The Coming King

Thank you, Mr. Ruzdak, Mr. Seifert, and all the choir members. It's been a few years, but I've served in festival choirs a number of times, and that reminds me that it's not an easy thing. It takes a lot of work time early and time late for practice, and one of the reasons I don't do it now is because I figure I can do one of two things with my voice. I can use it here or back there, and sometimes I think it'd be better back there, but I want to express my appreciation on behalf of all of you to the choir, because I know we ask members not to applaud because we know it's to glorify God, and that's what they intend, but I know we all would if we thought it was appropriate, and we are very glad to have that music. I was handed an additional announcement about the Christian Help Center, because some people, I think, have asked if they can make cash donations so that that is acceptable if you wanted to make a donation, and if you're making it by check, please make the check payable to two Christian Help Center. So that's the name there, and you could hand those to Rick or Sharon Johnson. Of course, you might not know who Rick or Sharon Johnson are, but I think they normally will make themselves available around the table so you can be acquainted with them, and it, well, I'll leave it at that. I think we have quite a few donations, and I'm pleased to see the pile of food. There is a common toast among practicing Jews where they will raise a glass and pause and say, next year in Jerusalem. That might sound familiar. It's been adopted by many members of the church before. They all, the Jews, often do it when they're keeping Passover. Of course, they keep the Passover rather differently than we do, and I believe differently than is commanded in the Bible. But they're looking, you know, they look forward to a time when they could keep the Passover in Jerusalem, which we do a sense, in a sense, but they're largely looking to a restoration of past glory. They reminisce of a time when Israel was a powerful kingdom, particularly during the reigns of kings David and king Solomon. And during the Babylonian captivity, many Jews looked back on what they'd lost. They looked back and they longed for a restoration. That's the basis of Psalm 137, which we sing sometimes as, by the waters of Babylon.

There we wept and there sat down. I'm not going to turn there, but verse 6 of that Psalm says, If I don't remember you, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I don't exalt Jerusalem, my chief joy. After that time, Jerusalem and Judah were restored for a period when the Persians permitted those Jews that were willing to go back, rebuild the city, build a new temple. And thus, many Messianic prophecies were fulfilled when Jesus Christ was born in the flesh and did come to his people and did come to a temple in Jerusalem.

But that restoration was relatively short-lived. The Roman Empire later would destroy that temple, would kill many of the Jews there, banish the rest, at least for a time. Even today, it's said that more Jews live in New York City than live in Jerusalem. And thus, the toast of reminiscing and longing. Next year, in Jerusalem. Sorry, it would have been more fitting if I brought a goblet of wine, but that wouldn't be good for my preaching. But I believe the attitude that was somewhat reflected, or that attitude, was somewhat reflected in the big question that the disciples had for Jesus Christ after his resurrection. It's in Acts chapter 1, if you want to begin turning there.

They had gathered in Jerusalem, as he told them to do, so they were in Jerusalem.

But Judah wasn't restored then, as they hoped. It was ruled by a foreign power. It was not an independent kingdom. It was a province of the Roman Empire. And thus, in Acts chapter 1 verse 6, meeting with Jesus, says, therefore when they'd come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

Even looking ahead, there was a little bit of looking back. Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Not yet having God's spirit dwelling within them, they didn't quite understand what really lay ahead for them. And for that matter, what really lies ahead for us, for all mankind. God's plan is not backward-looking. It is not a plan to restore any glories that man has ever known in any previous time. Not that it's wrong to look back at times. I'm a historian by training. It's proper to study history. We study Scripture to learn lessons from the past. But I want to focus today on a lesson that Christ's disciples did learn, and that they did pass on. That lesson is that the kingdom of God will be established on earth.

