The Invisible Kingdom

Introduction

There is a story of a man who lived in Hamilton years ago who was on the Titanic when it was sinking. Before the ship had crashed into that fateful iceberg, a minister had been sharing the Gospel with him. After the ship went down the man was desperately trying to find some wreckage of the ship or a lifeboat when he floated by the minister who promptly asked him, are you saved? The man, thinking about his immediate situation, said no. The minister said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. This happened once or twice more before the man found a lifeboat and was taken aboard. The minister did not survive the disaster. The man later became a believer.

I open with this story to ask you a question. What was real to that minister as he slowly succumbed to hypothermia in the deadly waters of the north Atlantic? While he saw the tragedy around him and his own life coming quickly to an end, the true tragedy in his mind would be that this man may die without Christ. He exemplifies for us true faith, a faith that looks beyond the shadow of what is seen and touched in this world to the greater reality of the unseen. On that night in 1912 the minister did not see himself as a man about to die; he saw himself as a man alive in Christ who had one last chance to show the glory of the King of Kings before his mission on earth was over.

A Difficult Text

In our text today, we will look at the unseen realities of the Kingdom and conclude with a look at our own responses to those realities.

While I had planned on preaching this text together with the first 13 verses of chapter 17, on closer examination I saw that it was necessary for us to look at 16:28 by itself first. This is because the verse is very difficult for us to interpret, and yet understanding it correctly will help us to understand the purpose of the Transfiguration which Matthew records at the beginning of the next chapter.

Let us review the context, as this should always be our first thought when we examine any text in the Bible. In this passage so far, Peter had declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God; although he obviously does not understand all of what this means, as Jesus would teach him. Jesus tells the disciples that his Mission as the King of God’s people means going to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed but on the third day to rise again. He also teaches the disciples that to follow God’s King means to deny ourselves of our own desires and goals in life in order to follow Christ into a life of suffering, loss, and death to self every day. This is backed by the proverbial saying that life gained now means life lost in eternity, but life lost now means eternal life. So then, what sense does it make to have much to gain in this world, even to gain the whole world and have every desire and dream fulfilled here, if it comes at the expense of eternal life? Jesus follows this up with a picture into the future day when the Son of Man, the royally appointed King of all, will come to earth again in the glory of God the Father to repay each person according to what they did, whether they lived for short term comfort or eternal life in loving submission and obedience to Christ.

With that consideration, Jesus ends his speech and we transition into the Transfiguration story with this last promise that some who are standing there, among the disciples, who would not taste death until they see Christ coming in his Kingdom with glory.

There are several difficulties in our interpretation of this verse. If we lived in the first century we may assume that Jesus was giving us a time estimation of his second coming; that it would be in the lifetime of at least some of the disciples. However, we cannot 2000 years later come to this conclusion, which leads into a few questions:

Who is Jesus referring to when he says there are some standing here? Some have tried to reason that Jesus is speaking to a future generation of Christians who will live right before the second coming of Christ. However, this is very far-fetched and unlikely. It would even boarder on dishonest, as the disciples would certainly have thought it referred to them. That is how we must take it as it seems to be clear they are who Jesus is talking about.

In the same way, taste death should be taken naturally. Jesus is saying that some of his disciples will not physically die before the things he is speaking of.

The real difficulty is with what Jesus means with the coming of the Son of Man in his Kingdom. This has been understood a variety of ways. Is Jesus speaking of the Second Coming? If so, did Jesus get it wrong? Of course that is impossible. Does it refer to the Transfiguration? I don’t believe it can refer only to that upcoming event, although it appears to have something to do with it. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record Jesus saying this right before the Transfiguration event and in the way Matthew is writing, Jesus’ glorious appearance to three of the disciples certainly does seem to flow out of this conversation. However, this event seems to have been for the disciples benefit and can hardly be interpreted as the definitive moment that Christ comes in his Kingdom. Is it talking about Jesus resurrection and ascension, or the coming of the power of the Spirit at Pentecost? Again, that may be in the picture but I don’t think that is what Jesus is mainly referring to since the only disciple to not witness those events was Judas. It would be strange that Jesus would talk about some not tasting death before seeing the coming of the Son of Man if they all would except one.

