Shining of the Son (Mark 9:2-13)

The last announcement for today, as you guys know, um the elder board's been praying about and wrestling with scripture and talking about what we're gonna do regarding mass and the new county uh mass guidelines that have been handed down.

Um and I was gone on vacation last week, so we just kind of kicked it down the road a little bit.

But we're able to meet on Thursday night and kind of talk about it.

Now, before we start talking about masks though, I want us all to take a deep breath.

Okay.

Any defenses popped up, you know, when we start talking about them, you're not gonna need them today.

It gets super controversial, people get really tense when we start talking about masks and stuff.

Um, but we're gonna sit and we're gonna talk about this like adults here.

Um but I want to tell you a few things about the Elder Board first.

First, none of us like wearing masks, they drive us absolutely crazy.

Uh, none of us are even remotely afraid of catching COVID.

And we would never make a policy that would turn people away from coming to church.

So, our goal was to look at our current situation and look at scripture and then respond in a biblical way.

To look at all of this through a biblical lens and then make our decision.

So, not based on our own preferences, not based on our flesh, not because of political leanings.

Uh, and to be clear, we're only talking about the county mandate of masks to be worn indoors as it was handed down by our county official.

Um, so we're not talking about anything else, just that policy.

So we tried to honestly look at scripture.

Uh, the number one core value of our church is the word of God is the compass that directs everything that we do.

So we really wanted to put that into practice.

So after much prayer and consideration, we met on Thursday night and decided to continue to leave the mask policy up to the individual.

So it's going to be up to each person that's walking through their doors whether you have a mask on or not.

Um, but one of the things that we wanted to do, our message in Mark is rather short today, so we just kind of want to do a little Bible study on the verses that we wrestled with, kind of the conversations that we had as an elder board and how we arrived at this policy.

Uh one of the big verses that we looked at, and it's much like 1 Peter 2, but it's Romans 13, which a lot of you are probably uh familiar with, and it's Romans 13 starting in verse 1.

I'll just read it to you.

It says, Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God.

So then the one who resists the authority is opposing God's command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.

So you may be thinking at this point, well, okay, you know, that seems clear, but what about government overreach?

What about draconian measures, you know, being taken, all the buzzwords that you're hearing in the news right now?

You know, so we were struggling with that, and we're wrestling, me in particular, uh, wrestling with how does that weigh in with being a United States citizen?

But as a citizen of the kingdom of God, which is always going to take priority over my citizenship to anywhere else, you know, how do we biblically apply Romans 13 to our current physical citizenship?

Especially when we may feel like our American rights may be being infringed upon.

But as I was wrestling with that and as I was praying through it and just really asking God, what is the application right now?

Um I really felt like God asked me a question in that moment through the voice of the Holy Spirit, not audible, but I felt like he asked me, who was Romans written to?

You know, this is Romans 13 we're talking about.

And obviously it's written to the church in Rome.

And then I felt like God asked me, who is the emperor at that time?

And I had an idea, but I had to go look it up.

You know who the emperor was at that time?

It was Nero.

Yeah.

And he was a type or a foreshadowing of the Antichrist.

This guy was pure evil and demonic.

The guy that would dip Christians in pitch and then light them on fire as lamps to light up his garden at night.

He would throw Christians into the Colosseum for sport and entertainment as he watched them die and be torn limb from limb.

The same guy that lit Rome on fire, his own city, and then he blamed it on the Christians.

That's who was in power when the Holy Spirit had Paul write the letter to the Roman church.

You might be asking, you know, how could God do that?

How could he tell those Christians to do that?

Well, in Jeremiah 25.

God calls the wicked and evil Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon at the time, just total horrible guy.

He calls him his servant.

In Proverbs 21, 1, it says, you know, a king's heart is like channeled water in the Lord's hand.

He directs it wherever he chooses.

So to me, this is just a reminder that God never loses control.

He uses kings and leaders, good and bad, for his purposes.

And as much as we may not like them, we always end up with who we deserve in office.

God always gives us who we deserve.

And I don't mean we should vote for those people.

You know, as U.S.

citizens, we better be taking advantage of the rights that we have.

