Gooding, David: 10 - The Setting up of the Kingdom

Yesterday evening, like Paul and his travel companions who struggled from the wreck and somehow or other got to shore, we finished section three of the Gospel of Luke. Tonight, today we must move on and study together section five. for as you will remember, we have already studied in some detail the intervening section four. Now, when we were studying section four, we came to the conclusion that section four was intended by its author to finish at chapter eight verse fifty six, and that therefore section five was intended to begin at chapter nine verse one. But since then, we decided that there were grounds for thinking that the first half of Luke's gospel was intended by him to end at chapter nine verse fifty. Since at verse fifty one Luke tells us it came to pass when the days were well nigh come that he should be received up, that is the time for his ascension, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. So that would seem to suggest that section five of Luke's gospel was intended to be chapter nine verse one to chapter nine verse fifty. And that perhaps is a little bit odd, because if this section five was intended to be the climax, so to speak, of the first half of Luke's gospel, it is remarkable that that climax should be formed of such few verses. The shortest of all the sections hitherto. Various explanations have been given for this. One of them is as follows, that, um, after chapter nine verse fifty one, in the so-called travel log, the story of our Lord's traveling to Jerusalem, Luke has inserted a great deal of material that the other gospel writers do not have. And so the suggestion has been made that to accommodate all that extra material that Luke wished to put in the gospel after nine fifty two, he squeezed this last part of the first half of his book. Certainly, in these verses one to fifty one of chapter nine, Luke has very little that the other gospel writers do not have. On the other hand, he leaves out an enormous amount of what they do have. And so the suggestion is he has deliberately squeezed, diminished this particular part of his gospel because he wanted to put a lot of other stuff in the rest of the gospel. And the further suggestion is that when Luke wrote, he wa- uh, when he wrote and was compiling his gospel, he was aware that the standard size of papyrus roll available to him for writing his book was limited, and therefore he was obliged to get all he had to say within the limits of a standard papyrus roll, and therefore, wanting to put the extra stuff in the second half, he deliberately squeezed the first half. And if you care for that particular explanation, then do stay with it. Some ancient Greek historians, equally aware of the standard length of papyrus rolls, chose to use two rolls to write one book. But, uh, perhaps Luke was thinking of the cash of the early Christians. Perhaps they couldn't afford, like us moderns, to buy too many books. On the other hand, when we look at the way that Luke has presented the material that he puts in these fifty verses, we shall find that, like the rest of his gospel, he has arranged his material with exceeding, some would say consummate, skill. And to see how he has arranged it, I invite you now, if you will, to take up your Bibles with me and search out with me the way that Luke has arranged his material, and that will prevent any lurking suspicion that I am bringing, uh, uh, literary rabbits out of non-existent hats. So let's take up our books in our hand and begin at chapter nine, verse one. And the topic of verse one is straightforward and simple and easily grasped. And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. Keep your thumb in that place and turn, if you will, to the end of the section, verses fifty— forty nine and fifty. And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out demons in thy name, and we forbade him because he followeth not with us. But Jesus said, forbid him not, for he that is not against you is for you. It doesn't take a super amount of intelligence to see that the topic at verse one is not unrelated to the topic now at the end of the chapter. It concerns in verse one Christ delegating his authority to the apostles to cast out demons, and at the end of the section, John's indignation that somebody else beside the apostle should have the power to cast out, uh, demons in the name of Jesus. Let's go back to the beginning again. Verses two uh, to five: And he sent them forth to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said to them, take nothing for your journey, neither staff, nor wallet, nor bread, nor money, neither have two coats. And into whatsoever house she enter, there abide, and thence depart. And as many as receive you not, when you depart from that city, shake off the dust from your feet for a testimony against them. So now our Lord is giving them instructions. It is important in some context to notice that some of these instructions given to them then were later countermanded. On this occasion, he told them to take nothing for their journey, neither staff nor wallet nor bread nor money, neither have two coats. For he was sending forth his apostles, he was doing it as the Messiah with a right to the allegiance and indeed the property of all his Israeli subjects. He had a right, therefore, as Messiah, to expect the nation to support his official emissaries. But when in chapter twenty, uh, uh, uh two and twenty three, twenty two, he addressed his apostles just before he left for Gethsemane and across, he countermanded these earlier instructions. It's twenty two verse thirty five. And he said unto them, when I sent you forth without purse and wallet and shoes, did you lack anything? And they said, nothing. And he said unto them, but now he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise a wallet, and he that hath none, let him sell his cloak and buy a sword. And the reason he gives for this change in briefing is as follows, for I say unto you that this which is written must be fulfilled in me, and he was reckoned with the outlaws. You see, the atmosphere have changed. He came to Israel as their Messiah and could expect the nation to support both him and his emissaries. But now he points out he is to be reckoned among the outlaws and crucified for it indeed, and his apostles will no longer be able