I'm not going to name names if we're recording, so those in the brown chairs. Yeah. But come up front because there's plenty of room up here. Apparently. All right. We're good? We're recording? Okay. All right. We're going to get started. Let me open this up in a word of prayer and then we'll begin.

Father God, we thank you again for another night in which we can study the Gospel of Mark. We thank you so much for your grace in providing this account of our Lord and Savior. That Lord, through our study, we may understand more of who our Lord and Savior is and how we may be inspired, Lord God, to really live out our lives in faith, to live out our lives for the sake of your glory.

And so Father, I ask that as we just go and pretty much conclude, Lord, Jesus' ministry in Galilee with the fourth withdrawal, that Lord, you may open the eyes of our hearts to see what your word has to say and that it may impact us, Father, not so that we may feel good about ourselves or have a better understanding of you, but that Lord, we may be responsible with the knowledge you have given us and to spread that knowledge to others, Lord God, whether it be those who are part of your kingdom already or those who are not.

And so Father, we ask for your blessing upon this time and in your name we pray. Amen. So, previously before, I always gave you guys like an outline of what we studied in the past weeks, but I decided to take that out because it's getting too much and I feel like you guys pretty much know what's, where the gist of the progression of Mark is going, so instead of doing that, we just go straight to the outline of Mark.

Just very briefly, he started off in Judea in chapter 1 verse 1 until 13, and then for the majority of the Gospel of Mark from chapter 1, 14 until the end of chapter 9, which we're going to cover tonight, he was in Galilee. Chapter 10, we call that the turning point in which there's a pivot where Jesus' ministry begins to focus and go towards Jerusalem.

And then the concluding part of the Gospel of Mark, chapter 11 until chapter 16, verse 8, we begin to see, well, Jesus is in Jerusalem. So again, the Gospel of Mark is a very easy gospel to kind of just follow geographically and it gives us at least a little hint when we hear the chapter numbers where Jesus is and where, what he might possibly be doing, and so that's one of the great things about the Gospel of Mark.

As we conclude tonight in Jesus' ministry in Galilee, again, we took note of the four withdrawals. There are four withdrawals that take place, and each one has like a marker that indicates that Jesus left Galilee to a different region. We cover the first three, the past three weeks, and we're on the fourth one with chapter 8 verse 13 until the end of chapter 9, and we notice that in verse 13 he says, "Leaving them he again embarked and went away to the other side." And so that's how we know that he made another withdrawal away from Galilee to another region.

And that's just a brief outlook of what's ahead with the fourth withdrawal. And as you can see, there's a lot of material, and I'm sorry for that, but that's just the way John Mark wrote his gospel, so. So we're going to cover all this stuff, all these important events.

It's very significant, and so we'll try to take some time, and if I happen to run out of time, then we'll just, we'll end it there, and then we'll cover the rest the following week, so. All right. As we noted before, we're going to the final withdrawal, the fourth withdrawal, and verse 13 takes note that after he confronted the failed tag team of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, he just leaves them.

He is upset, he is angered, he is sighing deeply, as we saw in verse 12, with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and their unbelief, and so he leaves them. He doesn't stick around to debate with them or to argue with them, he just leaves. And he embarks and went to the other side, and he goes to the north and east side of the Sea of Galilee.

One thing that we'll take note in, and I'll probably repeat this over and over again in this final withdrawal, is that we begin to see Jesus' ministry taking a shift as he gets closer to Jerusalem. He's no longer solely focused upon the public, rather the focus of his ministry is becoming narrower as he seeks to invest into his own disciples.

And so that's something to just keep track of as we track Jesus as he gets closer to Jerusalem, to see his love and care for his disciples and to see how much he wants to invest into them, to prepare them for Jesus' eventual departure. And so they leave Galilee, they leave Capernaum, and they're going to the other side, and as we pick up with the story, the disciples go on to the boat, and they realize that there is no bread.

They were in a haste, again, it seems like they just got confronted with the failed tag team and as soon as Jesus spoke with them, he just kind of left immediately. So without warning, they're embarking on another journey, they didn't have time to prepare, and so they had no bread, and so they noticed that.

And so Jesus, hearing their kind of complaints or hearing their concerns for the lack of physical food, he begins to, he takes this as a teaching opportunity, to not simply let them wallow in their physical need, but to really use that as an opportunity to teach them something. And we see that in verse 15, he begins by saying, giving orders to them, saying, "Watch out, beware of the leaven of, or the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." And so we want to take note that there's a double warning that Jesus is giving to his disciples, he's not only calling them to watch out, but to also be aware of the Pharisees and the Herodians and what we will later see in Matthew chapter 16, verse 6, also the Sadducees.

And so basically Jesus is warning, warning his disciples in this boat while they're hungry to be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees, or better, you know, if you want to sum it all up, just the religious teachers of that day. And so, as he gives them this warning, this double warning to his disciples, the disciples in verse 16, they say, "They began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread." So it's almost as if they just kind of heard Jesus' teaching and it just went, "Woo!" Like went over their heads, you know.

