Prophetic Proximity: Echoing the Resurrection in a Cynical World

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]
[00:00:00] I don't know. 10.45. Good morning. Testing 1-2, test 1-2, there we go. Good?

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:11] Thanks though. Let me toot my drum edge real quick.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:01:04] Good morning, CTK.

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:05:29] The time has come for us to begin our service.
[00:05:31] If you would stand and join us for this song of gathering.
[00:05:34] Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:05:36] Good morning, Christ the King.

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:06:32] My name is Fritz Thornton, and I serve as an elder here.
[00:06:35] It is my privilege to welcome you to worship on this Lord's Day.
[00:06:40] A few admin notes as we get started.
[00:06:43] Restrooms are located behind me, behind the sanctuary.
[00:06:46] Just exit through the doors.
[00:06:50] The ladies' room is through the door on the left.
[00:06:52] The men's room is on the right.
[00:06:54] if you have little ones our nursery is open for infants through children age four you'll find it upstairs just head up the stairs and follow the colorful flags at the top of the stairs for children in pre-k through third grade we invite them to join kids worship during the sermon
[00:07:15] portion of the service they'll be dismissed from the sanctuary during our time of gospel hospitality parents you will escort them to the chapel our call to worship this morning is from John 11 25 and first Corinthians 15 20 to 22 which call out what is true for those who are
[00:07:35] in Christ who is the resurrection and the life the first fruits giving us a foretaste and a sure sign of the harvest the resurrection to come Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes
[00:07:54] in me, even if he dies, will live.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:08:06] Since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. Just as in Adam, all die.
[00:08:17] So also in Christ all will be made alive.

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[00:08:22] Please join me in prayer.
[00:08:25] Heavenly Father, we come before you, acknowledging you as the King of creation and our health and salvation.
[00:08:34] As we gather, we declare the truth of your word that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life, and whoever believes in him, though they die, yet shall they live.
[00:08:46] Lord, we thank you that Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, so that in him all shall be made alive, giving us the hope of new life.
[00:08:59] Open our hearts to worship you with joy, and surrender. Let our adoration rise to you, for you are worthy. We ask this in the name of the risen one, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Please remain standing and join in singing our hymn of

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:09:15] praise. We come to a time of confession where we acknowledge the greatness of our sin against God

[00:13:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:13:52] and grieve over how our particular sins impact each other as we, like the psalmist here in Psalm 130, recognize the futility of standing before a holy God in the depth of the awareness and guilt
[00:14:09] of our sin without his mercy. Our call to confession is from Psalm 130, verses 1 to 4, which we will read responsibly. Out of the depths, I call to you, Lord. Lord, if you kept an account
[00:14:33] of iniquities, Lord, who could stand? Please join me in this corporate confession of sin, followed by a time of individual silent confession.
[00:14:52] Merciful Father, we confess that we often live as though death is stronger than your promise.
[00:14:59] We fear what you have already conquered.
[00:15:03] We grieve without hope, and in our own strength seek to carry weights that only you can bear.
[00:15:11] We have sinned in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone.
[00:15:19] We have trusted our own strength, loved our comfort, and doubted your goodness when life has hurt us most.
[00:15:28] Father, we know that our need is deep.
[00:15:32] Apart from your grace, we are dead in our trespasses and sins, and we cannot awaken ourselves or give ourselves life.
[00:15:41] so we come as empty broken vessels in need of your grace have mercy on us for the sake of christ alone wash us clean renew our hearts and teach us to trust the god who raises the dead and keeps
[00:15:59] his covenant love forever amen and now ctk look up and hear this assurance of pardon from ephesians to and respond. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love that he had for us,
[00:16:35] made us alive with Christ, even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace, for you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is God's gift, not from works, so that no one should boast. Thanks be to God. In Christ we are forgiven.
[00:16:59] Please stand and join in singing this song of thanksgiving.

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[00:17:38] Things about worship is that we get to repeat to ourselves truths that we hold deep in our hearts,

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:22:01] and Living Hope is one of those songs. But Josh Herring is going to lead us into the Nicene Creed, another truth, more truths that we can proclaim to ourselves.

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:22:14] Well, good morning, CTK. My name is Josh Herring. About 30 minutes ago, we finished the Nicene Sunday school, Nicene Creed Sunday school class. Several folks have joined me over the last few weeks as we've been looking at the meaning packed into the creed. And one of the consistent pieces
[00:22:28] of feedback I've heard is folks saying, well, I've recited the creed in church settings for years and no one's ever explained it. I'm not going to try to repeat six weeks of Sunday school lessons in
[00:22:39] this setup. But as we read this, I just want you to know for 1700 years, the Christian church has gathered in various places in all kinds of different languages, and they've had this response to the question I'm going to ask you all in just a moment. And this is a place where we get really
[00:22:57] the whole of Christian theology packed into a single beautiful poem. So this is the traditional question, and please respond with reading the creed on the screen behind me. Christian, what do you believe. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all
[00:23:18] things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten not made
[00:23:37] being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man
[00:23:54] and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate he suffered and was buried and the third day he rose again according to the scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of the father
[00:24:10] and he shall come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead whose kingdom shall have no end and i believe in the holy ghost the lord and giver of life who proceeds from the father
[00:24:24] and the son who with the father and the son together is worshiped and glorified who spoke by the prophets and i believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church i acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins and i look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the

