The Coming King

I really appreciated that last song. Actually, the title I have for the sermon is The Coming King. So, an appropriate thought. Of course, that's what we're focused on this time of year. I'm not very good at titles. I often don't mention them because I'm not sure how good they are.

I'd say there's a common practice among Jewish people that they'll tend to raise a glass and say, next year in Jerusalem. At least I've read many accounts of that. They do it most often during the Passover. Of course, they keep Passover a bit differently than we do. I think even quite a bit differently than God instructed ancient Israel. They're looking ahead, but also, they're looking to the restoration of a glory that their nation once knew. They're reminiscing of a time when Israel was a powerful kingdom, particularly during the reigns of King David and King Solomon.

We know that during the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish people look back with great longing. That's reflected in Psalm 137, which we sing as, By the Waters of Babylon. I won't turn there, but you know those lines. One of them says, If I don't remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth. If I don't exalt Jerusalem, my chief joy.

Now, we know that after that was written, Jerusalem was restored for a time. The Persians allowed Jews to go back and to rebuild Jerusalem, build another temple, and Christ came to that temple. He fulfilled many of the prophecies of the Messiah, but that restoration was fairly short-lived. The Romans would destroy that temple, banish the Jews, at least for a time. Of course, many died in that terrific battle. Even though now Jerusalem is primarily a Jewish city, I'm wondering if this statistic is still true, but it's been said that more Jews live in New York City than in Jerusalem or even ancient Israel. And thus, that still that longing toast that thought, next year in Jerusalem. I think that was the attitude, even though they weren't at that point yet, somewhat reflected in the big question the disciples had for Jesus after his resurrection. I'm going to turn to the beginning of the book of Acts. Acts chapter 1 and verse 6. I keep forgetting I've got my travel Bible and the print is much smaller than my classroom Bible. I'll be pulling my glasses on and off, but this would be the last time they spent with Jesus in the flesh, it seems. It says, now therefore when they come together they asked him saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Are you going to restore the kingdom now? I think even looking ahead there was a little bit of looking back. The Holy Spirit was not yet poured out as it would be fairly soon, and so they didn't quite understand what was really ahead for them.

And that's one thing I'd like to say. The Holy Days reflect God's plan and his purpose, and they are not backward looking. They are looking ahead not to restore glories of when Israel was at its height under the united monarchy, but looking ahead to glory that's never been before. When Christ will come and establish a kingdom over all the earth, he'll rule with a power and a glory far superior to anything that's ever been. And in the Feast of Tabernacles, we celebrate that time. We look forward to it, and we study prophecies about it.

It's worth noting that at the time when the disciples asked that question of Jesus, they weren't the only ones looking for a messiah to come and establish a kingdom.

Most Jews who read and understood the scriptures at that time, they understood that there were prophecies of an anointed one, a messiah, who was going to come and do God's will. As a matter of fact, I'll make a reference. Well, we're in the Book of Acts. Let's turn to chapter 10.

Acts 10 and verse 38 because sometimes I remind myself, messiah in the ancient Hebrew basically meant anointed one, and that's what Christos was from the Greek, the anointed one. Acts 10 and verse 38. I'm breaking into a thought here, but it says how God anointed 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. Of course, symbolically, kings and priests were anointed with oil, as we do when we ask God to heal someone. Christ was anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, even though we don't... we notice a lot of people misunderstand the events around Christ's birth and what they call the Christmas story in the beginning. Well, let's turn there. Sorry, I keep thinking, well, we don't have to turn there. Then I say, yeah, let's turn there. It's in Matthew chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2 will begin with verse 1. What I want to make the point of is Christ was born at a time when the Messiah was supposed to be born. Looking at the beginning, chapter 2, verse 1 of Matthew, now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea and 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 we've come to worship him. Now, these wise men, you know, probably didn't look like this, the little plastic statues you might see in people's front yards, but they were wise, they were probably scholars, and it's likely that they were Jewish themselves or perhaps of a different tribe of Israel, but they were wise because they studied. They probably studied God's word, they studied astronomy, and they expected a king to be born. They were looking for a messiah. You could say, why were they looking for a messiah? Well, it had been prophesied. They knew when, approximately, and they knew where. We see that a lot of people knew where. If we jump down and continue this story in verse 3, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. We gathered the chief priests and the scribes of the people together, inquired of them where the Christ was to be born, and they answered without hesitation, in Bethlehem of Judea. Why did they know that? It was prophesied. Here we see a quote from the book of Micah 5 verse 2. I'm not going to turn back to Micah. It says, But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah. Out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. That's just one of many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled when he came his first time.

