The Floating Axe head
Revelation 2-3; II Kings 6:1-7
INTRODUCTION:
Last week, Richard preached the last sermon in our 30-week series called The Story. That series took us all the way from Genesis through Revelation. In our last Pueblo group we were discussing the last lesson … from the book of Revelation.
We read what Jesus said to the church in Ephesus: Yet I hold this against you: You have lost your first love. Consider how far you have fallen! Revelation 2:4-5
The next verse says, Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp-stand from its place. Obviously, this is an important thing. It got us talking about, “What does it mean to lose your first love … and what can we do about it?”
Today I want to follow up our series by addressing that question. One thing that we saw from The Story was how the whole Bible … Old and New Testament … tells ONE story in an amazing way. So today, I want to use an obscure story from the Old Testament to answer the New Testament question, “What can we do if we’ve lost our first love?”
The Old Testament story is found in 2 Kings Chapter 6. If you look it up, you’ll see the caption above it says, “An Axe Head Floats.” I’m curious … How many of you remember the story of the floating ax head? Well, after today, you’ll all remember it!
This is an account of something that happened to the Prophet Elisha and one of his disciples. Elisha had a sort of “seminary for prophets in training.” 2 Kings 6:1-2 sets the scene: The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get wood; and let us build a place there for us to meet.”
The seminary had outgrown its dormitory space, so … They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water. “I’ve lost it!” he cried out. “Oh no, my lord, it was borrowed!” The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. “Lift it out,” Elisha said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it. 2 Kings 6:4-7
Now, I would have been impressed with an axe head that floats, but the King James Version actually says, the ax head “did swim.” How many of you ever saw a swimming axe head!
Today we’re going to examine 3 things about that swimming axe head story: What was lost? How was it lost? and How can we get it back?
1. What was lost?
You could say that “what was lost” was the “cutting edge.” How many of you have ever used an axe? (Introduce my axe.) I have just one problem with this axe. I can’t figure out which side is the dullest.
Well, when Elisha’s seminary student lost his axe head, he had lost his cutting edge. In a spiritual sense, this is the same problem we read when Revelation 2 says – “You have lost your first love.” In just one generation, some of the churches had lost their cutting edge.
And for the church, love IS our cutting edge.
Jesus said, “Everyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. John 14:23
LOVE is the center of the Gospel. If we’ve lost our first love, we can do nothing. It’s not a matter of us working harder and harder for Jesus. Obedience is not the starting point - it’s the OUTCOME of our love for Him.
If we’ve lost our love, we’re like the seminary student who lost his axe head. You can polish the handle all you want, and swing it with all your might, but you won’t cut any wood that way.
Our human effort will never accomplish God’s will.
Have you ever felt like you’ve lost your cutting edge? You want to do great things for Jesus, but you can’t get any motivation going. You do what’s expected of you, but you’re just going through the motions. You want to tell your friends about Jesus, but you seem to have nothing to say.
The solution is NOT to try harder. If you don’t believe it, take a nice sturdy axe handle (missing its axe head.) Swing it with all your might at a tree trunk. You can spend all day that way, but you’re not going to cut any wood.
That is a picture of what it’s like to try to serve God when you’ve lost your first love. You have lost your axe head. And until you get it back, the chips are never going to fly. So now we need to ask the 2nd question --- How was the axe head lost?
2. How was it lost?
Axe heads don’t work loose all at once --- they work loose a little at a time. Anyone who has ever chopped wood knows that if you’re paying attention, you can feel the axe head getting loose. When that happens, you stop and pound the bottom of the axe handle on a stump and tightens up the axe head.
When an axe head flies off, it’s hardly ever because of one big huge whack. It’s because the axe head was working loose for a long time before it finally fell off. It’s the same with us when we lose our cutting edge. It’s seldom because of one big huge act of sin that came out of nowhere. It’s much more likely a series of little compromises that loosen our integrity.
We join in a little gossip … because it’s just so juicy.
