How to Trust God When You Lose Someone | Elijah and Elisha | 2 Kings 2:1-15

On a late April night in 1959, which is probably before I say most of us, if not all of us, can actually remember the famous evangelist Billy Graham. He came to Canberra more than there's always. People say no one comes to Canberra. None of the big bands come to Canberra. Well, Billy Graham came to Canberra, 1959.

More than 10,000 people packed into Manica Oval to hear him speak. A police spokesman said that it was one of the largest gatherings that was ever seen in Canberra. About a quarter of Canberra's population turned up to hear him. Crowds were even bigger in other parts of the country. There was one rally in Sydney where 150,000 people gathered.

The last night of Graham's time in Melbourne, 140,000 people came to hear him speak. It's said that about half of Australia's population either saw him in person or listened to him via the radio broadcasts of his messages. On his trip here, Graham would actually go on to speak to an estimated 200 million people worldwide, more than any other evangelist. So significant was his ministry that when he died in 2018, some 15 years after his last time speaking, a prominent pastor and best selling author said these words. Whenever anybody says, who's going to replace Graham, the answer is that he's irreplaceable.

I wonder if you've ever thought a similar thing in your own life. I wonder if you've ever seen someone who shaped your faith. Maybe they were crucial to you coming to faith or to your discipleship in the Christian faith. Perhaps they moved away or maybe they died. And perhaps you thought, how can I go on without them?

How could they ever be replaced? We've spent the last six weeks following Elijah through the book of 1 Kings, and this morning he's leaving. He's going to leave. And the man that's called to follow him, Elisha, is there mourning his spiritual mentor. But as we come to the passage we're going to read through, we're going to see an important reality and I'll give it to you up front and we're going to come back to it time and time again.

God takes his servants home, but he has never once taken his work with them. God takes his servants home, but he has never once taken his work with them. As we work through this passage, we're going to see three things this morning. They'll come up on the screen there. First, God takes his servants home.

Second, God continues his work here. And third, God's power doesn't fade. Between the passage that we looked at last week with Pastor James in 1 Kings 19 and this morning's text, 2 Kings 2, you might notice that we've jumped a bit of time. And the reason we've jumped time is because 1 kings and 2 kings are not the story of Elijah, they're the story of the kings. And Elijah comes onto the scene when God has something that he wants to say.

And so during this season, a few kings have died. Ahab, who we've heard about a fair bit, he has died. His son, who took his place, has also died. His other son is now on the throne. Jezebel is still alive.

The palace is still far from God, and Elijah and Elisha have been faithfully serving the Lord. We're going to do something slightly different today. We're going to read through the whole of the section. So we've got 15 verses. We'll read through those together, and then we'll come to our first point.

So verse 1 of 2 Kings 2 says this. When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal. And Elijah said to Elisha, stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to Bethel. But Elisha replied, as surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you. So they went down together to Bethel.

The group of prophets from Bethel came to Elisha and asked him, do you know that the Lord is going to take your Master away from you today? Of course I know, Elijah answered, but be quiet about it. Then Elijah said to Elisha, stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to Jericho. But Elisha replied again, as surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you. So they went on together to Jericho.

Then the group of prophets from Jericho came to Elisha and asked him, did you know that Lord is going to take your Master away from you today? Of course I know, Elisha answered, but be quiet about it. Then Elijah said to Elisha, stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to the Jordan River. But again Elisha replied, as surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you. So they went on together.

50 men from the group of prophets also went and watched from a distance as Elijah and Elisha stopped beside the Jordan River. Then Elijah folded his cloak together and struck the water with it. The river divided, and the two of them went across on dry ground. When they came to the other side, Elijah said to Elisha, tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away. And Elisha replied, Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit and become your successor.

You have asked a difficult thing, Elijah replied. If you see me when I am taken from you, then you will get your request. But if not, then you won't. As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, drawn by horses of fire. It drove between the two men separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven.

Elisha saw it and cried out, my father, my father, I see the chariots and charioteers of Israel. And as they disappeared from sight, Elisha tore his clothes in distress. Elisha picked up Elijah's cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up. Then Elisha returned to the bank of the Jordan River. He struck the water with Elijah's cloak and cried out, where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?

Then the river divided and Elisha went across. When the group of prophets from Jericho saw from a distance what had happened, they exclaimed, elijah's spirit rests upon Elisha. And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. Have you ever wondered if God has a sense of humor? The fact that he replaces a prophet called Elijah with a prophet called Elisha and then makes me preach on gives you an answer.

