Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 10 – December 1979

 

The Mantle Of Elijah But The Spirit Of Christ

(Suitable for a youth service)

 

Sermon by Rev. H. W. Pennings on 2Kings 2:8, 12b – 14

Scripture Reading: 2Kings 2

 

Sometimes our youth ask the question:, “What is really our place within the community of the church?” Some say that our youth have a special place, just as they have a special place within society as a whole. For instance, we hold that youth unemployment is of a different nature than adult unemployment. That is why governments have established special agencies to deal with youth unemployment. Youth is DIFFERENT, we are told. Many churches have special youth services almost every second week, because youth is different. Some even have an ORDINARY worship service in the main part of the building at the same time as there is a CONTEMPORARY worship service in another part, especially for youth who are different. Then we continue to talk about the GENERATION GAP, even to the extent that many young people who get on well with their parents and other adults may wonder if there is something ABNORMAL about them! Karl Marx, one of the founders of communism, taught that there must be confrontation between worker and employer. Many others tell us that there must also be confrontation between youth and the older section of society. That is why, they say, we must treat youth with KID GLOVES. Youth is special. Therefore it is no wonder that our youth sometimes enquire as to what their SPECIAL PLACE should be within the community of the church.

What we have said so far is all by way of introduction to the situation of history that confronts us in our text. We read there about a particular instance of the handing down of responsibility from one generation to the next generation. The prophet Elijah is passing from the scene. He had been a reformer in a land that did not want reformation. Elijah had been an imposing figure. Who can ever forget, having been there or able to picture it in their mind, the thunder and lightning of Mt. Carmel? Throughout his days the prophet Elijah had pronounced God’s judgement upon a godless generation. His name means “My God is the Lord.” And that had been his message. Because he was faithful to his task he had been a wandering prophet; pursued first here, then there.

But now the old must make way for the young. It is a situation of everyday life. It happens in business, in education, in sport and in government – all the time: It also happens in the church. On the day that ONE person is given the proverbial gold watch upon his retirement, the NEXT person, as an apprentice, is shown over the workshop for the very first time. One goes from the scene and another comes onto the scene. On the day that one dies, another is born; on the day that one is buried, another is baptised.

Not that the history portrayed in 2Kings 2 is as usual as all that of course! For a start, Elijah is not simply retiring; and it is certainly not the case that he cannot manage anymore. Elijah is going to glory, without dying first of all. The Lord by that wants to show the church that those who fight for Him will never do that in vain. Elisha calls Elijah, “the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” and we take this to refer to the battle that he has had to reform Israel. The story of Elijah’s departure to glory is told briefly but graphically in our Bible reading and text. We will never understand the HOW of it; that still remains within the secret counsel of God. But it is very important to know the INTERPRETATION of this unique event in the history of God’s people.

We therefore find Elijah and Elisha leaving Gilgal for the last time together. “Stay here please,” says Elijah, but Elisha refuses to stay behind. “I will not leave you,” he replies. It is clear that Elijah knew what the Lord was about to do with Him. On two occasions the theological students of the O.T. church – that is, the “sons of the prophets” – on two occasions these men asked Elisha, “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?” Yes, they knew it too and so did Elisha know. On the second occasion 50 of these ‘sons of the prophets’ started travelling along with them. They came to the river Jordan. There, Elijah took off his mantle, and striking the water with it, crossed over, for the waters had parted.

It was at that time, when Elijah is about to depart from the scene of our history, that the Lord tests the one about to take over. Years beforehand the Lord had asked Solomon in a dream what, of all of His gifts, he would desire for himself. He asked God for wisdom. Similarly, when Elisha is asked to name the thing which he would like to receive from his master Elijah, he asked, “Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.” And so, as we read later on, he received it. The sign was that he should see Elijah at the time when he was taken away. He saw it …and then he saw him no more. But this part of the history of 2Kings 2 is another story for us today. After Elijah’s glorification Elisha is alone. Only the mantle of Elijah – that mantle he had used to strike the waters of the river Jordan remained behind. Although as such there was no magic in that mantle, Elisha discards his own mantle for the rest of his days. Then, coming again to the river Jordan and to the 50 theological students who had remained behind there, he, as Elijah had done, struck the water. “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he cried out. In other words, “Is the spirit of Elijah, which is the Holy Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Christ – is that Spirit upon me as I have asked?” Yes, the Spirit of Christ was upon him. The waters of the river parted a second time that momentous day. Then the text for this sermon ends, simply, with the words, “,…and Elisha crossed over.”

Before we start to apply all of these things to ourselves you should hear (again) that the title of this sermon is, “The mantle of Elijah, but the Spirit of Christ.” From the rest of the history of 2Kings we learn that Elisha is far from being a mere carbon-copy of his former master. Elijah had been a prophet who had continually to announce God’s JUDGEMENT upon the adulterous, idolatrous members of the covenant of God’s grace. His name had meant, “My God is the Lord,” and he had to teach that forcefully to those who had made for themselves and served other gods. Elijah had been like another Moses he had to deal with a people who were continually in rebellion against the Lord.

