In the sermon 'His Kingdom Coming,' Robert Zeigler explores Matthew 16:21-28, delving into Jesus' foretelling of his death and resurrection and the subsequent confrontation with Peter. Jesus rebukes Peter for prioritizing human concerns over divine plans, illustrating the tension between earthly expectations and spiritual truths. Zeigler emphasizes the importance of denying oneself, taking up one's cross, and following Jesus as essential aspects of discipleship. The sermon outlines how Jesus' plain predictions of his fate serve to strengthen the disciples' faith, despite their initial misunderstanding. Zeigler examines the false expectations of the Messiah prevalent among the religious leaders and highlights the necessity of correctly understanding and believing in the true nature of God's kingdom. The sermon concludes with a reflection on the significance of the phrase 'the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom,' considering various interpretations and underscoring the importance of living with an eternal perspective.

Give ear to the infallible and everlasting word of our Lord. Matthew 16 starting in verse 21. From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen to you. But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan, you are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man will come in the glory of his father with his angels and then he will reward each according to his works.

Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom. Father God, we do praise You for this Your Word. We praise You for Your truth that You have given us. Father, now would Your Holy Spirit descend upon us as Robert comes forth to bring your word, Lord, not his own but yours. Would you speak through him mightily and show us what you have for us to learn from this text today.

In Christ's name, amen. Good morning. I have to make it known before we start today of how pleased I am to be here. I've been actually in Tennessee for the last two weeks and I can testify I've gone to two different churches And it's always, I'll tell you what, it's very sweet to be able to walk into a church, you don't know anybody, but to be able to fellowship with people because we're all united under the name of Jesus Christ. And so just to go for the last two weeks and be able to feel like I'm with brothers and sisters have been sweet.

But I tell you what, it's good to be here with family that I know. Some better than others. I know there's some faces here that I don't recognize, but for the most part, I'm thankful for being here. And I've been praying for you this week. I've been praying for myself especially.

I've been praying for you this week that the Holy Spirit would work and that he would show us what he is teaching us in this Word here. So let's get into the word. Let's get into the word. And I do have to testify too, just of answered prayer. I prayed last night that we would sing the song, Behold Our God.

And Taylor, it's just a testimony of God's Holy Spirit that we would sing this song. But this is what this passage is about. It's about beholding our God. And the title of this message for me is His Kingdom Coming. His Kingdom Coming.

And there are some overarching thoughts that I want to bring up before we get into the specific events of this text that I want you to be able to bring through as we go through here and see a bigger picture in a smaller context. And one of those things is beholding God's majestic kingdom. We're going to be, in this passage, faced with foretellings, with prophecies, which things have been, which had been foretold. We're going to be faced with the central theme of the redemption of mankind. We're going to be looking forward to towards the end and what that looks like.

And so we're going to be seeing the breath of God's sovereign plan and so keep that in mind as as we're going through this okay, and I will be trying to point this out to you in each verse number two the second overarching thought would be that you remember that we're going to learn some things about how Jesus is instructing his disciples. It's so easy to go through here and read the words of Matthew and to be focused on what exactly he's teaching. But there's also great wisdom in taking a look at some of the things and how he does teach the methods. And so some of these things hopefully will be able to be brought out. And then really the central teaching of this text, what does it mean if any man come after me?

What does it mean? And so let's keep that in our minds. As we go through here, the specific events, I see them outlined as this, the specific events. Jesus is going to first speak plainly about his death and resurrection, the near events in the future. So you're going to speak plainly about those.

Number two, there's going to be a confrontation between him and Peter about these words. And then number three, Jesus is going to address his disciples about any man who would come after him. He's going to explain that. He's going to give a couple evidences to weigh in terms of choosing one way or the other. And then finally he's going to reassure them that some of these tough things that they're going to hear that they shouldn't be worried.

And so that's kind of the general outline of what this text is saying. And we'll get into the specifics now. So if you advert your eyes to just the text, and we'll be doing this from time to time as we go through, we're just going to be going through verse by verse, because I think we can do that. We can do that and still get everything we need to get out of it. But if you look at 21 and you see right away from that time forth, from that time forth, And so where are we at at this time?