We fudge just a little bit on our taxes … because they’re not fair anyway.
We cheat on an exam … because everyone else does it.
We leave off reading the Bible and praying for just a few days … because we’re just too busy.
We miss church a few times … because we need some extra rest.
And mainly … we get too busy to even notice that the axe handle is working loose. It’s so easy to get distracted by the responsibilities and entertainments of daily life.
When things are going good, we forget the One who blessed us in the first place. And when things are going bad, we can get so caught up in our problems that we forget to pray to the One and Only problem solver!
Then all of a sudden we realize that we’ve got a big problem. God seems far away. Our prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling. The joy has gone out of our days. We feel irritated and frustrated and tired and hopeless. We’ve lost our first love. We’ve lost our cutting edge.
So …
3. How can we get it back?
The answer is found in the story of the swimming axe head.
When we need to get OUR cutting edge back, we can do exactly what the seminary student did. It’s as simple as 1,2,3.
1) Admit we lost it. “He cried out, ‘I’ve lost it!’”
2) Remember where it came from. “Alas, it was borrowed.”
3) Return to where we lost it. Elisha asked, “Where did it fall?” And the man showed him the place.”
1) Admit we lost it
We started out looking at one of the letters to the 7 churches in the book of Revelation. Jesus told the church at Ephesus, You have lost your first love. They were going through the right motions, but the power --- the cutting edge --- was gone.
Later, in the letter to the 7th church, Jesus gave an even sterner warning. Listen to what he said to the church at Laodicea. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
This church was disgustingly lukewarm … they had definitely lost the passion of a first love … but they didn’t even know it. The letter continues:
You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Revelation 3:15-17
It’s possible to lose your cutting edge and not even know it happened. In fact, they thought they had it all. They were proud of their self-sufficiency.
There’s a lesson here! If you think you have it all together, that’s a sure sign that you have lost it.
Here are some questions to ask yourself. Are you growing in your relationship with God? Do you see spiritual fruit increasing in your life?
Things like love, joy, peace, patience … (Selah… I might need to pause on that word for a minute) … kindness, goodness, faithfulness. These qualities develop naturally when we love Jesus … because if we love Him, He is able to live His life in and through us.
It’s important for us to continually ask God to open our eyes to our true spiritual condition. And if your spiritual thermometer reads lukewarm, then step 1 is to ADMIT we’ve lost it.
Step 2 is to REMEMBER where we got it in the first place.
2) Remember where it came from
Jesus told the lukewarm Laodiceans, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Revelation 3:18
The infusion of God’s love into our lives will never come from our own self- effort. It is purely a gift from God … given to anyone who will ask in faith. Like Elisha’s seminary student who cried, “Oh, no, my lord, it was borrowed,” we have to realize that our cutting edge comes from God and from God alone. The only way to get it back is to return to the place where we lost it.
3) Return to where we lost it.
The seminary student took Elisha back to the place where he lost his axe head. He had no power to get it back, because it had sunk under the river water. Notice that it took a supernatural process to bring that axe head back where the student could reach out and take it again.
When they got there, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. What is the significance of the stick of wood that Elisha threw in the water? Perhaps nothing. But it’s more like God’s Word that this would be a foreshadowing of the power of the cross.
It is the cross of Christ that performs a miracle and brings the Love of God close enough that we can reach out and grab it. “Lift it out,” Elisha said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.
God will bring the cutting edge within your grasp, but He still calls on YOU to reach out and grab it.
CONCLUSION:
God will never force us to reach out for Him. But God does have ways of helping us notice that we’ve lost our cutting edge. He told the church at Laodicea: Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me Revelation 3:19-20
This invitation is not just for the lukewarm Laodiceans. This is the invitation Jesus extends to you today.
Is there a part of your life where you’ve lost your cutting edge?
Is the passion of your first love fizzling out?
Don’t ignore the warning signs that your axe head is working loose!
Return to Jesus today, and let Him renew His love within you.
