This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elijah” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 28, 1988.

Tonight we’ll begin our scripture reading in John’s Gospel, the 12th chapter. We’ll read from verse 44 to the end of the chapter, then we’ll turn back to 1 Kings. This is John 12, 44, hear the word of God. And Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in him who sent me.

And he who beholds me beholds the one who sent me. I have come as light into the world that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world. but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him. The word I spoke is that is what will judge him at the last day. For I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father himself who sent me has given me commandment what to say and what to speak.

And I know that his commandment is eternal life Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.” the son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah. And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.

And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. And it came about As though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel, the daughter of Beth Baal, king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days, Hiel, the Bethelite, built Jericho.

He laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son, Shebu. According to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun. Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word.

Let us pray. Our Father, we may well be impressed by the greatness of Elijah. We ask, however, that our impressions of him will be measured by our impression of your son. For surely it is in light of the one who was from a yet future day that he Elijah was to be understood. Our God May it be plain to us, then, as we think about him and his life, as we think about his ministry, how that ministry still speaks, speaks effectively through Christ. And by that root, to us. May your church be taught by you. We ask this in Christ’s name.

Amen. from regions forgotten in the territory of tribes living in isolation from the promised land from the transjordan east of the river the former dominion of the Amorites, the province of Zion, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, from the borders of Gilead, of the Transjordan tribe of Gad, a tribe renowned as a marauding scourge, according to the prophecy of Jacob in Genesis forty-nine, but also dressed in Messianic splendor, according to the prophecy of Moses in Deuteronomy thirty-three.

From these regions forgotten This territory of tribes living in isolation from the promised land, from the Transjordan east of the river, comes Elijah, a most extraordinary figure, one who in stature rivals no less a figure than Moses himself. This prophet, then, from the East, enters the land of promise. Across the Jordan, the land of blessing. the land of Israel, territory for the northern tribes, separated from the southern tribes, over which now Ahab rules with his Sidonian queen, Jezebel, in the city of Samaria. This prophet enters the land from an unexpected region.

He comes and delivers an edict. There shall be no dew, no rain these years except by my word. So the edict reads, and his edict registers well upon the consciences of those who would understand. He includes in this edict an oath. As the Lord, he says, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand.” Now, these words are hardly a stock phrase, a casual introduction of himself and his message. Instead, by them, Elijah is identifying himself as a spokesman for God. as a prophet of the Lord. It is almost as if out of the regions of the heavens, this man Elijah has come out of the East.

Without genealogy, without mother or father, He appears from Gilead like one recently dispensed from the council chambers of the Lord. You see, ordinarily we have the wrong idea about a prophet. We think of a prophet generally as a visionary. peering into the future, in order to tell things yet to be. The biblical view of the prophet is quite different. According to scripture, the prophet is one who has been taken into the confidence of the Lord, as if he had been transported by the Lord into the courts of the Lord to hear for himself the designs, the plans, the will of God.

When Elijah therefore claims that he stands before the Lord. Note the words, before whom I stand. When Elijah claims that he stands before the Lord, it is specifically in this sense that he speaks. as one who has been taken into the confidence of the Lord, as one who has been transported into the courts of the Lord to hear for himself the designs of the Lord, the purposes of God, what God wills and what God will do. He comes Therefore, as one not simply from the Transjordan regions in Gilead, but from God.

That is the privilege of the prophetic office. One who has stood before the Lord. to hear what the Lord is saying, and then the prophet comes to tell the people what the Lord said. Jesus, certainly prophetic himself, a prophet. There being that prophetic dimension to his sonship, Jesus himself speaks similarly.

And that is why we read this evening John 12. Take stock of verses 48 through 50. Those verses are filled with the sense of Jesus’ ministry, as he is the quintessential prophet of God. Notice especially verse 49, “‘For I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father himself who sent me has given me commandment, what to say and what to speak.’ Here is the epitome of the prophet of the Lord.” And then verse 50, he continues. Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the father has told me.

Jesus, the son, having prophetic office truly as none before him, gives expression to the prophetic dimension of his ministry. The sense of prophethood than in Christ, is as it is in Elijah as well. Jesus has come forth from God the Father, from the council chambers of his Father, before whom he stands with the revelation, the climactic revelation of the will of the Lord.

It may be well for us. To see just how consistently this is worked out. Even beyond the ministry of Jesus. For beyond him, there is the apostolic ministry. And that ministry is also prophetic. Prophetic in the sense of which we have been speaking of it in the ministry of Elijah. And, of course, in the ministry of Jesus. Turn, for instance, to second Corinthians chapter two. Look at the last verse of that chapter.

Here you have an exposition or an expression of Paul’s consciousness of his office or his function in the church, and specifically now as it relates to the church in Corinth. And you know that he is busy about a defense of himself before that church. Now that consciousness at work in him concerning his status and standing for the church, leads him to use a unique phrase with regard to his ministry as it focuses upon the circumstances in Corinth.

He says, I am not peddling the word of God, or if you will, I am not corrupting it like some, particularly those who speak in such a way that the non-authoritative and unprophetic character of their ministry becomes apparent. In the end, those who peddle the word, those who corrupt it, are speaking from themselves, and they speak from the earth. But notice how then Paul goes on to speak of his ministry. Contrasting the ministry of those non-authoritative, unprophetic types is this apostolic ministry, which is, according to Paul, from God. The origin is from God.

As Paul speaks in Christ, in the sight of God, That is Paul’s equivalent to the phrase in first Kings seventeen when Elijah says that he stands before the Lord. Paul is claiming prophetic status and standing. Before the church. You see. He means more here than simply that God knows all things, and therefore he knows what I’m saying every time I open my mouth. Instead, he is speaking about what Elijah spoke of with those words in the opening verse of 1 Kings 17. I stand before the Lord. A unique standing, to be sure.

