Lesson 59 - Matthew 16 & 17

[Music] last week in our study of matthew chapter 16 we ended with an important topic that yeshua raised that began in verse 24 which is the high cost of being his disciple so let's immediately go to our bibles this morning and read from verse 24 to the end of the chapter open your bibles to matthew chapter 16 we're going to start reading at verse 24. then yeshua told his talmudim his disciples if anyone wants to come after me let him say no to himself take up his execution stake and keep following me for whoever wants to save his own life will destroy it but whoever destroys his life for my sake will find it now what good will it do if someone gains the whole world but forfeits his life or what can a person give in exchange for his life for the son of man will come in his father's glory with his angels and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct yes i tell you that there are some people standing here who will not experience death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom well briefly in review our discussion revolved around the idea that what yeshua says in these five verses while new in specifics is not at all new in principle it has been highlighted in earlier narratives perhaps the most foundational statement regarding the the basic principle of the high cost of discipleship is found in the sermon on the mount in matthew chapter 5. when jesus explains that not only are the torah and the prophets not abolished or changed but that our obedience of them is expected it's even going to be used to determine our status and our place within that societal structure and hierarchy of the kingdom of heaven and since yeshua is the king of that kingdom on earth then it's a given that obedience to and trust in him that's the core requirement for membership so in verse 24 is continuing to define what the core core requirement consists of and he says that to follow after him requires denying oneself and instead carrying our own execution state or as is nearly in all other english translations carry one's own cross now this means to put our will in submission to gods and this through the king of god's kingdom yeshua hamashiach luke's gospel says something similar in luke 14 27 whoever does not carry his own execution stake and come after me cannot be my talmid my disciple so any way one chooses to interpret this foundational principle it's beyond clear that there are requirements not options for being a believer in yeshua in any kind of a meaningful sense something that's acceptable to god that is see we can insist that we are our christ follower a disciple but that in no way means that the lord has accepted us as his follower i want to quote to you again what i see as perhaps one of the most brutally frank if not terrifying passages in the new testament one that directly addresses this matter in matthew 7 21-23 not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven only those who do what my father in heaven wants on that day many will say to me but lord lord didn't we prophesy in your name didn't we expel demons in your name didn't we perform miracles in your name then i will tell them to their faces i never knew you get away from me you workers of lawlessness now this statement is part of yeshua explaining that we humans can only know a true believer or even display ourselves as a believer according to the fruit they and we bear that is choices actions and behaviors that's the proof of our faith doing that's the crux of the matter so when one is not thinking and behaving as a true believer but nonetheless is insistent not only everyone around them but even to god that they are a believer we are faced with the reality that it's god alone who makes that determination it's not us no matter how much we might plead our case with other humans or with him we also can't create our own standards for that determination unfortunately much of institutional gentile christianity has done just that by creating various doctrines that redefines the standards for our choices and our works and our obedience to god by saying that his written standard the torah is no longer relevant as a matter of fact it's even a danger to our faith thus actual god certification if you would as our being a disciple of his son goes well beyond walking an aisle in a church or saying the sinner's prayer or or holding some semblance of a belief in our heart even if we openly profess it our inner decisions and our moral choices must change from what has been natural for us and those changes must lead to a change in our outward behavior and our actions the bible has a word for this it's called repentance and i promise you this involves exertion real actual physical exertion along with mental focus this is needed for us to subdue our will in order to obey god's will in our lives this change does not come by idle waiting for god to do all the work while we just kind of stand by for it to magically take hold in us you know somewhat like going to school we can sign up for school we can pay the tuition we can get assigned the various courses we want but that only has value and meaning if we actually go to the classes if we pay attention to the teachers if we do the work come graduation time well you know what we can plead all we want we did sign up for school but the dean's not going to accept that as sufficient because we didn't do all that was required of us now for the thorny issue of taking up our cross and following christ now we've dealt with this before but i guess it bears revisiting it is only later christianity well after it had separated itself from its hebrew foundation that translated the greek word staros into the word cross see astaros is a stake in the