The Second Coming Preview
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2014 · 12 January 2014
We began our preview of the Second Coming last week by looking at Matthew 16:27-28 and now we are continuing in Matthew 17:1-13 with the same theme. Last week Jesus begins by promising His disciples that He is going to return in glory. Let's look what Jesus says in Matthew 16:27, “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels and then He will reward each according to his works.”
This is the first clear promise of the Second Coming recorded in Matthew's gospel. And Jesus says, listen, I have been talking about self-denial, about bearing your cross, and I have told you that I must go to Jerusalem to suffer many things and be killed. But it will not always be that way. There will be a day when the Son of Man comes in the full glory with His angels and then He will be the supreme judge to judge every man.
Now the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is introduced here and Matthew talks about it in more detail in Matthew 24, 25 and 26. Matthew is presenting Jesus as the King and as He comes the first time, as we know, He is rejected. But the end of the story is when He comes again and is royally crowned and rules as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
In the Old Testament there are about 1525 prophecies of the Second Coming. In the New Testament, one out of every 25 verses, or 320 verses talk about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in glory, power and majesty to judge and to reign. So when our Lord says this in Matthew 16:27, it is not some obscure verse standing alone. This is the Lord repeating to them this promise.
But when you are in the middle of much hostility, rejection, cross-bearing, self-denial and even death, this is hard to believe. And so the Lord in His wonderful grace goes a step beyond the prophecy and He promises them a preview. So Jesus says in verse 28, “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
And that preview right away begins in the next verses, Matthew 17:1-13. It is His transfiguration. And at that event, Jesus gave them the picture of His majestic splendor and majestic glory. And yet this is just a small glimpse of His actual glory. In fact, everything Jesus did, all of His signs, wonders and miracles, all of those done by the Apostles, all of His marvelous teaching, His effect in the world, was a taste of His Second Coming glory. That's why Hebrews 6:5 says, “and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come."
And so our Lord is saying to the disciples and to us also that we should never doubt the reality of the Second Coming. This came at an important time because they needed some balance. They just learned that Jesus was a suffering Savior and now they needed to see a glimpse of Him as a glorious King. And so they are reminded that humiliation now results in glory later. And as the gospels tell us, if we suffer with Him, we shall be glorified with Him also later.
Also in understanding the Old Testament, it was common for a prophet when he made a prediction about a far distant event, to also make a prediction about something that is going to happen in the near future. This was in order to verify themselves as prophets and to give hope for the future.
And so Jesus is accrediting Himself as a trustworthy prophet by saying yes I will come in the last day in the great Second Coming. And to prove it, I predict that some of you won't die until you see Me in My regal majesty. And when the near event happened, they knew He spoke as a trustworthy prophet and they could trust Him for the future event.
So let's look at the scene in Matthew 17:1, “And after six days," by the way, Luke says eight days. Luke may be including the day the promise was given and the day it was fulfilled which would add the two days to make it eight. Buy we don't see any contradiction here, it was just the difference between how Jews count their days compared to the non-Jews.
So, Matthew says, "Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves.” These were the most intimate disciples of our Lord. Now why does He take Peter, James and John?" First of all, to be witnesses of His glory. Deuteronomy 19:15 established a principle that any testimony had to be confirmed by the mouth of two or three witnesses.
And so, as Jesus takes them up a high mountain, they were not surprised. It perhaps had happened on many other occasions that they were alone with Jesus, certainly Mark 5:37 indicates they were there at the raising of the young girl. They also accompanied Him, in Mark 14, into the garden of Gethsemane the night that He agonized greatly. In many ways it seems proper that those who most intimately knew His sorrow and suffering also should witness His glory.
And another reason Jesus took them was because they were acknowledged trustworthy leaders. And when it came time to articulate what had happened, they would be believed. They could convince and influence the rest. Jesus restricts it just to three, the three that are very intimate with Him, but who also can confirm Him as the Son of God.
Now when they get up in the mountain, what do you think the disciples were doing? Luke says they were sleeping. Matthew doesn't tell us that. And while they slept Jesus was praying. In fact, we see it later on, when the Lord is in the garden of Gethsemane pouring out His heart to the Father in that agonizing prayer. And at that very time the disciples also sleep. In fact, Jesus rebuked them and said in Mark 14:37, "Could you not watch with Me for an hour?”
And Luke's gospel 22:45 gives us the reason they were asleep. The Bible says they were sleeping for sorrow. Many people when they get really depressed want to sleep. Sleep is a way to escape, isn't it? And maybe it was what happened in Luke 22, they were sleeping because it was the only way to deal with their sorrow.
But they woke out of their sleep and Jesus rose from His prayer. And a most incredible thing happened. This has never happened in the history of the world and we have the privilege of looking at it. In the events that follow from verse 5 to 13, we have five great proofs that this is the King of glory, five great verifications that this is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Let's look at the first element of that testimony. Verse 2, “and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” Jesus was transformed, there was a metamorphosis. He changed in body and form and even His clothes became like light, it was all supernatural.
