Jesus was coming to reward all believers

JESUS WAS COMING TO REWARD ALL BELIEVERS
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Matthew 16:27 27Forthe Son of Man is going to come
in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will
reward each person accordingto what they have done.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(27) Forthe Son of man shall come.—The factstands in a logicalrelation to
the preceding verse. The factthat the Son of Man is about to come to execute
judgment, clothes its abstractstatement with an awful certainty. No bribe can
be offered to the Eternal Judge to change the sentence offorfeiture if that
forfeiture has been rightfully incurred. From first to lastin our Lord’s
teaching (e.g., for its earlier stages,Matthew 7:23-24;John 5:26-27)this claim
to be the future Judge of all men is never absent. It is assertedin every great
discourse, implied in almost every parable.
With his angels.—We are justified by Matthew 25:31 in referring the
possessive pronoun to Christ rather than the Father. “All things that the
Father hath are Mine” (John 16:15), and among these the angels that do His
pleasure.

His works.—The betterMSS. give a word in the singular, his doing or
conduct. The sentence is made to depend on the collective characterofwhat
has been done rather than on the multitude of individual acts.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
16:24-28 A true disciple of Christ is one that does follow him in duty, and shall
follow him to glory. He is one that walks in the same way Christ walkedin, is
led by his Spirit, and treads in his steps, whithersoeverhe goes. Lethim deny
himself. If self-denialbe a hard lesson, it is no more than what our Master
learned and practised, to redeem us, and to teachus. Let him take up his
cross. The cross is here put for every trouble that befalls us. We are apt to
think we could bear another's cross better than our own; but that is best
which is appointed us, and we ought to make the best of it. We must not by
our rashness and folly pull crossesdownupon our own heads, but must take
them up when they are in our way. If any man will have the name and credit
of a disciple, let him follow Christ in the work and duty of a disciple. If all
worldly things are worthless when comparedwith the life of the body, how
forcible the same argument with respectto the soul and its state of never-
ending happiness or misery! Thousands lose their souls for the most trifling
gain, or the most worthless indulgence, nay, often from mere sloth and
negligence. Whateveris the objectfor which men forsake Christ, that is the
price at which Satanbuys their souls. Yet one soul is worth more than all the
world. This is Christ's judgment upon the matter; he knew the price of souls,
for he redeemedthem; nor would he underrate the world, for he made it. The
dying transgressorcannotpurchase one hour's respite to seek mercyfor his
perishing soul. Let us then learn rightly to value our souls, and Christ as the
only Saviour of them.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
For the Son of man ... - That is, he will return to judge the world.

He will come in glory the glory of his Father the majesty with which God is
accustomedto appear, and which befits God. He will be attended by angels.
He will judge all people.
Reward- The word "reward" means recompense. He will deal with them
according to their character. The righteous he will reward in heaven with
glory and happiness. The wickedhe will send to hell, as a rewardor
recompense for their evil works. This fact, that he will come to judgment, he
gives as a reasonwhy we should be willing to deny ourselves and follow him.
Even though it should be now attended with contempt and suffering, yet then
he will reward his followers for all their shame and sorrow, and receive them
to his kingdom. He adds Mark 8:38, that if we are ashamedof him here, he
will be ashamedof us there. That is, if we rejectand disown him here, he will
rejectand disown us there.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels—
in the splendor of His Father's authority and with all His angelic ministers,
ready to execute His pleasure.
and then he shall reward, &c.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
This verse makes it plain, that our Saviour by quch in the former verse
understood the soulof man, or eternallife, that blessedstate which is
prepared for the saints of God; for he here minds them that there shall be a
last judgment, and gives them a little description of it.

1. As to the Judge, the Sonof man, him whom you now see in the shape of a
man, and whom men vilify and contemn under that notion. He is to be the
Judge of quick and dead, Acts 10:42 2 Timothy 4:1.
2. As to the splendour of it. He shall come in the glory of his Father. It is also
his glory, John 17:5; he calls it the glory of his Father, because by his eternal
generationhe receivedit togetherwith the Divine nature from his Father, and
it was common to him with his Father; or because his commissionfor
judgment was from his Father:
For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son, John 5:22.
With his angels;his holy angels, 1 Thessalonians 1:7.
And then he shall reward every man according to his works:not for his
works. Our Saviour is not here speaking ofthe cause ofthe reward, but the
rule and measure of it: According to his deeds, Romans 2:6.
According to his labour, 1 Corinthians 3:8. According to that he hath done, 2
Corinthians 5:10. Notaccording to his faith, but works, for faith without
works is dead; but these works must spring out of a rootof faith, without
which it is impossible to please God. He shall reward him, by a rewardof
grace, notof debt, Romans 4:4. Works shallbe rewarded, but not as with a
penny for a pennyworth, but of grace.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
For the son of man shall come in the glory of his Father,.... This is a reason,
proving the truth of what is before asserted, thatmen's lives may be lostby

saving them, and be found by losing them, whatever paradoxes they may seem
to be; and that the loss of a soul is irrecoverable, and no compensationcan be
made for it; and points out the time, when all this will appear: for nothing is
more certain, and to be depended upon, than that Christ, who, though he was
then a mean and contemptible man, and attended with the sinless infirmities
of human nature, wherefore he calls himself, "the son of man", should come;
either a secondtime to judgment at the last day, in the same glory as his
Father, as his Son, equal with him, and clothed, with power and authority
from him, and as mediator, to execute judgment: with his angels;the Holy
Ones, so the Syriac and Persic versions read, and so some copies;who will add
to the glory of his appearance;and will be employed in gathering all nations
before him, and in executing his will: or, in his power, to take vengeance on
the Jewishnation; on those that crucified him, or did not believe in him, or
desertedand apostatisedfrom him. And then he shall rewardevery man
according to his works, or work;either that particular actionof putting him
to death, or their unbelief in him, or desertionof him; or any, or all of their
evil works, they had been guilty of: for though good works are not the cause of
salvation, nor for which men will be rewarded;though they may be brought
into judgment, as proofs and evidences of true faith, in the person, blood, and
righteousness ofChrist, by which goodmen will be acquitted and discharged;
yet evil works will be the cause of condemnation, and the rule of judgment;
and the reasonof adjudging to temporal punishment here, and eternal
destruction hereafter.
Geneva Study Bible
For the Son of man shall come {u} in the glory of his Fatherwith his angels;
and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
(u) Like a King, as Mt 6:29.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary

Matthew 16:27. Γάρ] justifies and confirms what Jesus has just statedwith
respectto the loss of the ψυχή. I say that not without reason;for assuredly the
time of the secondcoming and of a righteous retribution is drawing near
(μέλλει being put first for sake ofemphasis).
ἐν τῇ δόξῃ τοῦ πατρ. αὐτ.] in the same glory as belongs to God. Forin this
state of glory (John 17:5) the ascendedChrist occupies the place of σύνθρονος
of God.
τὴν πρᾶξιν] the conduct, the sum of one’s doings, including, in particular, that
self-denying adherence to their faith and their confessionon which, above all,
so much depended, in the case ofthe apostles, in the midst of those
persecutions which they were calledupon to endure.
Expositor's Greek Testament
Matthew 16:27. μέλλει points to something near and certain;note the
emphatic position.—ἔρχεσθαι ἐν τ. δ., the counterpart experience to the
passion;statedobjectively in reference to the Song of Solomonof Man, the
passionspokenof in the secondperson(Matthew 16:21). In Mk. both are
objectively put; but the disciples took the reference as personal(Mark 8:32).
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
27. For] The reasongiven why the higher life—the soul—is of priceless value:
(1) The Judge is at hand who will condemn self-indulgence and all the works
of the lowerlife, and will reward those who have denied themselves. (2)
Further (Matthew 16:28) this judgment shall not be delayed—it is very near.
The same motive for the Christian life is adduced by St Paul, Php 4:5, “Let
your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” Cp. 1
Corinthians 16:22.
Bengel's Gnomen

Matthew 16:27. Μέλλει ἔρχεσθαι, is about to come) A strongerexpression
than ἐλεύσεται will come. As the teaching concerning the person of Christ is
immediately followedby that concerning His Cross, so is the latter by that
concerning His glory.—τότε, then)All things are put off till then.—ἀποδώσει
ἑκάστῳ, He will render to eachindividual) This is the attribute of Divine
Majesty;see Romans 2:6.[770]—πρᾶξιν, action, conduct, doing) The word is
put in the singular, for the whole life of man is one doing.[771]
[770]There is most frequent recurrence of this expressionin Scripture.—V. g.
[771]From which, according as it is subject to Christ or to the belly, many
works continually, and as a natural consequence, eithergoodor else bad,
come forth (result).—V. g.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 27. - For the Son of man shall come. The final judgment would put
things in their true light - would show the value of self-sacrifice,wouldreveal
the punishment of self-pleasing. Our Lord seems to refer to Daniel 7:13, as it
were, in testimony to the truth of what he had just said. Shall come; μέλλει
ἔρχεσθαι: venturus est(Vulgate), is more than the bare announcement, and
implies that it is in accordancewith the eternal counsels ofGod that he should
appear this secondtime. In the glory of his Father. As one with the Father,
and his Representative. So he speaks of"the glory which thou hast given me"
(John 17:22). Reward; ἀποδώσει:render, reddet (Vulgate). The term includes
punishment as well as recompense. Works (πρᾶξιν); doing, work. The word
does not signify isolatedacts, but generalcourse of conduct, practice as a
whole.

PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
THE WARNING AND THE PROMISE (Matthew 16:27-28)
16:27-28 "Forthe Son of Man will come with the glory of his Father, with his
angels, and then he will render to eachman in accordancewith his way of
action. This is the truth I tell you--there are some of those who are standing
here who will not taste death, until they see the Son of Man coming in his
Kingdom."
There are two quite distinct sayings here.
(i) The first is a warning, the warning of inevitable judgment. Life is going
somewhere--andlife is going to judgment. In any sphere of life there
inevitably comes the day of reckoning. There is no escapefrom the factthat
Christianity teaches that after life there comes the judgment; and when we
take this passagein conjunction with the passage whichgoes before, we see at
once what the standard of judgment is. The man who selfishly hugs life to
himself, the man whose first concernis his own safety, his own security and
his owncomfort, is in heaven's eyes the failure, howeverrich and successful
and prosperous he may seemto be. The man who spends himself for others,
and who lives life as a gallant adventure, is the man who receives heaven's
praise and God's reward.
(ii) The secondis a promise. As Matthew records this phrase, it reads as if
Jesus spoke as if he expectedhis own visible return in the lifetime of some of
those who were listening to him. If Jesus saidthat he was mistaken. But we see
the realmeaning of what Jesus saidwhen we turn to Mark's recordof it.