But Elisha was not to be another Elijah. There was not the same problem in Israel during his time of prophecy. Each generation has its own peculiar problems. To each generation God sends His servants whom He has well-prepared for their task. Elisha, who had asked for a double portion – the portion of an elder son – of the Spirit of God, could much more be an EVANGELIST than a reformer. He could bring comfort and joy to Israel. It was his peculiar ministry as a shepherd of the flock to lead a repentant nation back to her God. His name means “My God is salvation”. He was a man easy to approach; his very presence anywhere inspired confidence.

Such a man was the prophet Elisha.

As there was no need for Elisha to be a carbon-copy of Elijah, for the situation had changed, so must the youth of the church see their calling today. On the one hand, the mantle of Elijah also fitted Elisha. There is no need for each succeeding generation within the church to consider itself so different that nothing of the past applies anymore. The task of our fathers in the faith is also the task of the church today. The task which is the task of the older members is also the task to which the Lord calls our youth In other words, the place of youth in the church today is essentially the same as the place of the older people.

Maybe such a declaration does not fall on willing ears. For we are surrounded by opinion to the contrary. Maybe there are some young people also in our midst who want us to copy some other churches and have a special youth service at least once a fortnight. Youth is then completely set apart. Many people say that the problems of youth are unique – that we cannot ask from youth what we ask from older members of the church. For example, that we should not ask youth to listen to sermons which require a bit of concentration and thought; that we should not ask youth to sing psalms and hymns that are thousands of years old. But who declares these things to us? Who says that youth must always be spoon-fed? When we are foolish enough to follow such advice, and problems come, then youth is lost – youth can’t face it – and, often enough, youth leaves the church! We can find an abundance of examples of churches where there is plenty of youth, but few older people or plenty of older people, but little youth. In both cases it is disastrous.

Such a congregation is doomed, unless there is re-evaluation and change. The church of tomorrow comes out of our attitude today. The mantle of Elijah also fitted Elisha. He was not given a special mantle to wear…. the type of garment which only youth WOULD wear. Such a coat would have been useless for Elisha, and God in His infinite wisdom did not even let him ask for one.

On the other hand, it is also still true for today that the youth of the church do not have to be carbon-copies of the older generation within the church. Each age, each generation of mankind, has its own problems and its own calling. When the church continues blindly to do “its own thing” no matter what is going on in the world around her, little good can be said about it. Elisha, also, was a reformer, but it was in keeping with the age in which he was placed. The church, the body of Christ, must continue to proclaim the work of Christ in such a way that it can be understood. For our youth also to do this, you must take up the mantle of Elijah, as Elisha did – not. another mantle, not another gospel, not another spirit. For, when you determine only to take up the mantle of Elisha, the Spirit of Elijah, who is the Spirit of Christ, will lead you to do God’s work and to serve Him in His way. God’s promise to the church, to the older and younger members, is that He will supply us with knowledge and wisdom.

The Spirit of Christ is also the Holy Spirit who was poured out for the first time on the first day of Pentecost. “Your young men shall see visions – your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,” Joel had written 500 years earlier. But when the church- and especially the youth of the church, for youth more quickly sees faults than the older generation – when the church starts to dream dreams which Joel had never dreamed, and to see visions which Elisha could not have seen, and the church starts to change its very nature as the church of the family, then it is the spirit of youth, and no longer the Spirit of Christ and the mantle of youth, but no longer the mantle of Elijah, dominating us.

The church has one gospel but many messengers. There is one who died for our sins, who was buried, who was raised on the third day. Both young and old must acknowledge God’s truth revealed in Christ in order to be saved.

We do not read in the gospels that Jesus ever smote the waters of the river Jordan with His mantle, although we know that He was in the river and beside it during His ministry. But Jesus did WALK on the river. There are many people today who would see it as the task of the church to do the same – to walk on the water, to do the same miracles which Jesus and the apostles did, the same healing and exactly the same speaking in tongues. But there are people today who lie before the Lord just as Ananias and Sapphira did, but they are not immediately smitten, and there are people who participate in the Lord’s Supper without discerning the body of Christ, but the Lord does not immediately make them sick so that some even die of their illness. God NEVER calls Noah to be another Adam, or David to be another Abraham, or the apostle Paul to be another apostle Peter. It is always the MANTLE of Elijah; there is proper succession, for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday as today as forever. It is always the MANTLE of Elijah; but it is also always the SPIRIT of Christ the Holy Spirit, who places us in THIS world, who also EQUIPS us for service in this world.

Brothers and sisters – young people – especially when you ask the Lord to equip you for service in His Kingdom you will be given the mantle of Elijah and the Spirit of Christ. The crown you will receive as ambassadors for Christ will be a crown of thorns, of sweat, of blood. That is your calling; that is your crown; until Jesus comes again. Other callings will be offered, and other crowns – “special” ones for “special” people. But do not be tempted into acceptance. There are different mantles and different spirits – many of them indeed. Watch and pray continually. Your place in the church is the place of a servant, but a servant who will, like first of all Elijah, and then like Elisha – your fathers in the faith – receive an eternal inheritance.

Amen.

After sermon… Psalter Hymnal 468 – all verses.