ground used for the purpose of executions the way it worked in yeshua's day was that a cross beam was tied to a condemned prisoner's arms and he was required to carry it from wherever he was being held to the side of the execution where the staros the execution stake was located once there the cross beam along with the prisoner was attached to the top of the beam forming a t hanging there the prisoner died by suffocation it was a long gruesome painful death sometimes it actually took a few days a major and important point for us to know is that crucifixion was not used on roman citizens no matter what the crime was in the holy land it was only used on jews keep that in your mind thus despite the common teaching that christ was essentially referring to his own death in this passage and that we as decide as his disciples are to vicariously suffer the same kind of death along with him on the same type of death instrument that he did in christian tradition was a cross that's not what was necessarily meant he was using perhaps the most extreme type of judicial death all too well known to the jews as an emotionally charged way to get across the supreme nature of devotion to him that might be required of those who want to be his disciples especially in that day see the principle behind our willingness to suffer even this horrible of a death is that the glorious eternal life that awaits his followers in the world to come it's greater than anything we might have to endure during our present life on earth now remembering that matthew wrote these words long after yeshua's execution so he had a far more panoramic view of all that happened with yeshua that than those people that christ was actually just talking to at the time he originally spoke these are words that we label as verse 24. matthew knew of the beginning and of the end of christ's ministry and of the aftermath then this is probably why this verse is often taken as implying that yeshua was foretelling his own death on the cross i don't deny by the way that that's a possibility yet even if he meant it that way there's no reason to think that his disciples would have understood it that way see for them it would have been hyperbole used by yeshua in order to make this forceful statement that they must be willing to endure whatever it takes to follow him as their as his disciples see the goal of that endurance is to replace natural human thinking and behavior with godly thinking and behavior that ultimately results in our being an eternal member of god's kingdom now as a gentile and as a believer since i was a child the symbol of the cross is central to everything i held there and it is of course is and has been for centuries the primary symbol of the church now i i realize that at least in modern times it is not necessarily meant as an intentional offense to jews it most certainly was meant as an offense to jews very early on in the formation of the gentile brand of faith in christ however when we can internalize this reality the crucifixion was a punishment used on jews not on the roman citizens who were for all practical purposes gentiles then we can understand why it is nearly impossible for a jewish believer to accept the gentile christian cross as a symbol of their faith see this in no way is a jewish believer's denial of yeshua's death on a soros or of his deity or of his resurrection this is only about symbols symbols and as i taught early in my teaching of the torah this is why symbols of any kind especially of the man-made kind can be so problematic among humans see note that never does the new testament make the cross as symbolic of faith in messiah yeshua or of the jesus movement in fact the earliest known symbol for believers as found in the holy land is the three-part symbol so popular in the hebrew roots movement today i have actually taken people probably some in this room to the exact spot in israel where this symbol was discovered so the christian concept concept of the cross is something often read back into the new testament in passages just like the one we're currently dealing with verse 24. now for those that believe that using or wearing of a christian cross is key to your identity as a believer and so not using it not wearing it is a denial of your christian faith just realize it's only a man-made traditional symbol it's not a divine commandment and it's certainly not something that jesus asked of us see you must decide in your own conscious conscience what you must do with this reality you must decide i don't see it as something for another to tell you what you must or must not do in this regard well verse 25 continues with this idea of the high cost of discipleship as an extension of verse 24 and it concerns our willingness to go to extreme measures if needed to be a true believer still the fundamental point remains that our ego must be displaced from being the center of our personal universe we must be willing to discern god's purpose and direction for our lives and give up where necessary our personal ambitions matthew's gospel has yeshua offering us what can only be described as a paradox a paradox is a seemingly self-contradictory statement yet it's true so here we have yeshua offering the divine viewpoint and reality that is completely counter to our human natural intuition which is essentially a mirage we just don't realize at the time the idea here is a statement that must be contemplated on two levels the shot and the remiss the simple literal and the deeper hint now the shot sense is that being willing to go so far if need be as to die for yeshua's cause actually gives us a better more meaningful life to live because instead of living our life for ourselves we're living it for god who gave us