I'm going to read in Acts chapter
9 verse 32 through 35, and then we can follow our outline as
we have a new PowerPoint. Acts 9.32. And it came to pass,
as Peter passed throughout all the regions, he came down also
to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. And there he found a certain
man named Aeneas, which had kept his bed eight years and was sick
of the palsy. And Peter said unto him, Aeneas,
Jesus Christ makes you whole. Arise and make your bed. And he arose immediately. And
all that dwelt in Lydda and Saron saw him and turned to the Lord. Thus is the reading of God's
word. The reason I stopped right there
is because we need to acknowledge first and foremost that we are
now in another transition. title of this series, which will
only last a couple of weeks, is Christ and Peter, Christ and
Peter, the minister to the circumcision. Another parentheses, period.
Like you guys remember when we turned the corner on Acts chapter
six into Acts chapter seven, and we saw how that God had introduced
us to Saul of Tarsus. And then immediately Saul disappears
off the scene. Philip is on the scene. The ministry
is around Philip. The ministry is around Stephan.
And then all of a sudden we pick back up with Saul in Acts chapter
nine. So we call that period of Philip
and Stephan a parentheses period. God was really still moving towards
addressing the ministry of the apostle Paul because Paul will
be the vehicle by which the gospel goes in a prominent way to the
Gentiles, not exclusively, but prominently. So we're moving
towards the ministry of Paul. But here we're going to take
a break by the Spirit of God and by the unction given to Luke
to go back to Peter and deal with Peter for three chapters. From chapters 9 through 13, we
will have a slow transition point from Peter to Paul's missionary
journey to the Gentiles, which will lead Paul to Rome, where
he will be in prison for several years, according to Acts 28.
So this interim period is where Luke now is recording under inspiration
of the Spirit of God, the ministry of the apostle Peter to the Jewish
people of the circumcision, as we had learned in Galatians.
They had already agreed in Galatians chapter two that Paul and Barnabas
would go to the Gentiles. So they were the apostles to
the uncircumcision. And Peter and James and John
would minister in Jerusalem, Judea, and the regions around
about there to the Jewish people strictly. And that's what's taking
place here. And interestingly enough, we
jump right into the ministry of Peter, as we have recorded
in verse 32 through 35, a dynamic taking place. This is why I call
this Christ and Peter, the minister to the circumcision. And what
I want to actually call your attention to is some larger biblical
principles around the law of recapitulation. the law of recapitulation. If you've been at grace for years,
here's what you know, is that God actually repeats principles
over and over and over again to actually augment and reinforce
certain rules in our lives, certain rules in our lives. Like you
will notice if you've read your Bible for years, that there are
things that occurred in the Old Testament that also occur in
the New Testament. that there were practices that
were engaged in in the Old Testament that come back up in the new.
I'll use one example and then we'll hone in on my proposition,
Christ and Peter, the minister to the circumcision. And there
are a number of principles that we wanna derive for our own edification
and our own calling. Do you remember in the Old Testament,
in the book of Jonah, where Jonah had run from the Lord because
of his not wanting to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Jonah
is a type of the nation of Israel in their rebellion to the universal
commission of the gospel to the Gentiles, right? And so Jonah
gets on a ship and as he's headed to Joppa, the opposite direction
of Nineveh, and if you'll notice, Joppa becomes the place in verse
36 of our account where Peter is to go. So there's some historical
and chronological as well as theological connections that
we're gonna build between the old and the new there. But Jonah
goes into the belly of the ship and falls asleep while the ship
is being tossed to and fro and about to be destroyed. And everybody
on deck is having fits about this raging storm that's gonna
destroy the ship. And they're wondering why this
Jewish person is in the hinder part of the ship sound asleep. And then they are forced to ask
him what's going on. You guys remember that. You guys
also note that in the gospel of Matthew, Mark, as well as
in the gospel of John, we have that same sea storm scenario
where the disciples are having fits about the waves destroying
them. And Jesus is in the hinder part
of the ship asleep, right? Now, if you know that your Bible
is the Word of God, and you know that the Word of God is the method
and methodology of the wisdom and power of God to reveal to
us God's pattern of redemption from old to new, then we know
that this is not an accident. That what's happening in the
Gospel of Matthew, in the Gospel of Luke, in the Gospel of John,
where Jesus is in the back of the ship Sleep, has something
to do with the Jonah account. You can't separate those two
accounts because there's too many similarities, too many factors
that are exactly and precisely the same. And so we call these
recapitulation principles where God repeats certain historical
events over and over again for us to get the lesson. One principle
we derive from the recapitulation principle is this. Our factor
is this. Jesus is the one coming in the
volume of the book. It's about him. So the Old Testament
account of Jonah is really a picture of the redemptive work of Christ
in the world and largely to the Gentiles. Christ, like Jonah,
was a Jew. Christ, unlike Jonah, was willing
to go to the Gentiles. This is what we call a contrasting
parallel. When we study theology and hermeneutics,
When you see parallels in the scripture, you have to ask, are
these consistent parallels or contrasting parallels? Do these
parallels harmonize both in office and in person? Or do they contrast
somewhere? Like sometimes God will have
you see a parallel between the office of Aaron and the office
of Melchizedek, but then he will show you that there are major
contradictions that make a distinction between the two offices. And
those distinctions are critical to know. So it is in the Old
Testament when an individual occupy a messianic office, you
will see that office executed to the hilt and it will just
demonstrate an aspect of the redemptive work in Christ. But
the person occupying that office themselves would be flawed and
in many cases have an attitude completely contrary to Jesus. For instance, in the Old Testament,
we know that Adam was made in the similitude of Jesus, right?
Romans 5 tells us he was made in the similitude of him who
was to come. So Adam is a Christ type. He was the son of God according
to the gospel of Luke. And Jesus is the son of God according
to the whole Bible. But Adam 1, while similar to
Adam 2 or the last Adam, are contrasting parallels. For whereas
Adam 1 sinned, the last Adam did not sin. Whereas Adam one
rebelled against God, the last Adam always obeyed God. While
as the first Adam died, the last Adam lives forever. You see what
I mean? So while there are parallels
there, there are also contrasts. As we begin to look at the account
tonight, that's what I want to do with you. We're actually going
to go deep into these three verses and understand the rich theological
components around the life of Peter. Otherwise, just the, Historical
narrative will leave us with very little data or information
to bless our souls You and I did not live in jury in the time
of Peter You and I don't have any real correlative Life experiences
by which we can identify with Peter Peter's missionary journey
down to the regions that he's moving towards now litter and
which is a city some 15, 20 miles away from Jerusalem, headed south,
downward towards Egypt, the border of Egypt, where Israel had come
out and come into the promised land. None of this information
matters to you and me. The man that Peter's gonna deal
with ain't Aeneas. You and I don't know him. We
don't have any historical connection to him. If we don't draw out
spiritual principles and redemptive principles, this account does
not meet our personal needs. But the account is not about
us, the account is about Christ. So when you're reading your Bibles,
if you don't first and foremost read your Bible with the objective
of learning more about Christ, you might quite frequently in
reading your Bible not be satisfied. If you read your Bible with the
notion that your Bible is supposed to always speak directly to you,
for you, about you, as if the promises are directly to you,
you're gonna be disappointed most of the time you read your
Bible. Because your Bible is about a story in a historical
context that 90% of the time has nothing to do with you. You
and I are third party listeners to a dialogue or a conversation
or a narrative or a genre or a culture or a history that has
nothing to do with us. So we want to derive the ultimate
meaning of the text and see if it has application to us. Now,
here's how you benefit from the word of God. If you love Christ,
then everything the Bible has to say, you enjoy. even if it's
not directly to you, because it's information about the one
you love, right? Like we're learning in marriage
class. It's critical that we come to know each other in a
deep, in a profound way for our love to be able to manifest itself
in an accurate and a satisfying fashion, right? Fashion. Well,
in order for your love for Christ to manifest itself in a satisfying
fashion for you, you've got to know him deeply. But to know
him deeply, you've got to want to know him deeply. All right?
