Introduction:
1. A wealthy man went on a safari to Africa and took his faithful dog along for company. One day the dog starts chasing butterflies and soon discovers that he’s lost. Before long he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the obvious intention of having him for lunch. Thinking quickly the noticed some bones on the ground close by, and immediately begins to chew on them with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap, the dog exclaims loudly, "Wow, that was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more around here?" The leopard halts his attack in mid stride, and a look of terror comes over him as he slinks away into the trees. "Whew" says the leopard, "That was close. That dog nearly had me." A monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put his knowledge to good use and get some protection from the leopard goes to talk to the big cat. But the dog saw him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figured that something must be up. The monkey caught the leopard, spilled the beans and struck a deal. The leopard was furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here monkey, hop on my back and see what’s going to happen to that conniving canine." Meanwhile the dog sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back, and as they are about to attack says, "Where’s that monkey. I can never trust him. I sent him out half an hour ago to bring me another leopard, and he’s still not back!"
2. Now, I bet you didn’t see that one coming did you? Neither did I the first time I read it. It’s not uncommon to not see things coming in real life either. We’ve all had the experience of being busy living our lives and something comes up that we just didn’t see coming in any way shape or form. You know precisely what I’m talking about don’t you?
3. The same thing was almost certainly true for Elijah. He had been faithfully serving the Lord for many years, when he went through a period of great discouragement and depression. God instructed him to anoint 3 additional men to carry on the work for him. This is interesting because. . .
Cell #1--
Aside from the kings, there were only 2 spiritual leaders in the O T who had a part in choosing their successors, Moses and Elijah.
4. You might be surprised by that especially because Elijah went through a period of great discouragement toward the end of his ministry. Not at all what you might expect from a person who had stood with such courage for the Lord when faced with a hostile king and queen who hated God and the faith. Yet, Elijah was a man who often lived up to the big challenge when faced with it, and who sometimes wilted under the pressure when he was by himself. It pays for each of us to know ourselves, because when we are honest about it, we each have strengths and we all have weaknesses as well. That’s always true.
Cell #2--
**
Elijah & Elisha while both devoted prophets were very Different Men.
5. Elijah, who was a Bedouin child of the desert, accustomed to a life of wandering the desert. Elisha, on the other hand, preferred to live in cities, and was often in close connection with kings. Elijah’s message focused on judgment. Elisha presented a strong message, but he was more of a traveling pastor than a desert prophet. He didn’t compromise with his message, but it was a bit more gentle. Elijah’s ministry was characterized by long period when he would disappear and couldn’t be found. Elisha by contrast could always be found by the people. They both had the ministry of a prophet, but they were two different men and they responded as two very different men.
6. This morning begins a study from the life of Elisha and so we will begin at the beginning of his ministry. In fact, we start this morning with his call. Let’s read our passage this morning.
Cell #3-- 1 Kings 19:15-21 (NASB)
15 The LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram;
16 and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.
17 "It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death.
18 "Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him."
19 So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him.
20 He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, "Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you." And he said to him, "Go back again, for what have I done to you?"
21 So he returned from following him, and took the pair of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and ministered to him.
PRAYER--
Cell #4--
I. God Calls Unexpected People 15-18
1. Sometimes people imagine that God only calls one type of people into His service; all serious people, or all people with a good sense of humor or all people who are scholarly, or all people who are regular, but that is not the case. God calls all kinds of people into His service. He can use anyone and everyone who is willing to be used. I want to show you something that is a bit surprising when it comes to the people God. We are all different and that’s not a bad thing, it’s actually just the way God works. . .
Cell #5--
**
#1 God calls very different people to His service, Hazael was the king’s Servant , Jehu was in the Army and Elisha was a Farmer.
#2 All three men came from very different backgrounds because each would be used in a very different God-given Role.
2. If God didn’t call very different people we would all be in trouble, because each one of us is very different. There’s no two of us that is completely alike. But that’s the way God works. He is comfortable with us having different personalities and different experiences, because He has very different jobs for each of us to do. That leads me back to our story and it brings me to a second observation, (Cell 5, #2) All three men came from very different backgrounds because each would be used in a very different God-given Role.
