WWUTT 2043 Tell No One the Vision (Matthew 17:9-13)

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The disciples had just witnessed Jesus transfigured before them.

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They saw Jesus in unveiled glory, but then he says to them, not to speak of this vision until he rises from the dead, when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's word, that we may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

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For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we've been in chapter 17 this week, looking at the transfiguration of Jesus, where he was transfigured before his disciples,

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Peter, James, and John, up on the mountain. And we're going to pick up where we left off yesterday. We've got this closing section with what

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Jesus taught his disciples after what it was they witnessed. So let me read the narrative again, verses 1 through 13 out of the

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Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. And six days later,

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Jesus brought with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.

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And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light.

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And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him.

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And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish,

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I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said,

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This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.

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And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.

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And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, Get up and do not be afraid.

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And lifting their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. And as they were coming down from the mountain,

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Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.

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And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

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And he answered and said, Elijah is coming and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished.

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So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them about John the

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Baptist. So as we've been looking at the transfiguration this week, on Monday, we looked at it in context considering what

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Jesus had taught to his disciples in the previous chapter, some of the things that he said in chapter 16, and then how that flowed into the transfiguration in chapter 17.

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Yesterday, we looked at the event itself with Jesus being transfigured before them. What did that mean?

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What did this signify to them? Though he had been teaching them that he was going to go and suffer and die, he showed them that he is the glorious one, the

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Messiah that is promised, the only begotten from the Father, as he is transfigured before them.

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And the voice of God comes from heaven, saying, This is my beloved son, reiterating that because, of course, the

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Father had said that at his baptism, and they saw the Holy Spirit descend upon him as a dove, the three persons of the

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Trinity right there at Jesus' baptism that had been witnessed by the disciples. They were there on that day when

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Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. But here it's being repeated again, reminding them that this is the one who had been sent by the

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Father. So though he was going to go and suffer and die, they needed to not lose hope for Christ is the glorious one.

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And as he had been telling them, he would rise again from the dead. Things were not going to happen as they expected them to happen, but they were to continue to trust

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God and hold on to his promises, those things that had been spoken about in the scriptures.

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And when Elijah and Moses show up, that's exactly what Jesus and Elijah and Moses talk about.

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Jesus tells them what he's about to go and do. And Moses and Elijah know this is in fulfillment to the things that had been revealed to them as prophets in the

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Old Testament age. Peter interrupts though, and tries to win some brownie points or something, whatever his intention is here with building these booths.

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And then the Father has to remind them, this is my beloved son, listen to him, listen to what he's saying with the disciples, not listening to what he said in chapter 16 and really not understanding what was happening here before them either.

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And when they hear the voice of God, they're terrified. But Jesus comes and touches them and says, do not be afraid to get up.

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And of course, this is the reaction that we see whenever people witness the glory of God, whether it's

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Old Testament or new, they're terrified, they fall on their faces. But then Jesus goes back to being veiled in his flesh.

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For a moment there, the veil was taken away that they might see him as glorious.

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But now he comes back to the way that he was. And when they look up, they see it's just Jesus standing there.

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And so what we look at today in verses nine through 13, is Jesus now teaching his disciples following what it is that they've just witnessed.

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So the first thing he tells them is to not tell anybody the vision. Verse nine, and as they were coming down from the mountain,

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Jesus commanded them saying, tell the vision to no one until the son of man has risen from the dead.

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Now it's interesting how many things in the gospel of Matthew happen on a mountain, right?

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Have you caught that? The sermon on the mount, Jesus goes up on the mountain and sits down and his disciples come to him.

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And this is the first time that the voice of God has been heard speaking to the people since God spoke to the people at Mount Sinai, which had been 1500 years before or so.

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And now here, the voice of God was speaking to Israel again with Jesus sitting on a mountain and you have the commands of God that are given in the sermon on the mount.

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We also have that Jesus and his disciples go up here on a mountain and he's transfigured before them.

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We know that at the end of Matthew, when the great commission is given, they go up on a mountain in Galilee.

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And though this isn't in Matthew's gospel, it's also from a mountain that Jesus ascends into heaven and leaves the disciples looking up there in the sky as he as he ascends out of their view.

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That happened on a mountain. A lot of things, just a lot of significant events here happening on a mountainside.

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They're coming down from the mountain after this transfiguration. And Jesus tells them not to tell anybody the vision.

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It's not that the disciples would have put it in their teaching anyway, perhaps not specifically

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Jesus is saying not to tell the other disciples about this. So this is something that just Peter, James and John are privileged to see and they're to tell nobody about it until the son of man is risen from the dead.

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So after Jesus rises from the dead and it should be that this event fills them with hope so that even after he dies, they know who it is that they've killed and that he's coming back again because he told us he was going to be coming back again.

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Jesus says it again right here, but it's like they forget that because the disciples are really in hiding during that whole time that Jesus is in a tomb.

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And when he does rise from the dead, it's the women who are the first to witness that the tomb is empty and then come back and tell the disciples.

