Encountering the Divine Glory

Call to Worship

To all who are weary and in need of rest

To all who are mourning and longing for comfort

To all who fail and desire strength

To all who sin and need a Savior

We, Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church, open wide our arms

With a welcome from Jesus Christ.

He is the ally to the guilty and failing

He is the comfort to those who are mourning

He is the joy of our hearts

And He is the friend of sinners

So Come, worship Him with us.

Scripture Reading & Reader

Scripture Reader, Natalie Studley

Mark 9:1–13 NIV

And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.” After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant. And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”

Post-Scripture Prayer

Pray.

Introduction to Sermon

Good morning, my name is Brandon Morrow and I serve as one of the Pastors here at Moraga Valley! So glad that you’re here with us, — if you haven’t already, please go ahead and open your Bible to the Book of Mark and this week we’re continuing in a series that we’ve called, “The Suffering Servant.” As we talked about last week, this series is about the courage and sacrifice required to be disciples of Jesus, and last week we talked about whether or not we knew what was at stake in following Jesus, and this week we’re going to be talking about what makes the up’s and down’s of the Christian life so worth it…

We will all have to do as Jesus said, deny ourselves and pick up our cross, and there’s no guarantee of it being easy, but Jesus gives us an indication that it’s going to be worth it.

The idea is kind of like delayed gratification… Our family has adopted a similar strategy. If you ask our boys this question, “what do you like to do for fun?” Their response should be, “We like to work hard.”

We want to be a family that can do hard things, specifically, we want our kids to know how to do the hard thing in making disciples. That phrase has morphed into the phrase “we do hard things.”

We talk to our kids almost daily about the hard things we have to do: cleaning up after the dogs, apologizing, finishing what we started, returning things that don’t belong to us, caring for others, respect — as capacity creators: they create better versions of ourselves down the road. I tell my boys all the time, “we do hard things,” because it means we can do harder things in the future, and that there’s some better for us at the end of being able to do hard things.

Mark 9:1-13 is making most of the hard things in the Christian life.

At this point in Mark we understand that following Jesus means there will be suffering, there will be difficulty, there will be times of denial, unpopularity, and that we pattern our lives after a Crucified Savior — and so we need a good bit of hope in order to make the most of the hard things as we follow Jesus.

For that, let’s take a look at Mark 9:1...

Prior to this, Jesus has made abundantly clear, that to follow Jesus is to pursue a life of suffering — because our life should be modeled after His.

Look with me at verse 1

Mark 9:1 NIV

And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

And it’s not in contradiction to what I just said, verse 1 is given to be the hopeful reminder that suffering doesn’t last forever.

All of the difficulty of denying ourselves, carrying our cross, giving our lives over to Jesus will be met with the undeniable power of the Kingdom of God.

He’s speaking to the crowd and the disciples who have been following Him around from village to village in the area of Caesarea Philippi, and so in verses 2-4, we can assume that He gathers a group of those least likely to get it, in a little Mountainside retreat, to give a full-blown demonstration of how the Kingdom will come with power, and why it’s good news for people who are enduring suffering.

Peter and friends have recently come to the knowledge that God’s Saving King and the Suffering Servant are not two different people, but they’re one in the Same, and that Jesus will come to rule by taking on Himself, the sin of the whole world.

Such a monumental moment deserves a demonstration of power, a sense of recognition, as to who has come to redeem the world — and so Jesus takes an old story to help tell the new story of God is doing through His chosen King.

It’s important to note, before we get to verses 2-4, that verse 1 says “see” — “they will see that the Kingdom of God has come with power” — when we keep our attention on Jesus, we get to see God’s plan for redeeming humanity.

Look with me at verses 2-4

Mark 9:2–4 NIV

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Mark isn’t known for being chronological, he’s less impressed with the idea of providing a linear chain of thought than he is the idea that Jesus has come to save the world, but in verse 2, He gets oddly specific — and as I said earlier, Jesus uses an old story to help tell the new story of what He’s doing.

Here’s a short list of things Mark wants you to pay attention to, all of them from the old story of the Exodus, where Moses leads God’s people out of captivity, towards promised land, where Moses experiences the presence and glory of the Lord:

6 Days

A mountain

A moment of glory

The appearance of Old Testament Prophets

Most of what happens here is Mark showing the reader how unique Jesus is as God’s saving King. This moment out shadows every event of the past and foreshadows greater things to come.