And Jesus being a great teacher was well aware of their ignorance, and so he repeats himself, and he says, "And why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? Having eyes, do you not see?

And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?" And then, in verse, from verse 19 until 20, he kind of recounts for them the great feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000. And so, one thing that we want to take note of is the fact that during this exchange, there's a lack of faith by the disciples.

Jesus kind of calls them out and says, "Do you not yet see or understand?" Or you know, better yet, "Do you have a hardened heart?" And so they still lacked faith to understand what Jesus was talking about. And probably because of their physical needs, they were hungry. They wanted bread.

And so, Jesus goes on and again recalls the two great feedings as to remind them of the power that he has to just kind of recreate food. But yet, Mark doesn't explain what the leaven, what that symbolically means. He doesn't explain that in this account. But in Matthew 16, verse 12, we take note that he, you know, he does explain to them what he means by the leaven of the Pharisees and the Herodians and the Sadducees.

So if you want to turn with me to Matthew chapter 16, we're going to be flipping back and forth between the various Gospels here because we want to get a full picture of what's going on. We see in verse 12, "Then they understood that he did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees." And so we take note that the leaven of the bread or the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees was in fact referring to the teaching and influence of the religious teachers of that day.

That as much as their teaching and the influence of the religious leaders, they might view it as being insignificant, it will have a widespread impact upon their future ministry. And so this was Jesus giving a double warning to them saying, "You got to be aware of the influence that the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Herodians will give to you." Leaven is again that ingredient in bread that makes it rise.

Just put a little bit of it in the dough and it will cause it to rise. I'm not a baker so I don't know if that's true or not, it probably is, but we all know that leaven has that kind of effect and yet he's using that as analogy to show that the religious leaders will use their influence to impact the ministry of the disciples in a negative way.

And so he's giving them this warning in the midst of this boat as they travel across the Sea of Galilee. And so they arrive, they're on this boat, they arrive at this place called Bethsaida Julius. And I don't know if you guys are familiar with that name, but if you are, then kudos to you.

Because this is not the first time that Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida Julius. We also take note in Mark chapter 6, verse 32 and 44, I think that's the great feeding of the 5,000. That's where Bethsaida Julius was and now they go back there and they're seeing, they enter into the towns.

I just want to make sure that I got that one right. Yes, it is the feeding of the 5,000. So they arrive there and they're received well and immediately someone brings to them a blind man. They bring a blind man to Jesus and they're begging him to touch him.

Perhaps because they've seen already the power of Jesus to heal various ailments and sicknesses, so they kind of bring him along and they're just begging Jesus to just touch him. Sorry, before we begin with that story, we want to also take note that this miracle is only found in the Gospel of Mark.

This miracle and the miracle found in Mark chapter 7, verse 31 and 37, which is the miracle of Jesus healing the deaf and the stammering man, those are the only miracles that are recorded in the Gospel of Mark. We also take note that both of these miracles were performed outside of Galilee and in both of these miracles Jesus takes the person aside privately.

And so again, these are private moments that Jesus has with the people that he's about to heal. And again, the private moment with the blind man, before he was being led by the crowds, but now he's being led by Jesus. Again we see that in verse 23 where he's taking the blind man by the hand.

He brought him out of the village. Again the purpose of taking him outside the village is so that he won't attract attention, and he could spend that private moment with this blind man in healing him, outside of the onlookers that are just kind of, you know, just kind of goggling and just wanting to see a show, kind of.

And so here he is with a private moment with the blind man, and here Jesus is having a conversation with him. And he begins by spitting on his eyes, the eyes of the blind man, and laying his hands on him. And Jesus asks him, "Do you see anything?" And the blind man looks up and said, "I see men, for I see them like trees walking around." And so we take note that, you know, he's, uh, didn't heal him completely, right?

He didn't heal him completely. And so Jesus talks to him again, and he said he lays his hands on his eyes again, and he looked intently, and his sight was restored, and began to see everything clearly. This is the only recorded miracle in Jesus' ministry that was done in stages.

A lot of times we see Jesus' miracles where he just kind of casts demons out without any struggle. He heals the blind, he heals the sick with a simple touch. There appears to be, like, really no need for stages for Jesus' healing. But yet in this moment with this blind man, for whatever the reason, Jesus decided to heal him in stages.

He heals him first, and then it's not clear enough, and then he heals him again, and it's complete. So a lot of skeptics will look at this event, this miracle, and they'll kind of indicate that perhaps Jesus is losing some power. Perhaps Jesus is not as strong as, you know, he thought, you know, he was thought up to be.

He couldn't heal this blind man in one shot, so perhaps Jesus is getting tired and weak. Perhaps he's not the Son of God. But instead of taking that view, we want to understand that Jesus is the Son of God, and that this whole incident is not an indication of his weakness, rather it's an indication of the precise control that Jesus has with his power.

