When Our Ministry on Earth Ends

This morning, we are finally at the end of our Elijah series. It's a little bit sad. I've been thoroughly enjoying really zooming in on the life of this man. If you haven't been here with us before, we spent approximately the last two months dealing with, I don't know, seven or eight chapters of Elijah's life and just going through the amazing epic that is his life. A man who was very cold, very stubborn and hard headed, a man of amazing heroism, and at the same time, humility.

A man who gave his life completely in service to his God. And we come to the end of his life this morning. If you have your Bibles with you, we're going to be reading of this in Second Kings chapter two. Second Kings chapter two, and we're going to start reading from verse one. When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.

Elijah said to Elisha, stay here. The Lord has sent me to Bethel. But Elisha said, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?

Yes. I know, Elisha replied, but do not speak of it. Then Elijah said to him, stay here, Elisha. The Lord has sent me to Jericho. And Elisha replied, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.

So they went to Jericho. The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked them, do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today? Yes. I know, he replied, but do not speak of it. Then Elijah said to him, stay here.

The Lord has sent me to Jordan. And Elisha replied, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So the two of them walked on. Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance facing where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water with it.

The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you? Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit, Elisha replied. You have asked a difficult thing, Elijah said. Yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours.

Otherwise, not. As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them. And Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, my father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel. And Elisha saw him no more.

Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart. He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah? he asked.

When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left and he crossed over. The company of the prophets from Jericho who were watching said, the spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha. And they went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him. Look, they said, we, your servants, have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master.

Perhaps the spirit of the Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley. No. Elisha replied, do not send them. But they persisted until he was too ashamed to refuse. So he said, send them.

And they sent fifty men who searched for three days but did not find him. When they returned to Elisha who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, didn't I tell you not to go? So far, our reading. An interesting, amazing, dramatic story, isn't it? We see in these verses, Elijah accompanied by his servant, his disciple Elisha.

And they start out at a place called Gilgal. Then God tells them that they are to travel to Bethel. After they arrive at Bethel, God sends them to Jericho. After Jericho, which is right near the Jordan River, they are told to cross the Jordan onto the other side. Each time Elijah sets out, he gives Elisha orders to stay.

Stay here in Bethel. Stay here in Jericho. And each time, Elisha refuses to stay behind. Each time he says, I am not going to leave you. Each time they arrive at these different locations, they are also met by prophets.

The school of the prophets, the company of the prophets, the text says. And each time these prophets prophesy that the Lord is going to take Elijah. And each time they tell Elisha this, Elisha responds by telling these prophets that he knows Elijah is going to be taken, but that they should be quiet. It's a very interesting story. Why does this have to happen?

Why does it have to happen three times? Why the prophets? Why do they have to prophesy three times? Why does Elijah need to go to all these three different places? Firstly, the locations are very significant.

Gilgal was the first place that the Israelites stopped at when they had entered the new land, the promised land. They crossed the River Jordan. If you remember, Joshua and the entire Israelite nation, they crossed over the Jordan and the first place that they set up camp was a place called Gilgal. It was the first steps into the promised land. It was the place where Joshua then took twelve rocks from the middle of the Jordan River as they crossed through on dry land, took twelve rocks and set up an altar as a point of saying, this is the beginning.

God has brought us here and we dedicate this place to Him. This is where Joshua circumcised the Israelites because this second generation of Israelites had not been circumcised during their wanderings through the wilderness. And finally, Gilgal was a place where the first Passover was celebrated for the Israelites in the new land, in the promised land. In other words, Gilgal was a place of beginnings. Gilgal was a place of new starts.

Then God, it says, God sends Elijah to Bethel. These places aren't too far away from each other. Within, you know, a few kilometres, God sends him to a place called Bethel. And again, this was a very significant place in Israelite's history. Bethel was one of the first places that Abraham came to when God had sent him from Babylon, which was two and a half thousand kilometres away.

