One Year Bible Friday, June 17th "Elijah Embarrases the Prophets of Baal and King Ahab at Mount Carmel" "Many Gentiles in Antioch Come to Faith and Are First Called Christians!"
The Contest on Mount Carmel
This is a famous passage where Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. These were the gods King Ahab was worshipping. Elijah ran into Obadiah who was in charge of the palace. Israel was in a famine, so Ahab had sent Obadiah to find some grass for the animals and he runs into Elijah. Obadiah, realizing Elijah was a man of God, fell at his feet. Elijah told Obadiah to tell Ahab he had arrived. Obadiah was afraid to tell Ahab and feared he might be killed immediately, but Elijah promised him he would be in Ahab's presence immediately. When he met Ahab, Ahab ridiculed Elijah as a troublemaker.
When the prophets of Baal arrive at Mount Carmel Elijah takes two bulls and gives one to the prophets of Baal to prepare for a sacrifice. After they prepared the bulls, they called to the god of Baal from morning to noon and there was no response even though they said, "O Baal answer us!" So they shouted louder to no avail. They the started dancing like crazy people and cutting themselves hoping their false god might notice and show up. But nothing!
Elijah now begins to ridicule Ahab and his Baal prophets saying,
“You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!” verse 27
Meanwhile Elijah, the lone prophet, tells the people to approach the altar and watch the true God at work. He methodically builds an altar with twelve stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel. He builds a trench around the altar in preparation for the fire from the Lord, which he knows will come down. He drenches the the trench, the wood, and the altar with 4 gallons of water.
Installing of calling on a impotent foreign god, he calls on the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. He beseeches the Lord to show all of Israel that he is the one true God, and that Elijah is His servant. Sure enough here's what happened,
Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!”
Meanwhile Elijah tells them to seize the prophets of Baal and kill every one of them.
One prophet and servant of the Lord submitted to the Lord showed himself to be much more powerful than 450 prophets who called on a worthless and powerless god! Which God do you rely on?
Elijah Prays for Rain
Then Elijah tells Ahab to get something to eat and drink because a storm is coming. When the dark black cloud and windstorm came, Ahab fled to Jezreel and God gave Elijah special strength to dash back to Jezreel passing Ahab's chariot with ease!
God was just showing off through Elijah. Elijah was a great prophet with great faith. Think about going before 450 prophets with all of your people watching you. Everything was on the line for Elijah and God came through for him in a big way!
Where do you need to trust in God though the odds are against you?
Peter Explains His Actions
Because of the anti-Gentile sentiment, Peter was going to have to explain why he baptized Cornelius, a Gentile Roman centurion. If anyone would have been zealous for the Jewish faith, it would be brash Peter. Peter tells the story detail for detail to prove that he could not have orchestrated the encounter with Cornelius. It was truly a work of the Holy Spirit and God Importantly he says,
As I began to speak,” Peter continued, “the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he fell on us at the beginning. 16 Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with[e] water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”
I love what it when he says, "Who was I to stand in God's way!"
How do we stand in God's way? What do we do to thwart the power of the Holy Spirit? How can we give up control so God can work in ways like he did through Peter today?
The Church in Antioch of Syria
With the growth among the Gentiles in the early church, the gospel had now spread to Syria and other places like Cyprus and Phoenicia. What was the contributing factor? The matyrdom of Stephen, which sent the new believers out from Jerusalem to various places. As the disciples preached the Good News in the power of the Holy Spirit, large numbers of Gentiles became believers. The church was now growing like a weed.
The church in Jerusalem heard reports about what was happening, so they sent Barnabas to check it out. Barnabas was a man filled with the Holy Spirit. When he arrived in Antioch, he encouraged the believers to keep up the good work!
Meanwhile Barnabas also was sent to Tarsus to find Paul. Remember Paul had fled there after the Jewish leaders threatened to kill him. Barnabas brought Saul back to Antioch where there was a bunch of new believers. They stayed there for 1 year teaching the new believers the basics of the faith. Here is the really cool thing. It was at Antioch that the believers were first called "Christians!"
A prophet named Agabus went to Antioch and prophesied that a famine would hit the whole Roman world. So the Antiochan Christians took an offering and sent it to the mother church in Jerusalem.
This is a great example of the unity of the early church, and one part of the body caring for another! They all gave AS MUCH AS THEY COULD! And Saul and Barnbas took the gift the elders in Jerusalem.
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