Signs of The End / Elijah Must Come First

Matthew 17: The Transfiguration and the Disciples’ Question About Elijah

Matthew 17, starting in verse 9. Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead. And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

Jesus answered and said to them, Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has already come. And they did not know him, but did to him whatever they wished.

Likewise, the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them through John the Baptist. And when they had come down to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down unto him and saying, Have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.

So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me.

And Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, Why could we not cast it out? So Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief, for assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.

However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. And all God's people said. Thank you.

Building the Disciples’ Faith Through Matthew 17

So you're in the gospel of Matthew chapter 17. We'll just stay here for a few minutes. It begins with the transfiguration, which we covered several weeks ago. And if you look at the progression of these verses, what Jesus is doing, he's trying to get his disciples, he's trying to build their faith.

He's trying to build their trust in him. We see back in chapter 16, that Peter makes that great profession of faith. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. But as soon as Peter says that, Peter rebukes Jesus when Jesus tells him he has to die on the cross.

So, you know, they get it, but they don't get it. They're expressing faith. And then you saw here in that passage that they're lacking faith. And he rebukes them because they lack faith. So there's this up and down, and Jesus constantly has to build his disciples up just to learn to trust him day by day.

And it's the same with us. We say we believe, and we do, but there's moments where our faith is lacking, or we hear something else, and we're not quite sure, and we have doubts. So hopefully, as we move through this passage, we can be built up in the faith as well.

But it requires an understanding of what Christ is saying, and really embracing that, believing that, even when we don't fully understand it, just trusting that what Jesus says is true. So the transfiguration is the beginning of Matthew 17.

We're not gonna go back and look at that. But what Jesus did in showing his disciples his glory was to show them, yes, I am, give them proof, I am the son of God. So they saw his divine glory break through.

Also, this was an encouragement for the days ahead. Jesus told them of his betrayal and his crucifixion, and they were devastated by that. So he wants to give them something to encourage them so they'll have the strength to move forward.

Signs, End-Times Speculation, and the Danger of Chasing Omens

But let's pick up in verse nine. It says, now as they came down from the mountain, that is the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus commanded them, saying, tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.

And his disciples asked him, saying, why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? So now they have a Bible question. They've heard what the religious leaders are teaching, and they wanna know, is that right?

Is this true? And if you look at it, what they're asking about is a sign. They want a sign. Are the end of days really here? Or is the kingdom of God really here? And this is something I've noticed that within the church today, there's all sorts of people, they're looking for a sign, right?

And for many people, the solar eclipse of what, it was last week, that was a sign. And there were many churches saying that this is a signal that the rapture of the church is about to happen. And of course, it's been a week or more, week and a half, and there's no rapture.

And I think there's a real danger in just chasing after signs. So when something like that happens, when you hear something like that, you need to take it with a grain of salt. Of course, there was an earthquake, what, a day before?

Or the same day, right? And of course, for some people, that's a sign, because you rarely get earthquakes. And Jesus in Matthew 24 talks about when the end comes, there's gonna be increase in signs in the heaven and earthquakes and wars and rumors of wars.

Just yesterday, Iran attacked Israel. See, that's a sign too. So there's people who get excited or worried about all these supposed signs and whether or not they're really signs is questionable. But here's a sign from Jesus that before he returns at his second advent, somebody is gonna come first.

And who is that? Elijah. So verse 10, his disciples asked Jesus saying, why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? And Jesus answered and said to them, indeed, Elijah is coming first and he will restore all things.

Malachi 4 and the Prophecy of Elijah Before the Day of the Lord

Now, I'm gonna stop there and we'll deal with the thing about John the Baptist in a few minutes. But verse nine, Jesus calls what they saw on the mountain a vision. Okay, so they saw Christ in his glory, his royal splendor.

They know that Jesus is the Messiah. But according to the religious teaching, according to Jesus, before Messiah comes, Elijah must come first. So where did the scribes get that idea? Let's turn to the book of Malachi.

So you're in Matthew, just take a left. And Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. So just one book before Matthew and you'll find the prophet Malachi.

So we're gonna look at Malachi chapter four. This is where the scribes got this teaching that Elijah is indeed coming first. Now, here's what the scribes and the disciples didn't understand. They didn't understand the two advents of Christ.

