12 Jun 2015

Matthew 17:11-13

Posted by joncooper

Matthew 17:11: “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.”

Notice the word “shall”, which indicates that Elijah will one day return. At some point in the future (probably after the Rapture) Elijah will come back to Earth and minister to Israel. This is part of the end-times events, and is almost certainly one that the Church will not be around to see.

Matthew 17:12: “But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.
13 Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.”

Here Christ switches gears, and goes from talking about Elijah (who is still yet to come) to talking about John the Baptist. Now, John the Baptist was asked if he was Elijah, and he said no. So what’s going on?

Well, this is where things get tricky. You see, when Jesus came to Israel He gave them a choice: they could accept Him or reject Him. If they accepted Him, He would still have had to die – but after His resurrection He would have ushered in His millennial kingdom. The Church Age would never have happened at all, and all of history would have been completely different. If the Jews had accepted Him, Elijah would have been sent instead of John the Baptist.

But as we know, Israel rejected Christ. God knew that would happen, and so Elijah was not sent and John the Baptist was. When Christ died and rose again He went back to Heaven, and the Church Age was born. Elijah’s actual return was delayed, as was the coming of the kingdom.

If all that seems difficult to understand, think of it this way: Jesus is clear that Elijah (who the disciples just met in person) would return one day to Earth to minister to Israel. However, in the present day, John the Baptist was fulfilling that same role – and had been rejected by the Jews.

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