Mark has: And he said to them, "Truly, I sayto you, there are some standing
here who will not taste death before they see the Kingdom of Godcome with
power" (Mark 9:1).
It is of the mighty working of his Kingdom that Jesus is speaking;and what he
said came most divinely true. There were those standing there who saw the
coming of Jesus in the coming, of the Spirit at the day of Pentecost. There
were those who were to see Gentile and Jew sweptinto the Kingdom; they
were to see the tide of the Christian message sweepacrossAsia Minor and
coverEurope until it reachedRome. Well within the life-time of those who
heard Jesus speak, the Kingdom came with power.
Again, this is to be takencloselywith what goes before. Jesus warnedhis
disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and that there he must suffer many
things and die. That was the shame; but the shame was not the end. After the
Cross there came the Resurrection. The Cross was not to be the end; it was to
be the beginning of the unleashing of that power which was to surge
throughout the whole world. This is a promise to the disciples of Jesus Christ
that nothing men cando canhinder the expansionof the Kingdom of God.
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)
John Broadus
Matthew 16:27. We see that this greatbalancing of accounts is not a mere
figure of speech, but will actually occur. The Son of man, see on"Matthew
8:20". This constantly suggests thathe is the Messiah(compare on Matthew
16:13), and indicates that he is to be the final judge, as in Matthew 7:22, and
hereafterin Matthew 25:31, Matthew 25:34. Shall come, not the mere future

tense, but a strong expressionlike 'is going to come,''is about to come,'and in
the Greek made emphatic by its position at the head of the sentence;he is
coming and there is no mistake about it. This is believed to be the first distinct
intimation of his secondcoming. In the glory of his Father. In the same glory
amid which his Father dwells. Compare Matthew 26:64. This glory he had
with his Father before the world was;(John 17:5) he had voluntarily left it to
come on his present lowly mission, (Philippians 2:6 ff.) but he would return to
share it again, and in that glory he would hereaftercome. With his angels.
(Matthew 13:41, Matthew 24:31, Matthew 25:31)Luke (Luke 9:26) has an
expressionwhich implies that their encompassing glorywill enhance his glory.
As to the angels, see on"Matthew 18:10". According to his deeds, or, more
exactly, action, practice, course of life. (Colossians3:9 has the same word.)
The expressions seemto be suggestedby Psalms 62:12, Proverbs 24:12, quoted
in Romans 2:6; compare Revelation22:12, and as to the thought, 1
Corinthians 5:10. The factof this coming retribution shows the importance of
saving the soul; but there is specialreference to the thought of reward for
doing and suffering in his service (Matthew 16:24 f.). Mark 8:38 and Luke
9:26, give the additional point that when he comes he will be ashamedof every
one that has been ashamedof him. Matthew has before recordedthis thought
as uttered on a different occasion, (Matthew 10:33)and so he omits it here.
CALVIN
27. For the Son of man will come. That the doctrine which has just been laid
down may more deeply affectour minds, Christ places before our eyes the
future judgment; for if we would perceive the worthlessnessofthis fading life,
we must be deeply affectedby the view of the heavenly life. So tardy and
sluggishis our mind, that it needs to be aided by looking towards heaven.
Christ summons believers to his judgment-seat, to leadthem to reflectat all
times that they lived for no other objectthan to long after that blessed
redemption, which will be revealedat the proper time. The admonition is

intended to inform us, that they do not strive in vain who set a higher value on
the confessionoffaith than on their own life. “Place your lives fearlessly,” says
he, “in my hand, and under my protection; for I will at length appear as your
avenger, and will fully restore you, though for the time you may seemto have
perished.”
In the glory of the Father, with his angels. Theseare mentioned to guard his
disciples againstjudging of his kingdom from present appearances;for
hitherto he was unknown and despised, being concealedunder the form and
condition of a servant. He assures themthat it will be far otherwise when he
shall appear as the Judge of the world. As to the remaining part of the passage
in Mark and Luke, the readerwill find it explained under the tenth chapterof
Matthew. 469
And then will he render to every one according to his actions. The reward of
works has been treated by me as fully as was necessaryunder another
passage. 470 Itamounts to this: When a reward is promised to goodworks,
their merit is not contrastedwith the justification which is freely bestowedon
us through faith; nor is it pointed out as the cause ofour salvation, but is only
held out to excite believers to aim at doing what is right, 471 by assuring them
that their labor will not be lost. There is a perfectagreement, therefore,
betweenthese two statements, that we are justified freely, (Romans 3:24,)
because we are receivedinto God’s favor without any merit; 472 and yet that
God, of his own goodpleasure, bestows onour works a reward which we did
not deserve.
THOMAS CONSTABLE
Verse 27

God"s future judgment of His disciples, as well as Jesus"example, should be
an inducement to deny self, identify with Christ, and follow Him ( Matthew
16:24;cf. Matthew 10:24-25). This verse teaches botheschatologyand
Christology. Jesus will come with the glory of His Father when He returns to
earth at His secondcoming ( Revelation19:11-16). Jesus is the Son of Man (
Daniel 7:13) who will come with the same glory that God enjoys. The angels
will enhance His glory and assistHim in gathering people for judgment (
Matthew 13:41; Matthew 24:31;Matthew 25:31-32;Luke 9:26). The angels
are under Jesus" authority. Then He will reward eachpersonaccording to his
deeds (conduct). Conduct demonstrates character. Again Jesus referredto the
disciples" rewards (cf. Matthew 5:12; et al.). The prospectof reward should
motivate Jesus" disciples to deny self and follow Him. The disciple who does
so simply to obtain a rewardhas not really denied himself. Rewards are
preciselythat: rewards.
The rewards in view seemto be opportunities to glorify God by serving Him
(cf. Matthew 25:14-30;Luke 19:11-27). The disciple will have greateror lesser
opportunities to do so during the millennial kingdom and forever after in
proportion to his or her faithfulness on earth now. The New Testament
writers spoke ofthese rewards symbolically as crowns elsewhere(cf. 1
Corinthians 9:25; Philippians 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:19;2 Timothy 4:8;
James 1:12; 1 Peter5:4; Revelation2:10;Revelation3:11). It is perfectly
proper to serve Jesus Christ to gain a reward if our motives are correct(
Matthew 6:19-21). We will one day lay our crowns at the feet of our Savior.
The crownis an expressionof a life of faithful service that we performed out
of gratitude for God"s grace to us (cf. Revelation4:4; Revelation4:10). [Note:
For a helpful introduction to the study of the Christian"s rewards, see Zane
C. Hodges, Grace in Eclipse.]
Both Jesus and Paul urged us to lay up treasure in heaven, to make
investments that will yield eternalrewards ( Matthew 6:19-21;Luke 12:31-34;
1 Timothy 6:18-19). It is perfectly legitimate to remind people of the

consequencesoftheir actions to motivate them to do what is right. That is
preciselywhat Jesus was doing with His disciples here.
"By including this discussionhere Matthew once more emphasized the
program of the Messiahas it is basedon Daniel"s prophecy. The Messiah
must first be cut off ( Daniel 9:26), a period of intense trouble begins at a later
time ( Daniel9:27), and finally the Son of Man comes in glory to judge the
world ( Daniel 7:13-14). Thus the disciples must endure suffering, and when
the Sonof Man comes in His glory, they will be rewarded." [Note:Toussaint,
Behold the . . ., p208.]
"In the third part of this story ( Matthew 16:21 to Matthew 28:20), Matthew
describes Jesus"journey to Jerusalemand his suffering, death, and
resurrection( Matthew 16:21; Matthew 17:22-23;Matthew 20:17-19). Jesus"
first actis to tell his disciples that God has ordained that he should go to
Jerusalemand there be made by the religious leaders to suffer and die (
Matthew 16:21). On hearing this, Peterrejects out of hand the idea that such
a fate should ever befall Jesus ( Matthew 16:22), and Jesus reprimands Peter
for thinking the things not of God, but of humans ( Matthew 16:23). Then,
too, Peter"s inability to comprehend that death is the essence ofJesus"
ministry is only part of the malady afflicting the disciples: they are also
incapable of perceiving that servanthoodis the essenceofdiscipleship (
Matthew 16:24)." [Note:Kingsbury, Matthew as . . ., p162.]
JOHN MACARTHUR
Preview of the SecondComing, Part 1

Sermons Matthew 16:27–28 2322 Oct31, 1982
A + A - RESET
Turn in your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16.
We’re going to be looking this Lord’s Day, and next as well, at one passage of
Scripture. And although there is a chapterbreak in the middle, it really is out
of place, for the text flows together.
Beginning in Matthew chapter 16 at verse 27, and going really all the way
down through verse 13 of Matthew chapter 17. This is one of the highlights,
one of the great moments in all of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, and, I
believe, in the life of His apostles, andin our lives, surely, as well, as you’ll
find out as it unfolds for us.
In fact, I’d like to title this section, “A Preview of the SecondComing.” A
preview of the secondcoming.
Now, the 16th chapter of Matthew is a marvelous chapter. It contains some
monumental realities. It’s startling how many greattruths are clearly put in
focus in this chapter.
Remember, now, that it’s just a few months until the coming of the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And as He moves rather rapidly now to the passion
time, He senses the greatneed to prepare His apostles for what they’re going
to endure, and then for the resurrection, the ascension, and their consequent
and subsequent ministry.
And so, this is a time of rather intense teaching. And in this particular
chapter, He begins to speak to them of all that’s involved in the heart and soul

of the Gospel. Forexample, in chapter 16, He has them affirm that He is the
Messiah. Theysay, “Thou art the Christ,” through the voice of Peter. And
then they affirm as well, by the revelation of God, that He is the Son of the
living God. And so, the chapter then focuses onHis messiahship. It affirms
and confirms also His deity.
Then, in verse 18, He says, “I will build My Church.” And it tells us that the
plan is on schedule. That the unfolding of God’s kingdom is moving ahead as
indicated. And then He adds, “The gates of Hades” - which is simply a phrase
referring to death – “will not prevail againstit.” Deathitself can’t stopit.
And so, here He speaks ofthe powerof His kingdom. So, He has told them,
really, through the inspiration of God, the revelationof Goditself, that He is
the Messiah, thatHe is the Son of the living God, that He will build His
kingdom, and that death itself will not be able to stop that. And so, they begin
to sense the unfolding of the plan.
Then He tells them startlingly, in verse 21, that He will die and rise again the
third day. And so, He has revealedto them His death and His resurrection. All
of this in the brief space ofthe secondhalf of chapter 16.
And that leaves one other greatreality. Christ has come;He is the Messiah;
He is God in human flesh; He is building His kingdom. Nothing can stop it. He
will die, He will rise, and finally, He will come again. And that comes to them
in verse 27.
And that’s where we pick up our text together. “Forthe Son of Man shall
come in the glory of His Father with His angels. And then He shall render to
every man according to His works.” This is the first clearrevelation, in the life

