What is heaven like, is a common question pastors get asked. A lot of our views on spiritual domains comes from medieval depictions. The devil is cast in red with horns, a spiked tail, and pitch fork. Cherub are chubby child like creatures who’s wings look like they couldn’t carry a pencil let alone what they are attached to. Hell is a descending pit in which the unrighteous are tormented in various ways with the final realm being the place where satan forever is chewing on the worst of the worse. And heaven is fluffy clouds with angels perched with golden harps, and God is the kindly old man.
Yet the Bible speaks of all of these things very differently. Satan is described as coming as an angel of light. Hell is a flaming place, but will be consumed in the Lake of Fire. Cherub are frightening creatures with multiple faces and eyes all over. And God is the Holy One, in the presence of which people have no other course of action but to fall down in worship.
Our human misconceptions of biblical realities become caricatures of what lies beyond our physical plane and it lessens the impact these beings and places on us. Satan becomes horrific in appearance in our minds, and then we fall to the temptations of the enemy because were not on our guard for the shining angel that brings false tidings. And we do not worship God rightly because we do not grasp the holiness of God that brings his love to humanity. God seeks for us to understand him on his terms. It’s the misconceptions that can be a detriment to a relationship with God, and it’s what will see happen in our study today.
This brings us back to our summer series in the Gospel of Matthew where we’ll be picking it back up in Matthew chapter 16, starting in verse 21. And as we open up to Matthew 16:21, let’s look back on the last couple of weeks to bring our minds back to where we are in God’s Word.
In the last three weeks, there has been a consistent theme running between section three and four of Matthew’s Gospel, and that theme is faith. Three weeks ago we saw Jesus calling his disciples’ to exercise their faith. We saw this in the feeding of the five thousand and the walking on water. Following that, we saw Jesus calling his disciples to a transformative faith empowered by the Holy Spirit. Then last week we saw Jesus call his disciples to a faith that consistently seeks him.
This understanding that each of us needs to take our faith seriously leads us into both this week and eventually Jesus fourth sermon and how our faith interconnects with the faith of other disciples. But there’s one more area to cover before we get there, and so we turn back to Matthew chapter 16, where we’ll cover both the end of chapter 16 and almost all of chapter 17. Let’s read together.
“16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
“22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’
“23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’
“24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
“28 ‘Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’
“17:1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
“4 Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’
“5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’
“6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. ‘Get up,’ he said. ‘Don’t be afraid.’ 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
“9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, ‘Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’
“10 The disciples asked him, ‘Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?’
“11 Jesus replied, ‘To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.’ 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.
“14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 ‘Lord, have mercy on my son,’ he said. ‘He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.’
“17 ‘You unbelieving and perverse generation,’ Jesus replied, ‘how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.’ 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.
“19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, ‘Why couldn’t we drive it out?’
“20 He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’ [21 But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting]
“22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.’ And the disciples were filled with grief.”
There are six mini-sections that we need to take in turn so that we can see the progression of what is going on in the overarching teaching that, through the Holy Spirit, Matthew is trying to convey to us.
The first mini-section occurs in verses 21-23 of chapter 16. Just before this, and what we looked at last week, we saw Peter’s confession about Jesus being the Messiah. But Peter didn’t fully grasp that concept. Peter was focusing on his perception of what the Messiah was, rather than the reality of Jesus being the Messiah. This fact that Peter could confess such a monumental truth, yet still not fully grasp it, should give us comfort that we can accept a godly truth, and then over time have God reveal the scope of that truth. We don’t have to understand all concepts of God at the infancy of our faith.
Yet Peter’s desire for a Messiah to overthrow kingdoms, would have changed Jesus’ purpose of salvation through the spiritual need of defeating sin’s control and paying its price. Therefore Jesus’ rebuke of Peter is connected to Satan, who also wanted to change Jesus’ Messiahship to one that would fall under his dominion, we saw this back in Matthew chapter 4. This shows us that, like we talked about last week, we must take Jesus on his terms and not our own. Because we might be playing into the enemy’s mindset, rather than God’s. This mindset of Peter’s needs to be changed and so, we’re given the next mini-section about what the kingdom is.
In verse 16:24-17:1 Jesus turns his disciples’ to what his kingdom is, it’s not what they think. Glamor, earthly glory, riches, no, it’s the barring of a cross, both for Jesus and for those that would follow him. Yet the very idea of the cross seems to undermine Jesus’ Messiahship. The cross was for the criminals, not for the rulers. But this cross doesn’t negate the reality that Jesus is God. The cross doesn’t negate the glory of Jesus. So there will be a time when the world will see Jesus in his full glory, with angels surrounding him, but that’s not this time. This time it’s the broken body of Jesus, this time it’s his spilt blood, this time it’s seemly a defeated Messiah, but it’s necessary for the satisfaction of the justice of God, and it’s the means by which God’s love would be extended to humanity.
But just because the kingdom is a cross that is to be bore, it doesn’t mean that Jesus is defeated. No, the cross is the purpose to which Jesus has come, but it does not take away his glory. And so Jesus gives a promise, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
When Jesus speaks of some standing there will see him in his kingdom, the Greek word basileia (bas-il-i’-ah) carries with it the connotation of royal power, not just a geographical location. And so we need to look at the context to get a better idea on how Matthew uses this moment in the series of moments we’re reading.