3. We must never fall into the trap of thinking that God can only use someone like us, nor should we go the other direction and think that God couldn’t use someone like us, because neither one of these assumptions are true. God uses regular people like you and me who are deeply committed to Him. That’s actually quite good news though.
4. Let’s get back to our story though, look at the next verse and I want to show you something there. Elijah is quite disturbed and discouraged thinking that he’s about the only one still committed to God in the entire country. God is about to clear up that confusion. He’s about to show him that. . .
Cell #6--
Not just these three young men were committed to God, there were
7000 Elijah didn’t know about who were committed as well.
5. Sometimes people get discouraged because they don’t think God’s working because they can’t see it happening. Lately we have been a bit discouraged here. We’ve gone through a times when attendance and spirits have been down. While we don’t like it, that happens from time to time, but don’t panic God is doing things you and I can’t see.
6. The same was true in Elijah’s day. There were 7000 people who were deeply committed to God who the prophet didn’t know about. In our day we might say they are down the street, or there are here, but what God is doing isn’t as obvious right now. However, just because it’s not obvious doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Not obvious and not happening, are two very very different things. Not just three young men - Jehu, Hazael, and Elisha - not just a handful, here and there - but thousands! God was trying to tell Elijah that He had His people stationed in key positions, all across the nation, believers standing tall and true, in spite of the corruption around them. These 7000 people were very committed to God, let me show you how we know that to be true. It says that these people have not done two things: they have not bowed down to worship Baal and they had not "kissed him."
Cell #7--
To kiss the hand of an idol was an act of worship because it expressed
Adoration, much like a dog licking his master’s hand. To refuse to worship Baal indicated they were at least somewhat committed to God , because they were refusing to give in to peer pressure
when they refused to worship Baal.
7. God calls unexpected people and the group He calls people from is also unexpected because sometimes the people we perceive as being committed and the group God knows is committed is very different. That leads us to the second major point of this morning’s sermon. . .
Cell #8--
II. God Calls Busy People 19
1. We have no way of knowing if Elijah knew any of the three men God told him to anoint. He could have known all three, or more likely, he didn’t know any of them. The point is that God knew what He was doing when He called these three men. One of the reason’s I think it’s likely that he didn’t know any of the three is this fact. . . (Cell 9 Part #1)
Cell #9--
#1- Elijah was 150 miles from Abel Meholah where he would find Elisha.
#2-- Elisha’s name means "God has salvation."
2. So you can see Elijah traveled a long way to do what God had told him by anointing Elisha. Elijah returned from the Sinai peninsula to find Elisha near his hometown in the Jordan Valley halfway between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Kinnereth in the Northern Kingdom.
3. Elijah may have realized something special about his new protégé’ before he even met him. The unique thing is his name. (Cell 9 #2) Elisha’s name means, "God has Salvation." Although we assume that Elisha had not served as a prophet before, his name pointed toward the fact that he was going to have a positive influence.
4. I mentioned before that Elisha was a busy person. There is something unique and very interesting about him that you may not realize when you read the passage, but people in his day would have very quickly picked up on it. . .
Cell #10--
That Elisha owned 24 oxen indicates that he must
have been a man of considerable Wealth.
5. I mentioned before that Elisha was a busy person. Notice, that although he was a person of considerable means, he was out with his oxen. He did more than have other work with his capital, he was out there doing his part in the fields as well.
6. It would have probably created quite a stir when Elijah came into town. He was something of a national hero and celebrity. There weren’t papers and new casts like we have today, but there was a way the people would have quickly known it was him, even if they had never seen him before. Prophets had a special cloak, sometimes called a mantle which identified them as wise men, & spiritual leaders.
Cell #11--
**
The prophet wore a special cloak which identified him as a Prophet
or a wise man. It’s probably this practice that causes
our Graduates to wear Robes today.
7. So prophets were men who were honored. They were given special recognition because of their role in the kingdom. So it must have been quite amazing to him that what took place occurred. Here was the significance.