Send him from Babylon down into the land that He was going to give to his descendants. And so Abraham came to a place called Bethel, the Bible says, and built an altar there. God had protected him and his family the whole way down through very dangerous parts in those days to Bethel. Bethel means the house of God. And he built an altar there to God, and the Bible says in Genesis that Abraham called upon the name of the Lord.

This was the first time that Abraham worshipped God as his God. He heard God's voice. He heard God tell him to go. And when he arrived there, he knew that God is faithful. God had brought him into this new land. It's a place where Abraham worshipped God and where he came to understand God's faithfulness and His character.

So Bethel was a place where God is worshipped. Then finally, the word of the Lord came to Elijah and tells him to go to Jericho. Now we all know Jericho. We all know the story of Jericho. It was the first city to be conquered by Joshua and the Israelites when they crossed over the Jordan, when they came into the promised land.

It was a city of huge walls fortified and there was no hope for this ragtag bunch of people to conquer this place. But God gave them the command to walk around the city walls seven times and God caused the walls to crumble and they were able to take the city. Jericho was a place of faith. It was placing your dependence and trust in God. All these places, very significant.

Very significant markers. Each city had a meaning to it. But why did Elijah have to visit them all? The other interesting aspect of this is that each place had a school of the prophets or a company of the prophets. It's interesting that in Samuel's time, a few years, a few hundred years before Elijah, Samuel started something called the company of the prophets.

It's like Bible college. And the company of the prophets were located in these three areas, in these three cities. So God sends Elijah to these three cities, cities with significant meaning to his faith, to who he was, to how he understood God, and at the same time, Elijah makes one last circuit to all the schools of the prophets, to all the Bible colleges of Israel's time. You see in his time, Elijah was the prominent prophet. He was the boss of the prophets.

People look to him for leadership. So God instructs Elijah to go to Bethel first in verse two, then Jericho in verse four, and then finally to cross over the Jordan in verse six. God wanted Elijah to visit the prophets one last time. And so we see that God is orchestrating in Elijah's final moments of his life something to perhaps give Elijah a little bit of comfort. And at the same time, to show the prophets that this guy, Elisha, that's following him is going to be his replacement.

And we'll see that if you read further the story of Elisha, Elisha becomes this great prophet. He becomes the next leader of the prophets. It's as good as God saying to everyone, hey guys, this is your new boss. This is Elijah's personal disciple. He's going to be taking over from him.

God's preparing the way. But more importantly, I think, God is providing Elijah a chance to say goodbye. God is providing something to Elijah to support him, to encourage him. Remember in First Kings 19, a few chapters ago, remember Elijah at that moment in despair where he was lying under the juniper tree saying to God, just end it. Just finish.

I don't want to go on. I'm the only one left. I'm the last prophet left. And here God is sending him to all these places, and he's seeing all these prophets, faithful to God, encouraging him, supporting him, saying goodbye to him, saying thank you to him. Shows that his ministry wasn't in vain.

His life wasn't a waste. He sees all these faithful prophets still serving God. In this story, we also see some of the qualities of this man Elisha who's going to be following on, who's going to replace Elijah. Remember again in First Kings 19, Elijah runs away from Jezebel fearing for his life. He runs to Beersheba from Dan, from the top, from the North of Israel right down to the South.

He goes to Beersheba and then he leaves his servant there. This is before Elisha. He leaves his servant in Beersheba and he goes another day's journey into the wilderness. You know, the servant's like, oh, you're going to get killed by Jezebel. That's fine.

I'll stay here in Beersheba. You go ahead. Meanwhile, we see Elisha. Elijah says, stay here in Bethel. Elisha says, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I'm not going to leave your side.

He gives them another chance in Jericho. You can go, stay here. I'll go on. Elijah says, I'm not leaving your side. I'm sorry.

At the crossing of the Jordan, I'm not leaving your side. We see something of Elijah's character. I'm sorry. Elisha. Elisha faithfully followed Elijah as his servant since the day that Elijah threw his mantle on him and said, come follow me, be my disciple.

