Matthew Chapter 17: 1-9

“Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’

“While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!’ And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, ‘Arise, and do not be afraid.’ When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, ‘Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.’”

In the last lesson in Matthew, we talked about the importance that we be ready and willing to bare the suffering that will come when we make a stand for the Lord Jesus. Now over the past few years it has become increasingly more expensive to live openly for Jesus here in North America; and as we progress towards the end of time, the price of faithfulness will continue to rise. We need to prepare people for the cost of discipleship.

Jesus worked hard to prepare the men and women who followed Him for the coming pain of following Jesus (see Mark 13: 12-13).

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

Wow, look at that verse! Your enemies will be the people in your own home. And Jesus tells them that they will be ‘hated’ because of His name. Serving Jesus has a real cost. We must be prepared in the power of the Holy Spirit to pay it.

Today we will meet the glorified Jesus. At the end of chapter 16, Jesus promises that ‘some standing here would not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.’ Well Peter, James and John are about to see Jesus in a whole new light. What they had encountered so far was a rugged man who had lots of power over demons, diseases and even death. They had seen Him calm storms, walk on water and feed the masses. But they had not yet seen Jesus in ALL of His glory; and for a few moments Jesus was about to pull back the veil and let them see Him as He is. One day we will see Him this way as well.

Jesus is transfigured so they can see Him in His glory, verse 2

Why was this necessary? Well, what had Jesus been warning them about?  His coming death. He needed to reassure them that this was a ‘God thing.’ According to Matthew Henry’s Commentary, they needed to see God! Seeing Jesus in His glory would cement in their minds that He could do all He said He would do and give them a real hope and foundation to believe on in the intervening ‘three days and three nights’ until His resurrection.

So Jesus takes them and He is ‘transfigured’ before their eyes. We see that ‘His face shone like the sun’ and ‘His clothes became as white as light.’ This was no longer just a Jewish Messiah standing in front of them. This was the Almighty God.

We are of course reminded of the prophet Isaiah’s vision of God Almighty in Isaiah 6:1,

“In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.”

Then we see the experience of Daniel in chapter 10:

“Now on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, that is, the Tigris, I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz! His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.”

Notice that in both cases in Daniel and in Matthew we see that the face of the man was bright. In Isaiah 60:19 and on we see that Jesus is the Light of the New Jerusalem:

“No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will the moon give you light; But you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And your God for your glory. Your sun will no longer set, nor will your moon wane; For you will have the LORD for an everlasting light.”

This is reconfirmed in Revelation 21:23, “The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it.”

So these men, Peter, James and John got to see Jesus in His glory. This was especially important for Peter as he was the one who wanted to correct Jesus about the events that were to follow, in the previous chapter. In addition to Jesus, these men saw Moses and Elijah; but it does not appear that they had gotten out of the ‘human’ vision of Jesus. They saw Jesus; he looked like the same Jesus they had spent about three years with, but just brighter. They wanted to build tabernacles for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. They wanted this time to last; a glimpse was too short.

Maybe they had questions for Moses and Elijah. They just wanted to be there. Do you long to be in the presence of Jesus? Do you look forward to meeting all these men and women we read about and rejoice with them in person? What will it be like to meet Abraham, Adam, Mary, Ruth, Joshua, Gideon, Daniel, Rahab, Solomon, David or Nebuchadnezzar? What will it be like when we first meet Jesus? Most people just fall at His feet; I suppose we will as well.

Moses and Elijah are alive, verse 3

In the book of Mark chapter 12: 26-27 we find these reassuring words,

“But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, and the God of Jacob?’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.”

These men, Peter, James and John saw firsthand that Moses and Elijah were alive and well. Not just that, but also that they were able to stand, walk and speak. They were alive; men that they had grown up hearing legends and stories about were right there in front of them alive and well. Not only that but they knew who they were on sight. They recognized these spiritual heroes. They had real bodies and would be able to sit under a tabernacle, a nice word for a small hut made of branches.

This is a good look for us of what we are going to be like in Heaven with the Lord. We too will know the people there and they will know us. We will have real bodies and we will walk and talk with the Lord. Does this remind you of anywhere? Yes, it does. God walked and talked in the Garden with Adam and Eve. We will have the sweet, face to face fellowship with our Lord and Saviour again. More than that, we will remember why we have that fellowship, as we will see our Saviour every day.

God again identifies Jesus as God, verse 5

We have talked about this before, but it is such a fundamental doctrine of Christianity that we must repeat and revisit this all the time. Jesus is God! Not a god, THE GOD—the God who spoke the worlds into existence and the God who sustains that world as we see it today.

In Luke 22:70 when Jesus was asked if He was the Son of God, He answered, ‘You are right to say that I am.’  In John 5:18, when He claimed to the Son of God, the people took up stones to kill Him. He asked them why they were trying to kill Him, and they said ‘that by claiming to be God He had made himself equal with God.’

It is impossible to claim to be a Christian and deny that Jesus is God. That is the defining line in the sand, so to speak. In fact, the thing that separates religion and true relationship with Jesus is that one has to believe that He is God to have a relationship with Him. If you deny Him, then you just have a religion. God began Jesus’ ministry by identifying Him as God. And now, as His earthly ministry comes to an end, He again reminds the apostles of who Jesus really is.

Notice their reaction; they fell to the ground and were “greatly afraid.”  Be wary of people who claim that they have died and saw Jesus and claim that they were all ‘buddy buddy’ with Him. Whenever sinful men, even redeemed men, come face to face with the knowledge of who Jesus is, they fall on their faces. Daniel did, these apostles did, John the Revelator did, and on and on we can go.

Don’t tell anyone until after the resurrection, verse 9

This little gem kept the apostles, especially these three as the leaders, grounded until the resurrection. They needed just that little bit of spiritual power to get through the next few days and to get to the other side. What a wonderful lesson for us! God always equips us with all we need to get through whatever He knows is coming.

I have found that a verse I read is one that will play in my head so that it sinks in; and then something will happen, and that verse will jump right out at me. Or, someone will send a word of encouragement at just the right time. Money will show up; God gives you stuff that you did not even know that you needed, and then the need arises.

No part of the Christian life is an accident. God has your life planned out and will take you to and through events as He sees fit. Each event has two basic goals: to help us to be more dependent upon Jesus, and then to impress more and more the image of Jesus in us. God literally shapes the image of Jesus in each one of us. The idea is for us to be less like you and I and more like Jesus, but in so doing become a better you and I.

The longer I serve the Lord, the more I understand that I can’t serve the Lord. He has to give me the desire, the faith and the ability to serve Him. He, Jesus, is everything. Any crown I may earn in this life will be cast at His feet since it is He and He alone who has done it all.

Now we get to tell everyone about the resurrection. We get to tell the whole world that Jesus is alive. We can tell them that there is a Hell to shun and a Heaven to gain in Jesus. So, let’s get to it.

Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Sean Gooding Pastor Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

 

The First and Second Coming of Jesus Prophesied
Zechariah Lesson 23, Chapter 9: 9-10

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”

In a previous lesson we looked at the fact that the enemies of Israel have chosen God as an enemy. God is highly protective of Israel, and they will never be moved from their homeland ever again. To fight Israel is to fight God. Even if you succeed, it will only be for a time until the Lord does something miraculous and you lose.

During the Six Day War (June 5–10, 1967), knowing what was coming, the Israelis launched a pre-emptive strike, almost completely destroying the Egyptian air force and gaining air superiority. A subsequent ground offensive came as a surprise to the Egyptian army; they suffered heavy losses and eventually gave up their ground. Egypt had a much larger military, and this should have been a cake-walk for them. But, Israel never fights alone; God is their secret weapon, their secret protector and their secret preserver.

As we enter the new year, things will begin to heat up in the Middle East. As the US and others begin to relocate their embassies, there will be more and more turmoil in Israel.

The Jews are waiting for their Messiah to come. He did come once, about 2,000 years ago; they missed Him. Most Jews got the two verses that we are looking at today mixed up, or completely missed the first verse altogether. Jesus came once, and He is coming again. We will see in these two verses the two promised comings and what we should expect in them.

Jesus, the Lowly King, verse 9

About two years after Jesus’ birth, a group of men called the Magi, or, as a popular Christmas hymn puts it, ‘three kings’ showed up at Herod’s palace to ask for the new King. The Bible does not tell us that there were only three kings. We know that they brought three types of gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Each was significant to the person of Jesus. However, these Magi show up at the palace as anyone looking for a king would do. They had been following a star for about two years and came to Jerusalem to find the new Jewish King.