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Then of course Peter and John have that episode where they're running to the tomb to see what had happened to him and he reveals himself to his disciples anyway, but they don't understand the significance of this and they have forgotten what the scriptures have said.

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Isaiah 53 talks about how the Messiah is going to come and suffer and die and the

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Lord is going to lay on him the iniquity of us all. The Psalms even testify to the fact that Jesus is going to die.

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The other prophet Zechariah talks about how he is going to die and he is even going to be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver that's going to be thrown back onto the temple floor.

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All of those things were prophesied about the Christ, but the disciples have missed these things.

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And then of course, when Jesus rises from the dead, he tells them these things. He goes back through the prophets and shows them how all of this stuff had been pointing to him and that Christ is the fulfillment of all of this here.

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Therefore now he tells his disciples not to talk about what it is that they've witnessed here on the mountain until after he rises from the dead.

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And even then they're not going to get it until Jesus explains it to them. And in Luke 24, before Jesus ascends back to the father, it said there that he opens the disciples minds to understand what was said about him in the scriptures.

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And so the disciples respond to what Jesus has said. Once again, he says that he's going to rise from the dead, verse nine, but again, they miss it.

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They're just not paying attention to when Jesus teaches about this and his disciples ask him saying, why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

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They've just witnessed Elijah. He was just there with Jesus on the mountain,

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Moses and Elijah standing there with Christ. But then they disappear when they fall on their faces in fear and Jesus comes up to them and touches them and says, do not be afraid.

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They look up and it's just Jesus standing there. So that must have been baffling to them. Maybe in seeing and witnessing

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Moses and Elijah, they thought, well, this is it. This is the fulfillment of what had been prophesied or what the scribes and the teachers had been talking about that Elijah must come first.

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Here he is right here. He's standing here with Jesus. But then once Jesus touches them, they look up and Elijah is not there anymore.

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So they ask the question based on what it is that they had just witnessed. Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

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Why do they say that if Elijah is not joining us when we go into Jerusalem? And Jesus says, now this is a little bit confusing.

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I don't know that I fully understand this either. But Jesus says in verse 11, he answered and said, Elijah is coming and will restore all things.

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But I say to you that Elijah already came. So if Elijah already came, why does

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Jesus say in verse 11, Elijah is coming and will restore all things? That's a very curious statement.

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There's a couple of explanations, at least what I've narrowed it down to base what I've read in various commentaries.

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It could be that Jesus is just repeating what it is that the Pharisees and the other teachers have taught.

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Elijah is coming and will restore all things. And he's affirming that what they've taught is correct.

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Of course, they're false teachers. Of course, they add to the law. And they don't even understand the things that the prophets say themselves, because, you know, they didn't even know the

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Messiah when he came. When the Magi came into Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the

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Jews? Nobody understood what they were talking about. If the scribes and the Pharisees had been teaching the people accurately from the prophets, then they would have known exactly where the

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Messiah was born and that he was going to be born at this time. And everyone would have been looking for him, not just these strangers from a far off country.

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But the people didn't know. And the Pharisees and the scribes didn't know. Jesus points out, they did not even know that Elijah already came.

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So the statement in verse 11 could be that Jesus is just repeating what it is that they teach and affirming that when they teach that it is correct.

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It comes from Malachi, Malachi 4, 5, Behold, I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh.

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And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land, devoting it to destruction.

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So the way the teachers would teach that is that Elijah is coming and will restore all things. And Jesus is affirming what it is that they have taught and that they teach correctly, but they did not understand what it was about and that it had already been fulfilled.

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It had been fulfilled in John the Baptist. So anyway, that's the first possible explanation. A second possible explanation of the phrase is that Elijah is coming and will restore all things.

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Could be to say that the testimony that John the Baptist has given is still working.

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It's still going on there in the spirit of Elijah, because John the Baptist is not literally

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Elijah, but in the spirit of Elijah, he's coming and restoring all things with the testimony that has gone before the

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Christ who has yet to fulfill even the prophecies that had said about that were said about him, about dying and rising from the dead and so on and so forth.

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Those things hadn't taken place yet. So those are the two possible explanations of the phrase. It does seem odd that Jesus says,

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Elijah is coming and will restore all things. And then says, but I say to you that Elijah already came.

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So it could be that he's just affirming what it is that the Pharisees have taught and really saying that they're correct when they teach these things.

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That's what the scriptures say, but they did not recognize. That's what he goes on to say.

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Then in verse 12, they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished.

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Talking about John the Baptist who gets thrown in prison and he gets beheaded.

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And I mentioned this on Monday. I think it was when we were looking at the context of the transfiguration based on the things that Jesus taught his disciples in chapter 16.

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Remember when John the Baptist was in prison and he sent his disciples to ask

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Jesus if he is the promised Messiah or should they be looking for somebody else?

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This was at the beginning of chapter 14. So just a few chapters back and John the

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Baptist, though he had witnessed many great and amazing things concerning the Christ. Had yet to see that he was going to be the military leader that all of the

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Jews thought he was going to be, that he was going to step into the palace and kick out the

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Herod's, that he was going to overthrow the Romans. He would emancipate and free the Jews and make

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Israel a great empire once again, restoring Israel to its glory and even greater than that. We had not yet seen that was going to be the case with Jesus.