So I might get it wrong this morning. If I get it wrong, you can just substitute the right name there. Let's look at verse one and our first point. God takes his servants home. Verse one starts with these words, when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind.

I want us to notice here this morning that as we come to this passage where Elijah's going to go home, the writer doesn't give us the key moment in the chapter with Elijah as the focus. It doesn't say when Elijah was about to go up to heaven. It says when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven. Now, it seems like a small thing. We could easily preach through this section of the text and preach a sermon on finishing well, finishing the faith well, and Elijah certainly does that.

But I actually don't think this is what the writer of Two Kings wants us to see, that they don't want us to see that this is a story actually about Elijah. They ultimately want us to see that this is a story about God doing something. And the thing that he is doing is what I promised you a couple of weeks ago that we would get to. If you remember back to our first sermon in 1 Kings 19, we saw Elijah there under a tree. He was in the middle of the wilderness.

He was Completely exhausted. He was deeply depressed. He was asking that God would let him die. I told you back then that God was going to answer this prayer. And he answers it here in 2 Kings 2, and he answers it with a resounding no.

God says, elijah, what you've prayed for isn't what's going to happen. I remember somebody told me as a child, I don't remember who, but I just had this sense. I'm sure someone told me that you shouldn't pray for the things that you don't want to happen, like you shouldn't say God. I don't want to do this when I'm older because God has a sense of humour and he'll do those things. So as a kid, I thought there would be nothing worse than God calling me to be a missionary or a pastor.

I had this sense of dread anytime I thought about it, because I thought, oh, God's going to call me to be a missionary or he's going to call me to be a pastor. I couldn't imagine anything worse. So what I did was I made sure I didn't pray against it. I never prayed. God, don't make me a missionary.

God, don't make me a pastor. Because someone had told me, if you pray, that he will, just to spite you. Now, maybe I should have prayed it. I think I was led astray. Theologically, it's complete nonsense.

God doesn't do things just to spite us. This moment is not a divine practical joke at Elijah's expense. Instead, God has a purpose here. Elijah is going to be spared a physical death, not because he prayed for one, but because God is going to use even this last moment of his life to answer the question that's been at the heart of Elijah's ministry. The question that we have come to time and time again throughout this series is, which God is actually here?

Which God is able to answer the cries of his people? Is it BAAL the storm God, the one who supposedly brings the rain but couldn't solve a drought? Or is it the God of Elijah? We saw that question asked in Ahab's palace. It was asked beside a drying brook.

It was asked again at Mount Carmel. And now, at the very end, God answers it again. And he answers it by saying, BAAL controls nothing. Yahweh is in control of all things, certainly the wind and even death itself. And then over the next four verses, we see a pattern.

Repeat. You might have noticed it as we read verse two, says. And Elijah said to Elisha, stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to Bethel. But Elisha replied, as surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you. So they went down together to Bethel.

We have it again in verse four. This time Elijah says, I'm going to Jericho, you stay here. And Elisha says, I'm not going to leave you. And then we had it again in verse six, the same thing. I'm going to go to the Jordan River.

Elisha, you stay here. And Elisha replies, as surely as the Lord lives and you live, and I will never leave you. We don't really know why Elijah is trying to get Elisha not to follow him. Some people suggest that he's actually testing Elisha's dedication. But I suspect it's more than that.

I suspect it's more than that because in verses three and five, interspersing these first set of repetition, we have another set of repetition. This time prophets from the city of Bethel come, and then prophets from the city of Jericho come. And they both say the same thing. Do you know that the Lord is going to take your Master away from you today? And to both of those Elisha says, of course I know, but be quiet about seems perhaps that Elijah wants to go without a crowd.

This moment is not supposed to be about him. He doesn't want it to be about Elijah leav God is taking him home. But God hasn't finished working.

There's another thing before we move on that I think is worth noticing in these opening verses that would be easy for us to miss. If you remember back to 1 Kings 19, at the heart of Elijah's complaint was him saying to the Lord, lord, I'm the only faithful one left. Everybody else has deserted you, and I am the only faithful one left. We saw at the time that that wasn't true. Obadiah had hidden prophets in caves.

But here, faithful followers of the Lord are no longer hidden in caves. Instead, they're out in the open. Here, right at the end of Elijah's ministry, he gets to see God's faithfulness at work. Prophets are now living in Bethel and in Jericho and in other places, serving the Lord faithfully in the open. In verse seven, we read that Elijah and Elisha arrive at the edge of the Jordan River.

It's a scene that has played out in scripture before this moment. Back in Joshua 3, Joshua brings the people to the edge of the promised land. He comes to the edge of the Jordan and God parts the waters. Israel walks into the promised land on dry ground. And now it happens again.

But notice this time it's going the other way. Elijah is heading out of the promised land, out past the edge, out towards where Moses had gone before him, out to a place where God is going to come and take him home. So here is our reminder. Today, God's servants will always go home. But our second point is that even when they do, God doesn't stop working.

Look at verse nine. In verse nine, they've crossed the river. Elijah turns to Elisha and he says to him, tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away. And Elisha replies to him, please let me inherit a double share. In some versions, a double portion of your spirit and become your successor.

If you've been in church circles for a while, I wonder if you've heard people pray this prayer. Lord, give me a double portion. Give me a double portion blessing. I think sometimes we read these verses and we take them to mean that Elisha is praying that he would have twice the power of Elijah, that his ministry would have double the impact that it would have double the anointing. But it's actually not what's happening here.

In the Hebrew, the phrase that Elisha asks, it literally means the mouth of two. And it's a phrase that comes from Deuteronomy. The Israelites had an inheritance practice that when a father died, the firstborn son would receive a double portion of the estate. So if there were two sons, the estate would be split three ways and the firstborn son would get two of the three lots. Now, as not a firstborn son, I'm glad that we don't live under that anymore.

I'll just remind my parents of that. The firstborn son got two lots because he was considered to be the heir. He was the one who would carry the family name. He was the one who would carry the legacy forward. Crucially, he was the one who would continue the work of the father.

So when Elisha asks for a double portion, what he's actually asking is, let me be treated as your son. Give me the spiritual inheritance. Give me the work to continue.

Elijah's reply to him is interesting. Verse 10. He says, you have asked a difficult thing. If you see me when I'm taken from you, then you'll get your request. But if not, then you won't.

They're not playing some game of hide and seek here. There's a purpose for this. Elijah looks at Elisha and says, you have asked for something that is not mine to give. The spirit of God is not mine to hand over to you. Only God can do that.

So Elijah says, here's how you'll know if God has answered you. If you see me as God takes me, you'll have your inheritance and then you'll have the work to Continue. In verse 11, Elisha does see as they're walking, a chariot of fire appears. It drives between Elisha and Elijah, separating them. And then a wind comes and it carries Elijah into the heavens.

I just want to make a little connection for you that the Hebrew reader would have seen. The word for a whirlwind here is echoed over in the Book of Job. It's the same word for the storm that God speaks from there. So this is clear. There should be no doubt in our minds.

This is not some accidental force of nature. There is no mistake. This is Yahweh in the wind, the very wind that BAAL was supposed to be in charge of, even though he knew it was coming. Elisha sees Elijah go and he cries out, my father. My father.

And he tears his clothes in distress. Even though he knows that this is God taking a faithful servant home, Elisha still grieves. And that's a good reminder for us. When God takes his faithful servants home, those who are left still grieve. We still feel the loss of what they have been to us.

Verse 13 tells us that Elisha goes over and he picks up Elijah's coat, which had fallen to the ground. It's the same coat that Elijah had thrown over Elisha when he had first come to him. We heard about that last week and here we see it again. It's a symbol that the work that God had been doing was going to continue through Elisha. We're nearly at summer.

I know spring's only just started, so, you know, but there's people in shorts and T shirts here, so. It's nearly summer, the footy season is starting to wind down, which means that in our house, we just flick a channel and we go from the footy to the cricket. If you love cricket, you will know about the baggy green. It's a hat. It's a dark green cap with the Australian coat of arms on the front.

It's the most famous and sought after hat, I reckon, in the world of sport, but definitely, at least as Australians go, you only get a baggy green if you are picked to play test cricket for Australia, which is the pinnacle of cricket. On the morning of your first test match, the whole of the team gathers in a circle on the field, and a retired player, someone who was once handed their own baggy green, comes and speaks and gives the baggy green this cap to the player on debut. Now, the key for us is that there's actually nothing special about the baggy green. There is nothing special about it, apparently. It's actually really uncomfortable.

Some of the players complain about it being uncomfortable. It offers practically no sun protection. Like the two things of a hat, comfortable offer sun protection. This is neither. It also doesn't make you a test cricketer.

It has no special powers in it. It doesn't somehow make you talented. If by some chance someone gave me one, I would be hopeless in the face of the English and Indian bowlers. I'd be fine with the South Africans and the Kiwis, that'd be all right. But the English and the Indians, on the other hand, this is dangerous ground.

Isn't.

Doesn't make you somehow more talented. It just represents something. And as Elisha takes up Elijah's coat, the coat isn't what makes him a prophet. The coat contains no power. It simply represents something.

It is a sign that God is saying to him, elisha, my work is going to continue through you. And that's the reality for us as well. I think sometimes we can look at the loss of people who have been significant in our faith. We think this is such a huge loss, maybe it's even a Christian leader on a global scale. We think, how can we go on without them?

But the truth is here God takes his servants home, but he never takes his work with them. The last part of the passage is going to show us something else important, that even when his servants go home, God's power doesn't fade. Look at verse 13. Elisha picked up Elijah's cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up. Then Elisha returned to the bank of the Jordan River.

He struck the water with Elijah's cloak and cried out, where is the Lord, the God of Elijah? Then the river divided and Elisha went across. We read that Elisha goes back to the Jordan. And I want us to see this morning that this is actually a really important moment. God takes his servant home.

And what happens straight away is God's work goes out back across the Jordan, back to God's people, back into the fight for faithfulness. The reality for you and me is that when a woman or man of God dies, nothing of God's power dies. So Elisha does what Elijah had done. He takes the coat, he strikes the river and he cries out, where is the God of Elijah? I want us to notice here.

He doesn't cry out, where is Elijah? He's grieved for him moments before. And now, in the face of his first challenge, we might expect him to long for Elijah again. Instead, he lifts his eyes and he says, where is the God of Elijah? Where is the God who kept one man standing faithfully when a whole nation had turned the other way?

Where is the God who fed him at a creek and then fed him in a widow's home when the creek dried up? Where is the God who answered the prayer and his prayer and raised the widow's son? Where is the God who answered by fire when the idol BAAL was silent? Where is the God who came to a broken man under a tree, who met him not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire, but came to him in a whisper? Where is the God of Elijah?

And that same God responds to Elisha. The river is opened up, and he walks back towards God's people, back into the promised land on dry ground.

The God that answers is the same God who had answered with the same power. He'd answered Elijah, and now he answers elisha. In verse 15, that point is made clear for us because the prophets who are watching on, they see all this happen and they yell out, elijah's spirit rests upon Elisha. They could see something important, that God had taken Elijah home, but his work didn't go with him, and God's power hadn't faded. As we close this morning, I want to just highlight a pattern for you that we saw in the text today.

First, we saw Elijah taken home. Then we see God's spirit rest on the servant who was left here. And then we see God continue his work in power. You see, that exact same pattern plays out again on another hillside over in Acts 1. God's own Son, Jesus, is about to be taken up to heaven.

And he says to the disciples that are gathered there, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you'll be my witnesses telling people everywhere about me. It's the same pattern. Jesus ascends and God's spirit comes again. But this time it's so much greater.

You see, throughout the Old Testament, God's Spirit came upon particular people for particular tasks. Prophets and kings and judges, and occasionally the ordinary person who God had called and empowered for a specific purpose. But the Old Testament prophets knew that something even greater was coming. They looked forward to a day when God would pour out his spirit on all his people. And in Acts 2, that day arrives.

God pours out his Spirit on sons and daughters, on young and old, on servants, on rulers, on his whole Church so that every one of us would know God's power in our own lives and that we might be his witnesses to all people. All the way through this series, we've asked this question. Which God is actually here? Which God has the power to answer? Ahab had asked it in the palace.

Elijah had asked it at a brook. A whole nation asked it on Mount Carmel. And Elisha asks it again here on a riverbank, holding Elijah's coat in his hands. He says, where is the. The Lord, the God of Elijah?

But you see, we've seen through this series every single time. The idols of this world were silent, but the God of Elijah, Yahweh, the covenant making and covenant keeping. God answers every time. Church, the great thing for you and me is that this morning we don't need to wonder if God is here. We don't need to ask that same question because we God has revealed Himself in Jesus and he now dwells in each one of us that knows him through His Holy Spirit.

So you can be confident that the same God who turned up in power in the palace on the mountain beside the brook is the same God who is at work in power in your life. Let's pray. God, we thank youk for the time we've spent over these last six weeks in the story of Elijah. Lord, we thank youk for this reminder that yout are the God who answers. We thank youk that we've seen that again today, that even when great men and women of faith, even when people who have been pivotal in our lives, even when they go, even when you take them home, that, Lord, none of your work goes with them, that you continue to work and that your power doesn't fade.

And so we thank you for that this morning. We just pray now that we would know the reality of your Holy Spirit dwelling within us, that it might empower us, that he might empower us to live lives of faith, that we might, as Jesus commanded, go and share the good news of the gospel. And so we ask you this in Jesus precious name, Amen.