The Deity of Christ in Mark: Transfiguration

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So, as I was thinking about this evening, the thought crossed my mind that if you were here on the
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Lord's Day, you know that I began a four -part series looking at the
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Gospel of Mark and there was a portion of Mark that I was going to have to sort of,
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I don't know, cover in a way I didn't want to, a little bit on the shallow side, a little bit too quickly, and I thought, wait a minute, we have
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Wednesday night and the chance is almost everybody who's there Wednesday night was there
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Sunday, so they've already got the context, you don't have to be quite as elaborate in your introduction, let's get it in there so we have a fuller discussion.
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And so let's go to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 9. We'll actually be in Chapter 8 on Sunday morning, so we're a little bit out of order, but I don't think anyone will complain too loudly when we look at an element of Mark's testimony to who
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Jesus is. And once again, I hope as you listen to these sermons, as you listen this evening, you may be thinking to yourself,
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I don't have any questions about what Mark teaches about Jesus, so I don't really know what this has to do with me.
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Well, I hope that most of our folks are well aware of the fact that all
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Scripture is God -breathed and that we need to look at all of Scripture and that there is a beautiful harmony that exists in Scripture.
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But let's face it, we live in a day where even amongst those who call themselves
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Christians, we are in the minority. And sometimes when we engage in conversation with fellow believers, people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, we can be somewhat taken aback by some of the comments that they make, because it seems they do not share with us this commitment to the entirety of the
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Word of God being harmonious and consistent and you're able to look at this testimony here and that testimony there.
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It's probably because they come from a church where their pastors or elders or whatever form of church government they might have, the seminaries that they went to taught them that, well, you know,
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Mark has his view and John has his view and Matthew and Luke have their views and you've got
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Paul and that maybe you can even make Paul contradictory to Paul. And once you've accepted that as a fundamental way of looking at the
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Scriptures, then that might help you to understand why it is that certain people say the things they do.
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And it might also help you understand why certain people struggle to take a firm stand on so many of the important issues, issues that are important to you and I, in regards to human sexuality,
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God's law, the centrality of the cross, the resurrection, or even the deity of Christ. It all goes back to how we look at Scripture and I don't want us to be amongst those who are unaware of what's out there.
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I don't want us to be amongst those who basically we have our little group and that's what we're used to and we can't really talk to anybody else.
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We can't really interact with anybody else because we really don't know where they're coming from and aren't really overly confident about where we're coming from either.
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So looking at the Gospel of Mark, we are asking ourselves the question, is it true what you would hear at almost any institution of higher learning in our valley, in our state, in our nation?
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If you were to go there and you were to study and you were to take a world religions class or a philosophy of religion class or anything along those lines, the professor standing up there is going to say, it is the consensus of scholarship that you have differing views of Jesus presented in the
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Gospels. The highest view is that of John and the lowest is that of Mark.
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Mark just presents to us a purely human Jesus. He is just a servant of God, just an itinerant preacher from Galilee.
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So many have accepted that. We started looking at that on the basis of the text rather than just simply listening to what some big name says here or there or someplace else.
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We actually started looking at the text and we've already been given in the first two chapters a good deal of reason to question that conclusion.
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Well, one of the stories that would seem to jump out at us if we think about the Gospel of Mark or just simply the
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Gospel stories as a whole, that would immediately cause us to think differently about the thesis that has been presented to us.
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That is, that Mark presents a merely human Jesus, is that incident called the transfiguration.
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Mark, chapter nine, tells us about the transfiguration, which, if you're interested, and some of the young folks might be interested in especially, the term transfiguration, that's a
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Latin that comes to us from the Latin, and transfigure, you can sort of figure out how it came to us.
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But the Greek word is metamorphosis, metamorphosis. That is the actual term that is used, metamorphose, in verse two of Mark, chapter nine.
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But let's read what happens in this incident. And Jesus was saying to them, truly,
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I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God, after it has come with power.
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Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves.
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And he was metamorphed, he was transfigured before them, and his garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
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Elijah appeared to them, along with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.
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Let us make three tabernacles, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to answer, for they became terrified.
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Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud. This is my beloved son.
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Listen to him. All at once, they looked around and saw no one with them anymore except Jesus alone.
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As they were coming down from the mountain, he gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen until the
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Son of Man rose from the dead. Now, here you have the story of what we call the transfiguration.
