Elijah's Mantle

I'd like to begin by reading from Matthew 28, a familiar passage, we all know it just about by heart, at the very, very end of the book of Matthew. And Jesus came and said to them, excuse me, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always to the end of the age. And with this command is the promise of power to enable us to make disciples. It's understood that every believer who goes out in obedience to this command goes out under the authority and power.

All authority has been given to me. Go therefore, I'm with you. And by that authority and power is able to make disciples.

Now where that power is present, it happens. And where that power is absent, all the eloquence in the world will never make it happen. Our need, our great need, is to have this power to manifest the reality of Jesus, not power for its own sake, not power to push other people around, not power to draw attention to ourselves, but power to reveal authority, to lift the veil that hangs over the human mind so that it can see Jesus alive from the dead.

You're having lunch in the cafeteria, minding your own business. Along comes somebody you work with and clumps down by you and starts a conversation. I hear you believe in Jesus.

You swallow what's left of your tuna fish sandwich and answer, Yes, I do. Well, tell me about it. Can you really help me? You're not quite sure that they're on the level, but you have a sense that they're hungry, that they're really looking for something.

And you try to come up with the right words. The next day you give them a book to read. The following week you invite them to a Bible study.

And by this time their moment has changed. The pressure of the crisis, whatever it was, has lifted and they brush you away. How different it would be if when people come to us with this hunger, with this womb, with these questions that are real, we would have the absolute confidence that we have from God in ourselves what is needed to answer the cry of the heart.

Now I'm not talking about brazen conceit and I'm not talking about false confidence that rises out of self-righteousness. I'm talking about the power that Jesus promises to give to his people, his church, that causes living water to come forth from their mouths and healing light to flow from their hands as they reach out to bind up the wounds of the broken heart and set the captives free. Elisha understood that his master Elijah had a power, an authority, something he did not have.

He also understood that Elijah was about to leave. And he's in effect saying, look, how in the world am I going to accomplish the work you're calling me into unless I have what you have. From 2 Kings 2. Now when the Lord was about to take up Elijah to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.

Elijah said to Elisha, carry here, I pray, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel. But Elisha said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel.

And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you? He said, yes, I know it. Hold your peace. Elijah said to him, Elisha, carry here, I pray you, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.

But he said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho. The sons of the prophets who were in Jericho drew near to Elisha and said to him, do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you? He answered, yes, I know it.

Hold your peace. Then Elijah said to him, carry here, I pray you, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan. But he said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.

So the two of them went on. Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went and stood at some distance from them as they were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up and struck the water.

And the water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you. Elisha said, I pray you, let me inherit a double share of your spirit.

He said, you've asked a hard thing. If you see me as I'm being taken up from you, it shall be so for you. But if you do not see me, it shall not be so.

And as they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire came and separated the two of them. And Elisha went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and cried, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen.

And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and ramped them in two pieces. And he took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen to him and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, where is the Lord, the God of Elijah? And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over. When they went east over the Jordan, Elijah struck the water, and the water parted. When Elisha comes back alone over the Jordan, he makes the water part with Elijah's mantle.

He now has the mantle of Elijah, his master, meaning that the spirit of the Lord that was on Elijah is now on Elisha. Now there's no question in his mind as to whether or not he should move forward or whether if I speak this message I've been given, it will be confirmed by God. He knows.

He knows what is on him and in him and what he now can do under God. Now this mantle of Elijah continues down through the generations to John the Baptist. John the Baptist also has this authority when he speaks, people listen because they sense, they can tell, they can almost feel the authority of God.

Listen to John the Baptist as he speaks. Just like Elijah. You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the Rafticon? Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham for our father.

For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. And he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. In other words, he's saying I have the mantle now, but very soon the mantle that is on me will pass to the one from whom it originally came, the Messiah.

And when he has that mantle, he'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He'll give the mantle to all who belong to him. Peter, verses down the page we read, and when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.

Now the mantle's on Jesus. Jesus, God the Son, divested of all his divine prerogatives, truly a man, relies utterly now on the Holy Spirit, which is the mantle of Elijah. After being driven in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, he comes out and he begins to use that mantle.

But his use of this power of God is different from anybody else's use of it. Very different from the way it was used by Elijah or Elisha or John the Baptist. Jesus does not come up against the kings and the princes.

He remains immersed in the multitudes. In fact, he's so immersed and almost invisible in the multitudes of earth that John the Baptist, now in prison, begins to wonder whether Jesus knows what he's doing. So he sends some disciples of his to Jesus to ask, are you the one who is to come, or do we look for another? And Jesus says, go and tell John again the things that you see and hear.

The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news, preach to them. The mantle is at work, power is flowing out, greater than ever flowed through Elijah, but it's moving in a different direction. It's not going up toward the palaces and the council chambers, but it's rather going down to the very foundations of society.

