Sermon(Mk 9:2-8): The kingdom of God comes

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025287052

 

>> 2 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, 3 and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. 5 And Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." 6 For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid. 7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." 8 And suddenly looking around they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. (Mk 9:2-8) <<

 

In the past God appeared to Moses when Moses went up Mount Horeb as the shepherd of the sheep of his father-in-law, Jethro. God told Moses to deliver the Israelites who were slaves in Egypt. Moses answered, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt? (Ex 3:11)" God said to him, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you; when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. (Ex 3:12" Moses exerted leadership by God's help and succeeded in bringing out God's people from Egypt. And he finally reached Mt. Sinai (Ex 19:1). Horeb and Sinai are presumed to be the same mountain.

 

While Israelites were at the bottom of the Sinai, Moses went up the Sinai where God was. God said to Moses then, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. (Ex 19:3-6)" Moses called the representatives of the people, that is, the elders, and told them the words God had spoken to him. The people responded in unison, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do. (Ex 19:8)" Moses told God the answer of the people of Israel, and God said, "Lo, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you for ever. (Ex 19:9)" The word of Jehovah went on, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready by the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. (Ex 9:10-11)"

 

Actually on the morning of the third day, God descended on the mountain in thunders and lightnings and thick cloud (Ex 19:16), and called Moses to the top of the mountain while the people were seeing (Ex 19:20). In other words, God officially recognized Moses as the intermediary between God and the Israelites and as the leader of them in the seeing of them. This is what he said to Moses when he first called him. The Israelites accepted God's proposal and said they would serve God as their God, and that they would become God's people, so God formally made a covenant with the Israelites. God told Moses to come up to the mountain with Aaron (Ex 19:24), and gave him various statutes, including the Ten Commandments (Ex. chap. 20-23). The God and the Israelites entered into a covenant as follows. >And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. (Ex 24:4-8)"< Now they participated in a friendly banquet after the conclusion of the contract with God. "Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. (Ex 24:9-11)"

 

The kingdom of God is a place where God's rule is valid. It was the official covenant of God and Israelites on Mount Sinai that the kingdom of God really started with. But Israelites fell into idolatry when they settled in the land of Canaan. And God sent many prophets including Elijah to warn them. It was Elijah who strived hard to keep the kingdom of God, that is, the rule of God. The confrontation between him and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel shows well his zeal to protect the kingdom of God. He rebuilt the collapsed altar of Israel to restore the kingdom of God. >Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me: and all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down; Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, "Israel shall be your name." (1 Kings 18:30-31)<

 

However, the covenant between God and Israel made on Mount Sinai ended in a tragic end by Israel's breach of the contract. The Bible comments on the result as follows. "The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place; but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, till the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged; ... (2 Chron 36:15-17)"

 

Humans are unrighteous and tend to be unfaithful to their commitment while God is a sincere One who keeps the promises he gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to the end. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were righteous before the God, so God, for the sake of them, made a new plan to make Israelites his people although they committed sins. But this time, he plans to fulfill also his promise to Abraham, "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Gen 12:3)" ('In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed' is one of the acceptable interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. In The Bible, an English Bible, 'By you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves' is accepted.) God certainly keeps his word.

 

In the past the official beginning of the kingdom of God was made by Moses' mediation, but the kingdom failed by the disloyal attitude of the Israelites. Now a new kingdom of God has to restart. The protagonist, or the keyman, of this time is Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. Moses worked as a servant of God while Jesus as the Son of God. "Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ was faithful over God's house as a son. (Heb 3:5-6)"

 

Now, let's see how Jesus re-establish the kingdom of God. One day, Jesus made an important declaration. Mk 9:1, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power." And 'six days' after this remark, an event of 'the Transfiguration' happened. 'After six days (v. 2)' implies that the verse is closely related to the verse immediately preceding. That is, Jesus' declaration of Mk 9:1 is in direct relationship with the following verses, v. 2 - v. 8.

 

There is so much in common between the beginning of the kingdom of God in the Old Testament, which was caused by the covenant between God and Israel on Mount Sinai in the past, and the beginning of the new kingdom of God on the mountain of the Transfiguration in the New Testament.

 

1. The Old Testament is related to Mt. Sinai, while the New Testament to the mountain of the Transfiguration.

2. As God called Moses alone and told him in the sight of Israelites so that they might know that he appointed Moses as an intermediary, so he said to Peter, John, and James, the apostles in the age of the New Testament, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him (v. 7)," so that they might know that Jesus was the leading actor of the beginning of the new kingdom of God.

3 Just as Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the 70 elders saw God as the representatives of the people on Mount Sinai, so in the New Testament, the three men, Peter, John, and James, as the representatives of many disciples of Jesus went up a mountain and saw God the Father. And Moses and Elijah also were there. The two prominent servants of God in the time of the Old Testament were added to the representatives of the new kingdom of God. In other words, the new kingdom of God is the succession, development, and resuscitation of the ruined kingdom of God of the Old Testament.

4. The covenant between the God of the Old Testament and Israel, which was made through Moses' intermediation, was officially entered into effect by the offering of the beast. Likewise the new kingdom of God of the New Testament was officially launched when Jesus offered up himself as a sacrifice. "And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead. (Mk 9:9)" In this regard, the writer of Hebrews says that the blood of Jesus' death on the cross was the blood of the new covenant. >Hence even the first covenant was not ratified without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you." (Heb 9:18-20)< >Then he added, "Lo, I have come to do thy will." He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ... But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. (Heb 10:9-12)< Jesus himself said that the blood that he would shed on the cross was the blood of the new covenant. >And likewise the cup after supper, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." (Lk 22:20)<

5. All Israelites washed their clothes and took part in the covenant of the Old Testament while only the clothes of Jesus were changed to the whitest in the world on the holy mountain of the New Testament. This means that the covenant of the Old Testament is based on the righteous life of each of the people while the kingdom of God of the New Testament is established only on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus said that there would be some people who would see that the kingdom of God had come 'with power'. (Mk 9:1). This is in line with Mk 9:6, "... for they were 'exceedingly afraid'." Therefore Peter, John, and James are those who have witnessed the coming of the kingdom of God with power.

 

Some are trying to relate the verse Mk 9:1, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power," to the Second Coming of Jesus, which has not yet been fulfilled. (They think the Second Coming has already been achieved.) Then, is the phrase 'some standing here' wrong (for they died without seeing the real second coming of Jesus and the Last Judgement of Jesus)? And does the kingdom of God exist only after the Second Coming of Jesus? No! The kingdom of God has the members of Israel in the age of the Old Testament and the members of church in the age of the New Testament. Of course saints of the Old Testament and of the New Testament went to heaven after this life, and the heaven also is the kingdom of God.

 

The kingdom of God is based on God's faithfulness. God never forgets the promise he gave to Abraham. The first kingdom of God that was Israel failed, but God rebuilt the perfect kingdom of God through his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. This kingdom is an eternal kingdom that will never perish again. Of course, one day we will die, so the life of the kingdom of God on earth is short. But it does not matter at all for the saints living in God. It's not a big problem if a man living in Pusan moves to Seoul. There are two rooms in a house, and you can enter the other room through a door. Likewise in the kingdom of God, there are two rooms, one that is this world and the other eternal one that is the heaven. If you pass through the door of death, you come into the kingdom of God that is truly eternal. The life of the saints on earth is the beginning of the life of the eternal kingdom of God.

 

I pray that Jesus Christ, the King of the eternal kingdom of God, may protect you and show you grace.

 

Chong Tack Kim

                                             - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -