In Christ’s name, Mark 9: 38-50

As I so often tell you, I preach through the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter.  In so doing, we end up dealing with the attractive parts of the gospel, and the not so attractive parts of the gospel.  But irregardless of a particular scripture’s agreeableness, we know that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I suppose that I preach through the gospel verse by verse, is because I’m not smart enough to write out a series of sermons on popular topics such as loving relationships, or on God is love, or about how to live your best life now.  However, I suppose that if I were really smart, I would skip right over this passage before us today and move on to chapter 10 as if nothing was amiss. 

This passage and subject matter would have to be one of the most difficult to speak on in light of the attitude of our present culture, and the incongruity of speaking on such a unpopular subject of divine judgement and the punishment of hell.  I’m sure that speaking on these subjects will certainly disqualify me from any popularity contest. Those of you visiting here will probably go home and tell all your friends of this horrid experience you had, when you visited a church  on the beach on a really delightful morning, with the sun shining and the waves breaking and the dolphins jumping, and then this awful preacher started ranting on about hell fire and damnation.  Really quite a terrible scene.

But you know what’s really weird, is that Bible scholars tell us that Jesus spoke more on hell than He did about heaven.  So if you are going to preach through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, then you will have to hear a lot about hell.  And so I really don’t see how we can avoid this for long.  So let’s just get to it, and deal with it, as best we can.

Thankfully, this passage doesn’t start with that subject, however.  It starts with the apostle John asking Jesus about someone they had seen casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and they had told him to stop doing it, because he was not one of them.  It seems a bit out of context with the rest of the passage, but I think there is a thread of continuity that runs through these verses and we see it all come together at the end.

Vs. 38 John said to Him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us."  But Jesus said, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as [followers] of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.”

It’s important to read this keeping in mind that the disciples had just had an embarrassing incident which we looked at a couple of weeks ago in which they had been unable to cast out a particular nasty demon.  Actually, it wasn’t so much that the demon was particularly powerful, but that the disciples had neglected to spend enough time in prayer, recognizing their utter dependence upon Jesus Christ to do any mighty works.   Pride, or a lack of humility on the part of the disciples were really the problem, not the power of the demon.  Remember Jesus had cast out  thousands of demons that were in the demoniac of the Gerasenes. So the difficulty wasn’t the demon, the difficulty had been their lack of reliance upon God for their authority.

So then the disciples see a man casting out demons who aren’t a part of their group and they have a problem with him, perhaps due to jealousy on their part.  In fact, they tried to stop him.  But what they failed to pick up on was that this man was not some Jewish exorcist, he was casting out demons by the name of Jesus Christ.  In other words, this man was a believer in Jesus Christ.  He was working the works of God through the power of Jesus Christ.  That’s what it means when Jesus said, “in my name.”  In the power and authority of Jesus Christ.  And he could only do that because he was a believer in Christ. Just because he wasn’t a member of the 12, didn’t mean that he was not a disciple of Jesus.

And Jesus speaks to that, saying, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us.”  The key to understanding that saying is that this man was working “in My name,” or “in Jesus name.” The power of Christ works in us that believe in Him to bring about any righteousness that we do.  Our ability to live the Christian life lies not in our power of discipline, or our power of self control, but in having given our life to Christ, so that the power of Christ lives in Me.  That’s what it means to be saved, to be born again, it’s to have new life in Christ, Christ living in me.  That’s what Paul speaks of in 2Co 12:9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

And that power of Christ in us is the reason that we do good works. As Paul says in Eph 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Now there is a special significance to that phrase, “in My name,” or “in Christ’s name.”  What it means is that it is true to the gospel of Christ, it is according to the truth of Christ, it is by the authority of Christ, it is in the power of Christ.  Jesus, as the Son of God,  omnipotently knew that this man was speaking the truth of Christ and working in the genuine authority and power of Christ.  We may see someone today who claims to be speaking and working in the power of Christ but we may wonder if the person is truly representing correctly the gospel of Christ.  And sometimes that is a justifiable concern.  Because the devil often masquerades as an angel of light, as we are told in the scripture. 

So we have to balance this admonition of Jesus to not hinder someone who is preaching in Jesus name on the one hand, with another admonition against those who claim the name of Jesus, according to Matthew 7:21-23, but their sinful life betrays them as not being of Christ.  Jesus said,  "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven [will enter.]  "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'  "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

So we must use spiritual discernment to know when someone is truly working in Jesus name, and when someone falsely claims Jesus name, but they aren’t preaching the truth of Jesus’s gospel.

But for those who truly work in Jesus name, Jesus says in vs41 "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as [followers] of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.”  So as we do the works of righteousness which God prepared beforehand, that we might walk in them, even to the very minor work of giving a cup of water to another believer, Jesus says that such work will be rewarded.  Heaven is a place of rewards, as well as a place of rest.  It’s a place where we are given rewards for the works that we have done on this earth.

But at the judgement seat of God which is in heaven, it will on the last day be a place for the judgement of wickedness.  And just as a minor thing as giving a cup of water will have a reward, so will every thought and deed, no matter how trivial it may seem now, have a consequence or a reward in the judgment.

Jesus spoke of that in Matt. 12:35-36 saying "The good man brings out of [his] good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of [his] evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.”

And so having spoken of the reward of the righteous works,  at this point Jesus turns His attention to that judgment of the unrighteous works, those who have rejected Him, and who hindered those who would come to Him.

Jesus says in Vs42  "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.”  These little ones that Jesus speaks of are the children of God, those who have believed in Jesus Christ, who have believed His gospel and been converted.  This statement relates back to vs 37 "Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”   Matthew’s account of this saying gives further amplification of this - "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  So little children are the children of God, made so by conversion, being born again.

But those that hinder a child of God, that cause a child of God to stumble, to fall into sin, Jesus says that having a millstone tied around your neck and being dumped into the ocean to drown would be a much better alternative than the judgment that you will face when you are called to give an account for your life.  I think that there will be a hottest part of hell reserved for people who lead others, especially young naive people, even children, into sin. And yet I believe the devil has especially targeted children today in our society, and he’s using people of influence in the media and entertainment industry to put a stumbling block in front of them.  Jesus says that such people will deserve the most severe punishment. And Jesus promises that God will judge such with the fullest measure of His wrath.

