The Life of Christ

• We also note that they each had different types of ministries; Elijah performed ten miracles; John performed none.

• What they shared in common was the call to bring a stiff-necked Israel to repentance through powerful anointed preaching.

Throughout biblical history there are actually four appearances of Elijah:

Elijah the prophet in 1 & 2 Kings

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John the Baptist

• The appearance of Elijah on the Mt. of Transfiguration with Moses

• The appearance of Elijah in Rev. 11 as one of the two witnesses (Mal. 4:5).

Mt. 11:15-17 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 16 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call out to the other children, 17 and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’”

Jesus likens Himself to a young school child who plays music to other children, but they refuse to dance; or to those who sing a sad song, even though others refuse to sing along and mourn.

• In short, this generation refuses to accept His overall message.

Mt. 11:18-19 “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

The carnal tendency is to misquote or misrepresent Jesus as a way to avoid His message.

• When people malign His character it’s usually to create a false justification providing them reason to ignore His words.

• Since it is impossible to assemble a legitimate accusation against Jesus, the best people can do is to exaggerate something out of proportion in the hope that it will be believed.

• Jesus, who did drink wine, was falsely accused of being a drunkard; Jesus, who often dined with others, was falsely accused of being a glutton.

• One of the more recent similar attempts was Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," that tried to prove that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children by her. Simply because Jesus showed favor to this former prostitute, warped minds try to make more of it than exists.

Mt. 11:19

One can tell lies about Christianity, quote its most notorious failures, or even ignore it altogether.

• In the end, however, it is still validated by what it produces — changed lives and cataclysmic events scheduled for the end times!

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