Meditations From The Holy Mountain | Mark 9:9-13 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series)

Mark 99 reads, and as they were coming down the mountain, he

charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of

Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to

themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might

mean. And they asked him, Why do the

scribes say that first Elijah must come?

And he said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all

things. And how is it written of the Son

of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with

contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has

come, and they did to him whatever they pleased.

As it is written of Him, Lord, we sincerely ask for the

assistance of the precious Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds

concerning this portion of Holy Scripture.

We asked, Lord, that there would be a grace upon the transmission

of this Word, and that Lord, it would be done with your great

power and wisdom, and that, Lord, our hearts would be made

ready. And we know, Lord, that there is

the evil One who is ready to snatch away the seed of the Word

from our hearts. We know that he is conniving and

clever, and that he even now will seek to try to rob us of

this truth. And so we pray for divine

protection. We pray that you would silence

him, and that you would cancel any assignment against us in

this meeting. For those who are prone to

distraction, would you give us a grace?

For those who are anxious in heart and disturbed in their

souls, would you speak peace to them so that they may hear you?

Lord, we trust you that this word is spirit in life and that

we would be transformed through it.

In the name of the living Christ, we pray.

Amen. Amen.

We've seen this before, haven't we?

We've seen the Lord Jesus on different occasions ask of those

who are recipients of his miraculous power to remain

silent about the matter. And unfortunately, in many of

those occasions they did not take heed.

And now the Lord Jesus Christ looks to his inner circle and he

asked them the same, to keep what they have witnessed to

themselves. And I can just imagine the

temptation that these three felt when they saw what they saw.

That spectacular sight of the glory of Jesus Christ, the

appearance of Elijah and Moses, the visitation of God's glory

through a cloud, the voice of the Heavenly Father himself

speaking directly to them. You can imagine what grace was

needed to keep them from going to the mountaintops and

declaring to the masses what they have seen with their own

eyes and what they have heard with their own ears.

Regardless, regardless of the privilege, regardless of the

splendor, regardless of the opportunity that they had

received, the charge of the Lord Jesus Christ was clear.

Do not say anything about what you have seen.

And with that, the Lord does not give a reason.

He doesn't explain why they should keep this to themselves.

He doesn't elaborate. He doesn't try to satisfy

perhaps their curiosity with such a strange instruction.

He simply tells them what to do. And it reminds me how often that

when we are in a certain circumstance or situation and we

understand God's wisdom or will for that particular situation,

How it doesn't necessarily satisfy our reasonings in that

very moment. How?

When we are faced with something, we believe at times

that it's our way, our wisdom, our understanding that should

prevail even at the expense of Christ's word.

And there are times where you will have an opportunity to

either obey or disobey, to trust and not to trust.

And in those moments, would you do what these disciples are

about to do? And that's simply believe what

Christ has to say, even though you don't understand it.

To simply continue on the path of obedience, even though you

are being tempted in one way or another, stay on the path of

obedience. Stay on the path of trusting

Him. The answer will come.

You can never go wrong in trusting the Lord.

You can never go wrong and believing His word, even though

it may seem to contradict human wisdom.

We often think what we know is better for ourselves.

We often, even sometimes think what we think is better for

Christ. What?

I'm trying to help you out here. What?

I'm trying to promote you here. What?

I'm trying to give you a better image here.

He doesn't need our help. He wants your obedience and

mine. And So what will these disciples

do? Will they follow in the pattern

of so many who've been told to remain silent and instead went

on to declare what they were told to keep to themselves?

Oh, you might be surprised because the disciples have

disappointed us on many occasions, but not here.

What do we read in verse 10? So they kept the matter to

themselves. They did it.

They actually obeyed. They actually trusted.

And they might have not known why, but we know why.

We know why the Lord told the disciples.

I know it was amazing. I know it was glorious.

But keep it to yourselves. Do you know why?

Because these, the disciples who had witnessed the glory of the

Messiah were also the disciples who were not ready to accept the

suffering of the Messiah. And until they were ready to

accept the suffering, the death, and the resurrection of the

Messiah, they had no right to declare who the Messiah is and

what He would do. How do we know that?

Look at the rest of verse 10, questioning what this rising

from the dead might mean. So they still didn't get it.

They still didn't understand and the Lord knew this about his

own, so he told his own just don't say anything.

And he doesn't need to explain because he is the all knowing

one. But the command was not simply

for them to keep this to themselves, because it was not

the will of Jesus Christ for this to be privatized forever.

No. There was a time where they

could make it known. And this is what the Holy Spirit

says in verse 9 says here. He charged them to tell no one

what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

You will share what you have witnessed at a particular point.

When I conquer the grave, when I overcome, when I rise, then you

can declare what you have witnessed on this holy mountain.

So this command is really twofold.

Don't say anything, but there's a time where you can and you

will say this. Did the disciples obey the

latter portion? Yes.

Do you know how we know? Through the writings of Peter.

Turn your bibles with me. The Second Peter chapter One.

Look at second Peter, chapter one, verse 16.

Did Peter write this long after Jesus rose from the dead?

Yes, he did. And look what he wrote.

Second Peter 116 reads For we did not follow cleverly devised

myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord

Jesus Christ. Pause.

He's assuring the readers of his epistle, hey, the the teachings

that you heard from us concerning the return of Jesus

Christ, the triumphant return of the Lord who will judge everyone

and establish His Kingdom. That is not source from myths.

This is not man made, and he gives his apologetic to why He

gives his reason why. But we were eyewitnesses of His

Majesty. We were eyewitnesses of His

Majesty. At what point he tells us of

verse 17. For when he received honor and

glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the

majestic glory. This is my beloved Son with whom

I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very

voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy

Mountain. Remember what Jesus said in Mark

9/1. He had promised some of his

disciples, Well, all of them. But he assured that some of them

would not taste death until a selected few would witness the

coming of the Kingdom of God in power.

You remember that right? And we agreed that that prophecy

that Jesus made was fulfilled on the mouth of Transfiguration.

It doesn't teach that the Kingdom of God has already come

in power. Usually people believe that

happened at 70AD. Nor does it convey that some of

the disciples are yet still alive because the King of God

has not yet come with power. No, we know that what happened

on that mountain fulfilled that promise, and Peter confirms that

again. He's saying We taught you about

the second coming of Christ when He will come in power and glory.

And do you know how this is true?

We were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.

In other words, Peter is saying that we saw a glimpse of the

Kingdom of God coming in power. We received a sample of it.

This is why this is important. If Peter believed that what he

saw, Jesus unveiling his glory fulfilled the promise he made

that some of you will not die until you see it, then why are

we hesitant to believe it ourselves?

Why are we going here and there with different teachings about

end times when Peter himself here and Second Peter says no,

no, no, we were eyewitnesses of that same glory, that majesty.

And there's so much else to say here.

But did you notice how Peter refers to the location of that

experience? Look at verse 18 again.

We ourselves heard from this very voice born from heaven, for

we were with them on the holy mountain.

Can I ask you something? Was there anything intrinsically

holy about that mountain? This, this mountain is is not

even named to us. There's debate about which

mountaintop Jesus transfigured on, so we don't even have the

exact geographical location. But was there anything about

that mountain that was inherently sacred?

No. Did Jesus choose a specific

summit that would be appropriate to host that demonstration of

his beauty and glory? No.

It wasn't that Jesus took the disciples to a holy mountain.

It was that Jesus in his glory made that mountain holy.

It was where he was and what he did on that mountain that

sanctified it. In a sense that made it

something special. And when I thought about how

Peter says this mountain was holy because of the Holy One who

was there at that time and did something spectacular and

majestic. I think about you and I.

Is there anything inherently holy about you or me?

We can all say no, far from it. In fact, the Bible tells us we

are the very opposite of that which is holy.

But because Christ shown in our hearts, because He has given us

the gift of the ceiling of the Holy Spirit, you and I now are

holy. We are sanctified.

We are consecrated. We are different, not because of

you, but because of what He's done in you, because of what you

do, but because of how you and I identify with Him and how He has

identified with us. You and I before Christ were far

from holy. Not just ordinary, no, no.

We were evil, wicked, depraved, ugly, in light of the holiness

of Christ, but because of Christ, just like that mountain

was just an ordinary mountain. Now you and I are no longer

ordinary people, a royal priesthood royalty, not because

of you, not because of me, but because of the glory of Jesus

Christ in here. And we see here that Jesus made

this mountain glorious and holy. And we've been told by the

prophets that there is a time coming when the glory of the

Lord will cover the earth as the seas cover the earth.

There's a time coming where Jesus will descend in his glory.

And in descending in his glory and planting his feet again on

this earth, the whole earth will be exposed to the aroma of the

holiness of Jesus. So it's not just going to be a

mountain, but every mountain, every valley, every city, every

village, every institution, every Education Center, every

home, every corner will be exposed and saturated with the

holiness of Jesus Christ. You don't believe me?

You think that's exaggeration? When you get the chance, look at

how the book of Zachariah ends in chapter 14, and there's an

interesting prophecy that we would kind of look over.

We are told in Zechariah 1421 that when the Lord Jesus comes

in his glory, you know what's going to happen?

Every pot, every pot will be made holy unto the Lord.

Every furnishing, every instrument for cooking will be

sanctified. What is that saying?

Even the mundane, even the ordinary will know something

about the holiness of Jesus Christ.

That's what's going to happen when he comes.

So we're in this atmosphere here now, as the people of God, and

we should sense something sacred and holy, not because of the

building, not because of images, but because we are the church.

But Can you imagine during the millennial reign where you go

down to a specific area and probably you've driven through

those areas and you have to go there and you feel evil, You

feel darkness, you feel perversion.

That's not going to happen. When he comes.

Even the horses were told in Zechari that will have bells.

The bells will be inscribed with holiness unto the Lord.

Vehicles, pots and pans, furniture, it's all going to be

known and consecrated unto him. I can't wait for that day.

Now, while we're here in Second Peter, allow me to expand on

something. Look what he says here in verse

19, and we have the prophetic word.

This is in light of what he just said.

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which

you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining

in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises

in your hearts. Look and focus with me on the

1st phrase here, and we have the prophetic word more fully

confirmed. This is a challenging verse

because it's interpreted generally in one or two ways.

One common interpretation is that Peter is pointing us to a

source after just explaining what he had witnessed with his

eyes, what he had heard with his ears.

Now he's going on to say that there is a source more reliable

than our experience. There is something that's more

profound than an eyewitness account concerning the return of

Jesus Christ on that mountain, and that is the prophetic word

that is the scriptures he's saying.

So after explaining what he had seen and calling him to trust in

that as an apostle, he's now going on to say, listen, despite

what we've seen, the word of God can be more trusted.

The word of God is something that you can rely on much more

than what somebody says they have witnessed, even what you

have experienced. The word of God is greater than

your experience. This is how some people

interpret this passage. And that's a powerful truth.

It it's a it's a strong case to make concerning the word of God

and its reliability. But there's a second

interpretation concerning this and it's not so much Peter

saying despite our experience, there's something more reliable.

What he's saying here is we have the prophetic word more fully

confirmed. In other words, what we saw on

that holy mountain. What we heard on that mountain

confirms what the ancient prophets had said about the

truth of the second coming of Jesus Christ.

In other words, in those Hebrew writings that pointed to this

Messiah coming in glory and power and might, what we

witnessed confirms that this will indeed come to pass because

Jesus gave us a glimpse, because Jesus trusted us with the

experience to only compound and to say for certain it's going to

happen, the Lord Jesus is coming again, and so you can see how

both are really good. Which one do I choose, right?

Which one do I go with? And I'm under the persuasion

that whichever interpretation you go with, the point is still

the same down deep inside. It's true that the Word of God

can be firmly, unquestionably trusted.

It has made specific predictions that have come to pass, and it

will, and it has fulfilled many of those predictions, and it is

also filled with eyewitness accounts through and through

reliable sources. Therefore, you can believe God.