We better be at the polls on Tuesday voting, you know, our conscience voting through a biblical lens.

Um and we should always try to get righteous and moral people into office.

But when we don't get those people, and we actually do get the people that we deserve as a as a country or as a state, it doesn't mean that God isn't still using them for his purposes.

So if these people in Rome are supposed to submit to Nero's authority, I don't think we have an argument against a president or a governor that's in office right now.

So now, of course, the caveat with this scripture with 1 Peter 2 is always that if they ever ask us to do something evil or sinful or unbiblical or against our conscience, then of course we say no and we rebel.

And we would never ask anyone in this church to do anything that is against their conscience.

And we realize that there are some here that wearing a mask would be asking you to go against your conscience, which is a big reason why we're gonna leave that choice up to the individual.

Because we realize that we can have a diversity of conviction within this same group of people within these walls.

Which leads us to 1 Corinthians, and there's two um there's two chapters that we kind of looked at when considering all this.

The first one is 1 Corinthians 8.7, and the second one is 1 Corinthians 10 23, uh, because these are verses that are getting thrown around a lot uh regarding the mask debate and whether you know we should be wearing them or not.

Um and it's these verses are in regards to the instruction to not stumble somebody else's conscience.

You know, if a weaker brother has a conviction regarding something that you have a freedom to do or not do, that's what this these verses are in regards to.

So my question is to those that are using these verses in their argument, pro-mask, anti-mask, who is the weaker brother?

The one who has a strong conviction about wearing a mask, or the one who has a strong conviction about not wearing a mask?

Okay, everybody's still breathing?

Okay, we're just okay.

We're gonna make it through this, I promise.

So if we're honestly going to look at these verses, both those with a strong mask conviction and those with a strong anti-mass conviction are the weaker brother in this verse.

Because they don't have a freedom to give up regarding masks.

The person with true Christian liberty and freedom is the one sitting here and saying, I don't care.

I could wear it, I could go without it, whatever.

You know, so I don't think anyone can use those verses to promote their stance on masks or against masks.

Now, another thing that we needed to wrestle with is the theology that's floating around about masks being the mark of the beast or a precursor leading up to the mark of the beast as seen in Revelation 13.

So if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can go ahead and research that on your own.

We don't have time to jump into all that, but it's Revelation 13 that you can find it.

But a few things in Revelation 13, uh, it tells us that the mark of the beast is going to be imprinted or possibly injected on our right hand or on our forehead.

So I don't think masks are the mark of the beast.

But the real question is could masks be something that the enemy's using to prepare the way for the mark of the beast?

And I think absolutely it could be.

But with that, I want to tell you a little story.

So I grew up in church ever since I was a kid, and the last 25 of those years have been in Calvary Chapels.

And something smells awfully familiar with masks being the mark of the beast or being a precursor to the mark of the beast.

It feels an awful lot like, and maybe some of you remember this, in the late 80s and early 90s when debit cards came out.

They're called ATM cards at the time.

And I remember so many Christians being torn as to whether they should get one or just stick to their checkbook.

You know, this was a huge topic at the time, if you remember it.

And I remember so many people were saying it's the mark of the beast, or it's what's leading to the mark of the beast, or this is what's leading to a cashless society which is going to you know play into the Antichrist's hands.

So was it the mark?

No, it wasn't.

Was it something the enemy was using to lead to the mark?

I think so.

And then I remember about 10 years ago, all the debit cards got chips in them.

You guys remember that instead of the magnetic strips?

And Christians said, don't give in, it's the mark of the beast.

The chip will just get smaller, and then they're gonna implant it into your skin so that you don't lose it, and then you can be scanned into cashless society.

And was it the mark of the beast?

No.

Was it something leading to the mark of the beast?

I think so.

So is the enemy using these things to prep us and to normalize the things that are spoken of in Revelation?

Yeah, I think so, absolutely.

But just like I think he's using superhero movies to prepare us for the Antichrist signs and wonders, to normalize power that's beyond human, and actually to make people look forward to a time where people might have superhuman abilities.