this life see there's novels written there's there's movies made about people who suddenly are struck and heartbroken at the realization of the abject hollowness of their lives and they are willing to take up a meaningful cause that nearly certainly will lead to their own death but for them a much shortened life of purpose is worth more than what they're currently experiencing the famous robert de niro film the mission as a well-known example as is a 70s art film with jack nicholson called the passenger however on the rimez level this speaks of dying to self meaning to give up everything we currently covet if need be even our own physical life in order to follow christ because it brings with it the reward of having a pleasant eternal life on the flip side refusing to give up our current life mostly meaning the way we live that follows our natural desires and ego automatically disqualifies us from being christ disciples now i think the point of yeshua's words that are that the required willingness to die to self as an either or yes no it's a one or the other choice it's absolute polarization there is no middle ground much as you might like to try to find it one way is totally given up for the new way otherwise we become what is commonly called a carnal christian you heard that term carnal christian which if one accepts the truth of christ christ's unequivocal and clear teachings on the matter makes the term carnal christian an oxymoron according to jesus it's impossible to be both carnal and a christian you either give up carnality for faith in yeshua or you give up faith in yeshua to continue carnal worldliness it's one of the other now this is not to say that anyone successfully becomes 100 pure as a disciple and in practice it's a journey but it's also both a measuring stick and it's a goal of our faith something to strive for now verse 26 again adds onto the subject of the requirements of being a follower of yeshua as he presents a rhetorical question to his disciples the point is to emphasize that there is absolutely nothing in this present life in this present world worth the price of eternal life and the world to come the olam haba so says jesus what good is it to be fully invested in the riches and fleeting rewards of today if the price for having this forfeiture the price for having it is the forfeiture of our eternal life one for the other so again christ makes a polarizing demand choose one or the other he doesn't mean that a person can't have some wealth and also be a follower but it does mean that the wealth needs to be used for the kingdom and its acquisition fully secondary to carrying out god's will now remembering who jesus was and the jewish culture he lived in and his unparalleled knowledge of the tanakh it's probable that when he said these words he was thinking of psalm 49 because as we've discussed before yeshua was not introducing a new principle to the jewish faith nor was he attempting to create a new and separate faith rather he was trying to reform what existed so he regularly called upon the prophets and the torah and the psalms all things that were familiar to the jewish culture to explain what it is that he is instructing let's take the time to read this amazingly sober and yet inspiring psalm that indeed fleshes out the idea of this present life not being all there is open your bibles to psalm 49. i'll give you a second to get there psalm 49 psalm 49. really like you to follow along with me for the leader a psalm of the descendants of quran hear this all you peoples listen everyone living on earth regardless of whether low or high regardless of whether rich or poor my mouth is about to speak wisdom my heart's deepest thoughts will give understanding i will listen with care to god's parable i will set my enigma to the music of the liar why should i fear when the days bring trouble when the evil of my pursuers surrounds me the evil of those who rely on their wealth and boast how rich they are no one can ever redeem his brother or give god a ransom for him because the price for him is too high leave the idea completely alone to have him live on eternally to never see the pit for he can see that wise men will die likewise the fool and the brute will perish and leave their wealth to others they think their homes will last forever their dwellings through all generations they give their own names to their estates but people even rich ones well they will live only briefly then like animals they will die this is the manner of life of the foolish and those who come after approving their words like sheep they are destined for shell death will be their shepherd the upright will rule them in the morning and their forms will waste away and show until they need no dwelling but god will redeem me from shale's control because he will receive me don't be afraid when someone gets rich when the wealth of his family grows for when he dies he won't take it with him his wealth will not go down after him true while he lived he thought himself happy oh people praise you when you do well for yourself but he will join his ancestors generations and never again see light people even rich ones can fail to grasp that like animals they will die see perhaps the most poignant idea behind this song besides the fact you can't take it with you she also can't use your wealth however little or much as payment for your eternal life see that's not the currency that god deals in so all this is nice and it's ideal and these are good and they're inspiring words but what does it lead to when one comes into agreement with christ on the matter that's what we find in matthew 16 27 yeshua there goes back to referring to himself as the son of man now i mentioned earlier in earlier lessons