Don’t Regret… Reflect and Grow…

Church, let us now listen to the word, of the Lord…

(NIV - Anglicised)

The Transfiguration

9:28–36 pp—;

28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, 31 appeared in glorious splendour, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, 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 he was saying.)

34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no-one at that time what they had seen.

This is the word of the Lord…

<Let us pray…>

Good night, Church!

Welcome to the last sermon of 2019…

I said this last year, I said this during Sunrise Service, and I’m going to say the same thing now…

It’s late at night… it’s outside your circadian cycle… I know you’re sleepy…

If you fall asleep during the sermon, it’s ok…

But one condition… please don’t snore too loudly and disturb the person next to you…

<pause>

You don’t want to wake your neighbour up with your snoring…

<pause>

Friends, not sure how your year went, and not sure how you feel right now,

But regardless of how you feel,

the new year is going to be upon us really soon…

whether we like it or not…

and as we anticipate the arrival of the new year,

and look back at the year that is able to end,

let me ask you something…

Have you ever said something and you regret it almost as soon as the words left your mouth?

Or have you ever had the experience that you were so sure of something,

that you said something in absolute confidence you knew to be true,

only for the outcome to be different from what you anticipated

and for you to leave the situation with your tail between your legs,

and being humbled?

Well,

For me, looking back at the year, there was one thing that I regret…

I didn’t say it out loud, but it was a thought that I had…

In fact, technically, it was really last year, as in it wasn’t in 2019, but it was one calendar year ago…

And what was it?

<ra-ra>

It was the thought that I had as I was stepping off the chancel on the 31st of December 2018,

I said to myself… yes! Now that I’ve checked that Watchnight Box, because I spoke at Watchnight Service in 2018,

It should be quite 包吃 that I can relax during the watchnight Service in 2019 and I don’t need to speak this year…

I can just enjoy the service, participate in the service and look forward to the Teo Chew porridge tonight…

I’m not sure whether I did a very good job or a very bad job last year, but regardless,

My pastoral colleagues thought it best that I should be the one preaching at the watchnight service again this year…

I’ve since sought repentance for my foolish ways and realise that I am young and foolish and do not know what I speak…

Only to be reminded by some young people that I’m not so young anymore…

Just foolish…

<pause>

Of course, church,

Please understand that I’m am just kidding,

for it is a great privilege to share the word with you this evening…

The point I’m trying to put forth tonight is that there are often disruptions in our lives, things that don’t happen according to our expectations…

That’s part of life and in fact, arguably, that’s how we grow,

Because if we are stuck in the same old same old all the time,

We will not be stimulated and we will not only will we not grow,

It’s either we stay the same or we will degenerate…

And I’m sure you’re very familiar with the story about how a boy who is eager to help a butterfly emerge from the cocoon by cutting a hole in the cocoon only to see pretty much a caterpillar with swollen body and shrivelled pre-formed wings…

Without stimulation, the butterfly wasn’t able to push the fluid into the wings and expand them…

And in today’s passage of reflection,

We see exactly a situation where the disciples had their lives disrupted, and were stimulated…

And this came in the form of the transfiguration of Jesus Christ…

If we look back at the opening phrase of the passage for our reflection today,

It says “about eight days later”…

But the question then is…

“eight days later” from what?

And for that, we would need to look at the preceding verses, namely in ;-27…

And what is happening in these verses?

Well, it starts with Jesus asking Peter who the crowd says Jesus was…

Which of course ended with Peter proclaiming the fact that Jesus was God’s saviour…

Wow…

That was indeed a moment of glory for Peter…

He was able to share an insight that perhaps nobody else had…

He was able to explain something that nobody else understood…

it was indeed a proud moment for Peter… the leader of the church…

It was a moment befitting of his name…

Πέτρος – which means the stone…

And hence, the connection made between Peter and Jesus, who referred to himself as the rock, Πετρα, on which the church will be built upon…

It was a feather-on-the cap moment for dear Peter…

And seeing that his young protégé was progressing well in his understanding of the mysterious things of God,

Jesus saw it fit to explain to Peter the need for Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of mankind and the fact that He will resurrected once again…

He saw it fit to explain to Peter and the disciples that they will all have to go through difficulties ahead…

And he told them that they will see the Kingdom of God coming,

Being brought forth by the prince who is the Christ among them…

In other words, they are going to see the glory of God appear before them very soon!

And this we know from these few verses did indeed happen in a week’s time…

<slow down>

And this is captured for us in today’s passage…

During the time of transfiguration…

When the glory of God was revealed according to what Jesus had told them…

But you know what?

