Mark 99 reads, and as they were coming down the mountain, he
charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of
Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to
themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might
mean. And they asked him, Why do the
scribes say that first Elijah must come?
And he said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all
things. And how is it written of the Son
of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with
contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has
come, and they did to him whatever they pleased.
As it is written of Him, Lord, we sincerely ask for the
assistance of the precious Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds
concerning this portion of Holy Scripture.
We asked, Lord, that there would be a grace upon the transmission
of this Word, and that Lord, it would be done with your great
power and wisdom, and that, Lord, our hearts would be made
ready. And we know, Lord, that there is
the evil One who is ready to snatch away the seed of the Word
from our hearts. We know that he is conniving and
clever, and that he even now will seek to try to rob us of
this truth. And so we pray for divine
protection. We pray that you would silence
him, and that you would cancel any assignment against us in
this meeting. For those who are prone to
distraction, would you give us a grace?
For those who are anxious in heart and disturbed in their
souls, would you speak peace to them so that they may hear you?
Lord, we trust you that this word is spirit in life and that
we would be transformed through it.
In the name of the living Christ, we pray.
Amen. Amen.
We've seen this before, haven't we?
We've seen the Lord Jesus on different occasions ask of those
who are recipients of his miraculous power to remain
silent about the matter. And unfortunately, in many of
those occasions they did not take heed.
And now the Lord Jesus Christ looks to his inner circle and he
asked them the same, to keep what they have witnessed to
themselves. And I can just imagine the
temptation that these three felt when they saw what they saw.
That spectacular sight of the glory of Jesus Christ, the
appearance of Elijah and Moses, the visitation of God's glory
through a cloud, the voice of the Heavenly Father himself
speaking directly to them. You can imagine what grace was
needed to keep them from going to the mountaintops and
declaring to the masses what they have seen with their own
eyes and what they have heard with their own ears.
Regardless, regardless of the privilege, regardless of the
splendor, regardless of the opportunity that they had
received, the charge of the Lord Jesus Christ was clear.
Do not say anything about what you have seen.
And with that, the Lord does not give a reason.
He doesn't explain why they should keep this to themselves.
He doesn't elaborate. He doesn't try to satisfy
perhaps their curiosity with such a strange instruction.
He simply tells them what to do. And it reminds me how often that
when we are in a certain circumstance or situation and we
understand God's wisdom or will for that particular situation,
How it doesn't necessarily satisfy our reasonings in that
very moment. How?
When we are faced with something, we believe at times
that it's our way, our wisdom, our understanding that should
prevail even at the expense of Christ's word.
And there are times where you will have an opportunity to
either obey or disobey, to trust and not to trust.
And in those moments, would you do what these disciples are
about to do? And that's simply believe what
Christ has to say, even though you don't understand it.
To simply continue on the path of obedience, even though you
are being tempted in one way or another, stay on the path of
obedience. Stay on the path of trusting
Him. The answer will come.
You can never go wrong in trusting the Lord.
You can never go wrong and believing His word, even though
it may seem to contradict human wisdom.
We often think what we know is better for ourselves.
We often, even sometimes think what we think is better for
Christ. What?
I'm trying to help you out here. What?
I'm trying to promote you here. What?
I'm trying to give you a better image here.
He doesn't need our help. He wants your obedience and
mine. And So what will these disciples
do? Will they follow in the pattern
of so many who've been told to remain silent and instead went
on to declare what they were told to keep to themselves?
Oh, you might be surprised because the disciples have
disappointed us on many occasions, but not here.
What do we read in verse 10? So they kept the matter to
themselves. They did it.
They actually obeyed. They actually trusted.
And they might have not known why, but we know why.
We know why the Lord told the disciples.
I know it was amazing. I know it was glorious.
But keep it to yourselves. Do you know why?
Because these, the disciples who had witnessed the glory of the
Messiah were also the disciples who were not ready to accept the
suffering of the Messiah. And until they were ready to
accept the suffering, the death, and the resurrection of the
Messiah, they had no right to declare who the Messiah is and
what He would do. How do we know that?
