Introduction

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Last year the Bible Society released a report titled ‘The Quiet Revival’ … about church attendance in England.  And this report found that in 2018 … just 4% of young men attended church regularly.  In 2024 … that number had jumped to 21%.  21% of males aged 18-25 now attend church regularly in England.  Now social commentators claim this has come about through a VARIETY of reasons … but the 2 that keep coming up is how young men are looking for (i) meaning and (ii) identity in life.

• So with meaning … Gen Z has realised that neo-atheism … which was popular among Gen X and Gen Y … is completely vacuous with regards to meaning.  The reason being … if we are nothing more than a big cosmic accident, then there is NO meaning to life.  So they’re reacting against atheism.

• With regards to identity … young men have been told by Western society in recent years that the word ‘masculinity’ is almost inseparable now from the word ‘toxic’.  So these young men are reacting against SECULARISM as well … which can tell them what NOT to be … but have failed to tell them what they ARE to be.

However, it’s not just the Christian church that is growing.  Islam has seen significant growth in England as well.  One of the more famous converts to Islam is on-line influencer Andrew Tate … who says he converted in 2022 … because Islam gives HIM the meaning and identity he’s looking for.

Now the reason I mention this is because our passage today looks at a very similar clash of faiths … when the prophet Elijah is sent OUTSIDE the land of Israel.  And the purpose of his mission is to ask ‘which god is the real God?’  And this is the number 1 question all humans MUST answer.  To live a truly examined life … the job of every adult human is to figure out which god is the true God.

Now atheists will say ‘well hang on a minute.  I don’t have faith in ANY God … so why do I need to choose?’  My answer to that is … you’ve got even BIGGER fish to fry … because you CANNOT prove there’s no God.  So to CLAIM ‘there’s no God’ is a faith claim in the first place.  The PROBLEM with that faith claim … is the evidence suggests otherwise.  Scientist Steven Meyer has just released a new book titled ‘Return of the God hypothesis’ … in which he claims many of the scientific findings over the past 30 years DEMAND intelligent design.  One example is the Big Bang.  If we hit the rewind button on the universe … we will observe all mater in the universe collapse back in on itself … to what scientists call a singularity.  And a singularity is a state of zero space.  Now do you know how much matter you can fit into zero space?  It’s zero.  So according to the Big Bang theory … the origins of the universe sound eerily like Genesis 1 … where God created ex-nihilo … out of nothing.

So if we are to live a truly examined life … as opposed to a wilfully ignorant life … the job of every human adult is to figure out which of the world religions … all of which say opposing things mind you … so they cannot all be right … which of the world religions presents us with the one true God.  But how do we do this … given there is so much info out there?

Well our passage today presents us with someone who is wrestling with this very question.  The advantage this woman has though … is she is sent someone who is very spiritually discerning.  And the prophet Elijah shows this widow 3 things … which is really HANDY for my sermon outline … 3 things about the God of the Bible … that strongly suggest HE is the one true God.  And these 3 things are that the God of the Bible is (i) The inclusive God, (ii) The living God, and (iii) The resurrecting God.

And so whether you’re still a seeker … still thinking all this through … or whether you’re at the other end of the spectrum … and wish to help OTHERS think this through … that’s our goal as Christians … to be mature enough to be able to help OTHERS come and enjoy what we enjoy here at Earlwood Anglican … wherever you sit on the spectrum … I pray you can all stick with me … as we look at the question every adult human must deal with; who is the one true God?

