Okay, welcome to Adult Bible Fellowship today. Your last stop between here and Mother's Day lunch. So we'll try to keep things moving for you. But we are gonna continue in our study of the gospel of Mark. And it's been a great study, I think anyway, so far. And we're starting in on, we finally made it to Mark chapter nine. So we're past the halfway point. Mark has 16 chapters. And so we're starting in Mark chapter nine. We'll start in verse one. in a moment, and just to give just a little bit of background, so we come into Mark 9, verse one, and as we do that, just keep in mind that this is actually completing the conversation that Jesus is having with the disciples and the crowds at the end of chapter eight. So some Bibles will actually put Mark 9, verse one, real close to the bottom of Mark 8, verse 38, the last verse in Mark 8, as one unit, because it's really believed to be part of that same conversation. And if you remember, we talked about this last week, Jesus had just called the believers into a deeper relationship with him through discipleship. And that looks like denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Jesus. And as Jesus completed that call, he made a statement regarding the glory of the Father. If you look with me back in Mark 8, 38, he talks about the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, of course, looking back to his second advent, his second coming down to earth to set up his kingdom. And now as he, in the next sentence, he makes prediction another prediction regarding the glory of the kingdom of God so we're going to explore what that is today and look at this promise Jesus gave and what that meant for them and and even what it means for us today before we go any further let's pause and pray and ask God to bless our time father Thank you, Lord, so much for your word. I thank you for the blessing of it and the truths that we find, Lord. The Bible is like no other book. It has the power to transform our hearts, to transform our minds, which then affects how we live and the choices and actions and and even our motives, Lord, as it discerns our hearts for us. Help us, Lord, as we look into the word today. Help us to have ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts to understand what the Spirit would have for us to learn. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So we will be looking at the transfiguration of Jesus Christ today, where he is transfigured before his disciples. So as we go through, we have this, just a simple outline today, there's not a sheet for you today, but you can follow along there in your Bible, your notebook, or whatever you're taking notes in. But we're going to start off with this verse number one, is the promise foretold. The promise foretold. Jesus foretells a promise, and we find that in Mark 9, verse 1. So follow along with me, would you, as we read. And he said to them, speaking of Jesus to the disciples, specifically and to the crowds that were gathered generally, assuredly I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power. So Jesus often spoke in cryptic ways. He did this with his parables. He did this with some of his teachings. He did it on purpose. to conceal truth from some and to reveal truth to others. And so when scholars and different ones have looked at this statement, this promise he makes about some standing here that will not taste death till they've seen the kingdom of God present with power, I didn't know until I started to study it deeper myself, there's multiple theories as far as what Jesus meant by this. We're gonna focus on a couple that I think are the two most obvious, and really I think they can be combined together. So as we think about this statement, this promise, this prediction, if you will, of Christ, that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power, two things, I think, come to the forefront. The first one is the resurrection of Christ, the second one, is the transfiguration of Christ. Both things future at that point when Jesus made that statement. There's several other suggestions. I was gonna go through and list them all, but for sake of time, some see it as God or Jesus' ministry on earth. Some see it as the ministry of the church age that we're in right now. But there's some problems with some of the other views. These two seem to fit the context the best. If you think of what he's saying here, some of the apostles, a better word really would be most of them, all but Judas, as well as probably several in the crowd, we have a record that up to 500 witnesses saw Jesus after his resurrection, according to the apostle Paul. Some of them might have been in the crowd that day. They would have seen Jesus alive after his resurrection. And then, of course, the sum could also be, and I believe it's more specifically to the three disciples that go with Jesus up on the mountain, Peter, James, and John, that they would see the transfiguration. Both of these represent the description Jesus gave of the kingdom of God present with power. Think about the resurrection. the ultimate visualization of God's power over sin, death, and hell, which is the kingdom of Satan. So his kingdom coming and dominating over Satan's strongholds, if you will, of sin, death, and hell, the resurrection certainly did that. But on the other hand, the transfiguration also fits that same description. It's a precursor, if you will, of his glory revealed at the resurrection, and even of the second coming later. And so perhaps it's, in a sense, both are connected, the transfiguration of Christ being the visual representation of the future resurrection of Christ. But in any case, there is no doubt that the promise given by Jesus here in Mark 9.1 is related, I believe, directly to the events that transpire immediately afterward, which is the transfiguration. I believe that's what he's mainly speaking towards, although it could be other things as well. So the second main point in our outline today is the promise fulfilled. So he makes the promise there in verse one. As we go into verses two through four, we see the promise fulfilled. Look with me at verses two and three as we begin. Now, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them. up on a high mountain apart by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them." So, in a rare instance here, in Mark, we have a chronological description. Often, Mark is not as chronological as this, especially in the way that he words it. after six days, so within six days of Jesus saying his promise in Mark 9.1, we have these events that happen. And so, Peter, James, and John, again, the sum likely, and I think definitely referring to the Peter, James, and John, the sum that Jesus referred to in verse one. Let's think about these three men for a moment. Why these three men? We've talked about this a little bit earlier in Mark. When Jesus healed Jairus' daughter, who did he take with him into the room to heal her? Peter, James, and John. The inner circle, if you will, of Jesus' discipleship ministry. Jesus had a multi-level ministry while he walked on earth. He had the crowds, and then he had the 12, and then he had the three. And he really worked with these three men specifically to have this very close relationship. He was close with all 12 men, but especially with Peter, James, and John. And the question comes up, well, why these three? Well, I believe that there's probably many, Many answers to that, but I believe one of the most important ones is that Jesus was preparing these three men for leadership roles that they would take later as the church age and the church itself is established. When you read through the book of Acts, you see these three men prominent throughout that history that Luke gives us. Even Paul recognized this as he gives the history in Galatians 2.9, and when James, Cephas, who is Peter, and John, who seemed to be pillars He's calling them pillars, they were leaders, they were those found fundamentally stable leadership within the early church that people looked to for leadership. And he goes on to talk about how they gave he and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship that they would go to the Gentiles and Peter, James, and John ministering specifically to the Jewish people. And so this experience of seeing Jesus transfigured was part of that training program. that Jesus was working with these men and that process to take men and make pillars out of them. And Jesus is still, God is still doing that today, taking men and working with them through the process of his word, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, which these men did not have at this time, but working in our lives to take us, and women by the way, and make pillars, make leaders out of us. God is a God about leadership. He created leadership, and he discipled it, and he trains it, and he wants to see leaders rising up within the church body, not just those that are pastors and deacons, but Leadership throughout the body is important to him, and so we see there's a little application for us to consider what is God calling you to do in a leadership role. It might just be one-on-one with another person, or it might be something that involves a smaller group or a larger group. But what is God calling us to do as leaders? As we move forward, looking back at our text here, notice that he was transfigured before them. Transfigured. So we look at that word in the original metamorpho to change the external form. to change one's form. In other words, to be transfigured. So Jesus is God in the flesh. He was incarnate. He was God. He still is God. He was God at this time. He still is. and he came to earth, took on a human body so that he was both fully man and fully God. I think that's one of the closest ways to describe this truth about Jesus' nature. Sometimes we say 100%, 100%, well then you have 200%, which doesn't make sense. I like fully because it, I believe, captures what he was, fully God and fully man at the same time. And this transfiguration was a display of Jesus' divine being and all of his glory shining out from his human body. And so when we take this word and this understanding in context, With the statement that Jesus made in verse one, we understand that Jesus represents the kingdom of God, present with power. If that's what he said they were going to see, and it's him transfigured, that means Jesus represents and embodies the kingdom of God, present with power. It says that his clothes became exceedingly white like snow. The shining appearance of Jesus, it's a reminder to us of the face of Moses. Remember, he went up on a mountain, and he spent time with God. And when he came back down, Exodus 34, 29 says, now it was so when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from, the