I don’t think Peter was listening…

He was probably gloating from the fact that he was the first to be able to identify Jesus as Τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ.” (, NA28)

The Anointed One of God!

The promised messiah!

Or he was just day-dreaming…

Or he was not able to accept the hard truth Jesus was trying to explain…

Regardless of the actual reason,

Peter was clearly not prepared for this…

And how do we know that?

Well, other than the fact that Luke didn’t mince he’s words and wrote in verse 33 that Peter did not know what he was saying,

What Peter was suggesting was indeed ridiculous at best?!

Here, we have Moses and Elijah the departed saints having a conversation with Jesus,

And all of them manifesting in the glory,

Only to be outdone by Jesus whose clothes have an appearance as bright as the flash of lightning,

The trio were having a conversation that was consistent with what Jesus revealed to the disciples a week earlier…

Verse 31 says

“They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.” (, NIV)

Clearly pointing back to the revelation Jesus gave at during the time of Peter’s confession…

And what’s more, Moses and Elijah were about to leave the scene…

Then Peter, not being able to see the big picture wanted the two guests from the ancient past to stay…

and that we know by his suggestion that he wanted to build shelters for Moses and Elijah… and Jesus

It was an impulsive and emotive reaction at best…

I meant what was he thinking of?

Did he actually believe that Moses and Elijah were going to continue to be in their presence?

Did he actually Jesus is going to remain in the people’s presence in his bright as flash of lightning, glorious appearance?

How is he going to minister?

It was a face-palm alamak moment for Peter…

It was an embarrassing malu moment which I think he hoped he will never have to remember anymore…

But that obviously didn’t happen for not only was it recorded in the Gospel according to Dr. Luke the historian,

it was recorded in two other Gospels, according to Mark and Matthew…

only his buddy John was kind enough not to record this incident in his records…

Here is the greatest moments in Biblical history…

The glory of God revealed to mankind…

Man being able to see the glory of God and wasn’t consumed by His presence…

And the appearance of the cloud must have reminded them of the greatest moment in the Israelite history,

The Exodus which was how God used Moses to bring the people out of Egypt and delivered them from slavery using the pillar of cloud…

And the allusion was amazing, for Jesus was about to bring the people of God out of slavery to sin and death…

The great יהוה was among them and the apostles in were in the very presence of God!

<anti-climax>

And Peter spoiled the moment by wanting to be an architect…

Sigh…

It was surely a moment that Peter wanted to forget…

It’s probably a moment many Christians want to forget as well…

Aiyoh…

You mean your Christian apostles are like that one ah?

So clumsy…

Talk nonsense…

Not like the suave and impressive leaders other faiths have…

But you know what friends?

I’m glad this story is here in the Bible…

I’m glad that we have in this book we hold so dear,

Many examples of how our great leaders of faith have made mistakes…

I’m reminded that Peter,

The one who had been given the keys of the kingdom of heaven…

the leader of the apostles, the leader of the church,

is human too…

and he makes silly mistakes just like us…

he talks gibberish just like us…

he is clumsy and embarrassed himself publicly just like us…

and I don’t know about you…

but if I were in the same situation as him,

I’ll probably do the exact same thing…

And this reminds me of the fact that to we are all not perfect yet…

And perhaps we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves when we have fallen short of the glory of God…

That is almost a-given…

And that’s why Paul tells us in

That we are all sinful and we all fall short of the glory of God…

And if you look back at the year that is going to end in about an hour’s time,

Surely you can think of things that you wish you hadn’t done…

Surely you can identify situations that you wish you can just remove from the records of times…

The bad news friends, is that you can’t…

these situations will continue to be historical in nature…

the silly thing or the embarrassing things will remain hitched in history…

nothing you can do can erase that from history…

but listen to the good news…

in the very next verse in ,

Paul tells us the good news…

which is that even all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God, all are justified freely by his grace from through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…

in other words,

no matter what you’ve done this year that is so bad,

there is always opportunity for you to be redeemed by the grace of God…

and why is this so?

<escalate>

Because tells us that God the Father had presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of His blood…

Which actually tells us that none of us,

None of us are able to meet God’s infinitely high standards…

No matter how hard we try by our human strength…

Nobody…

Nobody is able to pass…

We all failed…

Yet but God’s amazing grace…

God was able to top up the difference between where we are on the righteousness scale and allow us to pass his standards…

And that was done through the shedding of the blood of Jesus…

He gave us the best he could offer so that the worse of us can be removed from us...

Therefore, friends, remember this as you reflect on the year that is about to pass...

Do not dwell on the mistakes of the past...

Oh for sure...

The mistakes are mistakes and you should not if possible ever repeat them again...

