Transfiguration/Triumphal Entry
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Transfiguration Luke 9:28-36
Transfiguration Luke 9:28-36
28 Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.
29 As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening.
30 And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah,
31 who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
32 But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep; and when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him.
33 Then it happened, as they were parting from Him, that Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said.
34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were fearful as they entered the cloud.
35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”
36 When the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet, and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.
1. Read verse 28. What had Jesus said “about 8 days” before? Where did he go? Who did he take with him? When else did he pay special attention to these three? (8:51) What can we learn from Jesus about raising disciples?
2. Why did Jesus go up the mountain? (28) What can we learn from Jesus' prayer life? (Lk 3:21;22:41-44) What might have been his prayer topic?
3. Read verses 29-31. How did Jesus’ appearance change as he prayed? Who appeared to talk with Jesus? What did they talk about? What does this mean?
4. Who was Moses? Why might he be one to meet Jesus here? (Dt 18:15,16; 34:5-12) Who was Elijah? Why might he be one to meet Jesus at this time? (1Ki 18:37-40,2Ki 2:11) What can we learn about Jesus from this event?
5. Read verses 32-33. With what were Peter, James and John struggling? What did Peter wake up and see and suggest? Why was it good to be in that place? What does it mean that he wants to put up three shelters? Why was his suggestion ignored?
6. Read verses 34-36. What happened while Peter was speaking? What was God’s message to the disciples? Why did they need this message? What did it mean to the disciples? (2 Pe 1:16-18) What does it teach us about Jesus? About God's word?
Guys, please hear me when I tell you Jesus is that Messiah!
He is here to fix everything for you.
He is here to give you life and that more abundantly.
But our problem is the same problem the disciples had.
God’s timing in that happening is not our timing.
And God’s path to that occurring is not our path.
Our timing and our path is from our perspective.
God’s timing and God’s path are from God’s perspective.
And it is a real conflict.
As we apply that truth to our lives, maybe that has left us walking around a little dazed and confused because we can’t see the end of the story either. We can’t see God’s ultimate plan either. All we can see is the path right in front of us and sometimes that path doesn’t look all that great.
So we are staying in the same flow of the same event, but we’re heading over to Luke Chapter 9 for our text. Here’s what is about to happen. The Father is about to do something for the disciples and for Jesus to inspire them, to encourage them and to give them a “never look back,” “never give up,” determination to continue the course.
God is going to provide the disciples and Jesus himself with incredible inspiration, confidence and determination to continue to run the course. God is going to give the disciple’s a glimpse into the end of the story; a peek at the finish line. We need that! We need to be right there with the disciples and we need to feel what they are feeling and we need to apply what they are seeing to our own lives. My prayer is that this would inspire us and encourage us and give us that same “never look back,” “never give up,” determination to continue to “run the race” right through the finish line.
28 Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.
29 As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening.
The disciples are getting a glimpse of Jesus Christ in his glory.
The word “face” here is actually a word that means his “appearance.”
Your Bible might say his appearance was transformed or transfigured.
It means his “entire look, his entire appearance, his whole person.
His appearance was transformed and his clothes became dazzling white.
Write in your margin Revelation Chapter 1 where John says “His appearance was like the sun in all its brilliance”
Our point today is the disciples are getting a glimpse of what Jesus is after his finish line. And his finish line is our finish line. They are getting a view of what it looks like after the cross. It’s like a “time machine view” into the future. And the disciples really needed this “time machine view” because very soon they were going to see Jesus another way. They were going to see him as Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 53:3-7.
3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
The disciples were about to witness that. And they needed a glimpse of the end, of the glory that would come after the cross, because they were about to see Jesus that way. And God wanted to make sure they had the true end of the story very clear in their mind. And God wants to make sure we know the end of the story, that we have it crystal clear in our mind that our hearts and our minds are set on our citizenship in heaven and on the end of the race
He was giving the disciples a view beyond the cross to the crown
beyond the path to the finish line,
beyond the difficulty to the glory of Jesus Christ.
Before those difficult, faith rattling, tribulation days to come in Jerusalem, God wanted the disciples to know who it truly was they were serving
We’ve got to remember the same, exact thing. When our difficult, faith rattling, tribulation days come, we have to set our minds and our hearts on who Jesus Christ is. We have to set our hearts on the glory that comes after the cross. We have to set everything we are on the glorified, victorious, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who is there waiting to share his glory with us. The with us part is illustrated in Luke 9:30.
30 And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah,
This part should be even more encouraging to us than just seeing Jesus in his glory. Because now we see two me who are not unlike us, who the Bible has described and revealed are not too much unlike us, and they are there sharing in Christ’s glory and speaking; they are in relationship with him.