They thought it was all gonna happen at once. They didn't understand that Jesus was gonna come the first time, being born in Bethlehem's manger, 2 ,000 years, at least 2 ,000 years in between his second coming at the end of the age.

They didn't get that. They thought it was all gonna happen together. But Elijah is coming before Jesus returns. That would be in our future. So let's read Malachi chapter four, starting in verse one. The prophet writes, "'For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven.

In all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings, and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.".

And I know some of you are thinking, I don't wanna grow fat like a stall-fed cow, but back then, this was a good thing, okay? Just, you have to understand that. So the word, this is a word of blessing to the people.

If you fear God, if you obey his command, if you trust in the Lord, you will be blessed. So that's a blessing in verse two, but verse one opens up with this warning of cursing. So it's interesting how the curse and the blessing both speak of heat, right?

For God's enemies, we see a judgment of fire. Now, did that happen at the first advent of Jesus 2 ,000 years ago? No, we know it's gonna happen then at the second advent. So there's a judgment of fire for those who reject God, hate God, violate his word.

But for those who fear God, there's this promise that God will show his love for them because they will feel, we might say the warmth of his love. You know, the sun rises and you feel the warmth and it's a good feeling.

And that's the son of righteousness, S-U-N, but it's really speaking of the blessing of the S-O-N. So when Jesus comes back, he will bless his people. Look at verse three, the Lord speaking through the prophet says, and you shall trample the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this, says the Lord of hosts.

In other words, the good guys are gonna win, the bad guys are gonna lose. So when Jesus comes back at the second advent, he comes as not the meek suffering servant like he did the first time, he comes back as a warrior king, like David, his father.

And of course, Christ is not literally the son of David, he's David's son spiritually, he's his descendant. But when Jesus comes back, he's going to bring justice to the earth. I mean, that should be a thing we all look forward to, right?

There's a lot of injustice in the world, pain, suffering, death, warfare. Jesus, when he comes, he's gonna bring true justice and he's gonna bring unity. Now, the reason why we turned to this chapter was to see what the Lord has to say about Elijah coming first.

But first we hear about Moses, and of course, who appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17? Moses. Moses and Elijah. So look at verse four, we get this word about Moses. Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments.

In other words, remember the 10 commandments. Remember the commandments of God. Live by them. You know, there's some people who view the 10 commandments as, you know, it's a list of rules that, you know, just, it's cramping my style.

It's ruining all my fun. I wanna live my life my way, and God has these commandments written in stone. But you know, if you go out and you break the commandments, one thing I can promise you, it's gonna mess up your life.

God gives these commandments for many reasons. One of them, it's a display of love. If you follow these, you will be blessed. So he mentions Moses. Also, this is another way of really determining whether or not someone was a true believer.

Like today, we have churches, and you know, just because someone is part of a church, it doesn't necessarily mean they really trust God. Hopefully, most do, but you don't really know. It's like that in Israel.

Just because you were Jewish didn't mean you really trusted in the God of Israel. So it had to be more than just being Jewish. You actually had to trust God, and you could determine that oftentimes based on how you're living compared to the commandments.

And it's the same thing today. So I believe in Jesus. Okay, well, are you following the 10 commandments? You know, generally speaking, do you seek to live by those? And it can tell a lot. So we see this word in the beginning of Malachi.

When Jesus comes, there's gonna be this separation, cursing for the rebels, the bad guys lose, and blessing for the good guys, the saints of God win. Now look at verse five. The Lord says, now we get into the verse about Elijah.

Indeed, Elijah is going to come back before Jesus does. Behold, he says, I will send you what? Or who? Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And what will Elijah do?

Verse six, he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. What Elijah's gonna do, and if you've been attending or listening to our Wednesday evening series through the book of Revelation, you know this.

When Elijah comes back, in the end times, there is gonna be a great revival among the children of Israel. Today, we have the nation of Israel as evangelicals. We tend to be very much favorable and supportive of the nation of Israel because of what the Bible says about prophecy.

Those who curse Israel, what? Will be cursed. Yeah, you curse Israel, you will be cursed. I mean, any nation that has tried to persecute the nation of Israel or the Jewish people, I mean, God has dealt with them very severely.

But right now, Israel is living in unbelief. The day is coming. At the end, Elijah the prophet will come back. He will lead a revival in the nation of Israel. I believe Elijah will be one of the two witnesses in the book of Revelation.