I imagine these wise men might well have also been familiar with the 70 weeks prophecy that's in Daniel 9. I'm not going to turn there, but people have looked and said, from the time of the decree going to build Jerusalem, you can count so many sevens to come to the time when Messiah would be born. So why were they expecting Messiah? It was time.

And what did they expect him to do? Well, we read in Acts 10 that Jesus healed people. He worked miracles. Jesus preached the gospel of the coming kingdom. He didn't do what a lot of people expected him to do, though. They were looking for something different, something we can see described back in Isaiah 63. I often like to read Isaiah this time of year because it has so many millennial and messianic prophecies in it. Isaiah 63, beginning in verse 3, the very powerful one that shows some imagery that's reflected in the book of Revelation among other places. Isaiah 63 in verse 3 says, I've trodden the wine press alone, and from the peoples no one was with me, for I've trodden them in my anger, and trampled them in my fury, and their blood has sprinkled on my garments, and I've stained all my robes, for the day of vengeance is in my hand. Sorry, let me read that. The day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, and wondered, that there was no one to uphold. Therefore, my own arm brought salvation for me, and my own fury sustained me. I want to consider also, we're not too far from the end of the Old Testament in the book of Malachi. If you'll turn with me to Malachi chapter 3 before I pick up that thought. Malachi 3 beginning at the beginning of the chapter.

This is another passage that those wise men were probably quite familiar with, where it says, Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, 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, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire, like a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver, and purify the sons of Levi. Purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer the Lord an offering in righteousness. Now, when we read this, I'm wondering what do you think? One of the things I think of is dual prophecy. Matter of fact, there's a time when some of the disciples asked Jesus, what about Elijah coming? And Jesus said, well, Elijah has come. They did to him what they wanted, and the writer says, well, he was talking about John the Baptist. But Christ said, but Elijah will come, which is one of the ways we know that there certainly is dual prophecy.

John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ's first coming, and Christ came. The way will be let me say that in English, that way will be prepared a second time, and Christ will come a second time. It seems that that understanding was missing from most people that studied the Bible in Christ's day. To be honest, I believe it's missing from most who call themselves Christian in our day. And I'm talking about, you know, practicing Christians who proclaim that they say they worship Jesus Christ, but they don't have the understanding that we have. You know, we understand that Christ will come to a temple, primarily to a spiritual temple made up of Christians as living stones in that character, in that building. Regardless of whether or not there's an actual temple built again before then, I just realized I meant to ask you to keep your hand back in Isaiah, because I'm going to turn back to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2. Here we see a prophecy of the anointed one. It says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. Could have said, because I'm the Messiah. To preach good tidings to the poor. He set me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of prison to those who were bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God. And he goes on to comfort those who mourn, console those who mourn in Zion, give them beauty for ashes, oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness. They may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Now, you might be ahead of me. I'm not going to turn to Luke chapter 4, but in Luke chapter 4, there's beginning in verse 17 a story of early in Christ's ministry when he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, which was his custom, and they handed him the scroll. He opened it up to the place of Isaiah, and he read what we just read.

And he said, and he sat down, which was the posture that the rabbis would take to teach then. They would sit in a special seat, and he told them, this day this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

And it was true. Jesus was the Christ. He came and did many of those things.

But it's interesting if you read the account in Luke, he didn't read all that I just read. He stopped. Well, I don't know why it turned back to Isaiah, but he stopped before it said that he would be proclaiming the day of vengeance. He talked about these good things, proclaiming the gospel and comforting and healing, but he didn't read the part about proclaiming the day of vengeance.

And I wonder, some of his disciples might have been actually there and knew about that. So maybe they had that in mind when after the crucifixion, they asked him, well, will you at this time restore the kingdom? They could have said, is now the day of vengeance? It wasn't three and a half years ago, but is it now?

His answer was vague. It's not for you to know. The Father knows these things.

And I believe that's part of what led to what I like to call lowered expectations.

Now, lowered expectations, not with the disciples who truly understood God's teaching, because we have high expectations and not necessarily among the Jews. Their expectations were already lower than they should have been. They were looking for a king like David, not the Son of God.

So I'm thinking of those calling themselves Christians.