to expect the nation of Israel as such, or any other nation for that matter, to support them because they are emissaries of Christ, for the Lord has become an outlaw. But to come back to this matter, at this stage, he advises them to stay in the h- in the place in the city where they are received, but if they are not received, if they are not received but rejected, this and thus is the way they are to be, are to behave. Now keep your thumb in there once more, and let's go to the end, but not quite the end this time, of our passage, verses forty six, forty seven, forty eight. And there arose a reasoning among them which of them should be the greatest. But when Jesus saw the reasoning of their heart, he took a little child and set him by his side. And he said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this little child in my name receiveth me, and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me. For he that is least among you, the same is great. Another lesson on reception. The apostles, because they were emissaries of Christ, that apparently got it into their apostolic heads that they were somehow important in their own right, and so important in their own right that they could start to compare, uh, themselves with one another and decide who in this all this great apostolic importance was the most important, you see. And our Lord had to disabuse them of that idea. So he took a child and made him an object lesson. If I send this little child out on my behalf for this, that, and the other, and someone receives that little child in my name because I sent the child, then he receives the child, receives me. It is not because the child is essentially important. Doesn't matter how little, great, or otherwise is the messenger that I send. The importance in this context lies in the one who sent the emissary, lies in Christ. Just because when you go out in my name, people will receive you, doesn't give you any essential importance. They receive you simply because I sent you, and therefore for you to get airs and graces and imagine that you yourselves are essentially important because people receive you, that is to be mistaken. The importance lies altogether in me. A needed lesson about reception. And we see again a re-echo of the words that the Lord had given when he taught them in his briefing about being received by their fellow Israelites. Now look at verses seven, eight, and nine. The impact of their mission is now told us through the, uh, worries and perplexities of Herod. Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was done, and he was much perplexed because it was said by some that John was risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets was risen again. And Herod said, John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things? And he sought to see him. Herod had put John in prison and eventually executed him. Now the people were beginning to think that this Jesus was John the Baptist come back again from the dead, or one of the old prophets risen from the dead. And Herod was much perplexed about the possibility. He thought he had put an end to John. If people could come back from the dead, then that for Herod was a very threatening situation, particularly if John Baptist should come back again. So we have Herod's perplexity. Now look at verse forty three. But while all were marveling at the things which he did, he said unto his disciples, let these words sink into your ears, the Son of Man shall be delivered up into the hands of men, that they understood not this saying, and it was concealed from them that they should not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying. The perplexity of the apostles in view of the coming cross and death of Christ. They could not understand it. Now we come to a miracle. If we come back to verse, uh, 10, the apostles returned from their mission, the multitudes came out to Christ, and he did the great miracle of feeding the multitude with bread. But notice the detail that, uh, verse thirteen, he first said to the disciples, give you them to eat. And they proved quite inadequate for the task, not surprisingly. They couldn't rise to the challenge and feed the people. So our blessed Lord did a miracle to feed them. Pass on, if you will, to what happened when our Lord, uh, came down the mountain with three of his apostles. You'll see verse thirty seven. It came to pass on the next day, when they were come down from the mountain, a great multitude met him. Uh, and behold, a man from the multitude cried, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son, for he is mine only child. He's demon possessed. Verse forty, I besought thy disciples to cast it out. They couldn't. So once more, the inadequacy of the disciples to do this particular thing, and when they are asked to do it, they cannot, and so our Lord proceeds to do the necessary miracle to deliver this child from the imprisonment of this demon. And with that, we come to what are, in fact, the two central and major paragraphs in this stage five. The, uh, one is from verse eighteen down to verse twenty seven, Famous because it contains Peter's confession on behalf of all the others, Peter's confession, outspoken and explicit, that Jesus is the Christ of God, the Messiah of God. This is, of course, exceedingly important. One could not exaggerate its historical significance. Matthew has the extra, uh, uh, piece in his narrative in which our Lord informed all and sundry. It was upon the rock of this confession by Peter of the deity and Christhood of Jesus that Christ would one day build his church. This, therefore, must rank as one of the most important passages in this fifth section of Luke. But it was immediately followed by our Lord's indication to the apostles that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected. He must be killed and the third day raised up. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it. And to help them understand what he now taught, he taught them in verse twenty six that though he was now about soon to be crucified, killed, and rise again, the day would come when he would come again in his own glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. So the announcement of his deity, the announcement of his coming, suffering, uh, death and resurrection, and the announcement of his second coming in power and great glory. This is followed in verses twenty eight to verse thirty six by the Luke's account of the Transfiguration, when our Lord appeared in glory with Moses and Elijah, and the voice from heaven came. This time, not Peter's frail lips confessing the Lord Jesus as the, uh, Christ of God, but the voice of none other than the Father coming from the cloud of the Shekhinah glory, saying, this is my Son, my chosen, hear him. So you'll see those two central paragraphs have a couple of themes in common. And if you have followed what we have been finding, the idea will probably come to your mind, maybe, or maybe it won't, it's come to mind, that Luke has arranged his material in two parts, and the second part is a kind of a mirror image, literally speaking, of the first part. And I have listed to you, I think some of you at least have the notes so that you needn't bother to transcribe it from the screen. I have listed to you the contents and put little letters by the side of some of the details to help us see that from a literary point of view, as I say, the passage is in two parts, and the second part is written as a kind of a mirror image of the first. And I'm going to suggest to you that presently, that this is because this passage looks at a certain topic from two different points of view. In the first half, we are to be told about the setting up of the kingdom of God on earth, and we shall be looking at it and its processes that are necessary for the setting up of this kingdom. We shall be looking at it from the point of view of people standing on this earth in the time that the Lord Jesus was here. But in the second half of this pass- of this section, we shall be looking at the setting up of the kingdom of God and the processes involved in the setting up of that kingdom, not from the position of men and women on earth in the time of Christ, but looking at it from the pun- point of view of heaven itself, from the point of view of the Father, from the point of view of our blessed Lord, from the point of view of Moses and Elijah. And here we shall have a very different, uh, aspect of his cross in particular. On earth, when Peter first heard the announcement of his cross, it seemed a shattering disappointment, a brutal obscenity, that anybody should take the one whom he had just confessed to be the Christ of God, that evil men should take that sacred person and kill him and crucify him. It seemed to Peter nothing short of a grotesque, horrible obscenity, and he protested with might and main and suggested that the Lord must have been mistaken in anticipating any such thing. Such did the cross in those moments seem to Peter. And when you come up the Transfiguration Mount, the subject is still the same, of course, for, as Neville so helpfully pointed out the other day, on the Mount of Tr- Transfiguration, Christ with Moses and Elijah were discussing his exodus. That is to say, his going out. His going out and away. A clear reference to his cross, and then his return to the glory from which he came. But now it is not a great act of human obscene cruelty and folly. Now it is discussed from heaven's point of view as an exodus long since planned, God having laid down the prototypes for it in Old Testament history, that when the actuality occurred, men's faith might be strengthened and not weakened, that they might think of the prototypes that God had arranged beforehand, and then see how our Lord's death answered to those prototypes. It was running according to plan, a plan fixed in eternity, long before there was a world for our Lord to come to. The exodus that he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Those two central, uh, paragraphs, therefore, will take a lot of our attention this afternoon. They are two different ways of looking at the cross of Christ. Just let me repeat that. First, through the eyes of men and women standing on earth, and particularly Simon Peter, in the days before our Lord went to the cross. When they had confessed him, they had realized he was the Christ of God, but it had not sunk into them, nor would it for a long time, that the one whom they prof- confessed as the Messiah, come as God's Christ, would in fact be rejected in this world, crucified and slain. Looked at through that, uh, th- those eyes, it seemed nothing less than a horrible disaster and a crashing defeat of our Lord's claim to be the Messiah and all his program for bringing in the kingdom of God. But in the second half, when you ascend the mountain with the three chosen apostles, you will see a very different view. Here, the cross of Christ is not a defeat in the program of setting up the kingdom of God on earth. This is God's chosen manner. This is God's chosen purpose and means. This is, in fact, the only way the kingdom of God could ever come and be set up on earth. If the kingdom of God was going to tame, going to contain any more than the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and the holy angels, if it were going to contain humans, then this plan, as heaven sees it in the Transfiguration Mount, would be the process that the Messiah must go through, and a glorious process it will be. So just let's, um, run through just to confirm those, uh, that literary bit in our mind, if you care to, and if you don't like literary things, well, now go to sleep for the next two minutes, and, uh, I'll give you a sign to wake up when we're finished with literary considerations, you'll see. But, uh, do you see it there? The, uh, first is the briefing of and sending out of the apost- of the twelve. power and authority over demons given to the twelve. and at the end, the further instruction of the twelve. And as you see, I put little A there, John objects to Christ's power over demons being exercised by any but the twelve, and he, of course, is corrected by the Lord for that wrong attitude. And the second bit, A B, little B, instructions to the apostles on how to react to being received or not received. Be a very solemn thing for Israel to be confronted with an apostle of the Messiah and to refuse to receive that apostle, for to res- uh, to reject an apostle is to reject Christ, and to reject Christ is to reject his Father. They are given, uh, uh, instructions, therefore, on this matter of how to react to being received or not received. And you'll see in that penultimate bit of instruction for the apostles, they