Read Matthew 16:28–7:13
Questions from the Scripture text: How does Jesus introduce the prophecy in Matthew 16:28? How many would see? What would they see? Before what? How many days later does Matthew 17:1 occur? Whom does Jesus take? Where? What happens to Him there (Matthew 17:2)? What does His face look like? What do His clothes look like? Who appeared to them (Matthew 17:3)? What were they doing? Who speaks up (Matthew 17:4)? To Whom does he make what suggestion? What interrupts him (Matthew 17:5)? What comes out of the cloud? What does it say about Jesus? What does it command them to do? How do the disciples respond to this (Matthew 17:6)? Who relieves them (Matthew 17:7) How? What does He do? What does He say? What do they do in Matthew 17:8? What do they see? Where do they go in Matthew 17:9? What does Jesus say not to do? Until when? Who ask what question in Matthew 17:10? What does Jesus answer in Matthew 17:11-12? What has been done to this “Elijah”? What do they know in Matthew 17:13?
What sign does Jesus give for the glory that awaits us on the other side of our cross? Matthew 16:28–17:13 prepares us for the sermon in the morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these fourteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the sign that confirms coming glory is faith’s own glimpse of Jesus’s glory.
Jesus has been teaching them about following Him to glory through a cross (cf. Matthew 16:24-27), and now He promises a sign: some standing there will actually get to see that glory with their eyes (Matthew 16:28).
Six days later (Matthew 17:1), exactly that happens. And they see that Jesus is God, Jesus is Christ, and Jesus is Savior. They had confessed this about Him already. But they were just beginning to learn what this all means. So are we. We have only just begun to know His greatness and is grace.
Jesus is God. That is evident from His face shining like the sun and clothes as white as light (Matthew 17:2). It is even more evident from Moses and Elijah, who do not shine like He does, appearing as His prophets (Matthew 17:3)—Peter was mistaken to desire three tabernacles on the mountain (Matthew 17:4), when he already had Jesus Himself in ordinary life. It is even more evident from the glory cloud that appears with such brightness that it overshadows the One Who is shining like the sun (Matthew 17:5)! It is most evident in the Word that is spoken, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus is Christ. He is the anointed. He is the Prophet. Even with Moses and Elijah there, the Voice says to hear Jesus. After all, they were His prophets (cf. 1 Peter 1:10–11). It was the Sprit of Christ Who spoke through them, and He proclaimed the very thing that Jesus has been teaching: “the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.” The prophecy of Malachi 4:5 was fulfilled in John the baptizer, the last of the prophets ( (Matthew 17:11-13). But in these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son. When we hear Moses, we are to hear Him. when we hear Elijah, we are to hear Him. Rather than proposing our own spirituality ideas, as Peter did, we must hear Him. And now, we hear Him not only as our God, but as our Prophet.
Jesus is Savior. When we hear Him, we hear Him inviting us to come behind Him. True, that path takes us through a cross (cf. Matthew 16:24), but it takes us through to glory, and how great is this glory! He is the beloved, well-pleasing Son. And those who trust in Him are beloved in Him and well-pleasing in Him. What God declares about His only-begotten Son, He declares about His adopted children, whom He has taken to Himself in Him.
And Jesus is Savior in our sanctification and glorification, not just our justification and adoption. Those who are in Him are being made well-pleasing like He is. In ourselves, we are not well-pleasing. Of Whom were he disciples greatly afraid in v6? God? Christ? If they understood correctly: both! But, Jesus comes and touches them ( (Matthew 17:7). Because He has come to us, and touched us, and joined Himself to us, we are safe from the guilt of our sin, and we are being cleansed from the presence of our sin.
Ultimately the preaching of Christ—the apostles saying Who He is (cf. Matthew 16:15)—is only effective by His own attending it with His saving power, by His Spirit. So, it is His prerogative to dictate when they may proclaim Him ( (Matthew 17:9). And proclaim Him they did, even recalling this very incident, and the glory that was set before them (cf. 2 Peter 1:16–18). Yet, Peter had learned that, even as an eyewitness of His majesty, he was to find the prophetic Word more sure than his own experience (cf. 2 Peter 1:19).
Ultimately, we can glimpse His glory in this superior way: by faith that responds to Christ’s Word. And as we do so, we glimpse the glory unto which He takes us through our cross. Behold His glory by faith. Hear Him!
Have you believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God? How have you continued to learn what this means? When and how have you especially seen Him as glorious? What is your hope, in the midst of your crosses?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for making the light of the knowledge of Your glory shine in our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ. Grant that we would be willing to endure whatever cross through which You bring us to that glory, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP72C “May Waving Grain on Hilltops Thrive” or TPH45B “My Heart Doth Overflow”
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