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Matthew 17 is a bit of a challenge in chapter 2, a lot of readers, but so let's look at verse number 2 very quickly. Matthew chapter 17 verse 2. The Bible says, "...and was transfigured before them." This chapter contains the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the title for the sermon tonight is the Transfiguration of Jesus. Let's keep it simple, okay? Let's pick it up there in verse number 1. What's going on? Verse number 1, "...and after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother." So Jesus Christ takes three of his key apostles or disciples here, Peter, James, and John, and bringeth them, it says there, up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. What does it mean for Christ to be transfigured? Obviously when Jesus Christ was here on the earth, born in a manger, born of the Virgin Mary, he came in the likeness of a human body. He looked just like any man. Remember, on Sunday there was no calmness about him. He looked just like anybody else. There was nothing special about his appearance. But you see, Jesus Christ does an amazing miracle here. He takes up these three apostles and he's transfigured. He's changed. Well, you see here, he's glorified. You see him as it were, the glorified God, full of brightness. You know, he's changed so much that the apostles freak out. You know, they've never seen Christ like this before. It's a significant change in his body. Not so much veiled in the flesh they was born in, but seeing him in the glory, the fullness of the glory of who Jesus Christ is. Let's keep reading verse number two. It says, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. This is why many times when you see cartoons depict Jesus Christ, quite often they'll show Jesus with a bright face, you know, shining like the sun. They get this idea from the transfiguration of Christ. Verse number three, and behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, that's Elijah, talking with him. So where are these guys? I mean Moses, Elijah, they've passed away. Okay, they're not contemporaries of this day and age. They passed away thousands of years ago, hundreds of years ago, these guys. So where do you think they are if they're seeing this transfiguration of Christ and Moses and Elijah right there? Somehow, you know, the Lord's opened up just this physical world, and they're able to see the spiritual. They're able to see heaven as it were, and see these Old Testament scenes, just talking with Christ. You know, how I wish I knew what they're talking about. We don't know, the Bible doesn't tell us, but surely it's really interesting there. But verse number four, then answered Peter. Look how freaked out these guys are. Okay, then answered Peter, and if you know Peter, he talks many times before he thinks. What does he say? Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. So yeah, this is great, but then he says, if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. Now what's the problem there? It seems like he just wants to honor Jesus Christ, seems like he just wants to honor these men that he's seen before him, but what was the purpose of the tabernacle? You know what the purpose was? That's where the Ark of the Covenant was. That's where, you know, where they would bring the animals to be sacrificed. Okay, that's where they would come and worship the Lord and sacrifice through that blood offering as a picture of Christ. Okay, that's fine to have the tabernacle of this day because you're sacrificing unto the Lord, but don't you see a huge problem if they're going to be three tabernacles? I mean, who are they sacrificing to? It should be only to the Lord, right? Prior to the death of Jesus Christ, but here they're asking for three tabernacles, meaning that it's almost like he's thinking we need to sacrifice to Moses and Elias as well. Okay, and of course that would be wrong. Okay, this is a problem here. Peter's just overwhelmed. You know, he thinks, man, he starts to think about these great men of God, Elias and Moses, and that should really wake us up a little bit. Sometimes we can have men of God and we elevate them far above what we should. We might even elevate them to the level of Jesus Christ. This is what Peter has done wrong here. He elevates them to Jesus Christ, Moses and Elijah. Yes, they were great men of God, but they're still a human being. They still have problems. They still have weaknesses. They shouldn't build tabernacles to these people, all right? Now, if you're not sure what I'm saying is true, just keep your finger there and turn to Luke chapter 9 verse 33. Luke chapter 9 verse 33, all right? Luke chapter 9 verse 33, because this just tells us a little bit more about Peter here in Luke chapter 9 verse 33. It says And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here, and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias. So we saw those same, that same thing there in the book of Matthew, but notice what Luke says here. Not knowing what he said. He says, look, Peter says this. He doesn't even know what he's saying. Like he's so overwhelmed by Jesus. Even the Holy Spirit tells us he doesn't know what he's talking about. You know, he said these things and he's not even, you know, just just aware, you know, he's not in his right mind. He's just overwhelmed by the power of Jesus Christ, the glory that he's seeing there. So I just wanted to show you, this wasn't a good thing that Peter was saying. He didn't know what he was saying, says