You can trust God for your tomorrow, what he says about

tomorrow, despite your experience, despite what you've

seen or heard or touched, because through and through in

the Word we can rehearse and we can believe God said it.

God fulfilled things already, therefore He will not change.

We can expect that what's to come will come because he is to

be trusted. So Peter's saying here, look

what we what we saw in Mark Chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

This confirms what the word of God says You.

You can believe the word of God even more now.

You should believe it at least. Now let's come back to Mark

Mark 9 · chapter mention

Chapter 9, shall we? I want to touch on something

that we didn't touch on last time, verse 9 says.

And as they were coming down the mountain, who are the day three

individuals? Peter.

James. John Jesus selected these three

to come with him to this mountaintop.

But Jesus did not select these three only at this time.

He actually, in the Gospels, did it three times.

He selected these three out of the 12 for three separate

experiences where they were exclusively invited to something

that the others were not. There is one experience before

the mouth of Transfiguration, and there's one after it.

Most of us know the one after in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Or Jesus called the three to come to him, and he sought their

prayers and he sought their support as he wrestled in that

garden. And the one former, the one

before. This is when Jesus brought these

three to witness the resurrection of Gyrus's daughter

in Mark chapter 5. And people tend to wonder, why

Mark 5 · chapter mention

did the Lord choose Peter, James, and John?

Why did he select these three? Did he love them more?

Did he trust them more? And the Bible doesn't say, so we

have to be very careful to assume why.

But I was thinking about this because you can't ignore it,

right? He took them there in Mark five.

He takes him here in Mark 9. He'll take him later at the end

of this gospel account. And it's not so much the why,

the why of these selecting to me, it's the how the Lord, even

in selecting these three, handled them separately and

individually. And this is going to go

somewhere because it shouldn't encourage us as individual

believers. And I wanted to encourage you

because oftentimes believers are convinced concerning the Lord's

affection for them based on what they see the Lord doing in their

lives and what He's not doing in their lives and what He's doing

in other people's lives. And you have you have believers

who are discouraged, thinking that the Lord loves them less,

cares for them less than the next person.

But I see Jesus here at in choosing these three, He's

choosing them to train them, obviously, for something

specific. But even in this three will you

have? More importantly, is the Lord

handling the lives and the futures of individuals

altogether? Let me prove it to you.

So these three, they saw the same thing.

They were invited to the same thing.

Who was the first apostle martyr?

Not the first Christian martyr. The first martyr as an apostle

it was James James, the brother of John.

Acts chapter 12. Historically, who was the last

Acts 12 · chapter mention

one? John, the brother of James.

So James the brother John is the first impossible to to be

killed. Historically speaking, many

believe that it was John the brother of James who was the

last one to be killed among the apostles.

And even in Acts Chapter 12, you have James and Peter.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

So now we have James and Peter, the same James and Peter who got

to see these things. And we're invited to these

experiences and they experience the same persecution, the same

trial by the same power, the evil power of Herod.

OK, so if James and Peter, they saw Gyrus's daughter, right from

that they were invited to see the Transfiguration.

They were there with Jesus in the garden, and here they are

now. They were both in the same

chapter, arrested by Herod. Surely they're going to have the

same outcome. Surely they're going to

experience the same deliverance That true?

No, The Lord sent an Angel for Peter.

No Angel came for James. James was killed.

Peter was saved and to the misguided uninformed. 1 might

think, well, maybe the Lord favors Peter more than James.

No? What about what about Peter and

John and John? 21 Jesus tells Peter, follow me.

And before that he prophesied to Peter the kind of death he would

die in glorifying Christ. And Peter starts to follow.

And Peter does what most of us do.

I mean, this is fascinating to me.

Peter backslides. Jesus restores him.

He says follow me. And right after he says follow

me. And Peter does it.

You know what he does? He looks at John.

I mean, you just started to follow him again, and you

already took your eyes off of him.

He looks at John, and he says, Lord, what about this man?

What about this man? So Peter's concerned.