So everything the Bible has to say about Jesus, I'm interested
in. So I frame my title, Christ in Peter. Subject, preposition,
object. Subject, preposition, object. I can turn that preposition into
a verb too. Christ is dwelling in Peter. That makes some significance
to me. Because if Christ is in Peter,
you know what I can expect? I can expect to see some aspect
of the person and work of Jesus Christ manifested in Peter's
life. Now I'm interested in Peter. You understand what I'm saying?
Now I'm interested in Peter, because I'm really interested in Jesus.
I'm not really interested in Peter, but if Christ is in Peter,
now I'm interested in Peter. And then sub point, the minister
to the circumcision, another parentheses period. So why is
the Holy Ghost gonna give us three chapters on the ministry
of Peter? Because he becomes a wonderful,
smooth transition point from the Jewish apostles and their
primary work in Jerusalem to this one unique Jewish apostle
called Paul and his primary work to the Gentiles. We are moving
historically and in a geographical way towards Rome. but we get
a chance to hang out with Peter. So under this particular title,
Christ and Peter, the ministries of circumcision, the first thing
I wanna call your attention to is our first point. God hath
glorified his son again. God hath glorified his son again. Do I have your attention? Okay,
so I'm gonna read the text. Verses 33 through 35, and I hope
that will make sense. And then we'll begin to look
at our sub points. God has glorified his son again. And it came to
pass as Peter passed throughout all the quarters, he came down
also to the saints, which dwelt in Lydda. And there found a certain
man named Aeneas, which had kept his bed eight years and was sick
of the policy. Points one and two. Peter is
on the move. He's on the move towards an area
called Lydda, which is away from Jerusalem, headed towards Egypt. And guess what? The saints are
there. That's what the text says, right?
And he went down to the saints in Lydda, which means somebody
preceded Peter to share the gospel in Lydda so that a body of believers
can be in Lydda for Peter to go to. Peter is like the apostle
Paul. They were missionaries. They
roamed the regions of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and abroad to
share the gospel and plant local churches. So Peter is headed
with his entourage down to Lydda because there are saints there.
And obviously, according to the text, he is making his rounds
everywhere. That's what verse 32 says. It
came to pass as Peter passed throughout all the quarters,
right? That means he would stop here, he would stop there, he
would stop at other places, share the gospel, boom, we're at Lydda.
Why are we at Lydda? Because God want to teach us
a truth. Christ had glorified, God rather had glorified his
son again. What happens? In Lydda there
is a man who has the palsy and that means that he was fundamentally
paralyzed. His limbs were so weak that he
could not stand or walk. People with the palsy were prominent
everywhere in Israel during the times of the Messiah. People
with palsy are prominent in third world countries today, where
disease and where a lack of medical technology at the highest levels
are not available. People are often born or acquire
diseases. And the concept of a disease
is going to be a point that we're going to touch on as we talk
about the nature of the gospel tonight. Disease was rampant. But ladies and gentlemen, the
diseases that were rampant in the first century were rampant
First, because of the fall of man, you guys all know that we're
only sick because we're what? Sinners. We only die because
we're what? Right. And I tell people at funerals
all the time, welcome to the home going or welcome to the
funeral of this individual here. But may I say something to you?
This place that you and I are in is unnatural. It was never
meant to be. This is a consequence of sin.
So now we put this person in the ground and not deal with
the cause of their dying. We don't honor God because death
is a lesson in itself by which God is glorified since he said
the wages of sin is what see so we can print pretend like
death is not bad and we can put flowers and perfume everywhere. And we can call it a sun rising
or a sun setting. We can use all of the euphemisms
we want to and act like there was not a judgment. But in fact,
the matter, according to God, the man or the woman was stricken
with death because the consequences of sin is death. See what I'm
getting at? So in other words, as Solomon
said in Ecclesiastes seven, verse three or four, he says it's better
to go to the house of mourning than to go to the nightclub.
That's my translation. Because in the house of mourning,
you at least get some truth. In the nightclub, they lie to
you all night long while they inebriate you with drink. At
least in the house of mourning, we get to contemplate the one
that is higher than us with whom we all have an appointment. Well,
subsequent to death in this world, since we've fallen by sin, you
and I are constantly dealing with sickness. We're going to
ferret that out either tonight or next week. But sickness in
the Bible becomes a Pretext or a context in the which Watch
this now Messiah shows up so trouble is Ordained by God for
him to show up and be a savior to those who call on him, right?
So you see that Christ is in Peter and Christ is headed to
litter because there's a man in litter that Christ wants to
deliver That's good news Because I might be just like that man
in litter. I might have the policy I What
do you mean? I might be weak and impotent.
I might be effete in my character and my makeup. My walk might
be so lame that I need Christ to come get me because I can't
go to him. And isn't he a marvelous savior to come to us when we
can't come to him? We actually call that the sovereign
grace of God, where he hunts down sinners in their broken
estate and deliver them from pits of which they can't deliver
themselves. Now, can you see Christ and Peter?
See, this is the love of God that leaves heaven, comes to
earth and finds us all in our mess and meets us right where
we are in our mess. And now if we wanted to, we could
do a bio on this brother named Anais and start thinking through
on a sort of a biological sense and a biographical sense. What
is going on in this brother's head? He has been afflicted for
how many years? Eight years. Now, you know what that means?
There was a time when he wasn't. He was smitten because he's part
of the human race and being all sinners at any given time, we
can break down. Now he might've been a proud
man, a wealthy man, a prominent man prior to his affliction.