Over time, they lowered their expectations.

And this is at a time when what was called the Church of God began bringing many converts in who had been practicing what we would call paganism, worshiping the various idols and false gods. But of course, this church wanted them to come in, and so it allowed them to keep a lot of their practices and just put Christian-sounding names on them. As you know, the Saturnalia became called Christmas. The Lupercalia was given the name Saint Valentine's Day. And I don't want to make this about the origin of pagan holidays. We're pretty well versed on that.

But it's worth noting, at the same time, those things that we're familiar with were happening, the church went through a pretty drastic change in what it taught about prophecy. And it lowered expectations concerning prophecies about the Messiah.

One of the best examples of that happening is what they said about the book of Revelation. You know, the major prophetic book that we have in the New Testament. You know, they developed a belief that what's in Revelation isn't really going to happen. It's symbolism, it's allegory, you know, those things don't fit. They didn't fit with the theology of that new church. I wrote a quote down from Adam Clark's commentary. It's a pretty respected commentary. And speaking of the book of Revelation, he said this, Nor can I pretend to explain the book. I do not understand it. And in things which concern so sublime and awful a subject, I dare not, as my predecessors, indulge in conjectures.

It's interesting that leading well-respected scholars that I just don't understand this, and it's not worth conjecturing about. For many explanations that there were these were prophecies of a conquering messiah, you know, they said, no, no, that's just fanciful allegory, allusions to spiritual principles.

And that couldn't possibly be the way it's going to happen, because think of what they began to believe.

The theology of Christianity as it became had no need for messiah to come and establish the kingdom of God. Now, in our training, you might think, what in the world is he talking about? How could they not need Christ to return? Well, my answer is, why would he come here?

Why would he do that when the ultimate goal of people practicing what they call Christianity is to go to heaven and not to rule on earth with Christ? And I'll give them credit, at least they knew they didn't want to go to that other place. But this heresy, this false teaching arose that man has an immortal soul. And as they thought of that, you know, which I think came from the first recorded lie, we know Satan told Eve, you're not going to die. Well, you have a soul that's going to continue after your body passes, and it's either going to waft up to heaven, float around in a cloud, play a harp, or it's going to go down to hell and be tortured forever.

You don't have much reason to believe that Christ would come back.

Now, we know better. We know Ezekiel 18.4 says, the soul that sins shall die. Romans 6.23 says, the wages of sin is death, not eternal suffering. And the gift of God, something we don't already have, is eternal life. And by the way, those are two of the earliest grandma scriptures I ever committed to memory. I say that my students hear me talk about my grandma scriptures all the time. When I was probably younger than my son, Connor, is, my grandma started teaching my sister and I certain scriptures to learn. But the church that came to dominate Western civilization within 100 to 200 years after Christ's death, it accepted and taught that people have immortal souls. And as I said, that they're either going to go to heaven or go to hell. So what do you do with a millennium? Millennium? Right. That word that means a thousand years.

The thing that's spoken of in the book of Revelation. Revelation 20 in verse 6.

I'll turn and read this one so I don't misquote it. Revelation 20 in verse 6 says, Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, shall reign with him a thousand years.

That just doesn't fit with that whole going to heaven thing. And it doesn't work. Luckily, you know, that's just in the book of Revelation. You know, that's just all allegorian symbolism. You know, that according to Adam Smith is impossible, or Adam Clark is impossible to understand. But then someone said, what's in the Bible? It's got to mean something. What could it mean? So some theologians came up with the teaching that we call post-millennialism. Post-millennialism. That's the idea that Christ will return for some unknown reason after. After mankind establishes a thousand years of peace and righteousness on earth. Post-millennium, post meaning after, is yeah, the idea that that's when Christ returns. And of course, many that accept this teaching would say, well, a thousand years is just a figure of speech. It'll be just some period of time. No wonder how in the world do you manage a thousand years of peace and righteousness if Christ hasn't come.

