As we wrap up our study of Malachi, I don’t want you to move on thinking ONLY that this is the last book of the Old Testament. Of course it is, but… There were no more books added to the canon of scripture until we turn the page into the New Testament. Sometimes the books of the Bible are not arranged according to the time in which they were written, but chronologically this is still the last book of the Old Testament. After Malachi, God did not speak again until he sent His angel to talk with Zacharias, Mary and Joseph. However the last words of Malachi, bridge the 400 hundred years between the testaments, because the angel’s message to Zacharias, Mary and Joseph was directly related to what God told Malachi. Also, these verses bridge the gap between the last days of the Old Testament and the days in which we live: the last days prior to the great and dreadful day of the Lord. So in this regard, these two verses are as relevant today as they were 2,400 years ago.
I am calling this message “The Elijaic Ministry” because it refers to the kind of ministry of the prophet Elijah. Malachi wasn’t speaking about Elijah per se, and neither am I. This is about the sort of ministry Elijah had when he was alive, and it’s about the ministry of John the Baptist.
Back in November when we were looking at chapter 3 we had the lesson: “The Messenger of the Messenger.” Look at Malachi 3:1 once again: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.” The Messenger of the covenant is none other than the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the messenger of that Messenger was John the Baptist. But here in the last verses of the book, that messenger of the Messenger is described as “Elijah,” and the day is not of Christ’s incarnation; it is the day of His glorification; the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
The first thing we need to do this afternoon is consider the PERSON of this prophecy.
“Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.” I am already on record saying that I believe this is a reference to John the Baptist. Should I be dogmatic, when John himself denied that he was Elijah. John 1:19: “And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.” By the way, the name “Elias,” was the Greek way of saying “Elijah.”
When the priests and Levites asked John if he was Elijah, the Baptist replied in essence, “I am not the reincarnated or resurrected Elijah.” But that is in contrast to the statements of the Lord Jesus and the angel who spoke to John’s Father. After the transfiguration of Christ, where Peter, James and John saw Christ speaking with Moses and Elijah, Jesus’ “disciples asked him, saying, Why … say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.” Christ in a round about way told His disciples that John WAS the prophesied Elijah. The other clinching testimony is found in the conversation between God’s angel and John’s father. Luke 1:13: “The angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth… And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Notice those words: “He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias (Elijah).” John was not the rebirth of Elijah, but he was God’s special servant as Elijah had been a thousand years earlier. John’s ministry had been prophesied by Isaiah and Malachi, and his connection to Elijah was clear. In other words, John had a Elijaic ministry.
As Malachi identifies the PERSON, he mentions his COMMISSION.
God said, “Behold, I will SEND you Elijah the prophet.” Please remember the purpose of that word “behold.” It is suppose to grab our attention; sometimes even to frighten us just a bit. And in the preceding chapter that word is found twice in the same verse. “BEHOLD, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: BEHOLD, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.”
In my opinion, one of the greatest chapters in the Word of God is John 1. It is filled with new and special revelation; with Heavenly revelation found no where else. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.” Just as the angel told Zacharias that he had a very special commission for John his son, the other great man named John, John the Apostle, said, “There was a man SENT from God, whose name was John.” I bring this to your attention because it is obvious, and it was important at the time. But I’d like you to table it for a moment, because I want to bring it up in another context in a few minutes. “There was a man SENT from God, whose name was John.”
This special PERSON with the divine COMMISSION was to minister in a special SITUATION.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet BEFORE the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.” John the Baptist was sent by God to prepare for the unveiling of the incarnated Sun of righteousness. Isaiah was speaking about this same man when he said in Isaiah 40:1: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”
How prone we are to compartmentalizing different aspects of the life of our Lord and Saviour? We picture His pre-incarnation ministry much differently than we do while He was here on earth. But was He any less divine when He was in the flesh, or even when He hung on the cross? Should we put His ministry and purpose 2,000 years ago into a different box to that which is to come during the Tribulation or the Millennium? Perhaps we should, but we shouldn’t make the walls between those rooms out of concrete and steel. They may be painted a different color, but each room in the house of Christ are open to every other room.
When John said in John 1 “behold the Lamb of God,” he was not only identifying our Passover Lamb, but he was pointing to the Lamb of the Book of Revelation. In last book of the New Testament, the wicked andand unbelieving are revealed as saying “to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the LAMB.” We read in that book that those who reject Christ “shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the LAMB.” Later we read that the Devil’s antichrist and false prophet, “shall make war with the LAMB, and the LAMB shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings.”