Look with me at verse 2

Mark mentions 6 Days, which is likely a reference to Exodus 24:16 where Moses is summoned to the top of a mountain where He experiences a revelation from God… These things are called theophanies, they are appearances of God.

Peter, James, and John are about to have their own appearance of God.

Here’s the next thing Mark wants us to notice. They will have an appearance of God, on a Mountain! This is a reference to Exodus 24:17

Exodus 24:17 (NIV)

To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.

What Moses received on the top of Mount Sinai was an appearance of the glory of the Lord that looked like a consuming fire, but now it’s not like an appearance, it is an appearance of the Glory of the Lord, as verse 2-3 put it, “He was transfigured before them.” Completely changed, transformed, “His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.” Another translation says His clothes became “radiant.”

Mark differentiates from the story in Exodus because in the Exodus story Moses only ever reflects the glory of God, which is what Exodus 34:29 says

Exodus 34:29 (NIV)

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.

Moses only reflects the glory. He is not the source from where the glory comes… Jesus is where the glory comes from!

Glory is a loaded term. Different ways to go around the idea of glory: it’s about the weightiness of something, or its splendor, I like what Lewis Sperry Chafer said:

The glory of God is all His attributes added together and raised to the nth degree.

—Lewis Sperry Chafer

Lewis Sperry Chafer

This is what Hebrews 1:3 talks about

Hebrews 1:3 NIV

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Is this not so much more than they anticipated? Is Jesus not so much more than we bargained for? He is not LIKE God, HE IS GOD. This is not an appearance of God, this is God Himself right in front of them.

It was Cicero, the Roman philosopher, who said, “The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.” This is the whole point Mark wants us to see… you can endure every hard thing, every difficult, every ounce of suffering, to the point of losing your life, if you could just see the glory of God that awaits you, is promised to you, has been made secure for you in the person of Jesus!

Mark wants us to notice one more thing before we keep going. It’s the appearance of Moses and Elijah in verse 4.

Mark 9:4 NIV

And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

While I’d love to spend about 20 more minutes on just verse 4, I have promised very few hostage situations on Sunday mornings, so let me be brief about this… The book of Acts sums this up enough for me, in Acts 10:43

Acts 10:43 NIV

All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Here’s what Acts 10:43 helps us understand about Mark 9:4… The greatest figures in the Bible pale in comparison to Jesus.

Moses, who is God’s great deliverer of His people from slavery in Egypt, cannot hold a candle to Jesus who delivers the world from their slavery to sin.

In Mark, it was John the Baptizer who was said to have been a greater Elijah, but John the Baptizer says about Jesus, “there is one who is greater to come, who I am unworthy to even untie His sandals.”

Later on in Mark 9, Elijah is mentioned again. This time He’s mentioned as the final moment of prophecy in the Old Testament. Who is Jesus? Peek ahead at verse 11 with me: Mark 9:11

Mark 9:11 NIV

And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

They have in their minds the story of Malachi 4:5-6

Malachi 4:5–6 (NIV)

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

In short, their question is, “is this guy?”

Is this the guy who not only forgives sins, but also brings peace and order back to the nation? Is this the guy that restores estranged child to parent, who reconciles every broken and damaged relationship? Is this the guy?

Look with me at verse 12-13 and we’ll finish up our idea on why Elijah is important to Mark 9.

Mark 9:12–13 NIV

Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”

Jesus announces that Elijah has already come, but in the person of John the Baptizer. Luke says that John comes in “spirit and power of Elijah.” And both are these preachers of repentance, and what they come to signal is that’s the end of one age and the beginning of a new one. An age where God will restore the world through His own King.

If John the Baptizer suffered to tell the world that the true King was coming, then how much more will the actual King suffer, so that the world might be restored?

Whether it’s verse 4, or verses 11-13, guess who doesn’t get it?

Peter.

Peter doesn’t get that not even the greatest of all the historical figures, they still don’t pale in comparison to Jesus.

Peter’s suggestion is that they can prolong this experience, this moment of time, where glory is on display, and almost as if these two other characters are of the same importance to Jesus…

But what the Father says in verse 7, shows us that Jesus is not the same as Moses and Elijah, look with me there.