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The inclusive God

 

And we pick up the narrative several chapters after last week’s passage.  So after King Solomon … we looked at the disastrous kingships of Rehoboam … the Rightful heir … and Jeroboam … the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel.  The next bit we’re skipping is 1 Kings 14-16 … which looks at Rehoboam and Jeroboam’s successors … who generally don’t fair much better.  But at the end of 1 Kings 16 … we’re introduced to the worst king in ALL of Israel’s sordid history.  The author says:

1 Kings 16:30 (NIV) Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him.

Part of the reason for this … is he married Jezebel … the daughter of the king of Sidon … who is arguably the WORST woman in the whole Bible.  It’s why no one calls their babies Ahab or Jezebel anymore.  And Ahab lets Jezebel promote Baal worship in Israel.  And in 1 Kings 17 … God responds:

1 Kings 17:1 (NIV) Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

Now … WHY does Elijah call for a drought?  It’s because Baal was the storm God … who brought the rains.  So Elijah is setting up a challenge here.  Who is the one true God?  Is it Baal … who is supposed to bring you rain … or is it Yahweh … who has just declared there will be NO rain for the foreseeable future?

Well no rain means a famine quickly ensues.  Elijah is initially protected from this famine by God sending him to the Kerith ravine … where ravens miraculously bring him bread and meat each day.  Yet the Kerith ravine soon dries up … and God sends Elijah to a town called Zarephath … which is in Sidon.  Now why is this important?  Because Sidon is where Jezebel comes from.  So God is taking this fight … between Baal and Himself … right into Baal territory.  And in doing so … God is showing us something very important about himself.  And that is … that he is an inclusive God.

One of the charges often brought against Christianity is it’s too exclusive.  ‘What do you mean the ONLY way to heaven is through Jesus?  That’s so exclusive!’  Yet what we see HERE … is that ‘one way’ makes the God of the Bible the most INCLUSIVE God in the world.  Have a look with me.

1. So to begin with … God is sending his prophet to a Gentile … a non-Jew.  And this is a HUGE problem for Jews back then.  When Jesus preached his FIRST sermon … in Luke chapter 4 … he mentions this episode.  Let me read to you just 2 verses:

Luke 4:25-26 (NIV) I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.

And as soon as Jesus says this … we’re told the people in the synagogue were so furious that they tried to KILL Jesus then and there.  They didn’t like the fact that God invites people from ALL races.

1. Yet not only was this woman a Gentile … she was a pagan.  She lived in Baal territory.  God invites people from all religions.

2. Furthermore … she’s a WOMAN.  I’m not sure if you woman are aware of this or not … but there is an inbuilt NEED in men to be able to provide for themselves and their family.  Yet here’s God telling Elijah he’s going to be provided for by a woman.  You can imagine him saying ‘can’t you just keep sending the ravens?  So God blows past the gender barrier here as well.

3. Then finally … this woman was poor.  There’s a view among middle- and upper-class people that poor people are poor because they’re lazy.  Yet God HONOURS this poor woman.

And in sending Elijah to be cared for by this poor, pagan, Gentile woman … God is showing that he is an inclusive God.  And the REASON Christianity is the most inclusive religion on the planet is because salvation is not based on merit … or pedigree … or class:

• If you ask a Muslim how you get to eternal paradise … they’ll say it has to do with merit … with doing the right things.

• If you speak to a Hindu about their faith … they’ll talk about how it’s based on a cast system.

• I don’t know about the current Pope … but the previous Pope said EVERYONE gets to heaven … but the Roman Catholics go first class.

ALL world religions are exclusive in some way.  If you (i) HAVEN’T performed enough good deeds, or (i) are from the wrong cast system, or (iii) don’t KNOW the right religious deeds to perform … then you’re out.  Now I’m not saying the God of the Bible isn’t exclusive in His own way.  There’s still something you need to do to get in.  But the reason He MORE inclusive than any other religion … is because salvation is not of merit … it’s of grace.  It’s a free gift.  Notice the widow of Zarephath had done NOTHING to earn being saved from the famine.  In fact she admits that she’s sinful in v. 18.  ALL she had to do … was accept God’s grace … accept that she needs help.

So our first piece of application for today … is never consider ANYONE beyond salvation when it comes to the God of the Bible.  God sent his prophet deep into enemy territory … to find a poor, pagan, Gentile woman.  Why?  Because God accepts anyone who is willing to humble themselves before him.