So before Jesus comes back to this earth, Elijah is coming first and he's gonna turn the people, you know, the children to the fathers, the fathers to the children, but really, they're turning the people back to God.

But I think we need that even in our contemporary context. We need a revival right now in our land where people who might even identify as Christian, they're not really living as Christians. They say it, but there's not a lot to back.

We need a revival within visible Christianity where everyone who professes the name of Christ will actually turn, their heart is turned back to him. So there's always this application we can make. But make no mistake about it, Elijah is coming first.

So it's not so much about a solar eclipse. It's not so much about a war or missiles going from here to there. When people see Elijah return, okay, now you know the second advent of Christ is drawing near.

As of now, obviously that hasn't happened, but the Lord tells his people about these things. Okay, with that said, let's go back to Matthew chapter 17. Elijah will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers.

John the Baptist as Elijah and the First Coming of Christ

When Jesus came, did he do that? When Jesus came to Israel 2 ,000 years ago, did he bring great unity to the nation? You know, you could argue, looking at some of Christ's words he said, I did not come to bring peace, but what?

A sword. Unfortunately, what happened, because the nation rejected Jesus, putting your faith in Christ, doing the right thing actually put you at odds with family members. So because the nation rejected the Messiah the first time, it sort of had the opposite effect.

The ministry of Christ was, well, it's safe to say, fair to say, it was divisive because the majority rejected. Is the ministry of Jesus still divisive? Is it divisive in our nation? I've noticed this, that if you go around and you just talk to maybe friends, co-workers, your average person, and a lot of people don't know any better, but if you talk to them about God, well, they're probably okay with that.

They're not gonna be too bothered by that. Something about the name of Jesus, though, has a way of, they're like, okay, look at the, I gotta go. They don't wanna have that conversation. So even now, the ministry of Jesus, yeah, it divides.

It divides believers from unbelievers. Here's the great thing about the ministry of Christ the second time. When he comes back, all the enemies are dealt with. Now, you can like that, you can not like it.

I'm just telling you that's what the scripture says. They're all dealt with, so what does that mean? The only ones left over are who? His children. Yeah, his children, the true believers. So the ministry of Christ, there will be great unity when Elijah comes and certainly when Christ comes, and we certainly look forward to that.

Look at Matthew chapter 17, okay. So remember the question the disciples asked Jesus, why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? They had a Bible question, and you know, if you have a Bible question, you should seek answers.

That's a good thing. And we saw why the scribes said that, right? Because the scribes knew Malachi chapter four. Apparently the disciples didn't, the scribes did. So Jesus affirms that no, you know, the scribes are wrong about a lot of things.

I don't necessarily recommend you listen to them about this or that. They're right about this. Look at verse 11, Jesus answered and said to them, indeed, Elijah is coming first, and he will restore all things.

He's gonna lead a revival that ends up leading to the millennial reign of Christ, a thousand years of peace on the earth. But then Jesus kind of throws a curve ball at them in verse 12, and he makes this perplexing statement.

He says, I say to you that Elijah has already come. What? Elijah has already come? What does that mean? And he said, and they did not know him, meaning they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they wished.

In other words, Elijah, at least in a sense, came, they didn't recognize him, they didn't believe him, they rejected him, they hated him, they persecuted him, and eventually they put this Elijah to death.

Now, who is he speaking of? Well, we read the passage, we know. Who's he talking about? He's talking about John the Baptist. And likewise, Jesus says, the son of man is also about to suffer at their hands.

And of course, that's when the light bulb goes off. All of a sudden, they get it, verse 13. Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist. Now, just a question to you. Was John the Baptist literally Elijah?

No. He wasn't actually Elijah. Elsewhere, it says he came in the spirit, in the power of Elijah. So he was a type of Elijah. He was like Elijah. So, in theory, who came first, John the Baptist or Jesus?

John. John came first. He was the forerunner of Christ. So he acted like Elijah in that way. So John showed up, and then his ministry gave way to Jesus. So, at least in theory, if the people had believed John, they would have believed Jesus, and then they would have got the kingdom, and they would have lived happily ever after.

Did that happen? No, and Jesus says that. Instead, they knew him not. They killed John the Baptist. Here's what Jesus is building up to. They rejected him. They killed him. And you know what, guys? They're gonna do the exact same thing to me.

