
People who have been disappointed.
People who are searching.
To lovingly point people away
from what the world offers.
To say Jesus is better.
To live together in a way
that shows Jesus is better.
To recognize He is the answer
to our spiritual drought.
When we feel our sense of guilt
or when we wander away
and our hearts grow cold,
when we find ourselves
searching for that something more,
the message of the Bible
has come to Jesus.
So if the first part of our statement
is the God who is alive,
the second part that concludes it,
the God who is alive
is the God who gives life.
That's verses two to six.
So another feature
of the Elijah story,
which is wonderful,
is that God doesn't just
talk a good game.
He doesn't just talk about His power.
He acts.
You know, He makes clear,
I am the true and the living God.
And He shows it in remarkable ways.
And here's the first of these.
If part one was compare and contrast,
let's think about part two
as command and response.
First of all,
the command to Elijah
and the response of Elijah.
God's command is there
in verses two to four.
The word of the Lord came to Elijah,
leave here, turn east,
hide in the Kerith ravine.
You will drink from the brook
and I've instructed the ravens
to supply you.
There's a wonderful message
for Elijah.
The servant of the Lord
is going to be spared
from the drought.
While others are experiencing judgment,
he is going to receive salvation.
He's going to receive these tokens of blessing.
He will be miraculously provided for
both in the food that he will eat
and the drink that he will have.
And if we think back to our Bibles,
this takes us back, doesn't it,
to the story of the Exodus.
There are Moses and Israel
and they are in the wilderness.
They're in a desert situation.
situation.
And God miraculously feeds them.
The manna and the quail
rain down from heaven
every day except the Sabbath.
And then in chapter 17,
as they're thirsty,
God miraculously provides
for a grumbling people,
by his grace,
water from the rock.
And then wonderfully,
as Paul thinks about that
little image,
he says,
the rock,
the rock was Christ.
So the God who saves
is the God who sustains.
And here he sustains
his profit.
Picks up a theme
that runs through the whole Bible.
Look to God
and his word.
Look to God
and his promise
in order to find life.
Wasn't that the case
for Adam and Eve
in the Garden of Eden?
If they would have trusted
God's word,
if they would have lived
in obedience,
they would have lived
in paradise
with God forever.
It was the message
for Israel.
As they were heading
from slavery
towards their promised land,
trust in God,
live in faith
and obedience,
and you will live
in the promised land
and you will experience
blessing
and God will care
for you
and provide for you.
And for us as a church,
we are called
to trust our God
and his word.
And we're invited then
to enjoy life
with God
through Jesus today.
As Jesus reminded us
this morning,
we call God
our Father in heaven.
And we look forward
to life in a perfect kingdom
for all eternity.
Well,
as Elijah received
the command
to leave and go,
his response,
verse 5,
so he did
what the Lord
had told him.
He went
to the Kerith ravine
and he stayed there.
It's simple
but really beautiful.
When the rest
of the nation
is so half-hearted
and can't decide
who they should trust,
who they should obey,
here is the man of God
choosing to live by faith.
And because he does,
he enjoys
God's wonderful blessing.
But there's a second
and there's a more striking
command and response
scene in the Bible
reminding us
that the God
who is alive
is the God
who gives life,
he controls everything.
It's the Ravens.
Now,
to help us think
about the Ravens,
I didn't do this
on purpose
but last week
we went down
to Portobello Beach
and I don't know
if anyone's been
down to Portobello
recently
since they opened up
a really nice pizza place
to go with the Chippies.
Well,
we were there
at dinner time
and if you've seen
Alfred Hitchcock's
The Birds,
that was the kind
of vision
as there was like,
there must have been
like 50 of these seagulls
circling the bins
and circling
the folks eating
their dinner.
It was horrendous.
They were not
being charged
with delivering
the food,
rather their
sole purpose
for those minutes
that we were there
finding a safe
distance away
sitting on the grass
away from the beach
was to steal
any food
that they could get.
And if you ever see
not just a seagull
but any kind of bird,
even a tiny bird,
if you see a little bird
with a tiny scrap
of food,
you've probably seen
those other birds
try and get their share.
They're not natural
sharers,
are they?
Even with a little
scrap,
they want it
for themselves.
And so the command
and the response
to and of the ravens
is remarkable.
The ravens,
in verse 6,
brought Elijah
bread and meat
in the morning
and bread and meat
in the evening
and he drank
from the brook.
The God of the Bible,
not Baal,
is the creator
and king
over the whole creation,
over the life
of Elijah,
over the life
of the birds.
They do what he commands
to provide life-giving food
to his servant.
Now think about this
as the first hearers
of this story.
Imagine them,
you know,
they place their hopes
in Baal
and now they're living
in a drought condition.
They've got this choice,
don't they?
Well, right now,
we're trusting Baal
and there's no rain
and we're hungry.
