Advent Week 1: HOPE (1 Kings 19:1–12)

Week 1 Advent Every year during the Christmas season at our

church, we gather together to wait to wait the word Advent is

from a Latin word and that Latin word literally means coming and

what it refers to is it refers to the fact that God's people in

the Old Testament had to practice in a posture of waiting

for the first coming of, of Jesus and we as people who know

about the first coming of Jesus also need help waiting for the

second coming or the second advent of, of Jesus.

And so over the course of the next 4 weeks to kind of prepare

you for the coming light of Christ and Christmas, we're

going to explore this Advent sermon series.

We will explore the four traditional Advent themes, hope,

peace, joy, and love. And as we cruise through those 4

Advent themes, we'll also explore them with the background

concept of stubborn gladness. Stubborn gladness.

This this truth that even when we don't feel hope, feel peace,

feel joy, or feel love, we still have a stubborn gladness in the

midst of it that never goes away, even if that's not our

subjective experience. Stubborn gladness.

But today, week 1 is hope. So this week, when you light

that first Advent candle, if you've got kids, tell them

that's for hope. If you're alone at home, remind

yourself that that's for hope. The first week of Advent is a

celebration of hope. Pray with me, Father of Light.

In this Advent season, we confess that we know the

darkness too well, the anxiety that tightens in our chest, the

depression that clouds our joy, the shame that whispers old

lies, and the hopelessness that makes the future feel thin.

Like Elijah under the broom tree, Meet us in our exhaustion.

Like Jacob trembling on the road to meet Esau, speak peace to our

anxious hearts. Like Job, who cursed the day of

his birth, Let your joy rise stronger than our despair.

Like Adam and Eve hiding in their shame, clothe us with your

steadfast love, Father, Son, and Spirit.

You alone, three persons and one God, are the only light in this

present darkness. You are hope where we feel

deserted, peace where we feel undone, joy where we feel

broken, and love when we feel unworthy.

So, Lord, make us a people of stubborn gladness, not by

ignoring our wounds, but by encountering you in them.

You are the light that refuses annihilation, and all God's

people prayed. Amen.

If you're able, let's go ahead and stand for the reading of

First Kings. Chapter 19 beginning in verse

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

one, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had

killed all the prophets with the sword.

So what's going on here is Elijah is the prophet who

defeated the the false prophets of the Pagan God Baal.

So that just happened. That was right before the story.

And notice this, Elijah's faithfulness doesn't solve his

problems. What's his faithfulness do

creates more problems. Look at verse 2.

Then Jezebel, queen over Israel, sent a messenger to Elijah

saying, so may the gods do to me and more also, if I don't make

your life as the one, as the life of one of them by this time

tomorrow, In other words, Jezebel saying I'm going to kill

you, there's a death warrant out for Elijah right now.

So naturally Elijah was afraid, and he arose and he ran for his

life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah.

And he left the servant there. But he himself went a day's

journey into the wilderness. And he came and sat down under a

broom tree, symbolic for having a personal collapse and

meltdown. And he asked that he might die,

saying, It's enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no

better than my father's. This is the profound paradox of

being a human being. Elijah is so afraid of dying

that he wants to die. And he laid down, collapsed and

slept under a broom tree. And behold an Angel touched him

and said to him, arise and eat. And he looked and behold there

was an Angel. And at his head a cake was baked

on hot stones in a jar of water. And he ate and drank and laid

down again. Dude was just hangry and needed

a nap. Weirdly relatable.

And the Angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched

him and said arise and eat, for the journey is too great for

you. And he arose and ate and drank

and he went in the strength of that food, 40 days and 40 nights

to Hora, the Mount of God. This is important.

This is really important here. Mount Ora is the exact same

mountain as Mount Sinai. Those are two different names

for the same mountain. So this is signaling something

to you right now. I know you're a close and

careful reader and thoughtful reader.

So right now, as a thoughtful reader, you're thinking, oh,

just like God revealing himself to Moses on Mount Sinai with

Thunder and lightning and the earthquaking.

As the careful reader that you are, you're thinking that's

what's going to happen. It's going to be Mount Sinai

again. But Elijah's not excited about

the prospect of meeting with God, so it takes a detour.

Verse 9 there he came to a cave and instead lodged in it.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him and he said, what

are you doing here? Elijah supposed to be on Sinai

or. And Elijah says, I have been so

very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, you and the people

of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your

altars and killed your prophets with the sword.

And I, the good Christian, even I only am left and they seek my

life to take it away. So what's Elijah saying?

He's saying I don't want to meet with you God.

