A Taste of Heaven, Pt.2

Notes
Transcript
I want us to look tonight, deep into the scriptures that we read this morning. There are four main things/subjects I want to consider that we didn’t have time to deal with this morning.
Those four things are; Mountains, Moses and Elijah, Peter’s saying, and the Cloud.
Text; Mark 9:2-7
Mark 9:2–7 NKJV
2 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. 4 And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”— 6 because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid. 7 And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”

1. Mountains; 2

I love the mountains. I’d rather be in the mountains than anywhere on earth. The Blue Ridge Mountains are so different from the Rockies out west, and the Rockies are so different than the Grand Canyon in the southwest. All beaches are the same [hot with sand]!
Mountains occupy a special place in the Word of God.
It was on a mountain called Moriah that God manifested His grace to Abraham when he willingly offered up his son Isaac, Gen. 22.
It was on Mount Sinai that God handed down His Law to Moses, Ex. 19.
It was on Mount Carmel that God demonstrated His power to Israel through Elijah, 1 Kings 18.
It was on Mount Horeb that God ministered peace to the troubled heart of Elijah, 1 Kings 19.
It was on Mount Calvary that Jesus died for our sins on the cross, John 19.
It was from the Mount of Olives that Jesus ascended back into His heavenly glory, Acts 1:9–11.
It will be that same mountain that will greet His feet when He returns in glory, Zech. 14:4.
Carr, A. (2015). A Glimpse of His Glory (Mark 9:1–13). In The Sermon Notebook: New Testament (p. 771). Lenoir, NC: Alan Carr.
A mountain was often associated with closeness to God and readiness to receive his words.
Our lives are somewhat similar to the mountain and valley picture. We have some days of hardship, sufferings and problems where we struggle to hear God but then God suddenly blesses us with a mountain top experience and reveals Himself to us. In the base of every valley there is a mountain waiting for you!

2. Moses and Elijah; 4

This morning I pointed out that Moses and Elijah represented the Old Covenant of Law and Prophets which Jesus Christ came to fulfill by establishing His New Covenant of Grace!
Moses and Elijah also represent the two ways the people of God meet death.
Moses died and was buried.
Deuteronomy 34:5–6 NKJV
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 a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day.
There is no telling of the multitudes that have died and how many more will die a physical death and like Moses most will be buried or cremated.
Elijah was taken up alive into Heaven
2 Kings 2:11 NKJV
11 Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Elijah did not die a physical death but was “raptured” or caught up to Heaven! Like Elijah many will go to heaven surpassing a physical death but will be changed.
1 Corinthians 15:51–52 NKJV
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 NKJV
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Just like Moses and Elijah left this world in a different manner, so it may be with some of us. But the main thing to remember is, if you know the Lord we will end up in the same place, Heaven!

3. Peter’s Thoughts; 5-6

Peter was no doubt excited and overwhelmed at what he was seeing. But there might be more to what he said than what we think.
Make Three Tabernacles [temporary dwellings/lean-tos] used by the Israelites as they traveled from Egypt in God’s deliverance from their bondage in slavery. This became a celebration known as the Feast of Tabernacles.
The timing of this event [Transfiguration] fueled Peter’s hopes. The transfiguration took place in the month of Tishri, six months before the Passover. At that time the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths), which commemorated the exodus from Egypt, was being celebrated. What better time, Peter may have reasoned, for the Messiah to lead His people out of bondage to sin and into His righteous kingdom than during the Feast of Tabernacles.
MacArthur, J. (2015). Mark 9–16 (p. 7). Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.
Zechariah 14:16–19 NKJV
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Peter seeing the transfiguration during the time of the Feast of Tabernacles might be thinking that what Zechariah prophesied on is now upon them. Why wouldn’t you want this to happen. But we have to remember that Jesus said there must be suffering before there is glory!

4. The Cloud; 7

In Jewish thought the presence of God is always connected with the cloud. It was in the cloud that Moses met God.It was in the cloud that God led Israel in the wilderness by day. It was in the cloud that God came to the Tabernacle. It was the cloud which filled the Temple when it was dedicated after Solomon had built it. And it was the dream of the Jews that when the Messiah came the cloud of God’s presence would return to the Temple.
In Mt. 17:5 the word “bright cloud” is used as it overshadowed them.
Bright Cloud was the Shekinah glory, the cloud that symbolized God’s presence.
The “bright cloud” overshadowing Jesus, Moses, Elijah and the three disciples is in contrast to the dark and threatening cloud that overshadowed Moses in the giving of the old covenant.
Exodus 19:18 NKJV
18 Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
Exodus 20:21 NKJV
21 So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
The law (old covenant) was dark and threatening; the new covenant (the love of Christ) is bright and is given to save and bless, not to threaten and condemn.
Galatians 3:24–25 NKJV
24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
John 3:16–17 NKJV
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Close;
To taste means to experience the thing that is tasted. When I eat my wife’s strawberry cake/pie, I experience joy, satisfaction and a desire for another piece. That’s the way it is when you get a Taste of Heaven. Either from a mountain top experience, from Godly people, in your thoughts and from the Word of God, joy, satisfaction and a desire for more should whet our appetite.
Psalm 34:8 NKJV
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
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