that his use of the term son of man is meant in three different ways in this case he's referring to the end times son of man from daniel 7 the one who acts as the divine judge this is a revelation matthew 16 27 this is a revelation of who yeshua will be the role he will play and what the father will give him is a response a responsibility and an authority to do but it's in the future in fact as i've said on numerous occasions yeshua always acts within his father's glory not his own he does his father's will not his own see that's precisely what he says in verse 27 but now we come to yet another christian dilemma over and over we encounter in the bible that at the end of history each person will be divinely judged not only according to what they believe but according to what they do of course both old and new testaments explain that in general what we do is the result of what we believe just like the fruit tree parable right bad tree cannot bear good fruit vice versa too much however with church doctrines believing and doing are kind of separated compartmentalized one is even sometimes seen as antithetical to the other this is also a good time i think to point out that this principle was not new with yeshua he was just revisiting an old one psalm 62 verses 11 through 13. don't push your trust and extortion extortion don't put false hopes into robbery even if wealth increases don't set your heart on it god has spoken once i've heard it twice strength belongs to god but also to you adonai belongs grace for you reward all as their deeds deserve paul received jesus lesson on this very well in second corinthians 5 verses 8 through 10 we are confident then and we would much prefer to leave our home in the body and come to our home with the lord therefore whether at home or away from home we try our utmost to please him for we must all appear before the messiah's court of judgment where everybody will receive the good or bad consequences of what he did while he was in the body doing works deeds this is what our earthly life lived in cooperation with god is for you see what we can say with confidence that trust in christ is what brings us to salvation that's far too simplistic because jesus has been laying out in a number of scenarios the requirement for being his disciple salvation certainly has its genesis at the moment we come to trust in him but that simple acknowledgement is only the shot fired that begins a marathon that shot is neither the race itself nor does it determine who finishes successfully christ employs the metaphor of a newborn infant to describe that moment of salvation paul borrows from it that is emerging from the birth canal is but the necessary first moment of a long journey but birth is not the journey itself nor does it foretell the outcome of our life so says paul don't just stay as an infant that can only drink milk you must grow to the next stage of trust and discipleship where meat can be digested thus says yeshua in verse 27 in the end he will repay everyone for their conduct that is there are distinct inevitable consequences for doing and not doing the will of the father and this is all said in the backdrop of the end times something by the way which first century jews believed they were experiencing so his disciples to whom he was speaking would have figured that this recompense whether negative or positive was gonna happen soon within their lifetimes to which jesus follows up with verse 28 a real head scratcher for those of us who lived 2 000 years after he said these words listen carefully to what he said in matthew 16 28 yes i tell you there are some people standing here who will not experience death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom you ever wrestled with that one before see a quick glance at this verse taken in the context of all he's just said certainly sounds like he's saying that literally some of his 12 disciples will not die until he returns and the son of man roll as that great judge this would have further confirmed to his disciples oh yeah they're living in the latter days time is short now to try to make sense of his statement the two most popular scholarly opinions are that this is either referring to the transfiguration or to the resurrection nearly all the early church fathers saw it as referring to the transfiguration the modern evangelical branch of the church that's often hangs its doctrinal hat on the theology of calvin says it's referring to the resurrection there are some ancient christian writings that think it points to pentecost and some others past and present believe that this is proof hear this that there is no first and second coming of messiah there was only one and that the end times has already happened and it lies in our historical past frankly none of these possibilities satisfies as each requires some pretty severe twisting of words and even jettisoning jettisoning of basic biblical principles to get there i'm not even sure matthew knew what to make of christ's words but rather he just passed along what his sources had written down he'd said so i'm going to offer you another possibility without claiming that this must be it sounds like a mattress tag don't i going back again to my teaching that yeshua refers to himself as the son of man in three different ways and senses it could be that we are to take verse 28 usage of the term son of man as more or less meaning simply i me myself he doesn't make any reference to coming in the clouds that would better connect it to daniel's vision further the kingdom of heaven it's already here isn't it already came that's what he's been having his disciples go out and preach it's here it's now so when he comes the second time he's not bringing the kingdom of