Soon those foundations are going to shake so violently that every king on earth is going to tremble with fear. Jesus' use of the mantle of Elijah caused the rulers of Israel, the Roman governor, and Satan himself to put Jesus on that cross and kill him. Not realizing the awesome victory which would be won when this took place.

Jesus comes forth from the dead on the third day, clothed now only in that mantle, nothing else. A mantle of pure light, holiness, mercy, joy, and for 40 days he appears and reappears to the disciples, and before he takes his leave he says, don't leave the city until you get the mantle. Ten days later, the mantle falls.

They were all together in one place, and there came a sound from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared cloven tongues like as a fire, resting on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And for 20 centuries every redemptive move, everything redemptive that has been brought into human life has come through men and women who are under the mantle of Elijah.

Not just those who talk about the mantle of Elijah, but those who wear it. So what do we have to do to get this mantle on and to be able to use it? Two very simple things. First, we have to aggressively pursue that mantle.

Notice how Elisha did it. Elijah tries three times to shake him off. Elisha, why don't you stay here? The Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.

Elisha, why don't you stay here? I'm supposed to go to Jericho. Elisha, stay here. I'm going to the Jordan.

And each time, Elisha answers, no way. As you live, as the Lord lives, I'm not going to leave you. Once it's clear to Elijah that he's not going to be able to shake Elisha off, he then says, okay, I want your mantle.

I want a double portion of your spirit. And Jesus encourages us to cry out for this very thing. Ask for the mantle.

Pursue it. Ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Keep asking until you receive this gift, and you will.

Lord, unless I am anointed with your spirit, unless I am clothed in this mantle, unless I am filled with your life, how in the world am I going to feed these hungry, or bring any hope to these desolate, or bind up these wounded ones who come to me? This asking that we're talking about is not the half-baked kind of thing we do so much of a couple times, two and three, and then we get mad at God because he doesn't hear our prayers. We're talking about the asking that is absolutely relentless, that follows Elijah to Bethel, to Jericho, to the Jordan, into the wilderness, wherever he goes, and refuses to let go. Lord God, I have to have this bread to feed the hungry.

I must have this spirit. I'm not going to give you any peace unless you flood me with your spirit. I won't let you go unless you bless me, said Israel.

We're called to do the same thing. Once the mantle comes, and it absolutely will come to those who ask, the second thing we have to do is aggressively enter into its life. And he took up the mantle of Elijah which had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

Then he took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah? And when he struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other. I can just picture Hollywood doing this one. He would get the mantle, and he'd hold it to his face like Victor Mature in the role, like a security blanket, or sit there and just meditate, or remember old times.

But that's not what happened. Praise God. He takes this mantle, rolls it up just like Elijah did, and bang! Hits the water.

Where is the God of Elijah? And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Immediately they moved aggressively into the life of the Spirit. They obeyed.

They acted. They didn't just sit there and look at each other and have a nice time. They were quickly outside that building, and they shook up the whole city.

Now if we should have an outpouring of God's Spirit to refresh us today, may it be so. And then, after receiving the Spirit, go out into the world, which is asleep and dead, and tiptoe around so that we won't wake anybody up or disturb anybody or get anybody mad at us. What have we accomplished? No! We take the mantle and put it on, and we go out there and we shout, not in here so much as out there! We knock on doors.

We rattle cages. We shake the trees. We wake people up.

Let's get used to it. If we, in fact, put on the mantle of Elijah, we will be as disruptive to our world as he was to his. That's our problem.

We don't want to accept that. They're not going to put you on TV because you became a follower of Jesus. They're going to put you on a cross with Jesus, sooner or later.

And by that power, you'll overcome evil, and you'll have victory. As we go out and move in the Spirit, and speak in the Spirit, and think in the Spirit, and act in the Spirit, one thing will happen. The world around us will begin to get a totally different view of who Jesus is by what happens, what begins to flow out of our lives.

They will no longer be able to hold to the view that Jesus has the halo shampoo, the one they see in all the funeral homes. But they will see eyes that burn like fire, and a voice that sounds like the voice of many waters. And they will know that Jesus is alive.

That's why he gives us the mantle. In order that the life flowing forth from his people, and bringing help to the hungry, and the broken, and the forgotten, and the sick, and the dead, that this will make clear to everybody who has an honest eye and an honest mind that Jesus is alive. And that every heart that inwardly thirsts for God will hear his call and find his or her way into the kingdom.

May God help us to pursue the mantle, to put it on, and to use it. Let's pray. Lord God, we don't want to be obnoxious.

We don't want to just disrupt people for the sake of disrupting them. We don't want to be ridiculous or unwise. But Lord, where you call us to speak and where you call us to act, deliver us from the fear of man.

And the fear of disturbing or upsetting the fruit basket or unsettling somebody's mind or heart. We just cry out to you today for the liberty of the Holy Spirit. We open our hearts and cry out that you would just fill us with the Holy Spirit.

And we ask you to help us to go with the Spirit and obey the Spirit beyond the walls of this place.