Elijah: A Man Like Us

(Matt 11:13-14) For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.

(Mal 4:5) "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes."

(Matt 17:1-3) After six days Yeshua took with Him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Yeshua.

First of all, two people from the past travel in time. Can you imagine how you’d feel if that happened right now, right here? Second, only two people were selected to visit Yeshua from the past, and Moses and Elijah are the two. I don’t think Yeshua had a raffle, or picked two names out of a hat. There must be a reason He picked these two; and it must be something good.

1 Kings 17

v 1 He says to Ahab there will be no rain for a few years except at his word (unless he says so)

"I’m going to control the clouds."

v 2-6 God ordered ravens to feed him; birds were his butlers

v 7-24 Widow - supernatural provision of food. Elijah had the chutzvah (boldness) to tell her to feed him first

Widow’s son died, Elijah prayed and the boy was alive again

1 Kings 18

v 20-45 Elijah confronted 450 false prophets in public; he taunted or mocked them as well.

"Let’s see whose God is real?" He is so confident; Elijah let them go first.

Preaching + Power or Message + Miracles

(1 Cor 2:4) My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

(CEV) When I talked with you or preached, I didn't try to prove anything by sounding wise. I simply let God's Spirit show His power.

(Mark 16:20 NIV) Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it.

(Message) And the disciples went everywhere preaching, the Master working right with them, validating the Message with indisputable evidence.

(CEV) Then the disciples left and preached everywhere. The Lord was with them, and the miracles they worked proved that their message was true.

Ryrie: men's wisdom. Paul did not want their faith to be placed in clever arguments but in God's power.

v 36 Let it be known that You are God and I have done all these things at Your command..

-The goal or purpose is that the people would know that the Lord is God.

Everything Elijah did was because God told him to do it. Elijah did not act presumptiously on his own. He wasn’t being over zealous. He wasn’t getting carried away by his own fancies or emotions. He only said what God told him to say, and he only did what God told him to do.

v 36, 37 turning peoples hearts back to God so that they would know Him.

(Mal 4:6 NIV) He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers;

reconcile, restore, return - This is what God seeks; that people would return to Him, that our relationship with Him would be restored, and that we’d be reconciled.

1 Kings 19

v 1-2 Elijah is threatened by Jezebel

v 3 Elijah is afraid and runs for his life

v 4 Elijah prayed that he would die

v 5 - ? God comforted Elijah

(James 5:17-18) Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

-If Elijah is a man just like us, then we are a man just like him!

-If you can be the Elijah of 1 Kings 19, you can be the Elijah of 1 Kings 17 + 18