of our Lord, of His secondcoming. This is a greattruth for them to hear. He is
Messiah;He is God in human flesh; He will build His kingdom; nothing can
stop it. He will die; He will rise again to prove that even death can’t stopit,
and then He will return in full blazing glory.
Now, this then constitutes the greatGospelmessagewhichbecomes His theme
as He instructs the disciples in the days and weeks andmonths until His death.
And even though they heard the lessons, and even though He gave them again
and again, the fullness of all of it never really dawned on them until after it
had happened. And they beganto look back, and it had meaning that it never
had when first they heard it.
Now, it wasn’ta new messagethat Jesus would come in glory. The prophets
were filled with that message. Isaiahtalkedabout it. The psalmist in Psalm22
talkedabout it. Even David talked about it, that the Messiahwould never be
left to corrupt, but there was coming a greattime of glory. Even the great
Davidic covenantpromised that there would come a King with an everlasting,
glorious kingdom.
And so, Jesus is merely affirming to them the glory that the prophet said
would come to pass through the Messiah. There’s a sense in which, however,
they may have lost that sense of glory because ofthe things that had occurred
in the coming of Christ. He was not taking the glory they thought He would
take. It wasn’tgoing the way they had thought it ought to go. It wasn’t
according to their messianic expectation.
And so, our Lord here adds this most significant dimension, that the last view
the world has of Jesus Christ will not be as a crucified criminal; He will come
againin full glory. The first time He came in rejection, hostility, and death.
Executedas an outcastcriminal. The secondtime He comes in glory, majesty,

dominion, power and might, and is worshipped as King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. And the disciples really need to know this fact.
As the poet said, “He who wept above the grave/He who stilled the raging
wave/Meekto suffer, strong to save/He shall come in glory.
“He who sorrow’s pathwaytrod/He that every goodbestowed/SonofMan and
Son of God/He shall come in glory.
“He who bled with scourging sore/Thorns and scarletmeeklywore/He who
every sorrow bore/He shall come in glory.
“Monarchof the smitten cheek/ScornedofJew and scornedof Greek/Priest
and King divinely meek/He shall come in glory.
“He who died to setus free/He who lives and love even me/He who comes,
whom I shall see/Jesus only – only He – He shall come in glory.”
So, verse 27 is so important to them. It’s perspective they need, you see?
Becauseas it appears, it just doesn’t seemto be unfolding the way they
planned. Verse 27 needs to be seenfrom two vantage points. First, it has a
promise character. It is a promise to those who believe.
For those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, the thought of His
coming is a promise that fills us with greathope and anticipation. Doesn’tit?
And we, like John, say, “Evenso, come Lord Jesus.”We’re like those who
gather under the altar, in the book of revelation and cry out, “How long, oh

Lord, how long? How long will you allow the world to go the wayit goes
before you intervene in glory?” We’re like David, who in the imprecatory
psalms cries out to Godand says, “God, how long will the unrighteous
prosper? When are you going to come and take your glory and bring equity
and justice to the world?”
And there is a great, anticipated promise in the coming of Jesus Christthat
fills our hearts with hope. And, you know, on this particular day, it was a
especiallyneedful. It really was. Becauseif you go back to verse 24, you’ll
remember lasttime that we said Jesus had said, to those disciples, “These are
the conditions of discipleship.”
If you would be a Christian, if you would follow Jesus Christ, if you would
belong to Him, if you would identify with Him, if you would be one of His
own, if you would enter His kingdom, here’s how you come, verse 24 says,
“Denying yourself, bearing your cross, and following in obedience.” Sacrifice.
Self-denial.
You sayno to self; you sayyes to the will of God. You say no to ease and
comfort, and you say yes to a cross. The cross ofrejection, the cross of
persecution, the cross of alienationfrom the people of the world, and maybe
the cross ofmartyrdom, but you carry it willingly. And then you sayto loyal
obedience at any price. Those are the conditions. It’s all sacrificial;it’s all
saying no to the things that allure in the world. It’s all saying no to ease, and
comfort, and money, and pleasure; and saying yes to pain, and struggle, and
persecution, and warfare. And He’s just told them that.
And so, it’s getting a little heavy about now. You know? I mean when they
realize that He was the Messiah, and then He said, “I’ll build my Church, and

the gates ofHades won’t prevail againstit, and I’ll give you the keys of the
kingdom.”
Boy, you can just feeltheir blood pressure begin to rise. And they’re starting
to sense, “It’s going to happen; guys, it’s going to happen. He’s going to take
His kingdom.”
And then He says, “By the way, I have to go to Jerusalemto suffer and be
killed.” And that’s all they heard. And then He says to them, “Notonly do I
have to be killed, but I want you all to take a cross, andI want you all to deny
yourself, and I want you all to follow me no matter what the price. And as
over againstgaining the whole world, I want you to say no to all of that stuff;
follow Me.”
And it really is getting a little heavy. And they see a lot of the pain, but not
much of the gain; and a lot of the suffering, and not much glory; and a lot of
cross, and not a little crown. And the Lord knows that. And the Lord never
gives us more than we can bear, does He? And so, there’s all of a sudden this
light that clicks onin the wonder of what He says, “Look, that isn’t all there
is, men. The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His
angels.” Thathasn’t changed. The plan is on schedule;it’s coming.
Later on, the apostle Paul adds the footnote to this when He says, “The
suffering of this world isn’t evenworthy to be” – what? – “comparedto the
glory that shall be ours with Him,” Romans 8:18. So, it’s a hopeful verse; it’s
filled with promise for them and for us, because we, like them, long for the
coming of Jesus Christ, do we not?

But then it also has a warning character. A warning character. You see, He
has just said in verse 25, “Whosoeversaveshis life will lose it.” You try to
hang onto this world, and you’re going to forfeit eternity. He’s just said, in
verse 26, “What does it matter if you gain the whole world? What goodis it
when you lose your soul? Then what are you going to have to buy your soul
back?”
So, He is saying also, in verse 27, something that is of severe warning in
character. Whatabout you people who do not belong to Jesus Christ? And
you’ve never followedHim, abandoning yourself, taking up the cross. You’ve
never come after Him; you’ve never been obedient to Him; you’ve never
named His holy name. What about you? Well, He’s coming also in glory, and
He’s going to come and act on your behalf just as much as on the behalf of His
own. Forit says at the end of verse 27, “He will render to every man
according to His works.” Everyone.
You see, “Forthe Christian, we love His appearing,” says Paul. “A non-
Christian eagerlydenies His appearing,” says Peter. Becauseit’s always
associatedwith judgment.
And so, there’s a sense in which we understand the beloved apostle John, who
in the vision in Revelation10, took the title deed to the earth representative of
the coming of Jesus Christ, and he sees himself eating it swallowing it and
says, “It is bitter. It is sweetin my mouth and bitter in my stomach.” In other
words, the sweetnessis the promised characterfor the believers, and the
bitterness is the warning characterfor the unbelievers.
And Paul lookedat the coming of Christ in the same way. On the one hand, it
was greatjoy, and he longed for Jesus to come. On the other hand, he said,
“Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.”

And so, because Jesusis coming, it’s joy to our hearts, but at the same time,
it’s sadness to the same hearts. We rejoice in what shall be ours and His, and
we are pained over what shall not be the lot of those who know Him not. But
He will come. For some, that means that a life of self-denial, and a life of cross
bearing, and a life of loyal obedience, and a life of sacrifice is over. And it’ll be
repaid with eternal rest, and eternal riches, and eternal prosperity, and
infinite blessedness. And for some, a life of self-centeredness, self-
circumference, and self-indulgence will end and be replacedby an eternity of
torment, unrest, poverty, and loneliness.
And so, this is a very, very generalword here. He’s not talking about any one
given element of the secondcoming, not one given event in the multiple events
that occurin that greatsecondcoming concept. He’s just talking in a general
sense and saying when He comes, in the fullness of His coming, in the progress
of all those event, everybody’s going to be dealt with. The believers raptured,
immediately takento the judgment seatof Christ to receive their reward for
the things done that were worthwhile, Godproduced. The unbelievers
gatheredfinally at the greatwhite throne from out of the sea and out of the
land and brought before God as the final Judge, and then sent into the second
death, the everlasting hell forever.
And all of those elements of judgment that encompassedthat are sort of
carried on the back of this verse. It’s a generalperspective:Jesus is coming.
Let’s look at it. Verse 27 says, “Forthe Son of Man shall come.” Why does
Jesus callHimself the Son of Man? Well, it is an identification point that He
uses more commonly than any other by far. He most often refers to Himself as
this, and it first of all marks His humanness. It speaks ofHim as the incarnate
God. He is identified with men, one of them.