And he could have been an individual who traveled the world abroad
prior to his affliction. But as soon as his affliction
hit him, guess what? All of his previous accomplishments
were now put in check. because he needs other people
to help him because he can't even help himself. You know what
life will do for you and me? It will humble us. It will humble
us. Anais is humbled. If you and
I were working with the five principles of biblical hermeneutics,
we could do, as I've said before, a literal interpretation, a historical
interpretation, a grammatical interpretation, a theological
interpretation, a redemptive interpretation. We could draw
out the meaning of his name. We can understand the implications
of that in the context of the culture in which he lived. We
can begin to consider the way God works in his larger background
of sovereignty. And then we can see how God enters
in redemptively to rescue people. And that's really what we're
doing. As we contemplate this text, you and I are dealing with
what we call the days of the Messiah, the days of the Messiah,
but Messiah has come and gone. And yet he's still here because
he told us 12 apostles. I'm going to come back in the
person of the spirit and I'm going to work with you and in
you and through you to do the same thing I did when I was here.
That's why I say Christ and Peter, right? Because Peter now is operating
by the spirit of Christ because he has the same love for centers
that Christ did. Christ came after us. Peter's
coming after this man. When I say God has glorified
his son again, I am saying that the account that's before us,
Peter has already engaged the same account back in chapter
three. You remember in chapter three, there was another man
that was laying at the gate. Beautiful. Remember that it was
Peter and John who set their eyes on him. And Peter did this
notable miracle of telling that man, look on us in the name of
Jesus Christ, rise and walk. And they went into the temple
right here. Peter's doing it again. This is what we mean by
recapitulation. Recapitulation principle go to
Acts chapter 3 13 and then 14. I just want to show you these
rules Acts 3 13 and some lessons that I want us to grasp today
out of this Here's the word. I want you to think about while
we're developing it. Are you ready? It's the word mentor M-e-n-t-o-r. I want that word to hang over
your head as we go through the study tonight mentor This is
where recapitulation principles come in. In Acts chapter 3, verse
13, notice what it says. This is after the healing. This
is upon the healing that Peter had exercised with the layman.
And we read over in verse 11. And as the layman, which was
healed, healed Peter and John, And all the people ran together
unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's greatly wondering.
They're amazed because they knew this fella had been lame from
his birth, sitting at the gate. Somebody dropped him off every
day so he can earn a living, right? Begging. This brother
running through the temple, holding John and Peter's hands and everybody's
watching. And when Peter saw it, when Peter
saw that the healing of the lame man drew the attention of all
the people in the church, Watch this now. And when Peter saw
it, he answered the people. I want you to hear it now. You
men of Israel, why marvel you at this? Now, Peter, come on
now, give him a break. They knew this dude. This dude
was just a few minutes ago, begging like he had been begging all
his life. And now he running through the temple doing cartwheels. And you're saying, why are you
marveling? I'd be marveling too, wouldn't you? But what Peter
wants to do now with the marvel is reign it in. You know why
he wants to reign in the marvel? Because religious folk like to
just marvel rather than learn. Religious folk like to go to
church to marvel and go through the marvel religion, go through
the marvel exercise, the awe period and the amazement period. And what Peter is about to teach
them is, hold on now, you're marveling at what you don't understand.
This miracle is not for you to marvel, This miracle is for you
to ask the question, how did it happen? Are you hearing me? And so Peter is now arresting
them on a principle that he has come to understand that we're
gonna develop here as a rule for the gospel ministry for you
and me on an individual level as a church, as well as a church.
He said unto them, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so
earnestly on us? Here's the second thing that
Peter is apprehending. Not only is he telling them to
calm their emotions down, Get all your liver quivers intact.
Restrain yourself. And secondly, don't worship us. Get away from preacher worship.
Get away from what goes on in many of our churches where they
fail to understand that Christ is the central object of consideration. Don't worship the preacher. Stop
giving the preacher the kind of accolades you do as if Jesus
is not in the house. Because this is what goes on
in many of our churches. Am I telling the truth? I'm just
talking to one of my brothers about how some of our pastors
have pastor appreciation month. Please appreciate your pastor.
And my folks do, I'm so happy you guys appreciate me, but I
ain't for having a pastor's appreciation hour, let alone an appreciation
month. Now what y'all gonna do for a
whole month to show your appreciation to me? And every second during
that month, Jesus is obscured and put to the side. Am I telling
the truth? So what Peter is doing is what
you're going to see the apostles always do through the book of
Acts. Hey, this ain't about us. And when that rule is forced
in your soul, you will never have to worry about your church
going apostate in that way. It's not about us. It's not about
the preacher. It's about Christ. Peter's about
to apprehend that. He said, why are you looking
so earnestly on us as though by our own power, our holiness,
we made this man to walk. Isn't that good? Peter is quickly
discounting the false notion that we intrinsically possess
powers of healing. He quickly demolishes the notion
that men and women of God have this special power and some of
us are more powerful than others. This is where you see the groveling
down of ignorant religious folk at the behest of so-called prophets
and prophetesses with the power to heal and lay hands on you
and do things for you. All such practice is abominable. It's abominable. It's abominable. And so I say that as an ethic,
you see the apostles constantly pushing back on that constantly. Now, that's a remarkable thought.
Can I stay on that for just one more second before I move on?
Why would they push back? They would push back because
they were actually with the one who was the epitome of power
and wisdom and saw that he had the right to do it and for people
to worship him through it, but not them. In other words, if
you actually know Jesus, you would know that Jesus alone gets
the credit for the healing. This is how you can tell when
crooks don't know him, they don't give him the credit. Peter and
James and John would have been completely remiss if they even
allowed for a moment to people, the people to give them the credit
for something they knew they didn't have the power to do.
They knew that wasn't them. They knew that wasn't them. And
so there's some real lessons to Obtained out of this he goes
on to say and this is the point that I want you to grasp here.
Are you ready? He says our power or our holiness did not make
this man walk We have no power in ourselves and truly we have
no holiness in ourselves. Oh Yeah, we do have a hole in
us But it's not holiness. It's a hole W-h-o-l-e big ol
hole So we're holy people, but we're not holy people in and
of ourselves. We're holy by right of impartation. We're holy by right of union.
We're holy by right of the presence of the spirit of God using us,
but we don't get to tell people to look at our holiness. Now
watch this, verse 13. Here it is. The God of Abraham
and of Isaac and of Jacob. See what they're doing? They're
pointing these Jewish people who are observing this miracle
and they want to go into religious conniptions They're pointing
them to the God that they say they know, right? The God of
Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers. Now watch
this, hath glorified his son. You know what he did? He gave
them clarity as to why this man is walking. Powerful, powerful. Now everyone knows this is not
about the apostles. This is not even about the layman.
This is about Jesus. This is not about the apostles.