Yeah. You told me how I'm going to

die. What about him?

I want to know about his future. And Jesus says, hey, listen, if

it's up to me that he remains until I come, what's that to

you? Translation, Peter.

I love you. Mind your business.

You follow me, you follow me. And so even with this inner

three, I don't want to get caught up with the fact that

there's this inner three. I want to get caught up with the

fact that even with this inner 3, Jesus is treating them

uniquely. And Jesus equally loves them.

And he has a plan for each of them.

He has a future for each of them.

He has a call for each of them. Tailor made.

Don't think anything less for your life.

He loves you. Not just the church.

You. Yes, you.

Well, I don't have the same opportunities as this guy and I

don't see as much fruit as that person.

And I'm not as known as that individual and I don't have the

gifts like that person and and I'm suffering more here than

that in that person. So no, no, no, no, no, no.

You have to understand. He loves you and he cares for

you and he's leading you perfectly, perfectly.

Don't compare your life to the next person is just keep your

eyes on Jesus Christ and trust his heart for you.

That's what I take out of these three.

And so we come now and and closing here before we partake

of the Lord's table, verse 11 of Mark Chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

So the disciples now they're wrestling a little bit.

They're wrestling because they're trying to get their

eschatology straight. Eschatology is a fancy word for

the study of the end times, the last things.

OK? And so here are these disciples

who have somewhat of a grasp of the scriptures concerning the

Messiah, who's to come. And now they believe that this

Jesus who has come is the Messiah.

But there's there seems to be some holes in their

understanding. Remember, Peter had trouble

believing that Jesus would suffer.

He rebukes Jesus. Jesus in turn rebukes him.

And Jesus, in wanting to encourage his own, chooses to

manifest his glory, does he not to show them, yes, I will

suffer, you're going to suffer. But that's not where the story

ends. Check it out.

This is what's coming. And so they're they're trying to

understand all of these pieces and they're trying to put it in

a straight line here. They're trying to get a timeline

right. And so the only obstacle right

we read in verse 10 that they're still questioning what this

rising of the dead might mean. They still have don't have a

full understanding of Jesus dying and rising from the grave.

But that's not the only obstacle, because again, these

are Jews who were exposed to teachings from the scribes who

heard the scriptures, who knew of some prophecies.

And so a question comes now, and this is the question in verse

11. And they asked them as they're

walking down the mountain, why did the scribes say that First,

Elijah must come. That seems like a random

question, doesn't it? Well, it's random if you don't

know the Old Testament. Hey, Lord, we heard that before

the Messiah comes, Elijah has to come.

And I wonder if the visitation of Elijah prompted that

question. Right.

They saw Elijah with Moses. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We heard from the scribes. He's supposed to come.

Where do you go? Why do you disappear?

Holy Lord, we're trying to understand this whole thing.

Messiah. We believe you're the Messiah.

There's no doubt about it. You are the Christ.

But where's Elijah? Not the appearance of Elijah.

Where's Elijah, Who has come to restore all things?

You know what Jesus does? Look at Bristov.

And he said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all

things. In other words, Jesus affirms

that their understanding of redemptive timeline in terms of

prophecy is right. Jesus confirms, hey listen, what

the scribe said about Elijah coming.

This is right. You're not wrong in saying this

because what the scribe said in light of Elijah was according to

the word of God. And I want you to see it in

Malachi in the last book of the Old Testament turned there in

Malachi chapter 4. And look at this prophecy that

Malachi 4 · chapter mention

the prophet makes concerning Elijah and its relationship with

the Messiah, Malachi chapter 4 and verse 5.

Malachi 4 · chapter mention

Behold what that means. Hey, pay attention.

Hey, look what I'm about to say. Behold, I, the Lord is speaking,

will send you 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. Elijah is going to come before

the great and awesome day of the Lord.

And when he comes, he's not just going to show up with a flash on

the Mount of Transfiguration, he's going to accomplish

something. What's he going to accomplish?

We're told that he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their

children and the children's hearts to their fathers.

You know what that means? That the ministry of Elijah to

come is going to cause a repentance at a nuclear level.

