Mark 9

Discussion on the Transfiguration 9:1-13

One must consider what the transfiguration of Christ meant for a group of chosen men who are still developing their theology about Christ, His transcendence and divinity. Scriptures make it clear the disciples did not have the entirety of who He was worked out at the point of His resurrection.  They still needed convincing, they needed proofs of the claims of this God-human Christ, the Emmanuel.  The essential function of the transfiguration is foreshadowed in verse one before the event happens.  Jesus tells them that there be some among them that will physically see the kingdom of God inaugurated in great power.  Therefore Peter, James, and John were led up a hill where they would see this great sight, and almost certainly they would have not understood its great significance until after seeing the Lord’s resurrected body.  So the transfiguration served a great purpose in establishing their faith in Christ’s identity, Christ uncloaked in all His glorious splendor.  It was enough to make grown men fall to the ground in terror.  Behold the Son of God!

Perhaps this is a passage not taught as much as it should be.  The text doesn’t touch on many of the topics that ministers find important enough to deal with a given day.  But let me use this space to stress the error of preaching every Sunday totally by topical sermons. If you choose your sermon based on topic only, then you will most likely skip over passages of great importance.  But if you preach through the Bible, you will deal with all the topics that God has intended for His people to meditate on.

Inaugurated Theology

With that being said, I must stress the importance of understand this “inaugurated Kingdom”, the topic of our text today.  The kingdom is here and nothing will stop it.  One can imagine the great encouragement it is to those of fledging faith in knowing the kingdom they are waiting for is already begun!  Sometimes this is called inaugurated theology or already/not yet theology.  In simplified terms it means the world has been given a glimpse of a tangible glorious kingdom.  It’s power is at the present available to regenerate souls and rebirth them into God’s kingdom.  The Holy Spirit is ever present working in the hearts of its citizens even before the kingdom arrives in totality.  Though it is not yet totally arrived, but it is here, so count on it coming to pass as the Lord had said.

This promise of the Kingdom was first declared by the Lord in many strands of Old Testament prophecy. Any student of the bible will know that God’s word always comes to pass.  He makes His word reality for His own sake,  He will not have His reputation impugned by not keeping His word and His promises.  But what is more, He gives us further signs and great proofs to encourage belief.  The appearance of Moses and Elijah are significant in relating the exalted Christ to the prophetic message of both Moses and Elijah. Elijah was connected with “day of the Lord”(see Malachi 4:5), an eschatological landmark at the end of human history, while Moses and the Law point a final fulfillment in Christ who is now transfigured before them. This is done for our benefit, knowing how dull our eyes and ears can be, God gives what is necessary to foster genuine belief.   That is what is happening at the mount of transfiguration.

Though the men present did not understand it at the moment, its memory would have encouraged them along to the correct conclusions about the exalted Christ.  In fact they were expressly told not to talk about it until after the resurrection (v9) as it was certain that talking and elaborating on something they were not yet ready to understand would only foster confusion and not faith.  God never gave a total view of all there is in the Bible at one time.  Rather He God gave revelation progressively, line upon line, to the end result a man would perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

People today must also undergo a similar process of relating who Jesus really is. People’s understand might begin small in Sunday school, but by the Lord’s grace and through many periods of trial a person comes to realize what kind of foundation Jesus actually is.  He is the commencement of the Kingdom, the reality of its coming in the flesh.

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