Cell #12--
Apparently for a prophet to place his robe on the shoulders of a young man indicated he had been chosen to become a Prophet.
7. We don’t know how old Elisha was at the time, but it’s safe to say that he must have been quite honored by Elijah’s invitation to join him. He loved God and also needed to live up to his name. Elijah didn’t say a word to the young man but merely cast his mantle or outer garment over him to indicate that the Lord had called him to serve the prophet and become his successor. This was really a big thing. It was his call to a very public and very large scale ministry. Elisha probably realized it to at least some degree.
Cell #13--
Like the fishermen Jesus called to leave their nets & become,
"Fishers of Men," Elisha was called to leave the farm
and become a "Harvester of Souls ."
8. How Elisha’s family and friends viewed this sudden change of jobs isn’t given. If the family was wealthy and this firmed up his decision to commit to a job that was outside of the farm, it’s hard to know how they might have responded. They could have been very supportive or they might not have been supportive. There’s no indication either way in the text. What happens next in the story reveals the wise decision God made when He told Elijah to anoint Elisha. This leads us to the final major point. . .
Cell #14--
III. God Calls Committed People 20-21
1. It should come as no surprise that God typically calls busy committed people to do His work. Perhaps the most significant thing you can do to insure that God will use you is to be committed to Him right now. As Jesus once said, "To whom much is given, much is required. Much usually gets done by very regular people when they are committed to God. Make no mistake about it Elisha was a committed man, but he probably didn’t see this one coming. God calls people who are already doing what they are supposed to be doing. . .
Cell #15--
Elisha felt the force of God’s call. He was ready to follow but he wished to say a proper good-bye to his Parents. This didn’t
show a lack of commitment, merely that he recognized what was
involved and had "Counted the Cost."
2. We know Elijah had counted the cost because he insisted on spending time with his family before he left to serve God. He knew he was going to be away for a very long time and saying good-bye was the appropriate thing for him to do. Though Jesus once told a man he was not to go back to tell his parents good-bye, that probably involved something else entirely. Most Bible scholars believe that Jesus was talking about a man who probably wanted to be excused from serving Christ until his parents passed away. In other words, it was probably nothing more than an excuse. Here Elisha, having a party with his parents and friends wasn’t an excuse, it was his way of saying good-bye to all of them. He knew this calling on his life represented a complete change. Let me show you how we know that. . .
Cell #16--
**
Elisha destroyed the tools of his former occupation as a sign of Total Commitment. He butchered his team of oxen, cooked the meat over what had been his plow and then invited family and friends to his going away party. His actions made it very clear there was no Going Back.
3. In our day we would say that Elisha "burned his bridges." It probably wasn’t easy shifting from the farming life he had likely known since birth to the life of a prophet. Commitment or not, the transition was most likely a challenging one. It may not have taken place very quickly.
4. After this passage, the next time we read about Elisha is 2 Kings 2 which means the two men probably spent several years together. By the time Elijah left, Elisha had become well known among the various schools of the prophets. While ministering to the needs of his master, Elisha probably learned many important lessons. During these years the ties between the two men probably became very deep. They were years of great significance to the young prophet and of careful teaching on the part of the older. Like most of us, Elisha probably was chomping at the bit before he got there, but he wanted to do things right, and I might add, He certainly did!
5. Elisha’s commitment was foundational to everything that was to come. Had he not been committed enough to burn his bridges there is no telling how different the story of his life might have been. Had he not been willing to faithfully serve Elijah for the years he did, the story would have probably read quite differently. His commitment was central to the way God used him. One pastor wrote about this experience in our own lives like this, "After the call comes the cost. There is a cost in changing one’s life direction. It might be a call to change jobs, even to move to a new location, involving moving away from family, friends, and a familiar environment. It may be a call to totally change the way one is presently living and the values one presently holds dear. It may be a call to give up the quest for more money or to detach from dependency upon family. Such ’calls’ require paying a price, what we Christians call ’"the cost of discipleship.’"