But in this context, it gets a richer, fuller, more marvelous meaning. And if
you’d like to note that, turn in your Bible to the seventh chapter of Daniel.
Daniel chapter7 and beginning at 9 – the ninth verse – Danielis looking
across the history of the world. And he’s seeing the final wrap-up on human
history. In fact, he sees all the way to the final judgment in verse 9. And he
says in the vision, “I beheld till the thrones were placed, and the Ancient of
Days did sit, whose garmentwas white as snow, and the hair of His head like
pure wool. His throne was like the fiery flame and His wheels as burning fire.”
Now, what is this? Well, this is judgment taking place. The thrones are set,
and the Ancient of Days – that’s God Himself – sits in judgment. His garment
white as snow speaks ofHis purity, His utter and absolute holiness, His hair
like pure woolof His wisdom. His throne like fiery flame. His majesty and His
authority are like wheels and burning fire. It’s a throne on fire is what it is,
with whirling flames at the foot of that throne in consuming judgment,
purging judgment.
In verse 10, “A fiery stream issuedand came forth from before Him” – and
it’s the judgment that comes off the throne and consumes everything in front
of it – “a thousand thousands ministered to Him, ten thousand times ten
thousand stood before Him” – and those are the angelic hosts. And this scene
has a purpose, “Judgment was set, and the books were opened.” God keeps
books, do you know that? The final accounting will be based on objective
data. God has kept the records. Godcan look at the books in judgment. And
then we find, in verses 11 and 12, the destruction of the satanic world leader,
the beast, the Antichrist, the Roman systemthat’s grown up, and the end time
is utterly destroyedand devastated.
And then verse 13 says, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the
Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days,
and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion,

and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages shouldserve
Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and
His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”
And there you have the Son of Man coming in glory to receive the kingdom
from the Fatherand to act, as it were, in harmony with the Fatherin
judgment. And I believe, as you look now, again, at Matthew 16 and verse 27,
when you see the Son of Man coming in the glory of His Fatherwith his angels
to render to every man according to is works, you have another prophesy, like
that of Daniel, which sees Jesus as the Sonof Man, coming as man to judge
men on behalf of the eternalGod.
And so, this is Jesus in judgment, Jesus in glory, Jesus coming to take His
kingdom. And those who belong to Him go into the kingdom, as Matthew 25
says, and those who don’t are thrown out of the kingdom forever.
Now, notice also, in verse 27, it says He will come in the glory of His Father.
Now, glory basicallymust be understood in Scripture. You can’t really
understand so much of what the Bible teaches.But glory is another way to
express the attributes, the nature, the characterofGod. He will come in the
full blazing reality and manifestationof the eternal God.
You see, whenJesus came into the world, His deity was veiled, wasn’tit? He
was among men, but they didn’t know who He was. Theydidn’t receive Him.
They saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. He was not comely.
They didn’t really see the glory; it was so veiled in His humanness. But
there’ll come a time when He returns, and the veil will be pulled back, and He
will come, it says, in the glory of His unveiled Father. Now, that means in a
full display of divine attributes.

You know, you go back to Exodus 33, and Moses says, “Show me Thy glory.”
And what does God say? “I will let all My goodness andgrace and mercy pass
before you.” Moses says, “Letme see Your glory.” Godsays, “I’ll show you
My attributes.” Therefore, gloryequals attributes. And the glory is the
blazing, effulgent manifestationof all that God in His infinite holiness is. It’s
the full Shekinah.
Later on, our Lord says more about this. Look at verse 29 of Matthew 24.
Verse 29 of Matthew 24, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall
the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall
fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” Johnsees
them shakenlike ripe figs on a tree. And as you shake the tree, they just fall.
Elsewhere in the revelation, John sees the heavens rolling up like a scroll, like
when you pull down the blind, and it slips, and it just goes up and rattles
around like this. The whole heaven goes black and just rolls up, and all you
have is that infinite black space. All the lights are out, and God is getting
ready for a show like the world has never seen.
“Then” – verse 30 – “shall appearthe sign of the Sonof Man in heaven, and
all the tribes of the earth shall mourn as the Son of Man comes in the clouds of
heaven with powerand greatglory.” And verse 31 adds that He comes with
His angels. Now, that’s what verse 27 of Matthew 16 is talking about. He
comes in the full glory of the Fatherwith His angels – thousands upon
thousands, as Daniel7 said, upon thousands upon thousands of angels.
And so, He comes in the blazing, unveiled glory of Godinto a black sky,
lighting the whole universe with His blazing glory so that men screamand cry
to hide from that light. The Bible says that when He touches the earth, His

glory will fill the earth. He’ll establishHis kingdom, and then shall we dwell
with Him in glory.
But those who refuse the lovely Savior are castout of His presence forever.
Now, it says in verse 27 that when He comes, it is, at the end of the verse, to
“render to every man according to his works.”To render to every man
according to his works. It’s final accounting, folks. It’s judgment day. And on
what basis will the judgment be made? It’ll be made – listen carefully – on the
basis of works. That’s right. Works.
You say, “Wait a minute.” People have a lot of trouble with this statement.
You say, “We’re savednot by works, but by grace. Don’t you know Ephesians
2:8 and 9, ‘For by grace are you savedthrough faith, that not of yourselves,
not of works, a gift of God?’But it says here “works.”You mean God’s going
to judge me on the basis of my works?”
That’s right; that’s what it says.
You say, “Well, boy, that’s different.”
No, it’s not. That’s all over the New Testament. First Corinthians 3 says He’s
going to judge them on their works. It says it three or four times in that
chapter. SecondCorinthians 5 is going to judge men on their works. That’s
not anything new; that’s all over the Bible. It talks about it in Galatians 6,
Revelation2, Revelation20, Revelation22. And there’s a very important
verse, I think, in Romans 14:12, “So then every one of us shall give accountof
himself to God.”

But let me take you to a key text, Romans 2:6. Romans 2:6. When Jesus comes
in judgment – judgment at the end of verse 5 – “He will render to every man
according to His deeds.” That’s Romans 2:6. He’ll render to everybody
according to His deeds.
Now, it’s not so hard to understand what it’s saying. It is saying this – listen,
and then I’ll explain it – whether you know Jesus Christ or not must be
evidenced by your works. That’s all. They are not how you are saved; they are
the objective verification that you are saved.
It’s just what James said, “Faithwithout works is” – what? – “it’s dead.”
Don’t tell me about your faith without works don’t tell me you’re a Christian
because you sayyou are; let’s see your life. “Many will say, ‘Lord, Lord.’”
And He says, “It’s not those that say, ‘Lord, Lord,’ that come in; it’s those
that do the will of the Father.”
You see, works are not how you’re saved, but they are the evidence that you
are. And so, God, in that final judgment day, uses the objective criteria to
verify, “This is indeed a redeemedperson; here’s the evidence,” “This is
indeed an unredeemed person; here’s the evidence.” And among those who do
not know Jesus Christ, who’ve never taken Him as Savior, there can be no
fruit born, no goodworks, no righteous deeds because Godisn’t there to
produce them. And among those who are saved, God is there. The Holy Spirit
dwelling in the soul of the individual Christian, and there will be the product
that proves the transactionreally occurred. It’s objective criteria. They are
the absolute, objective, evidential indicator of salvation. And that messageis
all over the Scripture.
Verse 7 of Romans 2, “To them who by patient continuance in welldoing seek
for glory, honor, and immortality, I will give eternal life.” In other words, for

those people who pursue righteous things and who seek the heavenly glory,
and the heavenly honor, and the heavenly immortality, I will give them
eternal life.
Now, you and I both know that nobody’s going to seek that kind of thing
unless God’s regeneratedHis heart. Right? Becausein Romans 3, Paul says,
“No man seeksafterGod. None righteous, no, not one.” So, if a person is
pursuing righteousness and pursuing well doing and seeking gloryand honor
and immortality in God’s kingdom, it is evident that Christ has changedHis
heart. And that personreceives eternallife.
“To those who are contentious, who do not obey the truth but obey
unrighteousness, Godgives indignation and wrath.” And then he says it
another way, reversing the order, “Tribulation and anguish upon very soul of
man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek;glory, honor, and
peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek,
for there’s no respectofpersons with God.”
God isn’t putting you in heavenand you in hell just whimsically. He’s not
saying, “I like you better than I like those folks.” He’s simply saying that if
there’s proof in your life that you’ve come to Jesus Christ, you belong in My
kingdom.” And works are the objective criteria.
So, you show me a person who says there’s a Christian, but there’s nothing to
show that it’s true, and without objective criteria, they have no assurance that
they’ll ever enter into God’s kingdom no matter what they may think.
So, this is then a promise, back to Matthew 16. A promise for those who love
Christ. In what sense is it a promise, John? This sense, listen. I look at my life

as a Christian, and I say, “I fail a lot.” Right? And so do you. Isn’t that true?
And sometimes all we can ever see is that. And you sort of scratcharound,
trying to find the stuff that’s good. And then, if you find something you think
you did good, you’ve just corrupted it because you thought it was good, and
now you’ve messedup your motives. And now you’ve injected pride into what
originally was a humble act. It’s really hard, isn’t it?
And so, we all struggle with that same kind of thing, but basically it’s hopeful
for me to know that because I’ve given my heart to Jesus Christ, He is
producing through me works worthy of God’s reward. And someday, when I
stand there, the recordis going to show that there is, in behalf of the life of
John MacArthur, evidence that God changedhis heart.
On the other hand, it’s a warning that no matter how goodyou may think you
are, you’re goodnessis only on a human level, and you’re not having goodness
produced by God unless God lives in you. And you’re going to stand there
that day, and maybe you’re going to say, “Well, I did this, and I did that, and
I did this, and I did that,” and He’s going to say, “I don’t know you.” That’s
just human goodness, not the goodnessproducedb God.
And for the unbeliever, it’ll be a day of such fear it’s hard to describe. I think
the bestdescription given is given by the apostle Paulin these words in 2
Thessalonians chapter1, “This is a manifest tokenof the righteous judgment
of God, the ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you
also suffer, seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to
them that trouble you.” In other words, he says, “God’s going to get those that
persecute.”
“And to you who are troubled, restwith us.” You see, for us who are troubled
and suffer in this life, rest; it’s all going to be all right. The glory’s going to

come. But to the rest, the Lord Jesus will be revealedfrom heaven with His
mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance onthem that know not God
and obey not the Gospelof our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His
powerwhen He shall come to be glorified in His saints.” You see, they’re both
intertwined in the passage, aren’tthey? Restyou saints, your glory’s coming.
Beware you unbelievers, vengeance is coming.
So, when we read, “The Sonof Man is coming in the glory of His Father, with
His angels, and He will render to every man according to His works.” It is
sweetand bitter, isn’t it? For all men, there will be an accounting day; there
will be a day of reckoning and the suffering, self-denying, cross-bearing,
loyally obedient Christians, even though they fail. We’ll have on the record
the evidence that the life of God was in their soul by faith in Jesus Christ. And
their struggling life will be balanced with eternal bliss. And the selfish, sinful,
Christ-rejecting, indulgent folks will face the factthat the accounting shows
and the books indicate no thing ever produced by the powerof God occurred
in their life. And on that basis, they will be given everlasting punishment.
Now, just to saythis to the disciples, it seems inadequate in our Lord’s mind,
and I understand that. I mean here they are, and they’re walking along the
road and going down from where they were in Caesarea Philippi, down into
Galilee. And nothing really spectacularis going on, frankly. You know what
I’m saying? I mean it’s just another day, and the whole plan doesn’t seemto
be working out, and they didn’t think it was working out very well.
And now He’s said He’s going to die. And now He saidto Peter, “Getthee
behind me, Satan.” And then He said, “You better be willing to die for Me
and bear a cross,”and all they could see was all those hundreds of peoples,
that they had seenbefore, walking with a crossbeamto a cross, going to their
own execution. The whole thing is really a little difficult.