And so I want to take you back to last week. Even if you weren't here last week, I wasn't at Hope or Sovereign last week. But I go back and I think there are three elements that need to be brought out to understand the significance of this time, from this time forth. And they're this. If you go back, we see that Jesus questions the disciples about who people say he is and who they believe he is.

So who are you? Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus? That's the question. If you remember, Peter says, you're the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

So Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ. And then he charges them that they should tell no man that he was the Christ. So it's out. He's the Christ and there's evidence that the disciples believe this. And so from this time forth, I'm going to read 21, from this time forth Jesus began to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day.

It's important to note here that there's a transition in not what Jesus is saying, but how he is saying it. What you had before is, this is not the first time Jesus has talked about his death and resurrection. But when it's been talked about, it's been talked in figurative terms. If you go back to, you've got to go to the book of John to find this, but this has all taken place before where we're at right now. Jesus talks about destroying the temple and raising it in three days.

He also talks about the Son of Man being lifted up, and that's in terms of on the cross. And then the third thing, eating the flesh and drinking the cup, which is a reference to his death. So three things that, figuratively speaking, speak of his death, but not plainly. Okay, so there could have been some question mark there. Now, though, however, Jesus is clearly, openly telling them that he is going to go to Jerusalem.

That's a specific place. He's going to be delivered up by certain people. He's going to die and he's going to rise in three days. So why is he speaking these things plainly now? That's the question that comes up.

Can we conclude anything? And here's what I would say. I would say that it depends on a readiness that the disciples have shown, a readiness. There's evidence that they believe he was a Christ. Now, I want to add this in here.

I think it's teeny tiny faith. I mean, we're going to see a lack of understanding, definitely, in this passage and continuing. We're going to see them, obviously, scatter away from him when this event does come around. But there is faith and it's growing. And let me tell you something, belief makes a difference.

Belief makes a difference when you're discipling people. I've been in a tiny town called Jellicoe, Tennessee for the last two weeks. Okay, and I have been I went up there Because on March 2nd, there was a pretty significant storm that came through winds hail rain and Basically to some of the damaged damaged about every house in the city So I went up there to work and to find work and to do roofing, to do siding, whatever I could do. And so I've been meeting with a lot of people every day trying to talk to them about the damage that they've had and possibly work that needs to be done. And let me tell you something.

I have no credible witness out there. Nobody knows who I am. And so it's been a struggle. And so when I go to people and I say, hey, I want to tell you about how your roof is damaged. And they don't know who I am.

It's hard to create any belief in what I'm saying. But I have noticed this, is that as I get to know people and people get to know me and as I spend time face to face with them and they begin to build trust or I begin to build trust and they begin to believe in what I say. It's a very much, it's a lot easier to tell them things that they would have a hard time believing about anything. And so take that into thought. This is not a crazy principle that Jesus is applying here.

I go back to the principle of parables too in Matthew 13. Jesus asked the disciples, why do you speak in parables? And his response is, it has been hidden from them because of their unbelief. But for whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away, even that he hath." So we see this evidence of faith and we see him speaking more plainly to them about what's going to happen.

I think there's another reason too, and I think we can support this reason too. The proximity, the proximity of the time in the relation to the events. The time was drawing near for him to go to Jerusalem and all these things to happen. And he is telling them now to strengthen their faith for a future day. Okay, so understand this.

He is telling them these things and you're going to find even from this passage They don't really understand. They don't really understand this. But when all this stuff takes place and all of it comes true, what it's going to do is lend to the credibility of everything else that he said and make their belief and faith more real and stronger. This is documented in John 2 22 after he was talking about destroying the temple. And it says, therefore when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said." And so remember that.

Remember that. Let's try to apply that now to our everyday life. Who do you disciple or who are you being discipled by? That's the question that Mr. Paul Ranford always asked me now.