Jesus has precise control over his healing power. And considering that this miracle is placed right after the disciples and their misunderstanding of Jesus' teaching about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians, I think Mark is trying to make a point. I think the Holy Spirit, through Mark, is trying to make a point showing that these disciples who lack the faith in Jesus' teaching before are in need of just progressive understanding.

There is a need for them to understand in a progressive way of God's salvation plan. That perhaps the first time, just like the blind man with the first time, they have a fuzzy understanding of everything that Jesus is teaching about. And that there will be a second healing, if you would say, a second healing in which they will be able to understand completely everything that Jesus taught.

And that will come after the death and resurrection of Christ. And so the story of the blind man at Bethsaida is not only a story, more evidence of Jesus' compassion for those who are hurt physically, but it's also an indication of Jesus' promise to the disciples that you guys don't understand what I'm talking about now, but you will understand once everything is fulfilled.

And then finally we take note that Jesus, after healing him, just instructs him to go home. Perhaps his home wasn't at Bethsaida, but he tells him to go back home. And it appears that the now unblind man, if I can use that term, the unblind one, obeys. Because remember usually after the healing and after he kind of warns them, you know, God takes note that, oh, he went about and told everyone and brought a big crowd about.

Well, with the blind man at Bethsaida, there isn't any evidence of that. So it might be a good indication that he did obey the instructions of Christ. Alright. Any questions so far? Is that pretty straightforward? Thank you, Robin, for nodding your head. Yes. Alright. The next topic, I'm calling this the five theological bombshells.

You guys will see why later on. But we see that after his healing of the blind man at Bethsaida, Jesus goes out along with his disciples to this area called Caesarea Philippi. And that's the backdrop of what's about to take place, everything that's about to take place right now.

Caesarea Philippi is an area, a region of Israel where it's a mountainous region and they are a polytheistic, like, city. So they believe in many false gods. And one of the things about this place is that they place these pedestals to these false gods, like, embed them into their mountains.

So they have, like, these little, like, shrines here and there where they replace their false gods. Okay. And so this is the backdrop of the city that Jesus is entering with his disciples. And again, as we already noted, and I'm reminding you again, as Jesus gets closer to Jerusalem, Jesus' focus is getting more towards his disciples.

And so he begins to ask them these questions. So in the midst of these backgrounds with all these false gods, Jesus questions his disciples in verse 27, saying to them, "Who do you say that I am?" And so it's kind of a very unique picture where Jesus is standing there, and it wasn't a comparison with these other false gods.

And he's asking them, "Who do you say that I am? You see all these other false gods, but what about me?" And this question kind of kicks off the five theological bombshells, and again, the reason why I'm calling them the five theological bombshells is because Jesus is about to introduce a new message, a new message to his disciples.

And this is a message that's really different from the message that the disciples preached before. As you guys can remember back in, I think it was Mark chapter 6, he summoned the twelve and he kind of sent them out and told them to preach to the various villages and healing people.

Well, this message is different. And here is Jesus going to start off with this different message by asking this question, "Who do you say that I am?" And so, we move on to the next slide. And the first theological bombshell that we encounter is the fact that Jesus is the Christ.

He is the Christ. We see in verse 28, you know, the disciples are kind of just throwing out suggestions. They're saying, "You're John the Baptist," and others are saying, "You're Elijah," and others are saying, "One of the prophets." And Jesus continued by questioning them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered and said to him, "You are the Christ." And if you guys remember Dr.

Harris's message back in the summer, he's mentioning that "You are the Christ" is like a four-part affirmation. It's "You are the Christ, the Son, the God, the Living." Again, he's extolling Christ's identity to the highest level. Now we know that in Matthew chapter 16, there's a difference because after Peter gives this response of the fact that, you know, "You are the Christ, the Son, the God, the Living," you know, he's commended, you know.

He said, "Blessed are you, Peter," and all this other stuff. But we notice in Mark that that's absent. Rather, after giving the correct answer, he just, he warns them to tell no one about him. And so that's kind of unique to just the Gospel of Matthew. But we move on to the second theological bombshell, and that's the first mentioning of the Church.

Now we don't find that in the Gospel of Mark. We don't find that at all. We find that solely in the Gospel of Matthew. And so that's one of the reasons why there's five theological bombshells. Four are only found in the Gospel of Mark, but the fifth one is found in the Gospel of Matthew.

And again, that's the first mention of the Church. I'm sure for them, they didn't know that the Church was going to be like this. Perhaps they were confused and they had questions about what this Church would actually look like. But again, the message is beginning to change now for the disciples.

They're learning something new. Whatever paradigm that they may have had is exploding. It's like Jesus is changing everything right now. We move on to the third theological bombshell, which is Jesus' death and resurrection. All throughout the Gospel of Mark, Jesus never mentions his death or his resurrection. And in Mark chapter 8, verse 31, he begins by teaching them that he is going to die and he is going to be resurrected.