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Now, it is a story that is told elsewhere in the Synoptic Gospels. It is a story, therefore, that is a part of the various earliest tradition of the church, that which was the preaching before the
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Gospels were written, was this story undoubtedly related with eyewitness testimony by Peter, James and John.
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And it is obvious by the way that the text is constructed that when
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Jesus says, truly I say to you there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power, then six days later this happens.
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So there is a sense in which the transfiguration is in some way a fulfillment of what
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Jesus was saying. There is a sense in which the kingdom of God comes with power and it is demonstrated in what happens here upon the mount.
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And most of the time we are so focused upon the, shall we say, supernatural aspects of this that we do not see, well, how is that?
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How is the kingdom of God demonstrated here? And if I might just suggest that to you first and then we can step back and consider what this says about who
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Jesus is. Certainly in the transfiguration of Jesus, there is something that is very important.
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We can talk about how, you know, was this something that came upon Jesus and was unnatural to him?
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Or was this actually briefly the true glory of Christ being seen that was normally veiled in the incarnation?
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Very important issue. But what I want you to think about is what the Jews who heard this story initially would have immediately concluded when they heard it.
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And that is you have a discussion going on here in verse four, you have two
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Old Testament figures that appear and they converse with Jesus.
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Now, I don't know about you, but if I were writing this story, I don't care what
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Peter has to say. OK, I don't care that Peter's terrified and I don't care that he came up with a loopy suggestion about building a hotel on the top of the mountain.
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Don't really worry about that. What I would really like to know is I'd like to know what they're talking about.
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That's what I want to know. OK, when when Jesus on Earth talks with Moses and Elijah, what do they talk about?
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That is a question for heaven itself. And I have a feeling we'll probably get to get to ask that question when when we get there.
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But who do these men represent? Well, most people recognize Moses. That one's not tough.
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Moses represents the law. Elijah represents the prophets. And so Moses and Elijah are coming back and having a conversation with a transfigured
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Jesus upon the top of a mountain. And then after Peter gets done demonstrating, he has no clue why this is happening.
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A cloud forms, a nephele, a cloud, and it episkiadzo them, very same terms that we have coming out of the
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Old Testament in regards to the cloud of glory in the temple, which remember it left before the destruction of the temple.
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Well, now it's back and the father speaks from the cloud, and this should sound somewhat familiar because what was one of the last texts that we looked at on Sunday morning was the baptism of Jesus.
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And when the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove, the voice from heaven says very similar things.
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That is, this is my beloved son in baptism in whom I am well pleased here.
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It is listen to him, hear him now to anyone with with with any ear at all tuned to the
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Old Covenant narrative and history and story. Mark doesn't have to say almost anything more.
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Here you have the law and the prophets meeting with the
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Messiah who is transfigured and glorified and identified as the beloved son of the father who is in the cloud of glory.
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I mean, talk about taking this thread and that thread and this element and weaving it all together into a big, blinking yellow arrow that goes
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Messiah right here. Fulfillment right here. It's here it is.
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This is what we've all been pointing toward. Anybody looking at the
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Old Testament looks and goes, wow, you almost overdoing it here.
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OK, we get the message. It's amazing how many people they don't get the message like, wow, that's really cool.
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I wonder if this means that other people can come back from the dead. I think I can get ahold of my uncle
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Tom this way. No, you're missing the whole point. That's not what's going on here.
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There is there's the reason that Elijah and Moses are here is because of what they represent and what's being said by their being there and their unity with the
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Messiah who is then said to be the beloved son of the father.
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And we are to what? Hear him. What were the
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Jews then here? The law and the prophets, together with the very witness of the father, says here, this one, this is the king.
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Here is the kingdom. Listen to the king's voice. And, of course, what's one of the major themes that's developing in Mark at this very time is the conflict with the scribes and Pharisees is escalating and escalating and escalating until it finally reaches its its height in the trial of Jesus when he, as we will see on Sunday evening,
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Lord, Lord willing, draws their attention to the son of man who comes in the clouds with great glory in Daniel chapter seven.
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And so there is your primary thrust. That's what you need to see in this story.
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And, of course, that has much to do with answering the question of what
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Mark is all about when he's giving testimony to Jesus. Here is one who is the fulfillment of Malachi and Isaiah.
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Here is one who is the son of man on earth, who has authority to forgive sins, as we'll see
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Sunday morning. Here is one that can actually command you to deny yourself, take up your cross and join him on the death march.
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And now here is the one whom the father himself in the very cloud of glory that was in the temple.
