2 Kings 13:21

0:00 Good evening, church. Just seems like a couple days ago I was in this pulpit preaching for three Sundays in a row in the morning services. And you know what's nice about preaching in the morning at this church is you get to pick your text. You send Greg an email and you say, this is the text I want to preach. And 100% of the time so far he said, great, load it up. Here's the thing about the evening service. Greg picks the text. And I just so happen to have confirmed reports that when this text was picked, quote, Greg cackled, unquote.

0:40 I don't know what was meant by that, but Tuesday evening, Tuesday afternoon, Erin sent me a text message, and she said, hey, Ryan, I don't know if you remember, but you're preaching this Saturday evening. I hadn't got my text yet. And then the email came. Drum roll. Ryan, your text is 2 Kings 13 verse 21. Now, I don't have this passage memorized. It wasn't in my fighter versus package a few years ago.

1:10 It wasn't in my Sunday school curriculum when I was a young kid. So I go to 2 Kings verse 13 to 21. And let's look at it. And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen, and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha. And as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet. This isn't exactly the type of text that athletes will scribble on their shoes or fans will put on a placard.

1:44 But I was rebuked, my friends, after just a couple minutes of wallowing and thinking to myself, what on earth am I going to preach on this text? My mind went to 2 Timothy 3.16, which says, All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. I was rebuked by that. I think if we're to be honest, sometimes when we're going through our Bible reading, sometimes we end up in some of this historical narrative, and it's so long and it's so wordy that often we skip what actually is going on in a specific passage.

2:22 And as I was preparing for tonight's text, I was rebuked. There's something going on here that if you just read it at its surface level, okay, it's an interesting story that would make for a great Hollywood scene. Dead guy gets thrown into a grave. His dead body touches the dead body of somebody else, and he gets brought back to life. Sounds like a zombie apocalypse. That's not what's going on in this text. Does anybody know how many resurrections happen in the Bible?

2:54 Anybody got a guess? nobody's willing to venture into that territory. Ten. Ten happen in the Bible. Three in the Old Testament. Of those three in the Old Testament, two were done by living people, Elijah and Elisha. Only one resurrection in the Bible, or really frankly in all of history as far as we know, happened when a dead man's body touched another dead man's body. But that's what's in our text.

3:26 And I think there's a point to this text, and here's what I think it is. I think the point of this text is that in times of despair, we can have hope in the promises of God. In times of despair, we can have hope in the promises of God. And I want to break that main point down into just two very simple sub-points. Number one, we have our current reality. Life is full of anguish. Our verse tonight is found in a narrative about a time of despair in the life of Israel.

3:58 Jehoash is the king of Israel, and we see just a few verses before that Jehoash did evil in the sight of the Lord. He was not a good king. He did not obey God's laws. And Elisha, the prophet, had just died. Winter had been turning to spring. The ground was thawing, and the Moabites, ancient enemies of Israel, they were up to their usual antics, and they were sending in their annual raiding parties into the lands of Israel. Marauding raiders are never a good thing. They're pillaging, they're stealing, they're harming.

4:35 And it's during this time that we read that a man is dead, and his friends are getting ready to bury him, and they see this marauding group of Moabites coming, and they panic, and they throw his body into the tomb of Elisha. These men, they're facing raids. Their friend has just died. They don't have enough time to bury the body. See, the Old Testament laws about burial were pretty exact.

5:08 You had to get the body in the ground within 24 hours because it was unclean. We heard of some of the unclean laws this morning as Alex was preaching. And there was great intention to get someone buried. But they're never going to get their friend buried and survive the raid of the Moabites coming their way. And so they decide to throw him. They didn't place him. They didn't put him down in a nice little stone tab right beside Elisha and say, we'll come back and get him later.

5:39 There's urgency. They're fearing their lives. They have to escape. Can you think of a time that you've despaired? I don't know if many of us have ever been on the receiving end of a marauding group of raiders. Honestly, some of you who have been from other countries may have been part of something like that where someone was coming to harm you in that way and no one was there to protect you. But all of us in this room, I'm sure, have been despairing at one time or another.

