Prophecy Unfolding Matthew 17:9-13

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There have been over 100 million books written in the history of the world.
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Most books are forgettable and are lost to history. Other books are popular for a few years but flame out as time goes on.
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Some books have a long shelf life and it is a tragedy that they do. In the late 1800s
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Karl Marx wrote a book titled The Communist Manifesto this book has sadly been influential leaving many influenced by it down a path of destruction.
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Then there are other books that sell well over a long period of time but their continued shelf life is due to their entertaining nature.
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Then there are other books that have a transforming nature. To read these is to make one wise.
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Some of these books are fiction like Lord of the Rings that parallel well the true story of life that we all live in.
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While others are nonfiction that convey rich biblical truths that everyone should live by.
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The most well -known books in the world have sold more than 250 million copies.
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In the English language the best -selling book is The Pilgrim's Progress. Written by John Bunyan which is of course an allegory of the biblical story.
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But the most famous books in the history of the world pale in comparison to one book that stands out above all others and that of course is this book, the
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Bible. Anywhere from five to six billion
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Bibles have been published. The word Bible literally means book and so the title of the book that you hold in your hands is literally
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The Holy Book. It was written in three languages on three different continents by 40 authors.
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But what is incredible about the Bible is that even though it has been written by 40 authors, there is a unity to it from beginning to end.
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If someone ever asks you, who wrote the Bible? You can say
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John, Paul, Isaiah, Moses, but the best answer that you can give is
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God. It's the only book that God has written.
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2 Timothy 3 .16 says, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
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2 Peter 1 verses 20 and 21 says, No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke as they were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. This book that you hold in your hands is a supernatural book.
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It is the only book that is able to give life. It is the only book that will lead you into a relationship with your
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Creator. And any other book that is profitable in the world is only profitable because it speaks truth that is found in this book.
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So people ask me, what do I like to read? The Bible and books that point me to the
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Bible. To reject the message of the Bible comes at a great cost.
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To reject its message, one will be lost forever. But to receive it, one will truly have life forever.
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One of the most remarkable aspects of this book is that it tells the future. People are fascinated with that.
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Someone who can tell the future. This shows up in science fiction films, science fiction novels.
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But this book tells the future. Now how can it tell the future?
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This isn't like Nostradamus who makes vague prophecies that you can fit an elephant in 200 years later.
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No, this is biblical prophecy. Biblical prophecy is narrow.
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It's specific. So that when it's fulfilled, everyone will be able to say, Wow, think of this book that made this prediction so long ago.
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And the reason the Bible tells prophecies and then these prophecies are fulfilled is because the one who makes these predictions knows everything.
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Ordinary humans cannot tell the future. You have plans this afternoon.
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This afternoon might turn out way differently than you could have imagined. But the
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Bible is able to tell what is going to happen thousands of years in advance. In world history, there have already been numerous prophecies from long ago that have been fulfilled.
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I love the book of Daniel. The book of Daniel tells of Alexander the
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Great, before Alexander the Great was even born. Do you know that? Fascinating.
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Numerous prophecies have already been fulfilled in world history, and there are still prophecies waiting to be fulfilled.
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But to be alive while an ancient prophecy is unfolding is remarkable.
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In the first century, during the New Testament period, the unfolding of Old Testament prophecies was numerous.
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This was a special time to be alive. This morning, as we continue our sermon series through Matthew, Jesus is going to explain to His disciples prophecies that are unfolding right before their very eyes, and a prophecy that is still yet to come.
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So at this time, I encourage you to turn with me in this incredible book, this supernatural book, the
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Bible. Turn to Matthew 17. We'll be looking at verses 9 -13.
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And if you're using one of those red Bibles, it's on page 978. This sermon is titled,
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Prophecy Unfolding. I know in your notes it says something different, but I had two different titles.
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The title I want you to hear is Prophecy Unfolding. And here is the text that we will read before we jump in.
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Matthew 17, verses 9 -13. And as they were coming down the mountain,
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Jesus commanded them, Tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.
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And the disciples asked Him, Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?
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He answered, Elijah does come, and he will restore all things.
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But I tell you that Elijah has already come. And they didn't recognize
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Him. But did to Him whatever they pleased. So also the
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Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.
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Then the disciples understood that He was speaking to them of John the
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Baptist. Here's our big idea. Understand that God orchestrates the last days to perfection.