are once more instructed on this matter of reception. Whosoever receives this little child in my name receives me, and whosoever receives me receives him that sent me. And now Herod perplexed here at Little Sea. Herod is perplexed by reports that Jesus is John the Baptist, whom he beheaded, risen from the dead, and wonders who Jesus really is. This matter of death and resurrection perturbs Herod indeed. Can't bring himself to believe that really there is a resurrection or a possibility of people coming back from the dead. And of course, here the disciples are perplexed by a kindred topic, how it could possibly be that one who had just exercised the supreme power of God, the majesty of God, as the people called it, the great power of God, how could they, uh, someone like Jesus, who had just exercised so signally and publicly the great power of God, be handed over into the hands of men as though he were helpless? That was a conundrum they couldn't get their minds round and didn't solve really till after the resurrection. So then, uh, we come to the miracle in the first bit, the feeding of the five thousand. The disciples are told to feed the multitudes. They protest that they cannot, and then Christ feeds them miraculously. And the miracle in the second half, the Father begs the disciples to cast out the demons, but the disciples cannot, so Christ heals the boy miraculously. And then the, uh, one of the great central paragraphs, Jesus was praying alone. The people wrongly identify Jesus as John and El- as John and Elijah, but Peter rightly confesses him as God's Messiah. Followed by the announcement of Christ's rejection, death, and resurrection, and exhortation to disciples to take up the cross in the light of the coming glory of his second coming, with a promise, meanwhile, of a view of the kingdom. Jesus was praying alone then. Now look at the transfiguration. It's the mirror image, isn't it? It doesn't begin, it ends with the fact that Jesus is found alone. It has, of course, Peter in the middle, and Peter, who had rightly confessed the Lord Jesus as not Elijah, not John, however great John and Elijah were, Peter had seen that Jesus was infinitely more important than they, and had confessed him as the Christ of God. Here, uh, waking up out of sleep, he made a suggestion that would have put Moses and Elijah on a par with Jesus. And the voice from the cloud protested at that unfortunate suggestion. Well, he was like some others, in the middle of the meeting, you know, and the study discussion up the mountain, Peter had fallen asleep. And coming now, waking up all of a sudden and seeing what was going on and not sure of what it was all about, he felt obliged to say something. It's always dangerous if you've fallen asleep in the middle of a meeting, when you wake up, to say something, because it might not have be altogether to the point and relevant. So do take that lesson. And, uh, we, yes, there is one more thing here. In the Transfiguration, you have the view of Mo- Christ, Moses, and Elijah in glory, discussion of Christ's death, and then his resurrection and ascension, that whole thing to be accomplished at Jerusalem. Very good then, if that is the literary way of it, now what does it all mean? And what are the subjects that are here to be discussed? And I so suggest to you that in addition to the great announcements, one by Peter and then by the Father, of the Christhood and then the deity of our Lord, the other topic to be dealt with here is the question of the kingdom of God and how it is to be established. You will notice the reference in chapter nine verse two, he sent them forth to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Verse eleven, when the multitudes, uh, perceive and follow him, he welcomed them and spake to them of the kingdom of God. And then he says in verse twenty seven, but I tell you of a truth, there be some of them that stand here which shall in no wise taste of death till they see the kingdom of God. We're going to think, therefore, of the kingdom of God and the processes by which that kingdom will be set up, and indeed, when it is set up, what will the nature of that kingdom be? It makes, of course, well, I would say that, wouldn't I? But it makes a, a marvelously relevant, uh, topic for section five, doesn't it? Because there has been a kind of progression in Luke's writing. We started naturally with the arrival of the Son of God. We proceeded, eh, the second section to the introduction of the Son of God onto the public stage of ministry, uh, the, uh, preparation for his public ministry, and then the beginning of his public ministry. And then we had s- part three, section three, that dealt with Christ's way with sin and sinners and his moral teaching. It is followed by case at section four, which is a collection of stories illustrating, uh, salvation in its many different aspects. And they end with the story of Jairus' daughter enjoying the salvation that was being wakened up from the sleep of death at the coming of the Lord to her house. You say, what would there be any more if you're following that line of progression? What lies beyond that? Is there something bigger than the salvation of the individual in all its different aspects? Yes, there is something bigger, and that is not merely the salvation of the individual, but setting the setting up of the kingdom of God on this earth to every nook and cranny of the earth. The ending of nature's groaning, the deliverance of creation from her bondage to corruption, and the setting up of the kingdom of God and the filling of the earth with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Nothing less ultimately could satisfy the longings of the human heart. But nothing else, of course, will satisfy God, which is the more important thing. He made this world. And God isn't going to end, eh, eh, eh, eh, God isn't going to admit at the end that, well, sorry, the project that he began at creation has been a disastrous failure, and, uh, well, the best thing is to burn it up and forget that and start with something new. No, God's going to win. The blessed Lord Jesus shall come, the kingdom of God shall be set up, nature delivered from her bondage to corruption, and our blessed Lord shall reign undisputed from shore to shore, till moon shall wax and wane no more. The question in this paragraph is, the intention is