Jesus Christ won't restore former glories that Solomon had. He will rule with power and glory far superior to anything that's ever been. Of course, the Feast of Tabernacles is a festival that reminds us that we look forward to that time. We want to live in the kingdom of God on earth. We should realize that Jesus's disciples weren't the only ones looking for a messiah to come and establish a kingdom. Most Jews who read and believed the Scripture in that time understood that prophecy said a messiah was coming and would rule. We understand that the word messiah in Hebrew meant anointed one, meaning anointed by God. The Greeks used the term Christos, which means the exact same thing, anointed by God. Thus, Jesus the Christ was the anointed one, as it says a few pages later in Acts chapter 10 in verse 38. To remind us, Acts 10 in verse 38, how God anointed Jesus Christ, or Jesus of Nazareth, with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Remember what people mistakenly call the Christmas story? In it, people were looking for a king, a messiah. I want to turn over to Matthew 2 to remind us of that. Matthew 2 in the first couple of verses. You'll want to limber up your fingers. I am going to be moving about in the scriptures a bit today.

As I said, I'm not reading this to promote Christmas because they, of course, misunderstand what this is about. But it tells us at the beginning of Matthew 2, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? We've seen a star in the east and come to worship him. Most likely, these wise men were indeed Jews themselves. Of the many who had been moved to Babylon during the captivity who remained in Babylon, very few came back to restore the kingdom. And many of them were Bible scholars. And they were studying prophecy. These were men who knew the scriptures, and they expected a king to be born, a Messiah. Why were they expecting that? Why were they looking for it? Well, because it had been prophesied. They knew where he would come and pretty much when, as we see if we keep reading. In verse 3, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. Of course, he was sitting on a throne. He didn't like the idea of a new king coming along. He was troubled in all Jerusalem with him, and so he gathered all the chief priests and the scribes and the people together. He inquired of them where this Christ was to be born. And they didn't hesitate. They said, well, in Bethlehem of Judea, for it is written of the prophet, written by the prophet, but you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. The prophet they were referring to was Micah. That's in Micah 5 and verse 2. I won't turn there, but it says what they quoted. And that's just one of many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. I'll mention also the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel 9, which I'm not going to explore today, but wise scholars and wise men of the time understood that it gave them a key to knowing when the Messiah would come. And so they were looking for him. It was time for him to show up. The question is, did they understand all of the prophecy? And the answer to that is no. When he arrived, what were they expecting the Messiah to do? We read there in Acts 10 that Jesus healed people. He worked miracles. He preached the gospel. He did things that he was prophesied to do, but not everything. He didn't do what many people who studied the Bible were looking for. If you'll join me back in Isaiah 63, we'll note Isaiah 63. We'll begin in verse 5.

As I said, I want to review this because I want to emphasize that we're looking to a coming king, not a has-been king. They were looking for a king to come, but they're still looking. They believe he's never come. We want to understand the duality of the prophecy. Isaiah 63, beginning in verse 3. This is a Messianic prophecy.

Consider also Malachi chapter 3. We read this often. Malachi 3, beginning in verse 1. Malachi 3, Behold, I'll send my messenger, and he'll prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant. Interesting, there's two messengers described here. The messenger that will prepare the way, then the messenger of the covenant, which was the Messiah himself. Even the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? This is the part that the Jews in Christ's day were looking for. He's like a refiner's fire and a launderer's soap. He'll sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver, and he'll purify the sons of Levi, purge them as gold and silver that they may offer to the Eternal an offering of righteousness. When we read this, we tend to automatically think, ah, dual prophecy.

John the Baptist came and prepared the way for Christ's coming, his first coming. But we also see that his way will be prepared again when Christ will come again. That was what was missing from the understanding of most religious people in Christ's day. I believe that understanding is missing from those most religious people in our day. They did not understand that the Messiah would come to God's temple, and later Messiah will come to God's temple. Only the temple will be changed. Jesus first came to a physical building. Jesus will come again to a spiritual building, of which we are the living stones that it will be made of. The Church of God is God's temple now.

Let's notice again that misunderstanding. We'll see it start to play out if we'll go back to Isaiah. Back to Isaiah 61. We'll read verses 1 and 2.