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Understand that God orchestrates the last days to perfection. And we will see three details how in this passage.
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But before we jump in, we're going to go through real quickly where we were one week ago. We looked at the first eight verses of this chapter where Jesus took three of His disciples,
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Peter, James, and John. This inner circle that He had. And Jesus on this moment was transfigured before them.
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What we saw is that we are to understand that Jesus is God's ultimate spokesperson.
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As they were on this mountain, two Old Testament prophets, Elijah and Moses, appear there with Him.
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And then God the Father covers them with a cloud, this dazzling bright cloud. And what these two manifestations showed us is that you are to listen to what
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Jesus says. That He is the Messiah. That He is God's chosen one.
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That everything in the Bible points to Him. And as we understand this, we are to understand too that one day, we will see
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His glory with our eyes. As we listen to these eyewitnesses who told us of His glory.
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Now this leads us once again to our text this morning that we have already read. But now we will zero in on.
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We'll start with verse 9. Where once again, Matthew writes here, as they were coming down the mountain, this mountain where the transfiguration happened,
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Jesus commanded them, tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.
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We once again see a surprise from Jesus. We would expect Him to say, tell everyone what you just saw.
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But they are not told to do this. At minimum, we would expect them to tell the other nine disciples, but they are not even told to do that.
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We have already seen Jesus do this in Matthew. Why does He tell people after doing a miracle, after doing something wonderful, after being transfigured, why does
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He tell them, don't tell anyone? Theologians call this the
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Messianic secret. The reason Jesus does not want people to know He is the Messiah at this point, is because He does not want them to believe in a false
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Messiah. This has been a common theme throughout Matthew. The Jewish people had the wrong idea as to whom the
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Messiah was going to be. They thought He was going to come in power and drive out their enemies, and they would reign with Him over their enemies.
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This is true, but it would not come until He first suffered. Jesus wanted people to believe in the true
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Messiah, and the true Messiah is both the Lion and the
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Lamb. We know from our experience that lions are powerful, and lambs are the opposite.
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They are weak. In ancient Israel, lions were ferocious. All wildlife feared them because of their power, but lambs were feeble.
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Lambs, rams, sheep, goats, and bulls were the animals that were sacrificed on the altar in Jerusalem, at the temple.
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Jews do not think that the title of Lamb, which conveyed weakness, should belong to the
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Messiah. They're thinking earthly ways. Fleshly ways.
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Even though Isaiah 53 described in detail long ago that the experience of a lamb would absolutely be
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His experience. Isaiah 53 -7 said concerning the Messiah that He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not
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His mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not
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His mouth. So this is why Jesus is telling His disciples not to tell anyone about His transfiguration until after His resurrection.
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At that point, tell the whole world. But not yet. Not until I suffer first.
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Then they will have the full picture of who the Messiah is going to be. Now when people talk about the last days, what they typically ask is the question, are we living in the last days?
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Anybody get that question recently? Are we living in the last days? And what they mean by this is, are we reaching the end of this present age?
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The time when the rule of godless leaders is over and the new age, the reign of Jesus Christ, is ushered in.
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But we must understand this question biblically. According to Scripture, we have been in the last days for 2 ,000 years.
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As Hebrews 1 -2 says, in these last days, he's writing this in the first entry, in these last days,
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God has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things.
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What the Bible tells us is that the moment that the Messiah Jesus came to the earth marks the very beginning of the last days.
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In the Old Testament, there was no indication that there would be a first coming with a gap followed by a second coming.
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Later revelation, later Scripture, the New Testament specifically, reveals this.
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That there's not just one coming, there's a second coming. In the
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Old Testament, that doesn't show up. It just says that He's coming. What the
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Israelites thought is that the Messiah would come, accomplish everything He was going to accomplish, and then
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He would reign with His people. When Jesus came the first time, the disciples asked
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Him in Acts 1 -6, Lord, will You at this time restore the
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Kingdom to Israel? That's an interesting verse, huh?
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In the minds of the disciples, they were living in the very end of time. And by the way, this verse proves that they were expecting a kingdom in what the
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Bible reveals as a millennial kingdom where the Messiah would reign. Will You now restore the
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Kingdom of Israel? Jesus doesn't say, oh no, there is no Kingdom of Israel. The church replaces Israel. The 1 ,000 year reign is just figurative.