On April 21st, in the year 1519, the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez sailed into the harbor of Vera Cruz, Mexico. He brought with him only about 600 men, and yet over the next two years his vastly outnumbered forces defeated Montezuma and all the warriors of the Aztec empire, making Cortez the conqueror of all Mexico. How was this incredible feat accomplished, when two prior expeditions had failed to even establish a colony on Mexican soil? Cortez knew from the very beginning that he and his men faced incredible odds. He knew that the road before them would be dangerous and difficult. He knew that his men would be tempted to abandon their mission and return to Spain. And so, as soon as Cortez and his men came ashore and unloaded their provisions, he ordered their entire fleet of eleven ships destroyed. His men stood on the shore and watched as their only possibility of retreat burned and sank. From that point on, they knew beyond any doubt that there was no turning back. Nothing lay behind them but an empty ocean. They had only two options, to conquer or to die. When Elisha burned his plow and killed his oxen, he did the same thing. He stepped out of his old life and into a new one with his hope and faith firmly fixed on God.
6. Elisha’s commitment and motivation were to pay off.
Cell #17--
Elisha’s world, was better off because of his Sacrifice. It’s not enough to dream about being different. We must dare to pay the price. Elisha is an incredible example of a man who made a difference because he was willing to be Totally Committed to following God.
Conclusion:
1. Consider Elisha’s life without commitment- - - the Sunammite widow’s only son would never have been brought back to life in 2 Kings 4:18-37, Naaman’s leprosy would never have been cleansed in 2 Kings 5:1-19, the starving widow’s oil supply would never have been increased each do so her and her son could survive in 2 Kings 4:1-7, the grain would never have been multiplied to feed a hundred men in 2 Kings 4:42-44 and the widow’s land would never have been restored to her in 2 Kings 8:1-6 and other miracles, probably not recorded for us would never have been done. The work of God’s kingdom wouldn’t have been accomplished in the way it was had Elisha not been willing to be as committed as he was.
2. God is always calling us to change, to grow, to step out of the present conditions of our lives, no matter how comfortable they might be or seem to be. He calls us to take risks without our being sure of the outcome. We might not be called to physically leave family, home and job, but we are all called to make God our highest priority so that we can be all that God wants us to be. The cost might seem high until we consider the consequences.
3. So, the question comes to all of us, "What does God want me to do at this point?" For some of you that next step needs to be asking Christ into your life. You’ve thought about it, but you’ve never done it. Now is the time. For others it’s some other commitment that you’ve been thinking about. I don’t know the details of what it is because it’s not a commitment I’m to make, it’s a commitment you need to make. The point is that each of us need to make the commitment that God calls us to make. Prayer. . .
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1) Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Old Testament, (Cedar Rapids, IA: Parsons Technology) 1999.
2) Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament Vol. 3: 1 Kings-2 Chronicles, (Cedar Rapids, IA: Parsons Technology) 2000.
3) The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, (Cedar Rapids, IA: Parsons Technology) 1997.
4) Warren Wiersbe, Be Responsible: 1 Kings, (Wheaton, IL: Scripture Press) 2002.
5) Merrill Unger, The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary, (Chicago, IL: Moody Bible Institute) 1988.
6) James Orr, Editor International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, (Cedar Rapids, IA: Parsons Technology) 1998.
7) Wes Humble, Strike Up a Passion, (Sermoncentral.com) November, 2002.
8) Alan Perkins, Commitment, (Sermoncentral.com) August, 2001
9) Daniel Olukoya, Lessons from the School of Power, Part 1, (Sermoncentral.com) July, 2004.
10) Daniel Morrison, Tests that Tell, (Sermoncentral.com) July, 2002.
11) Jerry Morrissey, The Cost of Discipleship, (Sermoncentral.com) July, 2001.
12) Eric Snyder, Passing the Torch of Leadership, (Farewell Church of Christ, Sermoncentral.com) October, 2001.
13) David Wilkerson, The 7000 Club, (World Challenge, Sermoncentral.com) Undated.