Jesus goes on to say that the disciples must be on their guard lest they cause others or themselves to stumble, to fall into sin. If any bodily organ, hand, foot, eye or anything, no matter how dear to us it may seem, if it threatens to become a trap or a stumbling block to someone, they must immediately take drastic action to be rid of it.  Jesus correlates this back in chapter 8 vs 34 as taking up your cross, being willing to die to  physical lusts of the flesh.  Here he relates it as cutting off your hand, or plucking out your eye.   In other words, you don’t try to mollify sin, to condone sin, to accommodate sin.  You cut it off. You mortify the flesh.

Jesus says, in vs43 "If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.]  If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.] If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell,  where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.”

There are some theological issues that are raised by this teaching which I want to address, and yet I am sure I cannot answer to everyone’s satisfaction.  The primary question to my mind that arises is the reality of hell.  Is hell a real place?  I would say that according to Jesus, it is very much a reality.  Is hell eternal or is it a place of annihilation? I would say that according to Jesus’ statement, it is eternal.  Is hell a place of fire and burning? I would say that according to Jesus, it is an unquenchable fire. Then another question is, who will go to hell? According to what Jesus indicates here, it is for those who have rejected Christ and continued in rebellion against Him.  Sin is rebellion.  And hell is reserved as the punishment for sin.

I wish to God that there was not a hell. I wish that no one would ever end up in hell.  I hope and pray with all my heart and soul that none of my loved ones or friends would ever find themselves in hell.  I heard one preacher say that we should never be able to speak of hell without tears in our eyes. No one in their right mind wishes hell on anyone.  Even our worst  enemies we should love enough to do everything possible to keep them from hell.  

But I also heard another preacher say that a person will have to walk over the cross of Christ in order to get to hell. They are going to have to trample on Jesus as He is dying on the cross for your sins, in order to get to hell. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus suffered our punishment so that we might be delivered from the hell we were destined for.  The good news of the gospel is that salvation is a free gift of God, if we will just believe in what Jesus did for us, that as the Son of God He became our substitute, and was punished for our sins, so that we might be forgiven and receive the righteousness of God, and we might have eternal life.  

But Jesus makes it clear that for those who reject Him, there is reserved for them a place in hell.  Then Jesus continues to talk about the judgment of fire, which I think is directed towards His disciples, or believers,  in vs 49 saying,  "For everyone will be salted with fire.”  He isn’t saying that everyone will go to hell.  But it’s not easy to understand what He is speaking of.  He probably is speaking of a trial by fire, what Peter calls a fiery trial, which will come upon everyone for the purpose of purification.  In believers, this fiery trial will be the means by which sin is purged, our iniquity is burned away so that our righteousness may be revealed.  Jesus correlates fire with the metaphor of salt to represent a curative, a preservative against the corruption of sin. If you rub salt into a wound, it burns like fire, but it also cleans and preserves against corruption.  So is the work of a fiery trial in a believer.

In Isaiah, when the prophet saw the glory of God on His throne, he said, “woe is me for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” And an angel of the Lord took a lump of coal from the fire before the altar and put it on his lips, and said, ““Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”

The hymn How Firm A Foundation that we sing here so often says, “when through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient shall be thy supply, the flames shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.”

Peter says in 1Peter 4:12-13, 17 “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;  but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. ... 17 For the time [has come] for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if [it begins] with us first, what will [be] the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” 

So there is either a fire of punishment for the wicked or a fire of refining for the believer.  But everyone will be salted by fire. But Jesus leaves the idea of fire and continues with the metaphor of salt, saying in vs 50 "Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty [again?] Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

It’s easy to see that salt is good. It’s a preservative, it cleanses, it was even used as currency, as a measure for money.  The saying that someone is “worth their salt” means worth their wage.  It comes from Roman times when soldiers were paid in salt.  Salt was considered of such great value that the soldiers were paid with it.

However according to Jesus, salt could become worthless. It could lose it’s saltiness. And He asks the rhetorical question, “how can you make it salty again? Jesus said in Matt. 5:13  "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty [again?] It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”

You might say then that salt is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in your life, the refining fire of the Holy Spirit in your life.  But if you disregard the Spirit’s warnings, and sin against God and man, then you effectively quench the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, and righteousness and judgment.  But it’s possible to quench the Holy Spirit and rebel against the Lord, to continue in sin.  And if that occurs in your life, then your physical life is  no longer good for anything godly, but to be trampled under foot by men.  Reminds us of trampling over the cross of Christ in order to get to hell, doesn’t it? 

Heb 10:28-31 says,  “Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on [the testimony of] two or three witnesses.  How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know Him who said, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY." And again, "THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE."  It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

So as a preservative against the temptation to sin, Jesus says, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”  It’s useless for a man to try to do good works unless by the grace of God he has been made good within. That is unless he has been converted into a true child of God. It’s having the power of the Spirit of Christ in you. To have salt within oneself means then, to have the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, working to conform you into the image of Jesus Christ.  Romans 8:9 says, “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” So having the Spirit within you,  then you become, as Jesus said in Matt. 5:13, the salt of the world. And therefore also, your speech is always seasoned with salt. 

To that end, Jesus said, be at peace with each other.  Having the Holy Spirit in us as the salt that cures us from quarreling, from envy, from strife, from anger, from jealousy, from trying to outdo each other, but instead learning to love one another and serve one another, and value the other more highly than yourself.  That is the means of peace.  As Paul said in Rom 12:18 “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”  That is how we become the salt of the earth. Being at peace with one another is how we manifest Christ who is in us,  to the world.   As Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” (Matt.5:9)

A lesson in humility, Mark 9:30-37

I have said previously that Jesus has entered into a transitionary stage in His ministry, in which His focus is more on teaching His disciples rather than ministering to the multitudes.  And that reveals a principle that should be paramount in the church, which is that once a person is saved it is essential for them to be discipled, for them to grow in maturity, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  It is essential for the person who is saved to grow in sanctification.  Hebrews 12:14 tells us that without sanctification no one will see the Lord.  

So Jesus is focusing for the remainder of His time before the cross in teaching His disciples the principles that will produce sanctification in their lives.  And probably the most fundamental of those principles is humility.  If we are to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, then the most fundamental character trait that we must learn is that of humility.  And not just to mimic humility, or pretend humbleness, but to actually become humble.  

These apostles are going to be God’s specially appointed ministers to the church.  They will be the spiritual leaders in the new church at Jerusalem after Pentecost, and they will establish churches throughout the world.  And Jesus knows that the supreme character trait of the kind of pastor or apostle that He desires is that such a one be humble.  