This is not about the layman. This is about Jesus. Now they're
actually confronted with a revelation in the context of a miracle of
which they cannot deny. So here is what they're struggling
with. Watch this now. The claims of
Christ. The claims of Christ, which they
have been hearing now some seven years, let's say about 10 years,
three and a half years with John the Baptist, three and a half
years with the Lord Jesus Christ, seven years. Where we are now
in Acts chapter 10, about three and a half to five years, this
is about 10 to 12 years, they've been hearing about Jesus. Now
think about that. You've been hearing about Jesus
and all these marvelous things Jesus has done, right? And you
know, you can take it or leave it because you ain't saw nothing,
you just heard. And then all of a sudden one
day, this Jesus that you heard about has healed a brother in
your presence that you cannot deny. You see what I'm getting
at now? Now I'm apprehended by a miracle
that demands that I contemplate who this Jesus is. See, now watch
this saints. And the reality is this stuff
ain't going to stop. This stuff is going to continue
happening. This is what I mean by the recapitulation principle
is going to happen again and again and again. And the Jewish
people are now confronted with the fact that they have rejected
this Jesus of Nazareth. They had killed him. They had
wrote him off as a heretic. They had said he was a crook,
a sect leader. And this cat's name is getting
bigger and bigger and bigger. And on top of that, he's attached
to legitimate and authentic healings that they cannot deny. You were
in that position with these Jewish people. Wouldn't you be stunned?
Wouldn't you be gripped? Wouldn't you be forced to have
to reckon with that name now? Wouldn't you? Absolutely. Remember
now, this dude you've been watching every day when you went to the
temple. Every day. You gave him money. You know
how we do? You threw down on him because
you cared about him. You felt good in your self-righteousness,
so you gave him money. Today, he's just like you, except
better. Because he has met the living
Lord. in the power of the gospel and he's actually going into
the temple to worship and you are going there for the perfunctory
religious routines that you did every day and every week. This
dude actually knows Christ. He's actually advanced further
than you in Judaism because the reality of Judaism has become
a reality in his life. You got to deal with this dude's
miracle and you got to deal with his message now. The lesson that
you and I are going to learn under the rubric of mentorship.
You know what a mentor is, right? A mentor is a person who is privileged
to model for people a pattern of life for which they can conform
themselves into it and gain the same benefit. A mentor is a person
for whom they are privileged to yield a pattern of life so
that other people can conform to that pattern and gain the
benefits of their mentorship. So I'm gonna say it one more
time so you can get it, because you may have a mentor, you may not. Oh,
Jesus is my mentor. That's what I hear, right? Jesus
is my mentor. Okay, well, let me look at you.
Let me take a look. Does Jesus look like you? Because
if you don't look like Jesus, I got a real question whether
or not Jesus is your mentor. Remember, your mentor is the
person whose lifestyle, whose model becomes a privileged pattern
for you to pour yourself into. And his ethic and his mode of
operation, his mannerisms, his customs, his conduct become yours
as a pattern, right? And if it's true, then we're
going to hear the same things about you that we heard about
Peter, James, and John by the Pharisees. We know these dudes
have been with Jesus. We know that. Isn't that what
they said? We can clearly see that these
dudes have been with Christ because when he was here, he did the
same thing they're doing. Got it. So I'm talking about
mentorship. A transition of the model and
ministry of Christ to the apostles. A very relevant concept. What
Peter says is the God of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob hath glorified
his son, here it is now, whom you delivered up and denied him
in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him
go. You denied the holy one and the just one and desire to murder
and Peter preaching now, ain't he? So he took the miracle which
attracted everybody like the burning bush. Attracted Moses,
that's what miracles are designed to do, attract you. They're simply
signs. They're not the end game. They're
not the end product. You're not supposed to get liver quivers
on the miracle. You're supposed to say, what is this? Glad you
asked. God has glorified his son. Now I'm bound to contemplate
what the implications of the gospel are in the life of a man
or woman that's in need of God. So this is where Peter uses this.
account. Going back to our text. Go to chapter 4 verse 10 now.
God has glorified his son again. Here's what we read in chapter
4 verse 10. This is what Peter has to say
in chapter 4 verse 10. Are you there? Here's what he
says. because he's now, him and John are examined by the rulers
because of this miracle. They're talking to the common
people at the temple, but now they're gonna be inquired of
by the high priest Caiaphas and the rest. He says over in verse
nine, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the
impotent man, watch this, by what means he has made whole,
see it? Oh, Lord. Peter understood the goal for
the miracle was to draw people to ask the question, by what
means was he made whole? See, Peter says, now, if that's
what we're in court for, if you guys have bound us and brought
us to the high priest to answer this question, we'd be glad to
answer that question. And he's about to answer the
question. Here it is. By what means has he been made
whole verse 10, be it known unto you all that is the leadership
and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, It is whom you crucify. Is Peter bold or what? Is the
Holy Ghost on him right now or what? Every time he read across
a Jew, he said, by whom you crucify. See, the spirit of God is doing
this because what we learned in the earlier chapters of Acts
is that the book of Acts is the return of Jesus by the ministry
of the spirit in the mouth of the apostles to let the Jews
know that Jesus was telling the truth. Hereafter shall you see
the Son of Man come on the clouds of glory with great power. They're confronted with the man
they tried to get rid of. Every time they turn around,
this Jesus is showing up again. Here they are inquiring to Peter,
how this happened? Now, you know, this here is the
fickle, insane mentality of human beings when we are missing the
mark about the important things of life. They're inquiring about
a miracle instead of worshiping God. They're bringing the miracle
and the people who were the vehicles of the miracle into judgment.
They want to analyze what happened and critique what happened instead
of fall down on their faces and worship the God that brought
about this miracle. Amazing how blind we can be when
we're really all about our religious reputation. Are you hearing me? So now mark how Peter develops
this so we can go further into our text and consideration. Be
it known unto you all and to the people of Israel that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucify, whom God raised
from the dead. See, they were saying he wasn't
raised here. God raised him from the dead. Watch this. Even by
him, doth this man stand here before you? What's the word?
I'm going to get back to that at the end of our study. Go back
to our text. So when I say, uh, uh, in our
first point under God has glorified his son, the principle of recapitulation.