Mark 9:7 NIV

Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

This is a rebuke from heaven. The Father says, “this is my Son, whom I love”, because Jesus isn’t like Elijah and Moses at all, this is the glory of God — all of God to the nth degree. So the Father says, “listen to Him.”

By the time the cloud cover disappears, Elijah and Moses are nowhere to be found.

Jesus is the only one who is there.

They are left to see the undeniable power He can bring, and now they’re left to listen, to obey Him, because there’s no one else like Him.

And the reason obey Him because there’s only one who can take humiliation, death on a cross, and turn it into glory.

Jesus has said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

To follow Jesus is to persevere on the path of the cross, because on the other side of persecution, suffering, difficulty, rejection — the denial of our selves — is the glory of God.

Hard things can be endured when we see what’s ahead of us.

A major fear is that we could end up being too much like Peter, trying to prolong the experience at the top of the mountain, rather than doing what Jesus has asked us to do… it’s been said that Christians do not live on the mountaintop, but that we live in the valley.

Mark (Bridging Contexts)

John Chrysostom said that Peter “wanted to settle down in the security of this temporary bliss and also thus prevent the going down to Jerusalem to the cross.”

But we don’t want to live in the valley, we don’t want to be obedient… We prefer the temporary bliss...

But...

Let me remind you what Mark’s gospel keeps inviting us into… this is from Mark 1:15

Mark 1:15 (NIV)

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Repent and Believe — turn away from distrust, and start trusting in Him.

This is what the Father is telling the disciples when He says, “listen to Him,” it’s an invitation to keep trusting in Him, obeying what He’s laid before us.

I love what David Garland says, we can’t “skip Suffering 101 and move on to advanced placement in Glory 909”

We must repent and believe that the hard things will turn into far more glorious things as Jesus has called us to deny ourselves and pick up our cross. Romans 8:17 reminds us that we “share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

This is a reorientation of our lives, again, about the courage and sacrifice, that Jesus asks of us… choosing suffering.

And we obey, even in threat of humiliation, because we know that glory awaits us...

This is the real hard stuff of the Christian life.

The temporary bliss, the mountaintop moments, man those are great, but they don’t cultivate Christlikeness in the believer…

But obedience will...

This reorientation, towards the hard stuff, for the believer, is a reorientation of authority… we live our lives according to what Jesus says and what Jesus wants. If what the Father tells the disciples about the Son, which is to listen Him, specifically, the words of denial of self and carrying the cross, then it’s a denial of my authority, the sacrifice of what I want, when I want it, how I want it — my beliefs, my hopes, my dreams, what I think should be true about the application of our faith — those are the mountaintop moments, the temporary bliss, of me being in control

But there’s no glory when I have the authority,

There’s glory when we do the hard things and live under the authority of Jesus.

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ALTERNATE ENDING

We understand mountaintop experiences, right? These are the “we’ve finally made it” moments of the Christian life?

We live in the day-to-day reality of the denial of ourselves, carrying our crosses, doing the hard things, because we know the glory that has been promised to us.

Here’s what I want to invite us into...

I want you to pursue the glory… you’re going to want to choose the mountaintop experiences, and try to recreate those moments where God has provided comfort, assurance, blessing, and hope. But Mark’s been pretty clear… the disciples won’t see that radiant version of Jesus again until after He’s gone to the cross. The only way to glory is through the hard stuff.

I want you to pursue the glory in spite of the setbacks. I want you to pursue the glory despite what pain and difficulty you’re enduring.

When you’re worried you’ve lost your child or grandchild, remember God’s promise in their baptism, that He has pledged His affection for them. Here’s the hard thing about that glory: you may not live to see God holding up to His end of the bargain, but He hasn’t faltered in His promise yet.

When you’re swimming in debt, but you’re too embarrassed to let anyone know, so you keep up the cycle of appearances: remember that Jesus has said “to much has been given, much will be required,” and the discipline required to deny what you want, or deny keeping up with the Joneses, so that you can be faithful — Jesus’ words to us will be, “well done good and FAITHFUL servant, not well done good and having-the-appearance-of-success servant.”

The promise with Jesus, isn’t that it’s going to be easy, pain free, but that with Him, through Him, because of Him, the glory that’s coming will be worth it.

Followers of Jesus do hard things — so let’s keep chasing the glory.