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He doesn't say that. He doesn't correct them. He says in verse 7, it is not for you to know the times or seasons that the
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Father has fixed by His own authority. That's a common sense interpretation of the
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Bible, which is rare these days, frankly. What Jesus is telling them is what
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He told them numerous times. I am going away, and one day at a time you do not know,
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I will return to the earth. Once He left and ascended to heaven, the disciples remembered everything
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He told them. They knew there would be a gap, but they didn't know how long that gap would be from His first to second coming.
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They thought it might be before their lives were over. Maybe at the end of our lives is when His coming will be.
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Little did they know that it would be some 2 ,000 years before Christ would come to this earth again.
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So the truth is, we are in the last days. We have been for a very long time. Once Jesus ascended to heaven,
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His work was finished in John 19 .30. What did Jesus say on the cross? It is finished.
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And what Jesus means by this is that He finished the work of redemption. He accomplished a very important step in the timeline of the end times.
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He needed to suffer. The Messiah needed to suffer at His first coming.
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And He did. So He could pay for the sins of anyone who would believe in Him. And this accomplishment of a redemption by the
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Messiah set things in motion. What we are doing when we read and understand the
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Bible is tracing its history and God's work in it. Certain events need to happen before the end.
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And then one of those major events is the crucifixion of Christ. And His future glory is prefigured in the previous text.
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But this glory would happen after Jesus accomplished redemption through His suffering.
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So in this first point, understand that God orchestrates the last days to perfection.
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The first detail how is through realizing the Messiah must finish
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His work before the end. Namely, His redemption. The second detail how you are to understand that God orchestrates the last days to perfection is by realizing that a forerunner precedes the
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Messiah's second coming. We'll see this in verses 10 and 11. As Jesus tells
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His disciples not to tell anyone what they had just seen, the disciples think through their understanding of the end times and they ask
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Jesus this question. Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?
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The disciples knew the Old Testament since childhood. And they knew the timeline of prophecy.
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Sometimes you go to these churches and they have the end times on the wall.
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A timeline. I don't know if you've ever been to a church like that. This is when the order of events are going to happen.
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One of my professors said that he had to change the way he taught eschatology, which is the study of the end times, because people didn't know it.
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Because churches took these timelines off their walls. Which is a tragedy.
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Okay, we don't have it, so I don't want to be a hypocrite here. But we should be talking about it at least even if we don't have it on our walls.
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What are the timeline of events? In the first century, they were like we are now.
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Right now we look at the events of the end times described in Scripture and we aim to understand the timeline.
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In the spring and summer of 2020, I preached a 13 -week sermon series on the end times.
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I started at the beginning and went to the end. We went in order. We started with the rapture.
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Ended with the new heaven and the new earth. What we are doing as we read our
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Bibles is doing our best to understand the events as the Bible tells them. There's been an effort in recent years.
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It's like, okay, let's just not worry about the details. Let's just focus on some of the big things. Yes, focus on the big things.
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But with the Bible, would God... Okay, let me say it like this. He gave us details.
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And He gave us details to understand the details.
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I get fed up when I hear things like that. We do need to understand the theological significance of certain themes, right?
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But the details matter too. It makes us live a certain way. It motivates us.
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You are blessed if you understand the prophecy of Revelation as the beginning of Revelation says.
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And the disciples in the first century here are trying to understand the timeline of events.
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Jesus is with them. And they're wondering, how does this all work together? What the
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Old Testament revealed to the final prophet Malachi as we read in the call to worship, what that revealed is that Elijah would precede the
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Messiah. The Lord declared in that passage once again, I will send you
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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.
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The disciples just saw Elijah alongside Jesus on the mountain and in their understanding, they thought he would stay.
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They wondered how Elijah appearing on this mountain fit in with this prophecy.
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And they were perplexed because Elijah did not appear before the ministry of Jesus when
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Jesus was baptized, right? They're thinking, Elijah didn't come. We haven't seen him yet.
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We just saw him on the mountain, but he didn't come before your ministry. That's the question they're asking.
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Malachi says he comes before you're on the scene. The primary
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Jewish teachers of this time, these corrupt leaders, the scribes who were
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Pharisees, they used this to discount Jesus. They would have said,
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Elijah did not appear before you started your ministry, so according to Malachi, you cannot be the
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Messiah. They thought that Elijah literally would return from heaven doing wondrous signs, and that didn't happen.
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As the Pharisees taught this, the common Jews, of course, also thought this.