What I want to share with you now is the account of Elijah
and Elisha, Elijah and Elisha, because Elijah and Elisha are
mentor and mentee. Elijah stands as Elijah's Elijah
stands for, for Elisha as the model and pattern that Elisha
would follow. Elijah is his teacher. He's his,
uh, what we would call in the Hebrew, in the Greek, his master,
like the apostles called Jesus master. The didaskalon is the
word in the Greek. The didaskalon is the person
who taught you everything you would know theologically, practically,
philosophically, socially, and conduct-wise. He taught you theology
and he taught you ethics. That was the didaskalon. And
the didaskalon is basically like a parent. Now Elijah was a parent
to Elisha. You remember what happened when
Elijah was ready to go? He came and got elisha and said
elisha. Come on. I need you to run with me for
a minute because i'm out of here, man. I'm old I'm tired Plus this
this this crazy chick trying to kill me You know who i'm talking
about, right? Jezebel That feminist culture
where the church is so apostate is being run by women Oh that
one hurt And i'm tired anyway elijah elisha and I actually
want you to take over Now, in order for you to take over from
where I am, you're gonna have to see me go. It wasn't at the
stipulation. Now, if you're gonna take over,
you're gonna have to see me go. Because for me to go, it's for
a right of transfer of the authority on me to take place on whoever
watches me go. And so you guys know in 2 Kings
chapter one and two, what occurs. They make their way to the river
Jordan, but before they get into the river Jordan, God actually
ushers in a fiery chariot host to take Elijah up in a whirlwind. Is that right? So he's taken
up in a whirlwind and guess what? Elisha sees it. Remember what
I said about recapitulation principles? Elijah represents Christ. Elisha
represents the church. Elijah represents Christ in many
ways, but just as Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind, Christ
was taken up in a cloud. Who saw him taken up in a cloud? The apostles. Are you seeing
the pattern? So the authority that was on
Elijah is passed to Elisha because Elisha is walking with his master
and mentor all the way to the end. And where Elijah ends, Elisha
begins. And if you were to follow through
and do a complete biographical on both brothers, you would find
that many of the miracles that Elijah did, Elisha also reduplicated
those miracles, didn't he? Why? Because Elisha now is taking
up from where his master is and doing the same things that his
master is doing so that everyone will know that the spirit of
Elijah is on Elisha. just like in the New Testament,
the spirit of Christ is on the apostles. And it's clear because
they're doing exactly what Jesus did. So I want to deal with you
tonight on one account. We've got about 35 minutes. I
want to take this account to show you what I mean by mentorship. Can I do that? So in, um, first
Kings chapter 17, verse 18 through 24, I want to show you an event
that you have already commonly understood or seen. We won't
be able to go into all of the details of the event to draw
out its redemptive implications, but we will be able to acquire
an overall significance of it because I want to tie the two
together to show us the principle of mentorship. In 2 Kings chapter
17, 2 Kings 17, starting at verse 18, notice what it says. This here is about, verse 18,
this here is about Elijah second Kings, I'm sorry first King 17
about Elijah Working with a woman and this woman having a child
Who in the providence of God dies? And it's remarkable what
happens in the account This is the account of the widow woman
as Zarephath of which in our Lord's first message to his own
people in Nazareth He taught the doctrine of election through
her. Remember what he said? To whom did the prophets of Israel
go in the time of the famine, but none except this widow woman
of Zarephath, who was a Gentile. He went to her and sustained
her life, preserved her life, kept her life when everybody
else was dying off in the famine. and that historical account which
was written in the Kings of which Jesus would have had that text
too and the people of Israel that historical account which
was a factual account historical account made the people upset
because the implications as Jesus was preaching Isaiah chapter
61 verses 1 through 3 saying that the Spirit of the Lord God
was upon me to preach good tidings unto the poor He was saying that
all the scriptures pointed to himself. They were already struggling
with that. But then when he says, and by
the way, election is not bound to ethnic preference. God actually elected to save
a widow woman and let the rest of Israel die in the famine.
That's when they said, man, let's take this dude to the top of
the hill and throw him off the cliff. See the first half of
the sermon, they were rejoicing. Man, listen at this dude preach.
Man, this cat off the hook. Never heard words like this.
Then when he taught the doctrine of election, let's throw him
off the cliff headlong. It just shows us how intrinsically
by nature we are hostile to God having preference over us. God
will do what he wants to. God will save whom he wants to,
when he wants to, where he wants to, and you and I have nothing
to do about it. Can you imagine that? Watch this. This is your
first sermon that God let you preach in your own home church. And that first sermon you preach,
they want to kill you. It's amazing. Here's the event. As I said, this widow woman is
serving God through Elijah, preparing food for him and this little
barrel of meal is miraculously sustaining both of them all throughout
the famine that God had brought on Israel because of the rebellion
of Ahab. As you guys know, they were under
the covenant and the covenant said, if you obey God, God will
bless your field, he will bless your land, he will bless your
stock, he will bless your cows, homes, houses, he will bless
the rain, you will get your seasons, you will have fruitful increase
again and again and again. You disobey me, I'm shutting
it all down. On an ecological level, the heavens will become
brass over you and the land will become dust. Your animals will
die off. You'll be in a famine and that famine will kill you
so long as you live in rebellion. Because I see old covenant curse
that was upon Israel. That's what Israel was suffering.
And can you imagine God's mercy through Elijah to a Gentile woman? Well, that Gentile woman believed
God. She actually believed Jehovah. Now, notice what the text says
over verse 17. And it came to pass after these things that
the son of the woman, the mistress of the house fell sick and his
sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. And
she said unto Elijah, what have I to do with thee? O thou man
of God, did you come to me to call my sin to remembrance and
to slay my son? Be careful now. Be careful. Don't get too close to people.
Preacher. It's really interesting what's taking place here. I don't
want to digress really. But Elijah is the vehicle of
blessing to her. All this time, her son dies and
she want to blame it on him. Do you see that? She wants to
blame it on him. This goes to show how we can
be unreasonably emotionally attached to things to the point that it
obscures us from the greater providential work of God, even
our children. She wants to blame the man of
God for the death of her son. Now, the boy died of natural
causes. Elijah had nothing to do with that. More than that,
just because Elijah was there and God was sustaining the oil,
it doesn't guarantee that the boy and her family has to stay
healthy. God could kill her husband, kill
her mama, her brother, her sister. Natural causes are going to take
place in our life as people of God, right? We can't While the
Lord is blessing us, say hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. And then look
upon God narrowly when he allows a natural catastrophe to occur.
We got to do what Job did. The Lord gives, the Lord takes
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
But, but Elijah understood this woman. That was her only child.
She's grieving, she's burdened. Watch this. And he said unto
her, give me your son. Elijah was awesome. Give me the
boy. And he took him out of her bosom,
carried him up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon the
bed. The boy is dead laying on the
bed, right? He's dead to us. He's not dead to God. The boy
is sleep to God. Just like Lazarus was sleep to
God. And the people say, you crazy,
the man been in the grave four days, he stinks. He was sleep
to God. Am I making some sense? So Elijah
lays him on the bed cause he's asleep. He just sleep, got everybody
all shook up, but the brother just sleep. Now watch this. He lays him on the bed and he
cries unto the Lord. Does Elijah care? And he said,
Oh Lord, my God, you have brought also evil upon the widow with
whom I sojourned by slaying her son. Have you brought this on
her? And he stretched himself upon
the child three times. This is crazy. He lays the child
out. Either his child's arms are out
and his legs are out or he's just laying on the bed. You know
what Elijah does? Elijah takes his whole body and
lays it on the child to cover every aspect of his anatomy.
Are you hearing me? Now watch this. Some idiot theologians
have stated that somehow he was trying to warm the boy up. Isn't
that absolutely nutty? That somehow he could get him
warm The spirit might say oh he warm now. I can come back I'll tell you what elijah was
doing in a moment He stretched himself upon the child how many
times? So the first time he lays on him, he cries out to god.