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Along with Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets all testifying to him says, this is my beloved son.
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Listen to him. Wow. And this isn't just one little text over here and one little text.
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This is part of the very fabric of Mark. If you are going to say that Mark has a merely human
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Jesus, you are going to have to cut all of this apart into pieces and try to isolate them from one another rather than allowing
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Mark to have themes and weave these things together. And that's exactly what modern scholarship does.
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It starts with its conclusions and then shock of all shocks comes to those conclusions after having started with them.
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That's how it works. So when we ask ourselves the question, then.
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Is this a mere human being now we can ask the question, the supernatural question, if this is a mere man.
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What's going on in this story, would it be fitting for a mere man to be transfigured in this way, who himself is a sinner?
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Notice that when when Isaiah had his temple vision.
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God provide forgiveness for him before he had direct. Discussion with him, he provide forgiveness for his sins and the angel takes the burning coal and places it upon his mouth, his lips, because he confessed that I'm a man of unclean lips.
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Jesus makes no confession of sin in the presence of Moses, Elijah and the father himself.
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Mere prophet? Don't think so. Would it really be fitting?
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Even when Moses's face was made to glow and he had to place the veil upon it is because he had been in the presence of God for so long, but it faded over time.
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When Jesus experiences this, there's no Moses didn't even know his face is glowing.
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Right. It's only when people are going, whoa, Moses, you look in the mirror recently. That Moses goes, oh,
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OK. Jesus gives there's no evidence here that Jesus is like, wow, guys,
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I didn't expect this. No, there's no there's no evidence of that whatsoever.
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Jesus specifically takes them up on the mountain for this to take place. He knows, unlike all those liberal scholars who say, well, you know, the market in March, Jesus is sort of out of control, you know, and all the circumstances is driving what?
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It's just it's just not what the text itself says. And so once again, we have a clear testimony given to us.
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But then it's also very clear that once its purpose is fulfilled in the command of the father, this is my beloved son.
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Listen to him. Then Mark makes it very clear. And immediately, just in the blink of an eye, it's gone.
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The cloud, Moses, Elijah. Jesus's garments are not glowing white any longer.
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And you can just imagine almost the disorientation of the three disciples at this point.
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I mean, they're hoping they're going to get to be up there, you know, for 40 days like like Moses was or something like that. But as soon as the father speaks, the identification of the son, the command to listen to him, hear him and all at once, boom.
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There is no one there but Jesus only. And as they're coming down to the mountain, we don't get a whole lot of the conversation because I'm not sure, you know, if Peter didn't know what to say at the top of the mountain, and certainly didn't know what to say on the way down either.
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But he gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen until.
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There was a reason. You know, Peter is later going to make reference to this in his epistles, he's going to make reference to the fact we have a more sure word than even the personal experience that he had on the
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Mount of Transfiguration. But until then, there to be quiet.
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But notice it's it's amazing until the son of man rose from the dead, they seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant.
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So when he says this, they are confused because they still have certain traditions about the
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Messiah and what the Messiah will and will not do. And they are caught up by that statement, just as Peter is caught up in the same situation in Matthew, chapter 16, when
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Jesus starts teaching upon the nature of his ministry and and Peter seeks to oppose him.
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But notice the language again until the son of man rise from the dead.
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This is so difficult that it's a great amount of teaching. And still, even after his death, it takes the work of the
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Holy Spirit for the disciples to truly understand what it is that's being spoken of here.
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So what do we see in this incident? We clearly see an indication on the part of Mark that he is presenting to us in this incident, in this event, a
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Jesus who is the culmination of the testimony of the law and the prophets, who is the very son of God.
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He's already said in whom God is well pleased. And now he is invested with a divine authority here.
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Him. That's what Moses and Elijah were doing. They were hearing him.
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And in fact, everything that Moses and Elijah had said before was because they had what heard him.
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Here is the fulfillment of it all, which clearly puts Jesus beyond the category of merely a prophet.
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He is the lawgiver. He is the source of prophecy. He is the divine son.
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He's the son of man. He is glorified. And again, to say, therefore, that the gospel writer.
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Is presenting to us just an itinerant peasant, a preacher from Galilee who got in trouble with the
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Romans, is to completely miss the testimony of scripture.
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So add that particular text to the growing list of texts that hopefully you'll remember.
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And if you ever have the opportunity, you'll be able to give testimony to what the gospel of Mark is actually saying about Jesus.