That’s quite the contrary to what we might actually see manifested in most churches today though, I’m afraid.  I think that most pastor search committees when seeking out pastor candidates, do not see humbleness as being of paramount importance. And by the way, I will go on record as saying that I think pastor search committees are an abomination for the most part.  There is no Biblical precedent for them.  They are not the way the apostles were chosen, nor the way the pastors of the early church were chosen.  And I don’t think that they are the method that the Lord chooses pastors.  I’m sure that statement doesn’t sit well with some of you, but that’s my opinion. 

However, I will emphasize that humility should be the characteristic of a leader in the church and yet it is sorely missing in most pulpits today. But it is also the fundamental characteristic of any  mature Christian.  And yet it is not something that we seem to put any value upon in either the church, or in our society in general. 

I will say that in my own personal experience, as I was being matured as a Christian, as the Lord was preparing me to accept a call to be a preacher, I went through a trial by fire that lasted for well over three years which God used to teach me humility.  In fact, it’s still an ongoing lesson. I guess I’m a slow learner, because God seems to see fit to humble me again and again. But I’ve learned through it that humility is important to God.  Paul experienced something similar, saying in 2Cor. 12:7-9 “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself!  Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.  And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

Now the opposite of humility is pride.  And pride is a sin. Pride is a sin but no one really considers it as sinful.  In fact, pride is encouraged.  Pride is actually a virtue in our society.  But it’s rarely identified as just plain old stuck up pride.  It’s often repackaged as a feeling of self worth.  As loving yourself.  As having goals. As having a positive self image.  As taking pride in your accomplishments or being proud of your work.  Those are the positive spins that we like to use to characterize pride.

But Jesus doesn’t teach pride.  Jesus condemns pride.  Instead, Jesus teaches the virtue of humility. In fact, Jesus is a living example of humility.  Jesus came the first time, not to be served, but to serve.  And we should follow His example.  

Paul says of Jesus in Phl 2:5-11  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Now you will remember that last week we looked at the previous passage in which the disciples were taught a lesson in humility.  The disciples who had been waiting behind when Jesus was transfigured on the mountain encountered a situation that they were not able to handle.  A man had brought his son who was demon possessed to them, and they had been unable to deliver the boy from the power of the demon. Earlier they had raved about how the demons had been subject to them when the Lord had sent them out two by two.  But this time they couldn’t do it, and there was a crowd watching them and the scribes began to deride them and jeer at their incompetence.  And even Jesus, when He came in to rescue the situation, rebuked them for their lack of faith.  Whether they had learned humility in that situation is open for debate, but they were certainly humbled by it.

Now according to Mark, in vs 30, we read that they left that town, and began to travel through Galilee towards Capernaum. And Jesus uses this time with them alone to continue to disciple them.  Vs 30, From there they went out and [began] to go through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know [about it.]  For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, "The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later."  But they did not understand [this] statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.

Jesus wanted some time alone with just the disciples as they traveled in order that He might teach them.  This is the transitionary phase of His ministry, where He prepares them to be able to continue His ministry when He is no longer with them in person.  And so Jesus doesn’t want to broadcast where He is going, or the way that He is traveling so that He might be able to spend time with just the disciples. 

So during their journey, Jesus uses the opportunity to teach the disciples further about His ministry, that He came to serve and not be served.  He will say that explicitly later on, in chapter 10 vs 45, saying "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

But for now, He states His servanthood by describing His betrayal, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. The Son of Man is to be delivered (or betrayed) into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.”  But the disciples did not understand this, and they were afraid to ask Him what it meant.

See, the disciples were convinced in their minds, as were the rest of the Jews, that the Messiah was going to rule and reign over the world on the throne of David in Jerusalem.  He would destroy their enemies, and make Israel once again a place of preeminence in the world. They were looking for Jesus to be that King who would overthrow the yoke of Roman oppression, and usher in a kingdom of peace and prosperity in which Israel would enjoy all the privileges of the royal family.   So this statement that Jesus makes just doesn’t make sense.

Jesus had made a similar statement about this just a short time previously, as you will remember, and Peter had the audacity to take Jesus aside and say, “Not so Lord. I will never let this happen to you.”  And Jesus had rebuked Peter saying “Get behind Me Satan. For you are not setting your mind of God’s interests but on man’s.”  So no wonder the disciples are afraid to ask Him about it.

You know, there is a humiliation of the cross that I think we have a hard time comprehending. First of all, Deut. 21:23  says that “cursed is he that hangs on a tree.” The disciples as well as all Jews would have known that.  So there is an incomprehension of how the Messiah who is the Holy One of God could be accursed of God. How the Messiah who they expected to be exalted could be humiliated by such a death. But there is also the humiliation that being stripped naked and beaten with a whip and having a crown of thorns pressed into your head, and being hung there for all the world to see, for your family and loved ones to see, to be hung as a criminal, as One worthy of death.  What a humiliation that Jesus embraced for our sakes. 

Isaiah 53:10 says,  But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting [Him] to grief; If He would render Himself [as] a guilt offering, He will see [His] offspring, He will prolong [His] days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. Vs 4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being [fell] upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.  All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

The Lord Jesus knew that this humiliation was the way to glory, not only for Himself, but also for us.  Only by His stripes are we healed.  Only through His death on the cross is our sin taken away.  God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

But for now, the disciples hear what Jesus is saying but they cannot comprehend it, and they are afraid to ask Him any questions about it.

So Jesus continues to teach them as they travel.  But as they were traveling, the disciples were undoubtedly trying to understand among themselves what it all meant, how the kingdom of God was going to be manifested in the reign of the Messiah, and how they would fit into that kingdom. But their lack of understanding about the kingdom revealed their lack of humility.

Vs 33 They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He [began] to question them, "What were you discussing on the way?"  But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which [of them was] the greatest.

What the disciples were guilty of, is just the way everyone thinks, isn’t it? I mean, we have goals in life, and that’s considered a good thing.  We admire people who climb the corporate ladder, or if we don’t admire them, we envy them. Everyone is looking out for number one. And that’s considered appropriate.  That’s considered healthy.  You know, the famous question that everyone is asked in a job interview.  “Where do you see yourself in five years?”  The answer they want to hear is I want to advance my career, advance my responsibilities.

The disciples aren’t being particularly nefarious. They are just being human. No body wants to be last.  Everyone wants to be first. It’s natural.  And if Jesus is the King, then they will obviously take the choice positions in His court. Isn’t that the way politics work? Doesn’t the key supporters of the President get the choice positions in his administration?  Why shouldn’t the same apply in the spiritual realm?

