Elijah Times Three

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

You and I have chosen to come to the house of God this morning. We have chosen to do something that is not popular, not "fun" maybe, not as "entertaining" as it could be. But then that's not why we came. We come here, recognizing that Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins, and rose again in power, is both Lord and Christ. Not just to us is He both Lord and Christ, but He is Lord and Christ whether we or anyone else prefers it or not! Did you hear (in our Scripture reading) the words of Peter? "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made this same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ!"

Peter could have left that part about them crucifying Jesus out. He could have said, "well, you know, we make mistakes. They might be offended if we mention that." But under the power of God, He didn't let them off the hook even one notch; he told it like it was. And did you notice that when he told it like it was, they were cut to the heart and responded by asking, "what shall we do?"

The words of Peter condemned them. He told them they needed to step up to the plan of salvation and be forgiven, and be changed, and keep on changing. Because otherwise their doom was certain. The Holy Spirit spoke to their hearts. And apparently, many listened.

It might be worth asking ourselves how many hearers will be aroused enough to become spiritually sober unless we are willing to echo the word of God to a world under condemnation.

Adam and Eve were real, literal persons, and are the two first human-beings there ever were. God made them, and put them into His garden--His land. Only one restriction was laid upon them: they could not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In fact, there was only one source of potential temptation in all the world, and that was it. As you know, there Satan tempted them, and there they fell. They became fallen. And all we who have come after them have inherited their broken nature, a nature that is turned destructively, selfishly inward, naturally opposed to God and His kingdom.

And so down through the ages our broken human race has stood in tension with God. Consider Ephesians 5:5-8, with me, where Paul writes,

For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes [or "formerly"] darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.

Notice that before one becomes a Christian, they are not only in darkness, but according the Bible, they are darkness. This Scripture states that we were "darkness." That's because that is where we each started; in the dark.

After 6000 years, many unique cultures are spread across this planet. Some are easily identifiable. Just walk down the streets of any medium sized city and consider the restuarants there: you can select from Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Italian, Greek, or whatever. And America itself is not excluded. Our culture has been called WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant). But don't think that just because it has "Protestant" in the tag that it is any different in this respect. The white culture stands just as condemned today as any other, because like all others, it originates in the fall of humankind. It--like all others--is a fallen culture.

Probably some cultures are better than others and some are worse. I don't for a moment suppose that whatever is PC (politically correct) is automatically good or the best. Nor do I suppose that the anglo or white culture is superior. If anything, perhaps we are further away from God's ideal than some cultures. And you know that "cultures" do not divide only in respect to the culinary. There are whole islands and continents ideologically as well, more subtly, more deeply laid ways of thinking about life and about ourselves that are spiritually fatal. Look at the Jewish nation at the time of Christ. Have you ever noticed how bitterness toward their Roman oppressors poisoned their outlook and so deepened their darkness that when their Creator Himself came to them in the guise of human flesh, they saw in Him nothing that they desired? (Isaiah 53:2).

See, all of these cultures are condemned in themselves, because all of these cultures are self-serving; none of them are altogether good or altogether evil in themselves, but since they blend the values of Satan the demon with the values of God who is love, none of them have permanence. They are all shadows, like the grass that withers and the leaf that fades. Only God's kingdom is eternal (Isaiah 40:8).

All our cultures are condemned today. All are less than God's ideal. English, Spanish, white, black, all in themselves are off-course. Friends, what we have in common racially is fallenness and less-ness. It is our darkness that we share. But we are called out of this futile darkness into God's wonderful light. We are called into the light of Jesus that we can share together instead.

Because all of us are born into brokenness and self-seeking, all of us are called out (we might say) of our common "culture" that is a culture of poison and death, into a culture that precedes ours and that is ours by spiritual birthright (Galatians 3:29). We are called into God's culture and His kingdom.

If you read the Bible, you may have noticed that the first chapters in Genesis and the last chapters in Revelation portray a different culture or a different world than our own. In-between, we are caught in a sizzling maelstrom of conflict between good and evil. God's people, it seems, all through the Bible, are ever tending downward--ever tending to slip away into the temporary shadow-culture of fallen humanity. And so our God is always calling us back to Him.

Today we had a baptism here. Oh, how important that we ponder something of what it means. How important that we consider what God is doing today in His world that surrounds it. No, it is not Satan's world, although He would sure like us to think so (Matthew 4:8-9). God does nothing in cooperation with Satan. There is conflict all the way through.

Where did baptism originate? With John the Baptist. But it wasn't his idea. John 1:33 states that John was "sent" to baptize with water. God sent Him to baptize (John 1:6). His message was not PC.