And so, they’re in a very real situation where they don’t have any resources:
the kingdom doesn’t seemto be coming; the people don’t acceptHim as
Messiah;the Jews hate Him and want Him dead; and now He’s talking about
dying and them dying, and this is not – when they signedup, this wasn’t the
deal. I mean this was, “Hey, canI sit on your right and left hand in the
kingdom,” stuff; it never came to this.
And now He says to them, “Ah, but the glory will come;the glory will come.”
And you canjust imagine what you’d say, “Oh, yeah, sure; oh, yeah, sure.”
That’s so far away, isn’t it? I mean it’s so remote. I mean that’s a nice
thought, but you’re overwhelmedby the reality of what is. Have you noticed
that? You know, we’re that way. We get literally drowned in what is. And we
have this little, tiny thought, “Oh, yeah, the secondcoming. Yeah it’s going to
come, and we’re going to go and – oh, yeah; I know that.” But we lose the
purifying hope that that reality is supposedto create, because we don’t really
live in the vividness of that.
So, the Lord doesn’t just say to them, “That’s the way it’s going to be.” He
illustrates it to them in a absolutely dramatic and unforgettable, life-changing
way. He goes one stepfurther because He know they’re a tough case. Their
faith is week. I mean the subtitle of that group was the Oh Ye of Little Faith
Association.
So, in verse 28, look what He says, “Verily I say unto you” – and wheneverHe
says “truly I say unto you” or “verily,” it’s something very important – “there
are some standing here who shall not taste of death” – that’s a Jewishphrase

simply meaning not to drink the cup of death, not to die – “some ofyou won’t
die until you see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Now, that is
amazing.
And you say, “Somewhere in this world, there are some very old fellows.”
Has anybody found them? How – how – what is this? “Some standing here
will not taste death.” Well, first it was only some. Mostdid taste death before
they saw Him, just some wouldn’t. Mostwould die before they saw Him, but
some wouldn’t.
And commentators come to this verse, and it’s amazing what happens to their
thinking. First of all, may I note for you that what He is saying, I think, in
verse 28, best could be translatedthis way: “Some of you standing here shall
not taste of death till they see the Sonof Man coming in His royal majesty.”
You have the right, with the term basileia used 150 plus times in the New
Testament, to render it not only as the kingdom itself, but the kingliness of the
King in regalsplendor, royal majesty. In fact, you might put that there in
your text, because that’s the best way to see this, “There are some of you
standing here who will not die until you see the Sonof Man coming in His
royal majesty, His regalsplendor.”
Now, what does that mean? Well, some commentators suggestedit means the
resurrection, that He came out of the grave in royal splendor. Some suggestit
means the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, that the Spirit of
God came in the majesty and so forth, and all that happened in the birth of
the Church.

Others saythat it was the destruction of Jerusalemin 70 A.D., when He came
down in judgment againstthe apostate Israeland, using the royal army,
wiped them out. And some have even suggestedthat it refers to a spiritual
coming when Christ comes and enters into your heart.
Well, all those are wrong. All those things happened, but they don’t have
anything to do with this verse. It can’t be the resurrection, because the
resurrectionis never expressedby the verb “coming,” it’s the first step in Him
going back to heaven. And it can’t be Pentecost, because He didn’t come. Who
did? The Holy Spirit. And it can’t be the destruction of Jerusalem, because it
says some of you will see the Son of Man, and nobody saw Him there. And it’s
just mystical to make it some spiritual coming.
If you want to know what it means, you just have to keepreading, folks. And
unfortunately, they stuck a chapter deal in here, and then a bunch of other
headings and a few other verses you could look up, when you ought to have
these things flow together.
And may I suggestto you an interesting thought? This same promise, “Some
of you are not standing,” and so forth – “Some ofyou standing will not see
death,” appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And in all three caseswhere it
appears, it is immediately followed, every single time, by the same incident so
that what the Lord is simply doing is interpreting what He just said by what
happens. “Some of you standing here shall not die till you see the Son of Man
in regalsplendor.” You know what they were about to get? A personal,
private preview of secondcoming glory. It’s exactlywhat they were going to
get.
Do you want to getin on it? Verse 1, “After six days, Jesus takesPeter, James,
and John his brother” – that’s it, just those three; that’s the “some” who

didn’t die till they saw Him in regalsplendor. The rest died, folks, before they
saw Him in regalsplendor, because they haven’t – He hasn’t come in regal
splendor yet.
But these three weren’t going to die until they saw this. And it only came six
days later; brought them into a high mountain privately. “And He was
transfigured before them; and His face did shine like the sun, and His
garment” – or raiment –“wasas white as the light.” You know what
happened? God flipped the switch and turned on deity on the inside. And the
blazing light came from the inside out. And then to add to this, there appeared
Moses andElijah talking with Him. Now, this was an overwhelming scene.
“And Petersaid to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is goodfor us to be here.’” Man, this is
what we’ve been waiting for, and this is it. And then he makes a really dumb
suggestion, “Letus build three booths: one for You, and one for Moses, and
one for Elijah.” His idea was just to live there permanently, never go back
down.
“While he yet spoke, a bright cloud overshadowedthem.” God had another
plan. “Behold, a voice, out of the cloud, which said, “This is My beloved Son,
in whom I am well-pleased;hear ye Him!” Now, the disciples, according to
Luke, were already terrorized, and this didn’t help.
“And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face and were very much
terrified. And Jesus came and touched them and said, ‘Arise, be not afraid.’
And when He had lifted up their eyes” – they had lifted up their eyes – “they
saw no man except Jesus only.” And you could stop there.

What an experience, huh? They went on this little retreat into the mountain
privately with the Lord. And Luke says they were sleeping. They often did
that. Jesus was praying, and they were sleeping. Same thing. And in the
middle of this prayer of Jesus, and just as they were coming out of their sleep,
He pulls the veil back and says, “Ijust want you fellows to know that when I
said I was coming in glory, I meant it. And He pulls the veil of His flesh back,
and He shines like the sun at midday. And they’re terrified. And then comes
the voice of God, and Moses and Elijah, and it’s overwhelming. It is a preview
of the secondcoming. Every single, minute thing that happened depicts an
element of the secondcoming. An incredible event.
It changedPeter’s life. It changedhis life. It became the theme of His message.
You read 1 Peteror 2 Peter, basicallythe theme is the secondcoming. “Don’t
worry about your pain, don’t worry about your suffering, folks; He’s coming.
He’s coming.” And if you want to have somebodyinterpret that passage
properly for you, all you have to do is listen to what Petersaid.
SecondPeterchapter 1. The one thing Peterknew Jesus woulddo was return.
And the resurrection just verified it. He sortof waneda little bit when Jesus
died, but he was strengthenedby the resurrection. And this became His great
anticipation. And I believe he was literally consumed with the coming of Jesus
Christ.
And when he wrote 2 Peter1, in verse 16, he says, “We have not followed
cunningly devisedfables, when we made known unto you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He says, “Whenwe go around preaching
that Jesus is coming in power and glory, this isn’t some human fable; we
didn’t make this up. We were eyewitnessesofHis royal majesty. We were
eyewitnesses ofHis regalsplendor.”

When was that? You were? “ForHe receivedfrom God the Fatherhonor and
glory. It was when there came a voice to Him from the excellentglory, ‘This is
My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” And you know Peternever
forgotthat. I mean he was a basketcase whenthat voice came out of that
cloud. That’s when it was.
“And this voice” – verse 18 – “which came from heaven, we heard when we
were with Him in the holy mount.” That was just an ordinary mount, but
after that night, it was a holy mount. Petersays, “WhenI preach the second
coming, folks, I’m not – I mean I’m not just talking about something I hope
happens. I gota glimpse of glory; I gota preview of the secondcoming.
Firsthand, private preview.
And dear, belovedJohn, who was there, also said, “Forthe Word became
flesh” – John 1:14 – “and dwelt among us.” And then He says this, “We
beheld His” – what? – “glory.” Notveiled, but glory as the only begottenof
the Father, full of grace and truth. They saw the partially unveiled glory of
God and the transfiguration did Peterand John, and they wrote about it.
James didn’t write about it because James didn’t write anything, but I bet he
talkeda lot about it.
Well, the Lord is so gracious. He didn’t just stay, “I’m going to come.” He
said, “I’m going to come;now, I want to show you.”
It’s just like Moses. Mosessays, “Lord, You say You’re going to direct me;
You sayyou’re going to do this. Show me Your glory.”
And He says, “All right, Moses, I’ll show you My glory.” And He takes Moses,
in Exodus 33, tucks him in a rock, let’s a little of His back parts glory go by,

and he gets it all over his face, and then Moses knows, “Yep, yep, God’s going
to go with me. See His glory.”
And here are the same kind of situation existing again. The disciples are
awaiting to hear, and He says, “Yeah, I’m going to come in glory.”
And they’re wondering, “Oh is that right? How do we know?”
And He says, “All right, come on, I’ll show you.” And he takes them in the
mountain and shows them His glory. And it isn’t just for their behalf. It’s for
your behalf as well and mine so that this isn’t pie in the sky;this is confirmed
by Peter; this is confirmed by John.
And Peterwrites, at the end of 2 Peterand says, “I know in the lastdays,
mockers are going to come, and scoffers are going to come, and they’re going
to say, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? All things continue as they were
from the beginning.’”
“Nothing ever changed; we’re just in this continuum of evolutionary
[mumble]. You know? And what do you mean Jesus is coming again? Why,
He hasn’t ever come;nothing ever changed.”
And Petersays, “Have you forgottenthe flood? And just as God destroyed the
world by waterone time, He’s going to destroy it in the fiery, furious
judgment when Jesus comes.” And then Petersays this, “Seeing these things
shall come to pass, what manner of persons art ye to be in all holy living and
godliness?”