But there is another element in their discussions.  They aren’t just looking out for number one, which is their own position in the kingdom, but there is a discussion about who is the greatest. Maybe they thought that Peter was on the black list now that he had been called Satan by Jesus.  Maybe they thought that left the door open for another de facto leader of the 12. Maybe that was another element of what was gong on. 

So Jesus sits down, which was the position of the rabbi, the teacher, and He gives them the lesson that they need to learn. Vs 35 Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

The obvious answer to their discussions over who was the greatest was that Jesus was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  He was the One given all authority in heaven and earth.  He is the One to whose name  EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and  every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  But that is not what Jesus says to them.  He simply says the way to glorification is by way of subordination. 

Putting the needs of others before your own is what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus isn’t suggesting here that the way to heaven is to go work for Greenpeace for a couple of years, or to serve  lunch at the soup kitchen twice a week. He is speaking of having a heart for others, to see them brought into the kingdom of God, to see them discipled and grow in their faith, to serve others by your support, both in serving their spiritual needs and their physical needs.  Of being more concerned about other’s spiritual well being than your own physical well being.  Serving the Lord’s interests, rather than serving man’s interests.  And that requires humility. Not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought.

You know, humility is not weakness.  I’m afraid a lot of people see it that way.  We’re afraid that if you serve others, they might take advantage of you. They might use you.  We’re afraid that if you really love others the way Christ loved us, they might enrich themselves, and make you the poorer for it.  But humility isn’t weakness. It’s not being a doormat for others to wipe their feet on.  But it’s deliberately putting yourself in second place.  Actually, Jesus says we should take last place. It’s subordinating your priorities to the Lord’s priorities. And by extension, subordinating your needs to another’s needs.  Having the heart of a servant is the way humility is expressed. 

Jesus liked to use living illustrations in His teaching.  And so He turns the attention of these disciples, who were jockeying to see who was the greatest, He turns their attention to someone in the room who was the least among them.  Vs36 Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them,  "Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”

This child, who is small enough that Jesus can pick him up in His arms,  is an object lesson, an illustration of this principle of humility. A child has no power, no achievement, no accomplishment, no greatness, a child is weak, dependent, ignored, vulnerable, has nothing to offer in exchange. This is a perfect illustration for a believer. “Whoever receives one child like this in my name” - He’s not talking about an actual child, but metaphorically talking about a spiritual child of God, a child like this - “in my name, receives me.” What is He saying? When a believer comes to you, Christ comes to you. How you treat another believer is how you treat Christ.  As believers are the church, and the church is the body of Christ, so how you love one another is a measure of how you love Christ, how you serve the body of Christ is how you serve Christ. 

So not only is the child a picture of humility, but Jesus says the one who receives such a one as this child is receiving Him.  You can substitute the word serves for receives.  So whoever serves a child of God is serving the Lord.  The Greek word translated as receive is dechomai, which has a broad definition to include to receive or grant access to, a visitor, not to refuse friendship, to receive hospitality, to receive into one's family to bring up or educate of the thing offered in speaking, teaching, instructing, to receive favourably, give ear to, embrace, make one's own, approve, not to reject, to receive. i.e. to take upon one's self, sustain, bear, endure. So all those ideas are included in the word  receive. 

Paul says in Galatians 6: 2 “Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. ... vs 10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” 

Matthew has this same incident recorded in his gospel.  And I want to just read it for you, as he gives us some additional insight into all that Jesus was teaching.  Matthew 18:1-6  At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"  And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,  and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;  but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” 

I need to wrap this up, but I want to make sure that you see that Jesus has more to say about salvation than was apparent in Mark’s account. Unless you are converted and become like children…. In other words, you must be born again.  Born of the Spirit, changed, given new life, that’s what converted means.  God has to remake you, change you.  And as a child is wholly dependent upon his parents to feed him and nurture him, to train him and raise him, in fact his DNA is established from his parents, his nature is from his parents, even so when we are born of God, converted, changed, we are given a new spiritual nature, a new spiritual DNA, that enables us to be like Jesus, to be conformed to His image as we walk with Him and serve Him and grow with Him in our faith.  

And Jesus said, unless you are converted, you will not enter the kingdom of God.  I hope and trust that you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, that you have been converted, born again by the Spirit of God into a child of God. And then growing up unto the Lord, that you serve the Lord by serving your brothers and sisters in the faith. Putting God first, denying yourself, for the sake of the ultimate good of others.

War of the worlds, Mark 9:14- 29

I have titled this message this morning “War of the Worlds.”  That title may sound familiar to some of you who may be aware of the Orson Welles science fiction radio program of that name that ran during World War 2.  It was based on a book by H.G. Wells which was written around 1897.  For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, it was a book about the invasion of earth by Martian alien creatures.   It was one of the first of it’s kind of that sort of science fiction.

One significant quote from that book says, “Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”  I found that scenario eerily similar to the conflict going on in our world which we are told about in Ephesians 6:11, [Eph 6:11 “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly [places.]”

1 Cor. 2:12 says that there is a spirit of the world that is in opposition to the Spirit who is from God. 1 John 5:19 says that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.  That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?  To think that the whole world is held in captivity to the dominion of darkness. 2 Cor. 4:4 says that the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.  And consequently, because of Satan’s dominion over this world, Ephesians 2:2 says that man walks according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

There is a battle for this world between God and Satan.  Now we must understand that Satan is not equivalent to God in power or authority. He was actually created by God.  But we must not underestimate him.  He is undoubtedly the most powerful of all the angels created by God, and the fallen angels or demons under his dominion have supernatural power.  We read  in the Old Testament of a single angel that killed 185,000 men in one night.

But the scripture tells us that greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world. And so our only hope in doing battle against the forces of darkness is through Jesus Christ. He has complete authority over all things in heaven and in earth. Jesus spoke of the devil as the enemy, as a thief, saying in John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have [it] abundantly.” And so as Paul said in  Eph 6:11-12 we must  “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly places (or the spiritual realm.)” And the armor that he says we must put on to fight this battle is truth, faith, salvation, the gospel, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

But battles in the spiritual realm are rarely fought in our mountain top experience, they are most often fought in the valley of the shadow of death.  The disciples have just had a tremendous mountain top experience.  The three disciples, Peter, James and John, got a glimpse behind the veil so to speak of the spiritual realm.  They saw Jesus transfigured with the glory of God, His face and garments shining like the sun. They saw Moses and Elijah miraculously appear and talk to Jesus.  They heard the voice of God speak saying, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.”  You just can’t imagine a greater mountain top spiritual experience than that.