there, a pro- provision of it is there, but the all practical question is, how shall it be implemented? So we start, and we shall run through these things very briefly. We start with the briefing of the twelve, as now they go out on their mission. The proportions of this story, eh, uh, given them by Luke are interesting, aren't they? One verse describes the delegation of the necessary power and authority. Four verses describe their briefing, how they are to go about being received and so forth, those practical matters. Five verses then in all of preparation. And then, anticlimax, the whole mission itself is dismissed in one solitary verse. What would we give to know what happened as all these dear apostles went out? You know, it is supremely interesting to listen to the Lord preach, but cool, I would give at least a dollar to have been able to hear Peter preach and Matthew preach, and what kind of sermons they got up to on that occasion, and so forth and so on. We are not told. Suppose we don't need to be told. The whole, uh, the whole mission dismissed in verse six, and they departed and went preaching throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. No sample sermons, no actual examples of exorcisms or healings, or in what towns they were received or what towns they were rejected. We're not told. But we are told, if we will look back briefly, that they were sent out to preach. Nine two, They were to preach, and they were to preach the kingdom of God. Out to preach. Nine two. They were to preach, and they were to preach the kingdom of God. We have some idea of what they would have preached from listening to John the Baptist, or how our Lord himself began to preach when he first, uh, began his earthly ministry. A call to repent, but preaching of the kingdom of God, such as was promised in the Old Testament prophets. That was what they would preach, that great long-promised kingdom of God that the prophets had so glowingly described was now coming. That was their message. It was, of course, good news, says verse six. They, uh, preached the gospel. Of course it was good news. If they went out preaching the promises that Isaiah had given about all the healings that would be done, how that, uh, then the nations would beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and the nations would not learn, uh, war anymore, and all such things, to be told that this program was now going to be set on foot, that was spectacularly good news. What a gospel it is, and it is still, you'll know. In a world of atheism where men and women have no hope. Intellect has proved to them, so they tell us, that our intellects were produced by accidental permutations of the genes. There was never any purpose, never any plan. And what is more, they tell us, intellect has found out this remarkable result that one day mindless forces without any sense in their head will destroy our planet and destroy our intellects as well, and our intellects won't be able to do anything about it. What a discovery for intellect to make, hey what? That in the end, blind forces will obliterate the thing and make a nonsense of it as it turns it to pulp. Oh, how fortunate and privileged we are in our day and generation to be able to go out and preach the kingdom of God, that the king is coming. There is hope for our world, great hope, hope for our individual people, that though death with its disease in the end appears to defeat us, there is a resurrection from the dead. There shall be a kingdom of glory. Or have compassion in your heart, do, as you have, of course. For men and women that are without God and without Christ, and therefore without hope in the world. This was a tremendous gospel of hope that they were told to go and preach. And you see, it was, uh, more than that, you'll see. For they were given powers over demons, miraculous powers. For as they went to preach, God in wisdom, Christ in his mercy, gave them to do supernatural signs that should attest the message and give people's examples of what the epistle to the Hebrews would call the powers of the age to come. They were stirring days, weren't they? When people were made aware that there was another world, and the powers of beyond were beginning to erupt into our world and overcome the grip of demons and of the devil. That was their gospel message, attested, as Hebrews two says, by signs and wonders which they did in the name of the Lord Jesus. But then we're told of the impact of, uh, their, uh, campaign, not from them so much, we see it through the eyes of Herod. And Herod was remarkably disturbed. He didn't attend any of the gospel meetings, as far as we know. He wasn't in the habit, not Herod, and certainly not his wife, of attending gospel meetings or even evangelistic campaigns. Not Herod. Eh, uh, you'll see, but he heard the impact of what the crowds were saying, and what they were saying alarmed him. Doubtless he tried to say it was superstition or something. But now what the crowds were saying was this, you'll see, uh, some said that John was risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets was risen. Herod said, John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things? And he sought to see him. When the widow of Nain's son had been raised, the people said, God has raised up a great prophet. You will see how things have advanced now, won't you? Now, what they're saying is not that this is a great prophet. This is somebody from beyond. Could this be, uh, John Baptist risen again? Could this be, in fact, what Malachi prophesied, that before the great com- the coming of the great day, God would send Elijah back again from that other world? This was the impression that was being built up in the minds of the populace in general as these apostles went all through the land of Israel. A possible eruption from the other world beyond death. They were wrong in equating our Lord with Elijah or John either, weren't they? But you see the idea, and you can see what startled Herod. He said, well, I, I, I executed John. Is it real possible for John to come back again? Doesn't death end everything? We'll see. Herod had silenced John, hadn't he? He thought death was the permanent silencer. But if it's possible for somebody to come back from the other side of death, Herod isn't secure, is he so secure as he thought he was? And the man was worried, and he sought