As I have said, Paul here is claiming prophetic status as one whose authority arises because he is privileged to speak from God. The very message he has, he has heard while in the presence of God, for he speaks in Christ in the sight of God. And that this is the case, and that this is the proper interpretation of what Paul says in that seventeenth verse, is proved by what he goes on to say in the third chapter, where he compares his own ministry with no less a figure than Moses. the great prophetic figure of the Old Testament. The prophet, then, stands before the Lord as one privileged by the Lord’s own beckoning to be privy to the counsels of the Lord Himself. This notion of Paul, that he in fact does stand before the Lord, speaking in Christ in the sight of God, underscores much of what he says in various ways throughout 2 Corinthians.

But of interest to you may well be what he says at the conclusion in the twelfth chapter. For the same phrase is used once more. Verse 19. All this time, you have been thinking that we, or I, am defending myself to you. Actually, he goes on, it is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ. and all for your up building below. This verse.

Is a foundational verse for the practical outworking of the prophetic ministry, which is Paul’s for the sake of the church. You might know how this New Testament prophet goes on to apply the prophetic message to the circumstance of the church. The prophet comes, not for tearing down, but for building up. He comes and speaks as he does for edification. But he also comes as an administrator of the covenant.

Note what Paul then says, for I am afraid that perhaps when I come, I may find you not to be what I wish, and may be found by you not to be what you wish, that perhaps there are these matters in your midst, strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbance.

Now, the worship of Baal may well have brought down the wrath of God in the day of alignment. But what will bring down the wrath of God in the day of Paul and every subsequent day since Paul until Christ returns is the very things he mentions here. And the reason why you must believe that is because Paul speaks in Christ in the sight of God.

Paul is a prophet who knows exactly what the Lord is thinking and exactly what the Lord will do. Well, enough has been said on this matter. Moving back to Elijah, it should be clear to us now that Elijah’s words establish his claim. point to the origin of his message and the authority of his person as one privy to the secret counsels of the Lord. He knows what the Lord is thinking and what the Lord will do. But because Elijah is, as he says, one who stands before the Lord, one who comes forth from God. No one better than he knows that the Lord, the God of Israel, lives. You see? The reason why Elijah can say that he has stood before the Lord, the reason why he can say that the Lord God of Israel lives is he has just been in the presence of the Lord God of Israel.

Now Israel may judge that the Lord is dead. Israel may well have concluded that the Lord is obsolete, that he is unresponsive and therefore no longer worthy of our trust and our faith. Israel may well judge that a better God is Baal, and that Baal is love. He is a modern deity and he is receptive to us. interested in our circumstances. But the situation, you see, is quite otherwise. This prophet Elijah, whose name means, My God is Jehovah, comes as the ambassador of the living God, the living though exiled God of Israel.

The Lord, this One, will no longer sit by. For as has been said of Ahab, evil has now reached a point of perfection in the seventh king from Jericho. Never has it been this bad. So therefore, this God, the living and true God, demonstrates that he is, in fact, alive by sending his prophet to the purpose of executing his covenantal justice.

Apostasy reaps God’s wrath. Don’t be deluded. It may well be they have fine cathedrals and they have the biggest budgets imaginable, but apostasy reaps They may even have the best youth group in town. And the visitation of that wrath by the living and true God will expose just how dead the that are worshipped by those who have apostatized.

Now take stock of this pronouncement by Elijah. You see, this pronouncement is a direct affront to the God who has now become so popular amongst the Israelites. After all, Bale is the storm god, the god of the rain, the god of the harvest, the god of the earth. But here now strides Elijah preaching the word of the living God, no rain, not even any dew, none, drought, and a devastation to all of your harvest. which you will recall your God they promised you a deliberate assault upon this phony deity and upon his consort the Asherah Now, it may be true.

That we are not so much troubled by. Idle gods. Like they. That compromised Israel. Ones that we can easily identify. Nevertheless. Apostasy. Abounds. unfaithfulness to the one true God abounds. But tragically, you see, it abounds where the Lord’s name also abounds.

Instead of exchanging God for Baal, What many have now done is to turn God into big while retaining God’s name. And it’s not just the liberals. It’s not just the liberals who have done this. who have apostatized by turning the gospel into an earthly agenda for social and political engineering. It is conservatives as well, who have done the same.

Their God being no less now a Dale, a God of yearning, a God of fertility, a God of business, a God of social affairs, a God of affluence, a God of success. Interestingly, Jesus, in his ministry, speaks of the regions of tire and sight. those regions from which they’ll worship arose. And he says that those regions will fare better in the day of judgment than the sanctuaries of orthodoxy. Truly, must we not look to ourselves? Is not the prophetic word coming to us? Does not the judgment of God begin with the house of the Lord?

Certainly, to whom much is given, and we have been given much, have we not? The word of the living God, which we have embraced, the saving work of Jesus Christ, in which we have said we have trusted. That word and that salvation coming forth from God Himself, and we, through His messages, privy to the secret counsels of our God. Yes, to us, much has been given. But you know how that concludes. Not someone else. You. Not the liberals down the street. You. Much is required. Otherwise, the liberal will fare better than you. Father, you have sent forth your word. You have authenticated that word.

These, your servants who come forth from your presence, those who have heard what you have said and have delivered the same to your people. Before them, Lord, may we tremble for his your word that they convey and the certain outcome of our lives before that word that is made plain and clear. O Lord, may we continue to trust in you and in the ministry of that prophet our excellence Jesus Christ.

For he was not just a prophet revealing the will of God. He was a priest. So that our sins and our offenses would be removed. And we would have access to you. May we trust him. We pray this that as he has stood before your presence and stands now, as Elijah did and Paul did as well, may we, may we also come to stand before your presence.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.