John proclaimed the coming of the Messiah, and called the people to repentance. As a symbol of cleansing from sin, He baptized them in the waters of the Jordan. Thus, by a significant object lesson he declared that those who claimed to be the chosen people of God were defiled by sin, and that without purification of heart and life they could have no part in the Messiah's kingdom. Desire of Ages, p. 104

The Bible teaches that we do not become God's children on the basis of our DNA, or our will-power, or by a human decision (John 1:13), but only through the agency of the will of God. Yes, we are born into a broken nature, and the nature of that nature cannot be changed. But what happens in us while we are in our nature can be changed. Notice this statement again, from the same chapter in the Desire of Ages:

In ourselves we are incapable of doing any good thing; but that which we cannot do will be wrought by the power of God in every submissive and believing soul. It was through faith that the child of promise was given. It is through faith that spiritual life is begotten, and we are enabled to do the works of righteousness. Desire of Ages, p. 98

What we can't do, God will do through us if we submit and if we believe.

Listen very closely to the prophesy of Zechariah concerning John the Baptist, because it applies just as fully to God's people now, in the year 2000 as it did to John at the time of Christ. Hear Luke 1:68-79:

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David; as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He sware to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Notice that this isn't just salvation from the enemies of the Hebrew people--it is God's granting that we might "serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness," now, here, in this life.

Notice that God performs His promise to us in "His holy covenant," which is defined here as "the oath which He swore to our father Abraham." Heaven promised that Jesus would come, being God, yet coming as human as we are. We were promised a Savior to come and a salvation that would mean that we would have an operational--an active--faith. The various covenant promises to Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3; Genesis 15:4-6; Genesis 22:15-18) all involved events of faith.

Consider Genesis 15:6, the foundational Bible verse for righteousness by faith: "and he believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness." God made the promise, and Abraham believed Him. This is often translated "count" or "reckon," but the Hebrew ("yach-sh^e-vah") means to weave, to inter-penetrate, to calculate, to evaluate. Very simply, this text means that when Abraham believed Him, God looked over the whole of Abraham's reaction and it was a response of obedience. And with God, as the Scripture says, "Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." 1 Samuel 15:22. So often when we read "count" or "reckon" in the Bible our thoughts limit it to the cold, legal lawyerly definitions, when the Bible really speaks to us in rich terms, in terms that if we were more willing to hear them, would result in the fulfillment of Zechariah's prophesy of a people who finally live before God "without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him." But as long as we think that God is more of an insider in the heavenly accounting offices that can "cook the books" late at night when everyone goes off duty for a few hours, and change the records and present us as we are not, there is a problem. How quickly we rise up deep down inside, put two and two together, and say, "Ah. So I don't have to obey God then, not all of the time..." But that teaching leads to sin, and finally to eternal destruction.

The result of becoming a part of God's people in these last days, is that we will live before God without fear, in holiness and righteousness, now and in this life.

John the Baptist did the very same work that God is calling His people to today. At the close of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi prophesied that before the "great and dreadful day of the Lord" would come, God would send Elijah the prophet. Let's look at that prediction...

Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:4-6

Now Jesus said that if the disciples were willing to receive it, John the Baptist was indeed the Elijah prophesied of (Matthew 17:12; Mark 9:13). But keep in mind that the mission of the Messiah has two parts: (1) He is a suffering Servant, offering His life in payment for our sins, and (2) He is a conquering King, putting an end to sin and all enemies of God. When Jesus pronounced His mission in the synagogue, He only only gave them half of the Scripture that they had been expecting. Turn to Isaiah 61:1-2 and let's see what the whole section said:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn. Isaiah 61:1-2

And there is more, but that will do. The point is, that Jesus stopped short mentioning "and the day of vengeance of our God." He declared that the hour of the suffering Servant had come, but by leaving out the part about the "day of vengeance" He showed that there were two parts to His mission. Now He would live as a Man among men, and then die on the cold cross; when He later returned, it would be as conquering King, bringing final deliverance to His people and bringing vengeance to His enemies.

But if there was an Elijah to declare the first coming of Jesus, then will there not be another Elijah to declare the second coming of Jesus? John the Baptist was not Elijah, but He came in the Spirit and power of Elijah, and did the work of Elijah. And before Jesus comes again, no, we may not be John the Baptist, or Elijah, literally, but if we come in the spirit and power of Elijah, doing the work of Elijah, then aren't we Elijah too?

Our work is to prepare the way of the Lord just as Elijah did. We are--through the Holy Spirit--to turn Israel back to its God. We are--through the grace of our God--to turn the heart of the fathers to the children and of the children to the fathers. We are to turn the lost to the Savior and urge them on to full conversion. We are to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just (Luke 1:16-17). We are to turn a people back to their God and to obedience to Him and His law (Malachi 4:4-6). We are to build up the broken places, to restore the breach, the hole that Satan has attempted to cut into God's law. We aren't saved by the law, but through faith we live in obedience to the law. Law and grace go together: law shows what sin is, and grace gives us power to obey. Law condemns sin, and grace forgives sin, but God uses law and grace together to end sin.