The encouragement to us is this: When Christ is glorified, his followers will be glorified with him. It’s one thing to be motivated by the glory of Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. It’s another thing to fully grasp that we will share in that glory and that relationship with him.
Now people often point out Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets. And here God is showing the Law, the Prophets and the fulfillment of the law and the prophets (in Christ) all together in glory. And this is true and good.
Moses and Elijah were great men; however they were still just men.
Moses had a murder on his record and his mistakes kept him from ever entering the Promised Land, (until now.)
Elijah was a great prophet – maybe the greatest – but as a man Elijah struggled with deep depression and wanting to give up his ministry altogether. In fact he did give up until God wouldn’t let him.
I want you guys to see these two men standing with Jesus, as regular men. Both of these men are now standing with Jesus Christ glorified and talking to him like you and I would talk to each other.
It says, first of all, if you are in Christ, you will be there with him. Grasp it, accept it, receive it. And here is something else it says –
when you are with Christ you will take your identity with you.
You are going to be you, glorified.
Who you are here is who you will be there.
You are going to retain your identity, only perfectly glorified in the presence of Christ.
Moses and Elijah did not cease to be Moses and Elijah. They did not cease to exist. They were not given new identities and they were not angels. There is no mention of wings, or clouds or harps here. They were themselves only sharing in the glory of Christ.
This life continues into eternity. Death is not the end. Death is not the end! God created you as an eternal being, (Genesis 1:27) and that eternal nature he created us with (including who we are) will continue into eternity. And it will continue whether it is in the presence of God through your faith in Jesus Christ, or whether it is separated for eternity from God through your rejection of Jesus Christ, God made you an eternal being. Your spirit, your eternal identity is going to remain.
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
31 who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
What a great way to put what we call death – his exodus from this world. Moses and Elijah were talking with Jesus about his exodus from this world, which was about to occur and I think there’s a good chance they were encouraging Jesus about his personal path to his exodus from this world.
Remember, Jesus was God and man. Hebrews says he faced all the same temptations we face, without sin. We know in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was crying out to the Father in agony over what he knew was about to take place. This had to be a moment of great encouragement to Jesus as he was reminded (in a way) of his true glory by his old friends Moses and Elijah. Plus since Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land during his life.
32 But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep; and when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him.
Some translations say “fallen asleep” this doesn’t mean they were actually sleeping while this had happened. It means that they had been asleep. If you are reading a literal translation it says “they were heavy with sleep.” They were in that half-sleep zone where you are waked physically but not quite awake mentally.
Again, the literal translation would be “when they became fully awake” confirming they were in that sleep-stupor. Unfortunately… when you’re in that sleep-stupor you tend to say stupor things. And so again, Peter fills his role as chief “foot in mouth” disciple.
33 Then it happened, as they were parting from Him, that Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said.
34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were fearful as they entered the cloud.
And you know the other disciples right now are just looking at Peter, like, “What did you just say?” There was plenty of background of the Jews building “memorials” to commemorate special events. But it doesn’t matter because Peter is just blurting out whatever passes through his mind, and this incredible event just goes right on without any response to him.
The disciples knew what was happening right here, they knew the significance of this cloud. They were fully awake by now and they knew this cloud was the presence of the almighty God… and the disciples were terrified/afraid.
Matthew adds
6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.
7 But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.”
It is right to tremble in the presence of the almighty God. But there is no need to tremble if you belong to Jesus Christ. If you enter the presence of God with Jesus Christ it will be all glorious and not fearful at all
35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”
The amplified Bible adds the definition of the Greek for “listen” because it means more than we think it means.
35 Then there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My Son, My Chosen One or My Beloved; listen to and yield to and obey Him!
The word in the Greek means “to completely heed.” It means to not only listen, but to yield and obey. God speaks from the cloud and says, “If you want to be here with Moses and Elijah sharing the glory of Jesus, then this is my beloved son, listen to him, yield to him, obey him.”
36 When the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet, and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.
The lesson and the encouragement were over. But I promise you these disciples were impacted the rest of their lives. Write down in your margin 2 Peter 1:16-19. Peter reviews this exact even and he says in 2 Peter 1:19 because of that experience, we have even greater confidence.
Triumphal Entry Matthew 21:1-11
Triumphal Entry Matthew 21:1-11
1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.
3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”
4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:
5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.
8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”
10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”
11 So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”
What was Jesus anticipating in Jerusalem? (20:17-19) Read 21:1-3. What instructions did he give two disciples as they neared Jerusalem? What were they to say to anyone who raised a question? How does this underscore his kingship?
Read verses 4-5. Why did Jesus need the donkey? How did he fulfill prophecy? (See Zec 9:9-10) What does this teach us about his Messianic mission?