the Holy Spirit, okay? Back to Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17 verse 5. Matthew chapter 17 verse 5. And, you know, I shouldn't have to mention this, but obviously we believe in the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, okay? And what we'll see here, we'll soon see the Father come into view. And there's a false teaching about, you know, it's called oneness theology that basically says Jesus is God the Father, Jesus is the Son, and Jesus is the Holy Spirit, okay? And they remove the three persons and talk about Jesus Christ as one, one person. He's the Father, he's the Son, he's the Holy Spirit. But what we see here is a clear distinction between the Father and the Son. Now oneness theology teaches that there is a difference when Jesus was walking on the earth. They'll say the man Christ Jesus was the flesh, but Jesus as his deity is God the Father. That's what they'll say. That's how they'll get around the difference between Jesus walking on the earth and God the Father in heaven. But what you see here, who was transfigured here? It was the Son, right? It was Jesus Christ the Son. And the apostles, they're able to look on the Son, and they're able to look on Elias and Moses, speak to Jesus Christ the Son, okay? Notice what happens here in verse number five. It says, While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. So now there's a cloud that obscures things as it were. It overshadows them. It hides things as it were. And look at this. And behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. Hey, who do you think is speaking here? If it says, This is my beloved Son, that's God the Father. And notice before they can even see God the Father, He protects them and hides them in a cloud, okay? And all they can hear be in that cloud is the voice of God the Father. Now look, this is the transfigurated Christ. This is Christ in his glory. So hold on, if Christ in his glory and his deity is the Father, so is the Father saying to the Father, This is my beloved Son? That's ridiculous. Obviously the correct teaching on the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit is the Trinity. Trinity, three distinct persons, yet the Bible teaches all the same one God, okay? We don't believe in three gods. We don't believe in polytheism. We believe in one God, yet three persons. And we see God the Father speaking of His Son, He says, I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Listen to Him, okay? Excellent reference there of God the Father to the Son. Now keep your finger there. I just want to show you this. Turn to John chapter 1 please. John chapter 1 verse 18. John chapter 1 verse 18. You see, right now in our bodies we could not see God the Father. If we looked upon God the Father in His bodies, we'd be destroyed, okay? We would not be able to take Him in in His fullness of His glory. But it says here in John 1 18, Jesus says, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. So Jesus says, look, no one, no one has ever seen God the Father except the Son, okay? The Son knows who the Father is, but there's no man on the earth who has seen God the Father. Now the first thought that might go through your heads, but surely in the Old Testament, didn't certain saints see God? Well what does that tell you? If they did not see God the Father, and we believe Jesus Christ is God, and in the Old Testament they saw God, who were they seeing? Seeing Jesus Christ, okay? Because no man hath seen the Father, all right? Let's keep reading. Verse number six. Verse number six. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. Afraid what? The voice. The voice of God. Look, they're afraid of the voice of God the Father. Could you imagine if they just saw a little bit of Him? I mean, how overwhelmed would they be? Verse number seven. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. But when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. So things go back to normal at this point now. Verse number nine. And they came down from the mountain, sorry, and as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. So obviously we have this account, and these accounts of this story was written after the resurrection of Christ. So they did obey Christ, okay? And we're gonna look at this a little bit further now, because what exactly did Peter, James and John see, okay? What I want you to do is go back to Matthew chapter 16. So just go one chapter back. And I didn't really preach on verse 27 last week, or verse 28, because it ties into what we're seeing here in chapter 17. So Matthew 16 verse 27. Let's look at this, because this is where people get confused. Verse 27 says, For the Son of Man, that's Jesus Christ obviously, shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Let's stop there for a moment. What's that about? That's about the resurrection, right? Or we should say when Christ, the second coming of Christ, when the rapture takes place, he says he comes to the glory of the Father with his angels, and he's going to reward every man for our works, okay? Our works aren't for salvation. We know that it's by faith alone, but the works that we do, Christ wants to reward us for the works that we do serving him. We know that. But look at verse number 28. This is where people get confused. It says, Verily I say to you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Say, what do you mean? So, Jesus is saying there are some here that he's preaching to that will not die till they see the coming of Christ in his kingdom. So, hold on. That hasn't happened yet. Surely these people have died. Is it a contradiction in the Bible? No, it's not, okay? So, what I want to explain to you, and I'll show you where people get really misled on this, is that when Jesus Christ is speaking in verse 28 about some seeing Christ in his kingdom, coming in his kingdom, that's actually the transfiguration that we just read about. You know, that being Peter, James and John, okay? That being that. Now, I don't want to just say that and go, okay, yeah, I believe what Kevin says. No, I want to try to prove that to you from the Bible, okay? Because this event takes place, is recorded in three Gospels, okay? Now, you guys know the Gospels. If you read it, many of the stories are alike, but many times some stories are found in one or found in the other. Maybe it's a little bit different in different Gospels. But one thing that is consistent is that every time Jesus says something along the lines that there are some here that would not see death till the coming of Christ, or seeing him coming in his glory, the story that takes place immediately after is a transfiguration of Christ. Immediately after, okay? It's recorded every single time like this. Go to Mark chapter 9, please. Mark chapter 9, verse 1. Mark chapter 9, verse 1. Say, why is this important? The reason this is important is because there are some churches that teach that the second coming of Christ already took place, as it were, okay? And these people are known as post-millennial, okay, or preterists. And what they'll say is, Jesus Christ already came at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. There was some type of spiritual saying coming of Christ, and the Book of Revelation is not a future event, but it's all about stuff that already happened in the past around 70 AD, okay? Now, we're not post-millennial. We're not preterists. What we are are pre-millennial, okay, meaning that we believe the second coming of Christ will come first before the millennium, before the thousand year reign of Christ. So it's important to be able to give an answer if you ever come across people that believe like that. Look at Mark chapter 9, verse 1. Mark chapter 9, verse 1. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you that there be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. Same teaching. Look at verse number 2. And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter and James and John, and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. You see the consistency of the Bible, okay? Straight after he says that, you know, six days later, it's not like this immediate thing, you know, almost a week later he goes up into the mountain, but it's always recorded for us in the Bible so we can keep these two things together. Go to Luke chapter 9 now. Luke chapter 9, verse 27. Luke chapter 9, verse 27. Luke chapter 9, verse 27. The Bible says, But I tell you a truth, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God. And it came to pass about in eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray. If you read on, then the transfiguration of Christ occurs, okay? So I just want to show you the consistency that we have in the Bible. Now you might say, but hold on, how is this the coming of Christ? In what sense is this, all right? I mean, are you, you know, are you just trying to give a simple answer to a difficult question? Well, no. Now this is the most important part to go. Go to 2 Peter, please. 2 Peter chapter 1. Because who went up with Jesus Christ into the mount? Peter, right? Peter was one of them. And so let's read what Peter says. Makes sense. Let's see what Peter writes about it. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 16. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 16. What does Peter say about this? He says, For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power, look at this, made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. So he says, look, I'm not telling you fables about the power and the coming of Christ. Notice that he puts these two things together. Notice that Jesus Christ, before his transfiguration, spoke of these two things together as well, okay? What is he talking about? Surely he's talking about the future coming of Christ, right? Well, let's have a look at this. Verse number 17. It says, For he received from God the Father honor and glory. I wonder when he received this honor and glory from the Father. When there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Say, when did that take place? It didn't take place at his baptism. Well, yeah, that took place at baptism as well, but look, it's about the time it was transfigured in the mountain. Verse 18. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. Okay, when did that take place? The transfiguration of Christ. So I just want to show you, the Bible's consistent, okay? This power, this coming, you know, it's like they've got a preview, John, Peter, James and John of Christ. They got this preview about his power and his glory and his coming and, you know, the Bible confirms all this so we don't have to, you know, panic when we see verses like this and become predatorists or post-millennial. No, the Bible's consistent. We still have the future coming of Christ to come. Now you might say to yourself, don't turn away yet. Say in second Peter. You might say, it would have been so great to see this. You know, there's the glory of Jesus Christ and hearing God the Father speak behind that cloud and it would have been awesome. I'm sure