Matthew 16:28

The announcement of the kingdom’s appearing 16:28 (cf. Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27)

Jesus revealed next that some of the disciples whom He addressed would not die until they saw Him coming in His kingdom. This prediction may at first appear to be very similar to the one in Matthew 10:23. However, that verse refers to something else, namely, Jesus’ reunion with His disciples following their preaching tour in Galilee.

This verse (Matthew 16:28) cannot mean that Jesus returned to set up the messianic kingdom during the lifetime of these disciples since that did not happen. Neither does it mean that Jesus had already set up the kingdom when He spoke these words, as some writers have believed. [Note: E.g., C. H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom, pp. 53-54.] What Jesus predicted would happen in the future rules this out. Some interpreters have taken Jesus’ words as a reference to His resurrection and ascension. However, Jesus spoke of those events elsewhere as His departure, not His coming (John 16:7). Moreover such a view interprets the kingdom in a heavenly sense rather than in the earthly sense in which the Old Testament writers consistently spoke of it.

Most amillennial and some premillennial interpreters confuse the eternal heavenly rule of God with the millennial earthly rule of Messiah. Some take the kingdom as entirely heavenly, and others take it as both heavenly and earthly. Among the latter group are those who believe the kingdom is operating in a heavenly form now but will become an earthly kingdom later. A popular name for this view is the "now, not yet" view. This view often involves confusing the church with the kingdom. [Note: E.g., Ladd, et al.] This is the view that progressive dispensationalists hold as well.

Other interpreters believe that Jesus was speaking about the day of Pentecost. [Note: Morgan, p. 221.] However the Son of Man did not come then. The Holy Spirit did. Furthermore the kingdom did not begin then. The church did. Still others hold that the destruction of Jerusalem is in view. [Note: Richard C. Trench, Studies in the Gospels, p. 198.] The only link with that event is judgment.

Jesus appears to have been predicting the preview of His coming to establish His kingdom that He gave Peter, James, and John in the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8). [Note: Walvoord, Matthew: . . ., p. 126; Toussaint, Behold the . . ., pp. 209-10.] The Transfiguration follows this prediction immediately in all three of the Gospels that record it (cf. Mark 9:1-8; Luke 9:27-36). Moreover Matthew, Mark, and Luke all linked Jesus’ prediction and the Transfiguration with connectives. Matthew and Mark used "and" (Gr. de) while Luke used "and . . . it came about" (Gr. egeneto de). Peter, one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, interpreted it as a preview of the kingdom (2 Peter 1:16-18). Finally Jesus’ "truly I say to you" or "I tell you the truth" (Matthew 16:28) separates His prediction of the establishment of the kingdom (Matthew 16:27) from His prediction of the vision of the kingdom (Matthew 16:28). Jesus’ reference to some not tasting death until they saw the kingdom may seem strange at first, but in the context Jesus had been speaking of dying (Matthew 16:24-26).

Jesus had just announced that He was going to build His church (Matthew 16:18), so what would happen to the promised kingdom? Here He clarified that the kingdom would still come (cf. Matthew 6:10).