Because the enemy's using everything that he can and every piece of technology, like the internet, like YouTube, like the smartphone that you have in your pocket or your purse to advance the plans, or to advance his plans, I should say.

You know, 30 years ago, I remember people were baffled by how Jesus said in Matthew 24, 15, so when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand, then those in Judea must flee the mountains.

And this is speaking about the Antichrist in the middle of the tribulation standing in the temple as the abomination.

And the big question back in the day was how are people actually going to see this?

You can only fit a couple people, you know, in that space in the temple.

Um, but now we look at that and it's like easy live stream, right?

I mean, the whole world can just pull out their smartphone and watch all of this live stream taking place, um, no problem.

And so for us, it's like, yeah, that's easy now.

30, 40 years ago, people were like, how is this gonna happen?

It's gonna be some magical event, you know.

Um, but does that mean that we shouldn't use live stream for church services because the enemy could use them to promote his agenda?

No, I don't think so.

Just because the enemy's using something to advance his plan doesn't mean that we have to use those same things to advance his plan.

Right.

We can use them for good.

Because inherently those things aren't bad.

But he's using them for bad.

Because otherwise, we would have to abandon the internet, YouTube, debit cards, electronic checking, which we use to support missionaries, actually.

Um, we'd have to stop watching Marvel, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, we'd have to stop using smartphones, cars with GPS, you know, all that kind of stuff.

Really, and I say this with all honesty, we'd need to start living like the Amish if we were really going to abandon all of those technologies that that Satan could use.

And I don't know about you, but I haven't seen their evangelism ministry really thriving as Amish people, right?

Because we're called to be in the world, but not of the world.

And the Amish aren't doing either.

So, do I think masks are evil?

No.

Is Satan using them to advance his kingdom?

Probably.

But it doesn't mean that if we wear one, that we're advancing his kingdom.

Just like if we use a debit card to support a missionary is not advancing Satan's kingdom, but advancing God's kingdom.

So, can we honestly say that masks are the mark of the beast or leading to the mark of the beast while we have a cell phone and a debit card in our pocket or our purse?

Yeah, I personally really don't think we can.

Because debit cards and cell phones are doing a lot more, in my opinion, to advance the kingdom of Satan than masks are, you know, currently right now.

So I we just wanted to share just kind of some of the things we wrestled at with some of the things that we looked at.

Um, and those are just a few of the many verses that came into play as we're trying to look at all of this through a biblical lens.

So, my prayer in all of this is that we wouldn't live in fear of what Satan is doing, and that we wouldn't live in fear of COVID at the same time.

Yeah, my prayer is that we as Christians and as a church, that we wouldn't be known for what we're against, but that we would be known for what we are for.

That we'd be known for our love for God, our love for one another, and our love for the people that aren't following Jesus.

That would we would be known for all of those things as opposed to what we are standing against currently.

So, in all of this, our encouragement to you, from the elder board to you, is let's love and respect one another, regardless of what side of the fence that we land on in our own opinions.

You know, it would grieve me if our policies or our politics prevented even one person from hearing or experiencing the love of Jesus Christ that wants to be shown through this church.

So, we as an elder board, we strive to have the best cared for sheep anywhere.

You know, and through much prayer and discussion, uh, this is the policy that we think is best for Abide right now.

With that said, um, we ask that you spend the week considering all of this.

And that next week, when you come back through those doors, we our desire is that everybody can walk through those doors with a clear conscience of why they have a mask on or why they don't.

And we're not gonna ask you one way or the other, we're not gonna, you know, police all that, but we want everybody just to be able to look through this through a biblical lens as well, and then to make that decision on your own.

And hopefully, I mean honestly, I would love to see a few more masks next next week, just for the sake of people that come in with them, that they wouldn't feel like they're being singled out or judged, you know, in any way because they are wearing one.

I hope we see a just a big mix of it uh next week.

So I want to repeat this is just regarding the most recent mandate that was handed down.

Um this and the mandate itself actually doesn't even mention churches, it just says public places in general.

So we really didn't feel like we're being singled out.

If we felt like we were being singled out as a church, this would be a whole different conversation uh that we're gonna be having.

This was a mandate from a county health official who's worried about the number of beds available in the ICU.