Isaiah 61. Now, this might sound familiar because you've actually read this quoted in the New Testament, probably more often than here. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Eternal has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are abound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Eternal, and the day of the vengeance of our God, to comfort those who mourn. I'll stop there. Jesus himself quoted this, and he said it was about him. It's in Luke chapter 4. Luke 4 beginning in verse 17, and I'll ask you to join me there because I want to note the contrast, or maybe you should say the similarity and then the contrast.

Now I'm wondering, did I say Luke 4 or Luke 14? Because I want to go to Luke 4.

This is at the beginning of Christ's ministry, actually very early, and early enough that some people were thinking, who does this guy think he is? Later on, it became evident who he thought he was, and they had some problems with that. Beginning in verse 17, actually I'll note, of course, in verse 16, he says he came to Nazareth where he was brought up, and as his custom was, since he kept the Sabbath, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. When he'd opened the book, he found the place where it was written, and he read, as we just did, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And he stopped. He closed the book. We just read, and Isaiah goes on to talk about the day of vengeance. It was true that Jesus was the Christ, and he fulfilled these things. He did preach the gospel. He did heal people. He set them free from deception and from restriction.

But he surprised people when he stopped short of reading anything about proclaiming the day of vengeance. And I wonder, did his disciples have that in mind after the resurrection when they asked him, will you now at this time restore the kingdom? I wonder if Peter, James, and John were thinking, now is it time for the day of vengeance? We know you're the Son of God. But when they asked him, will you at this time restore the kingdom? His answer was vague. It's not for you to know the time.

And we don't have the answer recorded there, but what do you mean it's not for us to know the time? You're right here. Tell us the time. And I believe that's part of what led to what I like to call lowered expectations. Not so much among the Jews of his day. I believe their expectations were already too low. The Jews were expecting a physical kingdom. They expected Messiah to come and restore the glories that King David had. They were thinking too small, too low. I'm disappointed, though, that over time those who came to call themselves Christian, over time they lowered their expectations. As what was called the Church of God, began bringing many converts from pagan worship. It started wanting them all to come in, and so it allowed them to keep many of the practices they had, but put pagan names on them.

That's how the Saturnalia, or sometimes called the Bacchanalia, became labeled Christmas. That's how the Lupercalia was accepted in the Church and called St. Valentine's Day, and so on and so on. This isn't a sermon on the origin of modern holidays. I think many of us are fairly familiar with that. But at the same time that was happening, the Church went through a process of also changing what it taught about prophecy, and it lowered expectations concerning prophecies of the Messiah. One of the best examples of that happening is evident in what Bible scholars and ministers started saying about the major book of prophecy that we find in the New Testament. In the New Testament we've got the book of Revelation, which ties amazingly well into the Old Testament prophecies if you make the connections properly. But this Church that, as I said, accepted pagan practices and gave them new meanings decided that what was in the book of Revelation and many of the Old Testament prophecies didn't fit with their theology.

I was looking for a quote that summed that up, and many of you have heard of Adam Clark's commentary. He wrote a well-respected commentary, and he said this about the book of Revelation, I don't pretend to understand the book. No, let me say that again. He said, I can't pretend to explain the book. I do not understand it. And in the things which concern so sublime and awful a subject, I dare not, as my predecessors, indulge in conjecture. We could find other descriptions the same where scholars say, I don't know what it means. It's got all these weird visions and analogies and symbolism, and they explain away prophecies of the Messiah as fanciful allegories, colorful symbolism, allusions to spiritual principle. But most theologians would say they do not necessarily describe cataclysmic events that are really going to happen.

And if you think about it, why would they? The theology of mainstream Christianity has no need for a Messiah to come and rule the world. You might ask yourself, well, wait a minute. How could theology not need Christ to return? My answer is, why would he need to come here when the ultimate goal of people who call themselves Christian is to go to heaven? I'm not sure if heaven's on this side or this side, but I tend to put it on my right for some reason. They want to go to heaven, or at the very least, they want to not go to that other place.

