The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
1 Kings 17Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, flour and oil provision, and resurrection of her son
1 Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”
2 Then Yahweh’s word came to him, saying,
3 “Go away from here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan.
4 You shall drink from the brook. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
5 So he went and did according to Yahweh’s word; for he went and lived by the brook Cherith that is before the Jordan.
6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.
7 After a while, the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
8 Yahweh’s word came to him, saying,
9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.”
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her, and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.”
11 As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
12 She said, “As Yahweh your God lives, I don’t have a cake, but a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jar. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you have said; but make me a little cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for you and for your son.
14 For Yahweh, the God of Israel says, ‘The jar of meal will not run out, and the jar of oil will not fail, until the day that Yahweh sends rain on the earth.’”
15 She went and did according to the saying of Elijah; and she, and he, and her house, ate many days.
16 The jar of meal didn’t run out, and the jar of oil did not fail, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by Elijah.
17 After these things, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.
18 She said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!”
19 He said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the room where he stayed, and laid him on his own bed.
20 He cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”
21 He stretched himself on the child three times, and cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, please let this child’s soul come into him again.”
22 Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
23 Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the room into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, “Behold, your son lives.”
24 The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that Yahweh’s word in your mouth is truth.”
Elisha and the Shunammite woman, birth of her son and his resurrection
1 Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”
2 Elisha said to her, “What should I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.”
3 Then he said, “Go, borrow empty containers from of all your neighbors. Don’t borrow just a few containers.
4 Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour oil into all those containers; and set aside those which are full.”
5 So she went from him, and shut the door on herself and on her sons. They brought the containers to her, and she poured oil.
6 When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” He said to her, “There isn’t another container.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 Then she came and told the man of God. He said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.
9 She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually.
10 Please let us make a little room on the roof. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. When he comes to us, he can stay there.”
11 One day he came there, and he went to the room and lay there.
12 He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him.
13 He said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?’” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”
14 He said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old.”
15 He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the door.
16 He said, “At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.”
17 The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her.
18 When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers.
19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
20 When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died.
21 She went up and laid him on the man of God’s bed, and shut the door on him, and went out.
22 She called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.”
23 He said, “Why would you want go to him today? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath.” She said, “It’s alright.”
24 Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward! Don’t slow down for me, unless I ask you to.”
25 So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Behold, there is the Shunammite.
26 Please run now to meet her, and ask her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with your child?’” She answered, “It is well.”
27 When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, “Leave her alone; for her soul is troubled within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”
28 Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”
29 Then he said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, don’t greet him; and if anyone greets you, don’t answer him again. Then lay my staff on the child’s face.”
30 The child’s mother said, “As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose, and followed her.
31 Gehazi went ahead of them, and laid the staff on the child’s face; but there was no voice and no hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, “The child has not awakened.”
32 When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and lying on his bed.
33 He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh.
34 He went up, and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the child’s flesh grew warm.
35 Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
36 He called Gehazi, and said, “Call this Shunammite!” So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, “Take up your son.”
37 Then she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; then she picked up her son, and went out.
38 Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Get the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”
39 One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered a lap full of wild gourds from it, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew; for they didn’t recognize them.
40 So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew, they cried out, and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
41 But he said, “Then bring meal.” He threw it into the pot; and he said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
42 A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in…
congregation sang 'As the Deer' based on this psalm, identified by the preacher
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.
5 Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.
6 My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
8 Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.
centurion comes to Jesus asking healing for his paralyzed servant, Jesus amazed at his faith
5 When he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him,
6 and saying, “Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented.”
7 Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8 The centurion answered, “Lord, I’m not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I am also a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and tell another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and tell my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, “Most certainly I tell you, I haven’t found so great a faith, not even in Israel.
11 I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven,
12 but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way. Let it be done for you as you have believed.” His servant was healed in that hour.
Luke's account of the centurion's servant, Jewish elders urge Jesus on centurion's behalf
1 After he had finished speaking in the hearing of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
2 A certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and at the point of death.
3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and save his servant.
4 When they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy for you to do this for him,
5 for he loves our nation, and he built our synagogue for us.”
6 Jesus went with them. When he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying to him, “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I am not worthy for you to come under my roof.
7 Therefore I didn’t even think myself worthy to come to you; but say the word, and my servant will be healed.
8 For I also am a man placed under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned and said to the multitude who followed him, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel.”
10 Those who were sent, returning to the house, found that the servant who had been sick was well.
Jesus raises the widow's son at Nain and gives him back to his mother
11 Soon afterwards, he went to a city called Nain. Many of his disciples, along with a great multitude, went with him.
12 Now when he came near to the gate of the city, behold, one who was dead was carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Many people of the city were with her.
13 When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, “Don’t cry.”
14 He came near and touched the coffin, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”
15 He who was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother.
16 Fear took hold of all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited his people!”
17 This report went out concerning him in the whole of Judea, and in all the surrounding region.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Ray opened this message by walking through two Old Testament stories before turning to a section of the Gospels, letting the older stories do the work of framing what Jesus would do. The thread running through all of it was compassion that crosses every line people normally keep: clean and unclean, insider and outsider, the destitute and the prosperous.