Look at the rest of verse 10, questioning what this rising
from the dead might mean. So they still didn't get it.
They still didn't understand and the Lord knew this about his
own, so he told his own just don't say anything.
And he doesn't need to explain because he is the all knowing
one. But the command was not simply
for them to keep this to themselves, because it was not
the will of Jesus Christ for this to be privatized forever.
No. There was a time where they
could make it known. And this is what the Holy Spirit
says in verse 9 says here. He charged them to tell no one
what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
You will share what you have witnessed at a particular point.
When I conquer the grave, when I overcome, when I rise, then you
can declare what you have witnessed on this holy mountain.
So this command is really twofold.
Don't say anything, but there's a time where you can and you
will say this. Did the disciples obey the
latter portion? Yes.
Do you know how we know? Through the writings of Peter.
Turn your bibles with me. The Second Peter chapter One.
Look at second Peter, chapter one, verse 16.
Did Peter write this long after Jesus rose from the dead?
Yes, he did. And look what he wrote.
Second Peter 116 reads For we did not follow cleverly devised
myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Pause.
He's assuring the readers of his epistle, hey, the the teachings
that you heard from us concerning the return of Jesus
Christ, the triumphant return of the Lord who will judge everyone
and establish His Kingdom. That is not source from myths.
This is not man made, and he gives his apologetic to why He
gives his reason why. But we were eyewitnesses of His
Majesty. We were eyewitnesses of His
Majesty. At what point he tells us of
verse 17. For when he received honor and
glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the
majestic glory. This is my beloved Son with whom
I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very
voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy
Mountain. Remember what Jesus said in Mark
9/1. He had promised some of his
disciples, Well, all of them. But he assured that some of them
would not taste death until a selected few would witness the
coming of the Kingdom of God in power.
You remember that right? And we agreed that that prophecy
that Jesus made was fulfilled on the mouth of Transfiguration.
It doesn't teach that the Kingdom of God has already come
in power. Usually people believe that
happened at 70AD. Nor does it convey that some of
the disciples are yet still alive because the King of God
has not yet come with power. No, we know that what happened
on that mountain fulfilled that promise, and Peter confirms that
again. He's saying We taught you about
the second coming of Christ when He will come in power and glory.
And do you know how this is true?
We were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.
In other words, Peter is saying that we saw a glimpse of the
Kingdom of God coming in power. We received a sample of it.
This is why this is important. If Peter believed that what he
saw, Jesus unveiling his glory fulfilled the promise he made
that some of you will not die until you see it, then why are
we hesitant to believe it ourselves?
Why are we going here and there with different teachings about
end times when Peter himself here and Second Peter says no,
no, no, we were eyewitnesses of that same glory, that majesty.
And there's so much else to say here.
But did you notice how Peter refers to the location of that
experience? Look at verse 18 again.
We ourselves heard from this very voice born from heaven, for
we were with them on the holy mountain.
Can I ask you something? Was there anything intrinsically
holy about that mountain? This, this mountain is is not
even named to us. There's debate about which
mountaintop Jesus transfigured on, so we don't even have the
exact geographical location. But was there anything about
that mountain that was inherently sacred?
No. Did Jesus choose a specific
summit that would be appropriate to host that demonstration of
his beauty and glory? No.
It wasn't that Jesus took the disciples to a holy mountain.
It was that Jesus in his glory made that mountain holy.
It was where he was and what he did on that mountain that
sanctified it. In a sense that made it
something special. And when I thought about how
Peter says this mountain was holy because of the Holy One who
was there at that time and did something spectacular and
majestic. I think about you and I.
Is there anything inherently holy about you or me?
We can all say no, far from it. In fact, the Bible tells us we
are the very opposite of that which is holy.
But because Christ shown in our hearts, because He has given us
the gift of the ceiling of the Holy Spirit, you and I now are
holy. We are sanctified.