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What starts in the pulpit makes its way to the pews. It's the same thing in the first century.
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If the Jewish leaders are teaching this, the common people are thinking this too. We see this in Matthew 16 -14 among the common folks.
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When Peter is telling Jesus who people think that he is, his identity, one of the answers is, they think that Jesus is
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Elijah. Since Elijah needed to come first, some thought that he must be
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Elijah since Jesus came on the scene during numerous miracles and many, many people were drawn to him.
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There's two people here. There's Elijah and there's the Messiah. But we just only see
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Jesus. So he's either not the guy that they say he is, or he's
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Elijah. What we have seen thus far in Matthew is the abuse that the
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Jewish teachers of this day did to the Scriptures. We've already seen that they misinterpreted the
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Bible and added their own traditions to what the Bible taught. We should not be surprised that the false
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Jewish teachers misunderstood the identity of Elijah who was to come. One author said this about their understanding of Malachi 4, they taught that Elijah would come again as a mighty, miracle -working reformer who would bring order out of chaos and holiness out of unholiness.
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They maintained that when the Messiah arrived, the world, or at least Israel, would be morally and spiritually prepared for him.
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And he would execute swift judgment and establish the kingdom of Israel.
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So this was the first century Jewish understanding concerning Elijah. It's important to understand this background as these three disciples, as they come down this mountain, ask this question to Jesus.
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As the disciples ask this question, Jesus responds in verse 11 telling them the correct way to understand
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Elijah. And he will expand on this as we will see in our third point. But before we get there, let's look at verse 11.
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He answered, What Jesus is saying is this belief that Elijah would precede the
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Messiah is a correct one. They have that right.
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But as I just mentioned, the belief was that Elijah would return to the earth from heaven as a mighty, miracle -worker.
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That was the tradition of this time. And there wasn't a mighty miracle -worker who preceded
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Jesus. Jesus is the miracle -worker. There wasn't a miracle -worker, though. Some of you know this, but Scripture records that there are two people in the history of the world who never died.
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Anybody know? Elijah, you know? Yeah, there we go.
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Elijah and Enoch. Man, what a great calling that is, huh? You're not going to die. Oh, great.
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Then those people, you're going to have a brutal murder. You're going to be brutally murdered. God has a different calling for everybody, right?
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But 2 Kings 2, verses 11 -12 records the event where Elijah was taken up to heaven.
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Let me read this here. And Elijah saw it and he cried,
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My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen. And he saw him no more.
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In Genesis it says, Enoch walked with God and he took him.
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But as the Jews are reading this 2 Kings passage about Elijah being taken up into heaven, they are thinking that this
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Elijah that went up to heaven is going to come back to the earth. Now they are partly right, as we will see, but they have the wrong time.
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It's all about the timing. Once again, the Old Testament did not show there to be two comings of the
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Messiah. They saw that this Elijah from heaven would come right before the Messiah came to the earth to rule.
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What Jesus says in verse 11 is that Elijah does come and he will restore all things. What Jesus is saying is that this future
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Elijah will do just as the prophet Malachi said he would do. Remember, it's one of those things, these prophecies, they are fulfilled exactly the way it says.
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And if there's confusion, it means you have the wrong interpretation. It's not supposed to be confusing.
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For example, I was explaining this to a group of pastors and one of the pastors was way off the wall on this.
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I mean, frankly. The Old Testament says that Jesus was going to be born in Bethlehem.
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Guess where he was born? Bethlehem. The Old Testament says that he was going to ride in on a donkey.
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A colt of a donkey. Guess what? He rode in on a donkey. A colt of a donkey. The Old Testament said that he was going to be pierced.
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He was pierced with the crown of thorns. He was pierced for our transgressions.
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The Old Testament vividly describes his crucifixion before crucifixion was even invented.
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And guess what happened? He was crucified. How it says it is always how it's fulfilled.
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It's not a mystery where Jesus is going to return to. Anybody know? Jerusalem. Where in Jerusalem?
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The Mount of Olives. That's where he's coming back. You want to see him return? Move to the
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Mount of Olives. That's where he's coming back. This is part of my frustration with people muddying the clear waters of Scripture.
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The Bible is not confusing. There are some confusing passages. But it's a minority.
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Most of it is very clear. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise. But as we read this here, the prophet
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Malachi said concerning the future Elijah that he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.
