The Transfiguration (2)
Notes
Transcript
Who is ready to hear from the Lord this morning?
Remain standing as I read our text this morning. This is a text that you can not stay seated for as we see the glory of God on full display.
28 Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. 34 As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” 36 And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.
PRAY!
You may be seated.
This morning we are going to look at a very familiar story that is commonly known as the Transfiguration.
This event is recorded for us in THREE of the FOUR gospels....Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
This one event is singlehandly the clearest picture of the humanity AND Diety of Jesus.
Jesus is fully God and Fully Man. (step away and preach this)
Jesus is truly God and truly human. RC SPROL
It’s no coinciodence that this display of Gods divintity comes right after Peter confessing Jesus as God after Christ asked ‘Who do you say that I am?’
In this moment, Jesus is going to prove who he is.
I have a couple points for us this morning to help us navigate this passage
Point one if you are taking notes is,
THE
TRANSFIGURATION.
Transfiguration defined as a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state.
Let’s look at verse 28
28 Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.
Notice who Jesus took with him for this experience.
Peter, James, John.
He didn’t take all of the disciples. Just three.
I tell people all the time that Jesus had a clique (his disciples) and within his clique was another clique (Peter, James, and John). Jesus obviously favors these three men and I believe the reason is He knew the significant role that each of these men would have in starting the church.
It’s not bad to have closer friends than others. Its what you do with those friends that matter.
My brothers and sisters, would you resolve in your heart today that when it comes to your close circle of friends that you will change the world? That’s exactly what Jesus did.
Verse 29
29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.
What happened before the transfiguration? Look at the text, verse 29.
As Jesus was PRAYING!!!!
Jerry Fallwell, the founder of Liberty University said this. This is a quote all over Liberty and I have seen it a dozen times. It is so true.
Nothing of significance happens apart from prayer.
Do you want your life to have significance? DO you want God to show up in a crazy way? Prayer ALWAYS precedes powerful moments.
In our church. I desperately want God to move here. I want God to use this church in a mighty way....
Christian author Jim Cymbala says this in his book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire
“I despaired at the thought that my life might slip by without seeing God show Himself mightily on our behalf.”
Maybe, just maybe we’re not praying for it.
Verse 29 goes on...
29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.
The transfiguration did TWO physical things to Christ
1. His face was altered.
If you had any Jewish background you would make this connection.
Notice verse 28....Jesus took them UP ON THE MOUNTAIN
Who else went up a mountain to meet with God and his appearance was forever changed?
Moses.
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34 Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, 35 the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
1. His face was altered.
2. His clothing became dazzling white.
3 and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.
When Moses goes up on the mountain to meet with God…his face shone of the glory of God.
But when Jesus goes up on the mountain His entire appearance changed in a flash to radiate glory.
Jesus is proving to us that he is the better Moses here.
Who do people say that I am? Moses? No. Im greater than he is.
Jesus is also giving a glimpse of the new covenant.
I want you to think about this.
Isreal apart from a mediator wanted to hide from God’s glory; when we are face to face with His glory we fall to our feet in worship!
God’s greatest glory is his grace.
Donald Barnhouse
I want you to pray right now in the stillness of your heart....thank you God for your grace. Thank you that I don’t have to hide from you.
Point Two
THE TELOPORTATION
30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah,
Out of nowhere…Moses and Elijah show up with Jesus.
I’m a huge star wars fan. Our entire family is. And when I read this passage my mind immediately goes to a force ghost.
When a jedi dies he is reunited with the force and he can appear in a ghost like manor with those who are still alive.
The scriptures don’t say what form Moses and Elijah were. It just says they appeared in glory. Whatever that means. But they were talking with Jesus.
So why these two? Out of all the people in the Old Testament, why them?
Physically speaking the bodies of these men were never found....even to this day.
God buried Moses
5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day.
And Elijah was taken up to heaven
11 And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
These two men were chosen because of what they represent.
Moses. The Law
Elijah. The Prophets
Jesus is the direct fulfillment of both of these. The Law and the Prophets
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
The main purpose of the Law and the Prophets was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.
I want to go back to Moses for a second. I saw something in my study of this passage that I’ve never seen.
The transfiguration takes place in Jerusalem. The capitol city of God’s people.
Let’s go back to the Old Testament .
Moses was the leader God chose to lead them out of Egypt and go to the....Promise Land
Because of Moses’ sin he was prevented from entering the Promise Land along with the Children of Israel.
4 And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.”
But here, during the transfiguration, in a far more wonderful way, he did get there. Hundreds of years later he stood IN the Promise Land and spoke personally with the Messiah.
He was in the Promise Land with the Promise One.
What were they all talking about? Verse 31 tells us...
and they spoke about HIs departure, which he was about to accomplish at jerusalem.
Step away and talk about the cross. Always being plan A.
Next in this story we see Moses and Elijah depart.
Peter steps up and speaks.
33 And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. 34 As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.
Explain these verses
Point THREE
THE DECLARATION
35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”
The Godhead of the trinity speaks here....similarly to his baptism and we learn two thing about Christ.
First, Jesus is God’s son. He is truly God.
Second, Jesus is God’s spokesperson.
Do you want to know what God thinks about something? Listen to Jesus and his teachings.
Do you want to know what’s on the mind of the father? Listen to what Jesus says in the gospels.
We are to listen to Jesus and Jesus alone.
The cloud left. Moses and Elijah left. Jesus remained and He still has the final word today. He is greater than all of the law and the prophets.
This event showed Peter, James, John, and even us today that the law and prophets belonged to the former time. A new day is here.
In these last days, God has spoken to us by His son.
3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
The Exalting Jesus Commentary on Luke says this,
When God finally grades the one-question exam, we need to demonstrate that we know Jesus is the one God chose to die and rise from the grave to save us from our sin, that he is God’s Son and is Master of God’s house. We need to demonstrate that we have heard and understood this message and that we have put our hope in its truth.
When it comes to the question “Who is Jesus?” who are you listening to?
Two Thousand years later we are still faced with the question, Who do you say that I am?
Point Four
THE EXULTATION
This event showed us who Jesus is in all of his glory.
What is glory?
Glory means weight. To give glory is to give something weight.
If we truly saw God in all of His glory it would change our lives forever.
When we come to this house and worship, we give glory to God.
When we get to heaven, we will give glory forever.
I want to show you a couple verses about this glory.
There are many verses in the Bible that talk about God's glory. Here are a few of them:
1. Psalm 19:1 (NIV):
"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
2. Isaiah 6:3 (NIV):
"And they were calling to one another: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.'"
3. Romans 11:36 (NIV):
"For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen."
4. 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV):
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
5. Psalm 24:7-10 (NIV):
"Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty— he is the King of glory."
6. Exodus 33:18-19 (NIV):
"Then Moses said, 'Now show me your glory.' And the Lord said, 'I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.'"
7. Revelation 21:23 (NIV):
"The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp."
END WITH THIS VERSE
LEAD RIGHT INTO HOLY FOREVER