That’s the message, folks. Jesus is coming. He previewedit for us. We’re going
to see every detail of that preview next Sunday. But He’s coming. You’re
going to be judged by your works. I mean the recordis going to show it. You
can’t hide it. There’s no escape. Forthose ofus who love the Lord Jesus
Christ, there’s a sweetness aboutHis coming; it is a promise filled with hope.
For those who do not know Jesus Christ, it is a warning filled with terror.
Let’s bow in prayer.
Father, we thank You for the greattruth that Jesus is coming. Thank You for
telling us. Knowing that he that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as
He is pure. Oh may we, in anticipating the coming of Jesus Christ, learn what
manner of persons we ought to be. For when He comes, He comes to judge the
world. And may we know that the only way we can have a recordof works
that shall stand and gain us entrance into the kingdom is to have come to
Christ in saving faith and to have our hearts changed by the transforming
work of the Spirit of Godto produce righteousness.
Father, I pray that You’ll convictevery heart in this place, every person
listening to this messagewho has not embraced Jesus Christ, may right now
be the moment when they say, “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died
and rose for me and comes again, and I want to be ready when He comes. I
give Him my life in self-denial, cross bearing, and loyal obedience to gain
eternity.”
A. MACLAREN
Verse 27 confirms all the preceding by the solemn announcement of the
coming of the Sonof Man as Judge. Mark the dignity of the words. He is to
come ‘in the glory of the Father.’ That ineffable and inaccessible light which

rays forth from the Fatherenwraps the Son. Their glory is one. The waiting
angels are ‘His.’ He renders to every man according to his doing (his actions
consideredas one whole). Thus He claims for Himself universal sway, and the
powerof accuratelydetermining the whole moral characterofevery life, as
well as that of awarding preciselygraduatedretribution. They surely shall
then find their lives who have followedHim here.
ALBERT BARNES
Matthew 16:27
For the Son of man … - That is, he will return to judge the world.
He will come in glory the glory of his Father the majesty with which God is
accustomedto appear, and which befits God. He will be attended by angels.
He will judge all people.
Reward- The word “reward” means recompense. He will deal with them
according to their character. The righteous he will reward in heaven with
glory and happiness. The wickedhe will send to hell, as a rewardor
recompense for their evil works. This fact, that he will come to judgment, he
gives as a reasonwhy we should be willing to deny ourselves and follow him.
Even though it should be now attended with contempt and suffering, yet then
he will reward his followers for all their shame and sorrow, and receive them
to his kingdom. He adds Mark 8:38, that if we are ashamedof him here, he
will be ashamedof us there. That is, if we rejectand disown him here, he will
rejectand disown us there.

ARTHUR CARR
Matthew 16:27
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.
27. For] The reasongiven why the higher life—the soul—is of priceless value:
(1) The Judge is at hand who will condemn self-indulgence and all the works
of the lowerlife, and will reward those who have denied themselves. (2)
Further (Matthew 16:28) this judgment shall not be delayed—it is very near.
The same motive for the Christian life is adduced by St Paul, Php 4:5, “Let
your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” Cp. 1
Corinthians 16:22.
ADAM CLARKE
Verse 27
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father - This seems to refer
to Daniel 7:13, Daniel 7:14. "Behold, one like the Son of man came - to the
ancient of Days - and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a
kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages should serve him." This
was the glorious Mediatorialkingdom which Jesus Christ was now about to
setup, by the destructionof the Jewishnation and polity, and the diffusion of
his Gospelthrough the whole world. If the words be takenin this sense, the
angels or messengers may signify the apostles andtheir successorsin the

sacredministry, preaching the Gospelin the powerof the Holy Ghost. It is
very likely that the words do not apply to the final judgment, to which they
are generallyreferred; but to the wonderful display of God's grace and power
after the day of pentecost.
JOHN GILL
Verse 27
For the son of man shall come in the glory of his Father,.... This is a reason,
proving the truth of what is before asserted, thatmen's lives may be lostby
saving them, and be found by losing them, whatever paradoxes they may seem
to be; and that the loss of a soul is irrecoverable, and no compensationcan be
made for it; and points out the time, when all this will appear: for nothing is
more certain, and to be depended upon, than that Christ, who, though he was
then a mean and contemptible man, and attended with the sinless infirmities
of human nature, wherefore he calls himself, "the son of man", should come;
either a secondtime to judgment at the last day, in the same glory as his
Father, as his Son, equal with him, and clothed, with power and authority
from him, and as mediator, to execute judgment: with his angels;the Holy
Ones, so the Syriac and Persic versions read, and so some copies;who will add
to the glory of his appearance;and will be employed in gathering all nations
before him, and in executing his will: or, in his power, to take vengeance on
the Jewishnation; on those that crucified him, or did not believe in him, or
desertedand apostatisedfrom him. And then he shall rewardevery man
according to his works, or work;either that particular actionof putting him
to death, or their unbelief in him, or desertionof him; or any, or all of their
evil works, they had been guilty of: for though good works are not the cause of
salvation, nor for which men will be rewarded;though they may be brought
into judgment, as proofs and evidences of true faith, in the person, blood, and
righteousness ofChrist, by which goodmen will be acquitted and discharged;

yet evil works will be the cause of condemnation, and the rule of judgment;
and the reasonof adjudging to temporal punishment here, and eternal
destruction hereafter.
MATTHEW HENRY
The greatencouragementto steadfastnessin religion is takenfrom the second
coming of Christ, considering it,
[1.] As his honour The Sonof man shall come in the glory of his Father, with
his angels. To look upon Christ in his state of humiliation, so abased, so
abused, a reproach of men, and despisedof the people, would discourage his
followers from taking any pains, or running any hazards for him but with an
eye of faith to see the Captain of our salvationcoming in his glory, in all the
pomp and power of the upper world, will animate us, and make us think
nothing too much to do, or too hard to suffer, or him. The Son of man shall
come. He here gives himself the title of his humble state (he is the Son of man),
to show that he is not ashamed to own it. His first coming was in the meanness
of his children, who being partakers offlesh, he took part of the same but his
secondcoming will be in the glory of his Father. At his first coming, he was
attended with poor disciples at his secondcoming, he will be attended with
glorious angels and if we suffer with him, we shall be glorified with him, 2
Timothy 2:12.
[2.] As our concernThen he shall rewardevery man according to his works.
Observe, First, Jesus Christ will come as a Judge, to dispense rewards and
punishments, infinitely exceeding the greatestthat any earthly potentate has
the dispensing of. The terror of men's tribunal (Matthew 10:18) will be taken
off by a believing prospectof the glory of Christ's tribunal. Secondly, Men will

then be rewarded, not according to their gains in this world, but according to
their works, according to what they were and did. In that day, the treachery
of backsliders will be punished with eternaldestruction, and the constancyof
faithful souls recompensedwith a crown of life. Thirdly, The bestpreparative
for that day is to deny ourselves, and take up our cross, and follow Christ for
so we shall make the Judge our Friend, and these things will then pass well in
the account. Fourthly, The rewarding of men according to their works is
deferred till that day. Here goodand evil seemto be dispensed promiscuously
we see not apostasypunished with immediate strokes,nor fidelity encouraged
with immediate smiles, from heavenbut in that day all will be set to rights.
Therefore judge nothing before the time, 2 Timothy 4:6-8.
PETER PETT
Verse 27
“Forthe Sonof man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and
then will he render to every man according to his deeds.”
The lastpart of this verse is cited from Psalms 62:12 where it is God Who
does this. For in the end all must be judged in the light of the final day. One
day Jesus will come as the Sonof Man, coming in the full glory of His Father,
the glory that He had with Him before the world was (John 17:5),
accompaniedby His angels, those angels who had remained faithful to God
from the beginning, and they will then render to every man in accordance
with what he has done. None will escape the searching eye of God. Forall
things are open to Him with Whom we have to do. The only thing that will not
have to be accountedfor is forgiven sin.

‘The glory of the Father’ does not just indicate glorious light. It indicates all
the resourcesofthe Father. For in the Old Testamenta king’s or nation’s
‘glory’ was oftenits armies and its wealth(e.g. Isaiah8:7; Isaiah 10:3; Isaiah
16:14;Isaiah 17:3; etc.).
For those who are truly His this will be a glorious day. The dead in Christ will
rise first, and then those who are alive and remain will be takenup to be for
ever with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The electwill be gatheredin
(Matthew 24:31). The wheat will be gatheredinto the barn (Matthew 3:12;
Matthew 13:30; Matthew 13:43). And then in that day they will receive
according to what they have done, as the Lord rewards His own (Romans
14:10;1 Corinthians 3:13; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:10). But for
those who are not His, who have not heard His words and done them, there
will only be ‘outer darkness’and the weeping and gnashing of teeth as they
see that they have lost everything by their folly (Matthew 8:11-12;Matthew
13:42;Matthew 13:50;Matthew 22:13; Matthew 24:51; Matthew 25:30). For
them there will be no glory and no light, only everlasting destructionfrom the
presence ofthe Lord, and from the glory of His power (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
The fact that the Son of Man comes in the glory of the Father is an indication
that He has previously come to God in the clouds to receive His Kingship and
glory (Daniel 7:14), for that is why He canreturn in that glory to deliver His
people and judge the world. So when the next verse speaks ofHim ‘coming in
His Kingly Rule’ (but not in His glory) it may be seenas suggesting a
distinction betweenthe coming in Kingly Rule and the coming in glory
(compare His distinction in Luke 4:19 between‘the acceptable yearof the
Lord’ and ‘the day of vengeance ofour God’, the latter of which He omits
because it was not coming at the same time. In the same wayin Matthew
16:28 he omits the glory).

JOHN TRAPP
Verse 27
27 For the Sonof man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels;
and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
Ver. 27. In the glory of his Father with his angels]Greatwill he the glory of
the man Christ Jesus athis secondcoming. He shall come riding on the clouds
(not that he needs them, but to show his sovereignty), environed with flaming
fire, mounted on a statelythrone, attended by an innumerable company of
angels (for they shall all come with him, not one of them left in heaven, 2
Thessalonians 1:7; Matthew 25:31), who shall minister unto him in this great
work irresistibly, justly, speedily, Revelation15:6, Christ himself shining in
the midst of them, with such an exuberance and excess ofglory, as that the
sun shall seembut a snuff to him. This glory, howeverit is here called "The
glory of the Father," because he is the fountain, as of the Deity so of the divine
glory wherewith Christ is crowned, Philippians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; yet is it
his ownglory (as he is one with the Fatherand the Holy Ghost), and so it is
called, Matthew 25:31; John 17:5. Now if Israel so shouted for joy at
Solomon’s coronation, and in the day of his espousals, thatthe earth rang
again, 1 Kings 1:40; Song of Solomon3:11; if the Grecians so criedout "
Soter, soter" Saviour, Savior, to Flaminius the Roman general, when he had
setthem at liberty, that the very birds, astonishedat the noise, fell down to the
earth: oh, how greatshall be the saints’ joy to see Christ the King in his
beauty and bravery at the last judgment!