I don't want to. I've been a good Christian even

when no one else was. And all my faithfulness has done

is create more problems. So he hides out in a cave and

God gently gives the one commandment that we see in this

entire story, Get near God. He said, go and stand on the

mountain before the Lord. That's the one command.

Get near God and behold Mount Sinai.

Moment the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the

mountains and broken pieces the rocks before the Lord, like

Moses and Mount Sinai. But the Lord was not in the

wind. And after the wind there was an

earthquake like Moses on Mount Sinai, a powerful revelation of

God with an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the

earthquake. And after the earthquake of

fire, like Moses on Mount Sinai, a powerful demonstration of the

glory of God. That is visible, right?

But the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper.

What in the actual heck is going on here?

You guys can have a seat. What in the actual heck is going

on here? Let's start with the mental

state of Elijah. What state of mind is Elijah in?

And the answer to that question is it's not good.

In verse four, he says, he says he asked that God might die and

said, I've had enough. Take away my life.

I'm no better than my father. So the word for Elijah's mental

state right now, the word for his condition is really simple.

What he's experiencing is hopelessness.

He has no hope. He does not see a future where

his life gets better. He does not see a future where

the people of God become more faithful.

And I think the sharpest point of this blade right here is

this. I don't think hopelessness

happens to Christians when bad things happen after we do bad

things. That makes like our spiritual

mental model of what spiritual life should be is if bad things

happen to me after I sin, that makes sense.

That probably should happen. But if I did good things, then

good things would happen, right? When that happens, our mental

models of spirituality don't really collapse.

What happened? How do they collapse it?

It collapses. Hopelessness takes root in the

Christian heart precisely when it feels like bad things happen

to us because of our faithfulness.

That's when it feels like, OK, so 2 + 2 doesn't equal 4.

Then what is true about life? That's when life becomes

confusing and disorienting. Feeling punished for his

faithfulness is precisely what drives Elijah under the broom

tree. To say what?

First four take away my life? Just pull the plug.

Just put me out, right? If any counselor or therapist

we're meeting with Elijah underneath the broom tree right

now, the diagnosis would be simple hopelessness,

hopelessness. Speaking of which, let's talk

about pop psychology for just a hot minute.

I'm an advocate for therapy and medications at proper doses

administered by the proper people.

It's really important for you to hear me say that upfront.

It seems like what therapy does really well is it's helpful when

it gives language to otherwise sub articulate emotional

experiences. Counseling therapy does a really

good job at that. People will experience that and

say, hey, I'm experiencing trauma because X happened to me,

that's helpful. Or I behave this way because my

family of origin was like this or that.

Or in Elijah's case, I'm experiencing the trauma of a

death warrant right now because of my faithfulness to God.

I think that's helpful, giving language and naming things.

It's helpful because it gives you a sense of control somewhat

over your inner experience. And there are limitations to pop

psychology. It's very helpful.

I'm an advocate for it. It's a tool in the hand of God,

and it has limitations. And the limitation is this.

Giving language and naming things is very helpful, but it

doesn't solve the problem. It becomes unhelpful when it

convinces you that just because you can psychologize your

problems means you've solved them.

No, because at root you are a spiritual being designed to be

in communion with God. And what does that mean?

That means that all of our problems, hopelessness included,

are not at root pop psychology problems.

They are proximity problems, or in other words, you are not a

problem to be solved. You are a person who needs to be

placed in the presence of God. That doesn't mean there's not

practical helps, right? For instance, our text, God

feeds Elijah twice and gives him two naps, right?

That's helpful. He should do that.

While this is a spiritual problem Elijah's facing, God's

also like you're a little hangry and you need a nap.

That's helpful to recognize. But what's the true diagnosis

underneath the symptoms? The most urgent need of this

hour for Elijah is for Elijah to encounter God, particularly for

him to hear God. Isn't that what God does in the

story? Just listen to verse 11.

What's the that's the condition? That's the condition of Elijah

hopeless. What's God's response?

Verse 11 And God said, Go out and stand on the mountain before

the Lord, and behold, this is so profound.

The Lord passed by in a great strong wind, tore the mountains

and broke into pieces the rocks before the Lord.

But the Lord was not in the wind.

And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not

in the earthquake. And after the earthquake of

fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

The revelation of who God is to Elijah is not something that

Elijah can see. It's something he can hear.

After the fire, the sound of a low whisper.

Where's God in the story? Not in something you can see.

Where's God in the story? He's in something you can hear.

Now, is this profound? Yeah, I think so.

Is it existentially true? Yeah, I think so.