But now they have come down the mountain. They have come back down to the realm of the god of this world. And the 9 disciples who had been left behind are surrounded by jeering critics.  There are all sorts of things happening in this incident which are really expressions of the power of evil, the captivity by which Satan has blinded and held captive the world.  We see an extreme example of demonic possession in the young boy by which Satan was trying to destroy his life.  We see the failure of faith and discouragement of the disciples which rendered them fruitless and powerless.  We see the pain and suffering of the father as he sees the hopeless situation of his son.  We see the ridicule and criticism of the scribes.

The scribes are of the religious party about which Jesus said, “John 8:44 "You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature,] for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  And so rather than these religious leaders showing compassion on this young boy who is held captive by demonic power, they see that as something to gloat over, to lampoon the disciples who are confused and discouraged by this demonic power that they are facing.

Let’s read Mark’s account of what happened. Mark 9:14, “When they (Jesus and the three disciples) came [back] to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and [some] scribes arguing with them.  Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and [began] running up to greet Him.  And He asked them, "What are you discussing with them?"  And one of the crowd answered Him, "Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute;  and whenever it seizes him, it slams him [to the ground] and he foams [at the mouth,] and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not [do it.]”

The disciples are under attack from the scribes, the teachers of the law, the representatives of established religion. And all around them is this crowd of people, who are taking sides in the argument and adding to the general confusion. The disciples have lost control of the situation. That’s always a strategy of the devil.  Confusion, chaos, disorder, discord, anger.  All of these things which undermine the authority of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And at the center of it all, the predicament that gives rise to this confused melee is the dejected father and his son who is desperately in need of deliverance.

But then there’s something like a ripple that runs through the crowd, as the people looked in amazement at Jesus who had just showed up. And there’s a great surge in the crowd as some run forward to meet him. And in verse 16, Jesus asks a simple question: “What are you arguing  with them about?” And the answer that he receives is actually only an indirect answer. It suggests to us the root of the problem, but the answer comes from the lips of a man who’s in the crowd, and Mark describes him as “A man in the crowd answered”—somebody shouts out from the group—“‘Teacher, I brought you my son.’”

The nature of what Jesus is asked to deal with is actually demonic possession, as we discover in verse 17. The result of the demonic possession is such that the boy cannot speak. When the evil spirit takes him, “it throws him to the ground,” he “foams at the mouth,” he “gnashes his teeth,” and he “becomes rigid.” This is a terrible situation, one in which the demon is undoubtedly trying to destroy this boy.  It’s somewhat like  what we know as a form of epilepsy. But you will notice from the text that this is not described as a medical condition; it is described in terms of demonic possession.  This demonic force violently throws this boy to the ground repeatedly, undoubtedly causing him to have head trauma which results in seizures.  Perhaps by this time there had been permanent damage to this boy.

There are primarily two views of demonic possession that you find prevalent in the church today. One is that it is absolutely everywhere, so look out, it may be behind your closet door; or, that it absolutely doesn’t exist, therefore don’t worry about it at all, because there is no such thing. And of course, science doesn’t believe in it either.  But both views of the church are wrong. And it takes discernment to navigate from a first-century description to our twenty-first-century reality. But we can know this for sure: that the reality of demonic possession to any degree is always purposefully to deceive and to destroy the image of God in a man or in a woman. It is to destroy any hope of salvation. It is never in order to enhance life, it is never in order to fulfill life, it is never in order to make life better; it is always to deceive  and to destroy. And that is the condition, of this son and only child, Luke tells us, of this father. He’s his only boy—his only son, who has been in this condition for his entire childhood. 

And so this man, having obviously heard of the miracles of Jesus, had sought Him out to deliver his son from demon possession.  But Jesus wasn’t there when he arrived at the place he had heard about.  Instead, he found 9 of Jesus’s disciples.  But the disciples had been unable to cast out the demon. They had a great experience casting out demons earlier when Jesus had sent them out two by two.  The demons had been subject to the name of Jesus. But for some reason, they were unable to be successful on this occasion, and it was embarrassing to say the least, not to mention it was tragic for the father who had such high hopes.  And it was an opportunity for the critics, the scribes, to embarrass and condemn the apostles for their lack of ability.  You know, the devil cannot really find fault with Jesus, but he can criticize His followers.  He can demoralize his followers so that they add error to error, so that people don’t believe the truth of the gospel.  So that people might even turn away from the faith.

So look at Jesus’s answer.  Vs 19 And He answered them and said, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!" They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he [began] rolling around and foaming [at the mouth.] And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood.  "It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!"  And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes."  Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief.”

I want you to notice here that Jesus is not rebuking the father of the boy.  He is rebuking the disciples.  The lack of faith, the lack of belief is on the part of the disciples who thought that they were faced with a superior force that they could not overpower.  It really comes down to them thinking that Jesus was somehow insufficient.  Now in their defense, these particular disciples had not been witnesses to the transfiguration.  They had not seen the glory of God manifested in Jesus on the mountain.  But still, they had seen Him deliver hundreds of people from demonic possession.  I can only assume that since He was not there physically with them, they lacked confidence that He could still deliver this boy through them.  So Jesus in effect says to them in exasperation, “How much longer am I going to be with you? You’re going to have to learn how to carry on My ministry without Me.” That requires faith on their part, and that faith is shown to be lacking.

And so he says, “Bring the boy to me.” Verse 20: “So they brought him.” And immediately you have a collision between the dominion of darkness and the kingdom of light. What takes place in the immediate response of the forces of evil within the boy as they recognize the Spirit of God in Jesus Christ. As soon as the spirit in the boy saw Jesus—look at verse 20—“it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.” 

What we see here is the compassion of Jesus towards the boy and towards the father. This is what Jesus came to do, to save the world from sin, from the curse of sin, the captivity of sin.  He is the light that shines in the darkness of the world, and the world does not overpower it.

And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”  The devil was trying to destroy this boy, and by extension, to destroy this father who had to witness this for the entire childhood of his son.  The strategy of Satan is to destroy as many people as possible.  You know, the alcoholism of a man not only destroys him, but it often destroys his family, his wife, his kids.  That’s the way sin works. And that’s the way the devil works to destroy.