What was said
Before touching a word of the New Testament, Ray spent time in First Kings 17 and Second Kings 4. In the first story, Elijah is sent by God to a Gentile widow in Zarephath who is down to her last handful of flour. God provides for her household miraculously, and then, when her son dies, Elijah prays over the boy and God returns him to life. Ray noted the exact phrase: the boy was given back to his mother. In the second story, Elisha does something similar for a prominent woman in Shunem whose son also dies unexpectedly. Elisha prays, the boy sneezes seven times and revives, and once again the child is handed back to his mother. Ray wanted those phrases and those images sitting in the room before the Gospel text came up.
From there Ray moved into the harmony of Matthew and Luke, picking up right where the congregation had left off, directly after the Sermon on the Mount. He noted that Matthew sets up the sequence deliberately: Jesus finishes preaching about mercy, about not judging, about giving to those who ask, and then immediately demonstrates all three. He touches a man with leprosy, someone everyone in that culture would have kept at a distance and considered untouchable. Rather than Jesus becoming ceremonially unclean by the contact, his purity cleanses the man. Ray pointed out that this is the pattern Luke and Matthew keep returning to.
The centurion story follows immediately, and Ray paused on how jarring it would have been. The Roman army was an occupying force, and the Jewish people under Roman rule had every reason to resent a centurion's approach. But this centurion comes in humility, asking Jesus to heal a sick servant he clearly cares about deeply. Ray noted that the Greek word used, pais, means something like a young boy in the household, and that the centurion's concern for this servant reads almost like a father's. Jesus does not hesitate, does not lecture him about the empire, does not condemn him. He says he will go, and when the centurion expresses his faith by saying just say the word, Jesus tells the crowd following him that he has not found this kind of faith anywhere in Israel.
Ray then brought in Luke's account of the same event, which fills in that the centurion actually sent Jewish elders as a first delegation and then friends as a second one. The elders told Jesus the centurion was worthy because he had helped build their synagogue. Ray let that detail stand on its own: a Roman soldier, vouched for by Jewish leaders, and still approaching Jesus with the words "I am not worthy for you to come under my roof."
The final story in the passage is the one Ray had been building toward. Jesus and his disciples are approaching the gate of a city called Nain when they meet a funeral procession coming the other direction. The dead man is the only son of a widow. Ray connected the gate, the widow, the only son, and the return of the child to the mother directly back to the Zarephath and Shunem stories. But he also drew the contrast sharply: Elijah prayed three times and stretched himself over the boy. Elisha prayed and lay on the child. Jesus spoke four words. The young man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. The crowd's response was fear and then praise, saying a great prophet has appeared among us, which Ray connected to Moses' promise in Deuteronomy that God would raise up a prophet from among the people.
Ray closed by pulling the whole shape of the message together. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, he said, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. The miracles of Elijah and Elisha were pointing somewhere. What Jesus does is not a new thing dropped from the sky but the fulfillment of a long line of God showing up for the widow, the outsider, the person no one else will touch. Ray ended with the benediction from Romans 15, asking that the God of hope would fill the congregation with joy and peace as they trust in Him, and that they would overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Ray spent time on the literary genre of Scripture before getting into the text, noting that some parts are historical, some poetic, some figurative. How does paying attention to what kind of writing you are reading change the way you understand a passage?
In both the Elijah and Elisha stories, the prophet gave the dead child back to his mother. Ray pointed out that Luke uses almost exactly the same phrase when Jesus raises the widow's son at Nain. What does it mean to you that Jesus is doing what only God's greatest prophets had done before, but without praying or laying on the body, simply by speaking?
Speaker 1Everybody. Is this thing on now? It is now. Okay. Good to see you.
We got six more seconds. What do y'all want to do with it? Okay. No. Would you stand with me and we'll just sing whatever comes up on that screen.
I think it's going to be in moments like these or no, it's oh how I love Jesus. I just heard you playing that. Oh, how I love Jesus. Would you sing with Thank you. We're going to sing hymn number six eighty eight.
Savior like a shepherd lead us. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements this morning. As always, Monday nights at first b is happening tomorrow night.
That is meal, music, and a message. The meal tomorrow night, I didn't even oh, it's soup. Yeah. Soup night. Salad, bread.
Soup, salad, bread, meal, and then music is the 09:00 band, Monday night band, four or five piece band. We'll see. That's how it goes and then the message will be the message of the cross. John 19, right? So, it is Good Friday and Good Friday precedes Easter, right?
So, it's a tough one but it's a good one. The gospels are passion narratives with long introductions and we have gotten to that place of Jesus on the cross and we're gonna stop there, right? Tomorrow night. It's not gonna get to resurrection. We're gonna stop with the crucifixion tomorrow night but then a gospel conversation to be had afterwards by everybody in the room and it's good.
If you wanna join online, you can do that too at firstbjackson.org or on YouTube. Awana because kids matter to God. There is a game circle down on the floor right here and the kids start out in this room opened up and they'll play games and then they'll go from game they'll they'll split up into three different groups and they'll spread out all over the whole church except for where the Monday night group is going on. It's good. First b jackson dot org is the place where you can go.
If you'd like to sign up and get weekly email bulletins just to know what's going on. We have people all over that will say, hey, I saw that this is happening and they don't live here anymore. It's kind of interesting that people can and do still keep up online. That's great and this is another way that they do that. So, first, be in the Bible.
If you have been getting these Emails, you can opt out if you want to but for me, in my opinion, for me, this is one of the best things going on right now. Each week, we get five chances for somebody in the churches writing up a blurb. There's one whole chapter of scripture, a little introduction of who they are at the beginning, and then at the end, just a few points of application, which is great. I got a chance to do one on Friday, and after I did mine, so I turned it in and not forgot about it, but I turned it in. It was on Hebrews three.