In Matthew 2: 1-6 we find this account:

“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.’

“When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet’:

“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

The Magi show up asking Herod to see the new king of the Jews. Herod is troubled and immediately asks for the Jewish scholars to come. They quote to him from Micah 5:2, that states that the ‘Ruler who will Shepherd my people will come from Bethlehem in Judah.’ So, Herod knew where to go looking, and look he did. He sent the Magi ahead to find the new King and then he promised to follow so he could worship too.

We all know the story. The Magi came, they worshipped the new King Jesus, and they gave timely and expensive gifts that aided Jesus’ family as they had to run to Egypt for safety from Herod.

Jesus would grow to be a man, and at the age of thirty began His public earthly ministry. Jesus presented Himself to the people of Israel. He proved that He had power over the elements. He raised the dead; He fed the poor; He healed the sick; He stood against their religious oppressors; and He went about doing good. Paul tells us that Jesus took on the mind of a servant, in Philippians 2:5-7:

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.”

Jesus was a servant to the people of Israel, and as such came to die on the cross for the sins of the whole world. The Jews, much like today, were looking for a Messiah, one to conquer the Romans and restore the glory of Israel. But what they got was the king who fulfilled the first verse of our passage today.

He came lowly and sitting on a donkey. Jesus was not in battle array. He did not come with a vast military, nor was He commanding a horde. Just one man, sitting on a donkey, entering Jerusalem. He was there to redeem the whole world. But the Jews could not see Him; they were, and for the most part, they are still blind. We can see that even Jesus’ disciples were blind in their Jewishness, in Acts 1:6:

“Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’” 

They were still focused on the nation of Israel. They could not see that Jesus had defeated the entire kingdom of darkness. They could not see that He had fulfilled the first promise that God had made man about the redemption that would come, a promise from Genesis 3:15; Jesus had crushed the head of the serpent. Satan had been defeated. This had to be done before He restored the nation of Israel.

So many Christians are the same way; they miss the whole idea of why Jesus came. Many today are building earthly kingdoms – things that will fade – with big houses, big cars and luxurious lifestyles. But they are missing the point. Jesus did not come to give you the kingdom of the earth. He came to bridge the gap to the kingdom of Heaven.

Too many are so blinded by the comforts of this life that they cannot see the true power of what Jesus accomplished by His resurrection from the dead. Jesus KILLED DEATH! This was a far greater accomplishment than either restoring Israel or giving us a cushy life. Now we can proclaim from the roof tops, ‘Death where is your sting?’ It is gone.

Death simply issues us into the presence of God. This is the true abundant life. This is what the lowly King Jesus came to do the first time.

Jesus, the Conquering King, verse 10

There are two book covers on this story. The first one shows us Jesus as the lowly king. The second shows us Jesus as the Conqueror. He will defeat the enemies of Israel, both the ones outside and inside. He will bring peace to Jerusalem and the nations of the world. He will rule from sea to sea. No place on earth will be away from his authority. Jesus will rule the nations (the ends of the earth) from Jerusalem.

In Revelation 19, we see the second advent of Jesus; here He is not lowly, but in magnificent battle array:

“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.

“Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

“Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, ‘Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.’

“And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh” (Rev.19:12-21).

This is the Jesus the Jews thought they were getting the first time. They were wrong. But Jesus is coming back again. He will rule the earth. There will be no atheists, no excuses and no question as to His existence. He will not tolerate rebellion, and for 1,000 years He will take away the curse of sin from the earth. There will even be peace in the animal kingdom, as we see in Isaiah 11:6:

“The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together, and a child will lead them.”

Wow, what a time that will be!  It will be like nothing we have ever seen. Those of us from the Gentile church will be serving in the Kingdom. There will be plenty to do.

Are you preparing to meet this Jesus? The King in His glory! Have you accepted the lowly Jesus, the one who bought your salvation in His own blood and conquered death for you?

If you have not accepted the lowly Jesus, then the Kingly Jesus is not your friend. He is coming to rule over the world with a rod of iron. Submit; humble yourself today. Jesus is the Savior—the only one who can redeem you from the fear and sting of death.

Romans 10:9-10 says “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca