Turn, if you will, to the 16th chapter of Matthew.
And there's a very familiar scripture there,
full meaning, and yet I feel that this portion,
the Word of God, has been grossly misunderstood.
It's a time in the ministry of the life of Jesus.
when he became very personal with his own. Perhaps
he was saying to them, I'm going to have a little
heart -to -heart talk with you now. And getting
very confidential, he said, Whom? do men say
that I am? What are they saying about me on the
streets? And one spoke up and said, some say
you're John the Baptist, some that you are Elijah.
And still there are others who say that you are
Jeremiah the prophet. Most all of them agree
that you must surely be one of the prophets.
And then, I believe that without even raising
his voice, he continued by saying, Whom say ye
that I am? And very quickly, before anyone else
could answer, Simon Peter answered and said unto
him, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. There was no question in Peter's mind. There
was no hesitancy whatsoever. He had the answer.
He knew. He understood fully. No doubt. No questioning.
It was a positive... Answer to a positive question.
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
He didn't say just thou art the Christ. Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art
thou, Simon Barjona. For flesh and blood hath
not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. In other words, this has been spiritually
revealed unto you. This has not come through
much learning. This has not come through teaching.
This comes through spiritual revelation. Then
Jesus continues and said, I also say unto thee
that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it. He does not promise to
build his church upon Peter, get this now, but
upon himself. his deity, his divinity. The church
of the Lord Jesus Christ is built upon Christ,
the very Son of the living God. He is the head
of his church. And when he was talking to Peter,
he did not promise to build his church upon Peter.
upon a personality, but upon himself, as Peter
himself is careful to tell us in 1 Peter, the
second chapter. Read it, if you will, please,
from the fourth to the ninth verses. But this
isn't what our little heart -to -heart talk is
all about. Because Jesus said on the day when
Peter confessed, thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God, and in that same chapter,
he said, Verily I say unto you, there be some
standing here which shall not taste of death
till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
There are those who contend that the fulfillment
of those words required the return of Jesus and
the setting up of the kingdom during the lifetime
of his disciples, and that therefore Because
no literal kingdom was set up during the lifetime
of the disciples, Jesus must have meant a spiritual
kingdom, which they claim was inaugurated on
the day of Pentecost and that Jesus now reigns
through the church. Is this true? If not, what
is the explanation of the words of Jesus? I want
you to see something. Here we see the misleading
character of chapter divisions in the King James
Version of the Scriptures. There should be no
chapter division between Matthew the 16th and
the 17th chapters. This chapter division is very
misleading because you cannot separate The 28th
verse of the 16th chapter of Matthew from the
first verse of the 17th chapter. There should
be no chapter marking there whatsoever. Get this
if you will, please. I hope you have your Bibles.
This will mean nothing to you unless you're following
me in the reading of the Word. I'll read it to
you exactly as it... should be given without
the chapter marking. Jesus begins with the word
verily. Therefore, we know that it is something
most important. Verily I. And whenever Jesus
says I, he wants you to know that it comes from
the highest authority in heaven and earth. There
is no higher authority. There can be no questions
asked. It comes straight from the very Son of
the living God. Therefore, I say unto you, there
be some standing here which shall not taste the
death till they see the Son of Man coming in
his kingdom. And after six days, Jesus taketh
Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth
them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured
before them. And his face did shine as the sun,
and his raiment was white as the light. And behold,
there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah. talking
with him. See something for just a minute. When
Jesus turned to his disciples and said, There
be some standing here. Not all. And we find out
later that only three were included. Peter, James,
and John. He did not name them at the time. Which
shall not taste of death till they see the Son
of Man coming in his kingdom. And six days later,
the very thing that he was talking about came
to pass. And the first word in chapter 17 begins
with and. After six days. Jesus taketh Peter,
James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them
up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured
before them. Oh, this is glorious. His face did
shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as
the light. Where was the glory? I'll talk about
that in another little heart -to -heart talk,
perhaps in a day or two. Where was the glory?
On just one. Just one. He was transfigured before
them, and his face did shine as the sun. and
his raiment was white as the light. And behold,
there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking
with him. Keep in mind, Peter, James, and John
recognized Moses. They had never seen him before.
Yet he was standing there in bodily form, They
saw him. They recognized him. They had never
seen Elijah. And yet, immediately, they recognized
him. They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it
was Elijah. But we'll not go into that just now.
But I want you to see something that's most important.
In this transfiguration scene, We have a glorious
fulfillment of Christ's words that there were
some, only three, Peter, James, and John, of
his disciples who should not taste the death
until they saw the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
For the transfiguration scene was a rehearsal.
of the second stage of Christ's second coming.
But why was Moses standing there? Why? Moses
stood upon that mount of glory, the representative
of the law. Elijah there represented prophecy.
Moses for the law. with its requirements, its
provisions, and its shadow of sacrifice. Elijah
for prophecy. Not foretelling merely, but foretelling.
That glorious, wonderful gift bestowed upon various
men among the ancient people and continued at
intervals in unbroken succession until it ceased
with Malachi. There was Moses. His presence signified
that in Jesus the shadow of the law was all fulfilled
and now withdrawn. And here upon the mount was
the great lawgiver himself. And by his presence
acknowledging that this glorified one who should
presently be crucified in the name of the law,
did in himself gather up all that was hinted
at, suggested, included in the economy of the
past. There he stood. Oh, this is wonderful.
Peter, James, and John had a foreview transfiguration
of the glorious coming of Christ. In that scene,
Moses was a type of the first resurrected saints.
Elijah, a type of those who shall be caught up
without dying. And in their glory on the Holy
Mount. We have a sample of the glory of the saints
at the time of the rapture. Go with me for just
a second to the scripture in 1 Thessalonians,
the time of that glorious resurrection. In the
fourth chapter, we have it. For the Lord himself...
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, with the trump of
God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
And there was Moses, a type of those who had
died. saints of God. For the word of God said
Moses died and was buried. He is a type of the
saints of God that died. And when the trump shall
sound, they shall be resurrected. Those dead
bodies shall be resurrected. from the dead. Is
that all? No. Then we, which are alive and remain,
shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Elijah had never tasted
of death. Never. You cannot find anywhere in
the Word of God. Elijah died. For as you well
know, God has chosen him to be one of the two
witnesses for that which is still prophecy and
will be fulfilled in the future. Therefore, on
the Mount of Transfiguration, Elijah was chosen
to be the type He was the type of those of us
who may not taste the death, but who will be
caught up at the time of the rapture of the church.
Now, Peter understood fully, completely, the
meaning of that which he saw. And remember, these
things only come by spiritual revelation. I've
often wondered why Jesus just chose the three
of his disciples to witness his glorious scene
on the Mount of Transfiguration. Just Peter,
just James, just John. I cannot give you the
answer. But I believe that all three understood
perfectly without any explanation exactly what
they were seeing. I'm sure Peter did. For later
he refers to it. 2 Peter, the first chapter,
the 16th verse. For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables. when we made known unto you the
power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were witnesses of his majesty. No, we're
not following comingly devised fables. Peter
said you may feel we are a little touched. These
things are just figments of our imagination,
but they're not. Peter says we have proof. We
saw. We were there. We saw our master as he was
transfigured and transformed before our very
eyes. We were witnesses. We saw Moses. We saw
Elijah. We were not dreaming. If only one had
seen, it might have been different. But there
were three of us. We were there. We were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory. When there came such
a voice to him from the excellent glory, this
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard
when we were with him in the holy mount. The
same voice, Peter said, that was heard at the
baptism of Jesus when he came up out of the waters
of baptism. The person they did not see, but
they heard the voice. They knew it was the voice
of God the Father when he said, This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. This same voice
which came from heaven we heard. when we were
with him in the holy mount. No, beloved, we follow
not cunningly devised fables. We know in whom
we have our faith, our trust, our confidence.
I know what I believe. I am sure of my belief.