to see Jesus. He eventually saw him, but it was too late for Herod. Christ wouldn't answer him a word. That then is the build up. And now the apostles came back, and the crowd followed them, and the crowd comes to Jesus, and our Lord receives them, and instead of dampening their hopes, he talks to them about the kingdom of God and what life must be like and its principles of behavior and what it shall be like when the kingdom of God is established. The conversation, the preaching must have gone on a long time for the apostles, always practically minded, and they're always practically minded folks about to tell the preachers, now be practical. And so they tried it on the Lord, and they said, now, Lord, excuse us, but, uh, you know, time is getting late, isn't it? Eh, and the people have been here all day, and we must be practically minded, you'll see, and, uh, the shops will be shut soon, so, uh, they've had nothing to eat. Wouldn't you be best to stop preaching and send them away home so they can get some food in the shops? And our Lord, uh, said to them, well, no, I don't think you should send them away. You give them food. W- well, yeah, but there are difficult logistical problems, Lord, they said, you see. Um, it's rather a large crowd. Suppose we could go to the shops, wholesalers perhaps. I mean, they were practical men, but even going to the wholesalers, I mean, what, enough food to feed this crowd. And you see what small ideas they had of the kingdom of God, and what the kingdom of God would mean when it was eventually established. All the kingdom of God, when it comes, won't be in the form of a new economic theory of how to produce goods and, uh, uh, uh, uh, distribute them. It will involve all that, but it won't be just a course in economics. Our Lord was about now to give them an example of foretaste of what will be involved in the kingdom of God. Isaiah had talked about it, the day should come when God would make the nations a feast, a veritable banquet he would make them, of wines on the lees well refined, and in their joy the people should shout, this is our God, we have waited for him. He has swallowed up death in victory. That was God's concept of the coming kingdom of God, not buying a few extra dollars worth of food to feed the study conference. And so our Lord took over and performed the miracle. And Luke tells us, with his care for detail, fine detail, that he took the bread, you see, and lifted up his eyes to heaven. And looking up to heaven, he blessed and brake. Can you visualize him standing there with the bread in his hands? His gesture bespeaks what he is thinking, and looking up to heaven, he brings the very powers of heaven down here to feed the multitude. Oh, don't you dismiss it as fairy stories. It's going to happen. Oh, one day our blessed Lord shall do it, and the very powers, uh, of heaven will come, and the new age will dawn, and God will make the nations a feast. Death shall be swallowed up forever. But when that demonstration was done, the question was, uh, who was Jesus then? And Peter, on behalf of the apostles, confessed him. It was beginning to dawn now. He was not, as the people thought, just Elijah come or John Baptist risen from the dead. This was nothing short of the Christ of God. And coming to that climax, Peter was, as we said before, now tremendously shocked to find our Lord talking about the fact that he must go to Jerusalem and be killed. That surely would be a stop to all their hopes. And our Lord had to warn them that there are two ages, not just one. They were living, as Hebrews would put it, in the end of these days, that is the end of the first age. There would come the age to come. The age to come was already, so to speak, sending premonitions through in these miraculous deeds. But before the age to come could arrive in all its splendor, there was a necessary program to fulfill. Our Lord would be crucified and rise again, and there would come a time when his followers must be prepared to follow a rejected and crucified Messiah, and they would have to decide, therefore, for what age they would live. Would they live for this age and invest the very last ounce of their energy in living for this age that had crucified Christ? Or would they determine by God's grace to devote all their powers, their secular and their sacred tasks behind and in the coming age, when the Lord Jesus should come again in power and the glory of his Father and of the holy angels. To help them in that decision, our Lord gave them a promise, said he, there sh- are some that stand here that shall not see death, uh, shall not taste of death until they see the kingdom of God. Now all the experts, uh, uh, uh, uh, support different interpretations of that promise. There are some who say that the promise referred to what they were about to see in a few days time on the Mount of Transfiguration. They should see the kingdom of God in that vision. Others say it can't possibly mean that. Why can't it? Well, because the, that vision was about to happen in a week's time, roughly, and it would be a funny expression, they say, wouldn't it, to say to somebody, you will not taste of death until you see this vision, if the vision is going to happen with, what, eight days time or six days time, would be a funny thing, wouldn't it? If I got up here as a modern prophet and said, well, most of you here present tonight will not taste of death until you leave Totara Springs. You wouldn't put much in my collection box, would you? You'll say, it's a funny thing to say, I believe most of you will leave, uh, tomorrow. And if they were going to see this vision within eight days, to say you'll not taste of death till you see it will be a little bit odd. So folks say, well, he must have been talking about seeing the kingdom of God come at Pentecost, maybe, or something like that. I myself want to say that the promise was fulfilled on the Mount of Transfiguration. I look at it this way, that the Kingdom of God will not begin to exist for the first time when it comes to our earth, will it? The kingdom of God already exists. We're talking now the kingdom of God as it applies in that other realm. Normally, we're not admitted to see that other realm, unless first we die and go home to be with the Lord. These men were going to be given, before they died, a vision, an experience of that other world as it