heaven with him already here rather i think in verse 28 we have a statement about his first coming meaning his first century advent but in contrast to verse 28 we have verse 27 where the son of man is coming in judgment and it can only mean a reference to his role as the divine judge it says it's coming in judgment but that comes at the end of days and i think this is so because so many prophets in psalms speak of every man being judged according to his to his uh his deeds we just read one his works his actions but that only happens at the end of days so verse 27 can only be in reference to a second coming his return but verse 28 seems to be speaking of the here and now of the first century as he stands before his disciples prior to his death he's already explained numerous times that the good news he brings that his disciples to preach i'm going to say it again is that the kingdom of heaven has arrived he's not bringing the kingdom of heaven twice once at his first advent again it is returned that wouldn't even make sense so perhaps he is making a somewhat veiled reference for his disciples that indeed they are the very fortunate ones that had not yet died but they were living to see him christ establish his reign over the kingdom of god to sum it up real short verse 27 speaks of his second coming while verse 28 is about his first coming now one other thought we cannot easily escape but it does make us feel a little uncomfortable if i'm correct and what this means might it almost not have to indicate that yeshua is not entirely sure of the timing of everything that must happen involving him whether alive in the flesh on earth or in spirit in heaven i would suggest that for instance while he knew he would soon be put to death he didn't know all the details surrounding it he didn't know exactly when or exactly what all the circumstances that would lead up to it would be he certainly knew his end he was going to come be a crucifixion because that's how the romans put jews to death in nearly every case standard so that was hardly a reach it wasn't a mysterious premonition that only he could know we have proof from his own lips he was not privy to some knowledge that his father had there were things there were times he just didn't know listen to matthew 24 verses 32-39 now let the fig tree teach you this lesson when its branches begin to sprout and leaves appear you know that summer is approaching in the same way when you see all these things you know the time's near it's right at the door yes i tell you that this people will certainly about not pass away before all these things happen heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away but when that day and hour come no one knows not the angels in heaven not the son only the father for the son of man's coming will be just as it was in the days of noah back then before the flood people went on eating and drinking taking wives becoming wives right up until the day noah entered the art and they didn't know what was happening until the flood came and swept them all away it'll be just like that when the son of man returns so in a similar way to how it will be for mankind when christ is finally given the signal to return to earth it will be as much an anticipated surprise to him just as it will be the believers living on earth if oh what a big word if we have learned the biblical truth but to all other humans his return is going to be a shocking and befuddling surprise i think we can encapsulate the overriding message of verses 24-28 by saying that believers are not given the option of being passive observers or frankly even being only gushing admirers of jesus if we try to be then it could not be more strongly stated we will not be classified in god's eyes as his believers we will not we also cannot be spectators sitting off on the sidelines reading about all the great stuff jesus said and did he's our leader he's our example we are to do as he did nor can we think that what he says was meant was primarily for the 12 disciples things for only his inner circle to do or perhaps even mostly for just jewish believers of the first century we have obligations and he's been laying them out discipleship's a full-contact sport so to speak no matter the hardships that might be involved no one that calls him or herself a disciple a believer is exempt from this let's move on to chapter 17. open your bibles to matthew chapter 17. we're going to read it all it's not a long chapter matthew chapter 17. six days later yeshua took kefa yakov and his brother yochanan and led them up a high mountain privately and as they watched he began to change form his face shone like the sun his clothing became as white as light then they looked and they saw moshe they saw moses and elial elijah speaking with him and kepha peter said to yeshua it's good that we're here lord i'll put up three shelters if you want one for you one for moshe and one for eliel and while he was still speaking a bright cloud enveloped them and a voice from within the cloud said this is my son whom i love with whom i'm well pleased listen to him and when the talmudim heard this the disciples they were so frightened that they fell face down on the ground but yeshua came and touched them get up he said don't be afraid so they opened their eyes they looked up and saw only yeshua by himself and as they came down the mountain yeshua ordered them don't tell anyone what you have seen until the son of man has been raised from the dead the talmudim asked him then why do the torah teachers say that elijah must come first and he answered now on the one hand elijah's coming and he will restore all things on the other hand i tell you that elijah's already come and people did not recognize him