we all would have loved to see something like that. I mean we probably all would have freaked out and said stupid things as well but this is what Peter says to us in verse 19. Look at verse 19. He says, so he's talking about what he's experienced but then in verse 19 he says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. He goes, look, yes, I've seen these wonderful things but we, all of us, we have something more sure. We have something even better he says. He says what? Where unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. You know what Peter says here? That hey, we've got the sure word of prophecy. We've got the scriptures. This is more sure than seeing these miracles. This is better than seeing all these miracles of Christ, okay? So look, rejoice because you've got better than what Peter, you know, had. You've got the whole Bible. You've got it in the King James Bible. You've got it pure, preserved, perfect, all 66 books of the Bible to know more about God than just seeing that transfiguration of Christ, okay? So it's a great honor that we get to have the whole Bible, you know, Peter didn't have that in his day. We've got the whole thing available in our hands. So go back to Matthew chapter 17 please. Matthew chapter 17 verse 10. Matthew 17 verse 10. It says, and his disciples asked him saying, when then say the scribes that Elias must come first. Sorry, have I missed something? Yeah, sorry, I'm right, okay. That Elias must come first. So Elijah, remember, Elias is Elijah. Say, look, didn't the Bible say, didn't the scripture say that Elijah has to come before Christ? Verse number 11. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come and restore all things, but I say unto you that Elias is come already. So Elias, Elijah, has already come before Christ. What's this about? And they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed, likewise also shall also the Son of Man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. Now let's understand what's going on. Go to the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament please. The book of Malachi. Book of Malachi chapter 4. Malachi chapter 4 verse 5. Malachi chapter 4 verse 5. All right, so we know about Elijah. He's a great Old Testament prophet. You know, he was taken up in a whirlwind. Actually, I said he died hundreds of years ago. Well, he didn't really die. He was taken up in a whirlwind. Okay, Elijah. Anyway, Malachi chapter 4 verse 5. It says here, behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. See, it was so important that this Elijah would come before Christ because if he didn't come before Christ, he says when he would come, he would smite the earth with a curse. Okay, because Jesus Christ would be so angered at the spiritual state of Israel, you know, and he would just come and just curse the place. Instead of just coming and doing his mission of dying on the cross, Christ would come and curse the place. That's why Elijah had to be sent first to prepare the hearts of the people, to create a new generation seeking after Christ. Now that was prophesied. Now we saw in book of Matthew chapter 17 that Jesus Christ was speaking of who? John the Baptist. Okay, so we have confirmation that Jesus says John the Baptist was Elijah or at least the one that was prophesied here in the book of Malachi. Now the question comes up is, well, does that mean Elijah was, did God send him back? Was he reincarnated? You know, did he come back as John the Baptist? Well, let me give you one quick reason why that's not the case, why they're not exactly the same person, because we just saw Elijah at the transfiguration of Christ. If he had been changed into John the Baptist, then they would have seen John the Baptist talking to Jesus Christ because he was ready to be headed at this point in time. Okay, they still saw the Old Testament prophet Elijah not long ago at the transfiguration of Christ. That's point number one. Point number two, go to go to John chapter 1 verse 19. John chapter 1 verse 19. So I just want to get your your brains ticking here. Elijah was prophesied to come. Jesus confirms that was John the Baptist. Alright, go to John chapter 1 verse 19. John chapter 1 verse 19. The Bible says, and this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou? So they're asking, who are you John the Baptist? Verse 20, and he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. So John the Baptist says, look, I'm not, I'm not the Christ. I'm not, I'm not the Christ to come. I'm not the Messiah. But verse 21, and they asked him, what then? Art thou Elias? So they knew of the prophecy in Malachi. Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, no. So is there a contradiction in the Bible? John the Baptist says, I'm not Elijah. Jesus said, he was Elijah. And the Bible did prophesy that Elijah would come before Christ. Is there a contradiction? Of course not. Okay, when you come across something like this, it's, the Bible usually has the answer somewhere, okay? So you never have to panic. These are the difficult passages, and people argue about this all the time, okay? But let me just tell you this. Jesus was correct. John the Baptist was Elijah. But John the Baptist was also correct that he was not Elijah. They're both correct, okay? How do we understand this? Go to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 verse 17. Luke chapter 1 verse 17. I like the Bible because it's like a puzzle sometimes, you know. You've got to look at all these passages and then come to understand what he's talking about here. But Luke chapter 1 verse 17. Now the reason this is important is because it's repeating the prophecy in Malachi, speaking that Elijah would come. But now in the New Testament, we get more light as to what that means. In Luke chapter 1 verse 17, we have the birth of John the Baptist. It says here, speaking of John the Baptist, and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias. So is he Elias? Is he Elijah? Well, no. He's coming in the spirit and the power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. So we see there exactly what's going on. When the Bible is speaking in the Old Testament that Elijah would come, he did come, but he didn't, he wasn't the same person. John the Baptist was a totally different person, but he came in the same power and the same spirit. The same power and spirit that God gave Elijah, he had given to John the Baptist. So it was very, he was a very similar prophet, okay. So Jesus is confirming Malachi, yeah Elijah came. But John the Baptist was correct as well. I'm not Elijah, okay. He was a totally different person, but he did have the power and the spirit of Elijah that God had given him, okay. So I hope that answers that question. If you guys had any questions about that, it's not a contradiction. The Bible is just, the Bible has the answers, you know. If you just, if you just look hard enough, the Bible always gives us those answers. Now there is just one other little point that I do want to mention. Some people believe that in the book of Revelation, if you guys know your end times, Revelation chapter 11, there are two witnesses, okay, and they perform amazing miracles. They call down fire from heaven. They, they do miracles kind of like what Elijah did and what Moses did. And a lot of people believe in Revelation chapter 11 that those two witnesses are Elijah and Moses. Now I'm not going to say that for sure because the Bible doesn't really tell us, okay. It could be. It could be. And so there could be a double prophecy here. It could be that John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah, but there's a double prophecy of the second coming of Christ that Elijah might come before, you know, come before Christ doing these miracles with Moses. It's quite interesting that these, these are the two men that were here in the Transfiguration of Christ. It's possible. I wouldn't be dogmatic about it, but that's just another thought that a lot of people have, okay. Could be right, okay, but I'm not going to confirm it as true unless the Bible tells me that. Back to Matthew chapter 17, please. Matthew chapter 17 verse 14. A bit of a Bible study today. Verse 14. Matthew 17 verse 14. And when they were come to the multitude, they came to him a certain man kneeling down to him and saying, Lord have mercy on my son for he is lunatic and sore vexed and oft times he fall off into the fire and oft into the water. One thing about this individual here that's not said right now here is that he was actually possessed by a devil, okay. This is why he's, he's causing, he's trying to harm himself. The devil's trying to throw himself into the fire. Verse 16. And I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him. Now remember Jesus Christ did give his apostles the power to cast out devils, to heal sick, the sick, okay. So Jesus Christ gave his apostles that power and they could not cast out this devil out of this child. And then verse number 17. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation. Now let me just stop there for a moment. When I used to, when, you know, in my younger years I thought, and maybe you thought this, I thought Jesus was calling his disciples faithless and perverse, okay. But that's not the case. And we'll see in this chapter why that is. He says, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour. Now just one thing I want to show you just very quickly, explain to you. Whenever the Bible teaches about casting out devils, it's an immediate thing, okay. We see here Jesus cast out the devil. It came out that very hour, okay. Meaning basically right away, okay. And quite often when you see Jesus Christ doing other miracles, casting out devils, it's immediate. It just happens straight away, okay. Because the power of God is greater than any devil. Of course he's gonna cast out the devil straight away, okay. There's a lot of, there's a lot of make-believe stuff that goes on, okay. Like the Catholic priests and, you know, these Pentecostal, you know, faith healers casting out devils. I mean these things go on and on and on. It's like, what in the world? You know, if God wants this person healed, he will do it immediately, okay. But one thing you notice here is his disciples were unable to cast out the devil. And let me say to you, who is he calling faithless and perverse? I'll tell you who he's calling faithless and perverse. It's the father of the child. I'll show you soon. And maybe just others. Why? Because they're criticizing his disciples. He says, look, I've come to your disciples for help and they couldn't help me. Jesus calls him perverse and faithless. You see, even the father was lacking faith. Even the father found it difficult to believe that, you know, through the power of Christ they could cast out this devil, alright. Now let me prove this to you in a moment because this is a great lesson to any pastor. If you have a desire one day to be a pastor, learn from Jesus, okay. You've had the public come and criticize your church members as it were, or your workers if you