already existed. And so they went up the mountain. And there was Moses and Elijah. Now we're going to get a different aspect on the cross of Christ from what Peter had earlier feared. He thought of it as a disaster that would stop the coming of the kingdom. But now he sees Moses and Elijah. Interesting, isn't it? They discussed our Lord's exodus that he was going very deliberately to accomplish at Jerusalem. Why those two men? Well, as Neville pointed out, Moses had led the exodus. By faith, Moses kept the Passover. But delivered Israel by the shedding of the blood of the Passover lamb. It was a prototype put down by God that should stand as a model for the final thing when it ki- came, which was the sacrifice of our Lord as a Passover lamb. I wonder, I wonder whether old Moses, when he was celebrating the first Passover, knew that it was a prototype of the eventual Lamb of God. Do you think he did? Or perhaps he didn't. I think he knows now, don't you? Couldn't be with the Lord for a few centuries and not discover that. In fact, they were talking about it. He who led the prototype Passover was talking with Christ about the Passover that Christ was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Well, he knows about it now then. Which shows that in that eternal world, as Murray was saying the other day, it is not timeless, completely timeless. They who were already in that eternal world were aware that the cross was still future. I have a sense of time, don't they? And of course, the second person of the Trinity was not always human, was he? The eternal world looked forward to his becoming human. He wasn't always human. There's a certain kind of time in eternity. But there was Moses discussing with the Lord. That must have filled his heart to bursting, don't you think? To think of his Passover, how it had been God ord-ordained method of bringing them out of the grip of old Pharaoh, the prince of Egypt. And now to talk to the Lord about to accomplish the reality, the Passover that would deliver people, not from a few odd demons who happened to be lur- lurking about the place, but deliver them from the power of Satan and bring them out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son. What a conversation it was. And then there was Elijah. Well, he'd gone in for sacrifices too, hadn't he? In his day, old Jezebel had let her weak-kneed husband Ahab and the whole nation into the worship of nature gods, such as Neville was castigating. Ahab wouldn't have liked Neville. And, uh, as you'll see, uh, they were watching w- worshiping these deifications of the forces of nature, you will see, which are non-entities and nonsense. And Elijah was commissioned to prove to Israel who was the true God, these nature gods or Yahweh. So how did he do it? Well, he erected a, uh, he told them to erect their altar and offer sacrifices on them and call on their nature gods. They'll hear us. So that's what they did, and shouted off into the ether, they'll hear us. But there was no voice. You worship the forces of nature as your ultimate powers, then when you are in distress, you call upon them. Atomic, uh, strong power, weak atomic power, come and save me. But there's no answer. They aren't personal. There's no voice. The God that answers, said Elijah. And how did God answer? When the sacrifice was laid upon the altar, and the fire came down from heaven, from God, and accepted the sacrifice that was being offered on the part of that guilty nation, uh, for Almighty God. That too was a prototype, wasn't it? How do you know who the true God is? The blind forces of nature? Or is there a personal God in heaven who made us? How shall we recognize him when we see him? How shall we be undeceived? Why, when we have discovered the reality of God, there's no better place on earth than the cross of Christ, where the Son of God, God-given Lamb of God, God incarnate, rather than that we perish, would die for us. And his sacrifice accepted and indicated by the rising from the dead and the coming of the Spirit in his name. Oh, what a conversation it was. Far from the death of Christ, putting a stop to the coming of the kingdom. This was eternity's answer to the problem, uh, decided long before there was a planet, let alone sinners on it that dared to disobey their creator. So the Lord Jesus must go. And Peter woke up. He'd been asleep. Well, it is difficult some afternoons to keep awake. You have to admit that. Pray, don't criticize him too much, you know, have a certain fellow feeling with him, but he woke up. Just as our Lord was about to go, they'd been discussing his going, he was about to go, and Peter woke up and he said, Lord, wouldn't it be good to stay? You could tell he'd been asleep, wouldn't you? It'd have been better to keep his mouth shut. He had two reasons for thinking it, because it was nice and comfortable up here, exceedingly glorious, in the company of Moses and Elijah and the Lord. But then his, uh, suggestion would have contradicted what he had earlier confessed, wouldn't it? Elijah and Moses are not to be put on a level with Christ, surely. One tabernacle for you, and one for you, and one for you. At that point, there came a voice out of the cloud, and a voice out of the cloud. This is my beloved son. In him I'm well pleased. And when the cloud was gone, Jesus was found alone. Moses and Elijah and what they did were but prototypes. This is a unique. Now he must leave the glory and come down to the world below. It was a sorry sight down in the, on the plain, wasn't it? All three synoptics tell us about it, the Father and his Son. Luke's account is shorter than Mark's, but he has one little brush stroke that reveals him perhaps as a doctor, but certainly as a very sympathetic and empathetic man. When he records the request that the father, the distraught father, made to Christ, he explains, you'll see, um, he said, Master, I beseech thee look to look upon my son, for he is my only child. Oh, what a poignant thing. This father only had one son. Look upon my son, says he. Oh, what an echo of the divine voice up the mountain. This is my beloved son. And the father down in the plain saying, look on my son, Lord, he's my only son. And a demon had got him. Who can tell when it happened? There was a little toddler, and the boy growing up to boyhood, and dad doting on him as his only son, as fathers will upon