Vs23 And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief.” That sentence “All things are possible to him who believes,” has to be one of the best examples of a verse of scripture which is often used out of context.  That’s the slogan of the charismatic faith healers.  That’s the proof text of the prosperity gospel preachers.  But make sure you keep it in the context of which Jesus said it.  

Who or what is the person to believe in?  Is it to believe that whatever I can think of, or desire, I can have it if I just believe it really really hard?  Is that what Jesus is saying here? I think not.  I think in Jesus’s response you see first of all His repetition of the statement “if You can.”  This man was saying If you Jesus can deliver my son… If You have the power Jesus.  If You have the authority.  It’s almost as if the man is maligning who Jesus is by casting doubt upon His authority. 

And so Jesus response is “All things are possible to him who believes.” The point is that this man must believe in who Jesus Christ is.  Not believe in the power of positive thinking, or even the power of prayer, or even in the power of faith.  But believing in who Jesus is.  And if you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, the Son of God, you shall be saved.  That is saving faith, to believe in who Jesus is, the Son of the living God.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please [Him,] for he who comes to God must believe that He is and [that] He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” So there is saving faith, and there is working faith.  This man needs to show saving faith.  The disciples were guilty of failing in working faith.  Or we might better say, walking faith.  Because the Bible says we walk by faith and not by sight.  They failed to walk by faith.  Jesus wasn’t around.  They couldn’t see Him and so they didn’t have faith in His ability to heal this boy.  Faith is not just something by which we are saved, but it’s the means by which we live, by which we work the works of righteousness.

The father at least recognizes that his faith is something that needs improvement.  He says, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” That’s the other element about faith that needs to be mentioned. And that is that faith grows, faith matures.  Faith is strengthened.  And faith is a gift of God.  So the father gets that right by asking Jesus to improve his faith, to give him faith to believe.

Vs25 “When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again."  After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and [the boy] became so much like a corpse that most [of them] said, "He is dead!"  But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up.”

We shouldn’t interpret that as if Jesus wanted to have a crowd and so He waited until a crowd formed and then began to heal the boy.  No, just the opposite.  Jesus wanted to avoid the sensationalism as much as possible, so He wanted to avoid the crowd.  

But as He commands the evil spirit to come out of him, the spirit throws the boy into one last convulsion which is so devastating that it seems that the boy must have perished.  He looks like a corpse, deathly white and perhaps not even breathing. But Jesus takes him by the hand and raises him up.  

This is what Jesus does. This is what Jesus does in our day and time. He takes people whose lives are decimated, who have been deceived and who are being destroyed, and he does what only He can do and what no one else can do, that is, he enters into that spiritual deadness, and he takes the person by the hand, and raises them up, and they enter into new life.

Jesus is the one who says, “I am the resurrection and the life, and he who believes in Me, even though he dies, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” He’s the only one who can deliver us from death and sin. He’s either truth or He’s a liar. He’s either the God in the flesh who has the authority to forgive sin, to give life,  or he’s a liar.

Well, after the boy is healed, after all the drama is over, the disciples go back to the house with Jesus and they ask Him a question.  Vs 28 When He came into [the] house, His disciples [began] questioning Him privately, "Why could we not drive it out?"  And He said to them, "This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

What Jesus is basically saying is, “You didn’t pray.” Or perhaps, “you didn’t pray enough.”  When do you not pray? When you don’t think you need to.  Or when you don’t want to. Or when you’re presumptuous. Or when you think you can do it by yourself. So, if you think you can preach by yourself, there’s no need to pray before you preach. If you think you can do everything, just go ahead and do it, and see how it goes. That’s what he’s saying: “And you tried it. You tried it without prayer; next time, be sure to pray.” 

Prayer is expressing your dependence upon God.  Prayer is calling upon the power of God. Prayer is saying it’s not by some power that I have, but by the power of Jesus Christ that this boy would be healed. Prayer is communication from us to God that the power might come from God through us. 

You see, prayer is ultimately aligning our wills with the will of God. It is simply acknowledging that God must do these things, that we don’t possess these things in and of ourselves. It’s not that our will be done, but that His will be done.  And I think these disciples were getting a little too self important, and therefore they needed a little reminder. Just a little bit further in this chapter we will see that they were discussing among themselves who was the greatest. So perhaps they needed a little public humiliation as a necessary part of their training, a reminder of where their power came from.

We need remind ourselves that the faith that is fundamental to this story is not a faith that reaches out into some vague void—a belief in belief, or a belief in something—but it is a faith that resolutely trusts in the Lord Jesus. And in a world that scoffs at our belief in Christ and is quick to criticize our failures, we’re able to turn to One who says, “Bring the boy to me. Bring the girl to me. Suffer the little children to come unto me.” You can’t educate them out of this present darkness. You won’t be able to therapy them out of this snare and trap of the world that Satan has set for them. Actually, it’s good that you know you can’t do this. Bring them to Jesus. And some of us, as parents and grandparents, might want to take that in a very personal way. And if we can’t physically bring our children and grandchildren face-to-face with Christ, we can go face-to-face with Christ in prayer and bring them into his presence and trust in His power to make that which seems impossible, possible.

A foretaste of God’s glory, Mark 9:1-8

Today’s passage, Mark 9:1-8, you will also find a parallel passage in Matthew 17, and also in Luke chapter 9. So if I appear to say something which is not in your text as you look down at it, then that is probably because the reference that I’m making is either to the Matthew passage or to the Luke passage.

John, in the prologue to his gospel, makes at least a tangential reference to this event when, in the course of his statement concerning Jesus, he says of him in John 1:14, “we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth..” And one of the ways in which the glory of Jesus was seen was in this particular event that we’re considering now. 

Peter writes of it in 2 Peter 1:16 saying “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.  For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased"-- and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.”  So Peter, in writing his letter, references this event which the Gospel writers record for us and which we are considering this morning.

For Peter, the experience of the recent days has been a roller coaster ride of spiritual highs and lows. One minute he says that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God, and the next minute Jesus is saying to him, “Get behind me, Satan! You don’t have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” You know, some people suggest that in the Christian life,  once you get up to a certain altitude, then it’s just smooth sailing from that point on. I’ve never been too convinced of that. I don’t find that expressed in the Bible, and it’s certainly not the experience of my own Christian life. No, I think I’d have to say that the Christian life is a series of highs and lows. One minute you feel as though you have ascended to the mountaintop, and the next minute you’re down in the valley of the shadow of death. Well, we find that Peter was perpetually riding the highs and lows of the Christian experience, and we see another incidence of that in this passage.