mountain that Moses did not know, that the skin of his face shone while he talked with them. He didn't even realize it, and they were just blinded by this light, and eventually he had to put a veil over it so that they could talk with him without being blinded. And so we see some touchstone, if you will, visualizations of what God has done in the past here in the person of Jesus Christ. Matthew. adds this description in the parallel passage in Matthew 17.2, he was transfigured before them. Notice, his face shone like the sun. His clothes became as white as light. We go back to Mark's description in verse three. Notice the interesting comparison. Only Mark has this comparison, that his clothes became exceedingly white like snow, such as no launderer on earth could whiten them. And so this idea of that, in other words, there's no bleach, there's no cleaner, there's no process. by which clothes can be made as dazzlingly brilliant as Jesus was at this moment. This was a supernatural light, if you will. Only God can be that brilliant. It was a heavenly experience. And likely, again, going back to the Old Testament, do you remember the glory of God, the Shekinah glory would come down and would fill the tabernacle? And it filled the temple when Solomon dedicated the temple. And no one can enter because of the glory and the shining brilliance of God. Mark goes on to describe what else was going on here as Jesus was transfigured. Verse number four, and Elijah appeared to them with Moses and they were talking with Jesus. Notice that Only in Mark's account is Elijah mentioned first. You would think Moses would be, as he chronologically in the timeline, the history of Israel, Moses came first, then Elijah, but Elijah is named, likely because of the discussion that we're gonna see, Lord willing, towards the end, that revolves around Elijah, as the disciples ask Jesus about this. Many look at these men, the appearance of these two specific men, because they represent the law and the prophets, both of which bear witness to Christ. The law bears witness to him, the prophets certainly do. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 10.4 says, for Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone who believes. Jesus was the only man that lived on earth that ever fulfilled the law in its perfection. And so he became the righteous sacrifice for our sins. In Deuteronomy 18.15, Moses is giving his last sermon, if you will, to the Israelites before they go into the Promised Land, and he tells them that "'The Lord your God will raise up for you "'a prophet like me from your midst, "'from your brethren, him you shall hear.'" And of course, we believe he was speaking of Christ when he made this prophecy that Christ would come, and he was the one that they were supposed to listen to. And so Jesus fulfilled the law and is the final prophet of God. He fulfilled both. Let's go over to Luke chapter nine. We're in Mark nine. Would you turn with me back to Luke, actually forward, to Luke chapter nine and looking at verse 28. Luke 9, 28. I'm just gonna read a few verses here to give us a parallel view of this. And of course, we see this in the Gospels especially the three synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John does not mention the transfiguration. These three do. And as we read them, we get different details, if you will, to help us flesh out and create the picture, if you will, of what happened. So Luke 9, 28, now it came to pass about eight days after these sayings. Okay, there's a little difference there. Six days, eight days. Mark may have meant six full days. Luke is maybe talking about there was a half day at each end or something that created the eight days. But in any case, he took Peter, John, and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. Notice that prayer is mentioned here, unlike in Mark. Verse 29, and as he prayed, the appearance of his face was altered, and his robe became white and glistening. And behold, two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory, and spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. So notice that Luke gives us the purpose for which they went up on the mountain. Obviously Jesus had the transfiguration in mind. He had just predicted that that would happen. But there was another purpose, and perhaps this is what he called the disciples to come and do. He wasn't probably didn't tell them, hey, you're gonna see me transfigured. I think he probably told them, we're gonna go up and pray, and told the other disciples to remain down at the bottom of the mountain. And so it's in prayer that this happens. In fact, if you read through Luke's gospel, you'll see prayer mentioned quite often. It's one of his main themes, and this is one of the examples. Luke also tells us, what the conversation was about. Mark in his brevity often doesn't give us these details. Luke tells us that they were discussing Jesus, he calls it in verse 31, his deceased, Jesus impending death at Jerusalem. That's what they were talking about, about the cross. Now everything is pointing toward that. So why, again, why would Elijah and Moses be discussing the cross with Jesus? Why would that be? Of all the things, theologically, that they could talk about there on the mountain, why the cross? Well, the cross is the central theme of Scripture. It's the central theme of