[00:24:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:24:45] world to come amen we come to a time in our service where we collect an offering this act is our response to god's grace it's an act of recognition that all we have comes from him
[00:25:11] and that he calls us to steward our whole lives to be offered up to honor him.
[00:25:18] It's an act of faith that God can and does work with us and through us even though he doesn't need our money.
[00:25:24] Most of all, the offering is a vital part of our worship.
[00:25:29] If you're visiting with us, please feel no compulsion to give.
[00:25:32] However, we do have connection cards in the pews that we invite you to fill out and drop in the offering basket as it comes by.
[00:25:39] or you can scan the QR code that is behind me as indicated on the screen.
[00:25:47] A member from our staff would love to reach out to you.
[00:25:50] Let us pray.
[00:25:53] Gracious Father, we thank you that salvation is your gift to us, not of works, so that no one can boast.
[00:26:01] We recognize that all we have is a result of your immeasurable grace.
[00:26:06] Because Christ has been raised, we walk in newness of life.
[00:26:09] we return these gifts to you not to earn your favor but in gratitude for the gift of salvation we have already received we offer them as a sign of our hope in your victory over death
[00:26:22] praying that you would bless them to bring life light and the hope of the gospel to a broken world in jesus name amen please remain standing and join in singing the song of thanksgiving

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:26:35] this morning hello i'm katherine harrison i'm our director of children's ministries i would

[00:31:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:31:05] love to meet you if I haven't. So find me in the hallway after. Yes. Um, welcome. Okay. I have some announcements for us starting off Friday, May 1st at 7 PM. Marty Solomon, who is the host
[00:31:20] of the BEMA podcast. He's coming to CTK to chat about his new book. It's called the gospel of being human. And it will be a great night for us to discuss better questions about who we are,
[00:31:32] what scripture actually says about our identity. It is a free evening to attend, but we do want you to ensure your spot by registering. So if you look on the back of your bulletin, which I don't
[00:31:45] have, so pretend the back of your bulletin at the bottom corner, there's a QR code. If you'll scan that to register, then I think we heard that Josh Herring said his Sunday school class is over.
[00:31:58] so that means we have some new ones yay okay so april 19th so next sunday that that's next sunday you guys um forest and maggie hoffman who are missionaries in china they will actually be here
[00:32:14] at ctk and we'll be sharing about their times overseas and then starting april 26 the following sunday that will start our new sunday school class james sutton will be leading us through a multiple-week study on infant baptism. Yeah. This will take a look at biblical texts,
[00:32:34] reformed theology, church history, the practical realities, and several common objections to the Presbyterian conviction of infant baptism. Although this topic has been debated for about hundreds of years, we do think because of James and his leadership that this class will finally
[00:32:57] end the debate. But seriously, this will be an open-handed discussion that we hope will bring clarity on our church's conviction regarding infant baptism, and we hope you'll join us regardless of your view. Then that same Sunday after your rousing conversation on infant baptism,
[00:33:20] The women will meet April 26th for lunch over at Ironworks right after the service.
[00:33:27] We're going to meet at Little Ray.
[00:33:29] I think the way we're going to do it is we, the women, we're going to have one register for us that will be duly assigned to us.
[00:33:38] I'm not sure logistics, but we will be able to order and then take all of our food outside in this beautiful little corridor area.
[00:33:46] So, yes.
[00:33:47] So, women, mark your calendar.
[00:33:49] And please, if you would register, that would be great.
[00:33:52] Again, free to attend, but we'd love to know if you're coming.
[00:33:55] And then lastly, I have Everett come up for a membership.

[00:34:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:34:01] Thanks, Catherine.
[00:34:02] I'd like to invite Megan Brunsink up.
[00:34:04] So in her testimony today, you're going to hear the name El Roy, E-L space R-O-I.
[00:34:10] It's a term for God.
[00:34:11] It's a name for God that's used only once in the Bible.
[00:34:14] And it's when Hagar is on the run from Sarah.
[00:34:17] She's been poorly treated, and she shows up, or I'm sorry, the angel of the Lord shows up, and she gives this name to God because God sees her and steps into her affliction.
[00:34:28] And so as we hear from Megan today, we're going to get to do what we always do with memberships, which is see into the lives of our people and get to know them in the ways that God knows them.
[00:34:37] First off, for her interesting fact, I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan, and I fully support extended edition marathons as a legitimate use of time.
[00:34:46] sounds like a great Sunday. Here's Megan's testimony. I grew up in a Christian home where faith and ministry were central to my life. My father served as a pastor and from a young age I was surrounded by the truth of God's word and the life of the church. I became a believer at
[00:35:04] a young age and at 10 years old the Lord began to stir a call for missions in my heart particularly for Japan. When I was 17 my family walked through a deeply painful season when my father stepped
[00:35:17] away from the church and left our family. In the midst of that loss and uncertainty, the Lord met me in a very personal way. He used that time to draw me closer to himself and to teach me to know
[00:35:29] him not only as Savior, but also as a faithful and loving father. I came to understand him as El Roy, the God who sees me, present through every moment, whether in tears or in laughter. Through college,
[00:35:43] my years as an elementary school teacher and now my master's program at NC State, the Lord has gently guided me through each season. He has drawn me into deeper dependence on him and taught me to
[00:35:53] trust his will, reminding me that he is working all things for my good and for his glory. Looking back, I can see the Lord's faithfulness woven throughout my life, and I will sing of it just
[00:36:04] as Psalm 89 declares. I rejoice knowing that he will complete the work he has begun in me as he continues to grow in me a deeper assurance of his promises and a confident expectation of his goodness.
[00:36:18] Now, as I am about to graduate, I step forward in pursuing missions in Japan with a deeper trust in who God is.
[00:36:24] I hold my future with open hands, confident that the Lord, who has been faithful in every season, will continue to lead me.
[00:36:31] Amen. Thanks, Megan.
[00:36:33] All right, I'm going to read our five membership vows, after which, if you'll respond with, I do.
[00:36:37] Do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving his displeasure, and without hope except for his sovereign mercy?
[00:36:47] Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered in the gospel?
[00:36:57] Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes a follower of Christ?
[00:37:06] Do you promise to support the church in its worship and work to the best of your ability?
[00:37:11] And do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church and promise to study its purity and peace?
[00:37:17] Now for members of Christ the King.
[00:37:19] Do you, the members of Christ the King, receive Megan as your sister in the Lord and promise to pray for her, encourage her, and live in community with Jesus and one another in the gospel?
[00:37:30] Let's pray.
[00:37:32] Father, we thank you that you are El Roy, the God who sees, who pursues us.
[00:37:37] We thank you that Jesus Christ is the good shepherd and that we know his voice.
[00:37:41] We pray, Father, that you would help Megan and you would help us to walk according to the Spirit.
[00:37:45] In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
[00:37:48] At this time, we're going to transition to our time of gospel hospitality.
[00:37:51] If you have kids going to children's worship, parents, please escort them out the door.
[00:37:55] Please stand and greet those around you and come meet our newest member.
[00:37:58] The peace of Christ be with you.

