Transfiguration of the Lord

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God is invites us into something deeper than the Law and Prophets. He is inviting us to follow Jesus.

Notes
Transcript

Scripture:

Mark 9:2–9 NLT
Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them. Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus. Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He said this because he didn’t really know what else to say, for they were all terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them. As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

You are doing better than you think.

Still going
2. Jesus at home
3. Bringing along some new friends

The Good News Before the Challenge

The Disciples had been doing well also in the chapter before our passage today.
They witnessed Jesus feeding 4,000 and then 5,000 people
Peter said that Jesus was the Messiah out loud for the first time.
Then Jesus let them in on the plan to die on the cross
And then He invited the disciples to join Him
Mark 8:34–9:1 NLT
Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Jesus went on to say, “I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Kingdom of God arrive in great power!”

Thesis: God is invites us into something greater than the Law and Prophets. He is inviting us to follow Jesus.

Moses, Elijah, and Jesus

Six days later, Jesus took those who were still willing to go with Him, on a special retreat. Up the mountain they went, until Jesus told them to hang back as He went ahead. There, Peter, James, and John huddled to wait and see what Jesus was going to do.
Had they heard those stories from the Greeks about pagan gods meeting their heroes and giving them magic swords or suits of armor to protect them against their enemies? Were they expecting to see an angel of the Lord, or maybe several of them, coming with a message from God?

VIP Meeting

To their suprise, they suddenly saw Moses and Elijah, the biggest heroes of the Old Testament.
- Moses was the prophet from God who brought the Law to the Hebrew people.
- Elijah was the prophet who God used to redeem Israel in the days of unfaithful leaders, when pagan worship had overtaken the nation.
The two of them together represented two of the major parts of the scripture: the Law and the Prophets. These sections of the Old Testament contain what God has done, and is promising to do, for us.
These two were up on the mountaintop with Jesus, talking with one another, probably just out of earshot from Peter, James, and John. I wonder what they were talking about...
Some people wonder if they were encouraging Jesus as He prepared to go to the cross.
Others wonder if it was a divine moment where Moses and Elijah got to meet Jesus, the Messiah they had spoken about to the people of their time.
We don't know what they said because we were not given the perspective of those up on the mountaintop. We have the perspective of the disciples, which might be even better.

Front Row Seats

As we read through the Gospels, it is easy for us to get the impression that we are seeing these stories through the eyes of Jesus. After all most of the gospel stories are spent following him around from place to place. Sometimes we even get inside information about things that Jesus knows even if he does not say it out loud. That's different from knowing his thoughts. The gospel don't truly show us the stories through Jesus’ eyes.
instead we get the stories through the eyes of the disciples.
On the one hand, that may seem to be seeing everything play out from cheaper seats. On the other hand though, if the stories were told from Jesus own perspective, we would miss out on seeing Jesus Himself.
it is a gift to see the life and ministry of Jesus through the eyes of Peter, James, and John. Not only are the eyes we can relate to better, they are eyes that show us who Jesus is. In just a moment, we are going to see why that is worth giving up what was said between Moses, Elijah, and Jesus on the mountaintop.
What we need to remember first is that the Scriptures, all of them, from Genesis to Revelation, were written, passed down, and shared with you in mind. They were made to help you focus on helping you see the most important details, not distracting you with knowledge that does not help you grow closer to God.

A Side Note

we learned a couple weeks back in our online Bible study, a journey through exodus, that God gave Moses a new name to call Him. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph referred to him as El Shaddai: the Lord Almighty. Moses and the Hebrew people in Egypt were told to call him YHWH, or “I am that I am”.
God moved from a title to giving them something much more akin to a personal name with them, inviting them to be His people less out of fear and more out of family.
Elijah, on the run for his life, hid in a cave trying to find God. Storms shook the land around him, but he could not hear God in any of it.
Finally, God spoke to Elijah in a still, small voice, they carried the authority of the universe in it. God had been with him all along.
these three disciples: Peter, James, and John we're about to have an experience like Moses and Elijah. They were about to get to know God on a more personal level.