want to consider it that way. They came to criticize him. Jesus Christ does not criticize his church members or his workers publicly in front of everybody else, okay. He calls them a perverse generation, okay. He doesn't criticize his own people in the public. Now will he criticize his disciples? Yes he will. But you'll notice here he doesn't do it in public, alright. Verse number 19. Verse number 19. Look at this. Then came Jesus, then came the disciples to Jesus apart. What's that? So not in front of everybody, right. The disciples came to Jesus apart somewhere else. They were somewhere private, alright, and said, why could not we cast him out? So you see how Jesus deals with his disciples privately, okay. And then he says verse number 20. Now Jesus does rebuke them. He says in verse 20. And Jesus said unto them, because of your unbelief. So were the disciples lacking faith as well? They were as well. That was one of the issues why they could not cast out this devil. But I want you to see that Jesus tells them privately because of their unbelief. He doesn't embarrass them in front of the public, okay. And the good lesson that I can see here as a pastor if I see problems in this church with you as an individual, I'm not going to just criticize you, accuse you, embarrass you in front of everybody else, okay. I'll take you apart and speak to you lovingly, okay. Maybe I have to rebuke you, okay. But I'll do it privately. If I ever have to do that to you, I want you to remember this chapter. Matthew 17. That's why Kevin did it, okay. Because he read what Jesus did and he wants to follow like Jesus Christ, okay. So if you get offended at that, well you would have been offended by Jesus if you're with him at that time, okay. Now let's keep reading. Let's keep reading. Verse number 20. And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Now I've always found this interesting, okay. Because he's saying, look, if you had enough faith you could move this mountain, all right. Now I've never seen anybody move a mountain. I mean, has anyone seen someone move a mountain? No. I mean, I'm not saying we've like, we've got equipment, yes. No, no. I'm just like, just with your faith. No, have you ever read anyone in the Bible move a mountain? It never happens, right? So you're sort of wondering, why would Jesus say these things? Now finally realize, it's not that Jesus is expecting anyone to move mountains, okay. He's using this as an illustration, okay. That really, if you did literally have enough faith, you could literally move mountains, okay, through the work of God. But what he's trying to say here is, that this casting out of this devil, you needed, you know, needed supernatural help, okay. It would have taken a miracle to cast out this devil. This wasn't something that you would normally see, okay. Like, you wouldn't normally see someone move a mountain, okay. So you need the supernatural work of God to do an amazing miracle, because then it says this, verse number 21, Howbeit this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting. So it says, look, even if you did have the faith, first of all you didn't have faith, that was your problem, but even if you did have the faith, this kind, this devil, would not have come out except by prayer and fasting, okay. So they needed the faith, they needed the prayer and the fasting in order to have done this supernatural work of casting out this devil, all right. So, I mean, that just tells us a little bit about Satan's, you know, kingdom, but there are some devils that are extremely powerful, you know, some devils that are so powerful that really if you're gonna cast them out, you need to have great faith and pray and fast, okay. And this is, look, I've never, I don't think we ever spent time in prayer and fasting as a church, but I have up there in Queensland, because obviously I have more time with them, but there are some times where, you know, you may feel there is spiritual darkness, you know, fighting against the work of the church, or you just need some great miracle to happen, you know, it's something that you know that is very difficult, as difficult as moving a mountain. Well that's a great time for you to just pray and fast, you know, set aside a day, maybe set aside a couple of days if you need to, and just go to the Lord in prayer and fast, you know, ask the Lord to increase your faith, bring your requests before Him. This is a biblical thing, to pray and fast and ask the Lord to do the supernatural, ask the Lord to do a miracle. A lot of people, when they're going through difficulties and just they don't know how to overcome those difficulties, they do pray and fast, and I've seen great success with those efforts, okay. Praying and fasting does an amazing work in the supernatural realm, which is beyond our understanding. Let's keep reading, verse number 22. So I don't have a lot to say here. They've gone back into Galilee, okay, they've been away from there, and Jesus Christ just basically tells them once again, hey, I'm going to be betrayed, I'm going to be killed, I'm going to rise again from the dead, alright, and they're very sorry about this. It's an interesting thing because Jesus Christ tells them plainly what's going to happen, but when He is arrested, when He is killed, they forget. They forget the promise of Christ being resurrected from the dead, alright. Verse 24. So here, they're being asked, the disciples are being asked, doesn't Jesus, doesn't He pay His taxes, okay. Now this is not a Roman tax, okay. This is