And I don't know about you, but this round of COVID is a lot more real.

I know way more people that have COVID this time around than last time.

Um, there was actually a Calvary Chapel in our county that they kind of had an outbreak in the church, and they had to shut down for a Sunday just so everybody could kind of heal up and quarantine and then come back together again.

So our desire is not to be fearful, but not to be stupid either, you know, with all of this, because our hope is to truly care for each one of you in the best way that we can.

Okay, everybody's still breathing?

Okay, good.

Let's go to Mark.

And like I said, it's shorter.

I know we spent a long time on that.

Um but turn to Mark chapter 9, and we're actually gonna pick up in verse 1.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

And Pete touched on verse 1 last week, uh verse 1 and chapter 9, because um it leads up to the transfiguration, but it's also the end of Jesus' teaching that we see at the end of chapter 8.

So we're gonna be getting a double dose of verse 1.

Um, and as you probably know, chapters and verses are not the inspired word of God.

Those were conveniently added later so that we could literally all be on the same page.

So I can say, turn to Mark 9, or we could all get to that same spot.

Um, they weren't in the original text, they were added later.

So Pete covered it last week, but we're gonna read it again to give us a little bit of context, jumping into the transfiguration this morning.

So if you're able, would you please stand with us for the reading of God's word?

Mark chapter 9, starting in verse 1.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

Then he said to them, Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death unless they see the kingdom of God come in power.

After six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves to be alone.

He was transfigured in front of them, and his clothes became dazzling, extremely white, as no launderer on earth could whiten them.

Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it's good for us to be here.

Let's set up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, because he did not know what to say, since they were terrified.

A cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud.

This is my beloved son.

Listen to him.

Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

They kept this word to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.

Then they asked him, Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

Elijah does come first and restore all things, he replied.

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

I pray as we dive in a little deeper to this text that you would reveal yourself to us, not just in our minds, but in our hearts.

Lord, that we would be clay in your hands.

Anything that you want to work on today, anything that you want to shave off and mold to make us more and more like you.

Lord, I pray that we'd have open eyes and ears and minds and hearts for you to do the work inside of each one of us that you desire.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So before we jump into verse 2, let's talk a little bit about the word transfigure.

That's not a word that we use a lot in our normal language.

But it's much like what it sounds.

It means to transform.

So this wasn't a light shining on Jesus from heaven.

This was a light shining from within Jesus.

Matthew 17, 2 says that his face shone like the sun.

Much like what we see in Revelation 21, 23, when it's talking about the New Jerusalem.

It says, the city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

So what Peter, James, and John are witnessing, it's not a rare moment of Jesus changing.

They're seeing Jesus in his natural state.

What they have been witnessing is Jesus in his human state.

These last couple of years that they've been following him.

They're seeing God who has taken on flesh.

But now in this moment, they get to see him in his glory.

Like we just saw here in verse 1, they're seeing the kingdom of God come in power.

You see, when Jesus stepped down from his heavenly throne, he put his glory aside.

He didn't lose it.

But in a sense, you could say that he masked it for a moment while he was on earth.

But here the disciples get to see Jesus kind of pull that mask back just for a second and see Jesus in his natural state.

And they get to see.

What Jesus looks like all of the rest of the time when he's not in his human form.

Let's jump into verse 2.

It says, After six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves to be alone.

So, like I mentioned in the past, these were either the ones in Jesus' inner circle that he had special plans and special teachings for, or he was the ones that he was afraid to leave alone.

Worried about what they're going to get into if he should leave them alone.

But in actuality, this might be the three that most needed at this moment to see that Jesus is God.

And they need to hear God say in his direct voice, listen to my son.

So if you remember back in chapter 8, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah.

But since then, Jesus starts to teach them about the cross, about his rejection from the religious leaders, about his death, burial, and resurrection.

And if you remember, Peter actually rebukes Jesus.

And Jesus has to say, get behind me, Satan.

So it may be that Peter, James, and John are starting to doubt that Jesus actually is the Son of God because of the things that he's starting to say to them.

He's talking about carrying a cross.

He's talking about being rejected by the religious leaders.

