2 Kings 2:13-14 “He (Elisha) picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. ‘Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?’ he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.”

Did Elisha get what he needed for the work that lay ahead of him: the spirit of Elijah, the presence of God to give power to his words and ministry?

Elisha didn’t hear some inner voice telling him that everything was going to be okay. He didn’t feel a sudden surge of electricity running through his body, filling him with confidence. In spite of the demonstration of God’s power he had just seen, he wasn’t overwhelmed by an experience of the Lord’s presence. In fact, for a few moments, experience seemed to tell him that God was absent. His heart cries out to God, “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” For a few moments, Elisha felt uncertain.

But Elisha had a promise: “If you see me when I am taken from you, it (the double portion of Elijah’s spirit) will be yours.” And in spite of any uncertainties, Elisha acted on that promise. Then God confirmed that he was with Elisha in an unmistakable way. “When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.”

God works the same way with us. At times our personal experience may suggest that God is absent. We don’t feel waves of spiritual energy washing over our bodies, assuring us he is here. But God is more than a feeling. He may inspire some wonderful feelings in us at times, but he doesn’t disappear just because we feel as though he is gone.

What, then, do we have for our times of uncertainty? Like Elisha, we have God’s promises. Feelings change, but God’s promises do not.  And God promises us, “Surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them.” “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” We can confess with David in the psalms, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

Since God is for us, God is with us, and God even lives in us by his Spirit, we can be sure that Christ will continue to do his work through us in spite of our uncertainties.

2 Kings 2:11-12 “As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, ‘My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!’ And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.”

Nothing scares people more than death. It is the one thing that seems to be lurking behind every other fear. There are few places we invest so much expense and effort as we do in death prevention, from hiding air bags in every spare inch of our vehicles, to investing billions in medical research each year, to supporting vast armies, police forces, and fire departments to keep us safe. We do so in spite of the fact that death is inevitable. John Jeske observed that the death rate has remained almost constant since the world began: one per person.

“Ah,” you think to yourself, “but here we have an exception, because Elijah didn’t die.” And you are correct. Elijah was translated to heaven without tasting death. But whether God swept Elijah to heaven in a storm, or whether the prophet had keeled over in front of his friend, the effect was the same for Elisha, wasn’t it? He was separated from the spiritual father and friend he cared for so deeply. At least part of Elisha’s reaction was the same as those who mourned a death in the family: he tore his clothes.

We may fear death and the separation we suffer. That is all the more reason God’s work needs to continue in the face of death. Toward the end of the movie “Hook,” Captain Hook challenges Peter Pan to a duel to the death. Peter Pan replies, “Death would be a great adventure,” and Hook agrees, “Death would be the greatest adventure.”

I doubt whether Peter Pan or Captain Hook were thinking about the same thing that I am thinking, but I can agree that death is at least the start of the greatest adventure. That’s not just because there is a sense of mystery about what happens. Rather, the child of God knows that heaven is waiting for him on the other side. That’s where Elijah went: “…and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.” That’s the promise of Jesus’ resurrection for each one of us after we die. “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18).

Isn’t that the ultimate meaning of our Lord’s work for us? He has been running the world’s largest and longest rescue operation: to get people off this spiritually sinking planet to safety in heaven. Each child of God who dies in faith is a success story. In their case, it’s “mission accomplished.” This one has finally reached safety, and now we can turn more efforts to reaching someone else.

In spite of our sadness at parting, in spite of our fears, we can be certain that God’s work carries on at death, because he has transformed it into the ladder to safety in heaven.

2 Kings 2:9-10 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?’ ‘Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,’ Elisha replied. ‘You have asked a difficult thing,’ Elijah said, ‘yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours–otherwise not.’”

Elisha was the heir apparent to Elijah’s ministry. God had told Elijah to anoint Elisha to succeed him as prophet. When he asked for a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit, he wasn’t asking for twice as much as Elijah had. He was asking for the first born son’s inheritance. In ancient times, since the first born son would take his father’s place in the family, he received twice as much as any of the other heirs. If Elisha was going to inherit Elijah’s position as spiritual leader of Israel, then he wanted the spiritual gifts from God that were necessary to carry it out.