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The living God

 

So … the God of the Bible is more inclusive than any other god.  Elijah then presents us with a SECOND piece of evidence that his God is the one true God.  And that is that the God of the Bible is the LIVING God.  Not only does Elijah call God ‘the living God’ in v. 1 … the woman repeats it in v. 12.  When Elijah asks her for some food … we read

1 Kings 17:12 (NIV) “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread

Now what does it mean that God is living?  Well it means he’s not a statue.  There’s a comical episode in 1 Samuel 5 … where the Philistines capture the ark of God and place it in the temple of THEIR god Dagon … to show that THEIR god rules supreme.  But the morning after they place the ark in Dagon’s temple … the Philistines wake up to find that their idol has mysteriously tipped over.  Dagon had fallen prostrate before the ark of the covenant.  Now what do you do when your ’god’ tips over?  Well … they picked him up and put him back in his place … only for it to happen again the next day.  But that’s what you do with a dead god.  If they get knocked over … you pick your god back up and set him in his place.  Why?  Because they’re not real.  They’re a figment of your imagination.

But this poses a question.  How can you tell if your God is real … or is just a figment of your imagination?  The answer is … a LIVING God will sometimes do things we don’t understand … or don’t agree with.  You see IF you’ve made your god up … they will NEVER do things that we don’t understand or don’t like … for the simple fact that we wouldn’t believe in a God like that.  If we’ve DESIGNED our god in our own mind … then he’s going to believe exactly what we believe … and behave in the exact way we think he should behave.

And that’s how this passage starts out.  Yahweh gives this widow a never-ending pack of Tim Tams.  Her flour jar and oil jar to never run out.  But God then does something we DON’T expect.  He allows the woman’s child to get ill … and die … v. 17.  Now the death of a child is tragic at any age.  No parent should outlive their children.  But what’s even MORE tragic … is the child is probably under 10 years old … given he was so easily carried by the woman and Elijah.  The God of the Bible sometimes does things we don’t understand … or don’t like.

Now the question is … how do we deal with this?  Well notice how both the woman and Elijah respond.  Neither of them just stop believing in Yahweh.  If a god you’ve projected in your mind does something you don’t like or understand … you just stop believing in them.  Not so here.

Yet they’re BOTH confused.  The woman remember comes from a pagan background … meaning her views on Yahweh are probably heavily influenced by her pagan religion that was based on merit.  So she says:

1 Kings 17:18 (NIV) “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

She thinks she’s being punished for her sins.  But here’s the thing.  Elijah doesn’t have any answers either.  Though he’s got a ‘doctorate’ in theology compared to this woman … he too says:

1 Kings 17:20 (NIV) “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?”

God has done something neither of them understand … and neither of them like.  That’s because the God of the Bible is not some pathetic little domesticated God … that will snap to our beg and call.  The God of the Bible is beyond our understanding … and beyond our control.  And if we’re not willing to have a God who sometimes does things we don’t understand … or sometimes tells us things we don’t like … then we will never have a living God.  We’ll only have a figment of our imagination.  So application point number 2 for today … is make sure you are letting your God challenge you … confuse you … and call you out.  Because if your God happens to agree with everything you believe … then you don’t have a living God.  You’ve got a made up one.

 

 

The resurrecting God

 

So … we have (i) an inclusive God, and (ii) a living God.  The third and final thing we learn in this passage comes through what God does next.  And that is … he performs what I believe is the FIRST resurrection in recorded history.  I might be mistaken … but I think this is the first.  And the question we need to ask is … WHY?  Why did God bring this child back from the dead?  He’s allowed other children to die before.  When King David committed adultery with Bathsheba … that child got sick and died.  Why save this one?  Well I believe there are 2 reasons God raises this child.

The first is to show God’s grace again.  Notice how neither the woman nor Elijah claim that God has no right to take the boy.  They’re not crying out for justice here.  King David didn’t cry out for justice for his child.  He begged for his child to survive … but not because of justice.  He knew he’d sinned … just as this woman knows SHE’S sinned.  So she doesn’t cry out ‘it’s not fair’.  She simply asks ‘is it because of my sin?’