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In other words, the preaching of Elijah is going to lead the people of Israel to repent and follow the
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Lord. In this way, he will restore all things as the
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Messiah will be ready to come. He prepares the way. In ancient times, before a king came, they had a forerunner who would prepare the way for the king.
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And the Bible follows that model. Someone comes before the Messiah to prepare the way.
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And what Jesus indicates in this text is that there's a distinction between two
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Elijahs. In verse 11, he starts by describing a future
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Elijah. As Malachi 4 -5 says, he will come before the great and awesome day of the
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Lord. When the Bible says the great and awesome day of the Lord, it is referring to the very end of the world.
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The time when God will bring His judgment. So Malachi 4 has in mind this future end times
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Elijah. Now, the most end times book in the Bible is the book of Revelation.
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The question we should all be asking is this, does the book of Revelation describe an
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Elijah? And it does. Yes. A day is coming when there will be a final seven year tribulation during the second half of the tribulation, or maybe a little bit before the second half.
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Elijah will return to the earth along with another prophet. This event is described in Revelation 11.
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In Revelation 11 -3, Jesus says this, I will grant authority to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1260 days.
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That's about three and a half years. So for half the tribulation, they will preach to the people.
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These two future witnesses, what they will preach is what
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I'm preaching every Sunday. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They're going to call people to repent and believe in Him.
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Specifically, they're going to call the nation of Israel, because that's where they're going to be preaching from. Jerusalem. And as you might expect, these two prophets will face lots of resistance, but God will supernaturally protect them from harm as they preach the truth of the
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Word of God to people. At the end of this period, this passage explains that God will remove
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His protection from them, and at that point, the Antichrist will finally get to do what he wants.
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He will kill them. For three and a half days, they will be dead in the streets and the people will rejoice.
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These horrible, unloving people we can't stand.
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These annoying preachers are finally dead. They're going to be celebrating, having a party. These people who are calling us to turn from our idols are gone.
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What's going to happen though? He's going to raise them up, and then they will mourn. And then
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God will take them to heaven. Think about that.
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Elijah. This man who was swept up to heaven, as 2
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Kings 2 tells us, will be swept up to heaven again in the future.
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Elijah was taken up to heaven, and God has a plan for him that he will return to the earth to preach before Christ's second coming.
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You will remember that last week we saw Elijah stand alongside Moses on the mountain as Jesus was transfigured before them.
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Now why in the world would these two prophets be the ones who witnessed him? It's because these are the two prophets that are going to be there in the tribulation.
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In the end times. That's the only thing that makes sense. Moses and Elijah, who stood by him on that mountain, prefigured their role when they come back to the earth at the end of the world.
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The transfiguration scene points ahead to the return of Christ as His glory was displayed for them just as it will be displayed at the end when
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He returns. So these two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, will preach
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Christ right before His second coming. And this is what Jesus is saying in verse 11.
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Elijah does come, and He will restore all things. And this is going to happen before the great and awesome day of the
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Lord, as Malachi 4 verse 5 says, as they preach, some will believe.
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In this way, the prophet Elijah and Moses alongside him will draw people to the
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Messiah. Some will hate their message because they love this world and they don't want to bow their knee to Christ, but some will receive the message of Christ.
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So understand in this second point that God orchestrates the last days to perfection.
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And the second detail how is by realizing that a forerunner precedes His second coming.
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Here's the third detail how we are to understand that God orchestrates everything perfectly according to His timeline, and that is this, by realizing that a forerunner preceded
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His first coming. A forerunner preceded
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His first coming. And this is what they missed. This is what the Jews missed. Now in these verses,
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Jesus continues to answer the question from these three disciples about Elijah preceding the
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Messiah. This is what He says in verse 12 and 13, but I tell you that Elijah has already come and they didn't recognize
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Him, but did to Him whatever they pleased, so also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.
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And the disciples understood that He was speaking to them about John the Baptist. Now this would have been confusing to the disciples.
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When we study the end times, it can be confusing, especially when you first study it. But the more you study it, the more it becomes so clear.
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Jesus just told them in verse 11 that a future Elijah is coming. And then in the following verses,
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He tells them that He's already come. Is He contradicting Himself? Of course not. The answer comes from Luke 1 .17.
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In that verse, the priest Zechariah is visited by an angel and the angel tells
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Zechariah about John the Baptist, about his life. What kind of a man he will be.