The glory inside Jesus was unveiled. Here was Jesus whom they had seen walking around every day in human form and characteristic, suddenly revealed the reality of the blazing brilliance of God. This is the greatest testimony to Jesus Christ, of any passage in the Bible. If you really want to know who Jesus is, here it is. The glory is radiating from the inside out. Jesus is aglow like a divine light bulb and His brilliance is brighter than the sun.
The glow goes right through His garments sending light everywhere. For whenever scripturally God manifests His invisible Spirit, it is manifested as light, right? We read about the Shekinah, the glow of God's light in the Old Testament. God manifests Himself in blazing light, as pillars of fire or a cloud. When God, who is an invisible Spirit, chooses to take a form to reveal Himself, apart from the incarnation of Jesus Christ, it will form as blazing light. This is God.
And Peter gave testimony to that. In 2 Peter 1:16 he says, "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” We saw the very essence of God pouring out of that human form, transfigured before our very eyes.
In Revelation 1:13-16 we have the same picture of Jesus Christ, “One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; 16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.”
You see, Jesus Christ in His human form is veiled. The body is like a wall that hides the reality. But when He pulls that veil back for a moment, it is the brilliance of God that is seen. God who is full of glory reveals the essence of His nature. When Jesus came into the world He is still God but He took that veil of humanity and clothed the glory. But here He gave a glimpse of God Himself.
Secondly, by the testimony of the saints. Look at verse 3, “And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.” Luke adds, “in glory,” which means not with glory but surrounded by Jesus’ glory. And now Peter, James and John are not only seeing something that is beyond their comprehension, they now are hearing a conversation. Here is the second great confirmation of Jesus Christ.
Somebody once asked, "Well, how did Peter, James and John know they were Moses and Elijah?" Well, I don't know, but we know that God communicated to them who those two were. So Moses and Elijah were there but a better question is why they were there. Do you know that sometimes the Old Testament is called Moses and the prophets? Moses is synonymous with the Old Testament. Moses was Israel’s king, priest and prophet. Moses was the greatest man of all men in the Jewish mind.
Who could stand with Moses? Only one, Elijah. If Moses gave the law, Elijah guarded the law, the greatest guardian of God's law. He had a heart for God. He walked with God. He had miraculous power. His zeal for God was unequaled. Every prophet should be like Elijah. Elijah represents all the prophets. He is considered the most zealous and preeminent of them all.
So what do Moses and Elijah represent? The law and the prophets. And what is the law and the prophets? It's the Old Testament. And why are they there? They are there as the Old Testament saying, "This is the One of whom we spoke." It is the affirmation of the law and the prophets. It is all that Jesus said when He said, "I have come to fulfill the law and the prophets." It is the affirmation of the saints.
There's something more. Look at Luke 9:30-31, “And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” So Moses and Elijah were talking with Jesus and now we also know what they were talking about. They were talking about Christ's death.
So they were speaking of Christ's death just as the exodus under Moses delivered the Israel from the bondage of Egypt, so the exodus of Christ's death would deliver His people from the bondage of sin. And maybe that's why later it was easier for them to explain that Christ must have suffered and given His life because that was God’s plan. And that's why Peter could stand up at Pentecost and say that the Lord was crucified by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God.
Death is a part of the plan of God in spite of how people explained the life of Jesus Christ differently. He didn't die as a well-meaning patriot who did not achieve his goal. He died as the One ordained to die from before the foundation of the world and His death was as much a part of God’s plan as His Second Coming will be. And it is so important for the disciples to know that.
Verse 4, “Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” In other words, Peter is saying is this is so good, may it continue longer, we will build some booths here. Wow, how do you put glory in a booth? We don't know what his motive was.
Luke 9:33 says that Peter had no idea what he was saying. But it's helpful here as a contrast to what was going on. Matthew 17:5, “While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” In other words Peter, be quiet and listen to Jesus.
Peter didn't understand that this was only a preview and he had to go through the suffering and the hardships and the cross-bearing and the self-denial and the Messiah still had to suffer and die. And he didn't understand that you cannot put Jesus, Moses and Elijah in equal places. You see, Luke says that when Peter said this, Moses and Elijah were moving away. Jesus does it all Himself.
So, the testimony to the Kingship and royal majesty of Jesus Christ comes from the transformation of the Son and the testimony of the saints and the fear of the Father. Someone else arrived on a white cloud. Starting in Exodus 13:21 just begin to look for white clouds. And we can follow those white clouds all the way to Revelation 14:14, “And I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sat like the Son of Man." White brilliant clouds is where God is shown.
And it says a voice comes out of the cloud. Now we are faced with the awesome presence of Almighty God. Matthew 17:6 says, “And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.” So thirdly, God Himself was there to say in addition to the testimony of the Old Testament, in addition to the testimony of the transfigured Son is the testimony of the Father, "This is My beloved Son."
Brothers and sisters, there is a divine tension that ought to exist in every Christian's life. That on the one hand it is good to walk with God. On the other hand, it is fearful. It is good because He is there in mercy and grace. It is fearful because He is there in holiness and judgment. So check your life and change it if you do not walk with God the way you know you ought to, repent and come back to Him and He will bless you. Let us continue with more next week. Let us pray.