And when I turned it in, I I didn't really think I'd hear anything else from it but the people who got that sent back to the church. Hey, and it was a really encouraging thing for me and I thought, I haven't even considered that the people writing might hear from other people. I thought it was kind of a blessing going out but it's also a blessing coming back in. First B in the Bible, a chapter a day. We're reading the Bible together separately.
The if gathering. The if gathering. So, last year at Lane Brown and Norris Brown's place, their barn, Heart to Heart Ranch down near Bondurant, these, it's a ladies conference. There are over a million ladies got together last year at the IF gathering, virtual all over the world. But this women's conference, rather than having it down just in Bondurant, which we still plan on doing in May, instead of just having it down there, we want to bring it to more people and thought that more of our neighbors and friends would be able to show up if we had it here at the church.
So, there's gonna be a women's conference on March the fourth and the fifth. That's a Friday and a Saturday coming up quickly at first b. We have about 40 people already registered, but we'd like to know that we're gonna be more than that. If we wanna know how many are gonna be there because there'll be snacks and whatnot involved. But it's $10.
If you know of a young person, young life has said, we want for all the young people who will attend, all the young ladies that will attend, we wanna pay for them. So if you have some young folks that you want to invite, we've got a lot. I think eight or 10 of those 40 that are showing up are high school gals. So if you would like to join in March fourth and fifth, put it on your schedule. You can get more information about it at First B Jackson, and you can register there.
That is a sad looking little kid right there, isn't it? We'd like to get the directory published soon. So Nick in the office, Nick Stern, he's not here today. He's on a long cross country ski. He's been training for, for weeks.
He would like for you to email to him at assistantfirstspeedjackson dot org a horizontal picture of yourself and your family, if you want to be included in the directory. And we'd love for you to be included. You don't have to. You can hold on your information if you want to, but if people want to contact you, it'd be nice for them to be able to. So if you would send a horizontal photo, add your contact information to assistant@firstbjacks, we'll put you in the directory.
That you know. Good. Anybody else got any announcement I've forgotten? Anything else? I love to tell the story.
Would you stand with me and we'll sing hymn number four forty four? If you want a hymnal, they're up here in the front but if you just want to sing off the wall, that's good too. To tell the story because I know it is true. It satisfies my longings as We'll fix that later. How about that?
Sometimes, the little pinwheel comes up and there's nothing you can do about it, right? As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after thee. What a beautiful Psalm. 42. Amen.
Y'all can have a seat. I will invite the ushers to come forward and there are lot of different ways over the past couple of years. We've explored a lot of different ways that you might give through to the church online or whatever but we have the plates that we are passing this morning. So, if you would pray with me, I'd appreciate it and Lord God almighty, we come together this morning to worship you, but also to acknowledge you, Lord, and to say, we want for other people to have the peace that passes understanding, which you've given us, the joy and the comfort that comes from knowing you. So, we pray that the good news, of your love and forgiveness would go forth from this place that you love people, Lord, and that you stand ready to forgive.
Lord, may that news permeate the way that we live our lives and the way that we use our words. May we be gracious and merciful, loving, and caring. Lord, we extend that message that we've already received to the very uttermost parts. Would you do that? Would you have your way, Lord, on earth as in heaven?
In Jesus' name, we ask that you'd accept these offerings, multiply them, do your kingdom's work. Amen.
Speaker 2Praise the Lord. We are here in God's house. Amen? It's a privilege worshiping God through music. Music does good to my heart.
Blake, is this working? Okay. When I was young and I was learning to play the instrument and I fall in love with the guitar, I was afraid not to hurt my fingers because I was afraid I won't be able to to play the guitar. And then as I was I was as I was trying to grow up in stature, which didn't happen much, I was, thinking, lord, make me tall enough just to reach the pedals of the piano. This song talks about the love of God.
Once we understand that beautiful, feeling that comes from the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ died for us, that Jesus Christ saved us, that Jesus Christ is the one that gave us the right to be called children of God. When we understand that beautiful love, then the whisper of the Holy Spirit would always says, pass it on. Amen? So we are amazed about the beautiful love of God. The Lord.
Speaker 1Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Florine and Violetta. So, the past couple of weeks, we have been in the Sermon on the Mount but we closed out the Sermon on the Mount last week. So, we've also been going through a harmony of the gospels.
We started that. Harmony of the synoptic gospel. This, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We started that in August of last year and we've been going, you know, I skipped Christmas but since August, we've been going through in order what Matthew, Mark, and Luke report. Now, they are not necessarily in strict chronological order.
So, when you put all the stories together about Jesus and you try to make a path, that's what we're going. As best we can tell. I'm not gonna arm wrestle you over. You don't have to believe it's in exactly the same order. But the reason that Matthew wrote what he wrote was probably slightly different from the reason that Luke wrote what he wrote.
Today, we're not covering Mark because Mark doesn't tell either of these stories but the harmony of the gospels is what we're going through and I want to say, as far as literary genre goes, when I was little, I was raised in church since nine months before I was born. So, I just took the words that said on the page like, this is Bible, God's holy word, and I didn't really investigate. I knew it was true. I didn't know if I understood it. What I'm trying to do is take into account and have been for a long time.