DANIEL WHEDON
Verse 27
27. For — This particle shows that the verse which it introduces explains and
enforces the considerationofthe previous verses. To save one’s life to gainthe
world with the loss of the soul, is a bad bargain, for the judgment day is
coming. Shall come — From heaven at the end of the world. In the glory of his
Father… angels — The same words describe the scenic splendour of his
judgment advent in Matthew 24:31. Reward — Forevery suffering there shall
then be a compensation. In view of this reward at the judgment day, they were
to toil and suffer for the consummation (described in the next verse) of
Christ’s kingdom on earth.
The GospelAccording to Matthew
By
G. Campbell Morgan, D.D.
Copyright © 1929
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
MATTHEW 16:21-28
THE words with which this paragraphopens indicate a new beginning in the
mission of the
King. “Fromthat time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that
he must go
unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things . . . and be killed, and be raised again
the third

day.”
We are not necessarilyto understand that He at once said all these things
exactly in this form. He
then beganto tell them these things. This declarationis Matthew’s summary,
and constitutes the
key to the final sectionof the Gospel. The ministry of Jesus was no longer
mainly a ministry to
the multitudes, but a ministry to His own. He devoted himself largely to
preparing them for the
experience of His Passion. PresentlyHe went up to Jerusalemin solemnand
Kingly glory in
order to denounce and rejectthe whole Hebrew nation. Finally we see Him
passing through the
Passionexperiencesto complete triumph.
From here, then, to the end, we see the King:
- First, unveiling His Cross to His own disciples;
- Secondly, authoritatively and officially casting off the Hebrew nation;
- Thirdly, giving His disciples the program of the coming economy;
- Finally, passing to His Passion, andHis triumph.
At the commencementof this division dealing with the Passionofthe King, we
have this section;
and there is a sense in which everything that follows is mirrored in this scene.
It is, as it were, a
preface to the rest. In it we see all the principles operating discoveredto the
end of the story.

These, moreover, are the principles of actionfrom then until now, and
throughout the whole of
this age. The understanding of these is absolutely necessaryto us at all times
as we face our work
for our Lord and Master.
The first matter of importance is that of the antagonismrevealed.
Christ beganto talk of His Cross, and Peterat once objected. Fora moment,
very reverently, let
us forget the persons, Christ and Peter, and see the antagonistic principles.
The contrastis made plain in the words,
“The things that be of God – those that be of men” “Fromthat time forth
beganJesus to
shew 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 againthe
third day. Then
Petertook him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord:
this shall not
be unto thee.”
Jesus beganto saythat He must suffer; Peter beganto object and to say, “Be
it far from Thee,
Lord.” The things of God are Christ’s estimate of necessityand of method.
The Son of Man “must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer . . . and be killed . . . and
be raised
again.”

The things of men are revealedin Peter’s thought, “Lord, not that; pity
Thyself, have mercy upon
Thyself; that be far from Thee;anything but that.”
- The things of God; the method of the Cross that merges into the victory of
resurrection.
- The things of men; the method of self-seekingthat shuns the Cross, and ends
in ultimate
destruction.
Let us look at these things of God more carefully. “Fromthat time forth
beganJesus to shew
unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem.”
Jerusalemwas the place of danger and peril. The line of policy was to miss
Jerusalem. The line
of expediency, from human standards, was that, whereverelse He went, He
should not go to
Jerusalem. And He beganby saying The Son of Man “must go unto
Jerusalem.” The emphasis
of that “must” continues throughout the statement. “He must . . . suffer many
things,” and
“must . . . be killed,” and “must . . . be raisedagainthe third day.”
If we thus repeatthe “must” before eachof these declarations we notice that
there is a value in
the “must” which may be interpreted along the line of human experience and
passion, and that
there is a value in the “must” which defies any such interpretation. There is a
sense in which the
“must” was the “must” of human surroundings.

“He must . . . suffer . . . and be killed,” because thatwas the natural outcome
of all that He had
been saying and doing.
It had been made perfectly evident in the period of the propaganda that men
would not have
Him, that they would rejectHim. They were declining His ethic, refusing His
ideal, laughing at
Him, and attempting to get rid of Him; and He said to His disciples, “There is
only one issue to
all this; I am compelledto go to Jerusalem, I must suffer, I must be killed.”
It was heroism, if we only look at it from the low level of human standpoint.
Why must He?
These men would not have made Him suffer, and would not have killed Him if
He would have
accommodatedthe standard of His teaching to their ideals. But in the mind of
the King there was
the “must” of a tremendous conviction, and an absolute loyalty to that
conviction.
It was as though Jesus said:
- I cannotlower My standard,
- I cannotdeny My ideal,
- I cannotunsay My manifesto.
- I have not been uttering theories which I have learned in schools, andwhich
can be abandoned
upon occasion.
- I have talkedout of the fiber of My personality.

I must. And the “must” means that men who have shown their hostility will
carry it out to
consummation, and I shall suffer and die. But that is not the deepestnote. His
last word was not
of suffering. He did not end with dying. There was another must. He must be
“raisedagain.”
- That was not the language merely of an obedient man.
- It was not the language ofa man who said; “Well, I have done my best and I
am prepared to die
for it.”
- It was the language of One Who knew that He held in His own hands the
issue of all the way
through which He was going.
“I am Masterof the suffering, Masterof the killing. I must be raised again.”
That was the “must” of the Divine procedure. I must go unto Jerusalem;and
the immediate result
will be that I shall suffer and be killed; but beyond that will operate the divine
power; I must be
raisedup.
- That “must” was older than the circumstances.
- That “must” came thundering in music out of eternity.
When Jesus setHis face towardJerusalem, saying, I must go, and I must
suffer, and I must be
killed, and I must be raised up again, the force propelling Him was not merely
the force of

human devotion to an ideal, it was the force of His ownagelesslife; the Divine
and eternal
counsels ofGod were operating in Him and through Him, and driving Him
along that pathway.
That is what Peter, who misunderstood Him for a little while, came to
understand presently.
When we turn to the Acts of the Apostles and listen to Peterpreaching for the
first time in the
powerof Pentecost, the man who had shunned the Cross becausehe did not
under-stand it, said,
“Him” that is, Jesus “being delivered up by the determinate counseland
foreknowledgeof
God, ye have taken, and by wickedhands have crucified and slain.”
Thus he put the “must” back upon its true basis. He came at lastto know that
when Jesus said
“must,” He spoke with the authority of the eternal counselof God, and was
acting under the
impulse of the things that are ageless andabiding; that He knew all the
movements of eternity;
that he saw through the mists of the moment all that lay beyond; past the
bloody baptism of His
Passionto the radiant morning of His crowning. These are “the things of
God.”
But what are “the things of men”?
First, the things of men are characterizedby their lack. Peterdid not see the
ultimate, did not feel

the original. He lived in the small conceptions ofthe immediate. That is always
faulty and a
failure. No man canlive this hour unless he feels behind him the infinite
movement of the ages
gone, and before him the infinite pull of the ages unborn. If we live in the
powerof the things
unseen we march to certain victory.
Peter, in his letter, subsequently referred to those who see only the things
which are near, having
forgottenthe cleansing. Near-sightedness!Peterwas suffering from it at this
point. He did not
hear the music of the past; did not see the light of the future; his was the
limited outlook, and
therefore the present was misunderstood. And this was the attitude of all the
disciples. They
fearedthe present, and that because ofthe enthronement of self.
They were still living for self, they were still considering self. Jesus Christ was
so absolutely
void of self-centeredlife that it did not matter to Him what suffering He
endured if the greatand
ultimate victory should be achieved.
We read, “Forthe joy that was setbefore Him,” He “endured the Cross.” Not
the joy of His
own victory but of God’s victory. It was His joy to know that God, through
the processesofHis
suffering, would win His victory and triumph.

Petersaw only the things of men; present darkness, presentpain, and present
suffering. When he
said to Jesus, “Be it far from Thee,” he was speaking in affection, but it was
near-sighted
affection.
When we stand in the presence ofa soul suffering in the will of God, and
employ such words as
these, are we not asserting our own inability to bear that very pain, and is not
that a refined form
of the assertionofself-love within us?
- A self-centeredman is self-circumferenced;
- A God-centeredman is a God-circumferencedman,
- To be God-circumferencedis to take in past eternity and coming eternity.
Peter, being self-centered, was self-circumferenced, and being self-
circumferencedlived in the
dust of an hour, and saw only the pain of a process,and none of the glory of
the ultimate issue.
But these are antagonistic ideals, they are mutually destructive.
The things of God are a stumbling-block to the man who is minding the things
of men. Christ
placed before Peterthe methods of His work, told him of the Cross, and it was
a stumblingblock. That is what Paul said in writing to the Corinthians, “The
Cross . . . unto the Jews a
stumbling-block.” A man minding the things of men always finds the Cross a
stumbling-block.
But it is equally true that the things of men are a stumbling-block to him who
minds the things of

God.
There is a very remarkable scene here. Petertook Him aside, just a little way
from all the rest,
and beganto rebuke Him. We must not softenthat word. Indeed, if we would
have the real
meaning of it, we must make it a little harsher. He chided Him, he was angry
with Him. He said,
What is coming to Your Kingdom if You die? How are You going to do the
things You hope to
do?
Then Jesus turned.
Probably He turned from him; He turned His back upon him, and His face to
the other disciples;
and said, “Getthee behind Me, Satan: thou art an offense (stumbling-block)
unto Me.”
The man who loves Jesus, but who shuns God’s method, is a stumblingblock
to Him.
A little while before Jesus had said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build My
Church.” Now He said: “Thou art a skandalon, a rock of offence, a rock still,
but a rock in the
way; a rock lying across Mypathway to hinder Me.”
He turned His back upon. him because the “must” of eternity was upon His
Spirit. Thus with
sternness and severity He rebuked the man who, minding the things of men
had ventured to
rebuke Him, a Man Who was minding the things of God.