Nothing happens. He gets up And then he did it again. The second
time he cries out to god. Nothing happens. He gets up The
third time he stretches himself upon the child, he cries unto
the Lord and says, Oh Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's
soul come into him again. Did Elijah love that woman or
what? Did he love that woman? He loved that woman. See, this
is how you know you love people. When you are willing to go the
extra mile for them. This would have been embarrassing
for most of us. We'd have been sitting downstairs
while Elijah upstairs with the child. And we said, poor Elijah.
He needs to just come on down. Let's get the funeral arrangements
ready. He up there screaming and hollering to God. Am I making
some sense? Religious folk would say, see,
but the boy gone. And what are you doing laying
on the child? These are weird conniptions. What's that all
about? The man is communing with his God. That the life of this
child might be brought back in him. He's actually mediating
for this woman. He's taking up where this woman
left off because apparently this woman could not believe God for
herself. Now, child of God, I'm just going
to make some applications because this is where we are with the
text. When people enter into calamities and difficulties,
sometimes it crushes them so deeply that they cannot petition
for themselves. and it's your job and mine to
enter into the gap for them, to petition for them. Only if
we love them, we will. Otherwise we won't. Because see,
when you stand in the gap for people, you have to understand
what kind of sacrifice it's calling you to. The energy level and
the persistence and the stick to itiveness that love requires
when you're standing in the gap for someone that's hurting. It
too has to be an energy that comes from God. God has to grace
you for that. So for me, I draw out a very
quick, uh, application, uh, of, of contemplation is, you know,
how much do I love people that I would be willing to do what
Elijah did to see the restoration of their life. Am I making some
sense? Because he did. Well, I take
great comfort in this, that this Elijah is a representative of
the Lord Jesus. This is a great type of Christ.
Where death is, death has now seized the whole family. There's
nothing this woman can do about death. There's only one person
who can raise people from the dead, and that's God. Elijah
now serves as a great type of Christ, the one mediator between
God and man, the man Jesus Christ, right? He does it three times
because in the Old Testament we learned a rule, out of the
mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.
He does it three times to teach you and me principles like this.
You think you're going to always get God to do what you want by
asking one time? You better think again. Very
frequently, God is going to push you to ask over and over and
over and over and over and over again. Because of the multiple
askings of God, we get to discover how serious we are about that
thing we want. Am I making some sense? See,
see, see. So when Jesus said in the gospel
of Luke around chapter 11, knock and you shall find, it shall
be open to you. Seek and you shall find, ask and you shall
receive. He said that in what we call the present indicative
continuous verbal. Keep knocking, keep seeking,
keep asking. And that's what faith will do.
Faith will not stop asking until you say, oh God, our sons and
daughters that are dead in trespasses and sins. Am I making some sense? until the Spirit of God hovers
over the spiritually dead souls of our children and touch every
part of their body. As it were, simulate the whole
of our child and wait and hover until life comes into them. I
love Elijah. This is good, isn't it? Oh Lord,
my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.
And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah. And the soul of the
child came into him again, and he what? This is what we call
the resurrection. This is what takes place every
time a sinner is saved. Every time a sinner is saved,
he's raised from the dead. Every time a sinner is saved,
he's had the mediatorial work of Christ applied to his life. The atonement, Christ died for
sinners. The spirit of God now raising
sinners from the dead through the gospel. That's what takes
place. That's what takes place. But
there was somebody standing in the gap, crying out, mediating. There was a savior on the cross.
My God, my God, my God, my God, forgive them. Right? He's mediating
on the, the reason you and I are alive today is because of this
kind of work took place. At some time in our life, the
spirit of God hovered over our dead souls. And because of our
mediator, Jesus Christ, he raised us from the dead. But you and
I were not raised from the dead by no small token. It was an
enormous price. by which Christ raised us from
the dead, an enormous price. And so the business of the gospel
is a very serious business. Folks don't get saved just by
religious protocol. You guys understand that, right?
That's why most people aren't born again in church, because
all we're doing is going through motions. The labor that's required
for the soul to be brought back to life is a labor that is divine
by nature. And it requires a level of sacrifice
That means that God has to enter into the work to assist us. But
if I'm going to allow Elijah to be my mentor, I'm going to
learn some things about what it means to love people back
to life. You got that? I'm going to learn
some things about, cause Elijah, he's a mentor. He's a mentor. Elijah took the child, brought
him down out of the chamber into the house where everybody was
laughing and kind of snickering and being all funny. And he delivered
the child to his mother. And Elijah said, see, your son is alive. Isn't that
good? Now see, she was obedient all
the way through, even though she's blaming the old man. You
know, you can love God and blame God at the same time. No, you
can't pastor. Yes, you can. No, you can't.
Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. You struggle through God's sovereignty. You struggle through his hard
provinces. You blame God for everything
that don't go your way. And then you blame his mediators.
Pastors get blamed all the time. Leadership gets blamed all the
time when things don't go right. With bad, wrong, this, that.
As far for the course, you take the hit. Jesus was blamed for
everything. But God does not mind. Will you
hear me? God does not mind when you and
I, let me ferret that out just a little bit more. When God works
in ways that actually crashes with our agenda, and he does
that frequently, to show us how radically off the course we are. When his agenda crashes with
ours and everything falls apart, we discover just how corrupt
we are in our heart. just how selfish we are and how
bent we are on our own agenda. I'm telling you the truth. But
it doesn't stop God from blessing us anyway, because when he blesses
us, he will have discovered to us our corruptions and our corruptions
will have educated us and brought us to a greater appreciation
of God and to put away stupid things like assuming that my
way is right just because I feel like it's right. That's crazy. Your way is not right because
you feel like it's right. It's only right if God says it's
right. And God loves you if He crashes your way. Am I making
some sense? He loves you if He crashes your
way. And watch this, if He crashes your way, you can be sure that
He's going to do something better for you in lieu of it. Think
about this for a moment. I have to milk this before we
go to Elisha's account. I'm thinking about this woman.
who has been blessed with a period of preservation, a miracle every
day. She was eating angel's food.