A Dynamic Kingdom

So how may we resolve this difficulty? I believe Jesus is referring primarily to the Transfiguration, but in order to understand how we first need to understand the nature of the Kingdom of God and its coming to earth. The main idea we need to grasp is that the arrival of the Kingdom of God does not happen in a moment, but rather is a dynamic event.

Now, what do I mean by a dynamic event? I mean that the coming of the Kingdom of God is not something that has happened in a moment of time, but is a coming which progresses over time to a glorious end. When you read the OT prophets who spoke of the coming of the Christ, God’s King, you will notice that they do not distinguish between things accomplished in Jesus first coming and those accomplished in his second coming. Many are accomplished partially in his first, or in the time between his first and second coming. In Revelation 21:1 we see the future display of a New Heavens and a New Earth; a new creation. And yet, Paul says in 2 Cor 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

So does the new creation come now or at Jesus second coming? The answer is both. There is a forming of new creation in the hearts of believers now, though we struggle to overcome the old which has passed away and is passing away, and yet the completion of the new creation is yet to come.

This is evident in what Jesus preached at the beginning of his ministry in Galilee Mark 1:15

Mark 1:15 ESV

and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

The word fulfilled means completed. The time of waiting has come to an end and the Kingdom of God has come now. Think also of Jesus words to the Pharisees in Luke 17:20-21

Luke 17:20–21 ESV

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

Jesus says there that the Kingdom of God does not come in ways that can be observed physically, and yet Paul describes a day in 2 Thess 1:7

2 Thessalonians 1:7 (ESV)

when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

Jesus himself will describe his second coming in Matthew 24:30

Matthew 24:30 ESV

Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

The key words there are revealed, appear, and see. Kind of sounds observable, doesn’t it? So is the Kingdom of God coming or has it already come? It is invisible or visible? It is in our midst or on an unknown future day?

My point here is this: the Kingdom of God comes dynamically and progresses into this world in three stages:

First, the appearance of the Christ as a humble and yet authoritative Saviour; God in human flesh. He came without the visible splendor or glory of the Kingdom and in this way established it, having his most glorious victory on the cross and at the resurrection three days later.

Second, the establishment of the Church through the testimony of the Apostles, which acts as Christ’s kingdom ambassador. Her duty, our duty, is to spread the good news of the coming of the Kingdom, though it remains invisible. It is to lift up the glory of the cross; a glory unseen by the eye of flesh but obvious to the eye of faith. Though a casual ray of this glory may be glimpsed from time to time, Jesus’ glorious coming is for now invisible. Think of the age of the Church as the parade procession that goes before the appearance of the victorious King. We are criers like John the Baptist; calling out for a clear path to be made for the Lord who has come, is coming, and will come.

Thirdly, the visible coming of Jesus Christ which every eye will see. Although the Kingdom has already been established, it remains hidden until the time ordained by the Father when Jesus will finish his victory over death in raising his saints into bodies of glory to join him in the clouds while he executes judgement on the earth. At that time, all things will be visible and clear to every eye. Faith will be no more, for all will be seen and presently understood.

Since this is the case, we should not think of Christ’s ascension as an absence of the King, but rather a hiding of his glorious resurrected self in the Church through the presence of the Holy Spirit. We are new creations now, though we do not look it. Our old self has really and truly died with Christ and already been raised with him. This is played out in the proper mode of baptism, which sees the believer go under the water of death and the grave and then raised out of the water unto newness of life. It is hidden but very real. All that needs to follow is our body, which will go through its own baptism through the grave and up again into a body made for eternal life. This will happen when what is hidden, our new nature now hidden in a body of sin and death, is revealed in a body of life and glory as Christ is revealed to every eye.

