Gods entire message to us is a story of #redemption- literally, physically, allegorically, symbolically, and spiritually. Thats the “#good #news.” In the NT Christ’s perfect life, death, and resurrection is the most prominent example of #redemption. This redemption he wants others to experience, which is why he commands his disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” Fifth, Jesus brought #restoration. The intertestamental period of about 400 years kept God’s people waiting. To #restore, means to fix what was #broken. God promises a #messiah repeatedly in the OT, and he finally comes in the *person and *work of #Jesus #Christ, although he did -not come- as they *expected him to. He came *humbly, riding on a *donkey. When he came, he started the restoration process which will finish when he returns- all things will be restored as God originally intended. What did Jesus do during his earthly ministry? He came to *reveal (himself), *redeem(God’s elect), and *restore(affects of sin). He also came to *fulfill OT prophecies *written -about him- and to bear #witness to the #truth. His -intentions- #reveal his *actions, and we can find these truths from reading the Gospels. What an amazing #Savior we have! Jesus Christ referred to the Holy Spirit as the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor, Counselor), “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will -send- in My name, will teach you all things, and bring to your *remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26). Just as it is necessary to -know who a person is- before we can “sincerely welcome” him, we need to know *who the -Holy Spirit- is before we can wholeheartedly *receive and *trust Him. The #Holy #Spirit is also referred to as the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), the Spirit of truth (John 16:13), the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14), and the “#Spirit of #grace” (Hebrew10:29). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of #God, who *indwells, *guides, *teaches, *empowers believers to accomplish God’s *purposes. God the Spirit secures the #gift of salvation -through- the indwelling, sealing, and sanctifying -works in the life- of every Christ believer (John 14:16).
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In Luke 15:4-7 Jesus says he would leave the 99 to find the one lost sheep. (John 10:11- Jesus is the good shepherd and he will lay down his life for his sheep). Jesus invited Peter and all his disciples to take part in caring for his church. In this text “feed my sheep;” it's referring to the work of a shepherd. They are called to feed believers and the lost with spiritual food, to seek the lost “sheep.” Why does Jesus give Peter this charge? It was a way to not only -forgive- Peter for his earlier -betrayal of Christ- but to show that Jesus had -absolute trust- in Peter’s ability to #lead in God’s kingdom. Jesus forgives and entrusts peter part of the most important work to be done in the kingdom. (You can read complementary accounts of Peter’s three denials in Matthew 26:20-75, Mark 14:66-72, Luke 22:54-62, and John 18:15-27). As Peter discovered, no matter how often we let Him down, God won’t give up on us. John 21:15-17 illustrates Peter’s #restoration in the ministry by Jesus. After the disciples finished breakfast on the shore of Tiberias, Jesus asked Peter three times whether he loved Jesus “more than these.” (The question is significant because we learn that Peter was quick to speak and act in love and honor of Jesus (Matt16:13-19).Jesus posed the question 3 times to Peter, which -parallel- his earlier 3 denials). Jesus says to Peter; “feed and take care of the sheep given to Him; the duty of shepherding the people of God, to teach them #biblical #truth that feeds their souls.” The commission given to Peter is extended to ALL the apostles to care for The flock, knowing that they belong ultimately to Christ and that they need the truth of God’s Word!:)
One beautiful title that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit is “the spirit of truth.” Take John 16:13 for example: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will #guide you into all truth. He will *not speak on his *own but will tell you what he has *heard. He will tell you about the future.” What Jesus is telling us here is that when we have the Holy Spirit in our lives, He will guide us in the *direction we need to go. The Holy Spirit will not leave us in confusion but will #reveal the truth to us. He illuminates the dark areas of our lives to give us a clear vision of God’s purpose for us as indicated by Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. The Spirit’s work is essential to the functioning of our Christian life, and his character and attributes are essential to our #understanding of God’s #nature. In order to commune with the Spirit, we must study who the Spirit is and how he works in our life. The Bible is clear that we are all sinful, incapable of our own righteousness and spiritual life. Our minds are hostile to God, and in our flesh, we cannot please him- How could someone who is blind see? Paul explains: “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, *not because of works done by us in righteousness*, but according to -his own- #mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly -through- Jesus Christ our #Savior (Titus 3:3–7). The believer is to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), The righteousness we once hated is now delighted in and longed for, and the desires of the flesh may no longer be gratified (Gal 5:16). He empowers the believer to act in sacrificial service (1 John 4:10; Rom 5:8; Phil 2:5–8) towards their neighbour “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22–23). The Spirit also works by distributing spiritual gifts as he wills (1 Cor 12:11). What we consider to be “spiritual gifts” are different kinds of service to God for the purpose of building up the body of Christ in love (1 Cor 12:5, 12–26). The Spirit works in Us to encourage, uplift, challenge, and edify each other. 🌱
God asked Moses to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Moses was at first reluctant, thinking that the Israelites would not believe he had heard the word of God. God then gave Moses special powers and inspired by this, Moses returned to Egypt and demanded freedom for his people.