[00:37:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:37:59] I wish I could describe it to myself.

[00:41:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:41:30] There aren't enough colors To paint the whole picture There aren't enough words to ever say what I've found

[00:41:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:41:38] Wonderful and beautiful and glorious And holy, he in power Oh, who we talkin' about? That's my king We defend the glory, from all the honor Altogether worthy, who it is to store you That's my crown, the one before you
[00:44:06] You may be seated.

[00:44:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]
[00:44:29] Well, in case you forgot, we are in the season of Easter.
[00:44:32] So it's customary for me to say something like, he is risen.
[00:44:38] Ah, so you know that one.
[00:44:40] Good.
[00:44:42] He is risen.
[00:44:43] He is risen indeed.
[00:44:44] That is the proclamation of the church.
[00:44:46] That is what we proclaim.
[00:44:49] I'm up here.
[00:44:50] So what that means is that we are on our sermon series on prophets called Prophets Gone Wild.
[00:44:56] We are on the homestretch of this sermon series.
[00:44:58] This is probably the second to last of the sermons that will go in this series.
[00:45:03] I don't think Jeff will let me do any more.
[00:45:04] than that. But this one is specifically tailored to the season of Easter. It's very important for us to see the connection between the resurrection of Christ and the prophecy of his prophets, which we are, of course, prophets. Just to bring you up to speed in case you're new
[00:45:24] or you missed some of the other series, we have been talking about how the office of prophet in the Old Testament was ultimately fulfilled by the ultimate prophet, Jesus Christ, those earlier prophets of the Old Testament really were just a foreshadowing of his coming, and that we in the
[00:45:44] New Testament are echoes of that ultimate prophet, Jesus Christ. And so whereas our forefathers in the Old Testament, they foreshadowed Christ, we echo him, we're all pointing towards him and his ultimate prophetic office as the living word of god okay and you might say well where's
[00:46:03] your biblical proof for that pastor where does the bible say that we are prophets well it's um it's clear in joel 2 and acts 2 joel 2 foretells it's happening where joel is given a vision and
[00:46:18] god kind of tells him hey one day everybody is going to be filled with my spirit the way my prophets are, and they will speak from dreams and visions. Old men, young men, women, children,
[00:46:31] everybody will receive the Spirit and be prophets. And then in Acts chapter 2, Peter, after Pentecost, he proclaims to the people that are there that the fulfillment of Joel 2 has happened right before their eyes. So everyone after that is, in a sense, a prophet in the same way that
[00:46:49] Old Testament prophets foreshadowed. They echo the ultimate prophecy of Christ, the living word.
[00:46:56] And we've looked at several passages. We looked at the wild calling. That was Isaiah chapter six, where we learned that God directly calls prophets. It's not something that they just kind of decide to do. Isaiah is swept up into the throne room of God and called to go forth and to speak on
[00:47:16] god's behalf he volunteers god gives him a coal on his tongue and then sends him out um it's a it's a it's an act that's deeply rooted in worship isaiah is going from the throne of god from a
[00:47:28] celebration of who god is and and how good he is going to a people and it's and it doesn't appear that god is super concerned with the outcome um because he's very clear with isaiah ain't nobody
[00:47:40] going to listen to you but you are called to be my representative to proclaim the truth of who i am to represent me to a group of people who will not listen to you. We looked at the wildlife from
[00:47:52] Ezekiel 4, where Ezekiel laid outside of the city for, you know, periods of, you know, long, long periods of time, more than a year, essentially representing the prophetic message that he was entrusted with. And so we learned that prophets don't just talk, they live in a kind of performance
[00:48:10] art way. They live out the message that God has given them. We looked at the wild visions. That was ezekiel 1 the the chariot of god where we saw that the visions of the old testament are really
[00:48:20] ours in the new testament they they all foreshadowed and pictured christ coming and the visions of both the old and the new testament are ours as prophets we have those visions so don't say presbyterians
[00:48:32] we don't have visions anymore because we do they're in the bible that's where we different from charismatics um charismatics might say that visions are ongoing i might receive a message from the Lord but we would disagree with that we would say no the visions are in the Bible but they're
[00:48:47] ours we have them and they are living and active and they speak to the glory of Christ just the way that Ezekiel 1 did we looked at that and then we looked at the wild messengers who God calls and
[00:48:59] we looked at Amos the dirt farmer and and really we looked throughout all of scripture and we saw God can speak through anybody including animals and he even threatens to do it through rocks if
[00:49:08] we won't do it um and so therefore all of us who are called to be prophets we we have some degree to which we we have no excuse that that we who maybe don't feel like comfortable talking maybe
[00:49:21] don't feel comfortable being an ambassador doesn't matter because god has made our mouth our lips our tongue and if he can speak through rocks he can speak through us wild messengers and then we looked
[00:49:32] at the wild audiences last that was in jonah where god sends his prophets to unexpected places They go to all kinds of places where you would think God would be angry, would give up on people.
[00:49:45] The city of Nineveh was absolutely like it was like Jonah couldn't even get his head around.
[00:49:52] How could God be so merciful as to love these people, the enemies?
[00:49:56] And so God calls us to incredibly unexpected places.
[00:50:01] Today, we are looking at the wild power of the prophetic office.
[00:50:07] And, you know, in the Old Testament, there are three offices, king, priest, prophet.
[00:50:13] We talk a lot about the kingship of Christ because, you know, it's our name, Christ the king.
[00:50:18] Christ, in the same way that we talk about prophets, the same is true of kings.
[00:50:24] The Old Testament kings prefigured the ultimate king, King Jesus, and we echo his kingship in our lives.
[00:50:31] Same thing with priests.
[00:50:33] The Old Testament priests, they foreshadowed the coming atonement of Christ.
[00:50:38] And we echo that as the priesthood of all believers.
[00:50:42] Peter's very explicit about that, that we also echo that atonement by interceding for others in our lives.
[00:50:51] But it's ultimately, of course, Christ who does that and achieves that.
[00:50:54] Same thing with the king.
