OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO DIE FOR THE SALVATION OF MEN

Matthew chapter 17 verses 22 - 23 records the return of Jesus and His Disciples back to their home region of Galilee and at this time, the Lord Jesus told them explicitly what was goingto happen to Him in the near future.

22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

The disciples reacted with grief because they could not reconcile the two points that Jesus had mentioned pertaining to being killed and then being raised to life after three days.

They were witnessing His dynamic ministry of healing and teaching which, to them, was a harbinger of the restoration of the kingdom of Israel and they were having a difficult time comprehending the antithetical timeline that the Lord was introducing to them.

The Lord, speaking of Himself in the third person using the title of Son of Man, gives them a sequence of three events.

The Son of Man was going to be;

1. Delivered into the hands of men
2. Be killed by men
3. Be raised to life three days after He was killed

The timeline given should have mystified the disciples and filled them with questions about Jesus being raised from the dead but they seemed not to have heard that part and only heard that He was going to be killed and thus they were filled with grief.

Interestingly, it appears that the kingdom of darkness could not hear what Jesus was telling His disciples either because He had the power to keep the information from being overheard in the spiritual realm even as He spoke to His disciples.  1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 7 - 8 tells us that the spiritual rulers of the age did not comprehend the mystery of the resurrection because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

The book of John Chapter 1 verses 4 - 5 tells us that the incomprehension of the kingdom of darkness was what the plan of salvation was going to hinge on.

 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The life that was in Jesus was the light of men and even as He explained what was to occur for the plan of salvation to be completed, His light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO HEAL AND TO SAVE

Matthew chapter 17 verses 14 - 21 records an event when Jesus descended the mountain after the transfiguration and they came up to the crowd of people who had been waiting below. One of the people came up to Jesus and asked the Lord to help his son who had suffered from seizures. He had brought the young man to the disciples but they had been unable to heal him.

14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

Upon getting this report, Jesus reacted with indignation and asked how long He would have to put up with being among a faithless and perverse generation. He commanded that the boy be brought to Him and He evicted the demon with a rebuke and the boy was healed.

17 “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”  

(verse 21 ? - Mark chapter 9 verse 29; This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting)

Later, in private, the disciples asked the Lord Jesus why they were unable to cast the demon out themselves. They had done what they had seen Jesus doing but they were foiled by the particular demon in the epileptic boy.

Jesus told them that their faith was too small. He taught them that if their faith was even the size of a mustand seed, they would be able to say to the mountain (that they had just descended) to move from one location to another location and it would move. 

If they had been able to generate even a little faith, they would have been able to heal the epileptic boy.

Matthew 17 verse 21 is missing from the text but some manuscripts insert the verse from Mark chapter 9 verse 29.  This verse reads a little out of synch in the context but indicates that evicting  the type of demon in question requires prayer and fasting.

This corollary points to prayer and fasting as the ingredients needed in order to grow the required level of faith. Support for this inference can be found in Jude verses 20 - 21;

20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO IS UNSEEN, SEES IN SECRET

The Lord and His three closest disciples returned down the mountain after the revealing of Jesus in His glory. Mathew chapter 17 verses 9 - 13 continues the narrative this way;

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

The Lord told the three men to be silent about what they had seen and only to reveal it to other people when He was raised from the dead. This request revealed the discreet nature of the kingdom of God. Many of the spiritual experiences that are part of the kingdom of God are to be kept in secret and only if explicitly instructed to reveal them should  they be described to other people. This is a mirror of what is said in Matthew chapter 6 verse which describes God as one who operates in the unseen and sees in secret.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Thus the interactions that we have with our Father in heaven should be held close to our hearts unless instructed otherwise.

10 The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

11 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 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.” 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

As they walked, the disciples, curious and puzzled about what had just happened, tried reconcile their vision of Elijah with what the religious teachers  had been teaching them about him.

Jesus clarified for them that the Elijah did come first and they saw him in the person of John the Baptist but the establishment had him eliminated by killing him and that is why they saw him standing with Moses and Jesus.

Ominously, the Lord told them that He too would suffer at the hands of the religious and political establishment.

Lord have mercy on us.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER INTRODUCED HIS SON AS ONE IN WHOM HE WAS WELL PLEASED

Nearly a week after talking to His disciples about the prudent path of transacting the temporal world for the eternal kingdom, the Lord Jesus gave His close followers a glimpse into the eternal reality that He was from.

 Matthew chapter 17 verses 1 - 8 records the event known as the transfiguration where the veil over Jesus that concealed His glory was temporarily lifted so that His refulgent glory was visible to mortal men.

1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

The transfiguration is decribed as a display of brilliant white light where Jesusˋ face shone like the sun and His garments gleamed as radiant white as the light itself.