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What he will do. What we have seen already in Matthew is that John the Baptist was the forerunner to the
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Messiah at His first coming. What the angel tells
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Zechariah in Luke 1 .17 is this, He will go before him in the spirit and power of who?
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Elijah. He will come before you in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the
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Lord a people prepared. Do you notice what the angel says there? John the
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Baptist will be like Elijah. He will be like the future
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Elijah who comes before the Messiah at His second coming. So let me say this as clearly as I can.
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A prophet like Elijah comes before Christ at His first coming and the literal
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Elijah will come down from heaven before Christ comes back at His second coming.
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So there's two Elijahs. The first one is John the Baptist. The second one is
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Elijah. The one from the Old Testament. These are two different prophets, but they have the same responsibility to the people of Israel.
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They proclaim to Israel and to the world that Jesus is the Christ and everyone needs to repent and believe in Him.
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That's the message. Don't veer from that message. This is what you need to preach.
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And what you will notice about John the Baptist and the literal Elijah in Revelation 11 is that most people don't like these guys.
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They don't like them because they call out their idols and call them to believe in the living God. You know what's interesting about prophets?
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If you were to have lunch with these guys, they'd be the nicest people you ever knew. Why? Because that's the fruit of the
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Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness. But the moment they start calling out people's idols, which is telling the truth, that's when people turn on these people.
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They're not wicked people. They're not villains. They're the best people there are, in fact, because they're following God.
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But people turn on them because people love their idols. You go after their gods, they will turn on you.
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These prophets are willing to offend to tell people the truth. And this is the responsibility of pastors today who proclaim the prophetic word afresh.
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Adrian Rogers was a Southern Baptist pastor who died in 2005. But he said a quote that rings loud in my ears.
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He said, The problem with today's pastors is that no one wants to kill them. Now we might laugh when we hear that, but think about it.
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The problem with today's pastors is that nobody wants to kill them. There's a great effort to be liked.
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To toe the line. We need to be salt and light, which means get people to like us. No, that's not being salt and light.
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Salt and light is following the will of God, and then some people will be drawn to you. Many more will not.
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The temptation is to tell people that they are sinners, yes, but they're not really that bad. But if you think of sin this way, then the cross makes no sense.
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Jesus faced hell for you at the cross so that you don't have to face hell in the future.
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Simplest way I can explain the Gospel. It needs to be told people that your sin makes you deserving of hell.
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It's that bad. And apart from Christ saving you and His sanctifying work that follows, there is nothing good in you.
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The only good that we might see in an unbeliever is because of God's common grace over a person that makes this person not as bad as they could be.
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In heaven, we won't think those people in hell deserve to be here. Oh, he was a great guy. She was a great woman.
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We won't think that way. We will think we deserve to be where they are.
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And it is only by the grace of God that we are not. People need to know what a great offense their sin is against the
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Holy God. Romans 3. Listen to these words. None is righteous. No, not one.
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No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless.
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No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.
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The venom of ash is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.
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In their paths are ruin and misery. And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
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That describes the world pretty good, doesn't it? Before Christ?
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That's who you were. That's God's view of humans and it's not pretty.
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Fallen humans. Are people hearing this? Do people understand the
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Gospel in full? Do people understand who they are and who God is? He is holy.
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And if He were to show His presence to us right now, all of us would fall flat on the floor. We would feel so filthy before Him.
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Look at Isaiah. In Isaiah 6. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. He says,
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Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips, and I am among a people of unclean lips.
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That's how we should feel. If today's pastors only communicate the love of God without also communicating the judgment of God, they are not doing what
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God has told them. God gives His assignment to people in the
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Old Testament, doesn't He? He does it in the New Testament. He does it today. John the
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Baptist knew His calling. The future Elijah who will return to this earth knows His calling. It is to preach the truth of the
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Gospel to a hostile world. 2 Timothy 4 says,
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Preach the Word in season and out of season. You know what that means? When it's popular and when it isn't popular.
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In America, when was it popular to preach the Gospel? Probably the middle of the 20th century. It's not offensive.
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How does Billy Graham become so famous? It's because even if people disagreed with him, they still liked him.
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Because it's a friendly environment. Today, it's not that way anymore. It's different. There will be no more
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Billy Graham's. Because people are not friendly to the message of the
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Gospel anymore. What we saw already is the death of John the
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Baptist. It was described in chapter 14. John called out King Herod's sin of incest.