And he stubbornly determined to be with him right until the very end. He was not going to leave this man. Again, when Elijah asked God to let him die in the desert, he repeated the statement, I'm the only one left. No one else is following You. All the prophets have been put to death or they have turned to worship Baal.

No one is left. And now we see that this will not be the case if Elisha has anything to say about this. Elisha is committed to be with his master to the very end. He is not going to forsake him. He's not going to leave his side.

Good leaders begin as good servants. Good leaders begin as good servants. We see something of Elisha's character right here in the early stages that's going to serve him well for his ministry in the future. As we read the account of the final moments of Elijah's ministry on earth, you just can't help but draw contrast between what happened a few chapters before and what happened now. It is amazing.

Elijah wanted God to take his life when Jezebel threatened to kill him. He was afraid. He ran for his life. He tried to get as far away as possible. In his despair, Elijah viewed himself as a failure.

He said, I'm no better than my forefathers were. I haven't been able to achieve anything. He thought his life, his ministry was a failure. He thought he was the only prophet left. But God makes him travel to all these various places, remembering what God had done for his forefathers, what God had promised for his forefathers.

He goes to Gilgal, he goes to Bethel, he goes to Jericho. And God makes him meet all these Bible college students. All these faithful young men who are going to carry on this legacy. Who are going to be serving the nation of Israel. Who are going to be telling people to come back to God.

It was a revelation that his ministry was not a failure. It was not a failure. In chapter nineteen, Elijah attempted to quit his ministry. I'm stepping down, God. I'm retiring.

God refused his request because it wasn't time yet. It wasn't time yet. And now we come to the point where every prophet is saying, Elijah, it's time. It is time. God is going to take you.

In chapter nineteen, Elijah leaves his servant behind so that he could go into the desert to die. This time, try as he may, Elijah is unable to shake Elisha. Elisha is in his pocket, almost. You cannot get rid of this guy. And besides Elisha, fifty prophets stand on the banks of the Jordan looking over to see what happens to Elijah.

Fifty prophets are there to support him in the end. Listen. If God granted Elijah's request in chapter nineteen, He would have died a failure. At least in his eyes. It would have been a tragic departure.

Now Elijah goes God's way. Leaving behind this whole school of prophets. A whole bunch of new ministers in his absence. And he was going to depart with full honours. Chariots of fire, horses of fire came to escort Elijah to heaven.

This is like a military funeral with full honours. The whole shebang. If God had granted Elijah to die under that juniper tree, what a sad end. Here we find a very dramatic example of the blessing of unanswered prayer. That prayer that God says no to.

Those prayers when God graciously listens to us, like He graciously listened to Elijah spill his guts. Elijah wallowing in a pit of self doubt, self pity. And then when he was finished and he had said his thing, God said, I'm sorry. That's not how it's going to happen. He refused to allow Elijah to take suicide as the easy way out.

Instead, God instructed him to get back into the real world, to pull off his socks, to get on with what he had been called to do. When it's time for us to leave this world, God will take us His way. God's ways are so much better, so much higher than our ways, the Bible says. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that God's ways are better than the imaginations and the hopes that we have?

He knows so much better than we do. When God says no to something you've asked for, just remember that there is a yes waiting in the wings. There's a plan. When we pray for friends, for loved ones, and we don't see any results. When we cry and empty our hearts to God, it's not because God is unable to save or heal that those prayers remain unanswered.

It's not because our faith is too small. It's not the size of our faith that matters. It's the size of the God we worship that matters. When we pray for an end to our pain or our suffering and it doesn't end, when we want to see God give us something we desperately want and He doesn't seem to comply with our desires, it's not because God doesn't hear, it's not because God doesn't care, it's not because God is unable to make us happy, it's because He has a plan that's far greater than you and I could ever dream of. Here's a plan that will fit so perfectly.

