Matthew 17 | The Upward Way | Bible Study with A. Z. Adams — Transcript

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1. 0:00Matthew chapter 17 verse1 6 days later
2. 0:03Jesus took with him Peter and James and
3. 0:06John his brother and led them up on a
4. 0:09high mountain by themselves
5. 0:12and he was transfigured before them and
6. 0:16his face shone like the sun and his
7. 0:19garments became as white as light and
8. 0:22behold Moses and Elijah appeared to them
9. 0:26talking with him.
10. 0:28Peter said to Jesus,"Lord,
11. 0:31it is good for us to be here. If you
12. 0:33wish, I will make three tabernacles
13. 0:35here, one for you and one for Moses and
14. 0:38one for Elijah."
15. 0:41While he was still speaking, a bright
16. 0:44cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a
17. 0:46voice out of the cloud said, "This is my
18. 0:50beloved son with whom I am well pleased.
19. 0:54Listen to him."
20. 0:57When the disciples heard this, they fell
21. 0:59face down on the ground and were
22. 1:01terrified.
23. 1:03And Jesus came to them and touched them
24. 1:05and said, "Get up and do not be afraid."
25. 1:10And lifting up their eyes, they saw no
26. 1:12one except Jesus himself alone.
27. 1:17As they were coming down from the
28. 1:18mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying,
29. 1:21"Tell the vision to no one until the Son
30. 1:24of Man has risen from the dead."
31. 1:28And his disciples asked him, "Why then
32. 1:30do the scribes say that Elijah must come
33. 1:33first?"
34. 1:35And he answered and said, "Elijah is
35. 1:37coming and will restore all things." But
36. 1:40I say to you that Elijah already came
37. 1:43and they did not recognize him.
38. 1:46but did to him whatever they wished. So
39. 1:49also the son of man is going to suffer
40. 1:52at their hands. Then the disciples
41. 1:54understood that he had spoken to them
42. 1:56about John the Baptist.
43. 1:59There are so many layers here.
44. 2:02Jesus
45. 2:04goes up on the mountain and he only
46. 2:05takes three people with him.
47. 2:08And what they're going to see is Jesus
48. 2:12not
49. 2:14merely in his human expression,
50. 2:17nor Jesus in his kinosis expression,
51. 2:21but Jesus in his glorified expression.
52. 2:25Philippians 2, Paul says, "Jesus, while
53. 2:29he was here, did not take all of his
54. 2:32divine rights, but emptied himself
55. 2:37and came in the form of a servant.
56. 2:40And this was the idea that Jesus was
57. 2:43God.
58. 2:45And yet he did not take full possession
59. 2:48of his glory while he was on the earth
60. 2:52because he was being like us. He was
61. 2:54being he was making himself like us in
62. 2:56every way so that he could know our
63. 2:58weakness, our questions, our
64. 3:00infirmities, our temptations and be a
65. 3:02faithful high priest. He was God in
66. 3:05nature but he was like an heir living on
67. 3:09a very tight budget though he had the
68. 3:11full inheritance coming. So there are
69. 3:14times when we see the divinity at work
70. 3:16in him very clearly and there are other
71. 3:18times where we see the humanity more
72. 3:21clearly. But in this moment we see the
73. 3:25glorification. We see Jesus as he will
74. 3:29be once he is glorified. We see him as a
75. 3:33radiant spirit. We see him as the light
76. 3:37of day. We see him in in this splendor
77. 3:40and majesty. What Peter calls his
78. 3:43majesty. What we saw of his majesty on
79. 3:46the mountain. Peter refers to this
80. 3:48moment when he writes his epistle. He
81. 3:50doesn't write a gospel, but when he
82. 3:52writes his epistle, he talks about the
83. 3:54majesty that we beheld on the mountain.
84. 3:57When Peter encounters this, he is
85. 4:00absolutely freaked out as you or I would
86. 4:04be as well. And he offers a solution
87. 4:08because he doesn't know what to say. One
88. 4:10of the other gospels says Peter is
89. 4:12terrified and he doesn't know what to
90. 4:14say. And so he says, "I'll build three
91. 4:17tabernacles."