Some commentators think that vs 1 should really be the last verse of chapter 8.  But I think it belongs just where it is, as an introduction to the transfiguration.  Vs 1, “And Jesus was saying to them, ‘Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.’”

There are a lot of possible interpretations of this verse, but I think it is a reference to some of the disciples witnessing the transfiguration. “Some of you who are standing here are not going to die before you see the kingdom of God coming with power.” And six days later, he took James and John up on the mountainside, and guess what happened? They saw the kingdom of God come with power.

So if that’s the context, we continue from verse 2: “Six days later, Jesus *took with Him Peter and James and John, and *brought them up on a high mountain by themselves.”  We don’t know what happened during those six days, but we can assume that Jesus continued teaching the disciples about the same subject matter that He talks about in the last of chapter 8, and now vs 1.  And then the six days of teaching are over, and now it’s time for a theological field trip.  A field trip is supposed to be a physical representation in the real world of what you have been learning in the classroom.  The disciples have been in class for the last week or so, learning about the kingdom of God and how Jesus will accomplish His ministry as the Messiah. But now they get an opportunity to go see a personal glimpse into that spiritual reality.

And by extension,  we are going to participate in that same field trip via the written account that is given to us by Mark.   So let’s look first of all at the description that is provided for us in verses 2–4. “And He was transfigured before them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them. Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.”

We have here the description of a scene which in some sense is almost indescribable. That should become apparent. Look at what we’re told. What do we learn from this? Well, we learn that there were three individuals involved, plus Jesus. We’re told that they were up on this “high mountain” and “they were all alone,” that there was no one with them. We’re also told in Luke 9 that Jesus had gone up onto this high mountain in order to pray. And as they were praying, “he was transfigured before them.”

“His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.” and Matthew says “his face shone like the sun.” He was transfigured before them. The word that is translated “transfigured” is the Greek word metamorphoo, from which we get our English word metamorphosis. It is used here and in Matthew 17; it is used in Romans 12:2 when Paul talks about being “transformed by the renewing of your mind;” and it is also used in 2 Corinthians 3:18, where Paul says, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” Those are the only occasions in the New Testament where this particular verb is used.

Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s nature,. So the glory of God is veiled in Jesus' humanity. What we have in His transfiguration then is a temporary pulling back of the veil that we might see His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father.

But if you think about it, even this exhibition is inevitably incomplete. Because it can only be given to us under symbols—symbols which are then adapted to our capacity with language, our capacity of comprehension, so that the whole of the Bible is actually an accommodation to us. The other day I was reading from Psalm 91. And I was reading the verses which said “He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge;” What is David saying? God has wings and feathers? No. It is an accommodation. It is the use of language in order to connote something, to describe something, which we in our humanity can then process.

And that’s really what we have in this description—a shining face and dazzling clothes. God was making it possible for Peter, James, and John to get a taste of what they could not fully comprehend—to get a glimpse of what they fully couldn’t understand.

So from a human perspective,  the divinity of Jesus was concealed under the veil of his humanity. His divinity was concealed under the veil of his humanity, so that you read Isaiah 53: He had “no form [or] comeliness.” There was “no beauty” about him that we would be attracted to him. He was one from whom men hid their faces. He was “despised,” and we esteemed him not. Jesus walked down the street, and people didn’t notice anything. He was lost in the crowd. The people would have said, “Which one is Jesus of Nazareth?” unless he was teaching or unless he was doing a miracle.  You would never expect that God was there in the midst of the crowd in the Jerusalem markets—that in the midst of all of that, there is divinity. Surely, He would have some dramatic way of identifying himself. Surely, He would be accompanied by angels. Surely, He would have people walk in front of him and come behind Him. Surely, when he finally made his great declaration of His kingship in the streets of Jerusalem, He would have marshaled all the forces of heaven to accompany Him, riding on chariots of fire.  But no! He rides in on a donkey, on the colt of a donkey.

He became what he was not—namely, man—without ever ceasing to be what he was—namely, God. And here in this moment, in this temporary exhibition, these individuals are given a  preview of that which will then be manifested after the resurrection, and that which will finally come to its fulfillment when history as we know it is wrapped up and we live in a new heaven and in a new earth.

Now, not only is Jesus transfigured, but suddenly the four become six. And in verse 4, two key characters from the Old Testament are talking with Jesus.  The disciples became completely terrified on the basis of this. Elijah, the prophet,  and Moses, the lawgiver, are talking with Jesus.

When the saints of old spoke of the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, they spoke of the Law and the Prophets.  Here we see the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, Moses and Elijah, signifying the unity of scripture in testifying of the kingdom of God. You see by this the wonderful way in which the Bible is one unified book—that the Old Testament and the New Testament are not set in opposition to one another. Someone has well said, that the New is, in the Old, concealed; and the Old is, in the New, revealed. That the significance of Moses as the lawgiver and Elijah the prophet finally finds its fulfillment in Jesus, for He is the one who hasn’t come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.

Luke says they were talking about the departure of Jesus. That’s an interesting thing to be talking about! You’ve only just come, and you’re talking about leaving. What’s that about? No, the word that is used here is the word for exodus. They were talking about the exodus of Jesus. And that would be the exodus whereby people, through faith in Jesus, being placed underneath the sign of his shed blood, as was true for Moses and the people in Egypt, that they also would be set free, and the exodus of Jesus, the departure of Jesus, in and through Jerusalem is a reference to that where, by his death and his resurrection and his ascension, He delivers His people from the captivity and condemnation of sin.

So, we move from the looking part to the listening part. And there is a discussion which ensues. Mark tells us that Peter “didn’t know what to say” because he and his two friends “were so frightened.” Actually, the fact that he didn’t know what to say hadn’t ever stopped Peter before, and it doesn’t stop him now. Luke actually tells us that Peter “didn’t know what he was saying.”

“Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”’  I can imagine Peter and the other disciples thinking this is really great, you know.   This type of spectacle is what is needed to really get the church going.  If Jesus could just bottle this up and display it for the multitudes then the whole world will be streaming to see Jesus and would believe in Him.  After all, the Pharisees had just been complaining that Jesus would not show them a sign that He was from God.  But if they saw Moses and Elijah and saw Jesus transfigured then they would believe.  So this is good.  This is going to be a great ministry tool to bring people to the Lord. 