You do know that, right? She was listening to the faithful
prophet of God, of whom the Bible is using as a model of all the
law and the prophets. Elijah represents all the law
and the prophets. You understand that? Him and
Moses. Moses the law, Elijah the prophet. He's at the pinnacle
of the prophetic pantheon. And she got this dude at his
house. Her and her son are enjoying life. Everybody else struggling. God's blessing her. But the same
God that blesses you and me has to test us. See, so what's going
on is that every day that you and I are living for the glory
of God, we are accruing to ourselves knowledge about God and knowledge
about His will. Y'all following me so far? Watch
this now. We are accruing to ourselves
knowledge about God and knowledge about His will. Problem is, over
the spectrum of that period of experience, we don't always appropriate
that knowledge correctly. So God now has to test our faith
to show us what we may have been lapsing or presuming upon God
or settling down, kind of just riding with the thing. Maybe,
maybe Sister Zarephath, whatever her name was, had gotten a little
bit unthankful. No, that don't happen with Christians. Maybe she got a little bit unthankful
and God said, okay, I know how to fix this. And maybe she did
like some parents do idolize her son. He can't do no wrong. Not my baby. Right? And God says, now I didn't set
my love on this woman. I have preserved her. I have
given her to profit the best of the profits. She's experiencing
miracles every day and she getting locks on me. Remember we talked
about the takeaway principle. I will take everything you have
because it all belongs to me anyway. Let me go ahead on and
fix this woman's heart right now. Is that a good presumption? Absolutely. Cause see the God
that takes away is the God that also can give what he took away.
What God does is designed to strengthen our faith That we
might trust him And do what God has called us to do in the context
of trust. Are you ready? Are you ready
saints? Always always always be thankful Always always always
be thankful if there's an area in which you and I are in danger
of blaspheming God It's in the area of not being thankful And
again, if we're dealing with God on a level of personal relationship,
as I preached last night, and we are as believers, we are in
a personal relationship with God. I would think that one of
the areas in which God would be most grieved with me is when
I begin to be unthankful for all that he's done for me. And
then he had to pull out the switch on me because I've been unthankful
and then begin to take things from me and show me that I haven't
appreciated or that thing that I am now coveting may be an idol
obscuring my worship with God and he has to go ahead on and
check me on that. In any event, God is a jealous
God and he will not have you to have anything having more
preeminence over you than him. That's true. That's true. And
then he gives her her child back. See, your son is alive. Now watch this, and the woman
said to Elijah, now watch this, now by this I know that thou
art a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth
is true. Woman, woman, what you think all those
pancakes was? It's interesting, again, you
see how her faith had diminished her quality of certainty? over
the weeks and months and years, it happens to you and me. It
happens. It happens. See, unless our faith
is constantly nurtured, it can whittle down to doubt. It can
whittle down to despair. Your faith can whittle down to
perplexity. It can whittle down to a kind
of suspicion that God is not for you. It can whittle down
to the fact that you might even think, hey, you know what, man,
I might've been deluded. They ain't even know God. It's true. So listen, let's keep this thing
real. Do I have some folk in the house
who from time to time wonder, is there even a God? Yeah, keep
it real. Keep it real. The rest of y'all
lying. You know, we try, we try, we
struggle, we try, we go, we go, we go. No, I can't think like
that. No, I can't think like that. I can't think like that.
I can't think like that. You ain't never thought like
that. Yes, you have. And God keeps us most of the time from
those thoughts, doesn't he? but sometimes they lodge in the
back of the brain, right? This little woman was struggling
with the providence of God and then God tested her and then
God gave her her son back and she says, now I know that you
are a man of God and the word of the Lord is in your mouth.
That's good. She knows it by the resurrection. She knows it
by new life. That's really a type of how you
and I really come to know God. Some folk can come to church
and they can be part of all of the external benefits of the
church. But until God actually raises their soul from the dead,
they can't really know him. Let's go to the second account
just so we can tie together these two events. And we'll wrap up
our thoughts for the night. Second Kings, second Kings chapter
four, verse 29 through 27. And see if Elisha has learned
well from his predecessor. Are you ready? Second Kings chapter
four. Verse one. Now there cried a
woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha saying,
your servant, my husband is dead. And you know that my servant
did fear the Lord and creditors are coming to take unto him my
two sons to be bombing. Elijah said unto her, what shall
I do for thee? Tell me what you have in the
house. And she said, thine handmaid hath not anything in the house,
save a pot of oil. Here we go. Then he said, go
borrow the vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty
vessels, borrow not a few. Sounds like Elisha had learned
the lesson, didn't he? Now, when thou art come in, you
shall shut the door upon thee and upon your sons and you shall
pour out into all the vessels and thou shall set aside the
vessels which are full. Great gospel lessons here. So
she went from him and shut the door upon her and her sons who
brought the vessels to her and she poured out. And it came to
pass when the vessels were full that she said unto her son, bring
me here the vessel. And he said unto her, there is not a vessel
more. And the oil stayed. That means
They had gathered all the vessels they possibly could. And God
allowed every one of those vessels to be filled with oil. Now watch
this, watch this. They didn't put this event on
CNN, Fox News, or TBN. They didn't do this in some outward
form so everybody could see. Another absolutely critical principle
here, so important, Elisha said go into your house and shut your
door This is not about the broad fame of how God is blessing you
and you want everybody in on your blessing They can watch
you pour in oil and all these pots and then you got a number
1-800 number where they can call and get their little oil vial
blessing Now you want this oil vial blessing send me $5 and
I'll give you a blessing This is false religion This is the
stuff that goes on today. This is why Jesus said, you Pharisees,
you hypocrites, you love to be seen of men. You love to be seen
of men. All you do is to be seen of men.
And when a person is driven to be seen of men, it's evident
that they don't see God. Am I making some sense? See,
because God virtually always works in secret. when he's confirming
something in the life of his people. And see, again, we're
dealing with the husband-wife paradigm, the intimate lovers
paradigm. When a man and a woman are committed
to that profound secrecy of love, they're not letting everybody
in on their business. Is that true? And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he was going about ministry, you notice what he would often
do? Somebody had a need, he would take them to the wayside. He
would take them away from the crowd. And then after he healed
them, he said, don't tell these knuckleheads because they're
going to turn this into a religious business. He did it in secret. Even his brothers and sisters
got upset with him. Often they say, now, look, you,
you've been going around doing all these miracles. Listen, don't
nobody do what you do. And they don't tell the whole
world, man, let's make some money. Cause that's human beings for
you. Human beings love to make a show in the flesh. This woman
is told to go do it in secret because the God that sees you
in secret rewards you openly. But it has to be fundamentally
a personal thing before you and God. Am I making some sense?
Critical here. So then watch how the account
unfolds. And we'll be able to close here
in 10 minutes. And so verse eight says, and it fell on a day. This
here's like back in our nine account where we talked about,
and over many days, it ended up being three and a half years.