but they did whatever they pleased to him in that same way the son of man too is about to suffer at their hands then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about jochen and the immerser john the baptist and as they came up to the crowd a man approached yeshua kneeled down in front of him and said sir have mercy on my son because he's an epileptic and has such terrible fits that he often falls into the fire into the water i brought him to your disciples they couldn't heal him and yeshua answered perverted people without any trust how long will i be with you how long must i put up with you bring him here to me rebuked the demon and it came out of the boy so from that moment he was healed then the talmudim went to him privately and said why couldn't we drive it out he said because you have such little trust yes i tell you that if you have trust as tiny as a mustard seed you'll be able to say to this mountain move from here to there and it'll move indeed nothing will be impossible for you and as they were going about together in the galil the galilee yeshua said to them the son of man is about to be betrayed into the hands of the people who will put him to death and on the third day he will be raised and they were filled with sadness and when they came to kafar in a home that's capernaum the collectors of the half shekel came to kefa and said doesn't your rabbi pay the temple tax of course he does says peter and when he arrived home yeshua spoke first now shimon that's also peter simon peter what's your opinion the kings of the earth from whom do they collect duties and taxes from their sons or from others well from others he answered then says yeshua the sons are exempt but to avoid offending them go to the lake throughout a line take the first fish you catch and open its mouth and you will find a shekel and take it and give it to them for me and for you oh there's so much here we're gonna have a lot of fun with this well chapter 17 begins with the proverbial bang what has become known as the transfiguration with very little lead up other than that yeshua has taken three of his disciples with him to a high place and that it happened six days after the final words of matthew chapter 16 suddenly an amazing thing occurs that yeshua must have anticipated an event that was not only his purpose for ascending the mountain but also for bringing those three trusted witnesses along with him now we may never fully understand the mystery of what occurred and this is bothersome enough to many bible scholars that they deny that it ever happened but can we understand what it means i think we can and it begins with a consistent background theme that we find from the beginning to end in matthew's gospel it is that jesus is the second moses and so that i'm not misunderstood yeshua is presented as a higher and better moses because he was and remains the one thing moses could never be the divine son of god that saves as always we must begin within the historical context and the focus of that contest context must be the culture it sprang from the jewish culture yeshua never does never says things or uses terms in a vacuum such they set well apart from what the jewish culture might understand or expect if god has taught me anything over the decades it is that while he is no respecter of persons he does respect cultures and societies such that miracles the miracles he does and the teachings he inspires takes place within the context of those familiar and polite particular cultural elements no matter what they are he will not operate in a way with african tribal members that is the same as for people who live in a modern urbanized west because if he did the meaning of what he does would be unfathomable so the first thing we must look for in the transfiguration is what about it was deeply jewish what about it was steeped in israelite history and tradition listen to exodus chapter 34 verses 28 through 35 moshe was there with adonai 40 days and 40 nights during which time he neither ate food nor drank water adonai wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant the ten words when moses came down from mount sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands he did not realize that the skin of his face was sending out rays of light as a result of his talking with adonai when our own and the people of israel saw moshe the skin of his face was shining and they were afraid to approach him but moshe called to them and then our own and all the community leaders came back to him and moshe spoke to them afterwards all the people of israel came near and he passed on to them all the orders that and i had told him on mount sinai and once moses had finished speaking with him he put a veil on his face but what but when he went in before adonai for him to speak he would take the veil off until he came out then when he came out he would tell the people of israel what he had been ordered but when the people of israel saw moses face that the skin of moses is his face shone he would put the veil back over his face until he went in again to speak see moses went up to a high place yeshua went up to a high place at that high place moses's face transformed and it began shining with rays of light and at that high place yeshua's face transformed and his face shone with light like the sun see to the three jews christ took to observe the moses connection would have just flooded into their minds but what if this had taken place in rome in front of a bunch of gentiles what do you suppose that would have meant it would have been clueless nothing about it fit roman culture or understanding notice how mark writes about this same event in mark 9 1. yes he went on i tell you that there are some people