Like, imagine you're in a room and there's a bunch of people in

the room and everybody's angry and they're yelling at each

other and people's voices are just rising and rising and

everybody's getting more angry. Everybody in the room is angry

besides one person who speaks in a calm, hushed voice.

Where does your attention go? Who probably has the truth?

The person whispering in the angry world.

That's why God whispers in an angry world.

It's poetic, but it's first and foremost theological.

It actually teaches us something about the way that God tends to

reveal himself in the world. I'm going to need the help of a

good buddy of mine, theologian Carl Bart.

I went to high school with him. That's not true.

I shouldn't have said that. He's a 20th century Swiss

theologian who I have some profound disagreements with, but

he's brilliant and I want to pick his brain on this a little

bit. Bart is hard to understand, so

I'm going to put you in Carl Bart's brain for the next two

minutes. If you give it your best

intellectual effort, I think you'll understand.

Oh, that's why God reveals himself in a low whisper in an

angry world. Here's what.

Here's what Bart says. Bart says the God of the Bible

is the God who speaks in ways that man does not expect.

Elijah doesn't expect a whisper, he expects Moses's Mount Sinai.

And so Bart elaborates a little bit more elsewhere by saying

God's revelation contradicts all human experiences.

He is not where man looks for him, right?

We want him to be in the fire, in the earthquakes, in the

Thunder, in the miracles, in the fantastic experiences of life.

And sometimes he is. That's not just, it's just not

his normal mode of revelation, right?

Here's Bart again. Bart says in his revelation, God

is the humble one, and this is the mystery of his deity, right?

What's a whisper? A whisper is humility of speech.

It's non threatening, non impressive, non overwhelming.

You can imagine Elijah straining himself to hear it, probably

barely even audible. And yet it's the true revelation

of who God is. The whisper here.

And this is exactly where this becomes anonymous sermon right

here. The whisper here is not just a

sound passing over God's lips to our ears, right?

The whispers, not just an audible sound.

This is Carl Bart for the last time.

Then we'll be out of his brain. Bart says God ultimately reveals

himself in his concealment because he is exalted in his

lowness. Does that sound like anybody to

you? Do you know anybody who has ever

said my heart is gentle and lonely?

And if you do, do you see where I'm going with this?

You see where Bart's going with this?

Here's here's what's happening. This text foreshadows the first

advent or the first coming of Jesus.

There's a reason why Jesus is referred to as the word of God,

the spoken word of God. Jesus is Jesus is the true

gentle whisperer. Jesus is God's whisper with

flesh on. Jesus is God's whisper with arms

and legs. That's why the Bible calls him

the Word of God. Jesus comes his incarnation, his

first advent. It is a whisper in a noisy

world. He's a vulnerable child wrapped

in flesh. That's a whisper.

He's he's put in a humble, lowly Manger while everyone else was

looking for a War Horse. That's a gentle whisper.

He's in a Carpenter shop shop rather than a King's earthly

throne. That's a gentle whisper.

And what's his ultimate whisper? The least likely place anybody

would ever look for him on planet earth.

The ultimate whisper of God is death on a cross.

Here's what I'm saying. The whisper in Elijah's cave is

God rehearsing the way that he's ultimately going to come.

In Jesus first Advent, you see that this is profound because

what what the gospel shows us again is that you are not

ultimately a problem to be solved.

And yes, God feeds him. Yes, God gives him a nap.

And yes, if you read the rest of the story in First kings, which

I think you should, God does change his circumstances

afterwards. He promises a faithful remnant

of Israel, takes a delegates a little bit of of his his

problems off of him and changes his circumstances.

It's just not the main point of the story.

The main point of the story is that Elijah is not a problem to

be solved. He's a person who needs to get

in the presence of God. And when you get this, you can

experience stubborn gladness, what the Bible calls being

sorrowful yet always rejoicing, right?

It's why Paul can be in jail in the New Testament and still tell

people, count all your trials as joy.

You can have a stubborn gladness even when your circumstances are

terrible. It's like I think if I had to

pick one thing that sees the worst version of me and the

worst side of me, it's printers. I don't know.

I don't know what my relationship with my

relationship with printers is so bad.

Printers. I have no patience for printers.

I don't know if you're the same way.

I expect them to work on the first time and if they don't,

I'm ready to go full office space on them like baseball bat

and everything. So last night, last night I was

actually trying to print my sermon and I had print problems.

I'm trying to print my sermon and my my printer says there's

no paper. I look in the printer, what's

there paper? So I try to print it again, it

says there's no paper. I look at what's there paper.

Paper is objectively in the printer.