But the teaching was there. It was pretty prevalent. It started around 1600 and really gained ground in the 1800s. When the British Empire was at its height is when this doctrine, this teaching, took its greatest popularity. And what an era of progress. The late 1800s going to the 1900s. There was amazing new technology. People were improving education, developing social institutions. Medicine was improving and people were living longer. New technologies for farming were feeding people better than ever. Some people began to think maybe the millennium is beginning now. Maybe the British Empire is what God will use to bring the millennium. And then something happened to change their minds. In June of 1914, an assassin killed the Archduke, or yeah, a member of the Austro-Hungarian family. And one thing led to another, and soon all of Europe was at war by the end of August. They called it the Great War, which is funny in our common usage. It wasn't a really good war. It was a really big war that eventually involved the United States and countries from around the world. And almost an entire generation of young men died. New mechanical weapons like machine guns, poison gas, and high explosives just made war far more horrible than anyone could have thought before. You know, the ultimate demonstration of man's inhumanity to man. And of course, hunger and disease followed the warfare and stalked the battlefields as it always does. How could human beings ever be expected to bring a thousand years of peace? Soon, almost nobody believed in post-millennialism. As a matter of fact, a lot of people stopped believing there was a God at all. And as the beginning of the atheist movement, well, not the very beginning of it, but it became far more widely accepted than before. And those who did still believe that there was a God couldn't see any way to expect that mankind was ever going to bring peace on earth. And they remembered that idea of, oh, why would we need to? Not when good people go to heaven. This whole living and reigning with Christ for a thousand years. Again, that's part of the allegorian symbolism of the book of Revelation, according to them. And they might have thought probably a lot of those Old Testament prophecies are just as much allegorian symbolism.

Most Christians then went back not to a belief in post-millennialism, but really what the Catholic Church stuck with all along, we could call it amillennialism. A-millennial meaning no millennium. That's not going to happen. Jesus isn't actually coming back. Again, just allegory.

At the most, it seemed a few churches in the Protestant vein said, well, Christ will show up unexpectedly in a rapture and whisk a few people up to heaven while the rest are suffering down here below, either getting better enough so they can go to heaven or getting a foretaste of what awaits them in hell. And sometimes I think that seems more believable than that Christ will come. I don't want to question people's belief because without being called to come to God the Father, no one can understand. We certainly understand that.

Now, I've spent considerable time discussing this because I want to emphasize how significant it is that we do believe in a millennium. We stand out a bit. We do believe that the Christ, the Messiah, not only came to earth in the past, he came as a sacrifice for our sins. He came to establish his church. But we believe that he will come again. He is our coming King. The prophecies are all true.

Many of them are yet to be fulfilled. That's understandable.

And again, a lot of what we do at the Feast of Tabernacles that starts tomorrow evening is review those prophecies. We focus on what will happen. The fact that God has a part for each of us to play. That's really exciting. I'm happy to be reminded that my destiny is much more than to go to heaven and just gaze at God's face. Then it brings to mind during the summer, it's funny, Clint Porter, we just all give the sermon, he recommended a book to me on the book of Leviticus. And oh boy, since I teach the Pentateuch class, I said, well, I probably better read it. And it was really interesting, really gave some insight into some of the symbolism. But still, this author that doesn't have our understanding kept coming to the idea that eventually we'll get to have the beatific vision and sit and stare at God's face forever. Man, you've got so much right, but now I think God has more in mind for us than to just look at something. He has things for us to do. But like I said, doubts about the prophecies throughout the Old Testament came fairly soon after Christ's coming. I think that might be part of the reason that Christ himself, you know, gave some of his disciples a pretty strong assurance and personal proof that he would come again. I want to read what Peter wrote about the subject, the Apostle Peter. If you'll turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 3, I'm probably just moving my mouth too quickly. 2 Peter 3 beginning in verse 2. Peter says that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets. And again, this is probably written before John had seen the Bible and written what we know of as the book of Revelation. Peter is thinking of those Old Testament prophecies, such as the ones we saw in Malachi, and Isaiah, and many others. Be mindful of those words which were spoken of by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, Peter is saying, keep this in mind. Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, I lost my place, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.

He goes on, but that's part of the doctrine of amillennialism. It says the world is just going to go on. Christ isn't coming here. Good people will go to heaven.