[00:50:55] with prophets um they've prefigured the coming word of god and the proclamation of victory over all god's enemies now here's what i want you to think about just if you were tuned out because you're like i already heard all the sermons and i wasn't listening wake up pay attention here's
[00:51:13] the thing in the old testament how many kings were involved were the instrument of god raising someone from the dead? None. In the Old Testament, how many priests were the instrument used by God to raise someone from the dead? None. In the Old Testament, what office was involved explicitly in
[00:51:42] all of the resurrections, the temporary resurrections as opposed to Christ's permanent resurrection, of course, the temporary resurrections in the Old Testament, how many of them were involved a prophet? Answer, all of them. A part of God's word and inherent in bearing God's word
[00:52:02] is that you bear the power of God's word. Consider some of these New Testament passages that relate to what the power of God's word is. Think about John chapter one, the living word, right? In the
[00:52:16] beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And what did God do through the word he created all things all of life came from the word of god okay if that's not enough
[00:52:27] for you consider when jesus was doing battle with satan satan starts quoting scripture and trying to to trick jesus into kind of like selling his kingship off to satan and what does jesus say about god's word he says man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from
[00:52:45] the mouth of god do you hear the intimate connection between god's word and life it's not just bread that gives us life brothers and sisters god's word that's where it originated that's where we get it romans 1 16 paul says i am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of god for
[00:53:03] salvation of everyone who believes salvation is tied to the word he also says how will they believe in romans 10 how will they believe of him whom they've never heard and how will they hear
[00:53:14] without someone preaching there is power in the word going forth people speaking and then second corinthians 5 all this is from god who through christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation in christ god was reconciling the world to himself now conning
[00:53:30] their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors for christ what do we do in our prophetic office our message as new testament prophets is to proclaim the resurrection and the power and implications that it has for the lives
[00:53:49] of those who put their hope in Christ. Brothers and sisters, he has risen. Oh, we can do better than that. I'm going to give you more chances. They're coming. But this is what we are called
[00:54:02] to do. We, in our prophetic office, we go out into the world of darkness and we proclaim the resurrection of Christ, the hope of the gospel. And it is powerful. It is tied to the power of
[00:54:13] god directly it's how he created the universe and it is through his word born through us in the message of the gospel that he will redeem sinners to himself for everlasting life okay in case you
[00:54:29] can't tell i'm excited about this and so um rather than just picking one passage for us this morning i found three these are all three of the resurrection narratives of the old testament we're going to read them and look at them individually and i promise to be brief
[00:54:45] but let's read these three together. We're going to look at 1 Kings 17, 2 Kings 4, and 2 Kings 13. There are selections that I've selected from each of these, so we're not reading the entire thing. If you want to follow along and read along, you can read along from the screen
[00:55:03] behind me or in your bulletins. You can also see the page numbers where you can find these whole passages in their context while I'm preaching, if you'd like, in the pew Bibles that are in your
[00:55:13] pews. So let's read, starting with 1 Kings 17, 17 through 24. Let's read together.
[00:55:24] After this, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. His illness got progressively worse until he stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, man of God, what do you have against me?
[00:55:40] have you come to remind me of my iniquity and kill my son but Elijah said to her give me your son so he took him from her arms went up to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own
[00:55:58] bed then he cried out to the Lord and said Lord my God have you also brought tragedy on the widow I'm staying with by killing her son. Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times.
[00:56:15] He cried out to the Lord and said, Lord, my God, please let this boy's life come into him again.
[00:56:23] So the Lord listened to Elijah and the boy's life came into him again and he lived. Then Elijah took the boy brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother Elijah said
[00:56:39] look your son is alive the woman said to Elijah now I know you are a man of God and that the Lord's word that you spoke is true okay now we're going to do selections from 2nd Kings 4
[00:56:56] Let's read together.
[00:56:57] The child grew, and one day he went out to his father and the harvesters.
[00:57:05] He complained to his father, My head, my head.
[00:57:09] He carried him to his mother, and the child sat on her lap until noon and then died.
[00:57:16] She went up and laid him on the man of God's bed, shut him in, and left.
[00:57:22] When she came to the man at the mountain, she grabbed his feet.
[00:57:28] Do not send me away without you.
[00:57:31] Elisha said to Gehazi, take my staff with you and go.
[00:57:37] Place my staff on the boy's face.
[00:57:40] Gehazi placed the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or sign of life.
[00:57:46] When Elisha got to the house, he discovered the boy lying on his bed.
[00:57:52] So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.
[00:57:59] Then he went up and lay on the body.
[00:58:02] He put mouth to mouth, eye to eye, palm to palm.
[00:58:07] The boy's flesh became warm.
[00:58:09] The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
[00:58:13] Pick up your son.
[00:58:15] She came, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground.
[00:58:19] Then she picked up her son and left.
[00:58:22] 2 Kings 13, 20 through 21.
[00:58:28] Then Elisha died and was buried.
[00:58:31] Moabite raiders used to invade the land every year.
[00:58:36] Once as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a raiding party.
[00:58:42] So they threw the man into Elisha's tomb.
[00:58:45] When the man touched Elisha's bones, he came back to life and stood up.
[00:58:51] That's a fun one, isn't it?
[00:58:52] all right let's pray and then we'll dive in lord jesus we thank you for these stories that prefigure the ultimate story your story your resurrection your defeat of death lord all of these people that we've just read about that were raised they died again but lord you have not died
[00:59:09] and lord they they point to an ultimate reality of the the hope of eternal life through you that your kingdom is a kingdom of life empowered by the word of god itself that we can live forever