Try to take into account what is the literary genre. Is it history where it's reporting something that happened in the past? Is it figurative language? And so there are a lot of people who pound the pulpit and says, I believe every word of it is literally true. I do believe every word of it is true, but literally, it's hard to say.
Figurative language certainly exist. Before last August, we were in Revelation for almost a year. There's some super figurative language there, you know. And if they say, ah, literal literal and insist on that, you get to places like and the rivers clap their hands and you go, wait a second. I don't know what to do with that.
I've never seen a hand on a river. I don't know exactly how they would do that. Is that gonna happen on that great and that mighty last day? I don't know. But it's saying that all creation is spreading the glory of God.
Right? All creation is speaking to that. The literary genre, whether it's a historical book or straight up didactic teaching or law or restatement of the law, there are different ways to to understand this. There's certainly poetic language. There's certainly wisdom literature And today, I'm gonna take a passage from the old test actually, two passages from the old testament.
And then I'm gonna take a passage from the new testament from both Matthew and Luke. Look at it from both of their angles. And then we'll end with a benediction from one of the epistles. So, it's almost liturgical this morning. We're doing a long section of Old Testament first.
It confused the first service. I'll just go ahead and admit it. Straight out of the gate, I used the Old Testament like, we're not used to Ray doing this. Think about literary genre and think about when you're reading a book, when there are callbacks, or when you're listening to a comedian, there are callbacks to something that's happened earlier, and it helps to complete the action. Are you with me?
Okay. Alright. Here we go. First Kings seventeen and second Kings four. That's a strange place to go and I know it.
I admit it. Okay? But I promise it'll come back around in the end. The word of the Lord came to Elijah to him saying, arise, Elijah and go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and stay there. Now, Elijah is the prophet of the Lord.
By this time, everybody reading first Kings knows that. He already has access to the king. He already has access to the commanding army. He is known to be a man of God. And part of that is because when God speaks, he listens and obeys.
So arise, go to Zarephath, belongs to Sidon. Stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there in Zarephath to provide food for you. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the entrance of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks.
And he called out to her and said, please, get me a little water and a cup so that I may drink. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please, bring me a piece of bread in your hand. And she said, as the Lord your God lives. Now this is Zarephath is in Sidon. It's a Gentile territory but he's well known and he's known for being a man of God and she doesn't say as the Lord, my God.
She's just not she doesn't know it. She's an outsider. So, she says, as the Lord your God lives, I have no food. I only have a handful of flour in the bowl and a little bit of oil in the jar. And behold, I'm gathering these sticks so that I may go in and prepare it for me and my son so that we may eat it and die.
That is a sad, sad state of affairs. However, Elijah said to her, don't fear. Do not fear. Go and do just as you have said. Just make me a little bread loaf from it first.
Now that that sounds like a stingy, stingy somebody, doesn't it? But up above, arise and go to Zarephath. He was being obedient, and God had said, I have commanded a widow there to provide food for you. So he gives her the opportunity to be obedient too by saying that and go do as you have said. Just make me a little bread from it first and bring it to me and afterward, you make your own for yourself and your son.
For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, the bowl of flour shall not be used up nor the jar of oil become empty until the day that lord provides rain on the face of the earth. Turns out, problem was a drought. That's why they didn't have any food. So she went and did everything that in accordance with the word of Elijah, and she and her household ate for many days. It wasn't their last meal.
God provided just like that. Now it was a a show of faith for her to trust Elijah and get him the bread first. Seems kinda weird, honestly, to me to see this, but it it was giving her a chance to be obedient. The bowl of flour was not used up and nor did the jar of oil become empty. It was miraculous in accordance with the word of the Lord which he spoke through Elijah.
Now, happened. This is still first King 17. After these things that the son of that woman, the mistress of the house became sick and his condition became very grave until at the end, there was no longer breathing. He's dead. The son died.
So she said to Elijah, why? Why is my business any of yours, you man of God? Question mark. You have come to me to bring my wrongdoing to remembrance. This is a kind of a typical response to when bad tragedy happens, we tend to think it's our fault.
Right? It's not always. Jesus points that out several times in the New Testament. Why isn't my business any of yours, you man of God? Yet you have come to bring my wrongdoing to remembrance and to put my son to death.
But he said to her, give me your son. He took him from her arms and carried him up to the upstairs room where he was living and laid him on his own bed. And he called to the Lord and said, Lord, my God. He calls out to the Lord. He's not the Lord.
He calls out to the Lord. Lord, my God, have you also brought catastrophe upon the widow with whom I'm staying by causing her son to die? Question mark. This is he doesn't know everything. When the Lord of the Lord comes to me, he's obedient.
But right now, he's praying to him and saying, lord, I don't understand what's going on. Have you really done this to her? And then he stretched himself out over the boy three times, called out to the Lord and said, lord, my God, please let this boy's life return to him. The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah and the life of the boy returned to him and he revived. Elijah then took the boy and brought him down from the upstairs room into the house and gave him to his mother.
I highlighted that. Remember that for a little while later. Gave him back to his mother. And Elijah said, see, your son is alive. And the word, the woman said to Elijah, now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord is in your mouth is the truth.
She trusted him because of the miracle there. Now, she had trusted him earlier because of an earlier miracle. Right? He provided for them food and oil and flour whatnot but when the times got tough, she was ready to reject it out of hand and then, she believed him because of the other miracle. Going on, that's Elijah and I know if this is if this is not, we we don't have nearly as much residual biblical memory in our time right now as people have had in the past, I think.