And what do we see? The very next sentence is a time stamp. Matthew rarely uses time in his Gospel, in fact we only have one other instance of days being counted up to this point in his Gospel account; this is found in Matthew 4:2, where we get the forty days and nights of Jesus being in the wilderness. It seems more than likely that Matthew is making a connection between Jesus’ statement in verse 28 and the following event. In fact, the other synoptic Gospels, Mark and Luke, make this same connection by dating the time between Jesus’ statement and the transfiguration event (Mark 9:1-2, Luke 9:27-28). This would then mean that Jesus’ statement was meant to be interpreted by Peter, James and John that they would see Jesus in his kingdom glory or his royal splendor, and not at his second coming. In other words, this event on the mountain top, is the fulfillment of Jesus’ words about seeing him in his kingdom.
Here we move fully into the transfiguration event, where we see in verse 2 of chapter 17 the appearance of Moses and Elijah. These two specific people appearing most likely represent the law and the prophets, both of which talk about Jesus’ death and resurrection; the topic that is now in full view. This moment should put an end to thought in the disciples’ minds that the cross somehow diminished Jesus’ divine glory. Because here he stands with those who spoke about him in the Hebrew Scriptures, fully seen by his disciples in his divine glory.
From the appearance of Moses and Elijah were taken swiftly into Peter speaking. In verse 4. Peter speaks out of turn in this moment and is answered, not by Jesus but by God the Father. The Father instructs the disciples to, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” This is the common theme throughout the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus is the one to whom we should listen and build our lives upon.
This response rattles the three disciples and they fall down terrified, yet Jesus calls them back up and speaks comforting words, “Don’t be afraid.” These words of losing fear, is another common theme throughout Matthew, because those who are Jesus’ disciples do not have to fear the wrath of God. In fact, all those who put their trust into Jesus’ work on on the cross and his subsequent resurrection, are ushered into the very throne room and presence of God. It’s by the unwanted cross, that the disciples will have nothing to fear.
Yet this mountain top experience doesn’t last long. Starting in verse 14 of chapter 17, we see that the other disciples were dealing with their own situation.
The father of a boy possessed by a demon who throws him into seizures cannot find healing through Jesus’ disciples, even though these disciples were given authority to cast out demons back in Matthew 10:1. Yet they couldn’t cast out this one.
Jesus’ statement in verse 17 of, “You unbelieving and perverse generation…how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?” is directed at the disciples. We have consistently seen the disciples not put their faith into action and therefore show a lack of it. But he isn’t calling them perverse in the sense of the sexual perversion we think about today. They are unbelieving and have distorted/misinterpreted or have made perverse what Jesus has spoken. In other words they have not really listened to Jesus. And what was the Father’s instructions on the mountain top? “Listen to him?”
When the disciples inquire as to why they couldn’t cast the demonic spirit out, Jesus tells them that this particular demonic spirit could “only be cast out through prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29).” The disciples, though they were given authority, were not following through on Jesus’ teachings. Teachings that came before their call to be his disciples. Teaching that spoke of prayer and fasting. In a sense, the disciples needed to get back to the basics of their faith.
But here Matthew doesn’t focus on that particular teaching that Mark does, rather it’s the lack of faith of the disciples that is front and center. They still do not comprehend the scope of who Jesus is. Three of the disciples got a glimpse, but the others have not. And so Jesus is exposing how little faith they have. It should be noted that these same disciples have cast out demons before, but what Jesus is pointing out is that the disciples’ faith is stagnant. They think they have everything they need. But because it has not grown as it should, they are revealing that their faith is really lacking.
Since God is an infinite God, our faith in him should have no boundaries. Our faith is never at and ending point. We have never known all of the things of God.
We had a girl in the church about a decade ago that I ask ed why should wasn’t coming to Sunday school any more. She told me that she had learned all that were was about God, and that she didn’t need anymore. I told her that she was farther along then me, because God was always teaching me new things. That girl lost her way very quickly and I don’t believe she has come back to God yet.
We are to ever be applying God’s word to our lives. Reading and re-reading it; always seeking God’s transformational work in us. Until I see a mountain move, my faith still has room to grow and God still has a work in me to complete. But it’s the ever growing faith that will experience mountains moving.
This section ends as it began, Jesus’s prophetic word about his death and resurrection. To which the events prior to this have silenced his disciples’ in their opposition to him, but they still are grieved at the idea. The disciples still were against the idea of Jesus death and resurrection, but they had been silenced through his reveled glory, his rebuke, and his word.
And here’s the take away, Jesus is calling us to an ever expanding faith. A faith that is never satisfied in thinking it’s come to the end, but desires to know the infinite God. A faith that realizes that as long as God is far beyond our understanding, there’s always more to understand. Yet at the same time, a faith that seeks to constantly and consistently reapply the most basic of Jesus’ teaching. Case in point, I should always be revisiting Jesus words of Mark 12:29-31 of loving God, and loving my neighbor as myself.
God will always have more for us to learn, and always give us opportunities to apply what we have been taught.
My challenge for you this week is to seek God to grow your faith. That means that you have to leave behind the idea that you’re fine where you are. An ever growing faith, is not content in being stagnant, but seeks the constant work of the Holy Spirit. In adding to this I want to challenge you to re-read Matthew 5-7, asking God to transform you in places that you are lacking so that you may better follow him.
Let us be a people who are satisfied in God’s infiniteness and who seek to know him in it. Even if it takes eternity to do so, which will have, what heaven truly is. Amen.
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