As the heresy, the false teaching arose that says every person has an immortal soul, and as that lie became widely accepted, there seemed to be little need to look for a Christ to come to this earth and establish a kingdom of God on earth. Now, we don't need to take the time again to examine closely and disprove those particular heresies. I believe they originated with the first recorded lie, when Satan in the form of a serpent spoke to Eve and said, you will not surely die. The belief that humans possess a soul that continues on after the physical body dies and that this soul goes somewhere afterwards was common in ancient Egypt. It became prevalent in Babylon, and indeed, some version of it seems to exist in almost every religion around the world, even though the Bible says something very different, doesn't it?

We know the Bible says that when God created Adam, he became a living soul, not that he possessed some immortal soul. We know in Ezekiel 18 it says the soul that sins will die.

Romans 6.23 tells us the wages of sin is death, not ever burning suffering. It says the gift of God, which we don't already have, is eternal life. We understand that. But the church that came to dominate Western civilization after Christ's death accepted and taught that people have immortal souls, and that when a person dies, that soul wafts up to heaven for an eternity of idleness and luxury, or it shoots down to hell for an eternity of suffering and torment. With that belief, what do you do with a millennium? Now, you've heard of a millennium, right? I say that largely in jest, that the word millennium means a thousand years. And if we turn to Revelation 20 in verse 6, we do see that the Bible describes a millennium.

Revelation 20 in verse 6.

Blessed and holy is he who has parted in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power. They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Raining with Christ a thousand years. That sounds good to us, but it just doesn't fit with that whole going to heaven thing. Luckily for theologians who believe that, well, that's just in the book of Revelation. It's allegory. It's symbolism. It's impossible to understand. But some have thought, well, it is in the Bible. It must mean something. And so some theologians came up with a doctrine called post-millennialism. Post-millennialism is basically the word post with a hyphen and then millennialism. That's the idea that Christ will return, and they still don't explain why he would do so, but after mankind establishes a thousand years of peace and righteousness on earth.

So post-millennialism, I should have known if I could write this, I might not be able to say it, post-millennialism means the Messiah comes after or post the thousand years.

Although I should point, many scholars say thousand years is symbolic itself. It's some period of time, not necessarily what the Bible literally says. But how do you manage to have a thousand years of peace if Christ hasn't come to rule yet? Post-millennialists used to teach.

There are still some out there. I'm going to lead to why there aren't very many now, but they would say the church, or perhaps some government, is going to bring that era of peace.

Matter of fact, when the British Empire was at its height, many people, especially who lived within that empire, began saying, hey, this might be it. The British Empire was fabulously secure, growing in wealth. It reached its height at a time in the late 1800s, early 1900s, and it was in a great era of progress, of good, of great innovation. Along with amazing new technology, people were devising new societal organizations. Health technology was improving, life was getting more comfortable. All sorts of good things were happening. So people began to think, maybe this is the millennium, maybe we're underway. We can start looking for the Christ to come. Then something happened to change their minds. In 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated a member of the Austro-Hungarian royal family, and that led to a chain reaction, where one thing led to another, and the worst war that had ever happened on Earth, at least in human history, occurred. All of Europe was engulfed in war by the end of August.

The Great War is what they called it. Not great as in, you know, frosted flakes are great, but terrible. Along the biggest war ever, we call it World War I.

Almost an entire generation of young men died in a short period of time. New mechanical weapons, like machine guns, combined with high-intensity explosives, and other innovations to make killing more efficient, more rapid than it had ever been before.

Poison gas introduced new levels of suffering and misery. And speaking of misery, of course, the hunger and disease that always accompanied war were also much worse, more widespread than ever.

How could human beings ever expect to accomplish a thousand years of peace? Soon, almost nobody believed in pre-millennialism.

Oh, I said that wrong. Post-millennialism. It's wrong in my notes. Whoever wrote this, got to get it straight. But I'll mention a lot of people stopped believing there was even a god. Those who did still believe in god couldn't see any way to expect that mankind was ever going to accomplish peace on earth. But that's when they remembered, oh, why would we even be able to accomplish peace on earth? Why would we need to? Remember, good people are going to heaven.

The whole living and reigning with Christ a thousand years? Oh, symbolism, allegory.

You know, and so probably were many of those Old Testament prophecies that spoke of a conquering ruling Messiah. I mean, who's going to believe that a wolf is going to lie down with a lamb and a little child can play at the whole of an asp? It's got to be symbolism. So, they went back not to a belief in premillennialism. No, they went back to what the Catholic Church had actually been teaching all along, which is described as amillennialism. That's the letter A-millennialism. It means no-millennialism. That line of thinking says, no, Jesus isn't really coming back. That was just allegory. That was symbolism all along. And as I said, actually, the Catholic Church had a theology of amillennialism going back 2,000 years. Now, most Protestant churches also teach that. At the most, a few teach Jesus will come unexpectedly and rapture a few people up to heaven, while the rest will be left here on earth to suffer and the bad things going on, perhaps eventually to repent and get their chance to go to heaven or be miserable before they go to hell and be even more miserable. That seems more believable to people than what we've been reading in the Bible during our time here at the Feast. Now, I've spent a fair bit of time discussing this in order to show how significant it is that we do believe in a millennium. We do believe that the Christ, the Messiah, not only came to earth in the past some 2,000 years ago, He not only came as a sacrifice for our sins to establish His Church, we believe He will come again.

The prophecies are all true, many of them not yet fulfilled, but those prophecies are true. They're not allegorian symbolism. A lot of what we do here at the Feast of Tabernacles this week is to review those prophecies, to think about what will happen, to focus on the fact that God has a part for each of us to play in fulfilling those prophecies. This isn't just about what God will do, not just what the Messiah will do, it's what He will engage us in doing with Him. Our destiny is so much better than to go to heaven. At the Feast of Tabernacles, we learn a lot about that destiny.

As I said, doubt about those prophecies came into vogue surprisingly soon after Christ's resurrection.

But Jesus had made a point of giving at least some of His disciples an assurance and personal proof that He was going to come again. And He gave them a way of seeing somewhat of what it would be like when He came. I want to read what the Apostle Peter wrote on that subject. If you'll go with me to 2 Peter 2, if you are in Revelation, it's only a little ways up.

I just realized I've meant to switch Bibles. I've got the Bible where 2 Peter is really chewed up, so hopefully I'll be able to read these scriptures. I don't mean the translation where it's chewed up, just my personal copy. 2 Peter 2 beginning in verse 2.

And that's not what I wanted to say. Maybe I did want 1 Peter.

No.

No.

And it's chapter 3 in verse 2.

This is embarrassing. If I hadn't sent a precedent of doing this all through the feast so far, it seemed odd, but... 2 Peter chapter 3 in verse 2 says that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets. So Peter is saying, be mindful of the words of those holy prophets. They're not just fanciful allegory and symbolism that don't mean anything. Be mindful of those things spoken to the prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles, and of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own loss and saying, where's the promise of His coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were since the beginning of creation.

So Peter is saying the prophecies aren't outdated, but this scoffer is coming saying all things are the same. That's part of the doctrine of amillennialism. It says the world is just going on. Christ isn't coming here. Why would He? Good people go to heaven. But keeping the Feast of Tabernacles demonstrates our belief that Jesus Christ will do what He promised to do. He will come again. He will establish a kingdom of God on earth. Thus, we are millennialists.

If you want to be specific, we're premillennialists. And I've adopted, sometimes if someone's being a smart-elican and they ask me what religion I am, I'll tell them I'm a savatorian premillennialist.

And you can add a few more syllables with other words, but...

We believe Jesus Christ will return before the thousand years of peace and prosperity happen on earth. That's, of course, because we need Him here to be able to make that happen.