[00:59:22] Lord, as we look at these passages, would you fill us with that hope?
[00:59:26] Would you remind us of that power?
[00:59:28] And would you send us out from this place as ambassadors and heralds to preach that gospel to a world that desperately needs it?
[00:59:35] Would you do that among us today?
[00:59:37] We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
[00:59:40] Okay, so I have three points for three passages.
[00:59:44] And I'm going to fly through these.
[00:59:45] This is not a comprehensive discussion of each of these passages.
[00:59:49] this is a thematic kind of look at some observations from these three resurrection stories from the old testament and again it's significant these are the only ones notice that they all happen through elijah or elisha or elisha's bones so we're going to look
[01:00:05] at them and just kind of draw some quick applications and the goal is to take those applications and apply it to us those who prefigured christ's resurrection have application for us who echo his resurrection.
[01:00:17] We all have the same message and we all point to the same savior.
[01:00:20] So first of all, from 1 Kings 17, notice kind of the context here.
[01:00:26] We've got Elijah.
[01:00:28] Elijah is, you know, he's famous for his battle with Jezebel and Ahab.
[01:00:34] Ahab was a king of the Northern Kingdom.
[01:00:38] I'm looking at you guys in the balcony, the rabble rousers, right?
[01:00:41] The North was always the wild kingdom, the one that, you know, didn't really, you know, really none of the kings were very good.
[01:00:49] Ahab was the worst of the worst, and he married a woman named Jezebel, who was from an external territory, and she brought in the worship of a god named Baal. And Baal's pitch to the Israelites
[01:01:01] through Jezebel, the wife of the king, was, hey, look, you know, Yahweh ain't it. He ain't got it.
[01:01:07] i'm the god of like rain and the harvest and of of flourishing and and so you know i bring abundance and fertility like worship me and you'll have the good life reject this god yahweh's
[01:01:23] you know all got all these rules and weird things like forget him forget jerusalem you don't need jerusalem and the temple worship or the sacrifice just just put your trust in me and it'll be fine
[01:01:34] and Elijah comes and does war right with the prophets of Baal that Jezebel had set up the most famous part of which of course is the Mount Carmel battle where you know they saw which of
[01:01:46] the two gods could call fire down from heaven and Elijah calls fire down and it just laps up everything all the water and everything you remember that story if you don't it's incredible you should read all of the book of kings it's one of the most fascinating books of the bible
[01:02:01] two books um but at anyway the the point is um god through elijah elijah is showing his supremacy over baal baal who has invaded his territory his kingdom and instead saying forget this god who
[01:02:16] says he's a god of life i'm the real god of life god is saying no that's not true and and through elijah he withholds rain he shows that really unless it's unless you are worshiping yahweh
[01:02:28] rain isn't going to come so all these claims by baal are false i'm the god who brings life and fertility and abundance and nobody listens to him right just like isaiah and they run him out of
[01:02:42] town and he goes and he's kind of like fed by ravens because he's you know exhausted then he winds up you know outside of israel and that's that's where he is in in this section this this
[01:02:53] widow of Zarephath. This Zarephath is an area outside of Israel. Not only is it an area outside of Israel, it's an area that Jezebel herself is from. So guess who they worship in Zarephath?
[01:03:09] Baal. So Baal has invaded God's territory. Now God is sending his prophet and invading Baal's territory. Do you see what's happening? And there's this widow and she takes in Elijah and she's very kind to him Elijah shows up and is very needy um this is he's not like you know
[01:03:31] super powered and like able to just kind of show up and say hey look I'm awesome see in all the ways that you think awesomeness is awesome I'm awesome now he shows up actually needy and that's
[01:03:42] the first thing to note like God doesn't necessarily create his like a nice little bubble around his prophets that allow them to not need things like food and drink and rest. In fact, oftentimes he
[01:03:57] puts us in situations where we are needy to the very ones that he's called us to go to. He doesn't give us the high ground, so to speak, in terms of like, we just have everything and then they come
[01:04:10] to us for it. He often puts his prophets in the lowest position. And I think he does that to show forth that it's not them it's ultimately him it's because he takes the foolish things the weak
[01:04:24] things of this world in order to shame the wise and the strong and so elijah shows up looking like nothing and this poor widow has to take care of him he's like lowest of the low in terms of kind
[01:04:37] of what physically visually it looks like but miraculously she's able to eat for an extended period of time because of his presence miraculously when her son dies he's raised up this is the first resurrection story of the old testament it would have been profoundly impactful for the readers to
[01:04:59] have read this like the the point being that baal is claiming to be the god of life but yet israel's god is sending his prophet into baal's territory to the darkest places the weakest places to a
[01:05:10] widow who's dirt poor whose son has died and bringing life is an incredibly profound statement brothers and sisters that's our call we go into a world that has in competing ideologies all sorts of things you go out this door all sorts of things are going to come at you on billboards
[01:05:28] on your phone on your television on the radio and it's all going to be saying we got life in abundance just trust in us whatever it is right it could be all sorts of things it could be
[01:05:42] things like medicine. It could be things like sports. It could be things like education.
[01:05:50] It could be things like a house, a car. What is it that the world is promising you that will finally and ultimately give you life? It's all out there. Baal is presence all around us, saying all
[01:06:04] kinds of life and prosperity will come to us through all sorts of false things. And guess what? It's all a lie. Prophets proclaim truth in the face of lies like that. But in here, we talk
[01:06:18] about Jesus Christ being the source of life. We're the ones that actually bring the hope of salvation and resurrection and life forever and ever through him. That's truth. He is risen. That's a little better. You're good. This is what we do. Observation number two. Notice the uncomfortable proximity
[01:06:41] that Elijah has with the son he's like laying on top of him right wow aren't you glad that like Jesus didn't say and this is how you will make known to the world about my resurrection