He's talking about dying at the hands of the Romans.

Remember, they were looking for a political leader that would overthrow Rome, not a God that would be crucified by them.

So God in his mercy allows them to see the glory of Jesus for a moment.

And God actually speaks to them saying, This is my son, listen up.

And I believe that in God's mercy, he's giving Peter, James, and John undeniable proof that Jesus is the Messiah and that he is the Son of God, and that they need to really start listening to every word that he's saying.

Even though it doesn't make sense to them in the moment.

Look at the second half of verse 2.

It says, He was transfigured in front of them, and his clothes became dazzling, extremely white, as no launderer on earth could whiten them.

So Jesus is transformed.

But not only Jesus, his clothes are changed as well.

They're dazzling and they're extremely white.

Think of this.

These are the clothes of a carpenter after a really long hike.

They should not be dazzling white at this time.

And so Mark's trying to describe this probably from the words of Peter of how white this actually was.

And they're trying their best.

So, no big deal, right?

Just two of the most famous people that had ever had anything to do with Israel that have been gone from this earth for hundreds of years.

They show up while Jesus is glowing.

I'm just imagining this from the disciples' perspective.

Moses, the representative of the law.

Elijah, the representative of the prophets, with Jesus, who is the fulfillment of the law, and the fulfillment of over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament.

Arguably the three most influential people in Israel's history standing there talking, and Jesus is shining like the sun.

And in Luke's account, it says that they were talking to Jesus about his departure.

So his death, his burial, his resurrection, his last moments on earth.

And I wonder how long the disciples were listening before Peter interrupted.

It could have been a while, you know, or it could have been a short moment.

We don't know for sure.

But I kind of think that if I were to see all of this taking place, that I would probably just be speechless.

Just kind of taking all that in.

And in a way, I think I hope that I would be speechless.

Because look at verse 5.

It says, Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it's good for us to be here.

Let's set up three shelters.

One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

Because he did not know what to say.

Since they were terrified.

Lesson of the day.

When you don't know what to say, don't say anything.

Like the old adage, it's better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

You heard that one before?

Peter needs that lesson right here.

So Peter doesn't know what to say, so he speaks.

It's all about Jesus helping his disciples to see more clearly.

But as we can see, Peter is still very near-sighted.

Like the blind man in chapter 8.

He's still seeing men that look like trees walking.

He's still not seeing things clearly from a distance yet.

And this is not a knock on Peter.

I think we're all in the same boat with that right now, where Jesus is trying to help us see more clearly.

But we today have the huge added bonus of the Holy Spirit living inside of each believer, helping us to see things through God's lens where we're still very nearsighted.

Peter didn't have that added benefit at this moment.

He will, and then we'll see a whole different Peter.

But I wonder if at first, you know, Peter's seeing this, Jesus glowing, Moses and Elijah, and I'm wondering if maybe he's thinking like this is what the Messiah is supposed to look like.

This is what I'm talking about.

And then thinking, how do we convince him to keep this going?

So other people can see it as well.

You know, maybe if we build some shelters, it'll keep all three of them here, and Jesus will still be shining in his glory and in his authority.

Maybe we can keep this going so that the Romans can see them like this, and then they'll be scared and just run away.

You know, who knows?

That's all speculation, but the whole idea of the three shelters and the three of them, and Peter just not knowing what to say and all that kind of stuff.

I can just have to think, what was going through his head?

You know, maybe he was like, how do we put this in a bottle so that this doesn't go away?

And poor Peter, you know, he's so easy to poke fun at.

But the thing is, it's the thing that gets him in the most trouble that God ends up using the most later in his life.

His eagerness to jump in and to get things done.

Peter shows a lot of initiative in a lot of different ways throughout the New Testament.

And right now, it gets him in a lot of trouble.

But when he becomes submitted to the Holy Spirit, God uses that same initiative, that same willingness to jump in and get his hands dirty, and God's able to use that for his purposes and for his kingdom.

And maybe you've noticed this, but when God calls somebody in the Bible, he doesn't change their personality traits.

He takes who they are and he takes the personality traits that he's given them, and then he uses those same things for his own kingdom.