We don't believe that Jesus, the Messiah, came to earth once. And that's it. We're not among the scoffers who say, well, where is the promise of His coming? The Apostle Peter made a point of saying that a belief in Christ's second coming and in a millennium isn't just conjecture. It's not based just on hearsay. Now, I do want to go to 2 Peter chapter 1. Let's see if I have it right this time. It's just a page back. 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 16. We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. Now, some people read this and they think Peter's talking about how the disciples knew Jesus in person. They walked with Him up and down the roads. They camped with Him. They shared food. And all that's true. You know, they did... they knew who He was. They believed in Him. But that's not what Peter is saying here in this verse.

This scripture that we just read in verse 16 isn't about Jesus's first coming when He says, we didn't follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We were eyewitnesses. He's talking about the power of His second coming. That's what He's referring to. Let's read on in verse 17. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the excellent glory, saying, This is my beloved Son, in who I am well pleased. I'm sure it sounded different than that, but...

And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place till the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Peter is saying that this event, when he and some other disciples heard from God the Father, that confirmed the prophecies that had been written. It made the prophetic word confirmed. That leads me to want to go back and look at this event that He's talking about, and we can see it if we go back to Matthew.

I want to go to Matthew 16 first and lead into it. Matthew 16, if you'll begin in verse 13. I want to read in Matthew 16 first, remind us that when I said there in 1 Peter that He wasn't saying, oh, you know, we were eyewitnesses, you know, that they believed that Jesus was the Christ, you know, come the first time, because they didn't need a miracle to teach them that. Let's begin in verse 13 of Matthew 16. When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?

And I said, well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said, well, but who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered. Peter is always the first one up. He said, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter believed that He was the Son of God. He had seen miracles, but He didn't need convincing at this point. And I want to say at this point, because it's the next chapter that will read the special event that he referred to later when he was riding the epistle of 1 Peter.

So I wanted to stop now just to establish that. As I said, Peter and the other disciples said, this is the Christ. He's the Son of God. We know that. They didn't need some vision from heaven to convince them. But perhaps, perhaps he might need a vision or a miracle to help him to understand that the Messiah was not then going to fulfill all the rest of the prophecies, that there are prophecies that were going to be left for a second coming, for the kingdom of God on earth.

Let's drop down to Matthew 16 in verse 27, because Jesus Christ starts referring to it here, even though they didn't all get it. Verse 27, The Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he'll reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see them Son of Man coming in this kingdom. This all makes perfect sense to us now, but it seems like it might have been a bit more than the disciples who didn't have God's Spirit yet dwelling within them.

Jesus would later say, the Spirit has been with you, but it will be in you. So later on, in spite of what we just read when they said, you're the the Messiah, the Son of God, later on when they saw him after the crucifixion, they said, well, Lord, are you now going to establish the kingdom? And of course, he was vague.

It's not for you to know. Jesus knew they would need something more, more than words, to know what was coming ahead. And so he gave some of them a picture of it. Now, it's unfortunate there's a chapter break here, because what he referred to here in chapter 16, verse 28, there are some of you standing here who won't taste death until they see the Son of Man coming. He goes on to show exactly what he meant here in chapter 17. After six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves.

Peter referred to being on the mount. And he was transfigured before them, his face shone like the sun, his clothes became white as light, and they beheld Moses and Elijah. Or behold, Moses and Elijah appeared talking with him. Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make three tabernacles, one for you, for Moses and Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold. Well, actually, I wanted to pause and say, I think Peter might not have understood what he became clear later.

Down in verse 9, it will say that this was a vision. We don't believe that Moses and Elijah were literally resurrected, but they were given a vision of what it will be like when they're resurrected.

Why did Peter offer to build tabernacles? We can't be absolutely certain, but one reason might be that Peter began to realize that what he was seeing was a vision of what the Feast of Tabernacles is all about. It represents a time after Christ returns when the saints will be resurrected. Christ will be in full power and glory, and those saints who are resurrected, they're going to work with Jesus Christ. They're going to have jobs to do to restore the world to order, to rebuild the surface of the planet, to teach people God's way. This doesn't tell us what Moses and Elijah and Jesus were saying.