Now we want to take note that Jesus never talks about his death without his resurrection. They go hand in hand. They're like peanut butter and jelly. They go hand in hand. We notice that Peter doesn't take well with this particular bombshell. With this bombshell, he takes Jesus aside and he begins to rebuke him.

Remember, this Peter was the same one that mentioned that you are the Christ, the Son, the Living, the God. So Peter rebukes him. But we know that later on in verse 33 that Jesus rebukes Peter back in return and says, "Get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on God's interests but man's." And so even though Peter was commended in the Gospel of Matthew, in the Gospel of Mark he wasn't commended and probably this is one of the reasons why.

Because two verses later, he's going to get rebuked by Jesus and he's called Satan by Jesus. Again, remember Peter had a particular insight with John Mark, the author. So perhaps he asked Mark maybe not to put it in there. I don't know. But that's something that's unique. And so again, this third theological bombshell is the fact that Jesus will die and he will be resurrected.

Perhaps the idea of his death and resurrection shattered, maybe shook up whatever kind of hope that they had in Jesus in regards to his Messiahship, or in their perception of Jesus' Messiahship. And so they're pretty rattled because of that. But the bombshells don't stop. Jesus has another bombshell to drop upon, not only the disciples but the crowd that is around him.

We move to verse 34 and it says, "He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it.

For what is a profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?'" And so again, we see Jesus now stretching his teaching audience to the crowd that is around him. He's no longer just solely focused upon the disciples, we know that that is his priority, he's about to leave them.

But he includes the crowd to hear what he has to say. And what he has to say is that there's a high cost to follow me. There is a high cost for this discipleship that you guys are all wanting right now. And so here is Jesus and he is making it very, very clear that if you're gonna follow me, you're gonna lose your life.

But even though you lose your life, you're gonna gain something in return. And so again, this is a hard message for Jesus, or this is a hard message for the crowd and possibly even the disciples to hear. I know a lot of us have used this verse to kind of describe our desire to follow Jesus, but putting in the context of everything that's going on so far, this is a very difficult message for the audiences to hear about Jesus' high cost of discipleship.

And yet he lays it out plain and clear. We also want to take note, the fifth theological bombshell, and that's what we find in verse 38. The fifth theological bombshell is the glory of God at the second coming. The glory of God at the second coming. He concludes his teaching to the crowd and to the disciples by stating, "For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Again, you can't have the person of Jesus without the words of Jesus.

You can't just claim to believe in Christ and not listen to what he has to say about our lives. And here the son of man, here the son of God is saying to them that, "If you are ashamed of me, there will be some consequences when he comes in the glory of his Father with his holy angels." He attributes the glory of God with the second coming, and we can even go back to Luke chapter 9, verse 26.

If you guys could turn there with me. Luke chapter 9, verse 26. Again, in a parallel passage, we see in verse 23 that he's talking about the cost of discipleship, all the way up until 25, and then verse 26. "For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." Again, in Jesus' teaching ministry up to this point, in the Gospel of Mark, there has been no mention of the glory of God until at this point.

Here it is right here. "The glory of God is going to come at the second coming, when I return, when the son of man returns." And so all the references in the Old Testament about the glory of God, all the stories that they've heard in the Old Testament concerning the glory of God, is now being attributed to the second coming.

And within all those Old Testament references are the story of Moses and Elijah, and their experience with the glory of God. And so all that is being attributed to his second coming. And so again, you can imagine that the theological bombshells are just kind of rattling and shattering everything that the disciples had built up for themselves in their own understanding.

Perhaps they had a grasp of Jesus' teaching at some point, but now with these five theological bombshells, it's kind of like, this is a totally different message that you were teaching us before. This is something new. But again, as we see, as we chart the progress of Jesus as he gets closer to Jerusalem, he's not holding back anymore.

He's bringing everything to the table. This is what it is going to be like if you follow me. Any questions with the five theological bombshells? It's pretty straightforward? Alright. Moving on. We move on to the Transfiguration. The Transfiguration introduces a shift to the topic of the Kingdom of God.

And we see in verse 1 of chapter 9, Jesus is saying to them, "Today, or truly, I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God after it has come with power." And so verse 1 is probably in reference to Peter, James, and John, because of what they're about to see in the next, in the upcoming verses in chapter 9.

And so, so he makes this statement to them, to his disciples, and six days later, after letting that teaching kind of sink in for all of them, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And so, yeah, I'm pretty sure that map on your PowerPoint, or your notes, really can't show, but, Cesare Philippi is right here.

This is where they were, this is where the five theological bombshells took place, where Jesus was comparing himself to the other false gods and saying, "Who am I? Who am I according to you?" And the mountain that they went up to, probably Mount Hermon, is right here. And so you can see that Jesus is really going out of his way to spend time with his disciples.

