Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. Matthew 16:28
The Lord Jesus quoted today’s text only a week before He took three of His disciples to a mountain where He was transfigured and held a conversation with Moses and Elijah. It appears that this text is referring to that mountain experience, which had a marked impact on the three disciples for the remainder of their lives. But there are at least two other explanations, one of which applied to the disciples, and one that may very well apply to you and me today.
When the Lord Jesus refers to His kingdom, He could have been referring to the the upcoming age of grace, commonly referred to as the church age, when the Gospel would be proclaimed to Jew and Gentile alike, and would be carried to the uttermost parts of the earth. This kingdom is with us now, and we rejoice at the goodness of God in bringing all peoples of the world within the embrace of the Gospel. We see a world that is fractured and fighting and in a constant state of violence and decline into gross immorality and hatred. But within this world is a little kingdom composed of believers who have submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ, and who prize our place in His kingdom above all other allegiances. All of the disciples except for Judas saw that kingdom emerge on the day of Pentecost, and most of them saw it grow and flourish and bring hope to the world.
A second kingdom that the Lord Jesus may have been referring to will be ushered in at the rapture of the saints. This great event is the hope of believers down through the ages, with its promise of the return of the Lord Jesus to receive His own. In the Rapture, we anticipate that which could occur at any time, an event that will have no introduction until the trump of God calls us to meet the Lord Jesus in the air. A wondrous feature of the rapture is that those of us who are alive and remain in the world at that moment will be caught up without experiencing the terror and agony of death. To see this great event is the longing of every believer.
Ever since the fall of our first parents in Eden, this world has seen the emergence and destruction of kingdoms and empires of all kinds. These regimes have included the relatively good and the terribly bad, and everything in between. But they have all failed, and will all fail. Until the arrival of the King of Kings. The Lord Jesus will arrive to set up His thousand years’ reign that will be perfect in every way. Peace and righteous judgments will be the hallmarks of that kingdom. And as the Lord Jesus was transfigured on that mountain, He displayed the glory of that coming kingdom.
However we consider the Son of man coming in His kingdom, we can appreciate that for the believers, all is joyous anticipation. -Jim MacIntosh