heaven, the central theme of history. World history goes forward from the creation of the world to the cross and then continues after. It's the pivot, it's the centerpiece, if you will, of God's history of the universe. Everything before it looks forward to the cross. Everything after looks back to the cross. Even at the end, as John is having his vision Up in heaven, Revelation 5, 6, notice the description of Christ. And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been, what? Slain. Again, the cross, the prominent theme here. having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, slain for us. So the cross, of course they were talking about the cross. What else would they be discussing? Of course, we could theorize on that, but what's the most prominent, what's the most important truth and event that's yet to happen at this point in time? It was the cross. And they're discussing this. Well, the disciples don't always respond to things the way that they should, especially our friend Peter, who many of us can identify with, as he often speaks before thinking. So we have Peter's folly here, and let's go back to our text here in Mark 9. Look with me at verse number five. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here, and let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah, verse six, notice, because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid. Well, if you don't know what to say, what should you probably do? Nothing, right, not speak. But Peter and his excitement, and we're gonna explain a little bit more of maybe some of this, and I think we can really closely identify with him without picking on him too much. I think Peter's folly began with the term rabbi. Which means what? Teacher. He calls him teacher. It's probably not the most appropriate title when your teacher is transfigured before you. Jesus is shining in his heavenly glory was so much more than a mere rabbi. He was God's glory was shining on them. The very son of man he had just prophesied would come in the clouds of glory one day was now standing before them He's so much more than a rabbi. Remember, Luke, when we read that account, told us that the disciples had been asleep. So imagine, if you will, waking up to the scene we've just described. Waking up sometimes for some of us is hard enough just with the alarm clock buzzing. But imagine waking up to this blinding light And Jesus, who had been in his normal everyday clothing and appearance moments before, as they wake up out of their slumber, to see him brilliantly glowing, shining with this indescribable light, it would be difficult to even know what to do. And it certainly would cause fear, I believe, in us. And you can just put yourself in Peter's place. how startled we would be and alarmed at seeing this site. Peter might well have heeded Proverbs 18.13, he who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him. And that's something we all need to consider. But in any case, Peter makes this request to build the tabernacles, and I believe It was born out of the same mindset. Do you remember back at Caesarea Philippi? After proclaiming Jesus as Messiah, Jesus for the first time shares with the disciples that he's going to be betrayed and killed and rise the third day. And what is Peter's response? No, Lord. He rebukes his Lord, pulls him aside and says, you can't do this. That's not how it's supposed to work. Messiah's not supposed to die. You can't kill the Messiah. He's supposed to win. He's supposed to have victory over Rome. And so, as Peter thinks, and in his mind, requesting to build these tabernacles, which is the, likely referring to the Jewish feast of tabernacles, these shelters that they would build to remember the years of wandering. Peter's still focused on the things of men. Remember, Jesus rebuked back to Peter. Get behind me, Satan, for you are not thinking about the things of God, you're thinking about the things of men. Remember, they're talking about Jesus' death on the cross. The same theme is repeated again, right in front of Peter. Wiersbe writes, in suggesting that they all remain on the mountain in the glory, Peter was once again hindering our Lord's plans to go to the cross. Jesus' mission was the cross, it's what he was focused on. And Peter pulls away again from that. He's still in that process of learning, which, by the way, aren't we all still in the process of learning what God wants us to learn? So we're right there with Him, aren't we, at times? And I would say more times than not. We must remember What Mark told us in verse 6, they were greatly what? Afraid. Fear is a very powerful process, a very powerful force, if you will, motivation on our hearts and minds. And how often do we react to certain things out of fear and confusion, questioning God's plans, trying to promote our own agendas when God has clearly given us a path to follow? It's so easy to speak out of turn when life takes an unexpected turn. And so I can certainly identify with Peter here. I'm so thankful for God's mercy and his grace. I came upon this verse recently and it just hits home in this passage as we're gonna hear the Father speak in a moment. Psalm 103, 13 and 14, as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. He knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. Did the Lord strike Peter down with a bolt of lightning or something, or a fire from