Series
Rev. Jerry Hamstra
The Book of Esther
The Book of Esther
Sermons
Rev. Jerry Hamstra
Introduction to Acts
Introduction to Acts

Elijah

The LORD’s Question and Elijah’s Complaint

Read: 1 Kings 19:1-10
Text: 1 Kings 19:9-10

“So we have Moses asking for mercy and minimizing justice. And we have Elijah speaking of justice and saying nothing of mercy. This points to a tension in the Old Testament between the mercy and the justice of God. There is an awful lot in the Old Testament of the wrath of God against the sins of his people. But there is also the theme of God’s mercy that runs through the story. And these two aspects of God’s character are in tension with one another at least from a human perspective.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

God Begins to Restore Elijah’s Soul

Read: 1 Kings 19:1-8
Text: 1 Kings 19:5-8

“So while the journey itself was not authorized by God, God was guiding it because he was going to use it to teach Elijah and renew him to his calling. This teaches us that even when we sin God can be directing events so as to teach us things that we need to know from our sins. It is not that God is ever responsible for our sin. But God is able to orchestrate things in such a way that we learn lessons from our sins.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

Discouragement and Endurance

“On the one hand, we have the revelation of God’s greatness and his power and his glorious promises to defeat evil and bring renewal, but on the other hand it often seems that evil has the upper hand. It often seems that any progress is tiny, and the advance of evil is massive. And that can be true in our individual lives and battles as well. The language of the Bible about the transforming power of salvation for believers is often so dramatic, while the experience of the transforming power of the gospel is often less than dramatic – it can be slow with many setbacks and discouragements.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

Persecution and Elijah’s Fear

“By nature we are all like Jezebel in our willful blindness to the reality and relevance of God. If we now believe in God and trust in Jesus for salvation, it is only because this miracle of grace as taken place in our lives. God has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” This is what Jesus came to do. One of the things that Jesus came to do according to Isaiah 42:7 is give sight to the blind.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

Ahab, Elijah and Prayer

Read: 1 Kings 18:1-2, 41-46
Text: Verses 41-46

“And this short single verse description of Elijah running before Ahab illustrates a hope for change that will soon be disappointed. What this story illustrates is the need for God to act in a new way if there is there is ever going to be lasting change. The story as a whole illustrates that sin leads to famine and death and the fact that it will take more than even something as spectacular as fire from heaven to make a lasting difference.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra