Matthew 17 Do you KNOW Him?

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Matthew 17:1-27 The Transfiguration
1Six days later Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain. 2As the men watched, Jesus' appearance changed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothing became dazzling white.
3Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.
4Peter blurted out, "Lord, this is wonderful! If you want me to, I'll make three shrines, F87 one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
5But even as he said it, a bright cloud came over them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with him. Listen to him." 6The disciples were terrified and fell face down on the ground.
7Jesus came over and touched them. "Get up," he said, "don't be afraid." 8And when they looked, they saw only Jesus with them. 9As they descended the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen until I, the Son of Man, have been raised from the dead."
10His disciples asked, "Why do the teachers of religious law insist that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes F88 ?"
11Jesus replied, "Elijah is indeed coming first to set everything in order. 12But I tell you, he has already come, but he wasn't recognized, and he was badly mistreated. And soon the Son of Man will also suffer at their hands." 13Then the disciples realized he had been speaking of John the Baptist.

Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Boy
14When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, a huge crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, 15"Lord, have mercy on my son, because he has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn't heal him."
17Jesus replied, "You stubborn, faithless people! How long must I be with you until you believe? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me." 18Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.
19Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, "Why couldn't we cast out that demon?"
20"You didn't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I assure you, even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." F89

Jesus Again Predicts His Death
22One day after they had returned to Galilee, Jesus told them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed. 23He will be killed, but three days later he will be raised from the dead." And the disciples' hearts were filled with grief.
Payment of the Temple Tax
24On their arrival in Capernaum, the tax collectors for the Temple tax came to Peter and asked him, "Doesn't your teacher pay the Temple tax?"
25"Of course he does," Peter replied. Then he went into the house to talk to Jesus about it. But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, "What do you think, Peter F90 ? Do kings tax their own people or the foreigners they have conquered?"
26"They tax the foreigners," Peter replied. "Well, then," Jesus said, "the citizens are free! 27However, we don't want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a coin. Take the coin and pay the tax for both of us."
FOOTNOTES:F87: Or shelters; Greek reads tabernacles. F88: Greek that Elijah must come first. F89: Some manuscripts add verse 21, But this kind of demon won't leave unless you have prayed and fasted. F90: Greek Simon.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living Translation

~ Lena’s Journalin’~
Not being recognized seems to be a characteristic of God. Those who have the message of salvation are so real, almost no one would really notice, they’re not putting on a show, they’re being who they are. Jesus was a carpenter’s son and those in His town had a hard time listening to His message.
Not recognizing is also a characteristic of the blind. We are given so many opportunities by God to see Him, in the faces, and hear Him in the voices of others. This seeing and hearing is usually offered through His humble and real messengers. It almost seems the more humble and the more real a person is, the less the spiritually blind and deaf hear and see them. Yet those physically blind are actually more acute to hear and those physically deaf are more acute to seeing.
We as disciples must be very wary of pride. Very wary. Pride will bring us into deafness and blindness and what has been from the Lord and is right before our very eyes, may not be seen or heard. One form of pride that shows up, is that we pick and choose who we hear the voice of God from. This is what the people in Jesus’ day did. They decided who was speaking for God in their ears. If it wasn’t who they chose they’d become deaf to that voice. It amazes me that God the Father that day on the mountain said, “Hear Him!”.
That word “hear” means don’t be deaf to His words, it also means, consider with importance what is said. Attend to it, which means go ahead and do something about it, get more understanding of it so you can. Let your ear be pierced by it – as a bond slave who has been freed chooses to stay and has his ear pierced to the doorpost so his blood would be on that house, and in this act he is saying he is one with the household, and with the piercing he then also wore the mark in the form of an earring, which symbolized that he was free to go, but love kept him there to serve anyway. One more definition is “to sit under on purpose, as in to study one who you want to know all about.”
So Father God says to DISCIPLES, hear Him [Jesus].
Do we as modern-day disciples hear Him? How do we hear Him? Through imperfect earthen vessels like John the Baptist or Peter were, we hear through Pastor Fred, Music, our spouses, kids, in-laws…..etc. Those who know they are being used and those who do not even realize they are. That really depends on us, our pride or humility level. How hungry are we to hear Him? If we’re really attentive, as one who sits under a teacher to get every word, we’ll look for His voice, especially in the most unsuspecting places.
God has given us His word as a filter. No matter the vessel or the presentation, we can hear His voice and obey it, as long as it lines up with His words.
Say you are arguing with someone and the discussion gets heated, they are angry with you and they say, “You are so unkind and unloving, you are think of yourself first so often…..” They are totally in the wrong spirit when they say it to you, they are angry and they are sinning by shooting insulting words your way. Or someone told you someone else said it about you and it was gossip, now we all know that’s sin, right? Can or did you hear God’s voice speak? Can you walk away, pray and say, “Ok God speak to me further, you just opened the door, I’ll let You in, say what You may?”
Are you really a willing disciple or do you pick and choose your voice of receptivity? A root word of “disciple” is “discipline”. Can he use whoever is willing to vent, to discipline you?
Can you be more unselfish in nature? Could you ever tune up on your kindness level? What about love, are you yet perfected? And where did those words, love, kindness, unselfishness come from anyway? Galatians 5:22 has a good lot of them all clumped together. They are called the very characteristic of the God-nature, the Divine evidence of a Christian, God’s fruit.
Can we grow more fruit or have our fruits sweeter? There was truth to extract, for those who really desire truth, in even the words of a bad presentation. There’s also another attribute that can be honed in on for the bad presentation, that’s forgiveness.
Time to hit the knees, please. Humbly be arrested before the presence of God. Say, You’re right, I’m wrong”, confess sin, ask for help in fine-tuning and pruning fruit trees, then thank God for the vessel He used to speak His word to you! It could’ve been your “X-whoever”!!!
There are some pinpointed things I see here as I read the definitions of these key Greek words in the part about the boy being released from demonic activity.
The part where Jesus says you are stubborn and faithless. It was not specifically saying there was no faith, but the key is who was the faith in, and was it complete faith, wholeheartedly rooted in their intimate knowledge of the greatness of God? Jesus set Himself apart from the world to know God everyday, to know God’s desires for the day, to know God as Father, not just as written word.
When Jesus said prayer and fasting, He was saying, “Has anything brought you to that place with God where you separate yourself out from everything else you do? Is there anything that had led you to that place where your hunger for Him increases? Or are you sufficient inside of yourself, and just do what you do on your own? Without a consecrated lifestyle and knowing the very heart of God, you’ll never have enough faith to war against the demonic realm and win for the salvation of people. Who are we saving them for anyways? Ourselves, to get a prize, or some kind of brownie points? Or do we go forth to save them, because He wants them saved oh so very badly, and we know that because we know Him and He told us so, and we believe Him and want to do what He says?”
The words “prayer and fasting” can be unified into saying, “coming way”, going specifically to God to build a further trust and living love relationship, them to become so hungry, and consumed with what is on His heart.
The disciples may have been trying what they saw Jesus do. Like, “Hey Guys, lets’ try that too!” That doesn’t cut the mustard.
The bottom line of the workings of the spirit in and through us - Do you know Him? Are you His? Do you know it? Is your heart consumed with love for other people’s freedom? Can you stand to not deliver those who could be His if only they were loosed from their bonds? Does your heart yearn for that? Are you hungry?
Jesus said His meat and drink was to do the will of God. I’ve heard people not eat till they do the will of God, maybe Jesus did that too sometimes.
Give to Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is God’s. He is oh so hungry for His will to be done.


Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.