92. 4:20And your granddaddy used to tell us that
93. 4:23that's the instinct that the flesh
94. 4:25always has when it encounters the glory
95. 4:27of God. We don't know what to do. So,
96. 4:30we'll build three boxes.
97. 4:33That way, we can understand and contain
98. 4:36what God's doing. It's the principle of
99. 4:38tabernacling God, of putting him in
100. 4:41places and houses and boxes that we can
101. 4:44understand and get our minds around, and
102. 4:46it doesn't feel so scary.
103. 4:49And in this telling of the story,
104. 4:51Matthew doesn't even say what Jesus
105. 4:54said. He doesn't respond. There's no
106. 4:55engagement. Instead, God speaks from
107. 4:58heaven and says, "This is my son,
108. 5:03my beloved son in whom I am well
109. 5:05pleased. Listen to him." God is trying
110. 5:09to adjust the way Peter, James, and John
111. 5:12view Jesus. They need to understand that
112. 5:15this is not just a man with a great
113. 5:17anointing. This is God in the flesh. And
114. 5:21that's what they understand in this
115. 5:23vision on the mountain. He tells them to
116. 5:26tell no one until the son of man has
117. 5:28risen from the dead because the rising
118. 5:31from the dead in glorification and the
119. 5:33ascent into heaven is the ultimate
120. 5:35expression of what they're catching a
121. 5:37glimpse of on the mountain. And the
122. 5:40disciples said to him,"Wh then do do the
123. 5:42scribes say that Elijah must come
124. 5:44first?" And again, this is an amazing
125. 5:47question because he's already told them
126. 5:49that John the Baptist is Elijah if they
127. 5:53are willing to believe it. So apparently
128. 5:55even they are not fully able to believe
129. 5:57it. And then Jesus says something
130. 6:00interesting. He says Elijah is coming
131. 6:04and Elijah has come. So Elijah stands
132. 6:09for a ministry of repentance.
133. 6:12A ministry that turns people from
134. 6:15themselves, from their sin, from their
135. 6:18self-pursuits, and toward the kingdom
136. 6:20and purpose and glory of God. Elijah is
137. 6:24a ministry that removes the rubble of
138. 6:26excuses and sin and and the stumbling
139. 6:30blocks toward God's authority out of the
140. 6:33path so that God can have clean access
141. 6:35into our lives and hearts to sit upon
142. 6:38the throne as Lord and Savior. And he's
143. 6:41saying Elijah is coming and has come.
144. 6:45John is the figure that represents
145. 6:48Elijah. But the ministry of Elijah is
146. 6:52still coming today. The ministry of
147. 6:54repentance that does this cleaning away
148. 6:58of the rubble that does this call to
149. 7:02repentance and to examination of sin.
150. 7:04This this invitation to turn and to see
151. 7:08what God is really doing. So Elijah has
152. 7:11come and is coming. Verse 14. When they
153. 7:15came to the crowd, a man came to Jesus,
154. 7:18falling on his knees before him, and
155. 7:20saying,"Lord,
156. 7:22have mercy on my son, for he is a
157. 7:25lunatic and is very ill, for he often
158. 7:29falls into the fire and often into the
159. 7:32water. I brought him to your disciples,
160. 7:36and they could not cure him."
161. 7:40Jesus answered and said, "You
162. 7:43unbelieving and perverted generation,
163. 7:48how long shall I be with you?
164. 7:51How long shall I put up with you?
165. 7:55Bring him here to me." These are some of
166. 7:59the strongest words out of Jesus's
167. 8:00mouth. He's just come down from the
168. 8:03mountain, but he is getting sick and
169. 8:06tired of the shallowess and the
170. 8:09smallalness of his disciples faith. And
171. 8:13he thinks they ought to have a lot more
172. 8:16power and operational faith by now.
173. 8:19He's sick of the fact that they didn't
174. 8:21learn the lesson with the feeding of the
175. 8:245000 or the 4,000 or the calming of the
176. 8:28wind and waves on the sea and all the
177. 8:31miracles. And at best they see him as
178. 8:35able to work in the power of God, but
179. 8:37they don't see themselves as capable of
180. 8:40obeying.