The Word from God

The disciples did not know what to say or do. They probably had visions of the End Times going through their heads. Peter, wanting to say something, offered to build some memorials, to mark this place forever as where they had a powerful religious experience. This would forever be their holy campground, their retreat center, and they could tell people for all time about this encounter with God. Something greater than they had ever experienced, even in the Temple in Jerusalem.
God interrupted those plans.
A cloud came over then the voice from heaven said, "This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him."
when they looked again, Moses and Elijah were gone. Only Jesus was left.

2,000 years later

2,000 years later we look for the hidden meanings in all of this.
Some say that this proves that Jesus is a greater prophet than either Moses or Elijah.
Others will claim that this shows Jesus fulfilling the scriptures in the Law and Prophets that point to the Messiah.
There is certainly a reference to the past and to scripture, since Moses and Elijah were considered heroes and authors of parts of the Old Testament. They both carried God’s Word to God’s people.
But Jesus is something different from them. Jesus is something different from scripture.
And before we try to figure out what this majestic experience means, I want to remind us one more time whose eyes we are looking through: The eyes of the disciples.

God Speaks Again

When God speaks down from heaven, He is not talking to Moses or Elijah. He is not talking to Jesus. He is talking to Peter, James, and John.
Jesus took them up on the mountain, not to peek in as He met with God secretly. Jesus brought them up to become the burning bush, to become the still, small voice, so that these disciples could have the same kind of experience as Moses and Elijah, their heroes of the faith. He wanted to invite them to call God by his personal name: and it was Jesus.

What does this mean for us?

Seeing Jesus on the mountain like that was a gift and a celebration that these disciples had grown as much as they had in the three years they spent with Jesus. They were ready for a bigger challenge. They were ready to begin to see behind the curtain, what was really going on. But they were not going to understand it at first.
Not because it was too complicated. Perhaps because it was too simple.
The gift that God gave them was not secret knowledge, or a special way to read the scriptures. It was not permission to get rid of the Old Testament and just begin working with the New Testament - which had not been written at all yet.
The gift that God gave them was Jesus, Whom they had been with from the day He called them out of their fishing boats.
Why spend all that time trying to decipher God’s will out of the testimony of Moses and Elijah in scripture, when you have Jesus Himself? Why do you doubt what Jesus says to you when all of the scripture points to Him as the ultimate authority?
The Bible is not magic. Magic books are for false religions. You have the Living Word of God and His name is Jesus.

But, but, but...

Someone is thinking, and afraid to say it out loud, so I’ll say it for you.
“Jesus is gone.”
“He died.”
“He rose again, but then He left again.”
“He is not physically with us as He was with the disciples.”
Oh just you wait. Easter is coming. Jesus is not dead. He is not gone. And the disciples will find out that the Holy Spirit at Pentecost will bring them closer to Jesus than they ever were in person.
Let me say that again. The Holy Spirit brings us closer to Jesus than we ever were or could be just being in person.
On that mountaintop, the disciples realized that those who are willing to follow Jesus, not whatever popular scripture interpretations we find, not the latest and greatest studies, not the preacher on the TV or internet or in your local church. Those who follow Jesus, walk with something greater than the Holy of Holies in the Temple with them.

CTA

Do you walk with Jesus? Do you listen to Him?
The Scripture and Jesus do not contradict each other, so it is not a question of which one is right or true. One is the gift and one is the giver. You have a personal relationship with Jesus, not your Bible. Your Bible is a gift meant to help you live and grow in that relationship with Jesus. It is meant to be used, not worshipped.
The disciples were not ready to understand what they experienced yet, but the experience of hearing from God helped them have the courage to take Jesus to the rest of the world after Pentecost.
Some of you are ready to move from trying to figure God out to listening to Him. It doesn’t take special knowledge or training. It takes a willingness to follow Him where He leads. As we begin Lent this week, we all have the opportunity to practice following Jesus where He leads, giving up our distractions, picking up our crosses, and following Jesus.
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