[01:06:58] you will go to the dead and you will lay on top of them no but do notice that Jesus did call us to do something rather uncomfortable he called us to go to them not wait till they came to us
[01:07:14] not be distant from them not send an email not post a blog post but to go as personal ambassadors as image bearers of God going to other image bearers of God proclaiming the hope of the
[01:07:31] restoration of that image fully and completely in Jesus Christ to his glory forever and ever to eternity. That's uncomfortable. You know, we used to have as part of our leadership training, we would have people read the book, The Art of Neighboring. So some of you have read that book.
[01:07:48] In that book, it talks about how something like less than 5% of evangelical Christians can even name all of the neighbors that live around them. Like just name them. In order for us to actually
[01:08:04] be prophets that live out and speak the message of hope, we're going to have to get a little bit closer than that. And what if when Jesus said, love your neighbor as yourself, you've really
[01:08:16] met your neighbors, right? Not just the people that you hand select that you like to hang out with, but the ones that he providentially has put into your life in a neighborly way. And you're
[01:08:27] called to go and love them, get close to them in the way that Elijah did with this widow and her son. I think that there's something for us here. We need to get close. And notice too, that it's
[01:08:43] not the prophet who has the ability. I said all of it, all the resurrections in the Old Testament worked through the prophet. It wasn't the prophet that did it. And each of these passages very
[01:08:54] clearly proclaims that. Notice what the widow says after this is done. Now, she doesn't say, now I know that you're powerful, Elijah. Now I know you're the man, even though you were depending on me. He says, no, she says, no, now I know you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord
[01:09:12] in your mouth is truth. The resurrection attests to the hope of the gospel being true, that it is purely true, that it is God's word. As we go and we bring hope and we bring light and we bring joy
[01:09:27] into this dark and fallen world from the kingdom of light that Jesus Christ has called us into, we don't do that for ourselves or our own glory. We do it for God's glory. And what that also means
[01:09:38] is that you don't have to be that glorious to do it.
[01:09:42] You can be a dirt farmer.
[01:09:44] You can be a donkey.
[01:09:46] You can be whatever.
[01:09:48] And God can work through you.
[01:09:49] All you need is the word of God, which you have, and proximity, and God will work.
[01:09:58] Okay, let's look at the second passage.
[01:10:02] We move on to Elisha, Elijah's protege, who prayed that he would receive a double portion of Elijah's spirit.
[01:10:09] And we see that in his resurrection stories.
[01:10:12] He has two instead of just one for Elijah.
[01:10:14] Isn't that cool?
[01:10:15] Double, twice the spirit.
[01:10:18] But notice again that the geography.
[01:10:23] Elijah was in Zarephath.
[01:10:27] Elisha is back in Israel.
[01:10:29] And the point is, is that God's hope of life can work anywhere inside the kingdom, outside the kingdom.
[01:10:37] And I think oftentimes we think that the gospel is really just for those people out there, that the hope of life is for those people out there that we've got the message, we've got it
[01:10:46] all locked on lockdown. But I can tell you from being a pastor of this church for a decade, there's plenty of hopelessness in this room. There's plenty of death. There's plenty of darkness. There is plenty of opportunity to draw close to the person next to you and to remind
[01:11:05] them of the hope of the gospel. And sometimes familiarity, those who are closest to us, can breed a certain cynicism like we've we've talked about the gospel our whole life as a community they don't need it anymore or they've got it as much as they possibly can but the truth
[01:11:24] is is that i see all the time new breakthroughs in people's lives of understanding and applying the gospel to their lives from hearing it from somebody new jesus is at work inside the church and outside of the church and this proclamation of christ's resurrection is valuable both inside
[01:11:43] and outside. Brothers and sisters, Christ is risen. Notice in the second section that, again, it's not the prophet's power. In a section that we kind of omitted in verse 27, which we skipped over, Elisha says, she is in bitter distress and the Lord has hidden it from me. He hasn't told me.
[01:12:06] Elisha doesn't know everything. He's not it. He recognizes that it is the Lord at work through him.
[01:12:13] And notice he gets it wrong to begin with.
[01:12:14] He hands his staff to his servant and says, go lay that on her, on the son.
[01:12:20] Right?
[01:12:20] And does that work?
[01:12:23] That's another observation from this.
[01:12:24] I think that oftentimes this is what we like to do.
[01:12:27] We like to take out the personal nature of this.
[01:12:30] Rather than getting close and uncomfortable with those who need to hear the gospel, rather than invading their space, laying down mouth to mouth, palm to palm, eye to eye.
[01:12:39] Right?
[01:12:40] Let's just send the staff, right?
[01:12:43] As I was preparing this, I was thinking about, we call the people who work here the staff.
[01:12:50] How many, ah, thank you.
[01:12:52] How many of you sometimes think that, though?
[01:12:55] Like, it's James and Jeff's job to do this, or Catherine's job to do it for our children, or Matt's.
[01:13:05] They're the real power sitter, right, the staff.
[01:13:10] But, of course, the staff really can be applied to anything that we think that is outside of the personal work of God through his image-bearing prophets to a world that needs it.
[01:13:21] What this needs to work is you.
[01:13:25] You, the image-bearer of God, the prophet who is called to go into places where hopelessness exists and to preach hope.
[01:13:34] To kick the darkness until it bleeds light.
[01:13:38] To remind the world that Christ is risen.
[01:13:41] He's risen indeed.
[01:13:43] This is what we are called to do.
[01:13:46] Not to put our trust in other things, but to go humbly recognizing we have no power in and of ourselves except for we have the word of God, which is powerful to save.
[01:13:59] Finally, let's look at the last passage.
[01:14:03] I think this is the two most encouraging verses in the Old Testament, honestly.
[01:14:08] Nothing in this passage speaks to anybody in the story knowing anything about what they're doing isn't that encouraging because it still ends up with a guy rising from the dead like literally these people are kind of like okay we're getting invaded
[01:14:29] by uh these this foreign enemy uh we don't really have time for a funeral let's just throw them in there not really knowing what there is and and they they throw his body on the body of elisha
[01:14:42] one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament.
[01:14:45] And he just gets up immediately and is like, wow!