their only sons. Hoping him to grow up and be a man like his dad, and his dad and he might become friends, and he enjoy his son. When this strange power took hold of the boy and twisted him all shapes, twisted his body, twisted his mind, though he was alive, as far as fellowship went, was lost to his father. Our Lord, when he heard the disciples hadn't been able to cast the demon out, spoke with apparent severity. He said, verse forty one, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring hither thy son." Why was our Lord so apparently severe? O perverse generation. The words he used, of course, come from the book of Deuteronomy, do they not? Uh, chapter thirty two. Let me read to you the relevant verses. This is, uh, uh, Moses talking, God through Moses talking of Israel. They have dealt corruptly with him. They're not his children. They are a perverse and crooked generation. Or again, and the Lord saw it and abhorred them because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be, for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. The lament of God over his children of Israel, his sons and daughters, as he calls them. And instead of being loyal to their God and a- and his being able to enjoy their fellowship, they'd gone over to these absurd crudities of the worship of nature gods. Any old idol would do for them, it seems, than the true God. And God laments over them of the way the devil has been able to twist people's minds and twist their characters and steal them from God. Or if there's any reality in the coming kingdom of God, it won't simply be a new theory of economics that will bring it in. Much as we need all the help we can get at the moment with new theories of economics. I'm not denigrating at that. We need to do our best to keep our world running and do it as a Christian testimony as well. But the coming of the great kingdom of God will have a great bigger problem to deal with. That is all of us, really. Isn't it true? All of us twisted. Excuse me, but you know what I mean. All of us twisted, marred by sin, born walking according to the prince of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Lost to God. How will God set up a kingdom unless he can deal with it. It won't be done by an exhibition of almighty power. Power doesn't convert anybody. The lost in the lake of fire shall feel the power of God. It will convert none of them. What shall get his sons back? Let me have a word with God and say, Lord God Almighty, why do you bother? Why not scrap the lot and start again? And Carter would say, but how can I scrap them? They're my creatures. I made them. I've a loyalty to them. I must save them if they can be saved. And for that reason, our blessed Lord had to come down the mountain to deliver the man's child from the power of the devil. Luke tells us, ma- sorry, Peter tells us, uh, Luke tells us that when he, the child was delivered, the people were amazed at the greatness, the majesty of God. Peter uses the same word in two Peter one. He says, we didn't follow cunningly devised fables, you know, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We were eyewitnesses of his, and here's the same word, of his majesty, when there came a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son. And that might prompt, prompt us in concluding to ask, at what stage did the voice come? At what stage did that voice of approval and delight come from the Father, amidst all the glory of the Transfiguration Mount? You will notice it is not at the beginning, nor halfway through, not while they were discussing together with Moses and Elijah the exodus he must accomplish, but now, when the time had come to go, and Peter and his folly had woken up and said, let's stay, don't let's go, let's stay. No, says Christ, as they came down from the glory to this miserable devil-holden world, and to see his son go and leave the glory and come down to the plain to die. So filled the Father's heart with joy and delight. He could not refrain himself any longer, but called out, this is my beloved Son. Hear you him. Here was a revelation of what God's heart is really like. This is the Father. This is what will break the power of Satan when the Son at Calvary's cross, in weakness, apparent defeat, when men have taken him and kicked his shins and s- sawtrussed his side, to find that God in Christ loves them still. This is what God is really like. This is the thing that breaks the power of Satan's malign lies and slanders of the Almighty. And to see his son willing to go so to represent God on that cross filled God's heart with such joy that as he saw him about to go from the glory to the shame, he burst heaven and came personally amidst as a shine of glory down to the Mount of Transfiguration. Not remaining aloof in his heaven, how could he, when his son was about to go, but coming in the cloud where his son was, as his son took now the first steps from the glory to the cross. The apostles were, uh, still perplexed when our Lord then told them that in spite of that exhibition of majesty, he must be handed over into the hands of men as though he were weak and helpless. They couldn't understand it. They eventually came to understand it. For, said they, the cross is a stumbling block to the Jew, it's folly to the Greeks, but to those who are saved, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. God, so fill our hearts with a vision of that great glory, that we too might come down our little mountains and go to a world still held in bondage to Satan and take the message, the only message that can deliver them, which is the message of God in Christ, not imputing their trespasses to them, but proclaiming peace, because he who knew no sin, he made sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him. Our Father, it is impossible for us to think of these great and amazing things without our hearts being moved. In silence rather than in words, we now go and pray that thou wilt thyself authenticate thy dear Son once more in our hearts, that we may acclaim him, the Christ who came down from glory and suffered the cross for our sake, that we may acclaim him as thy beloved son, and through him believing on thee, may give thee the glory and simultaneously go out to the world to preach that message that has saved us and can save them through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.