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Jesus Wants to Help Us Understand
The Gospel of Matthew
Matthew 17:9-23
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared September 22, 2022)
BACKGROUND:
*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 17.
By this time Jesus was in the 3rd year of His ministry, and J. Vernon McGee estimated that the Lord was only six months away from the cross.
(1)
*The chapter opens with a miraculous revelation of Jesus Christ.
Verses 1-2 give us this revelation of our Lord: "Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, brought them up on a high mountain by themselves, and was transfigured before them.
His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light."
Luke 9:28-29 adds that Jesus took those disciples up on that mountain to pray.
"And as He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening."
*What Peter, James, and John saw that day was a small glimpse of the glory of Jesus Christ.
If they had seen all of His glory, they would have died on the spot.
But they saw a small portion of the glory of God.
And they saw the glory of God in Jesus Christ, because He IS Almighty God, one with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
*Jesus' face shined like the sun!
They must have shielded their eyes from His face, because no one can look at the sun for more than a moment without going blind.
Why did Jesus reveal His glory like that?
-- Because He wanted His disciples, and all the world to know that He is not just an ordinary man.
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, only Savior of the world, and Lord of all!
*Colossians 1:15-17 tells us that, Jesus "is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created through Him and for Him.
And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (or hold together)."
*In Jesus Christ, all things hold together.
This means on some level that we can't understand, Jesus literally holds the whole universe together moment by moment.
And He can do it, because Colossians 2:9 tells us that all the fullness of the Godhead lives in the body of Jesus Christ!
*We can never overestimate the infinite power of the Lord.
But thank God, He also has infinite goodness.
Jesus is perfect in every way.
God the Father confirmed this great truth on the mount of transfiguration.
Matthew 17:4-5 says:
4. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.''
5.
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Hear Him!''
*Jesus Christ is the only person who ever lived a perfect life!
He is the only person who always pleased our Heavenly Father in every way.
As a man, Jesus is the only sinless, spotless Lamb of God, and that is why He is the only man who could have ever died for our sins.
*Then in vs. 6-8:
6. . .
When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.
7.
But Jesus came and touched them and said, "Arise, and do not be afraid.''
8.
And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
*In today's Scripture, the Lord and these 3 disciples headed back down the mountain, and Jesus began to help them understand some the most important things we need to know.
Please think about this as we read Matthew 17:9-23.
MESSAGE:
*When I was a senior in high school, I took a trip with some friends over to Myrtle Beach South Carolina.
We were headed east on the interstate, going up a long hill, when suddenly the cars started acting very strange on the other side.
People were weaving, waving, yelling, flashing their lights, blowing their horns.
*We wondered what in the world was wrong with those people.
Then we topped the hill and saw this man who was driving down the wrong side of the interstate.
Thank the Lord, we had just moved over to the right lane, or we would have been killed for sure.
That man had no idea he was on the wrong side of the road, so he was putting himself and other people in great danger.
*He desperately needed to know that he was going the wrong way, and he's not the only one.
Millions of people are headed the wrong way in life.
They are headed to hell, when they could be headed to Heaven.
And nothing is more important than that.
*There are things in life that we simply must understand.
And the most important things can only be explained by Jesus Christ.
The good news is that Jesus wants to help us understand, and today's verses touch on some of these things.
1. FIRST: JESUS WANTS TO HELP US UNDERSTAND HIS SCRIPTURE.
*There was a big misunderstanding in today's Scripture about John the Baptist.
But the Lord cleared it up for His followers, and we see this in vs. 9-13:
9. Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.''
10.
And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?''
11.
Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Elijah truly is coming first and will restore all things.
12.
But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished.
Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.''
13.
Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.
*At first, John the Baptist was a mystery to the disciples.
That's because they had been confused by misguided teaching from the scribes.
And we have to understand the background here.
God had spoken through His Old Testament prophets until about 400 years before Jesus was born.
*Malachi's short book was the last, and the Lord ended it with these words in Malachi 4:5-6: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.''
*By Jesus' day, over 400 years had gone by with no word from the Lord, and the people were waiting.
They were looking for the promised Messiah, but also for His prophet who would come to restore all things.
Then at the right time, John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah to restore all things.
In God's mind this meant giving a new revelation of the coming Messiah, and a new call to repentance and righteousness.
*But during that 400 year wait, the scribes began to misunderstand God's plan.
William Barclay explained that "the Jews were agreed that before the Messiah came, Elijah would return to be his herald and his forerunner.
But over time, this idea of the coming of Elijah gathered detail, until the Jews came to believe that not only would Elijah come, but he would restore all things before the Messiah came.
*The scribes began to believe that John the Baptist "would make the world fit for the Messiah to enter into.
Their idea was that Elijah would be a great and terrible reformer, a man who would walk throughout the world destroying all evil and setting things right.
The result was that both the promised forerunner and the Messiah were thought of in terms of power.
The Scribes said that Elijah would come like a blast of cleansing and avenging fire."
(2)
*It's easy to see how the scribes could have come to that wrong understanding.
In 2 Kings 1, the wicked king Ahaziah fell from an upper room and was seriously injured.
So, he sent messengers to the false god Baal-zebub to find out if he would get well.
But the LORD sent Elijah to meet them on the way and say, "Why are you going to Baal-zebub to ask whether the king will get well?
Is there no God in Israel?
Now, therefore, this is what the LORD says: 'You will never leave the bed on which you are lying, but you will surely die.'"
*When the king heard that bad news, he sent 50 men to arrest Elijah.
They found him sitting on top of a hill.
The captain said to him, "Man of God, the king has commanded you to come along with us."
But Elijah replied to the captain, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and destroy you and your 50 men!"
-- And it did.
Then it happened again.
And it would have happened a third time, but that captain fell on his knees and pleaded for their lives.
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