2/26/20 2 Kings 2:1-12 “Don’t Push the Car, Drive It!”

11 Feb 2/26/20 2 Kings 2:1-12 “Don’t Push the Car, Drive It!”

2/26/20     2 Kings 2:1-12         “Don’t Push the Car, Drive It!”

This Sunday is transfiguration Sunday in some traditions.  If you remember, this was when Jesus went up on the mountain with Peter, James and John.  There He transfigured in front of them into a heavenly figure and joined with Elijah and Moses.  This is one of those moments that we have in the Bible where time seems to be on a different plain then how we normally think.  It was one minute they were there and the next minute they were gone.  And yet for this brief moment, I get the feeling that whatever messages were exchanged, however long they were, they might have been exchanged in the flash of an instant.  This is one of the things that is hard for us to understand because we have no reference points.  We have never been to heaven or been transfigured like this so there is no way that we can understand this.  We can only believe.  Today I would like to take a very brief look at Elijah and find out why he was so important to the Israelites and us.

David Yarbrough makes a wonderful point in this illustration.  Suppose you were on the way to church one Sunday and you came upon Sharon and I pushing our car to church.  You stop and ask me if we are out of gas.  I have to reply no.  Then you ask if we were broke down.  I say no everything is running fine.  You are very curious as to why we are pushing the Mazda.  I finally tell you that I prefer to push the Mazda to church instead of driving it.  You would probably think that I was crazy which might be true.  I have told some wild stories in the past to open a sermon but you may think that this is the most pointless yet.

However, if you think about this a little, you may see that this is not any different than us living our lives without the Holy Spirit.  I know of many Christians today who insist on pushing their way through life with all kinds of struggles when all they have to do is get into the car and all the power of the Holy Spirit is available to them.  Let’s see if we can drive instead of push the car today.

We will never be able to cover this whole passage in the short time we have here today.  I would like to point out three things that Elisha was doing that will show us a message.  But before we get to that we need a little background or nothing will make sense.

First of all, Elisha was a student of Elijah.  Elisha knew that when Elijah died, he would replace him.  But what he didn’t know was that Elijah was not going to die but rather he would be taken to heaven.  He was one of only two people in the Bible who didn’t die but were taken directly to heaven.  Enoch was the other person.  Now you may think that Elijah must have been a nearly perfect person if God would do this for him.  But if you remember the story, Elijah was far from perfect as he suffered from depression and ran from God.  But God loved him as he loves us.

Elijah has to go to Bethel.  So he tells Elisha to stay behind.  He was probably just testing Elisha at this point.  But Elisha refuses to leave his masters side.  They had just come from Gilgal which was the place where the Israelites first crossed the Jordan after wandering in the wilderness for forty years.  This was a place of new beginnings.  This is where it all begins.  This is where we first realize that we might be able to drive the car instead of pushing it.  So Gilgal had meaning for the ancients as well as us.

Now we move to Bethel and find that this was holy to the Israelites also.  It was here that Jacob met the Lord in a dream about the stairway.  This was where he surrendered to the Lord.  We all have our own Bethel.  We have the place where we surrendered all to God.  There is a pattern here.

Next Elijah has to go to Jericho.  Again Elisha follows.  This was the place of the first victory in the Promised Land.  This was the place where God fulfilled his promises to the people.  We have all had battles with Satan and the world.  And we will continue to have these battles.  Elijah had many battles and the Lord had provided for him.  God will provide for us also.

Finally, we have them coming to the Jordan River.  This was the place of death and resurrection.  This was where Israel left behind their wanderings in the desert.  They crossed the Jordan and they became a new nation in the Promised Land.  As a people they were finally home.  And this would be the final home for Elijah as the Lord came to get him after he crossed to the other side.

This is a very quick and abbreviated history of what these places meant to these people.  When they get across the Jordan, Elisha asks for a double portion of the spirit of Elijah.  Now to the three things that I feel need to be mentioned about this passage that really apply to us.

The first thing is that we have to be willing to follow.  If you noticed some similarities between Moses and Elijah, then you are getting it right.  Moses parted the Red Sea and his successor, Joshua, parted the Jordan.  The same is true of Elijah and Elisha.  There are other similarities also.  But the biggest similarity is that they all followed.  Joshua was always with Moses.  After Elijah chose Elisha, then Elisha was always with him.  And they all loved the Lord and tried to do the best that they could to follow all of the wishes of the Lord.

So Elisha wanted a double portion of this.  At this point I would like you to notice all of the prophets along the way of this journey who are telling Elisha that this will be the day that Elijah is taken away.  Elisha knows this.  He doesn’t have to be told.  All the prophets knew this.  It was obviously no secret if you were a prophet.

But look what happens.  They all know this yet Elisha is the only one to follow.  None of the other prophets are willing to do the work and follow.  Now I don’t know about you, but if I knew that someone was going to be taken home to heaven without death, I would do all I could to try to follow.  I mean this is pretty exciting stuff.  But they don’t follow.  They only come out to tell Elisha and no more.

