Title: Heaven Coming
Contents
Heaven coming
Mark 9: 1-8
We've compiled a list of the 50 best places in the world people want to go to on the internet. It was a destination I wanted to visit from number 1 to number 50.
But aren't you curious about the number 1 among those 50? The first place people want to visit the most is the Grand Canyon of the United States. After hearing the 1st place, you are curious about the 2nd place, right? In second place is Australia's Great Barrier Reef, in third place is Disneyland in the United States, in fourth place is New Zealand's South Island, and in fifth place is Cape Town, South Africa.
I would like to mention everything up to the top 50, but I can't, and by the way, there is no tourist attraction in Korea among the top 50. It's sad and disappointing.
Dear saints, I bless you so that you can earn a lot of money and visit many beautiful places on this earth that God has built before you die. How many beautiful wonders God has hidden on this little star earth... .
And when you go, I would like to ask you to put me in from time to time. It would be a bonus if we included a trip for missionary work.
But there is one place that people want to go to more than the world's top tourist destination, the Grand Canyon. If you can't go, but if you can, there is a place that will be in the spotlight as the best travel destination. Where? Heaven, the kingdom of God. If you can go to heaven once, people from all over the world will want to visit it. A travel agency that wins a ticket to travel to heaven will hit the jackpot.
Entering the kingdom of God after death is certain, but traveling to the kingdom of God before death is the hope of all Christians. What a blessing it would be if you could do that.
However, in today's text, Jesus throws a strange word. This is verse 1. “And he said to them, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will see the kingdom of God come with power before they die.”
Jesus is very clearly saying, “There are people who will see the kingdom of God before they die.” He gathered his disciples and a group of people and declared that some of these people would see the kingdom of God before they die.
Did any of those people really see the kingdom of God before they died? If so, who would it be? This is a word that leaves us with many questions.
Who were the people who saw the kingdom of God before they died? Peter, Andrew and John. The answer is solved in the very next section, verse 2. “Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and went up by himself to a high mountain, and was transfigured before them.”
On the sixth day after saying these words, Jesus took Peter, John, and James to a high mountain and was completely transformed. And it is written that the clothes he was wearing shone, and it became so white that no one on earth could wash it. The kingdom of God has come to this mountain.
The kingdom of God will enter when Jesus comes again. It is the kingdom of God that we will go to in the future. But we must remember that there is another kingdom of God. It is the kingdom of God coming in the present.
In verse 1, Jesus clearly states that there is “the coming kingdom of God.” “Before they die, there are those who will see the kingdom of God come with power.”
It is clear that the kingdom of God is coming with power in the present. The kingdom of God, which comes with power, did not end on the Mount of Transfiguration. Even now, in the field of our lives, the kingdom of God must come with power, and we must live in the midst of it.
Then, what is the coming kingdom of God?
■ First, the place where the image of Jesus Christ is restored is the kingdom of God that is coming in the present.
The text uses the term “transformed” on the Mount of Transfiguration, which refers to being transformed into a completely different form.
To be precise, this is not a transfiguration, but a restoration of Jesus' original form. Before coming to this world in a lowly human body, He returned to the form of His only begotten Son at the right hand of God. The brilliance of the clothes you wore reflects the glory that even the world cannot bear, and the clothes you wear became white as they became white because it was difficult to capture that glory.
It is said that clothes are so white that the world's washers cannot whiten them. This is just a term used to best express that whiteness because there are no words to describe it. This white is a white that does not exist in this world. It is the white color that exists only in the kingdom of God. So it was impossible to express that white color.
Elijah and Moses, who were taken up without death, meet Jesus. And you talk. That is where the kingdom of God has become.
Suddenly, a cloud came and covered it, and the voice of God was heard. “This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (verse 7).
The kingdom of God is where Jesus becomes Jesus. The place where Jesus, who was only regarded as the Son of Man, grants his power as the Son of God, is the kingdom of God that is coming in the present. This is where the dead are raised, the sick are healed, and wounds are healed. The place where the cross of Jesus is built powerfully and the power of the cross powerfully drives away the waves of evil in the area. Such a place is the kingdom of God.
And the most important kingdom of God is the kingdom of God that dwells within me. The kingdom of God is the place where the life of Jesus enters and takes the place of mortal life, the blood of Jesus covers my sins, my unclean personalities disappear, and the character of Jesus is internalized. So, the place where the fundamental change in me starts from above is the coming kingdom of God.
※ A rogue youth threatened a high school student returning home late at night with a knife and demanded money. When he said he had no money, he stabbed him in the side with a knife and knocked him down. The injured student was rushed to the hospital.