The printer is subjectively not experiencing it and so I want to

throw it out the window and I don't praise God saved you a

couple 100 bucks in the church budget this year.

I don't throw it out the window. Instead I Google what the

problem is and I wrote it down. It turns out that this is a

pretty common experience. What was wrong was an optical

sensor problem. There's an optical sensor in

there that had dust on it. It was like, try blowing on it,

picked it and I so I opened it and I blew on it and then it

worked. So apparently there was dust on

the optical sensor. There was an optical sensor

problem. Paper was objectively in it.

The printer did not subjectively experience it because of an

optical sensor problem. Humans have an optical sensor

problem, but there's dust on your sensor inside.

You as a Christian are filled objectively with the joy of the

Lord. Jesus calls it the Joy John 16

that no man can steal. You objectively have joy

dwelling in you and subjectively, a lot of times you

don't experience it. What is that?

That's an optical sensor problem filled with the joy of Lord but

not detecting it. Because ultimately joy is not an

emotion, even though I think emotions are important.

Joy is not an experience, even though I think that's important.

Joy is ultimately rootedness in the presence of the joyful One,

God. And when you get that, it can

fill you with a stubborn joy, even when you don't taste it

right. This is one of the great

mysteries of being a Christian is when you get this, you

understand the relationship between your identity and the

word of gods, namely, that you are not your thoughts.

Those are important, but they just float by you.

They'll be gone in a couple hours.

You are not your feelings. Those are important.

But what do feelings do They pass through you.

So if you're not your thoughts and you're not your emotions,

what are you? And the Bible is so clear.

You are what God says about you. You are what the word of God has

made you. This profoundly matters.

This means that the next time you experience hopelessness, you

have the power to say I'm not hopeless.

Hopelessness is simply passing through me.

You have you have the opportunity the next time you

have suicidal ideation like Elijah, you can say I am not

that thought. It's just passing through me.

And what this does is it doesn't take the pain away, but it does

help you detach from the experience of it a little bit,

gives you an objective foothold where you can say, this is not

who I am. I am what the Word of God makes

me. I am what the whisper of God

says to me. I'm a beloved child, purchased

by God, paid for by the Son, filled with the joy of the

Spirit. That's the truest thing about

you. If you're a Christian, you know

how I know it's the truest thing about you because every other

aspect of your life, it's temporary.

It's temporary. You're not sad, you are just

temporarily experiencing sadness, and that's an important

experience. It's not your identity, though.

You're not depressed, you're temporarily experiencing

depression. Those things, even if they are

lifelong afflictions, will be true about you for such a short

time compared to the light of eternity, which what are you?

Are you the thing that happens to you for this long or are you

the thing that's going to happen to you for this long?

Cause sorrow and sadness are real experiences.

Do you know how long the last you though compared to eternity

this much? And look at this that that's an

exaggeration. That's like when you buy the the

bag of Doritos and on the front they've got a massive Dorito,

but they legally have to put in text next to it.

This has been enlarged and isn't scaled to size.

This has been enlarged. Your experience of sadness and

sorrow, though it feels like forever and lifetime is like

that much. Your experience of the joy of

the Lord that much So which one are you?

Are you this? Are you this?

And of course, the answer is you're this.

You're what God says about you and who God makes you for

eternity. And when you get that, you can

experience stubborn gladness. I stole that.

I stole that from one of my favorite poems by Jack Gilbert.

Gilbert says we must have the stubbornness to accept our

gladness even in the furnace of this world.

We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness even in the

furnace of this world. I think that's good news.

Jesus is coming back, Amen. And when he and when he comes

back in his second Advent, he will come back as a shout.

He will come back with fire and Thunder and lightning and

justice. So this Advent, get right with

the whisper of God so that you do not have to face the shout of

God. Heavenly Father, thank you for

your incredible ways of revealing yourself in the world

in ways that we just never would expect.

I just think it's such a poetic, beautiful, brilliant story to

see you reveal yourself in the lowly whisper of God.

I so often want you to reveal yourself in different ways.

Sometimes I even put you in hostage situations and say

foolish things like, God, do this big thing for me and then

I'll trust you with my whole heart.

But you love to reveal yourself in the little things, Lord, the

incarnation of yourself into an unexpected little baby, the full

revelation of yourself on the cross, crucified in the place of

a center. You reveal yourself in gentle

whispers, maybe even in snowstorms.

And so, Lord, I pray this Advent season, as we light candles and

celebrate and remember the first advent of Jesus, I pray that we

would listen closely for your gentle whisper.

It's in the precious name that all God's people prayed.

Amen. Let's stand together.