There's going to be relationships restored within

households, and in turn they will now turn to the Lord.

So we're talking about revival, significant, sweeping awakening.

This is what the Elijah is supposed to do, My preparation

for the great and awesome day of the Lord.

Now this is what Jesus says. He says yeah, you're right.

Describes. They quoted the scriptures

correctly. Elijah will come.

But then look at verse 13. This is where things get a

little tricky of Mark Chapter 9. But I tell you that Elijah has

Mark 9 · chapter mention

come, and they did to him whatever they pleased.

As it is written of him, All this is getting interesting.

Now Elijah will come. OK, hey, check it out.

He already did. He already did.

Well, it can't be what he did on the mountaintop because we're

told that he's going to come and he's going to bring a revival

that will turn people over to the Lord and repentance, and

there's going to be reconciliation among these

people. So it can't be that what we just

saw. When did he come?

What do you mean Elijah has come?

And Mark omits A commentary that Matthew provides.

So Matthew's parallel account of this very same text.

Let's get the confirmation of who this individual is in

Matthew 17, Matthew 17. Let's look at verse 12, Matthew

Matthew 17:12

17, verse 12. This is the Lord speaking again.

But I tell you that Elijah has already come and they did not

recognize him interesting, but did to him whatever they

pleased. So also the Son of Man will

certainly suffer at their hands. Verse 13.

Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of

John the Baptist, and Jesus didn't correct that Elijah will

come. Malachi said he's going to come.

Jesus says he's already come. Matthew tells us it was John the

Baptist. John the Baptist was Elijah

reincarnated descending from heaven after he was taken up on

a chariot of fire. Remember that?

So has he come down. Made you wonder why some of

those disciples came. Those Pharisees rather 2 John

and John, chapter one and say hey, are you Elijah?

You wonder why they asked that. It didn't help that he looked

like Elijah. He wore the same outfit as

Elijah. It's like, hey, we heard of your

description in Kings. You're wearing the same outfit.

We're seeing things very similar.

Are you him to confirm that John the Baptist fulfilled that

prophecy? In Malachi chapter four, we have

the testimony of Jesus Christ who said it's him.

But we have another testimony of an Angel who came to John the

Baptist's father and gave him a prophetic word about what his

son would accomplish. And tell me if it sounds

familiar. There's a lot of scripture

That's OK. We're in church.

Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one.

Let's look at this prophecy together in verse 16 and 17.

This is about John the son of this priest, John the Baptist.

Matthew, excuse me, Luke 116. And he will turn many of the

children of Israel to the Lord, their God, and he will go before

him in the spirit and power of Elijah.

There's the clarification in the Spirit and the power of Elijah

To do what? To turn the hearts of the

fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the

just to make ready for the Lord. A people prepared, not Elijah

reincarnated, not even Elijah himself coming back from where

he left off. This is why when they asked him

and John one Hey, are you Elijah goes?

Nope, because what they were asking is are you flesh and

blood? Elijah is like no, no, that

doesn't mean that he denied that he fulfilled Malachi's prophecy.

Because we're told that the Angel said to the father of John

before he entered into the world that he will be coming in the

spirit and power of Elijah. We can close our Bibles here,

right? OK, John, the Bathus was Elijah.

You're the Messiah. It makes sense.

He fulfilled that prophecy. And so great.

But when you ask the Bible questions, sometimes you're not

immediately satisfied. So here's me coming to this text

and going, OK, he's on the bath, There's no denying it.

He would come in the spirit and power of Elijah.

He would look like Elijah. He would produce the same kind

of results and fruit that Elijah's ministry did in his

preaching. He fulfilled Malachi 4.

Or did he go back to Malachi 4? I will send you Elijah.

OK, He's going to turn the hearts of the children to the

fathers. But there's a timing when this

Elijah is supposed to be coming. Do you remember the timing?

Here's what I says. Verse five of Malachi 4.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the great

and awesome day of the Lord comes.