The Invisible Made Visible

With all this in mind, I propose to you how we should understand Christ’s words here. What Jesus is saying is that some of his disciples would not go through that baptism of the body through death to glory before they would have the glory of Christ coming in his Kingdom revealed to them. He is not saying they would live until it was revealed to all, only that they would live to see it revealed to them. Just as the man Simeon in Luke 2:26 had been promised to not see death before he had seen the Christ, and he saw him with his eyes though Jesus had not yet been publicly revealed to be the Christ, these disciples have been promised to see the unseen glory of the King coming into his Kingdom before it would be revealed to the world at large.

This is the connection to the transfiguration where Peter the rock, James the first Apostle to be martyred, and John the disciple whom Jesus loved get a glimpse of the hidden glory of the King. Even after Jesus’ resurrection, this glory was hidden as Jesus appeared as a normal human being to those who saw him and was even mistaken for a gardener. But in the Transfiguration Jesus casts off the disguise of weakness and shows them his glory, a glory attested to by two OT prophets and most importantly by the audible voice of the Father. The Pharisees and Sadducees desired to see a sign from heaven and would not have it, but to these three men in Jesus inner circle he would allow a glimpse of what remains invisible even to believers until the day Jesus comes again.

This isn’t the last time this happens either. Stephan, one of the first deacons, gets such a glimpse in a vision right before his death in Acts 7:55-56

Acts 7:55–56 ESV

But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

John also would have another glimpse of this glory in his vision on the island of Patmos (Revelation 1:12-16). Such visions of his glorious coming are extremely rare, so that even the majourity of the disciples never saw it. Yet Christ showed it to these three as both a testimony to them and an encouragement of the faith they had committed themselves to. Even Matthew didn’t see this and writes on the account of those who did, and these three were told to keep the event to themselves until after the resurrection. The Transfiguration was a mysterious look into what is to remain hidden until all things are complete.

Application

Now we may wonder what application this has for us today. If the Kingdom is to remain hidden for us until the end, as it remained hidden to most of the disciples until they passed from this world, what can we possibly gain from meditating on this glimpse of future glory which these three disciples received but remains hidden to us except by faith? As with all of Scripture, there is much to gain for us when we understand its meaning.

First application, let us not be discouraged that Jesus hides himself in such a way, even from those whom he loved so dearly as to give his life as a ransom for theirs. Jesus does not hide himself to foster doubts in you or to tear down your faith. He hides from plain sight so as to build your faith in him. He does this to bless you and establish you, as the Lord told the Apostle Thomas in John 20:29

John 20:29 (ESV)

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The blessing of faith rather than sight is the affection that grows with distance, like two star-struck but distent lovers writing letters to each other while they wait for their wedding day. The greater your faith, the greater your love for him and the closer he is to you. He longs to draw you in by faith so that when he is revealed in sight, that love may find its final perfection just as it has lately for our sister Beverely. Do not be discouraged; dare to believe that this time of hiddenness from your eyes is cultivating a greater joy for the day of glory.

Second, let us learn the way in which God reveals himself to those who seek him. We can be easily duped by the worldview of the Enlightenment of the 17th-18th centuries which founded the modern scientific method. In this way of thinking, facts are established through controlled observation, repetition, and synthesis of all available data. This works well when you are dealing with that which is purely physical and visible in nature, but breaks down when considering higher things. We cannot prove that Jesus is the Christ through the scientific method, and that should not bother us because we are not meant to. That is a reality which is not grasped by repeated experiment, but by faith. As hard as we may try, we cannot reveal that which God has hidden. This is why salvation is dependent of faith. It is a willingness to accept what God has revealed and believe it based upon his faithful character. This faith does not grow based on scientific inquiry, but through a deeper and deeper devotion to Christ in the unseen reality of his Kingdom.