1 Kings 17:18 (NIV) “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

God brings her child back … to tell her ‘no … your son is not dying for your sin.  In fact he can’t.  Only my son can do that.’  And about 900 years later … God’s Son DID pay for this woman’s sin … along with yours and mine.  The God of the Bible is not a merit-based God.  He is a grace-based God … who offers salvation to us free of charge.  But the reason it’s free of charge to US … is because he paid the ransom himself.  And friends … even if you don’t believe in a God like that … don’t you secretly wish he were true?  Don’t you secretly wish that out of ALL the gods of all the world religions … there was one that loved his creatures SO MUCH … that he was willing to pay for their Sin himself.

So that’s the FIRST reason God resurrects this child … to show once again he is not a God of merit … like Baal and the rest of the made-up gods.  He is a God of grace.  The second reason he resurrects this child is to show yet again that he is the one true God.  Read the last verse with me:

1 Kings 17:24 (NIV) Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”

Bringing someone back from the dead is about the greatest miracle you can perform.  Like if Elijah were a travelling magician … how does he top that one?  Pull a rabbit out of his hat?  You cannot get any more convincing evidence than bringing someone back from the dead.  The problem for US though … is we weren’t there to witness it.  So how do we know this isn’t just some fairytale someone has made up?

Well the good news for us is … God did it again … some 900 years later.  And when he brought Jesus back from the dead … he gave us 4 pieces of evidence that PROVE the resurrection really took place on that very first Easter Sunday.  And ALL you have to do … to prove Christianity is false … all you have to do to prove the God of the Bible is NOT the one true God … is disprove 1 of these pieces of evidence.  Just 1.  So I’m doing the heavy lifting for you here … in laying them out for you.  But here are the 4 pieces of evidence that show the God of the Bible is a resurrecting God.  And I get these from famed Christian apologist Sr William Lane Craig:

Fact 1: There are multiple independent crucifixion accounts that claim Jesus was buried in a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea, with no competing stories.  Out of all the accounts we have of Jesus’ death … both within and outside of the Bible … none claim Jesus was buried in some other place.  So the location of Jesus’ tomb was well known.

Fact 2: There are multiple independent sources who claim Jesus’ tomb was empty on Easter Sunday.  The fact is … the apostles could NOT have founded a movement based on an empty tomb … if the location of the tomb was so well known.  The fact that the Jews spread an alternate story … that the body had been stolen … as Matthew’s gospel tell sus … shows even THEY knew the tomb was empty. 

Fact 3: Numerous individuals on multiple occasions experienced appearances of the risen Jesus.  Paul lists them all in 1 Cor 15, leaving it open for his readers to refute it.  Some of those eyewitnesses were Jesus’ own brothers.  Now what would it take for Jesus’ own brothers to believe he was risen?

Fact 4: While the disciples had no reason to believe Jesus was risen, they all went to an early grave preaching the risen Jesus.  Since 40AD, Christians have been the most persecuted people group in history … based on Jesus’ death and resurrection … yet they still believe.  And if you want to live a truly examined life … that’s the evidence you need to do business with.

 

 

Conclusion

 

So … there are 3 pieces of evidence … to suggest that the God of the Bible is the one true God.

1. The God of the Bible is an inclusive God … based on grace … which means there’s hope for you and me.  There’s WAY more hope than any other world religion anyway.

2. The Christian God is a living God.  He’s not a figment of our imagination … who does everything we want him to do.  He is beyond our understanding … and out of our control.

3. And finally … he is a resurrecting God.  And if he’s a resurrecting God … as those 4 pieces of evidence suggest … then he IS the one true God … who demands our allegiance.  IF we are living the truly examined life … then I pray we can echo the widow of Zarephath … who said:

1 Kings 17:24 (NIV) … “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”