So, I'm going through the story. Forgive me but I'll it'll come around. Second Kings four, Elijah is a prophet of the Lord. There's no doubt about it and then Elisha takes on his mantle. He is the understudy for Elijah and he is also a prophet of the Lord.
This is from second Kings four. Now, they came when Elisha, not Elijah, but Elisha went over to Shunam. Shunam is a place where there was a prominent woman. Now, this widow had nothing. The first one in Elijah's case.
Now, this woman does. She has plenty. She's a prominent woman and she urged him to eat food. Doesn't even say he asked. And so it was as often as he passed by that he turned therein to eat food.
And she said to her husband, hold now. I'm aware that this is a holy man of God that's passing by us repeatedly, and please, let's make a little walled upper room, and let's set up a bed for him there, a table, a chair, a lampstand, and then it shall be that when he comes to us, that he can turn in there. Just give him a safe place to be. This this is in missionary circles is what's known as a person of peace. They feed you and they put you up.
Now one day, he came there and turned into the upper room and rested and then he said to the servant, to his servant Gehazi, call this Shunammite. That's where she's from. Like, I'm a Georgian. Right? I'm from Georgia, so Georgian.
Call this Shunammite. When he called her, she stood before him and he said to her, say now to her, behold, you've taken trouble for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Would you like for me to speak for you to the king or to the commander of the army? But because he had access.
But she answered, I live among my own people. I can keep it simple right around here in Shunam. So he said, what then is to be done for? And Gehazi answered, it is a fact that she has no son and her husband is old, past the point of child bearing. And he said, call her.
And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway, and then he said, as this season or at this season next year, you're going to embrace a son. And she said, no, no, my lord. You man of God, do not lie to your servant. That's a hard thing to believe. I know how this works and that's not going to happen.
Now, the woman conceived and gave birth to a son at that season, the very next year and just as Elisha had told her. When the child was grown, the day came that he went out to his father, to the reapers. So his dad's working out in the fields and he said to his father, this is the child. My head, my head, exclamation point, it's hurting. And his father said to his servant, carry him to his mama.
Carry him to his mother. Right? And when he had carried him and brought him to his mother, he sat her on his lap until noon, and then the boy died. That's another terribly sad situation. She went up and she laid him on the bed of the man of God, and she shut the door behind him and left.
And then she called to her husband and said, please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys so that I may run to the man of God and return but he said, why why are you going to do that? Now, father had sent the boy to his mother. He didn't know what was going on. She didn't tell him. She didn't tell anybody.
Actually, the story goes on and says, but he said, why are you going to him today? It's neither a new moon or a Sabbath. There's not a religious reason for you to go. She just said, it'll be fine. It'll be fine.
Then she saddled the donkey, said to her servant, drive the donkey and go on. Don't slow down the pace for me unless I tell you. So she went on. She came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel where Elijah defeated the prophets Baal, right?
For God does that. Yeehaw. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to Gehazi, a servant, behold, that person there is the the Shunammite. He recognized her. Please, run now out to meet her and say to her, is everything going well for you?
Is everything going well for your husband? Is everything going well for the child? Because it was a weird time for her to be there. And she answered, it it it's going well to the servant, to Gehazi, which was alive, by the way. It's not going well.
But she came to the man of God at the hill and she took hold of his feet. She fell down at his feet and grabbed on and said and Gehazi came up to push her away because he's kinda his handler. But the man of God said, leave her alone for her soul is troubled within her. And for some reason, I don't know why, the Lord has concealed from me and has not informed me because he was used to God sharing with him what's going on. But he wasn't getting it this time.
So she said, did I ask for a son from my Lord? Did I not say, don't give me false hope? Then he said to Gehazi, get ready, Gehazi. Take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, don't greet them.
If anyone greets you, don't reply to them. Get there as quickly as you can. Lay my staff on the boy's face. The mother of the boy and there were plenty of miracles associated with that beforehand. So he says, lay the staff on the boy's face, and the mother of the boy said, as surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will not leave you.
I'm not gonna leave your side, Elisha. So Elisha got up and followed her. Then Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound of response. Nothing. He's still dead.
So he returned to meet him and informed them this the boy has not awakened. That's sad. Now, when Elisha entered the house, behold, the boy was dead, flatly, says so, laid on his bed, so he entered and he shut the door behind the boat and he prayed to the Lord. He reaches out to God. He is speaking for the Lord but he doesn't have the power within himself.
So he prays to the Lord. Then he got up on the bed and he lay on the child mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands, bent down, and the flesh of the child became warm. Then he returned and he walked in the house back and forth once more. He went up. He bent down.
And the boy sneezed seven times. He's revived. Then the boy opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, the servant, and said, call the Shunammite. So he called her, and when she came up to him, he said, pick up your son.
He gave her back to the son. That's what the first story says. And then he's given this boy back to his mother. And then she came in, and she fell at his feet, and she bowed down to the ground, and she picked up her son, and she left. It was compassion of almighty God through the prophet.
Now, we're up to the harmony of the gospel. I'm gonna give you a chance to stretch for just a second. Do this. Do something. The Old Testament wears me out I know that was a lot of it and there are a few like, there are way too many words on those screens.
So, stretch just a bit. Oh, this is good. Harmony of the gospels. We're back to a simpler statement. This is Matthew and Luke.