He really wants to focus upon them, and to train them, and to invest into them before what will take place in Jerusalem. And so he takes the inner three to the mountain, and again, it's here where the transfiguration takes place. And we note in verse 2, it says, "And he was transfigured before them." That word "transfigured" means "changed form." It's like the same word used in pagan mythology to describe, perhaps, a Greek god transforming himself into a human being, or something like that.

That word "transfigured" is also in the passive voice, so it means it's something that was being done to him. God was transfiguring Jesus, revealing to his disciples who he really is, as the Son of God. We take note that in the Gospel of Mark, he mentions that his clothes, his garments, became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.

And you can't help but to think that perhaps the Apostle Peter gave Mark that detail as he shared his story about the transfiguration. But we also want to take note that in Matthew and in Luke, they make an account of Jesus' face. And in Matthew chapter 17, verse 2, Matthew describes Jesus' face as "shining like the sun." In the account with Luke, in Luke chapter 9, verse 29, his face became different.

And so, as to why Mark didn't include those details, we don't know, but all we know is that he didn't include them. But we want to take note that his transfiguration wasn't just his clothes alone, but it was almost like a physical transfiguration that took place. We also take note that he appeared with Elijah and with Moses.

We see in verse 4, right, Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Moses, as you guys may have already know, Moses equals the law. He represents the law part of Israel's, or of the Old Testament. Elijah himself represents the prophets. And so you have two of the most significant characters in the Old Testament there, in the presence of Jesus and the disciples.

They also have other connections between Moses and Elijah. You know, they both had mysterious disappearances. We take note at the end of Deuteronomy, when Moses dies, he goes up to the mountain and says that God buried Moses. God buried Moses so that his body cannot be found at the end of Deuteronomy.

And we also know that with Elijah, he just kind of got caught up in a whirlwind of fire. Yeah, so again, there's some similarities in what Moses and Elijah kind of share with one another. But also, they also saw the glory of God. We take note of Moses' experience where he got kind of put in the cleft of the rocks as Jesus passes by, and it says that Moses saw his backside and his face like shine like crazy.

And then Elijah in the mountains, he came out of his cave after being discouraged with Jezebel, and he saw the glory of God, but he couldn't really see it because he had a towel over his face. So you had Moses and Elijah, they both experienced the glory of God, and now they're here with Jesus, the Son of God.

And Luke 9 verse 31 kind of reveals what their conversation was about. Remember we see in verse 4 again that they were talking with Jesus, but what were they talking about? This is one of the wonders about having three other Gospels, because they can all shed extra details into what took place.

In Luke 9 verse 31, it says, talking about Moses and Elijah, who appearing in glory, were speaking of his departure, Jesus' departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. And so again, Moses and Elijah were just not there giving like a chit-chat or, you know, talking about frivolous things.

We have Moses and Elijah, and they're talking about Jesus' pending death, what was going to take place in Jerusalem. Now I kind of wonder here at this point, like, this might be a side note, but like how did the disciples know that it was Elijah and Moses? They didn't have photographs back then.

You know, so how, I mean, like, I don't know, Bible's not clear in regards to that question. I don't know, it's just a question to ask, like, how'd you know that was Moses and Elijah? Perhaps Jesus made mention of them later on that was not recorded in the Scriptures, but anyways, that's just something to think about.

Going to the next slide. We notice that after the disciples recognize this, Peter comes up to Jesus and he's saying, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here." Peter is well aware that something magnificent is happening, something great is happening, something that probably only happens once in a lifetime.

And he's coming up to Jesus and he's saying, "Rabbi, it's good for us to be here. Let's make this longer, let's make this party happen, let's make it, let's extend it. Let us make three tabernacles, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." And so he's making a request to pitch these three tabernacles or these three tents.

We know part of it was he said it out of fear because it says that later on in verse 6, "For he did not know what to answer, for they became terrified." He mentioned this out of fear. But it's also quite possibly that Peter's a lot smarter than we think.

Peter was not saying this because he was, like, jibber jabbering or anything like that. It's quite possible that Peter had an understanding that the kingdom of God might be inaugurated at this moment. And so perhaps he's making this feeble request because he's understanding that something grand might be occurring.

He understands the Old Testament prophecies. He understands that before the Messiah comes, Elijah was supposed to come. He understands all that. And so he sees Elijah, he sees Jesus, he already knows that Jesus is the Messiah. He's like, "Elijah, Jesus, oh shoot, something big about to happen." So he makes this request.

But recognize that Jesus never really answers his question. He never answers his request. It moves on in verse 7, "Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them." And it says, "A voice came out of the cloud, 'This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.'" Now the cloud overshadowing Jesus, it's very significant.

We notice in 1 Kings 8 verse 10 and 11 that when King Solomon inaugurated the temple that there's a cloud that came upon the temple indicating the glory of God or the presence of God is with them. We take note in Luke chapter 1 verse 35. It should be 35 guys, not Luke chapter 1 verse 35.