And it's hard to know, but I suspect they were talking. You know, if Peter, James, and John did hear a conversation, maybe it involved planning and organizing for the big job that will begin in the millennium. You know, Mr. Armstrong used to speculate that Moses and Elijah are going to have very high positions in the kingdom of God under Jesus Christ, directing work. So it makes sense, this might have been like a prelude to a board of directors meeting. And now we're going to plan out getting started establishing the kingdom of God on earth. Remember back in Matthew 16 verse 27, it says, the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his holy angels, and then he will reward each according to his works. When he comes, he's going to have some rewards with him. I want to consider that briefly. We're going to come back here to Matthew 17, so you might keep a finger there or a bookmark, but I'd like to turn over to Luke 19 and review a parable that we study fairly often, but it seems like it's been a while since I've heard it brought up, so I felt like it was due, and it certainly fits at the Feast of Tabernacles. Luke 19 beginning in verse 11.

Now, as they heard these things, he spoke another parable. That's, of course, Jesus Christ spoke another parable. Because he was near Jerusalem, and guess what? They thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. As I said, they didn't understand yet that there was a first coming, there will be a second coming. The kingdom comes at the second coming, so he gave them this parable to help them to understand, and it certainly helps us to understand. Therefore, he said, a certain nobleman, which we know now represents Jesus Christ himself, went to a far country, which represents going to heaven, to the throne of God with the Father, to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. Now, in the parable, he doesn't say to receive the kingdom in about 2000 years later to return. He left that vague because he wanted everybody to be expectant. But we know that does fit. So he's going to go away to receive a kingdom. He'll return, and he called ten of his servants and delivered to them ten minus and said to them, do business till I come. Now, the citizens hated him. They sent a delegation after him, saying, we won't have this man to reign over us. That also fits with the way mankind has dealt with true Christianity. But let's move on in verse 15. So it was, when he returned, that's something we're still looking for. But when he returns, having received the kingdom, he says he commanded his servants to whom he'd given the money to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, master, your mina has earned ten minas. That's 100% increase. That's pretty good doing business.

And he said, well done, good servant. Because you were faithful and very little, have authority over ten cities. I wonder what the others thought. The second came, saying, master, your mina has earned five minas. Likewise, he said to him, you also be over five cities. Now, I'm going to stop there, because my purpose today isn't to focus on the bad example of the next servant who didn't do business with the one mina he had. He went and hit it, and we understand that he would be punished. I want to focus, though, on the fact that those servants who did action, they got busy with what they had and developed, they would be rewarded. Which is what we saw. Jesus Christ said, when he comes in the power and glory, he'll bring a reward. We want to work for that reward. This isn't just allegory or symbolism.

This is a lesson on how what we are doing now in this life relates to what we will be doing in the millennium, in the kingdom of God. Not necessarily the same things, but the principle and the character that we build. And I want to say that, because we're learning lessons we might not fully understand, but we are preparing. We are preparing now to reign with Christ for a thousand years. We read that in Revelation 20 in verse 6. It says exactly that. And unlike Adam Clark, I'm not going to say, I can't understand what that means. No, I think I do understand what it means. I think it means we'll reign with Christ for one thousand years. We can understand that. And what we see here in Luke 19 tells us we're preparing now, preparing with little things. Now, it's possible that ten cities or five cities might be representative of different types of responsibilities. You know, I don't think he could make a parable where he describes every single job we'll have. But learning responsibility, learning initiative, learning faith, dedication, trust in God, that's preparing us to be suitable rulers and teachers in his kingdom. So, as I said, it's not necessarily your job vocation. If you're a plumber now, it doesn't mean you'll be in charge of all plumbers in the kingdom of God.