Of course, we keep the Feast of Tabernacles to remind us that Jesus Christ will do exactly what he promised to do. He'll come again and establish the kingdom of God. We keep a week-long festival to celebrate that, the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. We are millennialists. To be specific, pre-millennialists. We believe Christ has to come before the thousand years could possibly happen. We don't believe that Jesus came just once. We're not the scoffers who say, oh, where's the promise of his coming? The apostle Peter made a point of saying that, you know, this belief in Christ's second coming and in the millennium, it's not just conjecture. He said it's not based on hearsay. If you'll back up with me to the first chapter of 2 Peter, let's note verse 16, where 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, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Now, if we just stopped reading there, you might think, oh, Peter is talking about how he and his fellow disciples came, you know, they knew Jesus Christ in person. And of course, they did. They walked those roads with him. He, you know, when he broke the bread to feed thousands of people, he handed it to them and they handed it to others. He took them aside to sometimes in special places to give them deeper instruction. They saw him. They touched him. Is that what this means? They knew he was the disciple. But I don't think that's what Peter's talking about here in verse 16. Eyewitnesses of his majesty. Let's go on and read the following verses. For he received from God the Father honor and glory. When such a voice came to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. 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. I like that, but I miss the old King James where it said a more sure word of prophecy. 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 that he and some other disciples experienced, where they heard that saying, that confirmed what the prophets had written earlier. That's the case. I think it might be worth going back and looking at that. It's in Matthew. Well, I want to start in the book of Matthew chapter 16. Matthew 16 will begin in verse 13.

Now, this is one of those times when Jesus had taken his disciples away, and actually they went up trying to remember that.

Yeah, the Caesarea Philippi, as it says in verse 13, which is sort of a pagan city outside of the territory where Jewish people lived. I've heard some people say it's like if we took a field trip now to Las Vegas, and if we took the ABC students there into a casino or to see the shows, now he didn't take them there for that, but he wanted to withdraw, and he took them to a place where temples were.

And now let me start where I was back in verse 13. Oh, Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, and he asked his disciples, saying, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? Well, they said some say John the Baptist, Psalm Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? And this is important. Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. I want to stop there for now to establish that Peter already firmly believed that Jesus was the Messiah.

He didn't need a vision or anything to come after to convince him that this was the son of God, and that he was fulfilling many prophecies. Now, Jesus was here. Peter had come to know him. He was convinced. But from what Peter wrote later, we might think, well, maybe Christ realized he might need a vision or a miracle to help him to understand that Jesus was not yet going to fulfill all the prophecies, that Jesus wasn't going to establish the kingdom of God then, what's now about 2,000 years ago. I want to drop down to verse 27 because Christ discusses establishing the church and authority it has.

But let's read in verse 27 in Matthew 16. He says, 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. And he stopped assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste of death till they see the son of man coming in his kingdom. Now, on the surface, if we didn't know what's going to come next, you know, and the disciples might have thought, okay, he's going to come while we're still alive.

Many seem to have thought that. This chapter break is a bit unfortunate because I'm confident that what happens next is a direct continuation of what Christ just said. So if we read in chapter 17, verse 1, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves. So Peter, James, and John, those three that were closest to Christ, they're the only ones he took with him when he went in to raise a little girl from the dead.

The only ones that he took with him or would take with him when he went aside to pray in the garden of Gethsemane, he wanted them to have this special opportunity. In verse 2, and he was transfigured before them, his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him. That's astounding. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it's 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.

You know, I think Peter may not have realized that what he was seeing at this moment wasn't exactly real. If you look down in verse 9, it refers to this as a vision. When Jesus would say, don't tell this vision to anyone until the Son of Man is risen from the dead. So he thinks they're there, and he says, no, let me let us build you a shelter, one for each of you. Why shelters? Well, we can't be absolutely certain, but one reason might be that Peter might be beginning to realize that what he was seeing was a vision of what the Feast of Tabernacles is all about.

Christ in his glory and power, and he'll start working with resurrected Christians. And what will they do? They'll lead and teach the world.

And it's funny, I wish that maybe Peter, James, and John had written down some of the conversation that they had. We don't know what they were talking about, but it says they were talking. Maybe they were talking about what will happen at the beginning of the millennium. You know, teaching assignments, various things that have to be done, plans for organizing and getting this job done.

We just read in verse 27 in Matthew 16, when Christ comes, he'll reward each according to his works.

That's us. What's that reward that we're going to get? It's not prize money. It's not a special trophy or anything like that. It won't be an all-expenses-paid vacation. It's going to be an opportunity to work. And I can't remember. One of the scholars I've studied says, the reward God gives for good work is often the opportunity to do more work, to serve in a greater way. It's going to be a chance to be leaders in the kingdom and to help build the kingdom of God on earth. We see that. I won't turn there to read it, but in Luke—actually, let's turn there. Luke chapter 19. I just looked at the clock and said, well, I have time. I'm not going over today. Luke 19 verse 11. Here in Luke 19 verse 11, As they heard these things, he—that is Jesus Christ—spoke another parable, because he was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.