How often the very stones ofChrist’s Church have become stones of
stumbling in His way?
When does a man become a scandalto the Church?
- When he obtrudes his view of method as againstGod’s view of method;
- When he tries to build God’s Kingdom without God’s Cross, and without
God’s suffering;
- When he ventures to say in answerto the “must” of God spokenfrom the
lips of Jesus, Notthat
way, that is a mistake, but by some easiermethod; when he attempts to make
the method of His
victory easy.
Every suggestionofthis age which leads us to imagine that we may bring His
Kingdom in by
softness and by sweetness, withoutblood and suffering, and agony, is a
scandal, a stumblingblock.
In view of that mistake of Peter our Lord restatedthe terms of His
discipleship: “If any man will
come after Me.”
They all wantedto, they all loved Him, they all had affection for Him. He said,
If this is so, if
any man desires to come after me let him: First “Denyhimself;” and secondly,
“Take up his
Cross.”
Let us considerthose conditions carefully.
Denying of self is far more than self-denialin our usual sense ofthat term.

Perhaps we may best illustrate it by declaring that we have no right to make
any sacrifice for
Jesus Christ which He does not appoint. When a man takes on him some
effort of sacrifice,
simply because he thinks sacrifice is the right thing, and does not wait for
orders, he is as surely
a skandalonto his Lord as when he does not deny himself and take up his
cross atthe command
of the Master.
The true disciple chooses neithersong nor dirge, neither sunshine nor
shadow;has no choice but
to know his Master’s will and to do it. If He appoint for us the blue waters of
the lake and all the
sunshine of the summer, then let us rejoice therein, and not vex our souls
because we know no
suffering and pain. If He appoint a via dolorosa and a sunless sky, then God
make us willing to
take the way, because the way is His appointment. We must be in His will if
we are to cooperate
with Him. The program of the disciple is expressedin these words, “Follow
Me.”
That is, make the “must” of My life the “must” of your life. I must. Does not
that mean
suffering? It may, or it may not. Suffering is not the deepestthing in the
“must.” The deepest
thing is this; I must cooperate with the purpose of God, whatsoeverit may be.
I must co-operate

with Him towards that resurrectionthat means ransom and redemption.
On the way there may be the suffering and the killing there surely will be
some measure of it but
the suffering and the killing are not the deepestthings. The deepestthing is
that we get into touch
with God and do His will; and whether it be laughter or crying, sorrowing or
sighing, the secret
of life is to follow Him on the pathway of loyalty to the Divine will.
He explained this in gracious terms when He said:
“Whosoeverwill save his life shall lose it; and whosoeverwilllose his life for
My sake shall
find it.”
This is the commonplace philosophy of true life. It is always so. Find any man
who is always
saving his life, and he will lose it.
- The way to lose our physical life is always to be saving it.
- The way to lose our mental life is to be careful that it never feels the storms
and bruises of
passion.
- The way to lose our spiritual life is to be so perpetually anxious to getinto
heaven that we
never move into line with God in His work for the building of His Kingdom
here on earth.
Then the King made His appealin two questions: “What is a man profited, if
he shall gain the

whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for
his soul? For
the Sonof Man shall come in the glory.”
The Judge will be the Lord, Whose Cross youwill not share to-day. To whom
will you appeal
from His verdict? The lastthrone is His throne, and at the final assize He
presides.
If you save your life to-day, how will you buy it back, for the Man for Whom
you will not suffer
is the Man coming to reign in His glory?
The final appeal, therefore, is that we fall into line with His progress, and with
the things of God;
because He is also to come in the glory of His Father;and the glory of His
Father is the
outworking in history of the things of God upon which His heart and mind
were setin the days
of His flesh. And that means, first of all, a facing of the Cross.
The antagonismabides. We need not go far to find it; we can find it in our
own heart.
- We hearin our own heart the searching and tremendous voice saying, “I
must.”
- We hearalso in our own heart something that says;Not that, let me escape
that, let that be far
from me.
To which are we going to yield?
Let us in imagination hurry back to the rockyplaces of CaesareaPhilippi and
ask ourselves,

Which “must” shall master us? Are we going with Him in the will of God,
enwrapped by the
forces of eternity, to suffer and to triumph; or are we going to stand alone,
saving our own
miserable lives, and so lose them?
May God help us to decision.
~ end of chapter 48 ~
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/
***
Matthew 16:27
by Grant | Jan10, 2009 | Matthew | 0 comments
ReadIntroduction to Matthew
27Forthe Son of Man will come in the glory of His Fatherwith His angels,
and then He will reward eachaccording to his works.”
For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels,

This is the first mention of the SecondComing of Christ in the New
Testament. He will come with angels atthat time, with the glory of God. The
“Sonof Man” refers to the humanity of Christ; Jesus will come in human
form.
and then He will reward eachaccording to his works [deeds].
At His SecondComing Jesus will judge eachperson according to his deeds
(Ro 2:5-8). Jesus will put on review the life of every personwho ever lived.
This passagedoes notrefer to salvation. Deeds are not the way of salvation
but the outcome of salvation. Jesus referredin generalto a future time of
recompense.
PRINCIPLE:
Remembrance of the glory of Christ’s SecondComing puts things in
perspective.
APPLICATION:
We keepeternalvalues in view by anticipation of the coming of Christ. We
will meet Him one day face-to-face. We will see what is important at that time.
This enables us to cultivate a sense of priorities and values in this life.

The Cross Thenthe Crown
Matthew 16:21-28
(The following text is taken from a sermonpreached by Gil Rugh.)
1. Jesus ProphesiesHis Death and Resurrection
2. The Revelationof Christ Regarding His Suffering
3. PeterUsed as Satan’s Instrument
4. Christ DealtWith Temptation
5. PeterStill Useful
6. Christ Explains Suffering First, Then Glory
7. The Reasonfor Denying Self
8. Christ Promises His Return
Matthew 16:21-28 is a turning point in Jesus’ministry. Matthew has been
building to this point for a number of
chapters. In Matthew 16 the emphasis in Jesus’ministry changedfrom the
kingdom He will establish for Israelto the
sufferings and death He would experience atJerusalem. Jesus began
preparing His disciples for that coming time at
Jerusalem.
In Matthew 16:13-20, Christgave some clearrevelation concerning His own
person and the plan of God that will be
carried out both before the kingdom is establishedand then in the kingdom.
After clearly establishing the fact that He

is the Sonof the living God, Christ moved on to tell His disciples that He is
going to build the Church. He made clear
to them that the Church does not replace the kingdom, but the kingdom will
follow the Church. Then He focusedtheir
attention on the events which will transpire next. The thrust of the remaining
verses of Matthew 16 is on the place of
suffering in the ministry of Christ and in the life of the believer.
One of my hobbies is collecting old leather-bound books. On one of our travels
I picked up The Complete Works of
William Penn published in the mid-1700’s. One of the chapters in that book is
entitled, “The Cross Before the
Crown.” That summarizes very conciselywhatthe theme of this sectionis.
Before Jesus Christreceives His crownof
glory and rules and reigns on the earth, He must endure the cross. Then
Christ points out that this establishes a pattern
that is to be realizedin the lives of His followers. Before we experience the
glory that is ours as the sons of God, we
must endure suffering because ofour associationwith the Son of God. That is
a divine necessityestablishedin the
purposes and plans of Godfor Jesus Christ as well as for all those who will be
followers of Him.
Matthew 16:21-28 is divided into two major areas. The first sectionagain
focuses onPeterand the confusionhe is
experiencing. Then Christ will give an explanation as He applies this sectionto
all believers.
1. Jesus ProphesiesHis Death and Resurrection

Matthew points out the transition in Matthew 16:21:“From that time Jesus
beganto 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 up on the third day.” The introductory words, “from that time,”
mark a major turning point in the
ministry of Christ. This expressionis used one other time in Matthew’s
Gospel.
The baptism of Christ is recordedin Matthew 3 and marked the beginning of
His public ministry. Then immediately
following His baptism, Christ was takenout into a desolate place and tempted
by the Devil for forty days and forty
nights. Following the temptation in the wilderness He embarked upon His
public ministry. This significant phrase is
recordedin Matthew 4:17: “Fromthat time Jesus began to preach and say,
„Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand.‟” The expression“from that time” in Matthew 4 is the occasionof
the beginning of Jesus’teaching about
the kingdom and offering it to Israel. That subject continues until the change
in the emphasis and direction of Jesus’
ministry is indicated in Matthew 16:21.
Matthew 16:20 also reflectedthat a change occurredas Jesus gave new
instructions to His disciples:“Then He
warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.” The
messagewas no longer to be,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). Israelhad
rejectedthe kingdom and their time of

opportunity had passed. Now Jesus’directionwas setfor Jerusalemand in a
few short months He would be executed
there.
The word translated “must” in Matthew 16:21 denotes a divine necessityin
the plan of God that Jesus Christgo to
Jerusalem. He must fulfill Old TestamentScriptures such as Isaiah52 where
it was prophesied He would suffer until
His appearance was marredmore than any man. The Old Testamentalso
prophesied that He would be killed as the
Lamb of God who takes awaythe sin of the world and that He would be
raisedin glory and victory three days later.
2. The Revelationof Christ Regarding His Suffering
Christ further indicated that when He goes to Jerusalem, the capital of the
nation, He will “suffer many things from
the elders and chief priests and scribes” (Matt. 16:21). It is interesting that
these are the three groups which made
up the Sanhedrin, the governing body of Israel. The elders were the respected
men of the nation. The chief priests
were comprised of the Sadducees. The scribes were the party of the Pharisees.
So Jesus indicated that the three major
groups in Israel, which comprised the ruling body known as the Sanhedrin,
would lead the way in bringing about His
suffering and death.
Jesus saidthat three things were going to happen. He would suffer, He would
be killed and He would be raisedup on
the third day. Jesus beganto teachHis disciples about this and would
continue over the coming months, but they

would not understand it. In fact, it would not be until after the resurrection
that they would understand how this all fit
togetherin the plan of God.
The events of Luke 24 occurredafter the resurrectionof Christ. Two of the
disciples were on the road to Emmaus
where Christ met them without their recognizing Him. They were prevented
from perceiving who He was, so they
walkedalong with Him in conversationas He askedthem about the events
that had transpired culminating in His
crucifixion. The disciples, without knowing who He was, spoke to Him of their
hope. “But we were hoping that it
was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third
day since these things happened”
(Luke 24:21). As they walkedalong togetherand continued in conversation,
they told Him about the womenfinding
the tomb empty when they went there early in the morning. Even though He
had talkedwith them before His
crucifixion about His resurrection, the fact that His body was missing was
very confusing to them. They did not know
what to believe.
Luke continued the account:“And He said to them, „O foolishmen and slow
of heart to believe in all that the
prophets have spoken!Was it not necessaryfor the Christ to suffer these
things and to enter into His glory?‟”
(Luke 24:25,26). He told them that they were foolish and slow to acceptwhat
the Scripture said. Then He began to

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