Do you see what Elisha is thinking? He sees that the task in front of him is greater than he is. He is aware of his spiritual poverty, his spiritual neediness, in the face of his responsibility to lead God’s people. He knows that he is not a super-spiritual, great man of God, but an ordinary man, a simple sinner in need. He needs to lean on someone other than himself if he is going to be of any use to God.

Is that hard for us to admit? We are no different than Elisha, but that doesn’t go down easy with our pride. Even in purely secular matters we find it difficult to admit our neediness, our weakness, our dependence on others. Isn’t that why I insist that I can fix the car myself, or assemble the gas grill without reading the instructions, or lift the heavy box without someone on the other side to help? And what does our pride get us in such cases? Costlier repairs? A dangerous explosion? A wrenched back?

In spiritual matters, the stakes are higher still. Perhaps we are tempted to think that we came to God with empty hands when we first became believers: we could not pay for our sins, so we freely received his forgiveness. But since that time it has been up to us to make our commitment and show what we can do. We develop a false sense of self-confidence that we can do God’s work on our own. We are afraid that if we keep coming to him with empty hands, we will develop a welfare mentality. We forget that sin is a permanent disability, at least this side of heaven. Even the ability to serve is a gift of his grace. The Apostle Peter was once too proud to receive Jesus’ help when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. Do you remember Jesus’ response? “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” Persistent refusal to depend on God and receive his gifts not only guarantees that our service will flop. That kind of pride cuts us off from God.

Only when we come to the same realization as Elisha do we have the confidence that Christ’s work will carry on, in spite of our neediness and dependence. The same grace of God who did everything to save us gives us every power to do his work. The Apostle Paul once said of his suffering, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” To be honest, I am always weak. But when we recognize this, then we are able to see God’s strength at work. Then we are in a position to see his will fulfilled through us.

1 Corinthians 8:1 “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”

There is no virtue in being spiritually ignorant. It is God’s will that we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Knowledge about God’s word helps us to get to know him better. It feeds our faith. It guides our lives. Bible knowledge is good and necessary.

But all by itself, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. God does not want us to study the Bible as an academic interest, or to keep us entertained. Its purpose is not to stretch our minds and challenge our intellect, though it may do so. Bible class serves a higher purpose than preparing us to be contestants on Jeopardy.

When Bible knowledge makes us feel superior to all the Biblical ignoramuses, it merely “puffs up.” It’s the same picture we use when we say someone has a “swelled head.” In that state we become no use to the people around us and absolutely intolerable to God. We need someone to let the air out, to insert a release valve, so that we channel all that knowledge in a useful direction, before we burst and spiritually destroy ourselves.

That release valve is love. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Christian love is not so concerned about self. It cares for others. It is not looking for ways to be superior. It wants to be a servant. It does not seek ways to make me look good. It seeks ways to make God look good, and it seeks ways to do good to others.

Love like this also does some enlarging, but what gets bigger is not my swelled head. It’s my heart. Love builds up. It is a servant. It builds up the kingdom of God. It builds up brothers and sisters in their faith. It builds by humbly sharing knowledge about Jesus with others. It does not waste time trying to build some sort of monument to myself.

Where do we get such love? Not in that know-it-all knowledge that inflates our egos. “The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.” The most important thing is not how much we have come to know about God, but that we are people God knows as his very own.

And what kind of people does he know as his very own? Jesus said that he came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He told Simon the Pharisee that the sinful woman who anointed his feet loved him much, not because she was so good, but because she had been forgiven so much. Jesus called Peter to discipleship, not when Peter was the know-it-all fisherman, but after the miraculous catch when Peter fell at Jesus feet and admitted that he was a sinner. The prodigal son was welcomed home not because he had spent his inheritance so wisely, but when he came home with empty hands to a forgiving Father. Jesus says that the tax-collector, whose only prayer was “God have mercy on me, a sinner,” went home justified by God, not the super righteous Pharisee bragging about his victorious life. Those who are known by God know that they are sinners, but they also know by faith that God forgives them.