Of course, they have to be submitted to the Holy Spirit in order for those things to work for his kingdom.

So why am I mentioning all this?

Because you don't have to become anything before God can use you.

You just need to be submitted to the Holy Spirit, and God's gonna use who he created you to be for his purposes.

He wants to take your upbringing and your life experience, even if those things were hard, or even if in the past you used those things for evil.

And in submission to the Holy Spirit, he wants to use who you are, who he created you to be, and all the things that you've experienced, and he wants to use those for his special purposes in a way that he can only use inside of each one of you.

So unrefined Peter takes initiative, but then he speaks up when he shouldn't have because at this moment he didn't even have the ability to be submitted to the Holy Spirit.

Look at verse 7.

He says, Then a cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud.

This is my beloved son, listen to him.

So God the Father steps in and he tells the disciples, You need to listen more and speak less.

He knows what he's talking about, he knows what he's doing.

Just listen.

If these three disciples had any doubt that Jesus was the Son of God or that Jesus didn't know what he was doing, that has been removed at this moment.

They have witnessed this incredible transfiguration, and now they actually heard the voice of God.

Now, maybe you remember, but in Exodus 20, 19, there's a story where God descends on Mount Sinai.

There's lightning and there's thunder, and God gives Moses the Ten Commandments.

And it says, All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the ram's horn, and the mountain surrounded by smoke.

Then the sea people saw, when the people saw it, they trembled and they stood at a distance.

They said, You speak to us and we will listen, they said to Moses, but don't let God speak to us, or we will die.

And these disciples just heard the voice of God from a cloud.

We see through the book of Exodus and Numbers that this is God's preferred way to communicate to Moses and to Israel, and his preferred way to show his glory, to descend like a cloud and then to speak.

And that is what the disciples just experienced first hand.

And it says in verse 6 that they were terrified.

And what does God say?

Listen to my son.

Like I said, if there was any doubt in the disciples, I'm pretty sure that that doubt is gone now.

Look at verse 8 with me.

Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

So all the craziness just disappeared.

And imagine the disciples.

At this point, I think they probably had to be speechless.

Even Peter at this time, I think, was speechless.

But probably with so many questions that came into mind after all that they just witnessed.

Look at verse 9.

So as they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

They kept this word to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.

So if it's not confusing enough for these guys, now Jesus starts talking about rising from the dead again.

But God just told them, you need to listen to every word that my son is saying to you.

So they start to question, you know, what is rising from the dead?

What does that really mean?

Now we kind of saw something like this a few weeks ago.

But do you remember when Jesus was telling the crowd and his disciples that it wasn't what went into a man that defiled him, but what comes out of a man?

And Peter asked him to explain the parable.

And Jesus wasn't telling a parable.

Do you guys remember when that happened?

Jesus was speaking plainly, but it was so foreign to them that they couldn't wrap their head around it.

I think the same thing's happening here.

What Jesus is saying is so hard to take in at face value that they assume in some way that it must be symbolic when Jesus starts talking about rising from the dead.

And they're asking, you know, I wonder what he really means by rising from the dead.

I think Jesus is just sitting there like, I mean what I mean.

And as we're going to see, like this the disciples just have so many questions that need to get answered at this point.

Look at verse 11 for an example.

Then they asked him, Why did the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

Elijah does come first and restores all things, he replied.

So remember, they just saw Elijah.

So maybe this has kind of piqued their curiosity and brought up some scriptures that they knew from the past.

And what they're referring to here is actually Malachi 4, verses 4 through 6, the last verses of the Old Testament.

Malachi 4:4–6

And they're in regards to Moses and Elijah.

I'll read it just for reference.

It says, Remember the instruction of Moses, my servant, who we just saw, right?

The statutes and ordinances I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

Look, I'm going to send you the prophet Elijah.

We just saw him too, didn't we?

Before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.

And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers.

Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.

So you could see how this would make the disciples wonder if what they just saw, if maybe that was the fulfillment of the prophecy in Malachi.

So they asked Jesus, what does this prophecy mean?