Sometimes God's answer is no. As we reach the end of our series on Elijah, you just have to marvel at the character of this man. And I just thank God that He was able to come to this magnificent end. Anyone making a list of the greatest people of the Bible would certainly include Elijah. He'd be my number one, my number two.

Few others are better models of the two traits of heroism and humility. He was able to speak with scorching truth when God called him to bring Israel back to Himself. His words were like daggers sometimes. He stood face to face with the mightiest people in his nation. And yet we see at the same time the humility of this man, Elijah, in the quiet solitude of the Kereth Valley, beside the brook, beside the stream, waiting on birds to bring him his food.

We see him serving lovingly and graciously a widow who accused him of the death of her son. In that refinement of Zarephath, Elijah's heroic and humble life urges us to lift our eyes from the grit, the grind, the grind of our day to day life. To turn our attention to God and what His plan is for our lives. What His purpose is. And to ultimately identify and recognise that we serve God who is our real master.

God is our real master, our king, our lord. As a servant, Elijah was second to none. He was faithful to the very end. He had his doubts. That's true.

He was honest about them. That's true. But he was faithful. He was faithful to the end. He remained honest with God and yet he did not forsake Him.

In Elijah, we see that our ministry on earth can be for a season only. The amazing thing is we read eight chapters or something like that. We see the entire length of his life all summarised in this. We see that there was a purpose for him. We see that God had been preparing him from the start for this huge event on Mount Carmel.

This huge event to show the people that God is living and active and powerful. And then we see sort of the final curtain on his life as well. We see that for Elijah, this world was not his home. He was simply a traveller and a pilgrim in this life. Throughout all of this, we see a man who was not content with this.

He was never at peace. Elijah is restless and searching. His prayer to be put out of his misery is denied. He wants to be with God. He wants to end this.

But God has a far greater end in mind. He still has work to do. You can't leave now. This is not the end. You still have work to do.

And so for us, it's a comfort, it's a reassurance, it's a promise that this world is not our home. The restlessness that each of us feels, uneasy that we feel, the discomfort that we sometimes feel points us to remember that this place is not ours. This place is not what we've been called to. When our job is done, God will take us home.

But until that time, remain true to your calling. Remain true to the purpose that God has placed upon your life. Don't give up. Don't go and lie down under the juniper tree and wait for the end to come. Get up.

Do the job that God has called you to. Finally, the story of Elijah is really a story about God. And the story of Elijah, as we've been travelling through this, we've seen that God is a God of immense mercy. He is so patient. The Bible calls it long suffering.

Long suffering. We see in the story of Elijah, His desire to have His people come back to Him. We see His great big heart break for His people. The story shows the incredible lengths that God will go to bring these people back to Him. The incredible calling that He will place on one of His servants, Elijah.

The incredible power that He will place on this man and entrust to him to do these amazing things. We see in the story, God's patience, His long suffering nature calling and calling and calling Ahab and Jezebel back. He didn't give up. The story of Elijah shows God's faithfulness to His promises as well. Even the promises that we don't want Him to keep.

We see God's faithfulness to His promises even of righteousness and judgment. But there comes a time when God says that's it. That is enough. We see that God is just and He is fair and He is loving. When we look at Elijah, we see a prototype actually of Jesus.

It's no surprise that in Jesus' lifetime, when He asked His disciples, who do the people say I am? His disciples replied, some people think you're Elijah. In Jesus, we can't help but see an image of Elijah. Jesus becomes the exemplification of the length that God would go to bring His people back to Him. Like Elijah was sent into a land, a country that had walked away, had rebelled against Him, God the Father sent Jesus the Son into a world that had gone away from Him.

A world that rebelled against Him. A world that did not want anything to do with Him. Because of Jesus, we understand the patience of God. We understand His mercy. We understand His long suffering nature.

And as we wrap up Elijah, we see that the same God of Elijah, the same God who calls all sinners back to Himself, calling us to Him, and calling us to be His servants to a world that needs Him.