181. 8:41And so he is he's getting very weary of
182. 8:44this. And he calls them a perverted
183. 8:47generation, an unbelieving
184. 8:50and perverted generation. They're
185. 8:52twisted. They're adulterated. They have
186. 8:55more than one priority. They have more
187. 8:57than one input. They have more than one
188. 9:00focus that is attracting and uh evoking
189. 9:04their faith. And if they only had one,
190. 9:06they could be what God's calling them to
191. 9:08be. And Jesus rebuked him, the demon,
192. 9:12and the demon came out of him. and the
193. 9:14boy was cured at once. Then the
194. 9:17disciples came to Jesus privately and
195. 9:19said, "Why could we not drive it out?"
196. 9:23And he said to them, "Because of the
197. 9:26littleness of your faith.
198. 9:30For truly I say to you, if you have
199. 9:33faith the size of a mustard seed, you
200. 9:36will say to this mountain, "Move from
201. 9:38here to there," and it will move, and
202. 9:41nothing will be impossible to you.
203. 9:44But this kind does not go out except by
204. 9:47prayer and fasting.
205. 9:49And while they were gathering together
206. 9:51in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son
207. 9:53of Man is going to be delivered into the
208. 9:55hands of men, and they will kill him,
209. 9:59and he will be raised up on the third
210. 10:01day." And they were deeply grieved.
211. 10:06They are grieved because they don't hear
212. 10:07the resurrection at the end of what he
213. 10:10says. They only hear the first part.
214. 10:13Their bread bowl, their framework of
215. 10:16expectation
216. 10:18does not accommodate
217. 10:20the faith that a resurrection could
218. 10:22happen after death. So they they don't
219. 10:24even hear it. They're just grieved that
220. 10:25he's going to die.
221. 10:28But he says that he's upset with them
222. 10:31because of the littleness of their
223. 10:33faith. That's why they couldn't do it.
224. 10:34And their faith is so tiny. He says it's
225. 10:37smaller than than a mustard seed.
226. 10:39Because if they had faith the size of a
227. 10:40mustard seed, they could move a
228. 10:42mountain. They could do more than heal
229. 10:44this boy, they could move an entire
230. 10:45mountain. So they they don't have a
231. 10:48whole lot if a mustard seed is enough.
232. 10:51And he's complaining that theirs is too
233. 10:52little.
234. 10:55And then he says, "But this kind of
235. 10:57demon possession only goes out by prayer
236. 10:59and fasting." And yet he didn't pray or
237. 11:01fast. Apparently he had been praying. He
238. 11:04had been fasting. He was in the place
239. 11:07where that faith could move through him
240. 11:09and perform the miracle. And that's the
241. 11:11lesson.
242. 11:13[Music]
243. 11:14When they came to Capernaum, those who
244. 11:16collected the two drama tax came to
245. 11:19Peter and said, "Does your teacher not
246. 11:21pay the two drama tax?
247. 11:25This is the temple tax."
248. 11:27He said, "Yes." And when he came into
249. 11:30the house, Jesus spoke to him first,
250. 11:32saying, "What do you think, Simon? From
251. 11:36whom do the kings of the earth collect
252. 11:37customs or pull taxes? From their sons
253. 11:41or from strangers?"
254. 11:44When Peter said, "From strangers," Jesus
255. 11:47said to him, "Then the sons are exempt.
256. 11:51However, so that we do not offend them,
257. 11:54go to the sea and throw in a hook and
258. 11:57take the first fish that comes up. And
259. 11:59when you open its mouth, you will find a
260. 12:02shekele. Take that and give it to them
261. 12:05for you and me.
262. 12:07So they're coming and asking, "Does your
263. 12:09master help support the temple? Does he
264. 12:12pay tithes? Is he part of this system
265. 12:14that we've created?"
266. 12:16And he says, "Well, because we are sons,
267. 12:20we are not supposed to really pay this,
268. 12:22but because they view and treat us like
269. 12:24strangers, we're going to pay it so that
270. 12:27they're not offended." And he he
271. 12:29discerned Peter's concern. He discerned
272. 12:32the issue before Peter even knew about
273. 12:34it. And he paid the toll.
274. 12:37[Music]