Who are you discipling and who are you being discipled by? For husbands And for parents, that's easy. That's easy to think about. There is an order and a process to discipling. And I'm a builder now, so I think in terms of building.

But when you think about building a house, you don't begin with a roof, right? You don't begin with sinks or anything like that. You start at a certain place. You start with a foundation. You start with the framing, then you go to electrical, plumbing, Then you can cover your walls, maybe your outsides and your roofs.

Then you can do some finished stuff, all the way until moving into furniture. But when we're discipling our children, understand that there should be things in terms of their age and readiness that we should be trying to teach them, trying to prepare them and train them. And as they get older and as a process, as you begin to build on certain things, you're going to add different things also. And so remember that. And then remember this too.

This is a principle that has just rang in my mind since I've been reading this about my father and how he discipled me is that there were so many things that he would tell me that I just did not understand, you know, and I think he knew that. But as the years have passed and as I've gone through things, it has strengthened, it has strengthened my ability to go through some of those hard things because, boy, he told me that. And now I didn't understand it. Now I'm in it. Now I know, you know, now it's helping me.

So parents, remember that, that even in the things that, That you might feel are out of place or out of order or they might not get it To just keep to keep on it, you know to keep on Let's go back to Let's go back to the Texan and look at looks look let's just take a look at what he's showing them again. I just want to talk about that a little bit. How he must go into Jerusalem, suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again on the third day. And so here he's preparing them. He's preparing for near events and and number one these are not These are not necessarily pleasant words as they should be.

Proverbs 16, 24 says, pleasant words are as a honeycomb sweet to the soul. But that's not how the disciples are taking this. These are tough words. These are tough words. Number one, because in these words, he's eradicating their false expectations of their king.

He's attacking false teaching that has taken root through the religious leaders about the coming promised Messiah. You could even say he's tearing down the eschatology of the day. You could say that. What's going to happen in the future? And it's based on a wrong understanding of scripture.

You have to understand that these were not, in a sense, what we'd call unchurched people or unschooled people. But they had developed their own religion. And We know this. We just talked about the Pharisees washing the outside of the cup. And from that false religion, from really denying the true God, God gave them over to really misunderstanding everything to come.

And so here's what they expected. Here's what they were expecting. The religious leaders of the day, a king to reign, a true king to come, a physical kingdom with lands, a physical throne, an army to overrun their enemies and to take back the physical land of Israel, to establish a rule in a dominant Jewish nation. And so, You know, if I asked somebody today, let's just say maybe somebody not here, but just anybody off the street, how are you going to usher in a kingdom? If you were going to usher in a kingdom, would you bring with you a king crowned, armies, Take a land, come in and overrun the enemies, or would it be ushered in by the death of your prospective king?

Maybe the rising of it, yeah, I don't know if we really believe that, But then also words that say, you must take up your cross also and follow me. So understand how this is possibly a shock to the disciple systems right now. These words. Add that previously to what just took place last week When Jesus said I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it And so I truly believe I truly believe the disciples had this in their mind, this idea of this victorious reigning kingdom of, hey, we're one of the twelve. You know, if Christ is king, that means that we'll be at least some general.

You know what I'm saying? We'll have some power. We'll have some high power. And yet, even though they had a rightly expectation of the kingdom, that's not quite exactly how he was going to bring it in. We take a look at these four things again.

Jerusalem delivered up by the elders, religious leaders, death, and rising on the third day. You have to understand that all these truths are clearly foretold in the scriptures that were available to him that day. All of them were foretold, whether by types, shadows, prophecies. It is the greatest theme. It is the greatest time in the history of the world.

When you think about what mankind needed from falling from sin. This is redemption right here, those four things, going to Jerusalem. All those things right there. You would have thought that when he spoke these things even plainly, that they would have understand. You would have thought, wouldn't you?

And the challenge to us is, let's not think too highly of ourselves. Let's not think too highly of ourselves. We have scripture today. We have scripture today. And oftentimes we are perhaps stubborn in our beliefs about what is, What has been, what is to come.