We are consecrated. We are different, not because of
you, but because of what He's done in you, because of what you
do, but because of how you and I identify with Him and how He has
identified with us. You and I before Christ were far
from holy. Not just ordinary, no, no.
We were evil, wicked, depraved, ugly, in light of the holiness
of Christ, but because of Christ, just like that mountain
was just an ordinary mountain. Now you and I are no longer
ordinary people, a royal priesthood royalty, not because
of you, not because of me, but because of the glory of Jesus
Christ in here. And we see here that Jesus made
this mountain glorious and holy. And we've been told by the
prophets that there is a time coming when the glory of the
Lord will cover the earth as the seas cover the earth.
There's a time coming where Jesus will descend in his glory.
And in descending in his glory and planting his feet again on
this earth, the whole earth will be exposed to the aroma of the
holiness of Jesus. So it's not just going to be a
mountain, but every mountain, every valley, every city, every
village, every institution, every Education Center, every
home, every corner will be exposed and saturated with the
holiness of Jesus Christ. You don't believe me?
You think that's exaggeration? When you get the chance, look at
how the book of Zachariah ends in chapter 14, and there's an
interesting prophecy that we would kind of look over.
We are told in Zechariah 1421 that when the Lord Jesus comes
in his glory, you know what's going to happen?
Every pot, every pot will be made holy unto the Lord.
Every furnishing, every instrument for cooking will be
sanctified. What is that saying?
Even the mundane, even the ordinary will know something
about the holiness of Jesus Christ.
That's what's going to happen when he comes.
So we're in this atmosphere here now, as the people of God, and
we should sense something sacred and holy, not because of the
building, not because of images, but because we are the church.
But Can you imagine during the millennial reign where you go
down to a specific area and probably you've driven through
those areas and you have to go there and you feel evil, You
feel darkness, you feel perversion.
That's not going to happen. When he comes.
Even the horses were told in Zechari that will have bells.
The bells will be inscribed with holiness unto the Lord.
Vehicles, pots and pans, furniture, it's all going to be
known and consecrated unto him. I can't wait for that day.
Now, while we're here in Second Peter, allow me to expand on
something. Look what he says here in verse
19, and we have the prophetic word.
This is in light of what he just said.
And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which
you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining
in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises
in your hearts. Look and focus with me on the
1st phrase here, and we have the prophetic word more fully
confirmed. This is a challenging verse
because it's interpreted generally in one or two ways.
One common interpretation is that Peter is pointing us to a
source after just explaining what he had witnessed with his
eyes, what he had heard with his ears.
Now he's going on to say that there is a source more reliable
than our experience. There is something that's more
profound than an eyewitness account concerning the return of
Jesus Christ on that mountain, and that is the prophetic word
that is the scriptures he's saying.
So after explaining what he had seen and calling him to trust in
that as an apostle, he's now going on to say, listen, despite
what we've seen, the word of God can be more trusted.
The word of God is something that you can rely on much more
than what somebody says they have witnessed, even what you
have experienced. The word of God is greater than
your experience. This is how some people
interpret this passage. And that's a powerful truth.
It it's a it's a strong case to make concerning the word of God
and its reliability. But there's a second
interpretation concerning this and it's not so much Peter
saying despite our experience, there's something more reliable.
What he's saying here is we have the prophetic word more fully
confirmed. In other words, what we saw on
that holy mountain. What we heard on that mountain
confirms what the ancient prophets had said about the
truth of the second coming of Jesus Christ.
In other words, in those Hebrew writings that pointed to this
Messiah coming in glory and power and might, what we
witnessed confirms that this will indeed come to pass because
Jesus gave us a glimpse, because Jesus trusted us with the
experience to only compound and to say for certain it's going to
happen, the Lord Jesus is coming again, and so you can see how
both are really good. Which one do I choose, right?
Which one do I go with? And I'm under the persuasion
that whichever interpretation you go with, the point is still
the same down deep inside. It's true that the Word of God
can be firmly, unquestionably trusted.
It has made specific predictions that have come to pass, and it
will, and it has fulfilled many of those predictions, and it is
also filled with eyewitness accounts through and through
reliable sources. Therefore, you can believe God.
You can trust God for your tomorrow, what he says about
tomorrow, despite your experience, despite what you've
seen or heard or touched, because through and through in
the Word we can rehearse and we can believe God said it.
God fulfilled things already, therefore He will not change.
We can expect that what's to come will come because he is to
be trusted. So Peter's saying here, look
what we what we saw in Mark Chapter 9.
This confirms what the word of God says You.
You can believe the word of God even more now.
You should believe it at least. Now let's come back to Mark
Chapter 9, shall we? I want to touch on something
that we didn't touch on last time, verse 9 says.
And as they were coming down the mountain, who are the day three
individuals? Peter.
James. John Jesus selected these three
to come with him to this mountaintop.
But Jesus did not select these three only at this time.
He actually, in the Gospels, did it three times.
He selected these three out of the 12 for three separate
experiences where they were exclusively invited to something
that the others were not. There is one experience before
the mouth of Transfiguration, and there's one after it.
Most of us know the one after in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Or Jesus called the three to come to him, and he sought their
prayers and he sought their support as he wrestled in that
garden. And the one former, the one
before. This is when Jesus brought these
three to witness the resurrection of Gyrus's daughter
in Mark chapter 5. And people tend to wonder, why
did the Lord choose Peter, James, and John?
Why did he select these three? Did he love them more?
Did he trust them more? And the Bible doesn't say, so we
have to be very careful to assume why.
But I was thinking about this because you can't ignore it,
right? He took them there in Mark five.
He takes him here in Mark 9. He'll take him later at the end
of this gospel account. And it's not so much the why,
the why of these selecting to me, it's the how the Lord, even
in selecting these three, handled them separately and
individually. And this is going to go
somewhere because it shouldn't encourage us as individual
believers. And I wanted to encourage you
because oftentimes believers are convinced concerning the Lord's
affection for them based on what they see the Lord doing in their
lives and what He's not doing in their lives and what He's doing
in other people's lives. And you have you have believers
who are discouraged, thinking that the Lord loves them less,
cares for them less than the next person.
But I see Jesus here at in choosing these three, He's
choosing them to train them, obviously, for something
specific. But even in this three will you
have? More importantly, is the Lord
handling the lives and the futures of individuals
altogether? Let me prove it to you.
So these three, they saw the same thing.
They were invited to the same thing.
Who was the first apostle martyr?
Not the first Christian martyr. The first martyr as an apostle
it was James James, the brother of John.
Acts chapter 12. Historically, who was the last
one? John, the brother of James.
So James the brother John is the first impossible to to be
killed. Historically speaking, many
believe that it was John the brother of James who was the
last one to be killed among the apostles.
And even in Acts Chapter 12, you have James and Peter.
So now we have James and Peter, the same James and Peter who got
to see these things. And we're invited to these
experiences and they experience the same persecution, the same
trial by the same power, the evil power of Herod.
OK, so if James and Peter, they saw Gyrus's daughter, right from
that they were invited to see the Transfiguration.
They were there with Jesus in the garden, and here they are
now. They were both in the same
chapter, arrested by Herod. Surely they're going to have the
same outcome. Surely they're going to
experience the same deliverance That true?
No, The Lord sent an Angel for Peter.
No Angel came for James. James was killed.
Peter was saved and to the misguided uninformed. 1 might
think, well, maybe the Lord favors Peter more than James.
No? What about what about Peter and
John and John? 21 Jesus tells Peter, follow me.
And before that he prophesied to Peter the kind of death he would
die in glorifying Christ. And Peter starts to follow.
And Peter does what most of us do.
I mean, this is fascinating to me.
Peter backslides. Jesus restores him.
He says follow me. And right after he says follow
me. And Peter does it.
You know what he does? He looks at John.
I mean, you just started to follow him again, and you
already took your eyes off of him.
He looks at John, and he says, Lord, what about this man?
What about this man? So Peter's concerned.
Yeah. You told me how I'm going to
die. What about him?
I want to know about his future. And Jesus says, hey, listen, if
it's up to me that he remains until I come, what's that to
you? Translation, Peter.
I love you. Mind your business.
You follow me, you follow me. And so even with this inner
three, I don't want to get caught up with the fact that
there's this inner three. I want to get caught up with the
fact that even with this inner 3, Jesus is treating them
uniquely. And Jesus equally loves them.
And he has a plan for each of them.
He has a future for each of them.
He has a call for each of them. Tailor made.
Don't think anything less for your life.
He loves you. Not just the church.
You. Yes, you.
Well, I don't have the same opportunities as this guy and I
don't see as much fruit as that person.
And I'm not as known as that individual and I don't have the
gifts like that person and and I'm suffering more here than
that in that person. So no, no, no, no, no, no.
You have to understand. He loves you and he cares for
you and he's leading you perfectly, perfectly.
Don't compare your life to the next person is just keep your
eyes on Jesus Christ and trust his heart for you.
That's what I take out of these three.
And so we come now and and closing here before we partake
of the Lord's table, verse 11 of Mark Chapter 9.
So the disciples now they're wrestling a little bit.
They're wrestling because they're trying to get their
eschatology straight. Eschatology is a fancy word for
the study of the end times, the last things.
OK? And so here are these disciples
who have somewhat of a grasp of the scriptures concerning the
Messiah, who's to come. And now they believe that this
Jesus who has come is the Messiah.
But there's there seems to be some holes in their
understanding. Remember, Peter had trouble
believing that Jesus would suffer.
He rebukes Jesus. Jesus in turn rebukes him.
And Jesus, in wanting to encourage his own, chooses to
manifest his glory, does he not to show them, yes, I will
suffer, you're going to suffer. But that's not where the story
ends. Check it out.
This is what's coming. And so they're they're trying to
understand all of these pieces and they're trying to put it in
a straight line here. They're trying to get a timeline
right. And so the only obstacle right
we read in verse 10 that they're still questioning what this
rising of the dead might mean. They still have don't have a
full understanding of Jesus dying and rising from the grave.
But that's not the only obstacle, because again, these
are Jews who were exposed to teachings from the scribes who
heard the scriptures, who knew of some prophecies.
And so a question comes now, and this is the question in verse
11. And they asked them as they're
walking down the mountain, why did the scribes say that First,
Elijah must come. That seems like a random
question, doesn't it? Well, it's random if you don't
know the Old Testament. Hey, Lord, we heard that before
the Messiah comes, Elijah has to come.
And I wonder if the visitation of Elijah prompted that
question. Right.
They saw Elijah with Moses. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We heard from the scribes. He's supposed to come.
Where do you go? Why do you disappear?
Holy Lord, we're trying to understand this whole thing.
Messiah. We believe you're the Messiah.
There's no doubt about it. You are the Christ.
But where's Elijah? Not the appearance of Elijah.
Where's Elijah, Who has come to restore all things?
You know what Jesus does? Look at Bristov.
And he said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all
things. In other words, Jesus affirms
that their understanding of redemptive timeline in terms of
prophecy is right. Jesus confirms, hey listen, what
the scribe said about Elijah coming.
This is right. You're not wrong in saying this
because what the scribe said in light of Elijah was according to
the word of God. And I want you to see it in
Malachi in the last book of the Old Testament turned there in
Malachi chapter 4. And look at this prophecy that
the prophet makes concerning Elijah and its relationship with
the Messiah, Malachi chapter 4 and verse 5.
Behold what that means. Hey, pay attention.
Hey, look what I'm about to say. Behold, I, the Lord is speaking,
will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day
of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of
fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their
fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter
destruction. Elijah is going to come before
the great and awesome day of the Lord.
And when he comes, he's not just going to show up with a flash on
the Mount of Transfiguration, he's going to accomplish
something. What's he going to accomplish?
We're told that he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their
children and the children's hearts to their fathers.
You know what that means? That the ministry of Elijah to
come is going to cause a repentance at a nuclear level.
There's going to be relationships restored within
households, and in turn they will now turn to the Lord.
So we're talking about revival, significant, sweeping awakening.
This is what the Elijah is supposed to do, My preparation
for the great and awesome day of the Lord.
Now this is what Jesus says. He says yeah, you're right.
Describes. They quoted the scriptures
correctly. Elijah will come.
But then look at verse 13. This is where things get a
little tricky of Mark Chapter 9. But I tell you that Elijah has
come, and they did to him whatever they pleased.
As it is written of him, All this is getting interesting.
Now Elijah will come. OK, hey, check it out.
He already did. He already did.
Well, it can't be what he did on the mountaintop because we're
told that he's going to come and he's going to bring a revival
that will turn people over to the Lord and repentance, and
there's going to be reconciliation among these
people. So it can't be that what we just
saw. When did he come?
What do you mean Elijah has come?
And Mark omits A commentary that Matthew provides.
So Matthew's parallel account of this very same text.
Let's get the confirmation of who this individual is in
Matthew 17, Matthew 17. Let's look at verse 12, Matthew
17, verse 12. This is the Lord speaking again.
But I tell you that Elijah has already come and they did not
recognize him interesting, but did to him whatever they
pleased. So also the Son of Man will
certainly suffer at their hands. Verse 13.
Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of
John the Baptist, and Jesus didn't correct that Elijah will
come. Malachi said he's going to come.
Jesus says he's already come. Matthew tells us it was John the
Baptist. John the Baptist was Elijah
reincarnated descending from heaven after he was taken up on
a chariot of fire. Remember that?
So has he come down. Made you wonder why some of
those disciples came. Those Pharisees rather 2 John
and John, chapter one and say hey, are you Elijah?
You wonder why they asked that. It didn't help that he looked
like Elijah. He wore the same outfit as
Elijah. It's like, hey, we heard of your
description in Kings. You're wearing the same outfit.
We're seeing things very similar.
Are you him to confirm that John the Baptist fulfilled that
prophecy? In Malachi chapter four, we have
the testimony of Jesus Christ who said it's him.
But we have another testimony of an Angel who came to John the
Baptist's father and gave him a prophetic word about what his
son would accomplish. And tell me if it sounds
familiar. There's a lot of scripture
That's OK. We're in church.
Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one.
Let's look at this prophecy together in verse 16 and 17.
This is about John the son of this priest, John the Baptist.
Matthew, excuse me, Luke 116. And he will turn many of the
children of Israel to the Lord, their God, and he will go before
him in the spirit and power of Elijah.
There's the clarification in the Spirit and the power of Elijah
To do what? To turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the
just to make ready for the Lord. A people prepared, not Elijah
reincarnated, not even Elijah himself coming back from where
he left off. This is why when they asked him
and John one Hey, are you Elijah goes?
Nope, because what they were asking is are you flesh and
blood? Elijah is like no, no, that
doesn't mean that he denied that he fulfilled Malachi's prophecy.
Because we're told that the Angel said to the father of John
before he entered into the world that he will be coming in the
spirit and power of Elijah. We can close our Bibles here,
right? OK, John, the Bathus was Elijah.
You're the Messiah. It makes sense.
He fulfilled that prophecy. And so great.
But when you ask the Bible questions, sometimes you're not
immediately satisfied. So here's me coming to this text
and going, OK, he's on the bath, There's no denying it.
He would come in the spirit and power of Elijah.
He would look like Elijah. He would produce the same kind
of results and fruit that Elijah's ministry did in his
preaching. He fulfilled Malachi 4.
Or did he go back to Malachi 4? I will send you Elijah.
OK, He's going to turn the hearts of the children to the
fathers. But there's a timing when this
Elijah is supposed to be coming. Do you remember the timing?
Here's what I says. Verse five of Malachi 4.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the great
and awesome day of the Lord comes.
We're Christians, right? We think that what Jesus did on
the cross was great and awesome, but that's not what the prophet
meant. That phrase, great and awesome
day of the Lord, is a prophetic utterance concerning not the
coming of Christ to say, but the coming of Christ to judge.
Read Joel 2. Read Zachariah.
One that phrase. The great and awesome day of the
Lord is utilized to describe what will happen when the Lord
comes and brings worldwide chastisement and judgment
against the wicked. It's a dreadful day.
It's a terrifying day. It's great and awesome.
Not in the happy, happy feeling in the wow.
The Lord is here to clean up all this mess.
That's the great and awesome day of the Lord.
No question about it. Do you feel the dilemma now?
I will send you Elijah. OK, John the Baptist according
to Jesus says it's according to Jesus John the Baptist.
But did Jesus come to judge the world?
Elijah will precede the great and awesome day of the Lord.
Jesus says Elijah's to come. He's already come.
But Jesus didn't come to judge the world, did he?
No, he didn't. So is John really that Elijah?
If Malachi said he's supposed to come before the great and
awesome data? Do you understand the question?
And perhaps this is the difficulty that the disciples
had. OK, Elijah's to come.
Elijah's coming. The great and awesome day of the
Lord. How does this all fit?
See, they're trying to organize the timeline of prophecy, and
This is why people interpret Jesus's words in the following
way. Maybe you hold to this view.
John the Baptist is that Elijah like fulfillment?
But he's more of a preview, he's more of a partial fulfillment.
Why? Because Malachi says Elijah's
going to come before the great and awesome day of the Lord.
If John the Baptist is Elijah, where's the great and awesome
day of the Lord? And so many would say John
partially fulfills it. But there's going to be the
complete fulfillment before the 2nd coming of Christ where
Elijah will come, and many believe he is one of the two
witnesses in Revelation 11. Understood.
So I'm trying to chop find, chop this so I don't lose anybody.
So many people are content and it's not.
It's not necessarily a bad view. John partially fulfills it.
We're still waiting for the complete fulfillment of the
actual Elijah to come, and he will prepare the great and
awesome day, the Lord through his preaching and ministry.
But Jesus says he is that Elijah.
He is. So how do we make sense of this?
The answer is in Mark nine. Look at verse 11.
Let's read this together. And they asked him, why do the
scribes say that first Elijah must come?
And he said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all
things. Now if you read that and in
verse 13, you're still in a dilemma.
But there's something sandwiched in between those two statements.
Look what he says. Oh, I love the Lord.
And how is it written of the Son of Man that he should suffer
many things and be treated with contempt, right.
What does this mean? So they're asking about
prophecy. Lord, it's prophesied that
Elijah's supposed to come. Where is he?
Jesus. Yeah, he's supposed to come.
You're missing another prophecy, though.
You're concerned about Elijah coming?
And you're right in, you know, believing that he's to come.
But what about the prophecy about the Messiah, who's
supposed to suffer and die? The trouble with the disciples
is that in all the things that they heard about the Messiah
coming, they only believed in one coming of the Messiah.
Was this not the trouble? This is the trouble for Jews
today, today, because they're expecting the Messiah to come
and fulfill what we believe will happen when Jesus comes back.
Where's his government? Where's international peace?
Where are the the, the, the swords and the javelins being
transformed into farming equipment?
Where? Where is this?
Because we see this in the Old Testament through and through
and through. So the disciples believed like
juice today that when the Messiah comes, she's going to do
everything at one time. And what Jesus is saying is
there are two comings of the Messiah.
Yes, Elijah is going to come before the great and awesome
day, the Lord. That's a prophecy.
But there's an interval between those two things.
Elijah will come. There will be a great and
awesome day of the Lord. But what about those prophecies
where that Messiah that Elijah will prepare for has to die?
Oh, so here's what I proposed to you.
Jesus is saying Elijah will come, but Jesus is also putting
in a peace that's missing. In their understanding.
There's a there's a peace missing, and he's feeling that
now Elijah will come. There will be a great and
awesome day of the Lord, but in between that, this Messiah has
to suffer. He has to die, he has to ransom,
he has to provide a sacrifice. And so he is completing the
timeline of their understanding of prophecy.