Although you never know, you might be, because I got a feeling there's going to be a lot of plumbing work needing done after cities are devastated. And we can translate that to whatever, you know, your occupation is. But we're going to, we need to learn. The thousand year reign of Jesus Christ is a real thing. Our participation in it will be a real thing. That means we need to do real preparation now in this life. We need to be studying. We need to be praying, drawing close to God, working with our brethren. We need to be studying, being diligent with the mina that we have, so that when Christ comes, you'll say, well done, good and faithful servant.

Because as I said, he's coming back. Let's go back to Matthew 17.

Because we want to, I want to look again at how Jesus went about convincing his disciples that it was a real thing. I didn't keep my finger there like I told you to, so. Matthew 17, remember, he took Peter, James, and John up there, and when they were there, suddenly his face changed. It was glowing. His eyes, his clothes started glowing white. Moses and Elijah appeared, and Peter kind of dumbfounded us that maybe all, you know, can we build you a tabernacle? As I said, maybe he realized that this was representing what's going to happen in the kingdom of God. And in verse 5, while he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Not dark clouds like we've had the last couple days, but a bright cloud. And suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. Hear him. And just pause. I didn't think of this in my notes, but recently I heard Mr. Frank McCready do an hour talk on this two-word phrase of how much that can be our preparation. Hear him. Hear Jesus Christ. That's part of what we need to be doing.

And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But when Jesus came and touched them, he said, arise, don't be afraid. And when they lifted their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. As they came down from the mountain that Jesus commanded them, saying, well, tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead. So they kept this a secret amongst themselves until after the resurrection. Later, it wasn't a secret. Later, Peter wrote about this happening in a general epistle. His disciples asked him, though, saying, why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? Jesus answered and said, well, indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things, future tense. But I say to you, Elijah has come already and they didn't know him and they did do him whatever they wished. Likewise, the Son of Man is also about to suffer in their hands. Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist. I hope we're seeing this all ties together.

This was a vision to show what the next coming of Jesus Christ will be like. They were given a look at it and said, oh, we thought he would we believed he was the Son of God, but now we see what it's going to be like. This wasn't to prove that he was already the Christ. They already believed.

But they were still under this mistaken impression that the Kingdom of God would appear then.

We're celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles because we understand the Kingdom of God is yet to come. We're celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles as a commemoration, a small taste of what we think it will be like. And we need to be firm in our faith that that Kingdom is coming.

Jesus Christ is our coming King. We like to say soon coming King. And whether it's as soon as a relative term to God, if it's within 2,000 years, that's really soon for him a thousand years is as a day. But he is our coming King. He's coming. We want to be ready. Jesus explained when he's talking to them that prophecy of Elijah coming before the Messiah, he basically told them it's going to be fulfilled twice. And years later, after many experiences, after trials, after successes, after life's ups and downs, when Peter felt the need to argue against people who said, where is the promise of his coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, things continue as they always were. When Peter needed to counter that, he recalled to mind the special vision that Christ had given him. A special vision that was also given to us by way of the Holy Scripture was written down. Let's turn back to 2 Peter and remind ourselves. 2 Peter chapter 1 in verse 16, Peter had that vision clearly in mind when he says, we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We were eye witnesses of his majesty, not just the majesty of his first coming, but a small taste of his second coming. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory, saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. And so, a lot of this leads up to, and so, because of this, we have the prophetic word confirmed. It's confirmed.

It's exciting to realize this vision confirmed the prophecies in the Old Testament. As I said, the desert will blossom as a rose. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the kingdom as waters cover the sea. And I know I'm garbling my quotations, but I didn't write them down. Everyone, insert your favorite quote in prophecy about the millennium. It's confirmed. They're all true. They're all coming. And there are many prophecies about the millennium of the kingdom of God that will be set on earth. We're looking ahead to Christ ruling the earth. He is our coming King. And He promises that those who are called now and who overcome will reign with Him.

I'm not going to turn there, but remember Revelation 3 and verse 21 says, we'll sit with Him on His throne. Not just an allegory, not just symbolism. We're celebrating and preparing now for a real kingdom, a real thousand-year reign, and for the real coming of Jesus Christ the King.