heaven, because he did this? No. He's going to rebuke him, but he remembers, just like he does with us, that our frames are dust. We're frail beings, especially in situations like this. God knows our weaknesses. I'm so glad he knows my weaknesses. And he gives grace and mercy as high as the heavens are above the earth. Later in that psalm, it talks about as high as the heavens above the earth and at the distance from east to west, which is another way of saying infinity. And so the father displayed that mercy to Peter as we go into the next part of the outline, the proclaiming father. So Peter has made this statement, and really I think as Peter is saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. Interrupting and silencing Peter, telling him to listen to Christ. The presence of the cloud reminds us of the cloud present on Sinai when Moses met with God, Exodus 24, 15, and 16. Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. Now the glory of the Lord rests on the mountain, Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days, and on the seventh day, He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Peter, James, and John are being called by God out of the cloud with this command to hear Christ. In other words, stop talking and listen. Be quiet and listen to Jesus. If you remember, this is not the first time the Father has spoken from the cloud. at Jesus' baptism, which was the inauguration of his earthly ministry. We studied that early back in Mark chapter one. We hear the Father here once again confirming the identity and the mission of the Son. He states and declares Jesus' identity and how we are to respond to him. It's as if the Father is re-inaugurating him for these men, reminding them who he really is, as if the transfiguration itself did not point them in that direction. The Father is once again inaugurating Christ, declaring who He is, and I believe this time into the next phase, really, of His work on earth, which is as He begins to move toward the cross in an even more direct way. As we go through Mark, we'll see that. Remember what John wrote? about Jesus' identity and calling Him the Word. John 1, 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. As the incarnate Word of God, Jesus is the one who must be heard in order to understand God. This is my beloved Son, hear Him. He is the Word of God, hear Him. Remember also, the disciples are struggling in this area, this time in their life, to understand that Jesus had to be killed. We just mentioned that Peter had rebuked him. So now up on the mountain, this event, among, I think, probably other things, but it's certainly one purpose was a confirmation to validate everything that Jesus had already predicted, even within the last week of time. Even though it sounded totally strange and totally wrong to these men, the father was validating the son's prediction about his death. This is my beloved son, hear him. It was a visual and audible revelation for the men to understand that God's plan must include the cross. The father is saying, this is my plan. I am validating what my son is saying when he says that he must go to Jerusalem and be killed. Oh, how we need to listen to the word. How we need to listen to the written word of God that we have in front of us. And sometimes just to be silent and listen as God speaks to us. Verse eight, suddenly, when they looked around, they saw no one anymore but only Jesus with themselves. All the shining light is gone. The cloud is gone. Elijah and Moses are gone. And it's just them. In an instant, this happened. All the shining light, the prophets, the cloud, the voice, all gone. There stood Jesus as they had always known him. But now I believe something was very different for them. You cannot go through an experience like this and not come out of it unchanged. They had gotten a glimpse of the Son of God in his true glory, and no one ever comes away from that experience without being changed in some way. So he had given them, he gives them this prohibition here in Mark 9, verses 9 and 10. Now, as they came down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen till the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept this word to themselves, they followed the prohibition, but they're, notice, questioning what the rising from the dead meant. What does this mean? What is he talking about? So remember, Jesus was focused on his mission, which was going to the cross. He was wanting this event on the mountain kept just within the three. He didn't want the other disciples knowing. They weren't ready for them. Remember, Jesus can see the heart of the other men. They weren't ready to have this. For whatever reason, saw the hearts of Peter, James, and John as he had been developing them in his leadership training program, and for whatever reason, saw that they were ready to have this information, but the other nine were not. It may have caused confusion with the other men. It may have caused the mission to become more difficult on a human level, or caused them to struggle in their faith. For whatever reason, He wants it kept to these three men. But notice that they question what the rising of the dead meant, which I believe shows us that spiritual blindness is still a factor in their lives. Remember, we've had really a repetitive theme of spiritual blindness through these last few lessons in Mark. They were