standing here who will not experience death until they sing the kingdom of god come in a powerful way six days later yeshua took kefa yaakov and yochanan and led them up to a high mountain privately and as they watched he began to change form and his clothes became dazzling dazzlingly white whiter than anyone in the world could possibly bleach them then he saw elijah and moses speaking with yeshua did you catch the difference between mark's gospel as compared to matthews did you catch it there's not a mention of yeshua's glowing face shining with light mark's attention is instead focused on jesus's white clothing something rather common within the mythological greco-roman god system so while there is a proper sense of awe in both of these accounts the connection of christ to moses is not made by mark why because the jewish matthew was writing for an audience of jewish believers mark was writing for an audience of roman gentile believers thus in mark there's little discernible connection made between moses and jesus while in matthew oh man it's front and center jewish culture expected the prophet like me that moses spoke of roman culture knew nothing of it the glowing faces of moses and yeshua had a very specific meaning of historical connection for the jewish culture it wouldn't have had any meaning in a roman culture therefore matthew emphasizes the glowing face mark ignores it this is no way disparages mark or makes his gospel inferior to matthews i'm not saying that their accounts were written for consumption by different cultures now verse 3 tells us without explanation that moses and elijah suddenly appear and they stood there with yeshua one of the first things bible scholars you're going to love this one of the first things bible scholars question about this vince how did those three disciples know that was moses and elijah i mean one had been gone for 1300 years the other for around 800. it's not like there were ancient photographs of them yep that looks like moses here's why i think the disciples knew who they were yeshua had been teaching them he is the end times messiah underlined end times messiah and peter was the first to grasp it now i suspect don't know but i suspect that if not all of the remaining 11 disciples by now probably at least jacob and his brother john who were up there on the high mountain also finally understood i admit this is my speculation but there's a little better to go on as to the rationale for yeshua choosing these particular three to accompany him up the mountain not as mere companions but they were there as eyewitnesses to this astounding event see elijah was predicted to come back when the messiah appeared at the point in history of the latter days moses was the central figure of the israelite religion even greater than abraham in some ways in fact the dead sea scrolls reveal that the essence had an expectation of a reappearance of moses in the latter days probably commensurate with the appearance of the messiah as reported by the way by the dead sea scrolls researcher john c poirier now how prevalent that expectation was in other parts of jewish society i don't know so from a jewish standpoint two of the greatest figures in biblical history were present and because we get such an abbreviated story of this overwhelming event we get this message that poirier gave us about the essence that i think is a big help but the next question i think for intelligent bible students is why those two particular figures why them far and away the most universal take within christianity is the same one the davies and allison concludes in their commentary on this chapter of matthew and to quote them jesus would seem takes moses place and supersedes him that is yeshua obsoletes and replaces moses and if one sends moses into obsolescence then along with him goes the law of moses simple done i've explained on numerous occasions it flabbergasts me how such elite bible scholars should bring so much needed light upon the holy scriptures can look at the evidence that they dig up and draw such strange conclusions from it see here's what's really weird these are the same two bible scholars that were adamant that jesus was clear in matthew chapter five he did not abolish the torah and the prophets same two then they turn around in the commentary in matthew 17 and basically say he did there's really only one logical explanation for their conclusions it's self-evident christian tradition trumps the bible and of course christian tradition is that jesus erased everything every prophet every divine covenant that came before him despite the fact that jesus says the opposite and nothing in the new testament says that there is nothing in the words of this passage of matthew 17. look at yourself that would even remotely imply that somehow the presence of moses and elijah together with yeshua indicates that yeshua had just sent the torah and moses and i suppose elijah into redemption history's dustbin in fact in the gospel accounts there is now catch this there is no meaning given to the transfiguration at all it's never suggested it is merely reported as having happened who saw it that's it well we'll continue with the transfiguration what we ought to take away from it next time [Music] is [Music] 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Channel: Torah Class

Views: 1,853

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: New Testament, Parables, Beatitudes, Sermon on the Mount, Christianity, Jews, Hebrew Heritage, Christian, Hebrew Roots, Bible Study, Bible, Son of God, God, Yeshua, Jesus, Christ, Seed of Abraham, Tom Bradford, Torah Class, Matthew

Id: 7-u_MLx-6c4

Length: 63min 49sec (3829 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 03 2021