We're Christians, right? We think that what Jesus did on

the cross was great and awesome, but that's not what the prophet

meant. That phrase, great and awesome

day of the Lord, is a prophetic utterance concerning not the

coming of Christ to say, but the coming of Christ to judge.

Read Joel 2. Read Zachariah.

One that phrase. The great and awesome day of the

Lord is utilized to describe what will happen when the Lord

comes and brings worldwide chastisement and judgment

against the wicked. It's a dreadful day.

It's a terrifying day. It's great and awesome.

Not in the happy, happy feeling in the wow.

The Lord is here to clean up all this mess.

That's the great and awesome day of the Lord.

No question about it. Do you feel the dilemma now?

I will send you Elijah. OK, John the Baptist according

to Jesus says it's according to Jesus John the Baptist.

But did Jesus come to judge the world?

Elijah will precede the great and awesome day of the Lord.

Jesus says Elijah's to come. He's already come.

But Jesus didn't come to judge the world, did he?

No, he didn't. So is John really that Elijah?

If Malachi said he's supposed to come before the great and

awesome data? Do you understand the question?

And perhaps this is the difficulty that the disciples

had. OK, Elijah's to come.

Elijah's coming. The great and awesome day of the

Lord. How does this all fit?

See, they're trying to organize the timeline of prophecy, and

This is why people interpret Jesus's words in the following

way. Maybe you hold to this view.

John the Baptist is that Elijah like fulfillment?

But he's more of a preview, he's more of a partial fulfillment.

Why? Because Malachi says Elijah's

going to come before the great and awesome day of the Lord.

If John the Baptist is Elijah, where's the great and awesome

day of the Lord? And so many would say John

partially fulfills it. But there's going to be the

complete fulfillment before the 2nd coming of Christ where

Elijah will come, and many believe he is one of the two

witnesses in Revelation 11. Understood.

So I'm trying to chop find, chop this so I don't lose anybody.

So many people are content and it's not.

It's not necessarily a bad view. John partially fulfills it.

We're still waiting for the complete fulfillment of the

actual Elijah to come, and he will prepare the great and

awesome day, the Lord through his preaching and ministry.

But Jesus says he is that Elijah.

He is. So how do we make sense of this?

The answer is in Mark nine. Look at verse 11.

Let's read this together. And they asked him, why do the

scribes say that first Elijah must come?

And he said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all

things. Now if you read that and in

verse 13, you're still in a dilemma.

But there's something sandwiched in between those two statements.

Look what he says. Oh, I love the Lord.

And how is it written of the Son of Man that he should suffer

many things and be treated with contempt, right.

What does this mean? So they're asking about

prophecy. Lord, it's prophesied that

Elijah's supposed to come. Where is he?

Jesus. Yeah, he's supposed to come.

You're missing another prophecy, though.

You're concerned about Elijah coming?

And you're right in, you know, believing that he's to come.

But what about the prophecy about the Messiah, who's

supposed to suffer and die? The trouble with the disciples

is that in all the things that they heard about the Messiah

coming, they only believed in one coming of the Messiah.

Was this not the trouble? This is the trouble for Jews

today, today, because they're expecting the Messiah to come

and fulfill what we believe will happen when Jesus comes back.

Where's his government? Where's international peace?

Where are the the, the, the swords and the javelins being

transformed into farming equipment?

Where? Where is this?

Because we see this in the Old Testament through and through

and through. So the disciples believed like

juice today that when the Messiah comes, she's going to do

everything at one time. And what Jesus is saying is

there are two comings of the Messiah.

Yes, Elijah is going to come before the great and awesome

day, the Lord. That's a prophecy.

But there's an interval between those two things.

Elijah will come. There will be a great and

awesome day of the Lord. But what about those prophecies

where that Messiah that Elijah will prepare for has to die?

Oh, so here's what I proposed to you.

Jesus is saying Elijah will come, but Jesus is also putting

in a peace that's missing. In their understanding.

There's a there's a peace missing, and he's feeling that

now Elijah will come. There will be a great and

awesome day of the Lord, but in between that, this Messiah has

to suffer. He has to die, he has to ransom,

he has to provide a sacrifice. And so he is completing the

timeline of their understanding of prophecy.