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And so John the Baptist has to send his disciples to say, are you the one or should we expect another?

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The disciples themselves are still expecting that when they go into Jerusalem, that's what's going to take place.

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That's what's going to happen. But here Jesus has been talking to them about how he's going to suffer and die.

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And even here, once again, reminding them that he's going to die and he's going to rise again from the dead.

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So what about this thing with the forerunner, with Elijah? They ask him, why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

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That is, of course, from the prophets. Malachi is the one who prophesied this. This has already happened.

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Elijah already came, Jesus says, but they did not recognize him. They did to him whatever they wished.

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John the Baptist being thrown in prison and then beheaded. So also the son of man is going to suffer at their hands.

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He comes back to this teaching again, reminding them that Jesus is going to go into Jerusalem and he's going to suffer.

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Do not expect this military conquest and emancipation that many of the

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Jews are expecting, including Jesus' own disciples. That is not truly what had been prophesied.

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That is not the will of God. That is not the plan. Jesus will eventually open their minds to understand the scriptures and he will explain all these things to them.

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But for now, they're not getting it. And so he tells them

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Elijah already came and they did to him whatever they wished.

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So also the son of man is going to suffer at their hands. And it's interesting then that verse 13 says, then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them about John the

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Baptist. It doesn't say that they understood that he just said he's going to go and he's going to die and he's going to be buried and he's going to rise again on the third day.

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The text doesn't give us that. But they do seem to understand that Jesus is making a reference to John the

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Baptist. Elijah already came. It's John the Baptist. And it's not the embodiment of Elijah.

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It's not the reincarnation of Elijah. It's in the spirit of Elijah that John the

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Baptist has come and has fulfilled this prophecy in Malachi and in Isaiah.

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Because remember in Isaiah is where the prophecy is made. A voice of one crying out in the wilderness makes straight the paths of the

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Lord. And that's what John the Baptist did. John the Baptist even understood that he was the fulfillment of these prophecies.

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When he was asked if he is the Christ, he said that he is not. But he is the voice of the one who is crying out in the wilderness.

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So the disciples understand that Jesus had spoken to them about John the Baptist. But they still don't understand what

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Jesus has been teaching them about the fact that he's going to go and suffer and die.

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But they are not to lose heart. They were to remember the vision of what they saw at the

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Mount of Transfiguration. That he is the glorious one. Jesus is the sovereign.

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He is the one who has been sent by the Father, whom the Father is giving all things.

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And we read that even in chapter 28. The last words Jesus says to his disciples, at least in Matthew's gospel, that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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So they're to know that Jesus is the one who holds the universe in his hands.

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They are to trust in God because of what it is that they have witnessed, but they have so little faith.

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And even when Jesus is arrested, Peter denies Christ, the rest of the disciples run away and abandon him.

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They don't remember what it is that they have seen. Even Peter and James and John don't remember what had been displayed before them.

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Now Jesus is not going to get back to Jerusalem immediately here. We've still got in the chapters that are coming, he's going to go back to Capernaum.

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He's going to go back to Galilee. Then he's going to make his way back to Jerusalem. Ultimately that's where they're going.

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That's where they're headed. But it doesn't happen yet because the entrance into Jerusalem, the triumphal entry doesn't happen until chapter 21.

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And we're just right here in chapter 17. But in the meantime, we have this glorious vision of Jesus in unveiled glory, showing himself to Peter, James, and John, an event significant enough that it's even spoken about in other epistles to come.

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So it's not just talked about in the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It's even talked about in, you know,

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Peter mentions it, John mentions it. This is a significant event, but so that they may see the son of man who is coming in his kingdom and that the kingdom is not the kind of kingdom that they are expecting, but it is a kingdom that is so much more glorious.

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And it is a kingdom that we continue to build even today, or Christ is continuing to build through his church.

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When we go out with the message of the gospel and those who are one from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, more are added to this kingdom and it keeps expanding and growing, which will continue at the command of Christ because all authority has been given to him because he reigns and he is sovereign overall.

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This commission will be accomplished. The church will not die out no matter how much people have tried to say that the

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Bible will be irrelevant and the church will eventually go away and we won't have any need of religion anymore.

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These things will continue. This work of Christ marches on and will do so until the day of his return.

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And so let us be faithful to these things, putting our trust in God, knowing that he is sovereign and he is in control and in fulfillment of what it is that he has commanded us.

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Let us go make disciples of the nations, teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read and I pray that it is a reminder to us that Jesus Christ is

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Lord, that he reigns, he sits enthroned on high and all things belong to him.

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All authority has been given to him. Everything that belongs to God has been bestowed to the son.

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And then we also have this promise given to us in scripture that we are fellow heirs with him of his eternal kingdom.

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So Lord Jesus come quickly and may we continue in faithfulness in these days until the day of Christ.

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It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.