This is what we're covering today. I'm going to do this quickly as I pray will be helpful. We just finished the sermon on the mount and oh, if this your first Sunday, wouldn't it be great to have the sermon on the mount? Best sermon ever preached and as far as literary genre goes, if I am a preacher and I'm preaching the exact sermon that Jesus preached that everybody considers to be the best, ain't that great? That's easy for me because I know the points because he made the points.
But when we get to narrative, you don't always know what narrative is about. How many of y'all left with questions about the Shunammite and the Zarephath widows? Yeah, I am. There's plenty of questions left, but I hope some of those are answered today. Jesus just finished the sermon on the mount, and the major points, if I had to list them, the last paragraph would be, be merciful just as your heavenly father is merciful.
Don't judge people. Don't judge them. Don't make snap decisions and stick with that. Don't condemn anybody because there's only one judge and you ain't him. Right?
And give to whoever asks of you. Jesus said, those things and then right after this said, if you listen and apply, you're building your house on the rock. If you listen and you reject, you're building your house on the sand. So listen to this message and apply it to your life. Matthew says, and when Jesus came down from the mountain, this mountain was the sermon on the Mount Mountain.
When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. Okay. These are crowds of disciples who are listening to what he said, the whole beatitudes, and to be merciful, and don't condemn, don't judge. And so, what he has said is good, but now we're gonna go into what he does. Matthew eight one, obviously, followed by Matthew eight two.
We've already covered this. We've already covered this because I covered it with Luke and Mark who tell the same story. I covered it on September 26. If you wanna go back, you can listen to the sermon. Okay?
You can go back online and hear it. But this is the one about the man with leprosy coming to him. A man with leprosy had no way of earning a living. He had no way of making any money for himself, and he had to be separated from society completely. This man with leprosy came to Jesus as he's coming down and said, lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean.
Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. He's an untouchable. If you have leprosy, you're an untouchable. You're supposed to scream out, unclean, unclean so that people won't even approach you. But if you're willing, you can make me clean, the guy says, and Jesus reached out his hand and touched him and said, I am willing, be cleansed.
Now, ceremonial uncleanness for touching a leper. If you touch the leper, it made you ceremonially unclean and possibly they thought that you could get leprosy from him. So, it was forboding, forbidden. Jesus reaches out and touch him and rather than that man's uncleanness infecting Jesus, Jesus' purity cleanses that man. Immediately, his leprosy was cleansed and Jesus said to him, see that you don't tell anybody.
He's not trying to gain a bigger following than he already has. There are tons of people already following him. He just says, see that you don't tell anybody but you go and show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded as a testimony to them because the priest were supposed to know that if a leper came and was cleansed, somebody who certifiably had leprosy, certifiably clean, then Messiah is here. And they should have known that. So I covered this September 26 if you wanna go back and listen to it.
We're gonna go into this story. When Jesus entered Capernaum. So he comes down from the Sermon on the Mount. He comes into Capernaum. This is his hometown more than anywhere else as an adult, as a minister.
He hangs out in Capernaum where Peter and Andrew both lived. When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion, a centurion is a Roman soldier who's in charge of a 100 men. So a Roman soldier in charge of a 100 men. He is the oppressing army to the Jewish people. I can't overstate how much the Jewish people hated the Romans because they had invaded their space and they were keeping them under their thumb and oppressing them.
But Jesus comes down from the mountain after just preaching, be merciful, don't condemn, don't judge, give to whoever asked. And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him begging him and saying, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, terribly tormented. He's coming in humility or his message is that my servant is alive, paralyzed at home, terribly tormented. And paes means child. It also, in this context, for certain, but it means child because a child and a slave are brought up the same until they reach that age where a child is reared differently.
It's pice is a young male slave or a servant. And so he's saying, my boy slave, which is almost like saying my child, he cares for him by using this term instead of doula, slave, servant. Lord, my slave is living paralyzed at home, terribly tormented. Just recently, we went to the Getty Museum. After we were coming home from Costa Rica this is another stretch break right here.
I'm coming out of this text for just a second. We went to the Getty Villa. It's up on top of the hill over the Pacific Coast Highway. We had a few hours to throw away in between flights, and we went to this museum. And this is Marshall.
It's a bust of Marshall. And it has a little inscription down here at the bottom in Latin, and it says, dearest Marshall, a slave child who lived two years, ten months, and eight days. Now his owner must have been pretty fond of him. The way we think of slavery today is probably very different from the way slavery was thought of at the time. It was a fact of life at the time.
But Jesus just finished the sermon. Be merciful. Don't judge. Don't condemn. Give and listen and apply this to your life.
And then he comes down and he demonstrates it by touching an untouchable. And the next guy that comes out is a man of means, but he's an oppressive Roman soldier. What does Jesus do? Jesus says to him, I'll come heal him. He's given.
He's given what he has to the ones who've asked. The centurion replied, Lord, I'm not even worthy for you to come under my roof. That's great. Statement of humility from the centurion, but just say the word and my servant, Pace, will be healed. For I'm also a man under authority with soldiers under me, and I say to this one, go, and he goes, and then another come, and he comes, and to my slave, Dulos, do this, and he does it.
Now when Jesus heard this, he was amazed. He was amazed and said to those who are following, truly, I say to you, disciples who just followed me down the hill and heard that sermon, I've not found such great faith in all of Israel, anyone in Israel. And I say to you that many will come from the East and West. That's the Gentiles outside of this little chosen people of God. Oftentimes, the Jewish people of the time thought of themselves as the chosen little family of God and nobody else had it where they were supposed to be a light to the nations, to the East and the West.
