Secrets Unsealed

What Jesus Said

Stephen Bohr

1. The Word of God

2. The Unconditional Love of God

3. How Jesus Understood His Self Identity

4. Good and Evil

5. Moses and Jesus

6. Overcoming Life’s Mistakes

7. How to Pray

8. Family Values

9. Relief From Stress

10. History’s Greatest Hoax

11. Holy Spirit Baptism

12. Life and Death

13. Peace in the Middle East

14. The Rapture of the Saints

15. The Final Judgment

16. The End of Evil

17. The Secrets of Health and Wealth

18. The Return of Elijah

19. Religion and Politics

20. The Abomination of Desolation

21. The Unpardonable Sin

22. Prophets and Psychics

I'd like to invite you to bow your heads with me as we raise a prayer to God.

Father in heaven, we thank you for the wonderful opportunity of being in your house of worship on your Holy Sabbath.

We ask, Lord, that as we open your word, that your Holy Spirit will be here with us to instruct us and to show us the way in which we need to go as we prepare for the glorious second coming of Jesus Christ.

So thank you for being with us and thank you for answering our prayer in Jesus' name.

The title of our presentation this morning is The Return of Elijah.

And to begin with, I would like us to turn in our Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.

The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, and we're going to read verses 16 and 17.

Now we're not going to read the context but beginning with verse 5 we have the account of the birth of John the Baptist.

And so this passage is speaking about John the Baptist.

Notice verse 16, and I'm going to underline certain key words.

It says there, and he, that is John, John the Baptist, he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.

The mission of Elijah in the Bible, and we're going to notice that there are 3 Elijahs in the Bible, is always directed towards God's people.

The mission of Elijah is not primarily to reach out to the world.

The message of Elijah is primarily to reach out to God's professed people, those who profess to serve God.

You'll notice once again verse 16 says, and he will turn, by the way, that could also be translated convert.

He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.

Now if he's going to turn the children of Israel to the Lord their God, it's because the children of Israel have gone astray from God.

He will also go before him, When it says he, that's John the Baptist.

And when it says he will go before him, that is before the Messiah, before Jesus, and what will he do?

He will go before him in the spirit and power of whom?

At least he comes in the spirit and power of Elijah.

He will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah.

And here it is again, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Now, there are several things I want to underline here as we begin our study.

Number 1, Elijah is always sent to those who profess to be God's people.

Secondly, the role of Elijah, we're going to notice, is to restore the truths that have been forgotten and abandoned by God's own people.

And in the third place, it's his purpose to prepare God's people for the coming of the Lord.

In the case of John the Baptist, it's the first coming of Jesus.

In the case of the end time Elijah, which we're going to study, his purpose is to prepare people for the second coming.

Matthew chapter 11 and verses 10 through 13.

I want you to notice that John the Baptist in the New Testament is spoken of as Elijah.

And by the way, John was asked in John chapter 1 whether he was Elijah, and he said, No, I'm not Elijah.

We're going to notice that Jesus says he is Elijah.

You see, Jesus meant that he was going to come in the spirit and power of Elijah, but he was not Elijah in person.

Whereas those who asked John if he was Elijah, they believed in the idea that souls came and inhabited bodies after the death of a person and that this was really Elijah in person.

And so John says if you're thinking that I'm Elijah in person, you're wrong.

What Jesus means is that he came in the spirit and power of Elijah to accomplish the same mission.

Now notice Matthew chapter 11 and verse 11.

Assuredly I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen 1 greater than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.

For all the prophets in the law prophesied until John.

And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.

Luke 1, he's coming in the spirit and power of Elijah.

Here Jesus says this is the Elijah who was going to come.

And then there's a third passage Matthew chapter 17 and verses 10 through 13.

It says there, and his disciples asked him, saying, why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

Then Jesus answered and said to them, Elijah truly is coming first, And will what?

Say you have a piece of furniture in your house, an antique, which was made 100 years ago, But the varnish has fallen off, it's scratched up.

You restore it by sanding it, by repainting it.

Notice that the purpose of Elijah is not to bring new truth.

It's to bring God's people back to the old landmarks, which they've forgotten.

It's to restore the truth that has been lost.

And so it says, Elijah truly is coming first and will restore all things.

But I say to you that Elijah has come already.

And they did not know him, but did to him whatever they wished.

Likewise, the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.

What did Jesus mean when he said that Elijah has come already?

Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of whom?

And so in the New Testament, Elijah is John the Baptist.

Not in person, but he came with the same power and to proclaim the same message and to fulfill the same mission as Elijah of the Old Testament.

Now let's ask ourselves, what was the mission and the message of this New Testament Elijah of John the Baptist?

We're going to study now the elements of the message of this New Testament Elijah, of John the Baptist.

We've already noticed that he's coming to restore what has been forgotten and what has been abandoned.

He is coming to call God's own people back to the old landmarks.

And the reason he's doing that is because he wants to prepare a people for the coming of the Messiah.

Now let's study more specifically what his message is.

Matthew chapter 3 and verse 1, in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Series

What Jesus Said

18. The Return of Elijah

Transcript

Parent Series

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