As the three disciples looked on, Moses and Elija who were talking to the Lord, suddenly became visible to them. 

As Jesus stood in His Father's glory, these two men at His side can be understood to be the Father's angels and this appearance to Peter, James and John was due to their giving up of their lives to follow Jesus and serve His kingdom.

This was in keeping with His promise in the previous chapter in verse 27 where he said He would come in His Father's glory with His angels.

The disciple Peter, awed by the astonishing sight, immediately wanted to spring into action and build a shelter or shrine to each of them but He was interupted when a cloud covered them and  the voice of the Father spoke to introduce them anew to Jesus in the revealed glory. 

“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

This caused Peter, James and John to fall to the groud in terror and the Lord had to touch them to revive them out of their petrifaction and reassure them not be be afraid after the vision of His glory had passed.

Thus the Lord Jesus was shown to be the One of whom the law (represented by Moses) and the prophets (represented by Elijah) were written.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE GLORY IS GIVEN TO THE SON OF GOD

The Lord Jesus, having spoken to His disciples about the changing season where He would go to Jerusalem and face death at the hands of the religious and political leaders, taught them that their involvement in the kingdom He was ushering in would require them to follow His example by taking up their crosses the way He was going to take up His.

He explained to them that the economy of the kingdom of God worked counterintuitively  by sacrifice where working to preserve oneˋs own life caused the loss of the life while losing oneˋs for the sake of Jesus would result in the recovery of that life.

In the kingdom of God where eternal values are being traded for, the Lord Jesus counsels His disciples to value nothing of the world because even if they acquired the entire earth, what help would that be to them if they lost their soul?

In another transactional analogy, the Lord asked His disciples what they would offer to retain their own souls. The loss of oneˋs soul is the loss of oneˋs being and continual conciousness and in face of the extinguishing of oneˋs conciousness, would not even oneˋs life be a reasonable trade for the retention of the soul seeing that life on earth is temporal while the concious soul would be eternal?

The soul, if preserved in Christ, would, if one was to give their life to Christ for His Kingdom, be rejoined in eternal life so that a person would experience a contiguous progression of their being from the temporal realm to the eternal realm.

Matthew chapter 16 verses 24 - 28 says this;

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 

26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 

27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

If a person gave up their lives for Christ, they would see the Son of Man in His Fatherˋs glory with His angels where what they forfeited and what they did in obedience would be compensated for in the form of a reward.

Jesus concluded this elucidation by declaring to His disciples that some of them standing there with Him,  having given up their lives and livelihoods to follow Him, would see Him in the context of His kingdom before they died and the truth of His words would be made clear to them.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO GAVE HIS SON AS A RANSOM FOR MANY

After Peter had said that he believed that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God, Jesus began to speak of the end point of His ministry on earth where the religious leaders would orchestrate His death but that he would rise on the third day. Matthew chapter 16 verses 21 - 23 records this change in messaging that occured.

21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

There seemed to have been an agreement between the Father and the Lord Jesus that Jesus would know that the time had come to prepare to fall into the hands of the religious leaders when the spiritual understanding of Jesusˋ true identity became clear to at least one person.

Jesus began to educate His disciples about the approaching eventuallity that was the ultimate reason for His mission on earth.

In reponse to this, Peter grew very concerned and countered Jesusˋ words by saying that He and the others would never let the terrible fate of death happen to HIm.

Jesus rejected Peterˋs objection seeing that it was a fleshly impulse to avoid difficulty while the pertinent impulse should have been to attend to Godˋs concerns over every other considersation.

Lord have mercy on us.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER REVEALED HIS ETERNAL SON TO MORTAL MEN

Matthew chapter 16 verses 17 - 20 continued from where Peter spoke the words that confirmed that the Father had given the revelation of Jesusˋ identity to one of His followers and Jesus responded by blessing him and telling Him that tehe source of what He now knew about Jesus was not as a result of earthly pursuit but rather an intervention by our Father in heaven.

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I  will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

The Lord Jesus declared that the revelation that had been issued to Peter was the foundation upon which He would build His church and that the gates of hell would not be able to withstand the onslaught of the the chuch when it came to plunder the souls of men from out of its grasp.

The revelation would give those who believed it and adhered to it a super-power that would give them the access codes to the kingdom of heaven and they would have the authority to bind and loose things in the spiritual realm by binding and loosing them on earth.

In other words, because of the revelation of Jesus as Messiah, coporeal beings operating in the corporeal realm would be bestowed with the power to bind and loose things in heaven.

This momentus turn of events where a mortal man was given the understanding that jesus was the Messiah, as stunning as it was, needed to be kept discreet because the time had not yet come to proclaim it to the wider society and it was such a bold and consequential claim that it became the flash point that triggered the religious esablishment plot how they could  kill Jesus.

Lord have mercy on us.

Amen.

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