2 Kings Chapter 4:1-44

Resurrection & Restoration

 

Ch.4 is a Chapter that deals with the subject of Resurrection & Restoration.

A) Two women – One that is a widow   2kids

Another – Not a widow but – no kids

 

B) Then Chapter ends with a focus on food

1) Poisonous stew & 20 loaves of barley bread

 

C) We looked at the first story already – on Sun am two weeks ago.

1) Woman who was a widow ….. Lose her two sons to Creditors

 

D) Asked what do you have in the house – Jar of oil

1) Borrow empty vessels –

 

E) She did so believing that God was going to fill them –

1) Great story of faith – Believing and responding to the word of God

 

F) God filled those empty vessels – enough to pay her debt and to live on the rest

 

Pick it up in V. 8-10 We meet woman #2

 

RD V.8-10

 

 

She is called a Notable woman or GREAT IN KJV

A)GREAT (gadol, gaw-dole). She is the only woman in Scripture called Gadowl.

 

B) The word is used in the Bible to speak of SPIRITUAL greatness, MORAL greatness,

1) MATERIAL greatness and MENTAL greatness.

 

C) She is the ONLY woman in the entire Bible described by this word.

 

One of the things that made her GREAT was that she was a woman of hospitality.

A) She persuaded Elisha to eat at her home

 

B) Then she sought. with the approval of her husband, they made a room for Elisha to stay in on his frequent travels through the area.

 

C) Elisha prophesies that she will have a son

                                     RD v.11-17

 

So along came this son He was the child of PROMISE, the product of PRAYER,

A) He was the PRIDE AND JOY of his parents; he was PRECIOUS to the prophet.

 

B) The birth of this child further validated the ministry of Elisha

 

C) But now this great woman. Great trial!  V.18-21

Now I want you to notice what she did – She takes her dead son – lays him on the Prophets bed

A) Why? Not Preparing for a burial – she was preparing for a MIRACLE.

 

B) This shows that she was a woman of faith – She was preparing for the Rez of the boy – not his burial

 

C) Something in your life that has died? What are you preparing for?

1) Burial or Resurrection –

2) Preparing that it is going to get better or are you thinking it is going to get worse.

 

She was a woman of Great faith!

A) Great faith is mentioned in Hebrews 11:35 Women received their dead raised to life again.

 

B) She is ONE of the two Old Testament women who saw their sons raised from the dead.

1) We saw this other woman in 1 Kings 17. She was a woman from Zarephath who knew Elijah the prophet

 

C) This woman was the other one – SO we make note she was preparing for a miracle   RD V.22-26

 

Now this is interesting: Her son is lying on the Prophets Bed – Dead & yet she tells her husband and Gehazi –that all is well ?

A) What is up with that? - Was she lying? Was she delusional?

B) There are many Christians who will give you that answer when in reality they are a mess.

1) But I do not believe that is the case here. I believe that she is responding in faith.

 

C) Though she was experiencing the WORST possible thing that could happen to a mother she was GREAT in her faith & submission to the Lord.

 

D) She knew that God’s plan for her and her husband and son was a PERFECT plan and thus this death would work to those loving ends.

 

                  

I also believe that she was also EXPECTING a miracle

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

 

B) She was believing for that which was not yet seen.

 

Notice where she finds Elisha {Mount Carmel

A) He was dwelling on the mount. Here is an IMPORTANT picture for us.

 

B) THAT is where you ALWAYS find men of God. They are up on the mountain. {Figurative – quiet spot

1) Quiet place / quiet time / quiet heart – receive Revelation from the Lord

 

 

C) Examples in Scripture: Moses MT Sinai

1) Peter on the Roof top / Paul in desert

   Jesus Morning Prayer – Mark 1

 

D) Are you a man or woman of solitude? Do you know how to slow down? -

 

IF you desire to be a man or woman of God, you must learn the secret the place of ISOLATION...

A) The place of getting away with the Lord.

 

B) The place where there is nothing to obstruct your view of God.