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He told him, it's not lawful for you to take her as your wife. And he wanted to put
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John to death for this. He hated John. But he feared an uproar from the people because the common people thought
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John was a prophet. They were right. He was a prophet. But when Herodias, the daughter of the one who committed incest with Herod, told
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Herod that she wanted John put to death, Herod caved to pressure from the wicked people surrounding him.
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It was at this moment that his great desire to put John to death became a realization.
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And he did. He put him to death. John got his head delivered on a platter at the command of Herod.
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And Jesus said that his experience would be much like John's. At the end of verse 12,
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Jesus says, so also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands. The people who killed
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John are going to kill me. On top of this, we already read
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Revelation 11 where the future Elijah will be killed by the Antichrist. You notice a pattern here.
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John the Baptist, Jesus, and the future Elijah preach the truth of God's Word and they are murdered by hostile sinners, by corrupt, powerful people who hate their message.
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What we see is that before God's plan is finished in this world, there is opposition. The world is hostile toward God and His message.
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And I think about this often. There's one man who was perfect. One man who loved people fully.
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Only did what was right. Always spoke the truth. And what did the world do to him?
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They killed him. This is the world we live in. If we think, why aren't things better?
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Why doesn't everyone just be good? Why isn't everyone for what is right? That's the world we live in.
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We live in a fallen world. We live in a world that's in the hands of the evil one. We live in a world that crucified the perfect Son of God.
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There is great opposition before the Lord wraps up this world. That's what the Bible tells us.
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Sometimes I might sound like an alarmist. I'm just telling you what the Bible says. John the
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Baptist experienced it. Christ experienced it. And the future Elijah, who precedes Christ's second coming, will experience it.
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The world largely treats God's spokespeople horribly. And John experienced this as Jesus says here.
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They did to him whatever they wanted. They treated him like he was trash. But you know what
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Jesus said about John the Baptist? There's no one under heaven greater than John the
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Baptist. He thought highly of his friend. He grieved when he died.
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And they just did with him whatever they wanted. They treated him like a piece of trash because they hated that he spoke the truth to them.
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He was the forerunner to Christ at his first coming. And he did exactly what God called him to do during his ministry.
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As some believed and some would receive the judgment due for not listening to God's message through John.
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So as we wrap this up here, understand that God orchestrates the last days to perfection.
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We've seen three details how in this text. The first is by realizing that the Messiah must finish his work before the end.
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The second detail how is by realizing that a forerunner precedes his second coming. And the third detail how is by realizing that a forerunner precedes his first coming, as we have seen.
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And as we look at this and we see the hostility that John, Christ, and Elijah faced, we must understand that God accomplishes
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His purpose in history down to the smallest detail. He's got a timeline.
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And when it's time, that's when He says, okay, now this prophecy is going to happen.
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He created the world. He created the story of life. And He will accomplish everything He planned to bring glory to His name.
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And you know what's interesting too? The day of your death is also on His timeline. None of us know how many days we have left.
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It might be far shorter than we could ever imagine. It is appointed for man to die once.
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Appointed. It's planned. He knows. Think about Bob Saget who just passed away.
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The dad on Full House. America's Funniest Home Videos. He wasn't planning on dying that day.
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He was posting things on his Twitter account or Instagram, whatever he was posting on. Dawn, we don't know the day we're going to die.
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God knows the exact day. He knows the exact day of prophecy events. He knows the days of our lives.
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And we should give Him praise for this. How great a God must He be. His plan for world history is perfect.
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And may we praise Him for the story that He is writing from beginning to end. Now next
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Sunday, we will see the disciples fail in their fight against evil. And Jesus will tell us the reason why they failed.
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And we will learn a very important lesson from this passage. But this time, let's bow our heads before the
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Lord. Father in Heaven, what a wonderful God You are. We give
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You praise. You are great and greatly to be praised as the psalmist says. Lord, help us to love
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You more. Help us to give You the praise that You are due as we look at the story of life.
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Help us to stand just like John stood. Just like Elijah will stand.
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Just like Jesus did. As they accomplished the purpose that You had for them.
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And the number one purpose You have for each of our lives, wherever we are, is to live for the truth and to teach the truth to others.
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To proclaim it. To encourage some. To challenge others.
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To invite people to believe in this Messiah who has come and will come again.