what is known as a temple tax at this point in time. Now you don't need to turn, I'm just going to quickly read to you from the Nehemiah. If you know the story of Nehemiah, he was involved with the the building of the second temple in Jerusalem. So when Jesus Christ was walking in Judea at this point in time, it wasn't the first temple that was built by Solomon. That temple got destroyed and then in the book of Nehemiah and Ezra, you read the stories about how they built the second temple, okay. Now I'll just read a portion of scripture to you. Nehemiah chapter 10 verse 32, it says, So this is an annual tax, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God, for the showbread and for the continual meat offering and for the continual burnt offering of the Sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feast and for the holy things and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel and for all of the work of the house of God, okay. So what we see here, the construction of the second temple, they put this annual tax that everyone had to pay just to keep the maintenance of the building, just to pay for things that needed to be done during that time. And so Jesus Christ comes back to where they were from and and I guess they've fallen behind on this tax, okay. And they're asked the question, aren't you going to pay tribute? What's going on? Doesn't your master pay tribute? Let's keep reading, verse number 25. Now what that means is, so Jesus says yes, sorry, Peter says yes, Jesus will pay the tax. He'll pay the tribute. So then he goes to the house where Jesus is to tell them about it, but when it says Jesus prevented him, that means basically Jesus already knew about it. In his, you know, omniscience as the Holy God, he already knew about this discussion that Peter had with these tax collectors, all right. That's what it means, he prevented him. Jesus started speaking first before Peter got to explain what's going on, all right. So it says here, Jesus prevents him saying, what thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children or of strangers? So we ask him a very simple question, like let's say you were the Prime Minister of Australia, you know, or you had the power to create some tax, to pass on some tax. Are you going to tax your own children? You know, you're going to tax your, you know, the people that, you know, the ones that you love, that you raised. No, you're going to tax everyone else, basically, the strangers. That's kind of the idea, right. So Jesus asks him that question. And then verse number 26, Peter saith unto him, Of strangers, of course you wouldn't tax your own kids, Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Okay, now what I believe Jesus Christ is saying here is that because there was a need to pay this temple tax, to whom did the temple belong to? God the Father, right. It's God's temple, okay. And Jesus says, well then the children are free. What's he saying? I'm God's son. I'm a child of God, you know, you know, God the Father does not require the son to pay tribute, you know, to pay the taxes to this, to this, to the temple tax. So basically what Jesus Christ is affirming here is that he's the Son of God, that his father is the God of the temple, and that, you know, hey, I don't have to pay tax. He's just, you know, basically just correcting Peter gently, all right. You told him that we'll pay, but I don't have to pay, okay. Verse number 27. Not we stand in, lest we, lest we should offend them, go there to the sea, and cast and hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up, and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money, that take, and give unto them for me and thee. So Jesus says, look, just go fish, the first fish you catch will have a coin, basically, and use that coin to go and pay the tax. And it's just an interesting thing. So you see, you know, Jesus Christ is never against paying taxes, okay. I mean, any time there's a requirement to pay tax, he's just, yeah, just pay it. Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, okay. Even sometimes when it's not really relevant, and of course, you know, our nation taxes us at least 30 percent or something. I mean, much more than what God asked, you know, for the Old Testament Israel to be taxed, you know. But here's the thing. One thing that you notice with Jesus Christ, he never allows the government or paying taxes to get in the way of the ministry. He'd rather just pay them and just go ahead and continue his ministry. And it's also, I also find it quite fascinating that instead of taking money from the offering, because obviously as they went, people, people gave money. In fact, Judas Iscariot, the Bible says, had the bag. And they had, obviously they had money to go and buy food, to pay for clothing, all the things that they would need on their journeys for three years. But instead of taking money from the offering, it sends Peter to go fish and get it out of a fish's mouth somewhere, alright. So that's how much, that's how, that's kind of like how Jesus Christ thinks about paying taxes. Instead of paying it from the church, he goes and gets it from the, from the middle of the sea, alright. So just a thought there. I don't have anything much more to say. But I hope that's given you a good outline of this chapter. You know, understanding the transfiguration of Christ. Understanding, you know, Elias, who was Elijah. These are some difficult concepts for some people to understand. So I hope that's given you some light. Let's pray.