 

C) WHERE did Elisha, this mighty prophet hang out?

1) In front of the MTV? At the gym? NO!

2) He was on the mountain with the Lord.

 

D) So that is where she finds him { RD v.27-28

 

Here we see something that is very important..... Something that Jesus spoke of

 

Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." 

 

Here we see in this GREAT WOMAN that her flesh is beginning to fail

 

QUESTION: Can YOU relate to this? I sure can!

A) One minute you make a great proclamation of faith....

 

B) You KNOW that the Lord is going to do something.... You KNOW that it is well

1) But the next minute your faith falters

 

C) NOTE: When that happens, know this: You are NOT alone.

 

Every man and woman of faith in the Bible had their times when their faith faltered.

A)Here, this great woman was doing so well, but now that she is in the presence of Elisha she falters: “Didn’t I tell you, Don’t deceive me?”

 

B) NOTE: When this happens, RUN to your place of strength - PRAYER

 

Turn to Psalm 77

 

Remember your works

 

Remember your wonders

 

Meditate on your works

 

Talk on your deeds

 

Hold on to what you know is true: Promise given

 Back to 2 Kings

                                   RD V.29-37

Several things to glean from this story!

1) Elisha is a Picture of Jesus

 

"Of course, there is a profound and beautiful use to be made of the prophet's action in laying himself upon the dead child, mouth to mouth, and hand to hand, if we regard it as symbolic of that closeness of approach to our nature, dead in sins, which the Lord of life makes in His incarnation and in His continual drawing near." (Maclaren)

 

When we were dead – Jesus drew near – He inhabited our world

A) The word became flesh and dwelt among us

 

B) He became death – experienced the fullness of death – So we could experience the fullness of his life

 

C) He was the vessel conveying spiritual life to dead souls.

 

#2 A Picture of evangelism:

A) Identification

 

B) It was PERSONAL CONTACT that made the difference. He touched this child personally.

 

C) He involved himself personally with this lifeless dead body!

1) He THREW himself wholeheartedly into this situation. He poured himself out.

D) For our purposes in witnessing you could say that there was a total identification with this boy

 

Intensification of Prayer

 

2 Kings 4:35

35 He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him;

 

 

We need personal identification and contact, personal touching of the lives of those who don’t know Jesus.

A) But that must be accompanied by INTENSIFICATION in prayer. Elisha was into it.

 

James 5:16

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much

 

B) NOTE:  Many people might want to see souls saved, but they do NOT see intercession as an integral part of that work.

 

C) Power of intercession: Pastor Chuck – One ½ hr in Hungary / ½ hr in Costa Rica.

1) Another in Russia

 

D) These things are badly needed in our lives as we seek to touch those dead in sin

1) Identification / Intensification in Prayer

#3 Be Patience & Persevere

A) We then read that the little boy sneezed seven times. Why is that important?

 

B) When spiritual life begins to happen, it does NOT always come with a big bang.

1) Sometimes it’s just a little sneeze.

 

C) APPLICATION: Don’t be disappointed if you only hear a sneeze after pouring your life into reaching a lost soul.

 

D) Some of you are witnessing this very thing in the lives of some of your friends, or family members.

1) When we hear the sneezes.....We can know that  these first signs of reviving.

 

Most forest fires start with a little spark

A) Most Revivals the same {little spark – a few gathered to pray.

 

B) SO this Great woman with a great need – reveals great faith – experiences a great miracle

 

Move on to the poison stew  RD V. 38-41

A)Probably not the smartest move – Elisha says to one of these young guys – go into the wilderness and gather some stuff for a stew

 

B) Young men not good at gathering – eating yes ….

1) They sit down to eat – There is death in the pot!

We could say that today about America!

There is death in the Pot – Something amiss

A) Judge Alito – Stand on Abortion

 

B) Intelligent Design banned from schools

 

C) The 10 Commandments like a mirror –

1) Mirror shows you if you are dirty –

 

D) The 10 commandments show us where we are dirty –

1) 1981 our nation said – We don’t want to know we are dirty – out of our Schools /

 

E) Out of the court houses

 

Death in the Pot!