And it fell on, that means it was some time that elapsed. That
Elisha passed to Shunem where was a great woman and she constrained
him to eat bread. So it was that as often as he
passed by he turned into the bread and she said it to her
husband behold now I perceive that this man is a holy man of
God which passes by us continually. Let us make a little chamber
I pray thee on the wall Let us set for him there a bed a table
a stool and a candle and it shall be when he comes that he shall
Turn in hither we call these prophets chambers, right long
ago Pious Christian folks would always have places for the preachers
to sleep Back years ago in my earlier ministries when I preached
all over the United States, most of the time I stayed in people's
home. Because they were courteous like that. Didn't want to, because
I'd rather stayed in a five-star hotel personally. But that's
what people did, you know. So you get to know them. And
so that's how it felt, particularly in the Bible Belt. And it fell
on a day that he came hither and he turned into the chamber
and lay there. And he said, the gaze, I, his servant called the
Shunammite woman. He called her. He, she stood
before him and he said into her, you've been careful for us with
all of this care, what shall be done for thee? Uh, thou has
spoken for the King. Um, uh, do you need to be spoken
to the King for, or to the captain of the host? And she answered,
I dwell among my own people. And he said, what then is to
be done for her? And the gaze, I answered, verily, she has no
child and her husband is old. And he said, call her. And when
he had called her, she stood in the door and she said about
this season, according to the time of life, you shall embrace
a son. And she said, nay, my Lord, thou man of God, do not
lie unto your handmaid. She said, you know, you trip
it, dude. My husband is old and we ain't do it. Now we know about
Abraham and Sarah. We know that, but ain't nobody
did that since then. And the woman conceived and bear
a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her according to
the time of life. And when the child was grown up, it fell on
a day that he went out to his father in the reapers. And he
said unto his father, my head, my head. And he said to the lad,
carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him and
brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon. And
then he, what? He's a young boy died. See the
Lord had given the child and the Lord took the child. Here
comes the woman. She went up and laid him on the
bed of the man of God. Whoa, isn't that sweet? And shut the
door upon him and went out and she called unto her husband and
said, send me, I pray thee, one of the young men and one of the
asses that I may run to the man of God and come again. And he
said, wherefore will I go to him today? It is neither new
moon nor Sabbath. And she said, it's all well.
Ooh, we can preach a message on her. Then she saddled an ass
and said to her servant, drive. In my opinion, this woman is
the typical American female. Cause you guys be rolling. Oh
yeah, I'll see you on the street. So there goes sister such and
such. Driving 50 miles an hour in a 30 mile zone. She didn't
zip past me on the freeway. I'm doing 70. She doing 85. I said, I wonder, did she see
me? Now I got several daughters that
drive, and so that's why I basically have the prejudice, because my
daughters drive like Tasmanian devils. She's rolling, though,
and she has an expedient reason for it. Drive and go forward. Slack not thy riding for me.
Don't worry about me. If I'm bobbling back and forth
on the back of this chair, don't worry about me. Tie me down.
Get to the man of God. Hurry up. Don't even look back
to see if I'm holding on I'm gonna be holding on This is good Now don't stop unless
I tell you so she went and came unto the man of God to Mount
Carmel And it came to pass when the man of God saw her afar that
he said the gay gaze I a servant behold yonder's a shooting my
run now I pray thee and meet her and send her what is it?
Is it? Well, is it well with your husband? Is it well with
the child in other words? The Lord didn't tell Elisha what
had happened And when she came to the men of God, to the hill,
she caught him by the feet. But gaze, I came near to thrust
her away. And the men of God said, let her alone for her soul
is vexed in her. And the Lord had hit it for me
and hath not told me. Then she said, did I desire a
son of my Lord? Did I not say, do not deceive
me. See the recapitulation, see the recapitulation principle.
Here it is again. Watch this. Then he said, gaze,
I gird your lawns, take my staff in your hand, go your way. Meet
and salute no man on the way and that what Jesus told the
disciples and if any of salute thee answer him not again And
lay my staff upon the face of the child the mother of the child
said as the Lord lives as my soul live I will not leave thee
he arose and followed her and gaze I passed on before them
laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was neither
voice nor hearing Wherefore he went again to meet him and told
him saying the child is not awake Lord I took the staff put him
on it. It didn't work. I Lots of lessons
there, don't have time. Lots of lessons. See, now when
we do the recapitulation principle in scripture, that first account
has the basic framework of all of the theological components
that we need to derive from it. But the second count will always
give us more detail. There will be an augmentation
and enhancement of that second account to teach us other little
things in relationship to the same major things. Like in this
account, there is a second party with Elijah, which is Gehazi.
Gehazi becomes a major lesson for us about the impotent minister
who has no capacity to do what only the anointed servant could
do. Okay, are you following me? And other things, because Gehazi
represents Judas Iscariot and other crooks in the kingdom of
God who appears to be ready for ministry, but don't have the
power essential to verify their calling. That's good, isn't it? That's good. You can read up
on Gehazi in your own time. But anyhow, so here we go. And
so he went in, therefore, that's verse 53. Oh, no, verse 32. And when Elijah was coming to
the house, behold, the child was dead and laid upon his bed. And he went in, therefore, and
shut the door upon them twain and prayed to the Lord. Is he
doing what his master did? And he went up, here it is, and
lay upon the child. Is he doing what his master did?
and put his mouth to his mouth and his eyes upon his eyes and
his hands upon his hand and he stretched himself upon the child
and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Is he doing what he did? Every wit. Watch this. Then he returned and walked in
the house to and fro and went up and stretched himself upon
him and the child sneezed seven times and the child opened his
eyes. Is Elisha following his mentor? Absolutely, to the T. Absolutely
to the T because his mentor has left the model for him of how
ministry works unto life How ministry works unto life and
Elisha now is actually doing exactly the same thing and nothing
different And God is working through this account to bring
to pass the very same things now slightly different events
Same pattern slightly different methodologies Now we get more
detail here. Elisha, Elijah rather, lays upon
the child three times. Elisha's eyes and mouth and hands
are stretched upon the child. The child warms, but it's not
done until he does it a second time. And the second time the
child sneezes seven times, open his eyes. And he called Gehazi
and he said, call the Shunammite. So he called her. And when she
was coming to him, he said, take up thy son. Then she went in
and fell at his feet, bowed to herself to the ground and took
up her son and went out. Amazing, isn't it? You tie both
accounts together and you learn rich lessons about the nature
of the ministry of God. Ultimately, the ministry of God
is about restoring life. That's really the big lesson
here. He's the God of the living and he restores life. This is
a remarkable miracle, ladies and gentlemen, restoring life. But the pattern that I wanted
you to see in the recapitulation principle is to show us that
what was going on in the Old Testament is going on now in
the life of Peter because Peter had learned his lessons well
through Jesus. Now what we're going to do next
week is see Peter move into another account very much like this.
It's not a lame child. It's a dead girl. And we're going
to see how Peter follow his master's pattern for the resurrection
of our sister Dorcas. Let's close in a word of prayer.
So Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for your word.
Thank you for the truth that came out of it. May we all be
blessed by it. May, for us, the Lord Jesus Christ
be such an infinite, infinitely great model in our life. And
may the spirit of God take our Lord Jesus Christ and all that
he did and said and conform us to his image. And may we, oh
God, walk with you in such a way that we are patterns. As Paul
was a pattern, As Peter was a pattern, as the early church was a pattern,
may we also be a pattern to other people that they might follow
you because of your grace in our life. As we go our way, give
us traveling mercies, we pray in Jesus name, amen. God bless
you guys.