God had big plans and a big purpose for Moses- But WHY was Moses sent to the wilderness? What is the SYMBOLISM of this narrative? The Purpose of the Wilderness in the Lives of God’s People: If you are at a wilderness place in your life, you may find it to be more puzzle than purpose. You might be overwhelmed and confused. You might find yourself questioning God’s wisdom—or maybe even your own. I want you to think for a moment about being in the center of God’s will. What does that mean? What would it look like? Would it be a time of happiness and fulfillment? Is there ever a time that the center of God’s will might be a place of discouragement and difficulty? What about the children of Israel? God called Moses to bring them out of Egypt and into the center of His will. The center of His will for them would eventually be Canaan, but for a time, the center of God’s will was a great and terrible wilderness. Has God’s will for you included a period of time in the wilderness? Time in the wilderness means facing wilderness struggles, and wilderness hardships, and wilderness questions. It can be a place of problems, and at the same time, a place of purpose. The wilderness is a puzzle from our perspective, but from God’s perspective, it is His perfect plan for our lives. We have said enough about wilderness questions. What can we know for sure about the purpose of the wilderness in the lives of God’s people? The Wilderness is a Place of Separation God carried them into the wilderness so that they could be apart from the influences of Egypt. The uncertainties of the wilderness create a need for God and a dependence upon God. God lets you do without, so you can come to know Him as your provider. God lets you be lonely, so that you can come to know Him as your friend. God lets you be frightened and worried, so that you can come to know Him as your peace. God lets you be weak, so that you can know His strength. In the wilderness, God reveals Himself. In the darkness of the wilderness, He is your light. In the confusing maze of the wilderness, you learn to let Him be your guide. In the wilderness, He separates you from the influences of the world, as well as the things and people that you have learned to depend on, so that you will learn to depend on Him. God will be faithful to you in whatever wilderness you are facing, just as He was to the people He led out of Egypt. The Wilderness is a Place of Preparation. Looking back on those years in the wilderness, this is what God said to His people as they came to the Promised Land. 5“I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot. 6“You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 29:5-6 What has been your God appointed wilderness? Are you there right now? What do you suppose God is trying to teach you? Are you learning the lessons that God wants you to learn? When God takes you to the wilderness, He withholds that which you have come to depend on other than Him. Maybe you came to depend on your job to provide. God removes the job for a time, so that you will learn to depend on Him. Maybe you came to depend on your own strength or stamina. Then God brings weakness into your life, so that you will learn that your strength is in Him. You see it as deprivation. God sees it as preparation. “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. 4“Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5“Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. 6“Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. Deuteronomy 8:2-6 The Wilderness is a Place of Revelation. In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain. Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and howI bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Exodus 19:2-6 When the center of God’s will is the wilderness, what is God’s purpose? Did you see why God brought them to the wilderness? He brought them into the wilderness to bring them to Himself.Why do you suppose that God brings you to Himself? I read again today about Jesus calling the disciples. He called unto Him the twelve. And why did He call them? Did He call them to Him to give them an assignment? Yes? But the preparation for that assignment came out of being with Him. He called the twelve to Himself, that they might be with Him and that He might send them forth to preach. Mark 3:14 Part of the preparation for what God wants you to do will grow out of the revelation of Himself that He gives you. For most of us, the only place we can be readied to receive that revelation is in some wilderness, where God separates us from what we have learned to lean on, in order that He can show us that we need to lean on Him alone. Where are you right now? Do you find yourself in the midst of some God-Appointed wilderness struggling to know God’s will and God’s way? Do you feel alone there? Do you feel abandoned there? I know how you feel. I have been to the wilderness. I have lived in the wilderness. I felt alone. I felt discouraged. But I came to understand that the wilderness was the place of