And yet, my exhortation to that is, yeah, it's fine to be strong in your belief, but let's make sure that we believe rightly. Let's make sure that we believe rightly. We live in an age of church age, and yet in this age, they got it wrong. They were way off. They were way off.

And so let's not be that. Let's seek scripture. Let's seek to understand it. Let's cry out that the Lord would open our eyes to thinking rightly about, in this case, what's to come. Now, All these false expectations are going to come out next in the next couple of verses with the confrontation with Peter.

We read that in verse 22. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get behind thee, Satan, thou art unoffensed unto me, for thou savarest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." I want to talk about what Peter's rebuke was, okay? Let's think about this. Peter's rebuke, I'm not going to say it was love, but I do believe it was some sort of act of endearment.

And you've seen this pay me with your kids before. There's a story where my sister's niece, young, three or four, Her younger sister, they were talking about getting her a haircut and they just kept getting busy and busy and busy. So my little sister gave my two-year-old a haircut at four years old, doing it out of trying to do her best to love her sister. Does that make sense? And yet she kind of missed the mark.

Now this doesn't carry the gravity of what's going on here, but that's an example of what I'm talking about. It was an act of endearment. It was zealous. It was bold for Jesus. But it was without knowledge.

It was without knowledge. This sums up, not just Peter, but all of Israel at this time. Paul writes it in Romans 10. 10.1-3. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and Seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God And So his actions were zealous, but without knowledge And not only his action was without knowledge, but he rebuked the Lord. He rebuked the Lord. When Jason sent me his notes from Monday morning, he had written that, and just next to that, He just wrote, wow. That's all he had written, wow. And that should be our response is, when we think about rebuking the Lord is wow.

The reason I wanted to sing that song today, Behold Our God, is one of the verses in there. Consider the verse, we sang it already. Who has given counsel to the Lord? Who can question any of His words? Who can teach the one who knows all things?

Who can fathom all His wondrous deeds? Job 38 says, who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? To think that we would rebuke the Lord, that we would think that we knew better. Think that we knew better. And so it was an offense.

It was an offense to the Lord. Let's consider how it was an offense, okay? Let's consider this. What's an offense? The fence is a stumbling block.

So if I'm walking towards, just towards the back, down this little way here, this path cleared. And someone would throw something in front of me to trip up my way. To keep me from going the way that I was supposed to go is an offense. And That's the way we need to think about it. That's what this was.

We understand it to be more of an offense when we understand what Jesus was going through. Consider this. Consider the fact that although he was and is God, he was fully man at the time. And fully able to feel the weight of the emotions, The physical suffering that was going to be brought upon him, he had just told him that he was going to go to Jerusalem. And we know the story.

We understand the suffering that he went through. But if you're not that far out, and you put yourself in that situation, you knew you were going to face that undoubtedly and that you had to face it. You had to face it. This was God's will for your life. To have any little distraction would be even tougher to handle.

And the only reason, the only way that I can halfway relate, I mean I just, I don't think I can completely understand, but I know that I'm weaker than Christ, so maybe that in my little situations, I might have felt kind of like him. And I think back six or seven years ago, and I was a teacher at Papillion High School, and I was going to face a trial. And I was two months out and I believed, hey, this is what I need to do. And I'll tell you, for two months, that's all I thought about. And for two months I did everything I could to stay focused on accomplishing that, on doing that, on just doing it.

And I think back to that time and I think If anybody would have come to me and tried to talk me out of it, I would have ran away from him so fast, because I was so fragile. I was so on the edge of just turning my back and going. And so Understand the weight of this and understand why Jesus' response was warranted here in this case. He says, get behind thee Satan, thou are offense to me. For you savor not the things of God, but the things of man.

Remember Christ's rebuke was righteous. Proverbs 24-25 put to them that rebuke the wicked, him shall be a delight, and a good blessing shall come upon them. In my study this week, I don't know if there is any other verses that frightened me more than these two verses. Because I look at this verse, initially reading it, and I think, I initially thought there's no way. There's no way I would have done that.