Are you ready to have your spiritual pride and puffed-up knowledge crushed under God’s holy condemnation? We are never ready, but when he does so, he also assures us he forgives our sins. He pick us up in faith. He claim us as his own. Then it can be true of us that “the man who loves God is known by God.” This is also something we know from God’s holy word. But when that word convinces us God has so loved and forgiven us, our knowledge will no longer be a dangerous thing, because knowledge will be tempered by love.

Ezekiel 17:24 “All the trees of the field will know that I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.”

Several companies who have leased our church a photocopier have made strong promises about how fast their customer service works. “If your machine breaks down, we guarantee a service tech will show up the same day,” or even “We will have a man on site within the hour.”

I have sometimes wondered, “What happens if you fail to get a repairman out in the time you guarantee? Do we get a new machine? Do we get a month free on our lease?” As it turns out, there is no consequence for them not keeping their promise. It may be their honest intent, and they may keep it most of the time, but otherwise their promise is nothing more than words.

God gives us proof to back up his promises in many places throughout the Scriptures. We have one in words he gave to the prophet Ezekiel. He uses the picture cedar tree. He takes a sprig off the top, plants it, and it grows into a great tree that produces fruit and provides shelter. This is a picture of the Messiah, the Christ, he had been promising for centuries.

Now the Lord makes this application about the thing he has done: “All the trees of the field will know that I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.” This is the kind of God he is. He has a way of reversing things, especially when it serves the salvation of his people. He takes those who think they are above the rest–the rich, the powerful, the influential, the intellectual–and he humbles them. He hasn’t limited himself to ancient history. We still see dictators rise to pillage their own people and terrorize their neighbors, only to have their power collapse and their regimes fail. The Lord brings down the tall tree and dries up the green tree. The gospel of Christ often finds new opportunities to expand God’s kingdom in the void they leave behind.

The other side of God’s promise is true as well. He takes those who have nothing going for them– the weak, the poor, the simple, the sorry–and he lifts them up and fills them with new life. He takes a David, the youngest in his family, nothing but a shepherd boy, and he makes him king. He helps him win a small empire, and he gives him a place in family tree of the Savior of the world. He took you and me and adopted us as his own sons and daughters by faith, so that we could be called the children of God.

Since Ezekiel wrote this prophecy his words have been fulfilled. God has planted his Messiah on earth in the person of Jesus. His ministry fulfilled all God’s prophecies and purposes. He purchased forgiveness and secured eternal life. His church has grown and spread to feed and shelter the hearts and souls of people all over the world. “I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it,” God promised. He hasn’t given us empty promises. He has given us proof.

1 Corinthians 2:2 “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 

Was the Apostle Paul crazy when he wrote to the members of this church in Corinth? Or was he simply exaggerating? Consider for a moment the issues in Corinth. This congregation drew up the original blueprint for “cliquiness” in a Christian church. They divided themselves into groups based on their favorite apostle. Divisions separated rich and poor members. Some even took fellow members to court to sue them.

The church in Corinth had trouble rejecting the pagan sexual practices of their culture. Some still visited the Greek temple prostitutes. They were confused about God’s principles for marriage, divorce, and remarriage.  The more gifted members used the spiritual gifts God had given them in a loveless way. Basic Christian doctrines came under attack. A few claimed that there is no resurrection of the dead.

These issues prompted Paul to write his letter. Now he almost seems to be bragging as he writes, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”  Didn’t he care about all the division and confusion? Wasn’t it obvious that these people needed solutions? 

Paul understood the situation perfectly. On the pages that follow he convicted the Corinthians of their sins and guided them in God’s will. But he also knew what these people needed more than anything else. The real cure for all their ills was knowing Jesus Christ and him crucified. Without him, nothing else he had to say mattered. With him, these people had God’s single sufficient solution to all life’s problems. 