God’s presence. If you are in the wilderness, you might be angry at God. You may have considered abandoning God. In your discouragement, the wilderness can even become a place of sin. Where is God then? How will God respond to you when you have proved to yourself that you are not worthy of His love. Sometimes God takes us to the wilderness not only to show us Himself—but to show us ourselves. The truth about who we are and how we trust God surfaces in the wilderness. There, we are proved to be worse sinners than we knew ourselves to be. How does God respond then? Consider this passage from Nehemiah. “You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them. “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies. “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen. Nehemiah 9:13-21 The first few chapters of Exodus are a build up where we see Moses prepared for an impossible task: liberating the Hebrew slaves after 400 years in Egypt. He, of course, does not feel prepared at all. How could he? How could anyone? But he was. On the one hand, he was a fugitive on the run, encumbered with an embarrassing stutter. On the other, he had grown up in the royal palace. It’s true that the king he’d grown up with had died and another was in his stead (Ex 2:23), so a personal connection with the hard-hearted Pharaoh may not have been there, but still Moses, by God’s design, was part and parcel of Egyptian high society. He knew the lingo and the etiquette of Egyptian nobility and his way around the royal household. Like Esther, Moses was secretly Jewish, yet ended up providentially living in the palace of the king, for such a time as this. Moses was sent by God on one heck of a mission. His job—at least the first part of it—was to demand the immediate release of about a million Israelites from cruel bondage. To insist that Pharaoh should allow the Hebrew slaves, his free workforce, to just leave. It seems like Moses didn’t feel like he had that authority though. With his brother Aaron at his side for emotional support, Moses ventured back to the place he grew up to face the tyrannical ruler, Pharaoh, no doubt with some trepidation: Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” (Exodus 5:1) But that wasn’t quite the message God had told him to say, was it? Moses and Aaron appear to be asking for a temporary excursion for the Hebrew slaves. A short trip, a picnic in the Egyptian outback. God was demanding total release. “Come,” said God to Moses. “I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” (Exodus 3:10-12) God’s plan was to bring them completely out of Egypt in a very real and permanent manner—there would be no going back. And that they would meet Him over at Mount Sinai in the land of Midian, where He’d appeared in the burning bush. There He would establish His covenant with the whole house of Israel and make them a holy people with a holy calling. Then He would lead them on to the Promised Land. But Moses tries to soften the blow and paints it as a one-off religious event out in the desert. It was no such thing. It was a categorical extraction. An exodus. Fortunately, God was prepared for this, and knowing that it wouldn’t matter how nicely they asked Pharaoh would never agree, had a few tricks up His sleeve. With each plague, or blow, as it is in Hebrew, God’s demand intensified: “Let my people go!” which in Hebrew means, "Send the people of Israel into their Destiny." This throws interesting light on what was actually happening in the Exodus. God was killing multiple birds with one stone. He had waited for the sin of the Amorites to reach its full measure (Genesis 15:16) before executing justice on them and giving the land to the tribes of Israel. He rescued His covenant people from their living hell, and thew the Egyptians into the sea just as they had thrown countless Hebrew babies into the Nile. He was fulfilling His promises to the patriarchs to bring their descendants back to the Land of Promise, and establishing a faith community that would carry His word and His light to the whole world. They were not just being taken out of Egypt, they were being SENT out, with a mission: to be a light to the Gentiles. God often does both-and rather than either-or. He operates on multiple levels all the time. We often have no idea how many facets there are to God’s actions and decisions, and can foolishly interpret them to be all about us… our own life, family, community or nation. But God has a very wide-angle lens. His ways are perfect and nothing is ever wasted in His economy. God brought deliverance and blessing to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in fulfillment of His promises to them. They would receive their inheritance from His hand, along with blessings of spiritual nourishment, revelation, and life, which they were to pass on to all the nations of the world. The command to “Let my people go” forced Pharaoh to send Israel out of slavery and into their global calling, into their destiny. In a similar manner, we have been delivered from slavery and death by the blood of the sacrificial lamb, and brought through the waters of baptism. But God’s rescue mission wasn’t so we could sit around and eat cake—we are also sent into the world with a calling and a destiny! Whenever we thank God for His amazing salvation, His perfect plans, and the future He has prepared for us, let’s ask Him again: What is my part in Your plans and purposes? What are You sending me to do? Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8) Why do you suppose God takes you into the wilderness to show you yourself so that you can see what a sinner you are? God takes you to the wilderness and shows you what a sinner you are so that He can show you what a Savior He is! In spite of the rebellion of His people, He remained faithful. He still gave them water for their thirst. He still gave them their daily bread. He still guided them on their journey. He never left them. God will be faithful to you in whatever wilderness you are facing, just as He was to the people He led out of Egypt. “In the wilderness … you saw how the LORD God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place. Deuteronomy 1:31 Do you suppose God might also be carrying you? I am sure you have asked God some of the same questions that I ask from time to time. “God, am I a castaway? Can you still use me?” “Do you still want me? Do you still love me?” "The very words I write were born in one of those moments in my life. I will never forget the day I was in my office working on this message. I was preparing it for me, because I keenly felt everything I have shared with you. I had allowed a deadline to pass that seemed to me to be critical to my future. I let it pass because I had no word from God. God was silent. As a result of His silence, I saw my future slip away. My despair grew deeper by the day. It reached a zenith on a Wednesday in December of 2006. I was preparing this message for my church, but I was really describing what was going on in my own life. God must have been watching as I paced around in my office that day. I was a desperately discouraged man. As I typed away at this message on my computer, the phone rang. Within an hour of that phone call, all my questions were answered. My future seemed to be restored. I had been called by God to the assignment I thought I had missed.' When that day started, I was convinced I missed God completely. I was lost in the wilderness. I felt abandoned and forgotten, and I felt I deserved to be. But that day, I met God in the wilderness, and it altered the direction of my life. Six months later, I shared the same message with my church on a Sunday night. The next day, I would be stepping through the door God had opened. This is what I said in closing: “Tomorrow I set foot on the road that God called me to travel. It may not lead out of the wilderness—but I am convinced that it will lead me to Him.” That is, after all, the purpose of the wilderness in the lives of God’s people. He brings us into some great and terrible wilderness, so that He might bring us to Himself." (-Story by Eddie Eshtaigi) https://youtu.be/DpB6eDG5WnY
What is unlimited, #eternal, merciful, sacrificial love? It is #found in #Jesus alone. #Christ Messiah suffered unbearably, and accepts the sufferings #willingly. (“Because he himself desires to bear them… and we esteemed that he would not take them himself but that he was stricken, smitten by God. But when the #time comes that he will be #revealed in all his majesty then all will #see and #understand how great is the strength of the one who suffers torments for that generation.”) Zechariah and Isaiah prophecies that the Messiah will die by the piercing or the stabbing of his body, and in his death, he will take our transgressions upon himself; [“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of #grace and pleads for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”] “They shall look unto me’, for they shall lift up their eyes unto me in perfect repentance, when they see him whom they pierced, that is, Messiah, the Son of Joseph; …he WILL *take *upon *himself *all the *guilt of Israel.” [Zechariah12:10] God, when He #created the Messiah, gave him the -choice- whether to accept the sufferings for the sins of Israel- Jesus replied, “I accept it with *joy, so that *not a single *soul of Israel should perish.” [Jesus is the most well-known Jewish figure in all history and yet He was rejected, humiliated, and crucified. He is a Messiah with whom (historically) Jews can #identify, for their people were also rejected, humiliated, and (almost) destroyed]. The #goodnews is that God’s Word -doesn’t end- with the suffering and death of the Messiah, because in his #resurrection from the dead, we were given #complete #forgiveness, a new life with his holy spirit, sparking regeneration through the body of christ for ALL in the Messianic Age. The gospel is a message of #redemption on numerous coexisting levels, yet the ultimate redemption of the Gospel message lies in Israels #return to Gods #dwelling place.