[01:14:52] Elisha didn't know that happened, right?
[01:14:55] He was dead.
[01:14:56] So just a couple observations why this is so encouraging.
[01:14:59] God can use anyone in any state.
[01:15:02] And oftentimes we don't see how he uses us.
[01:15:07] You will die and God will use your story to bring other people to himself.
[01:15:12] I guarantee it.
[01:15:14] But if you die in the Lord, the message that will ring out from your death, we've seen it so many times in this church.
[01:15:21] Every time we have a funeral, people come, they flock from the outside.
[01:15:25] You know why?
[01:15:26] Because they need hope in the face of death, just like these people in this funeral procession did.
[01:15:34] We have seen that happen in our church, where the stories of the work of God's word through somebody's life has long outlived them.
[01:15:44] They didn't know, but God worked.
[01:15:46] And even before we die, there's all kinds of ways in which we're just not privy to what God is doing.
[01:15:51] There's all kinds of ways that you're just not aware of that God is working in and through you.
[01:15:56] Continue to be faithful.
[01:16:02] Notice also that not only do we not see the fruit, but God works in incredible ways.
[01:16:09] One thing that I want to kind of differentiate, you know, in the Catholic Church, there's the veneration of relics, right?
[01:16:16] You can go to different places and you can see the bones of various different apostles.
[01:16:21] Um, usually there's multiple places where you can find like, you know, the femur of Paul.
[01:16:27] Um, you know, he had like apparently five of them.
[01:16:30] Um, right.
[01:16:33] So it's questionable as to whether or not these are real.
[01:16:35] Um, but even if they were real, it's not the bones, right?
[01:16:41] That carried the power.
[01:16:42] It was the word of God, the word of God working through not just the prophet, but even through his bones.
[01:16:52] Okay.
[01:16:53] In conclusion, to wrap all of this up, this super fast, high-level, cursory overview of all the resurrections in the Old Testament, here's the case that I'm making.
[01:17:06] The Word works through weak and desperate vessels in enemy territory.
[01:17:11] The Word works through presence, not method, in our territory.
[01:17:17] And the Word can even work through a dead man by accident in a situation where everyone's in a panic.
[01:17:24] But do we believe that the Word works?
[01:17:28] We say we believe in the resurrection, and theoretically, I believe, like, we do.
[01:17:34] Like, not theoretically, I believe we do.
[01:17:38] But practically, when we get into the world, I think sometimes we doubt that.
[01:17:44] It's easy to become cynical.
[01:17:47] Last Sunday, or two Sundays ago, I said, hey, an application of the sermon invites somebody to church.
[01:17:55] Several of you took me up on it.
[01:17:56] I couldn't believe it.
[01:17:59] That's my cynicism.
[01:18:00] like i'm going to ask people to bring friends to church and nobody's going to do it that's what i believed practically and then as i was meeting some of the people that you brought i you know
[01:18:13] i kind of went home and i thought well none of them are going to believe and then later that week i met with somebody and they said guess what my friend who i brought to church they prayed to
[01:18:25] receive Christ this week. It happens. There is a God. It's amazing, right? We have to battle that cynicism with the hope of the gospel. We have to remind each other that it's true. We have to tell
[01:18:43] the stories of what God is doing, the resurrection stories of what he's doing in our lives, because what he's doing does matter. It echoes the reality of what Christ has achieved for us on the cross. This is the last chance. Brothers and sisters, he has risen. All right, I'm going
[01:19:03] to wrap up by reading you one final story from my favorite prophet Ezekiel. This is a picture of, I think, the call that is placed on us. It was a vision that he was given, but I think it's a
[01:19:15] calling that we have been entrusted with. This is from Ezekiel 37. The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by his spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley.
[01:19:29] It was full of bones.
[01:19:31] He led me all around them.
[01:19:34] There were a great many of them on the surface of the valley and they were very dry.
[01:19:37] Then he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live?
[01:19:42] I replied, Lord, only you know.
[01:19:46] I love the skepticism because it's me.
[01:19:51] He said to me then, prophesy concerning these bones and say to them, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
[01:19:56] This is what the Lord God says to these bones.
[01:20:00] I will cause breath to enter you and you will live.
[01:20:04] I will put tendons on you, make flesh grow on you and cover you with skin.
[01:20:09] I will put breath in you so that you will come to life.
[01:20:13] Then you will know that I am the Lord.
[01:20:17] So I prophesied as I had been commanded.
[01:20:21] Is anything going to happen?
[01:20:23] While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and bones came together, bone to bone.
[01:20:28] And as I looked, tendons appeared on them, flesh grew and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
[01:20:35] He said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, say to it, this is what the Lord God says.
[01:20:41] Breath, come from the four winds and breathe into these slain so that they may live.
[01:20:45] So I prophesied as he commanded me.
[01:20:47] The breath entered them and they came to life and stood on their feet, a vast army.
[01:20:55] You will know that I am the Lord, my people.
[01:20:57] when I open your graves and bring you up from them.
[01:21:00] I will put my spirit in you and you will live and I will settle you in your own land.
[01:21:05] Then you will know that I am the Lord.
[01:21:07] I have spoken and I will do it.
[01:21:10] This is the declaration of the Lord.
[01:21:13] Brothers and sisters, he has spoken and he has adorned his speaking with the resurrection of Jesus Christ to prove that what he has said is true.
[01:21:25] Jesus Christ was the first fruit of many.
[01:21:28] we are the second fruit and out there there's more fruit all we need to do is go be proximate and preach the word in the name of the Father the Son and the Spirit let's pray
[01:21:43] Lord Jesus we rejoice in your goodness to us and how you have defeated death Lord you came and you were proximate that had to be uncomfortable I cannot imagine what it's like to leave heaven and come
[01:22:04] be in this mess with us, but you did it in order that we might have hope in life. Help us to be like you, to go to places where people are desperate, where there is darkness, where there
[01:22:19] is need, and give us the boldness to preach the hope of Christ, risen, victorious over death, so that they might have hope, so that you might have glory, so that everyone in this world may
[01:22:36] know that you are the lord of life and nothing else satisfies pray this in your son's name amen