It's the angel conversing with Mary before Jesus is conceived and saying, "The angel answer is said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God.'" And so again, we have this shadow, this concept of a cloud overshadowing people, indicating the presence of God in their midst.

And so again, if we take this cloud here in verse 7 and how it overshadows them as being the presence of God, then this would make it the second appearance of the presence of God in the form of a cloud overshadowing something in 500 years from the time of Solomon and the cloud coming down upon the temple till now, to what we see here in Mark chapter 9.

And so a cloud form that's overshadowing them, and just in case if the disciples didn't understand what this cloud and this overshadowing means, you have God speaking. And he speaks loud and clear. He says, "This is my beloved Son." Now that phrase has to sound familiar, right? That phrase, "This is my beloved Son," it kind of sounds similar to what God said when Jesus was baptized, right?

"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And so again, here's God, he's making a second reminder to the disciples there that, "This is my beloved Son." Just in case if you forgot. Just in case if you don't understand what's about to take place. This is my Son.

And instead of saying, "in whom I am well pleased with," he makes it clear to them. He makes a command to them. He says, "Listen to Him." I mean if you want to get any more direct than that, I mean sometimes we struggle with the Word of God, and sometimes we read the commands that we read here and we're like, "Oh man, I have to do that?" I mean, can you imagine how the disciples must have felt?

I mean when they hear the voice of God himself saying, "Listen to Jesus. Listen to Him." And so, in the midst of all of this, of all this that took place, we take note in verse 8, "All at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore except Jesus alone." It's almost, it's like an abrupt ending to what just took place in the Transfiguration.

But we know with further detail in the other Gospels, like in Matthew chapter 17 verse 6, it shows the disciples on the ground, right? They're just kind of on the ground, not wanting to look up. Their face were down. And it wasn't until Jesus touches them that they actually look up, which we find in Matthew chapter 17 verse 7.

And so again, the holiness of God compelled them to really be afraid of their lives. They prostrated themselves before the Son of God. And it wouldn't be until Jesus coming and touching them that they would actually look up. And so, there we have the Transfiguration. The next slide here is just like a, just a little chart that I made, just kind of capturing the overshadowing part and the glory of God being associated with that.

And so, that's just something for, just for your reference to take note of that when you read the other Gospel accounts, when you see this concept of overshadowing. More likely than not, it's probably an indication of the presence of God in their midst. As we continue on, we see that after all this happened, Jesus commanded them to not tell anyone what has happened until the Son of Man rose from the dead.

He commanded them to do this because he didn't want the salvation plan of God to take place earlier than where God wanted it, so he warned them not to do that. And so, it must have been weird for the disciples to hear, like, "What do you mean the Son of Man will rise from the dead?" And so, they probably had questions about that because it says in verse 10, "They seized upon that statement, and they discussed with one another what rising from the dead meant." And as they kind of talked about what this resurrection means, the three disciples, as they walked down the mountain after this tremendous event, they just asked Jesus, like, "Why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" And so, they open up this question about Elijah, and this question about Elijah is very important.

Because, not only do the scribes teach this, but the Bible teaches that Elijah has to come first to restore all things. And we find that in Malachi, chapter 4, verse 5 and 6, the last two verses of Malachi. And so, basically, what the disciples were doing is they were just asking Jesus, like, "What's your interpretation of this prophecy here in Malachi, chapter 4, verse 5 and 6?" Like, "We know that Elijah has to return, the scribes teach us that, so is it true or not?

What does that mean?" And so, if you'll turn with me to Malachi, chapter 4, verse 5 and 6, and Malachi is the book right before Matthew, so just turn to the Gospel of Matthew, to the beginning, and then turn one page to the left. If you have a Bible like mine, it has a page about the New Testament, flip that page over.

Malachi, chapter 4, verse 5, yeah, verse 5 and 6. And it reads, "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." And so, they're asking Jesus, "What's your interpretation of this verse?

Elijah has to come first and restore all things, what does that mean?" And so, they're asking, they're asking this because if the disciples are correct, if the disciples are correct with their identification that Jesus is the Messiah, their natural question is, "Did Elijah already come? Did Elijah already come?" Now we notice in verse 12 that Jesus affirms the teaching of the scribes and the prophecy found in Malachi by saying, "Elijah does first come and restore all things." And he, you know, Malachi 4, 5, 6, it just kind of describes like a restoration of the spiritual, spiritual relationship and preparing the hearts of the fathers and their children to repentance.

That's what it's kind of referring to, but it's also bringing into fact that there's a suffering involved. There's a suffering involved with both Elijah and the Messiah. He says, further on in verse 12, "And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that he will suffer many things and be treated with contempt?" And in verse 13, "But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him." And so, here we have this coming of Elijah and the Messiah and the promise of restoration.