Read verses 6-11. What did the disciples do? What did Jesus do? What did the crowds do? What question did his entrance to Jerusalem in this way raise? (10-11) How did the crowd answer? What can we learn about Jesus the Messiah from this event? What does this mean to us?
1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.
3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”
It was time. Jesus and the disciples were making their way into Jerusalem, ultimately to the cross and the resurrection. And suddenly a donkey – and more importantly its colt – becomes crucial to this event.
Every detail here has been pre-arranged by God and the Holy Spirit is ensuring that it all goes as planned. Here is why – to make sure you have a choice. To make sure that you can see the truth, so that if you choose to deny it you can never blame God for not telling you. So Jesus says
“Go there” –
“see the donkey” –
“borrow it” –
“if anyone asks, just tell them ‘The Lord needs it.’”
And in fact, we learn in Mark 11:5-6 someone DID ask.
5 But some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?”
6 And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go.
This moment had to go perfectly – as planned. So every detail is being orchestrated by God. We’re going to see in a minute that Jesus is going to ride into Jerusalem on this colt of a donkey, and it wasn’t because Jesus was tired, or getting old.
This is a sign. This is a sign to us of who Jesus Christ is and it is a warning to us of how easily people miss such clear signs from God. On this exact day, Jesus needed to enter Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey because on this day Jesus was fulfilling some very specific prophecy.
4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:
5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
What is happening here is
Extremely prophetic.
Perfectly prophetic.
Precisely prophetic.
In order to give the people every possible chance to recognize who Jesus IS and WHAT was happening here. Again, Matthew 21:4-5 says This event with the Donkey’s Colt was taking place to fulfill prophecy . . . and that very specific prophecy is in Zechariah 9:9.
9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.
That is what is happening here. Jesus is orchestrating this monumental historical event, so that no one can deny that he fulfilled the crucial prophecies about how the Messiah would enter Jerusalem.
That’s what is happening, and we need to see it like that. And so, we say all those prophecies were fulfilled, over three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament about Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection. Three hundred, every one of them fulfilled. You can’t compare others to Jesus. There is no comparison.
6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.
To ride on a donkey was actually a symbol of peace as opposed to riding on a horse of war, and even more so to ride on the colt of a donkey. Seven hundred years earlier Isaiah prophesied the messiah would come as the Prince of Peace. When Jesus was born, the angels of heaven announced “Peace on earth.” And today, Jesus is riding into Jerusalem as the “King of Peace.” And so the disciples laid their garments over the colt as a saddle, and Jesus made his way to the one and only time that he promoted (or allowed) a public demonstration of who he was.
But, that is NOT ALL that is being “set up” here. As we see the crowds grow and grow and the people begin shouting that Jesus is their King. It absolutely drives the religious leaders to murder. Jesus knew he was five days away from the cross and he knew the religious leaders would make sure he got there. Today, Jesus was giving them everything they needed to make that final decision (according to God’s perfect timing.)
When the Pharisee’s saw what was happening here, we read in John 12:19
19 The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!”
So word spread fast, Jesus was coming and he is looking like a King and all the people were already there, and they just fell right in to playing their part in this great prophetic announcement.
8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
This was classic red carpet treatment for a King entering a city. The gospel of John identifies the branches as palm branches which are symbolic of a king and also the Messiah. And although the crowd didn’t really understand and although it was short lived, according to God’s perfect orchestration they are all shouting out the perfectly correct words.
9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”
All of these praises are perfectly true for Jesus. “Hosanna” means “save us” or “save now” which is exactly what Jesus was coming to do… just not in the way the people thought. And this IS the greater Son of David (as they were shouting) and Jesus would rule on the Throne of David, in Jerusalem, just not when they thought he would. And this WAS the Messiah – the One Come from God to save his people. (Eternally, not just temporarily.)
The people had the words right, through they didn’t understand the full plan. And so in four days, these same people will be shouting out only then, instead of shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David” they would be shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” because Jesus didn’t do things the way they wanted him to do things.
But here – today – in the Triumphal Entry, the crowd helps Jesus make one of his most clear and powerful prophetic claims about who he is!
But… why this particular day? Prior to this day, Jesus had side-stepped every attempt to make him King of Israel and a number of times in those situations Jesus responded with these words, “My hour has not yet come.” But that was not some kind of spiritualized metaphor. There actually was an hour that had been pre-determined in the throne room of heaven and it was an exact day – that had been very specifically prophesied – by Daniel. And that day, and that hour had come.
10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”
11 So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Jesus also showed that He wasn’t afraid of chief priests and Pharisees. He knew they were plotting to kill Him, yet He came openly to the city as Messiah.
This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee: This continues the earlier identification of Jesus with Nazareth (Matthew 2:23). It would sound strange to many – especially to the religious establishment – that a prophet would come from the obscure and unnoticed city of Nazareth.