Elijah will come, the Messiah will suffer the great and
awesome day. The Lord will follow.
That's why he says how is it written of the Son of Man that
he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt.
If we take this to be what Jesus is saying then we can rest
satisfied in knowing okay. Now it makes sense that John the
Baptist fulfilled that prophecy about Elijah because he did come
before the great and awesome day of the Lord.
The problem with the disciples and many of the Jesus that they
they're not filling the gap. And the gap is the prophecies of
Jesus being nailed on a tree. And in that we have a complete
picture. Elijah will come, John the
Baptist. Jesus will die in the cross, He
will rise from the grave, and when he returns, it will be the
great and awesome day of the Lord.
Prophecies fulfilled, prophecies satisfied.
And you and I hopefully are less confused than when we walked in
here. Let me end it here.
How true is it that we are like the disciples in many ways?
That we tend to lose sight of the sufferings of Jesus Christ?
That we lose our eyes, our focus, our gaze off of what the
Lord has done for us? In this case it's different,
right? They're trying to make sense of
their theology. But practically speaking, for us
as we even in our relationship with the Lord, we can so quickly
get caught up in things and lose sight of the centrality of why
we are Christians. He came, He died, he bled, he
was buried, and he rose from the grave.
This is what we are. This is our this is our belief.
This is what makes us different. This is what makes us fathers of
Jesus Christ. And the Lord knows that we're
very forgetful people. So you know what he does?
He provides a table. He provides an ordinance where
you and I are forced to remember.
It's by His grace. It's what he has done for us.
And so at this time, we're going to prepare our hearts to
partake. And here's my call before we
sing. Hear a brief word and eat
together. If you are a born again
Christian, this is God's gift to you.
This is for you. He invites you to this table,
and he calls you to remember what he's done.
His love for you, his redemption, his final sacrifice,
represented through the bread, his body, the cup, his blood.
It's not about your performance. It's not about your
righteousness. You surrender that thought and
that lie as you enjoy this feast.
But if you're not a Christian, we kindly ask that you refrain
from participating, for this is exclusive to followers of Jesus
Christ. You're more than welcome to
watch. You're more than welcome to
understand what we're doing here.
We're so glad that you can visit us.
But again, we have a duty as ministers to protect this table.
And so we asked you to consider your own salvation, to consider
your standing with God. And I'd love to say this every
time we do this, that as you witness people come to eat of
this and to drink of this, you are witnessing people who are
declaring emphatically, it's not by my own righteousness, it's by
what the Lord Jesus Christ did 2000 years ago, coming into this
world to rescue my soul. That's what you're witnessing.
You're witnessing a people here who are far from perfect, who
have no boast before God concerning their performance to
inherit eternal life, but have at one point said, I am a
wretched Sinner, I need to be saved.
And Jesus is that Savior. And we pray and hope that there
would be a divine jealousy in your heart.
That as you see people confidently and corporately
enjoying the grace that they have freely received in Christ,
that you would say, I want to be in that number, I want to be
connected to this Christ so I can have that same access and
have that same confidence and joy.
And we hope that you would respond.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins.
He bled, He suffered. He gave himself over so that you
could see his great love and respond to it with surrender.
And that you would say, this is what my sin has done, then I
forsake it. And if it's all through faith,
then I give him my faith. I believe that you are my
rescuer and my Redeemer. And I am in need of saving.
So, brothers and sisters, please prepare your hearts as we sing
in a moment and we'll give further instructions.
Listen, shed everything off, will you?
Don't think about anything else now.
Don't think about how bad your week was.
Look to the cross. Look to the cross.
If you're saved, be reminded that you have a future.
You have heaven, your name is written in the Lambs book of
life, and that you will be warmly greeted by him, not
because of your merit, because of what he's done.
If the team who helps us sing can come to sing so that we can
sing with you. Lord, we thank you for this
time. Prepare our hearts.
Be glorified. Manifest your presence in our
midst more than you already have.
Thank you, Father, in Jesus name, Amen.