6:09 Maybe you've lost your job or you've received some bad news or someone has stolen from you or someone has physically harmed you. Friends, our lives are full of despair. Anytime we turn on the news, or we read Facebook updates, or we look at the unofficial third email list, the reality is life is hard, and it's going to continue to be hard. This Friday, I received an email update from a friend of mine. His brother is serving as a missionary.

6:45 And his brother was four-wheeling with their young son, and the four-wheeler flipped. In the blink of a second, my friend's brother went to protect their toddler who was on the four-wheeler with him. He protected his son, but his face was crushed by the four-wheeler. Every bone in the middle of his face broken, caved in, and he had to be rushed to hospital. His life was spared, but his life will never, ever, ever, ever be the same.

7:18 Full of surgeries. This is a young man in his late 20s. His life is going to be hard for the rest of his life in a split second. Next week, I'm sure I'm going to come across another disaster that might not be as brutal as that one, but that is just another reminder that life is hard. Friends, maybe your greatest discouragement isn't from your circumstances or what others have done to you, but it's in your daily battle with sin. It's not an accident that you've undergone or someone's stealing from you. It's the day in and day out war with your flesh and with indwelling sin that you are trying to put to death every single day. So how do we press on in the midst of despair? How do we have hope in times of hopelessness? Where do we place our hope?

8:14 That's our second point. Friends, we place our hope in the promises of God. What happens in this verse when this dead man's body touches the bones of Elisha? He's raised to life. Seriously. Elisha was a great prophet. He performed many miracles, 16 by my count, when he was alive. Here's a few examples. He parted the waters of the Jordan River. He provided a wealth of oil for a widow so that she could provide for her and her son. He raised the Shunammite woman's son from the dead. So he was involved in the miracle raising someone already from the dead.

8:55 He healed Naaman of leprosy. He multiplied loaves. He purified water. He purified poison soup. He prophesied famine relief and the death of oppressors. You just see as you listen to those miracles, just the echoes of what Jesus would one day do. Now Elisha's dead. He's dead. And he's in a tomb. And the dead man comes to life when his body touches Elisha's bones.

9:30 Friends, miracles serve to confirm someone's authority. They serve to produce faith in others. And they would confirm a word that was spoken. But here, Elisha's dead. And the Moabites are raiding Israel. And Israel is being ruled by an evil king. Elisha had replaced Elijah as a prophet in the midst of Israel. And after the Lord appointed Elisha, Elijah was carried to heaven.

10:07 When Elisha dies, the Lord doesn't appoint another prophet to take his place. The people have an evil king, and there's no prophet. And in the midst of this trial, God reminds his people of his promises and his power to bring about those promises so that they would have faith. The whole purpose of this resurrection was to remind the people of Israel that God was still in the habit of performing miracles in their midst. That's what's going on here. What exactly were the promises of God to the people of Israel. He had made them his people. He had promised them land. They were dwelling in that land. He had promised them protection, ultimate protection, blessing if they obeyed him, curses if they disobeyed him. He promised that he would make them a great nation, that they would be a

11:07 great people, and through them the entire world would be blessed. He promised a Messiah who would save his people. So many promises made throughout the pages of the Old Testament. Friends, God always keeps his covenant promises. 2 Kings 13.23, just two verses after our text today, says, the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them, the people of Israel, and he turned toward them because of his promise and his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and would not destroy them nor has he cast them from his presence until now.

11:51 That's just two verses after our text tonight. God's remembering his covenant promises. It's not that he had forgotten them. God doesn't forget. But we're reading this in the text to show us that God was still on the move. he was still working. Friends, it's easy in the midst of discouragement and despair to be tempted to wonder whether or not God is going to keep his promises, his promises to give strength to the weary, to provide for you, to give you understanding if you ask for it, to give you rest, his promise to complete the good work that he began in you with your justification and sanctification leading to glorification. His promise to never leave you nor forsake you. His promise to forgive you of your sins if you place your faith in him. His promise to provide you with an eternal home with him. And his promise to come again and bring judgment. Friends, the scriptures contain thousands