questioning the idea of Jesus' statement about his resurrection. The concept of rising from the dead was not as well understood in Old Testament times, but had become a much more common part of Jewish theology by this time. There was an understanding within the Jewish community about resurrection. Twice in other Markan passages, resurrection is mentioned as though it's without question. Do you remember when Jesus comes on the scene after John the Baptist's death? Herod makes this statement. Now King Herod heard of him, for his name had become well known. And he said, John the Baptist is risen from the dead, therefore those powers are at work in him. And so it's not necessarily something that was misunderstood, it was something that was understood. Later we'll get to Mark 12, 25. Jesus is responding to the Sadducees, whose one of their main beliefs is that there is no resurrection, there is no angels, there is no spirit world. That's what the Sadducees believed. And so they try to trap Jesus in a question about the resurrection, and Jesus says, for when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. You see, the Pharisees did believe in the resurrection. That was one of their distinguishing traits, if you will, or belief systems that differed them from the Sadducees. So I don't believe it was that they didn't understand the concept of resurrection. If they had sat under the Pharisees' teaching, in all likelihood they had in the synagogues, they understood resurrection. It was more so that these three men were still suffering from spiritual blindness. at least to some degree, that kept them from understanding that their Messiah would be raised from the dead. Which meant, if you're raised from the dead, what has to happen first? You have to die. And I think that's where their hangup maybe was. Going back to our text in verse nine. In order to truly understand Jesus Christ, one must view him through the lens of the cross and the empty tomb. We must understand those things and view Jesus through those lenses to understand his identity Everything about Jesus revolves around those two key concepts, the cross and the empty tomb. Is there more to Jesus than that? Absolutely. There's a whole theology, Christology, one of the 12 systematic theologies that involves Jesus, and it is lengthy and in-depth, and there's so much to learn about Jesus, but we must understand those two things. If you take away the cross and you take away the tomb from Christ, what are you left with? What kind of Jesus are we worshiping? What kind of Jesus are we trusting in if there's no cross and there's no empty tomb? Not the Jesus of the Bible, not the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the Lamb of God. Only the cross and the empty tomb answer this question, why does Jesus matter? We can say a lot of things that, well, he was a good teacher, is that all he was? He was a healer, is that all he was? Then he just, he's one in a long line of many others. What sets him apart? Why does Jesus of Nazareth matter? Because of the cross and the empty tomb. Obviously, much more could be said about Christ. But those are the two, I believe, key concepts. And I think that's what they were struggling with. And sometimes that's what people struggle with today. Last point on our outline. prophets foretold and forgotten. It's supposed to be, I think, a five, not a six, if you're taking notes. Prophets foretold and forgotten, Mark 9, 11 through 13. And they asked him, saying, why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? Then he answered and told them, indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things And how is it written concerning the Son of Man that he must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I say to you that Elijah has also come and they did to him whatever they wished as it is written of him. So Jesus makes a lot of really interesting statements here. Much more time could be spent than we will today. Notice that Jesus describes two Elijahs to them. What's interesting to me is that both Elijah and Moses were recognized by the three disciples on the mountain. I believe that's because they were listening in on the conversation and heard Jesus address them as Elijah and Moses, in the Hebrew tongue probably. Could have been Elijah wore his camel skins and leather belt. I don't know if he still wears those in his glorified, you know, his spirit. Maybe God allowed their appearance to shine. Maybe Moses was holding the tablets. I don't know. But in any case, the men knew who they were, and I think that triggered them to ask Jesus this question. They were considering the eschatological implications of what they had seen, wondering, was this the return of Elijah? Back in Malachi 4-5, it says, Behold, I will send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. They probably knew this verse. I think they did know these passages and knew that Elijah must come and were probably wondering, was what we just saw the Elijah of Malachi 4-5? So the first Elijah that Jesus spoke of is the one that will come immediately before the day of the Lord, which, by the way, is still future. Even today, it's still a future event. The second Elijah that Jesus spoke of was John the Baptist. Like Elijah the Tishbite, the original Elijah, John had come as a prophet, this firebrand out of the desert dressed as his predecessor, camel skins