Knowing Jesus still equips us to deal with our first problem: sin. Like the people in Corinth, we haven’t stopped sinning. But when we do sin, Jesus gives us a place to go with it. We can confess it to him. He takes it from us and disposes it at the cross. Knowing Jesus Christ and him crucified means knowing that Jesus has taken my place, paid for my sin with his blood, reconciled me to God, and carried me up to the very doors of heaven. 

Knowing Jesus is everything we need. His grace gives us access to God’s power and help. It doesn’t merely lecture us about what’s right and what’s wrong. It changes us from within. That doesn’t mean all problems suddenly vanish. In some ways they may even multiply. Remember Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount?  “Blessed are you when men insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” 

Knowing Jesus and his grace at the cross lays the foundation for confronting every false belief and selfish behavior. It may not prevent these problems from ever making an appearance, but it equips us to deal with them they do.

By all means, get to know God’s full message to you in the Scriptures. But above all, know Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Isaiah 56:6-7 “And to foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant–these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.”

The kind of service God’s people offer him is not dull drudgery. It isn’t the go-through-the-motions kind of work of someone merely trying to make a living. This service is special, and Isaiah provides a couple of reasons why this is true.

First, the word translated “serve” doesn’t speak of ordinary service. It is special because of whom you are serving. The task might not be remarkable, but it takes on a unique honor because of the one served. For example, many people work as cooks in a restaurant. It’s hardly a glamorous job. I also have a relative who served as a cook at the White House in Washington D.C. His position was considered prestigious because of the person he served.

Janitors clean buildings all over the world. Salesmen call on millions of clients every day. Teachers teach students in many different languages in many different schools. But the work Christians do to take care of their churches, deliver the gospel, or teach the faith to children has a special honor and privilege. These tasks serve the one and only God, the Savior of the world. He privileges his people to serve him.

The other special feature of this service is the force behind it. Those who serve do so “to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him.”  Service to God is a labor of love. What else could it be when we know how he has first served loved us? Siegbert Becker once wrote, “It is impossible to see ourselves as sinners deserving eternal damnation in hell and then to come to the conviction that the suffering and dying Christ has procured full and free forgiveness for us by taking our guilt upon himself and by giving his own righteousness to us as a free gift of his love, it is impossible to come to that conviction without coming to love him who gave himself into death that we might have everlasting life….To know him is to love him is more applicable to our Savior than to anyone else.” 

For the people who lived in Isaiah’s day, it may have come as a surprise that this service came from “foreigners.” That would mean Gentiles, non-Jews. No one at that time considered Gentiles God’s kind of people. The came from the wrong family background. But in his grace the Lord made no distinctions. He intended to call even those who had not known him to faith and service.

Good things wait for those who serve him: “…these will I bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

The blessing of joy the Lord gives isn’t tied to being well fed, well clothed, or well supplied. We find it especially in his house of prayer. Once that meant the temple in Jerusalem. For us it appears wherever we gather to worship him. Even when life becomes painful, we still find joy in God’s house of prayer. There God solemnly pronounces all our sins forgiven. There Jesus comes really, bodily, to be with us in his supper. There we still meet God today, and he gives his people the promises that make life joyful, even when it doesn’t seem very livable.

2 Corinthians 4:13-14 “It is written: ‘I believed, therefore I have spoken.’ With that same spirit of faith we also believe, and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.”

Our failure to appreciate the magnitude of the gift presents a major obstacle to our sharing the gospel with others. Many of us have known from childhood that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know that he is my Savior. That’s a wonderful gift from God. 

But we are also tempted to take it for granted when we have known it so long. Martin Luther said it this way: “When we hear that Christ has redeemed us with his blood, we are moved as much as a dunce is moved when he hears that a hen has laid an egg. ‘What kind of marvel is that?’ says he, ‘Indeed, that happens every day.’ There is also no joy, comfort, thanks or wonderment when people hear of Christ’s suffering. ‘Oh, that is nothing new! Who does not know that? I have known it well for a long time.’ And so the dear Christ, with his precious blood and his immeasurable works of wonder, must be considered a trifling matter.”