And we could literally spend multiple Sundays just on this prophecy and all the places that we see it and variations of it and fulfillments of it and all that kind of stuff.

But for the sake of time, we're just going to talk about it briefly.

But kind of the gist of it is that John the Baptist was the first fulfillment to this prophecy of someone like Elijah paving the way for the Messiah.

And like many Old Testament prophecies, there will also be a later fulfillment to that prophecy in Revelation as well.

Which many speculate is Elijah, and he's one of the two witnesses that we see in the tribulation.

So there's kind of these two fulfillments that we see.

Like I said, that's what I did was just does not do that justice.

But for the sake of moving on, you can go research that on your own.

But it can open a whole can of worms when we start getting into all the prophecies and when they take place.

And is Elijah really one of the witnesses that we see in Revelation?

But Jesus answers, and what he does is he redirects them and basically says, if you want to talk prophecy, then let's talk about this one.

Look at the second half of verse 12.

It says, Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?

So Jesus is in the middle of trying to tell them in verse 9 that he will be raised from the dead.

The disciples get confused and they change the subject.

And then Jesus steers them back on track and basically says, if you really want to talk about prophecy, why don't we talk about the prophecies that you're ignoring or the ones that you're misinterpreting right now?

Like me having to suffer and be treated with contempt.

Prophecies like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 and so many others that we see in the Old Testament.

But then Jesus goes on and he addresses their question in verse 13, where it says, But I tell you that Elijah has come.

And they did whatever they pleased to him, just as it is written about him.

So Jesus is saying, John the Baptist, the modern-day Elijah, was already here and he was killed.

They did whatever they pleased with him.

And I think in a way Jesus is still trying to get through to his disciples that if they killed John the Baptist, why should they be surprised if they killed Jesus too?

But don't worry, Jesus is saying, I'm gonna raise, I'm gonna rise from the dead three days later.

You know, all that has taken place here, all that we've seen was for the purpose of these three disciples to see more clearly.

For his disciples to hear from the mouth of God that they need to listen to and heed Jesus' every word.

And I think the main takeaway from this event is also our main takeaway as disciples of Jesus in modern day.

That Jesus is God, that he stepped down from his heavenly glory, that he walked on this earth, that he died the death that we deserve, and that he rose three days later for our sins.

He did all of this to defeat sin and death.

The Son of God did all of this for each one of us.

And we, like the disciples, need to listen to him.

We need to heed his every word.

We need to trust that he knows what he's doing.

And then have the faith that he will actually carry it out.

In a nutshell, we need to start living like Jesus is God.

And like he has all power and authority in the universe and the heavens.

And all glory and honor belong to him.

If we're seeing God clearly in these ways, it will affect everything that we do, every decision that we make, every word that we say, if we have the correct perspective and image of God in our mind, it will affect our whole lives.

So I think the real question is, and what I want to leave you with, I'm going to close with this.

What I hope we're thinking through through the week as we're going about our day-to-day routines is in what areas of our life are we living like God is not all powerful?

What areas of our life are we living like God is not all-knowing?

And that's what I hope through the week we're like identifying little things like, oh God, you know what?

I'm not trusting you here.

I'm not giving you this, whatever it might be.

But I'm I hope that all of us will just take the time to ask God that question so that every aspect of our life would be living as if God is God.

Will you please pray with me?

Lord, again, we thank you so much for your word and just the richness of it and all the things that you have for us in it.

But I pray that you would show us how to continually apply your word to our lives and to our everyday situations.

Lord, we know that you have all authority and power and all glory belongs to you.

Lord, that you are so powerful that you spoke all of this into existence.

Yet, Lord, you are so personal that you know our every care, our every desire, our every need.

We thank you for that relationship that you offer each one of us.

Lord, help us to live in that relationship with that knowledge, growing closer and closer to you on a daily basis.

Lord, we want to become more and more like you every day.

We pray that that process of sanctification would continue in each one of us, Lord, and that we would be able to be like Jesus, Lord, uh something that your glory can shine through.

That when people see us, that they would actually see you living in and through us, and that we would be a beacon of life to the people we come across, Lord, and this whole community as a church.

That's our prayer in Jesus' name.