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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

The Three Elijahs

Father in heaven, thank you so much for seeing us through another week and keeping all of us safe and that it is now the Sabbath hours.

Thank you Lord for this holy time and I just pray that you would please Baptize us with your Holy Spirit now.

Give us, Lord, deep understanding into the Scriptures.

May you lead us and guide us with your Spirit now, we pray.

Well, the title of the sermon this morning is entitled The 3 Elijahs.

Now, let's start by going to our first text found in Malachi chapter 4, verses 5 and 6.

The Bible says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." The Bible here, and in particular in the book of Malachi, we are told that God would send Elijah just before the coming of what?

Now what's interesting is Malachi was written around 400 BC And that was actually many years after the appearance of the literal Elijah.

We're told that Elijah, the person back in the Old Testament there, appeared at around 910 BC.

So by the time that Malachi was written, Elijah, the prophet, the literal prophet that we're talking about, had already appeared.

And so this prophecy cannot be referring to the past where Elijah came and he called fire down from heaven and you know, there was no rain for 3 and a half years, you're familiar with that story.

We're told here that Elijah would come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

And so as we look at the slide here, we know that the first Elijah, as you know the title of the sermon is 3 Elijahs, the first Elijah is the literal Elijah.

He's the 1 that came during the time of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.

And he worked a great reform and he set up the schools of the prophets.

This first Elijah did a great work, but yet Malachi is not referring to that first Elijah.

Now of course I'm making the conclusion based upon the title of my sermon is that there are 3 Elijahs.

The first Elijah was that literal Elijah, how about the second Elijah?

Malachi is partially fulfilled in the life of John the Baptist.

Well, let's go to Luke chapter 1 and verse 13.

This is the events surrounding the birth of John.

The angel said unto him, fear not Zacharias.

For thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shalt call his name John.

And of course, the name John the Baptist is not his full name.

The Baptist I guess was the cliche of what was given to him because he baptized people.

Baptism really started with him there and so his name would be John.

This is John the Baptist and look at what it says in verse 17, and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedience of the wisdom of the just and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

So you see that word Elias there is Elijah.

So John the Baptist would come in the spirit and the power of Elijah and he would turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the fathers to the children and then notice what it said there, to make a people prepared for the Lord.

It was quoted, John when he wrote this, he was quoting from Malachi.

So he was quoting from Malachi and so John the Baptist, he was what we call the second Elijah.

He would come to make a people prepared for the Lord, the first coming of the Lord.

And so Malachi is partially fulfilled in the life of John the Baptist.

Malachi was not referring to the literal John the Baptist, he was referring to someone in the future and that was only partially, as we know from the sermon title, there's a third Elijah coming.

Let me give you some more evidence, if this is news to you, that John the Baptist, he is the second Elijah.

Look at what the Bible says here, is greater than he.

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John and if ye will receive it this is Elias which was for to come.

So Jesus doesn't even say he came in the spirit and the power of Elijah, he said this is Elijah which was prophesied to come.

So it's very clear we have the stamp of approval from Jesus himself that John the Baptist is quote unquote the second Elijah.

Matthew 17 verse 10 to 13, And the disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias, Elijah, must first come?

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall come first and restore all things.

But I say unto you that Elias is come already and they knew him not but have done unto him whatsoever they listed likewise shall also the son of man suffer of them Then the disciples understood that he spake of who?

So we know that John the Baptist, he is the second Elijah.

He is the 1 that partially fulfilled that prophecy in that last verse of Malachi, that very last verse of the Old Testament.

And we say this is partially fulfilled and we know that Definitely he came as Elijah because Jesus said so, but it was a partial fulfillment because Malachi said that Elijah would come just before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

Now, Let's keep reading a little bit more about John the Baptist.

Malachi 3, verses 1-4, In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaias saying the voice of 1 crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord you see that make his paths straight and the same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a leather girdle about his loins and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

You know friends, there's something very interesting that we learn about John the Baptist and his life.

His dress was a rebuke to those who lived fashionably in those days.

It's a diet that I don't think many of us would subscribe to today, prescribe to today.

You know, he ate locusts and wild honey, but it was a very simple diet, simple lifestyle, simple dress.

So these are just little things that we learn about John the Baptist, but furthermore it says here Matthew 11 Verse 8, But what went ye out for to see?

Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses.

And so friends, we see here that John the Baptist, He lived a very simple lifestyle.

And you know if we are to be like Elijah, like John the Baptist, you know even Elijah in the Old Testament that we'll look at in the coming weeks as we study together, he also lived a very simple lifestyle.

So we see very clearly that John the Baptist, he is the second Elijah.

And you know even what he did, it paralleled many things to what literal Elijah did in the Old Testament.

Let's have a look at Elijah really quickly, okay?

Well, in 1 Kings 16, verses 30-31, this is the background to which Elijah would rise up.

In verse 30, the Bible says, and Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him.

And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him.

Israel was meant to be God's people, but He went and served Baal.

He walked in the sins of all those that had come before him.

He married a woman who was not even a Christian, was not even of God's people.

And so as a result, in 1st Kings 17 verse 1, we see this sudden introduction of Elijah and he stands before King Ahab and he rebukes him.

And he says, according to my word, there's going to be no rain.

Because of this idol worship, because of this alliance that you've made with Jezebel there's not going to be any rain until I say so.

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The Three Elijahs

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