John the Baptist told those around him that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. What are you telling your acquaintances these days? Because you are Elijah times three.

Few people today know who they are or where they are going. It reminds me of a difficult discussion I was having with someone a long time ago, and when it was over and they had left, another person leaned over and quietly said to me, "Oh, don't mind him. He doesn't have a personality." We had a chuckle about that at the time. But it occurs to me (do I dare to say this?) that maybe that's what is happening in our world. As we and our fellow humans on board this planet Earth make our decisions, siding more and more with either God or the devil, we are hardening into place. And the demons keep so many among us today running the rat-race with such ferver, we go so fast that we can't really think. And all of the bright lights and moving pictures and spinning CDs and whirring sounds so fill our minds that we hardly even develop our own personalities, and so we as a race are exhibiting more and more, not our own personalities, but the personality of the being Lucifer. Could that be part of what is happening all around us?

But if we are reflective, and seek for the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), might we then exhibit a character that becomes more and more like Jesus?

As children of the covenant, so many of the maddeningly meaningless marks of the collapsing world around us are removed. Where before joining Jesus we are rugged individualists, individual atoms, chaotic dancers on a horizon of nails, separate weeping shadows of darkness crying out in despair, mere satanic-paintings and trophies, after we join the covenant of Jesus there are vast changes.

No more is life maddeningly meaningless. Instead, one becomes a part of God's last movement to tell the world about the One whom they love: their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Suddenly, things begin to make so much more sense. Sin entered the world when it didn't have to, and God is cleaning up the mess. Sorrow and suffering and pain are temporary--experiences to be excluded in the kingdom for which we wait. God is ending sin and Satan. But He's letting the devil hang himself with a very long rope. He's letting the universe watch as Satan shows what his ways are like. We understand that after seeing the end result, no one will be interested in living the devil's way, because it is the the ultimate futile plunge, and who wants more of that? Haven't we already had our share?

Instead of meaninglessness, there is meaningfullness. Instead of bombastic individual atomhood, we are joined to God's end-time team, His family. We have become His princes and princesses. We have a mission, we know where we are going. We learn to live before Him "without fear, in holiness and righteousness." We set our sights on the higher way and steadfastly refuse to look back to the pit from whence we came. And when we begin to look back we stop, because we aren't from there any more.

We don't dance on a horizon of tormenting nails where every footfall is another painful step, but we mount up with wings as eagles (Isaiah 40:31) and soar through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to share with all who our Father brings across our path (Revelation 14:6-12).

Instead of fading out into faceless grey photocopies of the demons that dog us, we bloom into full beautified color, "made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men" (2 Corinthians 4:9).

Out there, outside, right now, right this very moment, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people here just in Utah are out in the malls and the movies and sitting at home immobilized in front of TV screens watching commercials about mouthwash and toothpaste and cars. They need to be preparing for eternity, but they are being prepared for destruction. They are part of nothing but an empty kingdom that lasts only for a season (Hebrews 11:25)and then vanishes into nothing! They'll one day be gone! Unless they step out of the miserable fantasy that they are in and enter God's kingdom and live for ever. You and I and they are called out of a lost humanity to exhibit Christ to lost humanity. We are here on a mission to exhibit Jesus before the world in a concrete way. How we live together here, in God's house, and in the relationships we have both with one another and with those outside--these relationships show what the proof in the pudding is. We are the test case. We reveal whether the kingdom of God is real, whether the supernatural world is truly our world.

We reveal whether this Jesus is both Lord and Christ.

How are we doing?

I like how Geneva is doing. Today, she followed through. She made her commitment to Jesus. She is joined to Him, buried with Him in baptism and also RISEN with Him in newness of life (Romans 6:4-5). And she knows that this is but a single step on a long journey. But she took it. She knows that the step in itself doesn't save her. But it testifies of her commitment and it is a waymark in her life that will never be changed. When she faces temptation, this day that we, together with her, joined into the covenant again fresh, will stand out. And she'll look to Jesus, not only as the Author but as the Finisher of her faith (Hebrews 12:2). And she'll move forward again, one more step towards the kingdom. She's walking into the arms of Jesus.

How would you like to go there?

Perhaps there is someone here today; someone who is tired of the paper-mache fake of a world that you are living in. Maybe you want to take the step that our sister has taken today? Maybe there is someone here who would like to say, "Pastor, I have made my decision. I want to prepare for baptism. I want to accept Jesus as my personal Savior." If there is anyone here, with that in your heart, may I invite you to decide for Jesus? Would you join His team? Would you take a detour around the traps and sorrows that Satan has prepared for you, and let Jesus save you from some of the school of hard-knocks? Would you join God's culture and become more human than you've ever been before?

We all know that the end is near. But we all know also, that this moment, the door is open.

Walk through it. Somebody.

Is there anyone here today, that will do that? Will you join with Jesus, and become Elijah times three?

[Response]

Amen.

Last Modified 23 March 2000