That's what Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples for. They had all of these ideas about a glorious kingdom, and it's right around the corner. We're gonna be on the top level of his cabinet. Jesus is gonna be king, and we're gonna be one step below him, and it's gonna be great for us.

It's gonna be great for everybody, and Jesus sort of shatters that dream, and says, actually, I'm gonna be rejected. I'm gonna be killed, and they're absolutely devastated, and Jesus knows he has to sort of build up their faith.

Living by the Word, the Commandments, and Readiness for Hard Days

Before we close, you know, you sort of have to ask, okay, what's the takeaway from this? What's the application for us? I mean, we're not living in the days of John the Baptist or Jesus. We're not even living in the days of the coming of Elijah.

And if you know the scripture, we believe that the rapture of the church happens before Elijah comes. So I mean, in what way is this applicable for us? And I thought about that. I thought about, you know, what is the application?

Here's what I came up with. First of all, we have this word where Jesus is trying to lead them step-by-step, building up their faith. Do we have Elijah or John the Baptist? No, but in some ways we do, don't we?

We have the scripture. We have what Elijah said. We have what Elijah taught. We have what all of the prophets taught. We have what John the Baptist said. We have God's word. See, here's the thing. If we don't take this for what it is, if we don't believe the law and the prophets, if we don't believe this book, it's gonna leave us vulnerable for what might happen tomorrow.

You know, there's a lot of talk about end times. And, you know, like I said, there's people who think it's always right around the corner. It's always gonna happen tomorrow. Every sign is a sign of the end, and I don't think we should live that way.

However, you realize that if a full-scale war broke out in the Middle East tomorrow, that could be the beginning of the end. You realize that. You realize just the situation we have where the United States is here, and you have Russia, and you have China, and then the Middle East, there's already a war.

You realize things could go south at any moment. And when it does, here's the thing, when it does, what side are you gonna be on? The disciples, they were strong in their faith when everything was going well.

They were strong in their faith and believing what Jesus said when it's what they wanted to hear. But when they were faced with difficult sayings, and when they were faced with adversity, all of a sudden, their faith seemed to collapse.

So here's what I wanna leave you with. Make sure you believe, and I really wanna challenge you to get in the Word and just to read, read all of it. Read all of the promises, whether it's the Old Testament prophets, the New Testament apostles.

See what God says, and ask yourself, look in the mirror and say, number one, am I living by God's standard, the 10 Commandments? And I realize we've all sinned, come short of the glory of God. No one's obeying God perfectly, we get it.

But am I living a life that's in keeping with God's morality as given in the commandments? That's kind of the test, maybe, that in your faith in Jesus, that you're a true believer. That's number one. Number two, do I believe what the Word says while things are good?

We live in a land of peace. All of you, we all have, even if you're struggling financially, you still have everything you need. You still have shelter, a home, you're living in safety. We have it so good.

It's easy to believe when times are going good. Things could go south real quick at any moment. We need to be prepared. So strengthen your faith now, build up your faith now while things are good. Because God forbid, one of these things does end up being a sign of the end, or not even the end, just a sign of great persecution for God's people, which is happening right now to Christians all over the world.

Just ask yourself, could I really stand up and endure that? So we need to build up our faith now. How do you build up your faith? By believing what God says and applying it to your everyday life. So we have this word, Elijah is coming first.

Malachi’s Promise of Judgment, Blessing, and Revival

And just in conclusion, going back to Malachi's prophecy, we have this statement from the Lord that in the future, all of God's enemies are gonna be what? Burnt, burnt up. And yet we have this blessing for the people of God.

He says, but for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings. Behold, I send you Elijah, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

Let's pray. And Father, this verse speaking of revival in Israel, Father, we need a revival in our land. Father, it may not happen, we realize that. But I pray that each and every one under the sound of my voice who heard your word taught, whether it be Matthew 17 or Malachi 4, Lord, build up our faith daily.

Lord, even though we believe we have our doubts, we have our struggles, help us in our unbelief, help us in our doubt. Father, we know that in this life, there are many good things, there are many, many blessings, and it's easy to be a follower of Christ when everything's going good.

But the real proof, the real test are those moments where we are challenged. And Father, may we come through those challenges, may we come through those tests with our faith even stronger. Lord, as Jesus was building up the faith of the disciples in Matthew 17, I pray that you would build up our faith for the days, weeks, and months to come.

Protect us by your grace, I pray, it's in Jesus' name. Amen.