This very message we take for granted assures us that God forgives us and loves us in spite of our sin. That gives us something to say! Paul says, “We also believe, and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.” As Paul points out, you and I already know that the same God who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us, too. We know the reason people die is that God punishes sin with death and hell. We know that when Jesus died on the cross, he suffered the punishment for every human being, and every human sin. That means God no longer needs to punish us for our sins. Since Jesus took our sin out of the picture, death can no longer maintain its control over him or anyone else. God raised him to show that Jesus’ death on the cross really worked. That demonstrates to us that we are also going to rise from the dead to live with him forever. 

This means we are preparing for a great family reunion. Not only will we be raised, but God will “present us with you in his presence.” We will be reunited with him. We will also be reunited with every other believer. This includes those who died before us and those who will die after us. Our believing grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, children and grandchildren will join us with God to live forever.

You already knew this. But is that not amazing? Is it not worth saying? We know God’s secret to eternal life. Of all the problems people face, one problem confronts everyone without exception: death. People may not like to think about it, but no one gets around this reality. Some try to put it off with better health insurance, better doctors, better living habits, or better law enforcement, but there is only one effective solution. We know what that is. That gives us reason to speak. Everyone needs to hear what we have to say.

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are his own, that you may tell others about the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

Peter’s list describes our new status, our “identity” as those who believe in Jesus. Some parts of this involve things for us to use, but he presents most of this list simply for us to appreciate. 

First, the Lord tells us that he has made us his chosen people. That reminds us of the special relationship he once had with the people of Israel. Now that relationship has been opened up. It is no longer the unique possession of one ethnic group. You can’t draw boundaries around it. It applies to all who are part of God’s spiritual house by faith.

Is it hard for us to see the value?  Maybe it was easier for the Gentiles to whom Peter was writing to feel how important that is.  He reminds them in verse 10, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.  Once you had received no mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Peter’s audience knew what it was like to be on the outside looking in. Maybe they weren’t even interested in what the Jewish religion had to say before Jesus was preached to them. But now that they had come to know the Lord, now that they knew the peace and comfort, the power and joy they had been missing, they knew what it means to be God’s chosen people.

Another part of our new status is simply to enjoy is being a holy nation. God doesn’t say you can be a holy nation.  He doesn’t say you will be a holy nation. He says you are one. Even if we don’t act holy, even if we don’t feel holy, God has declared us holy. We are holy because Jesus has washed us clean with his own blood. 

Peter calls us, “a people who are His own.” Once again, what can you do with that? All you can do is bask in it. All you can do is drink it in and know how special God has made you. You are his own. You belong to him.  Ordinarily, the idea of belonging to someone else doesn’t appeal to independent, freedom loving people.  But until we belong to God, we never really know what freedom is. That might sound like a contradiction, but the believer understands. Only after the gospel has captured our hearts, and we understand what it means that Jesus has purchased us from the slavery of sin and death; only after the strangling chains of guilt have been torn away by the cross, do we live our lives in the freedom Jesus promised when he said, “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” It’s a freedom that belongs only to those who belong to him.

As living stones in God’s spiritual house, we enjoy this glorious new status. But one feature also provides something to put into action. Peter calls us a “royal priesthood.” Earlier in his letter he explained, “You are holy priests who bring spiritual sacrifices that God gladly accepts through Jesus Christ.”

This forms the foundation for the New Testament teaching of the universal priesthood of all believers. In the Old Testament God established a special class of priests who stood between himself and his people. They offered the prayers and sacrifices on behalf of everyone else. Their presence served as a reminder of the way in which sin separated the people from God.

Today Jesus has become our once-for-all sacrifice for sin. We can come to him directly to offer our prayers and lives of service as a spiritual sacrifice to God.

Sometimes the term “privilege” gets used as criticism of the people the envious perceive to possess unfair advantages. We Christians have a privilege that is purely a matter of God’s grace, one to embrace without shame, in the status or identity he has given by making us his own.