We may be prone to split up the work of our Saviour in to specific eras, but we should be quick and ready to put it all together again. The commission of John was to prepare the way of the Saviour and for the way of the King of kings.
And what exactly was the Lord’s INTENTION in that COMMISSION?
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” The language of verse 6 confuses a lot of people, and I can understand that confusion. “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.” Was the ministry of John to somehow strengthen family ties? That seems to be what is said.
I noticed a couple of commentaries trying to change the word “to” to “with,” in order to avoid the confusion. “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers with the children, and the heart of the children with their fathers.” Those men then go on to say, that John’s ministry of repentance will be to both parents and children. But then why repeat the statement and reverse the order? “fathers with the children/ children with fathers?”
I am not absolutely certain what the proper interpretation is, but I’m not about to make that verbal change. I’m just going to say that when the gospel enters a family through the doorway of one of its members, he or she is going to become concerned for the rest of the family. When some father heard John’s message, taking it to heart, he returned home telling his family. Perhaps those parents and children may not have been closely to each other, going their own separate ways while still living under the same roof. But when a young woman came to see the Lamb of God, she became concerned for the rest of his family. Wasn’t it that way with you? Isn’t it that way with you? Didn’t the Lord turn your heart toward the rest of your family when He saved you?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.” John was sent by God to bring a light into homes filled with blindness and confusion. “Behold, the Lamb of God.” “Behold the light of the world.”
It was God’s INTENTION to provide some PREVENTION.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” Do you wonder about the last part of the verse, “lest I come and smite the earth with a curse?” Other scriptures teach us that creation is already under the curse of sin. But it is like this: a murderer has been caught by the police with blood on his hands. He has been brought to trial, and the facts of the case have been presented. There is no doubt that this man is a murderer. The jury has reached the only conclusion possible, and the judge has made his pronouncement. Now that man is on death row, waiting for the sentence to be carried out. Locked in that cell, he is cursed, but there is another part of the curse yet to come. There is yet the carrying out of the sentence.
The Elijaic ministry has two prongs. One is to remind the murderer, the thief, the liar and the blasphemer that they are already cursed. John 3:36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Al ye who are under the curse “shall have (your special) part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” But there is another part to the Elijaic ministry. It is to intercede and plead toward the prevention of the final sentence.
How many lives, and how many families, were changed through the ministry of Elijah and John? There may have only been 7,000 who hadn’t bowed to Baal in the early part of Elijah’s ministry. But by the time he spectacularly left the world, there were many thousands more. There were even schools scattered around the country where the young converts and servants of God could be trained to serve their Saviour. And how many people did the ministry of John affect? How many were converts and how many did he baptize? He played a role in the thousands who came to trust Christ during the first few years of the Book of Acts.
Conclusion:
All of this has been an introduction to my real intent this afternoon. I don’t want to finish our study of Malachi with a lesson on Elijah or John. There is something far more important.
ELISHA may have picked up the mantle of his mentor, Elijah, but after HIS Elijaic ministry was over, he laid it down again. After a number of others picked it up, serving the Lord in much the same way as Elijah, eventually it was placed over the shoulders of John the Baptist. His message and ministry were very much like man’s whose clothing style he imitated. Then like Elijah, John left this world in a spectacular fashion, and the Elijaic ministry fell onto the shoulders of the Apostles and following them onto other disciples, and others down through history.
Today, in a fashion very much like John, we are awaiting for and preparing for the coming of the Son of God. “There was a man sent from God, whose name is YOU. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.” We are on the cusp of the “Day of the Lord,” just as it was said of John the Elijah. We have the same COMMISSION as both John and Elijah; we have been given an Elijaic ministry. “Jesus came and spake unto them saying, All power (all authority) is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with alway, even unto the end of the world.” “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Our MESSAGE is essentially the same as John’s: “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” And our EXHORTATION is the same. Matthew 3:1: “In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:8: “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance; and think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father.” Say not, “we have good genes; we are sufficiently righteous.” All your righteousnesses are as filthy rags. You need to be redeemed. You need to be regenerated; born again.
The Bible says, ”How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” If the Lord says they are beautiful, then who am I to argue. But in addition to those sandaled feet, carrying the gospel to the world, I would like to add that the mantle of Elijah is pretty becoming as well. It looks pretty good on the shoulders of God’s 21st century saints, as they are carrying out their Elijaic ministries as they should.
As I said earlier, Malachi and John were awaiting the coming of the Messiah. You and I should be anxiously awaiting Him as well. So I’ll close with the words of the angels to the disciples in Acts 1: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven?” Don’t you have work to do? Pick Elijah’s mantle and ministry and get to work. We don’t have much time. “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall (soon) so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”