There's no way. But let's bring it down to a level of really understanding what's going on here. Any time in our life we don't think God knows best. This is no different. Anytime that in our lot in life, if God has directed us down a path And we begin to question why we are here.

And we think, God, if only you just did this. Or only if I could do this. This would be better. It's no different. We become mindful of the things of man and not mindful of the things of God.

And really we need to when we find ourselves in situations like this in the future where this has come to mind that hey we are doing this we need to go back to this verse and just read and understand what it is. Get behind me, Satan. I want to just, I just want to read a few principles here that we can take from this. Number one, zeal and boldness and strength do not indicate righteousness. Allocancy, charisma, charm does not mean that what a man says is righteous.

Good intentions do not make right. When we see people perhaps struggling with the way that God has pointed them to, and we come alongside of them and we say, oh brother, you don't have to go through this. Or sister, why don't you just do this? It's no different. And that's why we just need to be very discerning.

Okay? It's not good to fall off one way, It's not good to fall off one way. It's not good to fall off the other. But let's be very discerning when we question what's going on in our life when we try to help others. I think the deacons, you can correct me if I'm wrong, Jason, but the deacons, did not the deacons read a book when helping others hurt?

Did you guys, some of them have? And so that's, that is a book that talks about the subject a little bit. Let's just be aware. Let's pray that God would protect us. So, Jesus is a great teacher.

Jesus is a great teacher. Just another discipleship moment. I've been in the classroom enough to know that as he's teaching, then he has this confrontation with a kind of a ruffian student. And oftentimes you can, as a teacher, you can, or as a parent or whatever, you can shut down and you can lose your cool say forget this forget and you quit quit disciple it but Jesus didn't do that in his mercy in his understanding that they didn't understand he just continued to teach in verse 24 he says and Jesus said unto his disciples and here we come to a string of five verses here, that when we think back, bigger picture wise, we're thinking the kingdom of God again. Number one, Jesus just talked about, in terms of showing them plainly and talking plainly about their death.

He's talking about how this kingdom is going to be ushered in. And now, he's going to talk about what it's going to be like for life of his subjects in his kingdom. And so he's saying this, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Now, If you remember back previous sermons, this is not new. In fact, this is almost verbatim what you find taught in Matthew 10.

And so you see a principle of discipleship again. You see repetition. You see Christ hitting it over and over and over again. If any man will come after me, if any man will follow me, He must deny himself. In this aspect, this is maybe not so much a surprise.

They're thinking kingdom minding this. They're thinking, okay, there's a king. If we're going to be subject to him, we have to do what he says. We have to deny yourself. And that's a real part of serving in any kingdom.

And the question more that's going to come about is, which kingdom are you serving? But Romans 6, 16 says, don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey them as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey. Whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death or obedience, which leads to righteousness. And so he's saying, if you are going to be a part of my kingdom, you must deny your own. You must deny your own.

OK? OK. Secondly, take up your cross. Follow me. Now, this is a little bit different.

This is where we get back to tough words, tough words again. We know the cross is a symbol of death. We know it's a common Roman practice, and I'm sure common to the knowledge of the disciples about Anybody that would cause a stir in the Roman kingdom could face death on a cross And so what Jesus is saying is if you're gonna come after me if you're gonna be subjects in my kingdom you need to follow me perhaps even unto death. Perhaps even unto death. Where does the prosperity gospel get their theology?

Did they just skip some of these places? They must. Now, here's the thing. You see this though. You see this.

We're going to see this more. As we think Kingdom-mindedness, when we look at Acts the Apostles, we see the Kingdom of God spreading. We see it growing. But we also see parallel with that, we see suffering of its subjects Right along with it. The next verse gives further explanations.

For whoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life, for my sake, shall find it. Again, if you go to parallel passage in Luke 17, it says this, but right before it says this, it says remember Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife. Let's remember her real quick. OK, Let's remember the situation that was going on back in Genesis.