And yet here Jesus is posing another question to them, saying, "Elijah did come, but he suffered. He suffered just like how the Son of Man will suffer." So you have to kind of question, I mean, if you're in the disciple's shoes and you kind of studied Malachi, you're kind of wondering, like, what the heck is going on here?

Like, Malachi promised restoration, and you're telling us that they're suffering. And so in essence, in essence, what Jesus is revealing is that there are going to be two advents of Christ. There's going to be two advents of Christ, and as a result, there will be two advents of Elijah that will come.

Matthew 17, verse 13 states that the disciples understood that John the Baptist was Elijah, so they viewed him as the Elijah of Malachi, chapter 4, verse 5 and 6. And so there are two comings of Christ, and there will be two comings of Elijah, the first pair already occurred.

So the question that we have to ask is, you know, if the Messiah's suffering doesn't usher in the kingdom, and doesn't usher in this kind of full restoration, then does this mean that the prophecy in Malachi 4, chapter 5 is unfulfilled? That's the kind of question we have to ask.

Those who say yes, that the prophecy in Malachi 4, verse 5 is fulfilled, they will have to do some crazy handiwork in kind of explaining all the prophecies of the restoration of the land of Israel and all that stuff. But anyways, basically, the stance that, at least what I see in the Bible, is the fact is that there are two advents.

Meaning there are going to be, I mean, Jesus already came down once, with Elijah preceding him, and I believe that there's going to be another Elijah that's going to come before the second coming of Christ. And that Elijah will make the road straight, and will bring in the kingdom of God.

And so, there's this aspect of double fulfillment. I'm pretty sure all of you guys have kind of heard about this idea of like, you know, already but not yet. That kind of concept of a double fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, this prophecy would fall under that category of already but not yet.

As one of the commentators write, he writes that when you take all the Elijah references and put them together, such as Malachi 3, verse 1, and Malachi 4, chapter 5, verse 6, and these other references in the Gospels, it's a consistent explanation that points to two comings of Elijah, and also the two comings of Christ.

And so, there you go about that with the question of Elijah. Yeah. So, is there any questions about that? Any questions about the second coming? Do you guys believe that there are going to be two Elijahs? Well, one already came, but… Yes? No? Yeah? I have a question. So, when we read 4 verse 5, I mean, I believe in already but not yet, the only trove I read is verse 5 says, "The great and awesome, the great and terrible." How does the first coming fit in with "the great and terrible"?

I understand the word "great," the fact that he's come is great, but how is the first time fact that he's terrible? The second time, obviously. He's not coming as a lamb. He's coming as a warrior. The first time he comes as a lamb, how does "terrible" fit into that description?

I was always confused about that. So, how does, in Malachi chapter 4 verse 5, how does that word, or the adjective "terrible," describe the… I accept that it's in reference to the first and second, because Jesus says, he's quoting it, and he's saying this is in reference to right now, but not yet.

He's doing a commentary on that verse, but I don't see how "terrible" could categorize the first coming. Does that make sense? Because… Well, I guess you would have to see that word "terrible" as describing the day of the Lord, right? And so, I don't think the day of the Lord occurred in the first coming.

I think the day of the Lord is in reference to just the second coming, so… But if this is in reference to the first time, he says, "Well, this is going to be fulfilled," right? I don't think that's what he's saying, but how does that adjective fit in at all?

Right. Well, I mean, maybe not just this passage alone, but also Malachi 3.1 also describes the first coming of Elijah. Malachi 3.1 states, "Behold, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight, behold, he is coming," says the Lord of hosts.

And so, perhaps verse 5 is just in reference to the second coming. Chapter 3, verse 1 is in reference to the first coming. But then you would have to try to figure out what verse 6, where does that fit in? Because naturally it would fit in with the second coming, because verse 5 is talking about the second coming, but we look at verse 6 and we're kind of like, "Oh, he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." So is that referring to the first coming or the second coming?

Alright. I see Val first. Yeah. Awesome? Okay. Terrible as in like bad, like a bad connotation. That makes sense too, yeah. Yeah, I'm reading from the NASB. It says terrible. I guess the ESV may have been more positive. And so they... I mean, you could also just talk about just how...

how momentous that day will be. I mean, maybe... I can't remember if terrible being given a bad connotation, if that was just a matter of human language over time, just kind of giving it a bad connotation, but perhaps back then it was more of a description of how grand, how momentous this occasion will be when the day of the Lord comes.

So, could be that too. Alex? Same? Okay. Hank, did you have a question? A couple things. You know how you said second Elijah? Yeah. Were you basing that on, or is that like, like speculation? Or is that, you know, the theological account? Okay, so what verse is the second coming of Elijah?

I think that is reference to just all the Old Testament prophecies because you have to realize that it says that Elijah will come and restore all things. Yet you look at when John the Baptist came and when Jesus Christ came, not all things were restored. And so, that leads to, you have to look back to Old Testament prophecies and see like, well, is it restored in a sense of like a non-literal restoration?

Like, we all agree that there's a spiritual restoration that took place when John the Baptist came and when Christ came. And we're all spiritually restored. But is that all of it, or is that just the already not yet kind of answer that we've been kind of giving? So, for me, it's just when I read these prophecies and he's talking about how, you know, he's going to come to the great and terrible day of the Lord.

The concept of the day of the Lord is like, is talking about the end times and clearly we're not in the end times right now. And so, this gives me the, at least the idea that there is going to be another coming of Elijah. Like the act of seeing Elijah in the Old Testament, or is that unknown?

Maybe we'll note it when we see it. So, I mean, people didn't know John the Baptist was the first coming of Elijah until, you know, well, the disciples figured it out, but yeah. The other thing is like we were talking about how people were terrible, awful, dreadful, or awesome.

It's like in this few chapters in New York Christianity where it said that like Christians, we love the holiness of God, but we also hate it because we're sinners. And because we dread it, you know, because although we're sanctified or we get justified, in the presence of God, still we'll fall down like dead men because we are still sinful.

And so I'm sure that if we were to ascetize and saw the transfiguration, it would be, it was great, but it was terrible. And so that's what I'm thinking about. Okay. So the terrible is in the sense of the coming of this holy God. Right. Right. Thank you for the observation.

Any other questions or thoughts, comments? Would you agree that the idea of the two Elijahs, it wasn't crystallized that Jesus said it. It was in the Old Testament, it was kind of sprinkled. But do you think they were able, like do you think one would have been able to deduce that hey, there's two Elijahs?

Or did we have to wait for Jesus to say what he said, and then to, and to give a commentary and say, okay, that's what it means. Right. So James' question is, did the people of the Old Testament or as, you know, they received the book of Malachi, did they understand, right, if there were going to be like these two comings of Elijah and whatnot?

I'm going to stick to what we saw with the blind man at Bethsaida. I think there's a sense of progressive understanding. And so I don't think anyone would have understood that there were going to be two comings of Elijah and two comings of Jesus outside of help, which they received with Christ and his explanation of all this.

So, so the people of the Old Testament, they, I mean, they searched, they searched long and hard for all this, but, you know, they couldn't come to a definitive answer. And, and again, there's aspects of the Bible in which we don't know either. We just don't know how certain things work.

We don't know how the Trinity works. We don't know how we're, you know, we're responsible for sin and how, you know, if God allows it, we don't know how that works. There's certain things that we just, I guess, won't understand. And perhaps we may understand later, perhaps, but. And so there's a sense in which this is, this in itself is an act of grace in which God is, where Christ is just kind of giving his disciples further insight into the prophecy found in Malachi.

Okay. Any other questions? Yeah, Peter? Yeah, the two witnesses, yeah. Right. Peter's question is, is second coming of Elijah kind of referenced in Revelation chapter 11, right? That's, that's your question? I remember reading that in a commentary. And personally for me, I don't know, I haven't did like a study on that.

But yeah, I mean, I do acknowledge that there are commentaries that do say that Elijah is one of these two witnesses that is mentioned in Revelation 11. So I guess for now I'll side with the commentators. And let's piggyback on their work until I figure it out. But yeah, I mean, you make a good point too.

So yeah. So okay. All right. Any other questions? All right. I'm going to just end it here on this note with one more thing. Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 13 really quick. And we're going to end it here. We'll follow up the rest next week.

But 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 13, we know that 2 Peter is, you know, this is the last leg of Peter's life. He's about to die, probably about to be martyred. And the thing that's on his mind at the point of his death is this event that we just read in Mark chapter 9 verse 1 and 13.

In verse 12 it says, "Therefore I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present in you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me." And then we go to verse 16, and he's going to remind them of this event.

"For we do not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory, 'This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.' And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain." And so again, we take note that this transfiguration event really impacted Peter's life.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not done yet. Peter still has to make the three denials that we're going to see during the Passion Week, right? We know he's going to deny Jesus three times, and he's going to weep, and he's going to repent. But again, this event really left a mark in Peter's life, and even on his dying deathbed before he's about to perish, he wants to stir up a reminder of this event.

And again, perhaps some of us have moments in our own lives where we can remember God being active or being clearly present in our lives, doing whatever blessing it may be. And so we'll end here for tonight. It kind of went a little bit longer than I wanted. But please pair up with someone that you believe-- I mean, I'm not going to make a joke out of this one.

Pair up with someone and share with each other, maybe, an answered prayer, a way in which God has-- you know, you have seen God clearly working in your life. Share something in regards to that. I'm only asking that question because of what happened to Peter. He saw the Transfiguration on his deathbed.

He made mention of that. So on your deathbed, what would you want to share with someone in regards to how God has influenced your life? All right, I made it into a joke. All right, whatever. Yeah, so we're done. So you guys could go ahead and pair up. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

I will be walking around passing out homework. Thank you very much. Come back next week. I'm still here. (waterfall rushing) (water splashing)