I wonder how many people we have like that in our world today.  Our government is pretty good at this kind of thing.  They will stand back and tell us what our problems are.  Then they will throw a little money at it.  But they will not do anything themselves to solve the problem.  Look at our Congress today.  It’s totally ineffective!  We have churches where they will tell us that there is a problem with the poor folks of this country but they really don’t want them coming to their church.  If you have ever attended a high school basketball game, for example, you could see this close up.  Half of the people in the stands can coach better than any coach but they won’t actually do anything about it.  The other half of the people can referee better than the referees but they are not out there doing the job either.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, these other prophets could have had all that Elisha got if they had just followed.  And the same is true for most people today.  You can have all the Jesus has if you would just follow Him as closely as possible.  Jesus Christ wants to give you all that He has to give.  All you have to do is follow like Elisha did.

And this brings me to the second point.  There is no ending to a life in Christ.  Look what Elijah did.  He knew that he was going to die or he was leaving to go to heaven.  This was no secret.  So what does he do?  Does he go and lay down so that he can be well rested when he goes?  Or does he order up a last meal that would be fit for a king?  No.  He doesn’t do any of these things.  Instead he tells Elisha not to follow and he starts off to put him through a test.  And this is a test of faithfulness that the Lord wants him to do.  Right up to the very end of his life here on earth, Elijah was following God.

I’m not sure that we do that well in this area.  As a nation we can’t wait to retire.  We want to get away from it all and not do anything.  One of the main reasons for this is that something like 75% of Americans don’t like the jobs they have.  So they cannot wait to get out of those trenches.  And of course we have all kinds of advertisements that tell us how great it is to retire, but is it?

I worked for many years at the Post Office and I watched a lot of people retire.  Most of these people did ok.  But there were some people that retired from the Post Office who just went home and sat.  They didn’t travel, they had no hobbies, they were bored.  I always try to tell people who retire to find something that they like to do and then do it.  I retired but I love to preach so here I am every week.

This mentality also spills over to our churches.  I think that we have all heard someone say that they are not going to help in church anymore because they have been doing it for 30 years.  Or they may say that they need a little break and then they never come back because Satan gets a hold of them.  Elijah is showing us here that you are to always serve God, no matter how old you get.  You may need to change what you do once in a while but you are never to quit God.  Whether you are 5 or 95, God still has a job for you.

And don’t worry if you are tired and need a break.  Jesus knows this.  He will give you a break as He helps you to turn to something new or something that you always wanted to do or something that you are very good at doing.  Jesus knows all these things and He will help you because that is all He has ever wanted to do.  He wants to help you be the best person that you can be.

The third thing I would like to bring up here is that you cannot be afraid to ask God for something.  Elisha asks for a double portion of what Elijah had.  Double!  He had some nerve!  He knew just how good Elijah was and he wanted to be twice as good.  This is something that goes totally against our prairie culture.  We are a people who think that we can do things ourselves.  And we can but it goes much better and easier with God’s help.

We think too small when we are talking with Jesus.  We forget that we are talking with the being that made the universe.  We forget that He is responsible for all the birds and animals.  He made all the plants.  He put together our intricate human bodies in such a fashion that it all works.  Did you know that if one of the 20 some elements that make up our bodies is altered just slightly from its percentage, then life ceases to exist?  Who could create something like this except for God?

Now there is nothing wrong with asking God for small things that only affect our own lives.  But you shouldn’t stop there.  Why don’t you pray for world peace?  Why don’t you pray for the world to come to know Jesus as their Savior?  Why don’t you pray that we can eliminate world hunger?  God can and will do it.  These things are not too big for God.  There is nothing too big for God.  God can do it all.

And God, through Jesus Christ, will do it all if only you are obedient.  You have to get into the auto and actually drive it.  This is the key to the whole thing.  Our disobedience in this country has led us to the brink of our own destruction.  As a nation we have left God and gone on our own.  I don’t think that I have to go into details on this.  However, this can all change.  You may think that it would take a miracle to happen and that is just how it is done.  We need the miracle of Jesus Christ in the lives of all the people of this country.  And it can be done.

All you have to do is to start praying about it and then start doing it.  If you start to be very obedient to the word of God, then you will soon see someone else around us start to be obedient.  And the next thing you know we will have three or four people following Christ.  It won’t be long and there will be dozens.  Then soon, there will be a movement to Christ.  This thing will keep on snowballing until we have a revival in this country.  And that is exactly what Jesus wants. And it all starts with our prayers and obedience.  You will never be too old to pray.

In your prayer lives I want you to think about these things.  Pray about ways to follow Christ.  Pray about never taking a break from following Jesus.  And pray about big things.  This is what this passage is all about.  I think that it is kind of neat the way the Old Testament tells us what we only thought about as being in the New Testament.  It is all there.  All you have to do is read it and then do it.

All this brings to mind what someone once said about Christianity.  It is the greatest religion in the world that no one has tried.  What they meant by this was that we cannot achieve Godly perfection in this world.  We only have a few simple things to do and we have a hard time trying to do them.  And that is ok.  As long as our lives are anchored in Jesus Christ and you are trying to do our best, it is ok.  Jesus came to be among us just for this reason.  He has shown us the way and you are to follow it and invite others.  He loves you and will not leave you.  What a great plan we have in Jesus!  Thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.