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The Jewish
people of the First Century, and the majority
of the past 20 centuries, did not understand the
Scriptures about the Two Comings of the Messiah.
We did not see that the Messiah would come the
first time to suffer and die, in order to deal
with our greatest problem – sin. Instead, we
focused almost exclusively on the victorious and
conquering Messiah – the Messiah of the Second
Coming.
Yeshua
had been talking to His disciples about His soon
coming death, and clearly predicting the suffering
He would experience from the majority of Israel’s
leaders. He was telling this privately to His
disciples, and teaching them that the Messiah
would need to suffer and die so that our sins
could be forgiven, and we could be reconciled
to the God from whom the whole world is estranged.
He also
called upon all who would follow Him to take the
same kind of path – the path of rejection by the
world, and denial of self – self interests, and
one’s own agenda for one’s life, and be willing
to give up our lives in the service of Messiah,
and boldly identify with Him and His teachings.
Now the
King of Israel and the Savior of the world tells
His disciples that them some of them will be privileged
to catch a glimpse of what He will be like at
His Second Coming. Yes, He will soon experience
humility and suffering, and rejection by the world,
and the cross, but after His resurrection, He
will come again with great power and honor and
life!
9:1
And Yeshua 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."
This is
not a prediction that the Second Coming would
take place right away, in the lifetime of the
apostles. This is a prophesy of Yeshua’s Transformation
which would soon take place. “This was fulfilled
when the disciples witnessed the transfiguration
which was, in miniature, a preview of the kingdom,
with the Lord appearing in a state of glory (Ryrie).
Six days later, Yeshua took with Him Peter
and James and John (His inner circle, the
leaders of the leaders) and brought them up
on a high mountain by themselves (probably
Mt. Hermon, 40 miles northeast of the Kinneret,
or Mount Tabor, 10 miles southwest of the Kinneret).
And He was transfigured (transformed) before
them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly
white, as no launderer on Earth can whiten them
– brilliant white, a symbol for purity, holiness,
cleanness. Yeshua is sinless, infinitely pure,
radiating separateness from sin, from anything
little thing that is wrong. Think about that before
you accuse Him of doing or saying anything wrong,
or failure, or take His name in vain. This is
the Righteous One, shining with power and purity.
This is the One you should use as the standard
of righteousness and purity. This is the Holy
One that you should compare yourself to when you
say, “I am righteous. I am clean. I am good. I
am acceptable to God.” No, compared to the Son
of God, who radiates purity, you are not good
and clean at all!
Not only
was Yeshua suddenly transformed, but other amazing
things happened as well. Elijah – the
great prophet who never died, appeared to them
along with Moses – the Lawgiver, the leader
of the Exodus, one of the great miracle workers
and men of all time; and they were talking
with Yeshua. Luke tells us that they were
talking about Yeshua’s coming death – His departure,
His exodus from Jerusalem back to Heaven.
Now, if
you were on a high mountain with your Rabbi, and
talking to Him, and enjoying the panoramic view,
and suddenly His clothes, and He Himself started
glowing, and then two of the very greatest men
who ever lived – Moses, our great leader who had
died 1500 years earlier, and Elijah, this great
prophet and one of the only human beings who never
died, but who ascended into the presence of God
in Heaven with a whirlwind and a chariot and horses
of fire – men who you read about in the Holy Scriptures,
great heroes that you and all of your people respected,
suddenly appeared, and were talking to your glowing
Rabbi, how would you react? Well, Peter James
and John were overwhelmed and frightened – as
you would be!
People
deal with fear in different ways. Some run away,
while others cry out, and some become silent.
When bold Peter, the spokesman for the group,
got into a fearful state like this, he tried to
deal with it by speaking, by saying something,
saying anything. And so Peter said to Yeshua,
"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." For he did not know what
to answer; for they became terrified.
God spoke
to Moses on a holy and special mountain. God spoke
to Elijah on the same holy and special mountain.
Now God speaks to these great Apostles, the leaders
of Messiah’s New Covenant Community, on a holy
mountain. As amazing as the transformation of
Yeshua was, and the appearance of Moses and Elijah
was, now something perhaps even more amazing takes
place. God the Father, the Creator of the universe,
manifested His presence on this mountain, and
spoke to Peter, James and John!
Then
a cloud formed (the presence of God was quite
a few times accompanied by a cloud. The King of
the Universe is present on this mountain),
overshadowing them – the cloud enveloped them,
and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is My
beloved Son, listen to Him!" A voice came out
of the cloud – but not any voice. This is
the voice of God. This is the voice of the Creator
of the universe speaking to human beings. May
I suggest that when the Creator of the universe
speaks to you from Heaven, that it is a great
honor, and extremely important, and that you should
pay the most careful attention? When good men
speak to us, we should give them the courtesy
of listening. When good and powerful men speak,
we should listen even more carefully. When the
good and Almighty God, who rarely speaks directly
to human beings, speaks to us, we should listen
with the utmost attention.
"This
is My beloved Son, listen to Him!" God the
Father is giving divine and powerful and public
testimony to humanity that this is His unique
Son, who shares His name and nature, deity and
essence. This is the Son that God has eternal
love and affection for. This is the One that God
loves in the deepest and closest way, since He
pleases God in everything He says and does. This
is the Son of God whose every word is true. This
is the Son who speaks the Words of God to us.
This is the ultimate revealer of God, the Son
who manifests the invisible Father, the God of
the cloud, the One we dare not see.
Listen
to Moses – yes. He has much to teach us. We can
and should learn much from him. But listen even
more to Yeshua, who has even more to teach us.
He is greater than Moses. He is the Mediator of
a new and better covenant, who brought about a
greater exodus, a greater redemption, a more profound
salvation than the one the Lord used Moses to
accomplish.
Listen
to Elijah, who the God of Israel used to do great
miracles, Elijah who called Israel to repentance,
and who boldly withstood powerful men and women,
and who will return once again to Israel one day.
Yes, listen to this great prophet, and all the
prophets, but listen even more to God’s Son, who
is greater than all the prophets, whose revelation
is greater, whose ability to communicate who the
Almighty is and what He is like and what He wants
from us is even greater!
This great
revelation is almost over. But even the way it
ends is full of meaning. All at once they looked
around and saw no one with them anymore, except
Yeshua alone. Moses represents the Torah,
and Elijah the prophets, and Yeshua, the eternal
Son of God, and our only Savior, is the One greater
than Moses and the Prophets, and the fulfillment
of Moses and the Prophets. Moses, whose book is
filled with types and symbols and prophecies of
the Coming Messiah. Elijah, who faithfully loved
and served the Lord, and did miracles and spoke
about the future, will come again as the Forerunner
of the Second Coming – are no longer present.
Moses went back to where he came from (Sheol),
and Elijah too. Now the focus is on Yeshua.
It’s not
that Moses and Elijah have disappeared, and are
no longer important, or relevant, but the power
and glory and teaching radiating from them is
diminished compared to the greater power and glory
and wisdom emanating from Messiah Yeshua. When
the sun rises, the stars are still shining their
light, but their light can’t be seen because of
the much greater radiance. Christianity and Messianic
Judaism must strive to give Yeshua His rightful
place. Our focus must be on Him. Our eyes must
be fixed our Him. Our ears must be attuned to
hear the Shepherd’s voice. We must follow Him,
and live for Him. He must not become secondary
in our thinking, our affections, in our worship
forms, or in our teaching, or our proclamation.
This astounding
revelation was something that left a lasting impression
on these three special men. Peter, and I’m sure
James and John, never forgot this. We know that
Peter didn’t. In Peter’s second letter he wrote:
“For we did not follow cleverly devised tales
when we made known to you the power and coming
of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, 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”
(1:16-19). Throughout his life, Peter remained
in awe of the fantastic revelation of Messiah’s
coming power and magnificence, this foretaste
of the glory of the Second Coming Messiah that
he saw on the holy mountain.
But, lest
the disciples think that this vision of the Second
Coming Messiah would take place immediately, and
eliminate the need for the Messiah of the First
Coming, Yeshua again and immediately teaches the
disciples about the need for a First Coming Messiah.
9:9 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. They seized upon that statement, discussing
with one another what rising from the dead meant.
Even though the rabbi King had been telling
them plainly about His soon-coming death, the
disciples still did not understand that the Messiah
would die, and then come back to life in a resurrected
form. But, they did reflect on part of what He
was trying to teach them, on the idea of resurrection,
and since Elijah was just there, and Elijah is
part of the Last Days events, which includes the
resurrection, and the coming of the Messiah they
asked Him, saying, "Why is it that the scribes
(Torah-teachers) say that Elijah must come
first?"
The Torah-teachers
of Israel rightly taught that Elijah must come
first, before the Messiah, and before the resurrection,
because they took a historical-grammatical approach
to the Word of God. If the literal sense made
sense they sought no other sense. If Elijah never
died, but ascended into Heaven, and the prophet
Malachi informed Israel that God would send us
Elijah before the coming of the great and terrible
day of the Lord, and Elijah will prepare the Jewish
people for the coming of the Messiah, and get
us ready to follow the Messiah, and the Messiah
will be involved in the resurrection of the dead,
then that is what literally will happen in the
future. The Torah-teachers of Israel knew this,
and taught this, and Yeshua verified that is how
the Scriptures are to be understood.
And
He said to them, "Elijah does first come and restore
all things. And, if Elijah will come in the
future, before the Second Coming of the Messiah,
and will turn the hearts of the fathers to the
children, and the hearts of the children to the
fathers, and reconcile us to the fathers of the
faith, and restore all things, so that Israel
is ready for Messiah’s Second Coming, and we welcome
the powerful and victorious and resurrected Messiah,
that raised another question:
And
yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He
will suffer many things and be treated with contempt?
If Elijah comes first, which he will, and
gets Israel ready for the Messiah, so that Messiah
is treated with honor, then how is it written,
in other prophecies in the Tenach, that the Messiah
will suffer and be mistreated and be treated contemptuously?
Isn’t that a contradiction? How can the same Messiah
be treated in such different ways, with such different
outcomes? Maybe there are two Messiahs?
The answer
is that there is only one Messiah, but there are
two comings of the Messiah – the First Coming,
when Messiah would suffer and die, and the Second
when He comes again to save and rule for 1,000
years over a restored Israel and the good nations.
This tells
us that Yeshua clearly knew about both His comings.
He alone out of all the Jewish people was the
only One who understood about the two comings
of the Messiah. He also knew that for each of
His two comings, He would have a forerunner, a
great prophet who would arrive in Israel ahead
of Him, to prepare His way. He told the disciples
that Elijah, the forerunner of the Second Coming,
would come in the future. Now He informs His emissaries
that the forerunner of the First Coming – John,
had already come, and was mistreated and died.
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."
Elijah
does come – in the future – referring to the forerunner
of the Second Coming, and Elijah has come – past
tense, referring to the forerunner of the First
Coming. This reference to Elijah in the past tense
is not literally Elijah, because the literal sense
doesn’t make sense. We don’t believe in reincarnation.
So the Forerunner of the First Coming is John,
who came in the spirit of Elijah, with a similar
boldness and mission as Elijah.
Written
of him? Other than the Messiah, John was the only
prophet whose coming was predicted. The coming
of Moses wasn't predicted. The coming of Isaiah,
or Jeremiah, David or Abraham, wasn't predicted.
But both the prophets Malachi and Isaiah predicted
the coming of this great and unique prophet who
would be the forerunner of the First Coming. It
was written of him that this special messenger
would be a voice crying out in a wilderness –
an illustration of loneliness and isolation, and
a lack of a wide acceptance.
And notice
that the same treatment that the forerunner of
the First Coming received awaited the Messiah
of the First Coming. And the same kind of treatment
– rejection, mistreatment and death, is the normal
expectation of the His disciples of the First
Coming. So, this is the kind of treatment that
we can expect from the world – rejection, confrontation,
clash of values, death, dishonor. John the Baptist,
the great forerunner of the First Coming, experienced
this. Yeshua, the Messiah of the First Coming,
experienced this. The apostles and many of the
first followers of Yeshua experienced this. Right
now, in this age, we are disciples of the First
Coming. The problem is that we want to be disciples
of the Second Coming, when the Earth will be at
peace, filled with justice, peace, prosperity,
health, healing. The disciples of the Second Coming
will enjoy all that. And, that is much more appealing
to us than the things offered to us as disciples
of the First Coming – persecution, mistreatment,
humiliation, suffering and death. But, until Yeshua
actually comes again, we must expect and be willing
to endure the treatment of the disciples of the
First Coming. We must be faithful, and not tone
down the Message, or our proclamation of it, in
order to live a Second Coming kind of life.
The corrupt
Word of Faith/Prosperity Teachers have it all
confused. They so much long for the blessings
of the Second Coming – health and healing, and
wealth and comfort, that they confuse what the
Word of God tells us awaits the people of God
after the First Coming and the Second Coming.
But there
is good news, encouraging news! The sufferings
and humiliation and death of the Messiah, who
remained faithful and true, resulted in His glorious
resurrection. And, after Messiah’s death and resurrection,
the disciples were ready. They had been prepared
by Yeshua as to what to expect. And, they filled
with His Spirit – the Holy Spirit of God, after
His resurrection and ascension. And, they had
a sure hope of their own resurrection, if they
remained faithful to their mission, and to their
Lord, and to His teachings, and endured their
sufferings to the end. Because of all of this,
they were able to be disciples of the First Coming
Messiah. They were able to suffer and endure,
and face rejection, and humiliation, and death,
and they did so with joy and courage. And, their
hope, their courage, their boldness and the truth
of their message turned their world upside down,
and started a movement of truth and salvation
that has gone on for 2,000 years, and is larger
than ever, and farther reaching, and has impacted
the entire world! And, you can too, by having
the same attitude as them, and placing your faith
in the Suffering and Glorified Messiah that the
God of Israel lovingly sent to us, the Savior
who is coming again soon, and by being filled
with His Spirit, and by not loving your life in
this world. Now, in this age, at this time, are
you willing to be a First Coming disciple?
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