And suddenly a dark cloud envelops them on the mountain, and voice from heaven says, “This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him.”  I find myself unable to adequately expound upon God’s statement.  It’s perfect in it’s simplicity.  In this statement God the Father expresses His complete agreement with Christ, and tells us to listen to Him as the full expression of the gospel of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, who dwelt among us.  His words are the word of God.  His word is truth, they are life, they are the way. He is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.  Listen to Him that you might receive life, that you might gain entrance into the kingdom of God. And suddenly with those words, Elijah and Moses are gone, and only Jesus and the disciples are there alone. The light emanating from Jesus fades awy, and the veil of Jesus’ humanity is replaced.

There were many things to be learned from the transfiguration. One is the reality of spiritual life. Moses and Elijah were alive, speaking to Jesus. Talking about His ministry. They learned, as Jesus would say on another occasion, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. The disciples not only got to see behind the veil of Jesus’ humanity, but they got to see behind the veil of the physical world into the realm of the spirit. They learned from this event the superiority of Jesus as the Christ, that He is, according to the Father’s statement, His only begotten Son, and in Him is all power and authority given in heaven and in earth. And they should have learned from this event of His eternal nature, which supersedes His humanity. 

Then vs 9 says, “As they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead.“ Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” That seems to include the fellow disciples, the other nine that were not present with them on this occasion. That’s quite a tall order, I think you would agree, to have been exposed to something as spectacular as this, something as life-changing as this; you would want immediately to hurry down the mountainside and let everybody know what you had experienced.

But Jesus said don’t tell anyone about it. There will be time enough for them to tell the story to others once they themselves have understood it. But since they as yet do not yet fully comprehend what happened, it is quite understandable that Jesus gives the order that He does. They’re not going to be able to make sense of this until after the resurrection.

Verse 10: “They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant.”  In other words, they had a question about what Jesus meant when he said they weren’t to tell anyone until they had seen “the Son of Man … risen from the dead.” That raised a question in their minds, which they chose not to ask but decided to discuss with each other.

The Jewish people believed in the resurrection at the last day. And  the disciples clearly believed in that theology.  In John 11, which speaks of the death of Lazarus, you will remember that Martha says to Jesus. “If you had been here,” she says in John 11:21, “my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” John 11:23: “Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’”  And that was a reference to the Jewish conception of resurrection. The resurrection at the last day would usher in the final judgment.

But they had no concept of a personal resurrection on the part of the Messiah which preceded this general resurrection at the last day. And so, consequently, it was a matter of confusion to them for Jesus to say, “You need to keep this quiet until the Son of Man has been raised,” and they must have said to one another, “Do we have to wait until we get to the very end of the age? Do we have to wait until the new age is ushered in? What does he mean by this?” But they don’t ask Jesus that question.  However the question they don’t ask, is replaced by another question, which is really just trying to understand the time frame that they are looking at, in light of the prophecies which they are aware of.

So the question they ask is ‘Why is it that  the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’”Malachi says in chapter 4 verse 5, the final two verses of his prophecy, “Behold, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.” So, the prophet Elijah is going to come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. “He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” So, not only did the Jewish people anticipate a resurrection at the last day, but they anticipated the appearance of Elijah before the appearing of the Messiah.

You see, they have  already come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. So they’re really stuck now: “If you are the Messiah and you have come, what’s this stuff about Elijah coming before the Messiah? Because you’re already here!”

Jesus answers them in verse 12. And He said to them, "Elijah does first come and restore all things. And [yet] how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him.” And therein is the problem: How do we put the suffering and rejection in line with the triumph and the glory? Where does it all fit?

We can get a little more clarity on that answer from  Matthew 17 and to the account of the transfiguration as Matthew records it for us. Matthew 17:10: “[Then] the disciples asked him, ‘Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?’ Jesus replied, ‘To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.’” Verse 13: “Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist,” In other words, that those  statements concerning the prophet Elijah find their fulfillment in the ministry of John the Baptist.

But the ministry of John the Baptist was not the ministry that they had hoped for. Because they hoped that the restoration which they anticipated in the prophetic role of Elijah would be the restoration of all of their supremacy as Jewish people—the  triumph over the Roman authorities,  the reestablishment of the temple, the restoration of all things that would establish Israel as dominant in the world. But when John the Baptist comes, what does he speak to them about? He speaks to them about repentance. He speaks to them about the need for forgiveness. He speaks to them about the need of them being baptized as an outward sign of the fact that they know their hearts are sinful and need to be renewed. They need to be restored not in a geopolitical way or a national way like they had hoped for, but by the spiritual rebirth which is brought about by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a spiritual kingdom which must come before any physical kingdom comes.

“And so,” says Jesus, “John the Baptist, fulfilling the prophetic role of Elijah, suffered death at the hands of those to whom he preached, and in that respect, he is a forerunner of the Son of Man. Because, I tell you, Elijah has come, and they’ve done to him everything they wished, just as is written about him, and He says by implication,  that is what is going to happen to the Son of Man. They didn’t recognize John, or the parts that they recognized they didn’t like, and they don’t recognize Jesus, and the parts that they do recognize they don’t like either. And so as John suffered and died for his message, so his death points forward to the suffering and death of the Messiah.”

You remember the healing of the blind man that we looked at a couple of weeks ago?  Remember that Jesus spit on the man’s eyes and he saw men walking like trees, and then Jesus touched him again and he began to see clearly?  Remember how I told you then that was an illustration of the way that the disciples were being given spiritual discernment?  I think that healing illustrates this incident in which their knowledge and understanding of Jesus is taken to a second stage in their spiritual development.  They begin to see more clearly that not only is Jesus the Messiah, the King who ushers in the kingdom of God, but He is also the Savior of the world, who dies for the sins of the world so that man might be given life in the kingdom of God.

The gospel of the kingdom of God must first of all be spiritually discerned.  Citizenship in the kingdom of God must be spiritually obtained through faith in Jesus Christ. There will come a time, at the last day, when the faith shall be sighted, and the Lord shall return, and we will be changed, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and the heavens and the earth will be burned up and then all things made new.  But there is more to see here than simply a physical application.  There is more to the gospel than a social gospel, or a prosperity gospel.  There is more to the Christian life than living your best life now.  The kingdom of God is first of all a spiritual kingdom, and then at the last day, the physical kingdom will be established in a new heaven and a new earth.

So as Jesus said in chapter 8:34-38  "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."