A quote from Anselm sums up the attitude of faith well: he prayed “I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand.” The Pharisees would not believe until they saw a sign of Christ’s Kingdom. Peter, on the other hand, believed and so was given a peak into the unseen. The skeptic says they will not believe in God or the resurrection of Christ until they have proof, the believer has faith and seeks to understand the mysteries of God on the foundation of that faith, not in order to establish it. God does not show himself to those who skeptically demand proof, but he does show himself to those who humbly give themselves to faith completely and totally.

Would you like to see more of Christ? Would you like to have his presence more fully revealed to you? Would you like to experience Jesus in a real and vivid way? The only way to this is through a greater pursuit of faith. God hides himself from those who demand he show himself, but he shows himself to those who simply trust him. This means denial of self and taking up the cross. It means ordering your view of life to be centered around what is unseen and invisible, but will one day be revealed. The rich young ruler turned away from Christ because his mind was set on what was visible, his money, rather that the eternal reward which was invisible. These three disciples, on the other hand, were in Jesus’ ‘inner circle’ because of their exceptional faith, for not every believer is equally close to Christ. While the Holiest place is open to every believer without discrimination, only those who seek it will find it.

Third application, let us be spurred on in faith to seek that which is hidden and reject the apparent value of what we currently see.

Is your life devoted to the invisible realities of the Kingdom of God? Is your hope set on what will soon be revealed, but for now remains unseen? Your life will show this. A heart of faith is generous, quick to forgive, earnest in prayer and fasting, hospitable, humble, gentle, patient, enduring, serving, and above all makes love for the Church its primary aim in life. It does not trouble itself on how to make this life better, but rather sets itself by faith on unseen glory. Paul pushes us to this way of thinking in Colossians 3:1-4

Colossians 3:1–4 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Paul says if and this begs the question, have you truly been raised with Christ? We are saved by faith in the unseen reality, but does your life show any evidence of such faith? Again I ask, those of you who habitually avoid prayer meetings here at the church, and I do not know your heart or situation but I simply ask you to examine yourself, is it done for worldly reasons? In prayer together, we seek the unseen by experiencing Christ among us. When you take the Lord’s Table, do you set your mind on the unseen realities of the body and blood of Christ or do you simply wait to eat the bread and drink the juice so that the service can end? As a church, are we active in our commitment to seek the lost? To love the poor and lowly? To preach the Gospel to our neighbours? Or does our commitment to what is visible now bring about a laziness in our pursuit of the unseen? Do the people around us know Faith Baptist Church as an ambassador of Christ? I recently had someone who walks their dog by our church all the time ask if we were even open, and she was surprised that we were.

Oh brothers and sisters, let us repent of our blindness and lack of faith. We know nothing of the faith that brings martyrs to their death singing. We know nothing of a faith that seeks the salvation of souls while dying in the north Atlantic ocean. We know very little of the power of the Spirit because our lives are so full of what is seen and yet so obviously temporary. You were made for a reality that is unseen. If you are indeed a believer, what are you doing so invested in the visible world? Are you not promised to a life of self-denial and taking up the cross? Are you not committed to seek and save the lost? Are you not commanded to a life of giving and service to the least of the saints? Is it any wonder that God is so far away in your life when you let so many things get in the way?

What if we lived our lives in such a way where every day we got up in the morning and had this goal: I want to be one who sits on the right or left side of Christ in his Kingdom? As far as I can tell from Mark 10:40 those positions are still open. Why not try for it? If you don’t make it, surely you will be much closer to Christ than if you didn’t try, so there’s really nothing to lose. What if you lived your life to grow your faith to such a degree that you had a shot at one of those seats? The day comes quickly when the visible and invisible will switch places. All that is now visible will be gone forever and all that is hidden in Christ will be revealed. There will be loss and gain. On that day will you lose more than you gain, or gain more than you lose? I plead with you today, as I plead with my own soul, to reject your devotion to what is visible now; to comfort, security, entertainment, money, or any type of visible success and seek first the invisible Kingdom. Seek it with all your heart, whatever the cost. Future you will be eternally happy that you did.