He promised life
but we're not getting any.
And then they hear
about Elijah.
Elijah trusts God
and he's enjoying life.
God's caring for him
just as God said he would.
And you wonder,
would they make the connection?
Would they begin
that journey back
to God?
Can we make the connection
to see that
the God who is alive
is the God
who gives
true life?
As we leave
scene one,
and we'll come back
to Elijah next week,
as we see
the true and the living God
who provides true life,
it's a wonderful story.
A couple of suggestions
for our storytelling.
One,
tell our stories,
tell your story
of God's clear,
detailed kindness
and protection.
We don't have stories
as dramatic as Elijah's,
I don't think.
But we have stories
stories,
where we've come
to see
the good care
of our Father
over our lives.
We have stories
where we have been
in trouble
or been in want
and we have prayed
and God has answered,
sometimes dramatically,
sometimes through
other people.
We have those stories.
We have faith
in a God
who controls
everything.
There is no moment
outside of His control.
And I think
one of the things
that's so important
for us
as the people
of God
is that we live
recognizing
this is my Father's world.
I like to read
old books
and the old
feel,
they got this,
they lived
and breathed
knowing
every little
moment
directed,
controlled by God
and it gave them
such a peace
and security
and stability.
So I think
the story of Elijah
is an invitation
to you and to me
to think about
and to talk about
the ways
that we see
and we feel
God's ordinary
and extraordinary
care
over our lives
to acknowledge
as God promises
He gives us
daily bread,
He gives us
grace for today
and He will
give us grace
for our tomorrow
whatever that looks like.
And the reason
why that's so important
is because there's
lots of people
around us
where the question
that they're asking
if they're asking
any questions
about Christianity
is not so much
maybe nowadays
is your faith
true
but so much
does your faith
work.
That seems to be
significant
to people
to us now.
And so
as we tell
our stories
of answered prayer
of God's
goodness
to us
we get
to show
people
that God
is real
that faith
is real
that there is
a reason
to consider
true
and I think
it's important
for us
to encourage
one another
as well.
You know
here is Elijah
and he is being
spiritually fed
in a wilderness
kind of experience.
I wonder
if you can
testify
to times
when life
seemed really
hard
in a time
of suffering
or trial
and God's
word came
with particular
power
where God
seemed to be
particularly
close
and showing
his love
even when
everything else
seemed to be
falling apart.
That's a
wonderful
testimony of
God's grace
for our own
faith and for
the faith
of one another.
our stories
will likely
not include
ravens
but there
will be
moments
where we
can give
God glory
because he's
been actively
involved
in looking
after us.
But as we
tell our
stories
secondly
we want
to tell
the gospel
story
of Jesus
the Son
of God
who gives
eternal life
and we
think about
spiritual
hunger
and thirst.
What we
think about
different
versions of
that golfer
Scotty
Scheffler
this life
that I'm
living
it's not
a fulfilling
life to
me.
What are
we to do
as the
people of
God?
We
lovingly
bring them
to Jesus.
We heard
Jesus
speak to
a profoundly
dissatisfied
and troubled
woman in
John 4
water.
I can
give you
living
water.
I can
truly
satisfy
your
thirst.
We
began
with
Jesus
words
spoken
to a
crowd
after
the
feeding
of
the
5,000
and they
were hungry
for another
lunch meal
and Jesus
wanted them
to look
for more.
I'm the
bread of
life.
Whoever
comes to
me
will
never
go
hungry.
Whoever
believes
in me
will never
be thirsty.
stay.
In many
ways the
story of
Jesus
parallels
with the
story of
Elijah.
But there's
an important
difference.
Elijah the
servant of
the Lord
was spared
from suffering
on this
occasion.
But Jesus
the servant
of the Lord
was not
spared
suffering.
He would
know
thirst
as he
hung
dying on
the cross.
He was
a servant
who was
not spared
from going
under God's
judgment,
under God's
curse.
Not because
of anything
he had done,
not because
of any
disloyalty
on his
part,
but for
our sin,
our rebellion,
our
idolatry.
And that
Jesus who
died for us
is now
alive.
And from
heaven he
sends the
Spirit.
He lives
in us.
From
heaven he
gives us
that life
that is
true life,
that is
eternal
life.
Maybe we
find ourselves
here even
today and
our hearts
have become
a little bit
like Ahab
or a little
bit like
Israel.
We're looking
to find
true satisfaction,
security,
and our hearts
have been
turning away
from God.
maybe you've
tried that.
You've
discovered
ultimately the
falling in the
way of the
world doesn't
lead to life
and satisfaction.
Well,
let's
together let
Elijah's story
direct us
and direct us
back and
direct us
again to
the Lord
Jesus,
that we
would eat,
that we
would drink,
and that we
would live.
Let's
pray together.