12:53 of promises. And just as the resurrection of this man assured the people of Israel of God's faithfulness, so the resurrection of Jesus gives us assurance that God will keep all of his promises. The resurrection of this man in 2 Kings 13 was temporary. He would eventually die again. Jesus rose from the grave and is the first fruits of the resurrection. Jesus was raised and never died again. His greater resurrection was what this man's temporary resurrection was pointing towards. All of God's promises find their fulfillment in Christ, all of them, both those made in the Old Testament and the New Testament. So Christian, I want to remind you that you can have hope in God's promises, not just when the days are good, but also in the hard days, in the despairing days, in the discouraging days. I want to close with just a few simple things to

13:56 remind yourself of if you're facing discouragement or despair. Number one, remind yourself that none of us are immune to hardship. If you're not struggling today, that's a good day. The reality is that you know someone who is struggling today. Number two, remember that God always keeps his promises. He's promised to never leave you nor forsake you. We see that in Hebrews 13.5.

14:28 Number three, remember that all of God's promises are fulfilled in and through Jesus. Why is that important to remember? Because it drives us to worship. We should worship Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of all of God's promises. 2 Corinthians 1.20. Number four, remind yourself that the despair of death has no hold on you. Jesus rose from the grave, and one day when Jesus returns, so will you. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, 20, that Jesus is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

15:06 Steph McDiarmid, we've been agonizing with you as you've been caring for your sister. But it's so wonderful to hear of when Christians grieve, because we grieve as people with hope. your sister's with Jesus and he's going to raise her body one day from the grave and it's going to be perfect. Friends, unless Jesus comes back, we're all going to die. That's a fact. But because of what Jesus did, what God did by raising Jesus from the dead, we too will raise from the dead. And it won't be by touching a dead man's body. It will be because of our resurrected Savior.

15:46 That is good news. Number five, friends, remind yourself that we don't grieve like the world grieves because we have hope. 1 Thessalonians 4.13. We have hope. It's so hard to go to a funeral of a non-Christian. It's agonizing. Aaron and I last night were watching a Celine Dion documentary. i'm gonna own that i got some fellow canadians in the room she's our queen while you continue to laugh at me this documentary was compelling because it tells of her struggle with um stiff person syndrome the last few years celine dion who i we can argue about this but i don't think anybody in this world can sing like celine dion Phenomenal voice.

16:46 She can't sing. The most heartbreaking thing about this documentary was watching this woman struggle and despair and not even know who she was. She'd been made such a big deal because of her voice. She didn't even know what she was anymore. That's despair. That's hope. There's no future hope apart from Christ for Celine Dion. There's no future hope for our unsaved loved ones apart from Jesus Christ.

17:19 So friends, as we struggle through our own issues, let's struggle as people who can testify to the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Number six, remind yourself that there are people in your own life and billions of people around the world who don't have this hope. So take every opportunity you have to share the gospel, so that as they encounter our Savior who rose from the dead, they too can come to life and have it eternally. When Jesus was eating the Last Supper with the disciples, he told them to take the bread and to take the cup, symbols of the new covenant, and to take them in remembrance of him.

18:00 And Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 26, that we proclaim Jesus' death until he comes again. That's hope. What we're going to do in just a few minutes is a celebration of hope. The last supper that Jesus was eating with his disciples was at the Passover meal, which had been celebrated since the first Passover in Egypt when the Lord spared the firstborn of all the houses when they put the blood of an unblemished land on the doorpost. Every year as the people of Israel celebrated the Passover, they would be reminded of God's covenant promises.

18:36 That's what's happening here in this text. As people heard the story of this dead man coming to life, they were reminded of God's covenant promises. Tonight, as we celebrate the Lord's Supper, let's also remember that God keeps his promises. He has forgiven our sins, Christian. He will come again, and we will live eternally with him. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for the truth that all of Scripture is profitable, and Lord, I thank You for the rebuke in my own life this week, and for the encouragement that You gave me by Your Spirit of the hope that I have in You.

19:27 Lord, I pray that as we celebrate Your Supper in just a few minutes, Lord, we would be encouraged by the various promises that we can see that you've kept in our lives, Lord, and knowing that you keep 100% of your promises. You are not like us. God, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.