All but two of the first 108 universities founded in America were Christian. This includes the first, Harvard, where the student handbook listed this as Rule #1: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."

Harvard today Coed Bathrooms in their dorms

 

Harvard published it own Magazine featuring Nude Students – Harvard Playboy

                              Death in the Pot!

Jesus said in the last days 2And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold

A)   We are living in those times – all the Problems that we see in our Country – forsaken the Law of God.

 

B) 1980 10 commandments out of schools - courts

 

B)    Black white white black – {GRAY!!!!

 

40 +yrs ago – 35 Americans were victims of a violent crime each hr. 

today 200 Americans are victims of violent crime every hr.

 

40 +yrs ago Violent crime made up 16.1% of the crimes committed in the U.S.

today 40+yrs later violent crime makes up 75.8% of crimes committed

 

40 +yrs ago – only 5.3% of the births in America were Illegitimate.

today 40+ yrs later the # is 26.2 % - and that doesn’t take into account the thousands of babies that are aborted every day in the U.S. 

 

America used to lead the world in every Positive arena / Today we are still a world leader but in a different sense

 

# 4 in Divorce recent time Mag./

# 1 Violent crime

# 1 in Illegal drug use

#1 in Teenage Pregnancy.

#1 in Abortion

 #1 in Illiteracy of the modern countries

 

There is death in the Pot!!!!!!

 

Entertainment World

 

Titanic  $600,788,1882

Star Wars $460,998,0073

Shrek 2 $436,721,7034  

ET:  $435,110,545

 Phantom Menace $431,088,2976

Spider-Man $403,706,3757

Revenge of the Sith $380,262,5558

Lord of the Rings:

The Return of the King $377,027,3259

Passion of the Christ, $370,773,86711

Lord of the Rings:

The Two Towers $341,784,37713

Finding Nemo $339,714,97814

Lord of the Rings:

The Fellowship of the Ring $313,837,57717

 

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The $271,700,000

 

BrokebackMountain          $42,131,000

 

 

There is death in the pot – Church goes

There is a FAMINE on the land concerning the hearing of the Word of God.

 

It is amazing how few places there are that simply TEACH the pure Word of God.

 

There is a lot of HYPE and “Religious Activity” but very few places where the Word is taught and studied systematically.

 

Programs and stuff for everything under the son

 

Church is a social club --- 

 

All sorts of winds of doctrines and Christian fads (Laughing in the Spirit, barking in the Spirit)

 

What do we do? Follow Elisha’s example

A) Took some meal and thru it in the pot

 

B) Meal symbolic of the word of God – Get back to the Bible

 

C) Our founding fathers believed this                                                                            

 

Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of "The Declaration of Independence" were orthodox, deeply committed, Christians? Who believed in the Bible?

 

Immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of Scripture for the people of this nation.

 

Noah Webster

The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions....

The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws....

All the miseries and evils which men suffer from, vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible....

 

Samuel Adams

The rights of the colonists as Christians...may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written in the New Test.”

 

Benjamin Franklin Address at the Constitutional Convention Thursday June 28, 1787

 

"I have lived, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

We have been assured, in the Sacred Writings that "except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages.

 

I therefore beg leave to move -- that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to officiate in that service."

 

A) Franklin’s advice – We need to begin everyday w/ Prayer – Unless the Lord builds the nation we are laboring in Vain

 

John Adams Entered into his diary February 22, 1756

"Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there contained! Every member would be obliged in conscience to temperance, frugality and industry: to justice, kindness and charity towards his fellow men: and to piety, love and reverence toward Almighty God....What a Utopia, what a Paradise would this region be."

 

Pt. When the Bible is believed & obeyed it Changes lives

 

Death in your marriage?

 

Death in your friendships?

 

What does the Bible Say?