Remember the disciples, are you now going to restore the kingdom? That's not for you to know. They're thinking it's going to come immediately. So he gives them this parable. A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said, Do business till I come. But his citizens hated him. They sent a delegation after him, saying, We won't have this man reign over us. That didn't work, because it says, So it was, when he returned having received the kingdom, he then commanded his servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. First came Matt and said, Master, your mina has earned ten minas. It's easier to say pounds, but the Greek's proper here. He said, Well done, good servant, because you are faithful and very little. Have authority over ten cities. Second came, Master, your mina has earned five minas. Likewise, he said to him, you be over five cities. Now, I'm going to stop there, because my purpose isn't to focus on the bad example of the servant who just didn't do anything with his mina. And it is a bad example. We know where to make use of the talents, the skills, the resources God gives us. But I want to focus on the fact that it's not just a nice story. You know, it's a lesson for us that Christ is going to come back. And when he does, he's going to give us work to do. Now, we're going to be doing something in the kingdom of God, and we need to be preparing now for that thousand years. And we prepare in small things, but we'll have big opportunities. Now, ten cities or five cities, I wonder if that's representative of various opportunities and responsibilities we'll have. Some of us, though, might be in charge of cities. That's a little scary to think of. You know, every time I'm given something to be in charge of, it's like, oh, there's a whole bunch to do. It's a lot of work, a lot of responsibility. But it's going to be real responsibilities and real opportunities. And certainly, I don't see God asking us to do something we're not capable of, you know, with the job to do, He'll make us able to do it. I'm going to go back to Matthew 17.

Matthew 17, beginning in verse 5. I apologize again. I should have said, keep a finger in Matthew 17, but I forgot.

I want to look at this again because we saw, you know, the transfiguration. You know, they saw Jesus face shining, His clothes becoming white. In verse 5, while He was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Suddenly, the voice, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces.

Now, I want to go, yeah, down in verse 10. I referenced this earlier. His disciples asked Him, this is verse 10, why do the scribes say Elijah must come first? Jesus answered and said to them, indeed, Elijah is coming first, and will restore all things. Now, Christ was already there. He didn't need the way prepared for His first coming anymore. He said, but I say to you, Elijah has already come, and they didn't know Him, but whatever they did to Him, whatever they wished. Likewise, the Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood He was speaking of John the Baptist.

Hope we're seeing how this ties together, though. The vision wasn't to convince them that He was the Messiah. They'd already said they knew that's who He was. They already knew that John the Baptist had prepared His way, was prepared the way for His first coming. This was a vision to show what the next coming of Christ would be like, not to prove that He was really the Christ.

Now, when we celebrate the Feast of Tabardacles, it's a commemoration of a kingdom to come.

And we want to be firm in our understanding that Christ is our coming King. We used to hear the phrase, soon coming King, more often than we do. Sometimes still fun to say that, our soon coming King. Jesus explained that this prophecy of Elijah coming before the Messiah would be fulfilled twice, not just once. And then years later, after experiences, trials, successes, life's up and down, when Peter felt the need to argue against some who were saying, where is the promise of His coming, the scoffers? When people said, since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were. Peter countered by remembering this time when he and his brother, and no, not his brother, Andrew didn't go to get to go in this one, the brothers James and John, they went up on that mountain. And that special vision was given to them. And we could say that special vision was given to us because of the written account we have in the Gospels, so that we can learn from it.

That's why Peter could answer as he did. I'm turning back to 2 Peter. We read this earlier. 2 Peter 1 verse 16 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 of His majesty. And say, yeah, we saw not just Christ in the flesh, but we saw His majesty, a vision of Him in glory. For we received from God the Father honor and glory, when such a voice came to Him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, whom I am well pleased. We heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the mountain. And so, because of what we saw and heard, we have the prophetic word confirmed.

As I read it earlier, but I hope we see that, that God gave a vision so they would know all those prophecies are true. They're going to happen. There are many prophecies in the millennium of the kingdom of God that will be set up on earth. And we're looking ahead to Christ ruling the earth. He is our coming King, and He promises that those who are called now and preparing and are faithful to the end will reign with Him. As I said, it's not just allegory, it's not just symbolism. We're celebrating and preparing now for a very real kingdom, one that'll last a thousand years, ruled by a very real King, our soon coming King.