The #Last #Supper is a mural by Italian #High #Renaissance painter, #Leonardo da #Vinci, 1495–1498. The painting represents the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with the Twelve #Apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of John – specifically the moment after Jesus announces that one of his apostles will betray him. Its handling of *space, mastery of #perspective, treatment of motion and *complex display of human emotion has made it one of the Western world's most recognizable paintings and among Leonardo's most celebrated works. Some commentators consider it pivotal in *inaugurating the *transition into what is now termed the High Renaissance. In order to permit his inconsistent painting schedule and frequent revisions, it is painted with materials that allowed for regular alterations: tempera on gesso, pitch, and mastic. Due to the -methods- used, a variety of environmental *factors, and intentional damage, little of the original painting -remains- today despite numerous -restoration- attempts, the last being completed in 1999. Housed in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy, The Last Supper is his largest work, aside from Sala delle Asse. The Last Supper, which took place hours before the Lord’s crucifixion—was a Seder (Passover observance). Previously, the feast’s symbols had only *pointed -back- to the Hebrews’ redemption from Egypt. That night, Jesus *revealed the #messianic significance of two *symbols: bread and wine. The biblical story is filled with symbolism; Passover meal- Jesus is the *sacrificial lamb. He uses bread to symbolize his body. The bread is broken and given to be shared, just as his body will be broken and his life given up for others. He uses the wine to represent his blood- poured out and shared. There is not much controversy over the use of symbols within the biblical account, However, the depiction of this important moment leads many to see *different *realities. Symbolism in The Last Supper can portray a wide realm of #truths- particularly between Judas, the law, prophets, and #fulfillment of #covenants.
Jesus Himself was filled with the #HolySpirit in -order- to carry out His #ministry. [“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim #goodnews to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim #freedom for the prisoners and #recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free”] Jesus said these words to Israelites while they were worshipping In synagogue and -began- his #ministry by telling His friends/family that #gods Spirit “is on Me” for a *specific #purpose; he spent much time speaking of the Holy Spirit and wanted His disciples to #understand its #power. He explained it was “better” for that He leave, because only then the *Holy *Spirit would be *sent to them. The first followers of Jesus were *filled with God’s Spirit to take the #gospel to the #known world. “On Pentecost, they were all together in one place.. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They *saw what seemed to be “tongues of fire” that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were -filled with the Holy Spirit- and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” Before this point in history, the Holy Spirit did not -indwell- every follower of Christ. After Jesus died, ROSE again, and ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit came down and filled every disciple/apostle of Christ as TRUE *witness to spread the gospel to the world. When put #faith in #Christ, the Holy Spirit #reveals himself in unique ways. God’s people get to experience the power of the Holy Spirit as Jesus did- providing #power and strength through #christ. “Yes, I am the #vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing”. “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this #testimony for the churches. I AM the #Root and the Offspring of #David, and the bright Morning Star.’ The *Spirit and the *bride say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is -thirsty- come; and let the one who wishes take the -free #gift- of the *water of #life” (Rev22:16-17).
Elevation Worship, Talking to Jesus
When Jesus gave the second commandment, he said it was like unto the first, he said: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:40). He made them very important—so important that all other laws and commandments rest upon them. Jesus took Peter, James and John up a high mountain. He was transfigured – his face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white. Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus. A bright cloud enveloped them and a voice said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.” Moses and Elijah are two key figures from the OT. Moses led God’s people, the Israelites, out of slavery in Egypt. He then met with God on Mount Sinai and gave them God’s laws. Moses’ face was radiant after such close contact with God. Elijah was a prophet, one of God’s #messengers. He also went to Mount Sinai, where God revealed himself in a gentle whisper. Their roles can be summarised as follows: (MOSES=THE LAW… ELIJAH=THE PROPHETS) God’s presence is often shown by cloud or fire. Mountaintops were often the location for appearances from God. This cloud or fire was ‘shekinah’ in Hebrew. Matt16:13-20, Peter has shown -understanding- of #Jesus’ #identity, that he is the #Christ(Messiah). This experience is to help deepen this *understanding. Only Jesus’ three closest followers are chosen to witness it. Jesus wants them to understand that his role of Messiah will involve suffering and death, but will not be the final outcome of his mission. Jesus will return in this physical form after completing his earthly spirit lead task. Matthew’s readers would easily pick up on the OT references. It takes place six days after Peter’s declaration of faith, linking Moses who spent six days in preparation before approaching God in a cloud on Mt. Sinai. Mountain + cloud symbolizes presence of God. Moses and Elijah appear and stand beside Jesus- #symbolizing Jesus is their successor and has #fulfilled both. He is now bringing a new covenant from #God for #all people.X
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