Jesus came, fulfilled the law, and he is the light to the world. And he's saying to them, many are gonna be like this guy, Gentiles, that understand and recognize when God is visiting and says, many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the ones who are just born into it, the sons of the kingdom, they'll be thrown out into utter darkness, holding on to their traditions in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus turns back and says to the centurion, go, and it shall be done for you just as you have believed. That's great, isn't it?
A merciful. He doesn't condemn. He doesn't say, you oppressive. I wouldn't do anything for you. You slave on a joker.
Don't you know that's wrong? Go and it shall be done for you just as you have believed and that servant was healed at that very moment. So, that's Matthew's version. Luke's version, I think it it conveys the sense that he tells his people what to do and they do it. So, Jesus, when he had completed all his teaching and the hearing of the people, it's the same story told again.
When he when he had completed all his teaching and the hearing of the people, Sermon on the Mount, he went to Capernaum. And there, there was a centurion slave who was highly regarded by that owner. He was sick and he was about to die. And when he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him asking him to come and to save the life of his slave. Slave there is doulas, Like I had said, this is telling about the boy, but whenever it mentions how that guy feels about the kid, he feels like he's his own child.
And when they came to Jesus, they, the Jewish elders, strongly urged Jesus. Now, at this point, there was not as much enmity between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. They his fame had not grown to the point where they were just constantly opposed to him. So, when they came to Jesus, he was known as a miracle worker. He was known for having a message.
They came to Jesus and they strongly urged Jesus saying, listen, this guy, this centurion, he's worthy of you granting this to him because he loves our nation. He loves us and he's on our side. He helped us to build our own synagogue. He's one of the good ones, maybe. Now, Jesus started on his way with them but already when he was not yet far from the house, he, the centurion sent friends.
He sent a delegation. He sent another delegation that sounds like he sent the delegation and then he came outside and says, Lord, don't trouble yourself further for I'm not worthy for you to enter under my roof. Another thing about ceremonial uncleanness. So it's a Gentile's house. Jesus, as a good practicing Jew, would not even go into a Gentile's house because that make him unclean.
Does that make sense to you? Now, we've already talked about a couple things. Elijah and Elisha and the unclean thing about touching a dead body. That was the biggest one of the unclean things that you could do. Jesus having compassion on the leper.
It was not the uncleanness of the leper that would infect Jesus, but the purity of Jesus that cleansed the leper. For that reason, I didn't consider myself worthy to come to you. Jesus wasn't concerned about that. I'll go heal him. Oh, sure.
But just say the word, my servant shall be healed for I'm also a man placed under authority when soldiers under myself. And I say this one, go and he goes and another come and he comes into my slave. Do this and he does it. Now when Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. Wouldn't it be nice to just have Jesus be amazed at you for something other than, you know, aggravation.
Most people think if Jesus is amazed like, good grief. I can't believe that boy's doing that. No. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. He was amazed at his faith.
And he turned and said to the crowd that was following him, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such a great faith. And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. Jesus did something for the guy who was absolutely destitute, and he did something for the man of means. He's practicing what he was preaching, and we're showing that. Now, next week, we'll get to something else.
I've got a few more minutes here because we got one more story I wanna tell from Luke, we'll try to bring it all together. I hope it does. Jesus heals untouchable leper. He heals a centurion slave. Luke says he heals the centurion slave, and then the next thing is this little story right here.
Soon afterward, Jesus went to a city called Nain. From Capernaum, this is about a day's walk. Could be day and a half. Jesus is used to the terrain. He'd pass through Nazareth to get there.
This is a familiar stomping ground for Jesus. So soon afterwards, he went to a city called Nain. If you're looking on the map, that's where it is. Sea Of Galilee, Capernaum is on the Northwest Shore, and they would have gone to Nain, which is on Mount Mora right here. And it's near another little city you might recognize, Shunam, right there.
This is Nain. It's still in existence today. By the time of the New Testament, in the intervening time period, Shunamm had kinda died down where it was virtually a ghost town, and Nain had risen up just four and a half miles away. So there they are, Nain and Shunem, pretty close on the same hillside. Can't see each other because it's a hill bigger than a butte, but certainly less than the Teton.
Soon afterward, Jesus went to a city called Nain, and his disciples were going along with him. These people had heard the Sermon on the Mount. Certainly, 12, maybe a few more. Yep. It's a few more accompanied by a large crowd.
Luke always notes it when there's a large crowd around. Now, as he approached the gate of this city, that's exactly the same verbiage of Elijah approaching the gate of the city. As Jesus approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out. Dead are ceremonial unclean. The pallbearers in this case would have been ceremonially unclean for seven days.
They couldn't go anywhere or do anything. They had to wait for the purification to take place. It's the highest of all the impurity that can happen. Now as he approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out. He's the only son of his mother.
Oh my goodness. This is another sad story. It's very reminiscent of both Elijah and Elisha's stories in first and second Kings. Now as he approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a sizable crowd from the city was with her.
I bet there were because she had already buried her husband. And her son was the only means of support that this poor widow would have had, and now he has passed too. And when the Lord saw her, this is Jesus, when the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her and he said to her, do not go on weeping. Now, for me, in this position, I have had to do funerals and gotten had the privilege of doing funerals for people whether they were husbands leaving a widow or whether they were children of widows. I've had to do those, and it is a hard thing to do.
It's something in very real life for me to go to them and say, stop crying. Don't cry. I mean, I'm supposed to grieve with those who grieve. I usually just go and say, it is sad. It is horrible.
The Lord is with us in it and I hope to be rejoicing at some time, but we're just gonna grieve right now. Jesus said, do not go on weeping. And he can say that much better than I could, much better than Elijah could or Elisha could. He came up after saying, don't go on weeping. He came up and he touched the coffin immediately, normally, ceremonially unclean.
But again, the uncleanness of that dead body doesn't infect Jesus. Jesus' purity and his lordship, his own spirit. Comes up, he touches the coffin, and the bearers came to a halt. Well, they came to a halt because why would anybody do that? Why would you touch that?
Why would you make yourself unclean like that? And he said, young man, I say to you, arise. And between services, I talked to somebody. He said, can you think of all the things that were required just by that statement? All of the things that this lifeless body had to start happening again.
As after that, he said, young man, I say to you, arise. And it says, and the dead man sat up and began to speak. Hallelujah. This is bizarre. It's bizarre for me, but I tell you what, they knew all of the establishment, all of the Sanhedrin, all the Pharisees, all the Sadducees, all the religious establishment knew the words of the Old Testament, and they knew that the prophecy was that the spirit of Elijah would come again.
Now, next week, we're gonna be looking at John the Baptist, and he says that John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah, but he didn't heal anybody. He didn't raise the dead. Right? Jesus speaks, only speaks. He didn't have to pray.
He didn't lay down. He didn't breathe in mouth to mouth. He didn't do any of the other stuff, and he didn't have to pray about it. He just said it. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
It's exactly the same verbiage right there. It's so difficult. I look around and I see people who have lost. And can you imagine this, that Jesus resurrected this mother's only son and gave him back to his mother. Now Elijah, Elisha, and Jesus have already made the comparison several times.
Elijah prays. Elisha prays. Jesus says, arise. Get up. And he does.
And this is the response. The response is fear, from which we get our word phobia. It's fear. It really is. It's all in reverence too.
But fear, if you're experiencing your normal every single life and you don't see a whole lot of supernatural stuff happen, and then all of a sudden you do see something, you flat can't explain any other way except that God almighty has moved, and it says fear grip them all, the power of God. I heard somebody say yesterday, actually, the fear of man is what keeps a lot of people down and scared and from acting, but the fear of God is the way to get over the fear of man. Fear ripped them all, and they began glorifying God saying, a great prophet has appeared among us. Now this, again, I read some old testament to you before. In Deuteronomy, in the restatement of the law, second reading of the law is what Deuteronomy means.
Right before the people are entering into the promised land, Moses is going over. He says, listen, the Lord will raise up. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, a great prophet from among you, from your countrymen. To him, you shall listen. Pay attention to him is one version of that.
And that's what these people who've been gripped by the fear of the Lord said a great prophet has appeared among us. This is the taheb. This is the prophet we've been looking for. And they also said God has visited his people. Now we spent a lot of time at Christmas singing songs about Emmanuel where God is with us.
God has visited his people. He's among us. And this report or in this case, Lagos, this news, this word about him spread throughout Judea and in all the surrounding region. His fame was growing. It's kinda hard to keep on healing people over and over and over again and not get famous, and that's what he was doing.
He was getting famous. He could tell people, don't tell anybody, but they're gonna tell people anyway. And we see that he's giving of what he has. He's given it to people. When they reach out, he responds.
Jesus always responds to the call of faith. So next week, this is kind of a continuation. Next week, Jesus assures John the Baptist. John the Baptist, yeah, he came with a message of repentance. He was a forerunner of Christ But even John the Baptist gets to a place where he just goes, the news is spreading around about Jesus, and John gets upset.
Why? Because of his circumstances. John's in jail, and he says, would you go and ask Jesus if it's him or if we ought to be looking for somebody else? He's in a bad state. We'll talk about it next week.
Jesus' fame is growing, and his emphasis kinda is changing. For one thing, John is not gonna be with us very much longer, John the Baptist. And his message of repentance, Jesus picks up and says, John was right. You have to be willing to repent of whatever it is that's holding you down. And God will show you what that is, and he'll allow you the chance to do that.
Is there anything else I've forgotten, Carl? No? We're gonna sing Rock of Ages. Is that right? Yes.
Okay. The altar is always open. That's an open invitation. That's that's true always. If you want to talk to me, I'll quit singing and turn the mic off, but I'm also here afterwards.
Okay? We're going to sing Rock of Ages. Would you stand with us and we'll sing through it. Kinda contemplate the words as they come up there. So I've got a benediction that'll come up in just a second.
But I I wanted to mention that there is a definite difference in Old Testament and New Testament, and you can see it. But the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. Right? Old Testament is New Testament concealed. New Testament is Old Testament revealed.
And then today, how we live our life. Jesus is still touching lives. And it's not just for the haves, and it's not just for the have nots. It's for anybody who will turn to him in faith and just say, I don't know how you do it, but would you do it? It's that simple.
This points to that. Romans fifteen thirteen, very near the end of the book of Romans. It says, now, may the God of all hope fill you with all joy and all peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. God, would you be at work in this week in and through us? In Jesus name, amen.