Lot and his wife lived in a wicked city of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham prayed to God that if there would be any righteous that he spare them, that God spare them from the destruction of the city. So two angels go. They talk to Lot and his wife and they say, you need to get out of this city. You need to get out.

And so as they are leaving and the fire and brimstone from heaven is coming down upon this city, Lot's wife looks back. And she turns into a pillar of salt. And we just need to understand the types here and what's going on. Sodom and Gomorrah representing sin and wickedness and a lifestyle of that. And God was merciful enough to bring them out from that.

And yet she looked back to that as a message that she longed for that. That she missed that country. And if we are going to be subjects in this kingdom, We need to have the mindset spoken here by the great men of faith in Hebrews 11th who said, and truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out They might have had an opportunity to return, but now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly. Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared them a city. So here's the deal.

It comes down to this. You're going to deny yourself. You have two choices. You can't serve two masters. You're going to choose the one or choose the other.

So if you choose me, go for it and don't look back. That's the nature of serving in this kingdom. The next two verses help us weigh the consequences of this choice. And so God is merciful. He is bringing it out to his disciples.

He's saying, here's what it's going to look like. You have a choice. Now weigh the consequences. The first verse is a temporal consideration, a consideration about your life that you will spend here on Earth. Not eternity, but just this Earth.

For what man, or for what, is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose a soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" When I like, I mean it's wise. When we consider going away, it's often wise to consider and look at people that have gone down the same way before. When we think about gaining the whole world, we can think of a lot of people today that have a lot of things, but there's one man in history, Solomon, that had it all, and it's documented. He tried his hand at everything.

I mean, you read about the things that he had. He had 700 wives. In proportion to the wives that we have today, he had about the same proportion to everything else that we have. You think about donkeys or whatever, or thousands of donkeys, thousands of everything, did whatever he could do. And he says in Ecclesiastes that it's all vanity.

There's nothing for your soul and all that. There's no joy, there's no righteousness, there's no peace, there's no kingdom of God. His final comment in Ecclesiastes, let us hear the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. So what he's saying is, he's saying you can gain the whole world, But you will, if that be your objective, lose your soul.

You know, oh that it would be our thought in Psalms 84, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. That we would be content with what God has been given us. That we would be content. Now they might have said, look at the wicked, look at how they prosper.

They could have said that. There are wicked men today that are prospering. And it might appear that they have gained the whole world and not lost their soul. And this is where Christ continues to add that we might think rightly. Consider everything.

It caused us to think eternal. Verse 27, for the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works." Now we start getting into meanings and such. We're talking about the coming of the Son of Man. Common interpretation here is the second coming. It's in the future.

It has not come yet. And I think That's a right interpretation. That's right on. We see this coming in conjunction with his angels. We see this coming in conjunction with the rewarding, the immediately rewarding of every man's works.

And from every aspect of scripture, this is pointing to the final judgment. I just want to read about this day. I want to read it from our confession. Our confession sums it up real well, but I just want you to consider this day. God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father, in which day not only the apostate angels shall be judged, but likewise all persons that have lived upon the earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.

The end of God's appointing this day is for the manifestation of the glory of his mercy, in the eternal salvation of the elect, and of his justice in the eternal damnation of the reprobate who are wicked and disobedient. For then shall the righteous go into everlasting life and receive that fullness of joy and glory with everlasting reward in the presence of the Lord. But the wicked who know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be in everlasting torments and punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power." Praise God for his mercy that we would have the knowledge to be able to understand what is to come. If there's anything that would cause you to think whether or not the cost of serving in this kingdom is not worth the eternal glory of being with the Father. We just praise God for this.

Praise God that he was merciful to teach the disciples that we could read this today. And so the question is answered, yes there are men that may prosper in their wickedness on this earth, but who could stand before the Lord? Who could stand before the Lord? So now we come to this final verse. This final verse I believe is a break away from the sequence that we've just been going through.