Elijah will come, the Messiah will suffer the great and

awesome day. The Lord will follow.

That's why he says how is it written of the Son of Man that

he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt.

If we take this to be what Jesus is saying then we can rest

satisfied in knowing okay. Now it makes sense that John the

Baptist fulfilled that prophecy about Elijah because he did come

before the great and awesome day of the Lord.

The problem with the disciples and many of the Jesus that they

they're not filling the gap. And the gap is the prophecies of

Jesus being nailed on a tree. And in that we have a complete

picture. Elijah will come, John the

Baptist. Jesus will die in the cross, He

will rise from the grave, and when he returns, it will be the

great and awesome day of the Lord.

Prophecies fulfilled, prophecies satisfied.

And you and I hopefully are less confused than when we walked in

here. Let me end it here.

How true is it that we are like the disciples in many ways?

That we tend to lose sight of the sufferings of Jesus Christ?

That we lose our eyes, our focus, our gaze off of what the

Lord has done for us? In this case it's different,

right? They're trying to make sense of

their theology. But practically speaking, for us

as we even in our relationship with the Lord, we can so quickly

get caught up in things and lose sight of the centrality of why

we are Christians. He came, He died, he bled, he

was buried, and he rose from the grave.

This is what we are. This is our this is our belief.

This is what makes us different. This is what makes us fathers of

Jesus Christ. And the Lord knows that we're

very forgetful people. So you know what he does?

He provides a table. He provides an ordinance where

you and I are forced to remember.

It's by His grace. It's what he has done for us.

And so at this time, we're going to prepare our hearts to

partake. And here's my call before we

sing. Hear a brief word and eat

together. If you are a born again

Christian, this is God's gift to you.

This is for you. He invites you to this table,

and he calls you to remember what he's done.

His love for you, his redemption, his final sacrifice,

represented through the bread, his body, the cup, his blood.

It's not about your performance. It's not about your

righteousness. You surrender that thought and

that lie as you enjoy this feast.

But if you're not a Christian, we kindly ask that you refrain

from participating, for this is exclusive to followers of Jesus

Christ. You're more than welcome to

watch. You're more than welcome to

understand what we're doing here.

We're so glad that you can visit us.

But again, we have a duty as ministers to protect this table.

And so we asked you to consider your own salvation, to consider

your standing with God. And I'd love to say this every

time we do this, that as you witness people come to eat of

this and to drink of this, you are witnessing people who are

declaring emphatically, it's not by my own righteousness, it's by

what the Lord Jesus Christ did 2000 years ago, coming into this

world to rescue my soul. That's what you're witnessing.

You're witnessing a people here who are far from perfect, who

have no boast before God concerning their performance to

inherit eternal life, but have at one point said, I am a

wretched Sinner, I need to be saved.

And Jesus is that Savior. And we pray and hope that there

would be a divine jealousy in your heart.

That as you see people confidently and corporately

enjoying the grace that they have freely received in Christ,

that you would say, I want to be in that number, I want to be

connected to this Christ so I can have that same access and

have that same confidence and joy.

And we hope that you would respond.

Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins.

He bled, He suffered. He gave himself over so that you

could see his great love and respond to it with surrender.

And that you would say, this is what my sin has done, then I

forsake it. And if it's all through faith,

then I give him my faith. I believe that you are my

rescuer and my Redeemer. And I am in need of saving.

So, brothers and sisters, please prepare your hearts as we sing

in a moment and we'll give further instructions.

Listen, shed everything off, will you?

Don't think about anything else now.

Don't think about how bad your week was.

Look to the cross. Look to the cross.

If you're saved, be reminded that you have a future.

You have heaven, your name is written in the Lambs book of

life, and that you will be warmly greeted by him, not

because of your merit, because of what he's done.

If the team who helps us sing can come to sing so that we can

sing with you. Lord, we thank you for this

time. Prepare our hearts.

Be glorified. Manifest your presence in our

midst more than you already have.

Thank you, Father, in Jesus name, Amen.