[01:22:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:22:45] as we come to the lord's supper i want to remind you that the lord's supper is a prophecy

[01:26:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]
[01:26:58] it's a prophetic declaration of hope of life eternal at its very core it is a visible and verbal symbolization of a great feast that is in your future because you are part of the covenant that's why we use the the language of this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood
[01:27:23] this is a promise that god has made we perfectly declare it in communion for those who are in christ it's a statement of the future but it's more a legal representation of what god has said
[01:27:35] he will do and god only speaks the truth and that truth comes with life one day we will be around a big table. And it won't look like little tiny cups and little pieces of bread. It'll be a glorious
[01:27:48] feast with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And Elijah and Elisha will be there. And we'll be celebrating all the work that God has done. And we'll be rejoicing. And we'll turn to Elisha and we'll say, hey, did you know about the guy and your bones? And he'll be like, no, I had no idea.
[01:28:04] God's amazing, right? I mean, that's what it's going to be. And people will tell you about you, things that god did through you that you didn't know and it'll all be for his glory at the end of
[01:28:19] this this supper it'll all be about him and we'll just be so thrilled to be there that is what this represents prophetically so with that in mind let's use the liturgy that is in your bulletin and
[01:28:32] on the screen blessed are those invited to the marriage supper of the lamb for the bridegroom has come and his bride has been made pure.
[01:28:43] Let us rejoice and give him glory.
[01:28:46] Christ has clothed us in righteousness, bright and pure. The Spirit and the bride say, come.
[01:28:54] We come to feast and rejoice with our eyes on the groom.
[01:28:58] On the night in which he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread.
[01:29:02] After he'd given thanks, he broke it and he said, this is my body, broken for you. Take and eat all of you in remembrance of me.
[01:29:10] In the same manner, after the supper, he took the cup and he said, this is the cup of the new covenant.
[01:29:18] It's my blood, which is shed for the forgiveness of your sins.
[01:29:22] Made a promise in blood.
[01:29:24] Drink of it, all of you, in remembrance of me.
[01:29:30] This supper is appropriate for all who have put their hope in Christ and been baptized.
[01:29:35] So if you're here and that's you, come and receive this symbol, this sign, this prophetic blessing that is placed on your life.
[01:29:43] allow it to nourish you both physically and spiritually as you as you take the physical elements and eat them but also realize the spiritual reality of what christ has done for you and what will happen in your future if you're not a christian and you're here today
[01:29:59] we have something even better to offer you christ jesus himself we ask you not to partake of the supper yet because we don't want to give some sort of symbolic hope that isn't really fulfilled in
[01:30:12] something meaningful and so until you've received christ wait there are warnings in scripture against this don't just fake it know jesus then come and receive the symbolic blessings of his promises over your life if you don't know what that any of that means you're kind of like preacher
[01:30:32] guy i don't know what you're talking about that's cool just hang out after the service come talk to me and ask i'd love nothing more than talk to you more about that as those who are helping to serve
[01:30:41] come forward. Let me just cover the logistics real quickly. You'll follow the diagrams on the screen. You come down the center aisles or up the center aisle and out around back towards the outer aisles to get to your seat. There's kind of an order, but come as you want. Clear cups are wine,
[01:30:59] tinted cups are grape juice. We have gluten-free crackers and pre-packaged materials that'll be here at the table or up on the sound booth if you need those and then um if you would like prayer
[01:31:12] there will be some out in the lobby that would be glad to pray with you or talk to you about what it looks like to receive christ in just a second we're going to sing as we do this we sing rejoicing
[01:31:26] because this promise is something to celebrate um back to the very first kind of sermon in this series. Prophecy is tied to worship. We are visibly and loudly celebrating the work of Jesus Christ in our life, even as we partake of this sign and seal of his covenant promises. So now I
[01:31:47] think we sing, and then you come forward as you are ready to receive as from Christ's own hand.
[01:31:53] Oh, one more thing. As you come, would you tell the person serving you your name? Even if you've known them for years. It helps when 100 people are coming at you. Trust me. I don't even know
[01:32:05] my kids' names. But Jesus, yeah, they're all complaining. You hear them up there in the northern kingdom. Sorry. Jesus knows your name. And we want to represent that to you by saying your name as we serve you. So with that said, let's stand and sing and come and receive as

[01:32:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:32:28] from Christ's own hand. Hold up your bread. This is the body of Christ, the King, the

[01:37:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]
[01:37:48] great prophet, the great priest who offered himself as a sacrifice for you. Take, eat and rejoice. He has been victorious over the grave for our sake. Hold up your cup. This cup is the blood of Christ, which he shed to make sure that you knew that the promise
[01:38:14] was certain of eternal life in him drink of it all of you in remembrance of him lift up your heads and receive this benediction and then we'll sing the doxology or do we yes benediction first
[01:38:34] i always get that confused the lord jesus is our great shepherd the great shepherd of the sheep whom god rose from the dead so that he might have eternal glory and power and dominion forever and
[01:38:48] ever. He shares it with us. Go in the knowledge of his hope and peace and joy.