and leather belt, boldly prophesying God's truth to God's people. Now notice how Jesus ended his answer, that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they wished as it is written of him. Remember our theme. I think at least a sub-theme throughout these passages is spiritual blindness. I believe the spiritual blindness of the scribes, remember they said back earlier in verse 11, why do the scribes say, Mark 9, 11, why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? Jesus is pointing out something here. The scribes were teaching their students, Elijah's coming, watch out for him, but John the Baptist had already come. That version, if you will, that form of Elijah had already come and had passed off the scene because John had been beheaded by Herod at this time, and the scribes and the Pharisees had rejected him. The very men teaching the people to watch for Elijah had missed it because of their spiritual blindness. Had they been focused, had they been paying attention spiritually speaking, they would have seen that. Jesus said, as it is written of him. All they had to do was open the scrolls and read and then look with their physical eyes and see John the Baptist and understand the connection between him and the scrolls. John even told them who he was. I am the one who it is written about, the one that is going to make the way of the Lord smooth and straight, to prepare the way of the Lord. I am the voice crying in the wilderness. He told them who he was, but they still didn't see it. Why? Because of their spiritual blindness. As we conclude this morning, some things to consider. First of all, We've said this already, but spiritual blindness is a key theme in Mark, especially the last several passages that we've looked at. And we see it illustrated by different groups. The disciples were spiritually blind. Often their thoughts are spoken out loud by Peter, he kind of spearheads things, but they were spiritually blind to Jesus' identity. They couldn't understand the idea of Messiah dying so that he could be raised from the dead. The scribes were spiritually blind to both Jesus and John the Baptist's identity. They totally missed it because of their spiritual blindness. So as we conclude this morning, as we think about this concept of spiritual blindness, it should cause us to ask ourselves what are we spiritually blind to at this moment? What are we missing? And really, that should be our prayer. That should be one of the foundations of our prayer life. Lord, what am I missing? What spiritual truth are you trying to teach me right now that I'm not seeing? What spiritual blindness are you trying to heal in my heart so that I can be in a better place to understand your word in a better way. What's my spiritual blindness? What spiritual blindness am I suffering from? And again, as it is written, we have it written right here. We have it in front of us. So we've talked several times about biblical literacy and understanding. what the Bible says and understanding what it means by what it says. We could say biblical illiteracy and spiritual blindness, one and the same, one and the same. And so I believe that's our intended application here is, are we spiritually blind? And are we asking God, are we humbly coming before him and saying, Lord, what am I missing? because we all have room and some capacity to grow spiritually. We all have something else that we have not fully understood or fully learned yet. So are we humble before him and asking him, instead of arguing like Peter, sometimes we do that. I don't know if you find yourself ever arguing with the Bible when it tells you something, it's like uncomfortable. It's like, oh, I don't really like that, Lord. But are we willing to humble ourselves and understand that God has more and more and more to teach us? There's always more to learn when it comes to the Bible, lest we fall into spiritual blindness. That's our challenge for today. I hope it sinks in and kind of permeates in your mind over the week like it has done to me. So you can kind of join me in that agony of understanding that there's more to learn. It's really not agony. I say that tongue-in-cheek. It's actually a wonderful thing. that we have the privilege, right, to have the Holy Spirit in us and the Word of God in front of us to understand what He has for us. So let's take off our spiritual blinders, ask God actually to do that, and focus on what God has for us to learn. Thank you, Lord, so much for this day. Thank you for your word. Lord, there is something, there are things, I should say things, plural, that each one of us needs to learn or relearn. Sometimes we forget some things, Lord. We're forgetful. Lord, you, as we saw in Psalm 103, you know our frames. We're just dust, Lord. We're made out of dust. And even the greatest mind, humanly speaking, is still made out of dust. And so, Lord, we struggle at times to understand your spiritual truths. Lord, we often are spiritually blind to what you have for us to learn. Help us to humble ourselves, Lord, and just come before you. Let us come before you humbly asking you to show us, to open our eyes, Lord, to help us to be spiritually sighted people so that we can grow closer to you and love others better. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you guys for being here. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms. Have a great day.