Christ began with, if you come and follow after me, you must do those three things, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. For whosoever shall lose his life, or save his life, shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life, for my sake shall find it. 4. What is a man profited if he gain his whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

4. The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." I believe this final verse is just to reassure these tough words. These tough words. Let's consider again in light of the kingdom.

Jesus just predicted his death, resurrection, a little bit different than what they thought the kingdom was going to be ushered in like. He just talked about taking up their crosses and falling after them, maybe even until death, a little bit different about maybe what they expected a subject in the kingdom of God ought to be living like. So these are tough words. These are tough words. But he says, listen, listen, some of you are going to see this kingdom.

Some of you are going to see this kingdom come. And so let's talk about this verse and let's talk about what this means. Because there's, to be honest, there are a number of thoughts, there are a number of interpretations about what exactly, the last part in particular, until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom, what that could mean. Okay? I'm going to list off the possible interpretations and some of the common ones.

And there's seven. That's a lot. That's a lot. But they're worth looking at. Number one, the transfiguration.

And that is immediately following this passage that will be preached on next week. The resurrection and the ascension. Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. Spread of the early church. The destruction of the temple and the old system in 70 AD.

The phasing in and out of the kingdom and so what we have here is we have the old system. We have the system of ceremonial laws, we have the types in the shadows, and then we have the new covenant under Christ. And so some would say that a series of events includes this ushering in a phasing in and a phasing out and that's how I'm going to describe it and finally the the second coming some people interpret this as just a jump off of 27 And so I just want to touch what I think it is. And I'm going to touch lightly on this. I'm going to give you my reasons.

Maybe not all of them in the brief time that we have. That's maybe something we can talk about afterwards. But I do want to start eliminating some that I think we can eliminate pretty concretely. And part of it comes from the criteria in the verse. And it says, there be some standing here which shall not taste death.

And so criteria number one is that it must occur in the generation of the disciples before all of them die. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense. And so the best records that we have say that John at least lived to about 99 to 100 AD. So this event, this coming in his kingdom has to take place before that time, I would say, 100 AD.

It must occur at least after one death. It says some of you will not face death, assuming that some are going to die. And this sum, if you take a look in Greek, can be sum, it can even mean one. It can even mean one. We know from the gospel records that Judas died right before the crucifixion, so that's at least one that we know of.

So I would say, I would say that that would eliminate transfiguration, second coming, with pretty much good certainty. That's what I would say. Then I look at the second criteria for myself. What does the son of man coming in his kingdom mean? And there's two possible meanings to that.

There's a commencement of his rule. It means that when he's coming into his kingdom, When does his rule begin? When does it begin? When does it start? That's one way to take a look at it.

Then there's another way to take a look at it, and that is, he's coming, ruling, he's exercising his authority as ruler, as king. And so his kingdom has started, and this is talking about some event that he is coming into his kingdom, ruling and exercising authority on his enemies. And so when you think about it like that, you really have, in my list, you have 2 through 6 being possibilities. Being possibilities. Okay?

Here's where I'm leaning though. And I just, What I'm trying to do, I can think like this, but I'm trying to let scripture interpret scripture here. And when I look at the language of these words, the son of man coming in his kingdom, and I look at all the other possibilities, the ascension, the resurrection, Pentecost, 8070. Okay. I keep going to verses, at least the language that I find most similar is the destruction of the temple in AD 70.

And so I just want to bring out some of those passages and let you see the language and how it compares to what's being said in Matthew, okay? Matthew says again, the son of man coming in his kingdom. In Mark 9, one, the same passage, it's a little bit different. It says, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. So you have the son of man coming in his kingdom and then the kingdom of God coming with power.

Let's take a look at Matthew 24.30. Matthew 24.30 says, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Luke 17 30 parallel passage to this, even thus it shall be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. Luke 21 talking about the same thing and then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. So because of the language is similar, because the language is similar, I'm landing lightly that this is talking about AD 70. Now, with that, let's talk about the significance of this verse again.

Let's talk about the significance of this verse. It's meant to reassure. Verily I say unto you, assuredly I say unto you. Now all these occurrences, whether you're thinking about AD 70 or you're thinking about the Ascension, You're thinking about the resurrection, Pentecost, the spread of the church. They should have been assurances of his kingdom.

They should have been and could have been. But 8072, and I'm not going to speculate on the importance of that until Jason gets there at some point perhaps. But I do want to say a little bit, I mean, it was the final destruction of that old system. Okay, And you can see Jesus just said, well, the chief priests, the religious leaders, the elders, they're going to kill me. Disciples could have been thinking that and then realizing that their time is going to come.

And it does kind of come. Their system is done with, with the destruction of the temple. That could have reassured them. That's one possible way to think about it. In any aspect though, it is reassuring when we think about The kingdom coming, the kingdom coming in all its glory with the ascension, with all those possibilities that it could be.

Just in closing, I want us to think about just a couple questions. Just a couple things. In my study, I praise God this week that He has shown me, he has opened my eyes more to understanding the kingdom of God and it is it is a glorious kingdom it is a majestic kingdom I hope that that you are seeing it more as we go through Matthew, because it is a theme here. I may not be certain about this verse in 28, but I want to read some things off that I'm certain about the kingdom, that are certain, I'm certain that they're taught. I just want you to soak it in and realize how great this kingdom is.

Planned since the foundations of the world. Anticipated by men of faith as God's plan for the redemption of mankind. Pointed to by ceremonial laws, shadows, types, prophets. Proceeded by the forerunner, John the Baptist, preaching its nearness. Ushered in by the work of King Jesus.

Conquered death, being killed, rising on the third day, was given all authority and power by the Father, ascended to heaven where he sits on the throne at the right hand of the Father, has declared the kingdom not of this world, but rules and reigns in the hearts of men, executed his authority by sending the Holy Spirit in his name by the Father, A kingdom in which the gates of hell shall not prevail. A kingdom which was declared shall grow like a mustard seed and spread like leaven and bread. A kingdom that spread mightily through Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth, through the preaching of his word and faithful followers who suffered as he told them. A kingdom reaching Gentiles. A kingdom destroying once and for all the centrality of the old system in its shadows and types.

A kingdom that shall mark his return again with his angels, that he might judge the quick and the dead, and reward each man according to his works. A kingdom in whom Christ will reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. A Kingdom that deserves glory, honor, and praise. To unbelievers this morning, has the kingdom come to your heart? Has this kingdom come to your heart?

That's the question to think about today. Have you allowed Christ's rule in your life? Would you be willing to be a subject? Would you be willing to come after him denying yourself, take up your cross, follow him, Or do you still consider the world more appealing? Maybe to the faint of heart or the weak in faith today, remember Christ is reigning on his throne.

Remember Christ is reigning on his throne. And then perhaps a message to all believers, strong in faith, weak in faith, if you are his, are you living like he is ruling today? Living like he is ruling? Are you besieging cities? You think about the types and shadows, and sometimes it's good to go back and think in terms of that for our understanding, but you think about Joshua and the armies of Israel crossing the Jordan and beginning with Jericho and then going to Gilgal and Ai.

They surrounded cities and took cities. To Christ, as Corinthians says. What type of kingdom are you building today? What type of kingdom are you building today? What type of kingdom are you building?

Is it of this world? Are you concerned with things of this world? Are you concerned with the rule and reign of Christ in the hearts of men? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word this morning.

Lord, we humbly cry out to you today that you would give us more understanding, Lord. Lord, that you would be kind and merciful to us as you were to your disciples. Lord, that you would teach us, that you would show us your ways, Lord. Lord, that you would be merciful, Lord, to unbelievers, Lord, that you would save their souls that you would open their eyes Lord and open their ears we pray. Lord Father we pray that you would be glorified today.

We pray, Lord, that as we continue in our teaching time, Lord, that you would raise men up, empower the Holy Spirit, Lord, to speak words that will edify and teach us, Lord. We pray for our fellowship, Lord, that it would be sweet, sweet to the soul. We pray all these things in your name. Amen.