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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.
The Gospel of Mark Part 42
Series The Gospel of Mark
Theme: The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. Jesus reveals His glory to Peter, James, and John as a precursor to His kingdom.
| Sermon ID | 5212416545752 |
| Duration | 48:26 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Bible Text | Mark 9:1-13 |
| Language | English |
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