But do not let the past hold you back from what you can be in Christ...

And as we partake of the Holy Communion later,

As we take time to reflect on the past year,

give up all your hurts and pains and mistakes unto to Lord and let’s look forward to a new year with a fresh start…

Being reminded in the book of Lamentations that reminds us

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (, NIV)

So church,

Even as you look back at the year that is about to past,

1. As you reflect, do not let your mistakes hold you back… Don’t regret as your reflect… but give your regrets onto the Lord…

Later perhaps we have some time to reflect upon the year that had past,

We may want God to bring to mind the things that we are holding on to and ask for him to help us let them go…

To liberate us and let them not rob us from the joy…

<pause>

And so friends,

Coming back to Peter,

Did he ever recover from this embarrassing episode?

Was he more prepared the next time something amazing happened?

Well, for that we will need to move away from the book of Luke,

to the other book that was written by Luke, the book of Acts,

namely the ascension of Christ in …

When Christ was taken unto heaven before the apostles…

So, did Peter do any better?

Well, listen to this… says:

“After he said this, [Jesus] was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? ...”” (, NIV)

Actually the Greek verb (<-emphasis) for hid can be translated as “received”…

Jesus was received into a cloud…

So we have here once again…

An amazing miracle,

Another two men dressed in white…

The appearance of cloud…

Very similar elements to the transfiguration…

Well, Peter seemed to have done slightly better…

At least he didn’t say anything he regretted anymore…

But he wasn’t quite the Ace student yet…

After the ascension

He and the rest of the apostles was just staring into the sky…

And the angels had to ask them… “why are you looking into the sky”

Another embarrassing situation…

And once again… Luke didn’t spare him the embarrassment but recorded it in his writings…

But did Peter give up?

Of course not…

He persevered…

He grew each time something embarrassing happened in his life…

Other than the transfiguration, the gospels record how he fell into the sea while trying to walk on water, how he denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed,

Every time something happened, it was a chance for Peter to give up…

Succumb to pride and say…

Never again…

I don’t want to be part of this anymore…

But not Peter…

And what’s the result?

tells us how Peter lifted up his voice and addressed the crowd who were making fun of he and his fellow disciples,

Saying that they were drunk when they were filled with the Holy Spirit…

This time, instead of saying something silly or doing something embarrassing,

He gave an impassioned sermon that caused 3,000 people to give their lives to Christ that very day…

3,000!

That’s like another PLMC membership just that one single meeting…

and friends,

I hope it is clear that he didn’t become that powerful and effective preacher overnight…

Behind that day of success and effectiveness,

There were many days of embarrassment and growing…

And what lesson can we draw from this?

Perhaps the lesson is this…

As we leave 2019, perhaps we have things we regretted in the past year…

We thank God for the grace to carry us through and overcome them…

And as we enter the new year, we thank God for the new opportunity for the new year…

It’s a new beginning…

But realistically, we don’t know what’s next, perhaps there will be times of regret again…

And should we be discouraged?

No, my friends…

Keep coming back to the lord,

Keep pressing in…

Keep growing…

Growth is not an instantaneous process…

It is a continuous process…

It is one of constant trying to get better, trying to draw closer to God…

And in fact reminds us to

“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.” (, NIV)

And here, the word for “examine” and “test” suggests it’s something that we need to continue to do…

It’s probably better translated as “let us continue examining… and let us continue testing our ways”…

A process of always wanted to get better…

Meaning we will continue to fall along the way but listen to the encourage of God in lamentations 3.57 “[God] came near when [we] call on Him and [He] said ‘do not fear’”

The Lord will continue to be with us as we press in to him…

And he will see us through…

And we will see success…

As was the case for Peter when he finally bore fruits of his labour in at the day of Pentecost…

<slow down>

So friends, even as this year comes to a close, and another year beings,

I don’t know what are the moments this year that you rather forget…

I don’t know what your status with God right now…

But I urge us all in this final moments of 2019,

To lay down all our regrets at the altar of the Lord and look forward to a new year of growing stronger and closer to the Lord…

Give all your hurts and pains to the Lord and offer your lives as a pleasing sacrifice to the Lord…

Make it your pledge for 2020….

<sing – if got time 104 words>

All that I am all that I have

I lay them down before You o Lord

All my regrets all my acclaim

The joy and the pain

I'm making them Yours

Chorus

Lord I offer my life to You

Everything I've been through

Use it for Your glory

Lord I offer my days to You

Lifting my praise to You

As a pleasing sacrifice

Lord I offer You my life

Things in the past things yet unseen

Wishes and dreams that are yet to come true

All of my hopes and all of my plans

My heart and my hands are lifted to You