"Four Lessons From The Transfiguration" by Neal Pollard

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Good morning.
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I appreciate Josh's reading. This account is found
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in 3 of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and I want us to
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examine another of the Gospel records on
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this very event.
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Matthew says, and after 6 days Jesus took
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with him Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain
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by themselves. And Jesus was transfigured
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before them, and His face shone like the sun,
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and His clothes were as white as the light.
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And there appeared Moses and Elijah unto them,
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speaking to Him. And when
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Peter saw this, he said to Jesus,
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Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let us build
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3 tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one
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for Elijah. And while he was still speaking, a bright cloud
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overshadowed them, and behold, a voice spoke
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from the cloud, saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am
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well pleased. Listen to him.
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And when they heard this, they fell on their faces,
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and they were very afraid. And Jesus came
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and he touched them and he said, arise and do not be
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afraid. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but
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Jesus only. And as they went down the mountain,
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Jesus said, see to it that you tell no one this
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vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.
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And the disciples answered and said unto him, Why then do the scribes
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say that Elijah must first come? And Jesus said,
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indeed Elijah is coming, and he will restore all things. But I say
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unto you that Elijah has come, and they did not
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recognize him, and they did to him whatever they wished.
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And the disciples understood that he spoke to them of
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John the Baptist. As we read there in Matthew chapter 17,
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verse 1 through verse 13, I want us to set it between the
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2 significant events that are around One
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is the teaching that Jesus did up on Caesarea Philippi,
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Matthew 16:13-28, on the one hand.
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And then after this, immediately after the words that we just saw,
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there is the healing that Jesus does of one that Matthew calls a
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lunatic, a demon-possessed man which his apostles could
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not exorcise. On the one side there in
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Matthew 16, we see Jesus make
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4 incredible prophecies. Number 1, I will
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establish my church. Number 2,
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I will endow you, the apostles, with the authority to go
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out and teach the gospel of the kingdom. Number 3,
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I will endure the cross and I will experience
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the resurrection. And then number 4, I will enable you
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to be my followers, my disciples, and at the
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end of life, if you faithfully do this, you shall receive a reward.
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Now, as a part of that 4th promise that we see there,
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there is a statement that's made, Matthew 16:27,
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where Jesus says that you will see the Son of Man come
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in the glory of his Father on that occasion. Matthew 16:27.
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Glory is a word that Matthew likes to use in his gospel.
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We're going to find it 8 times from the beginning to the end of
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the gospel. And glory is one of those words that was already being
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used for some time by secular Greek writers. And as they
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wrote about this word, it meant brightness. It meant radiance. It meant
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something that stood out. But as so often is the case,
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what you'll find is that the New Testament takes a word already
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in use and will elevate it. And this word came
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to be associated with God and who God is.
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God himself is being in his word a brightness that goes
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beyond anything else that could be compared to it, a brilliant, that stands
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out. In fact, most of the occurrences of
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the word glory in Matthew are in some way applied to God himself in
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some way. It is glory in the nature of God,
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for example, in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 13, at the end of the
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model prayer, when Jesus says, for yours is the kingdom and the power
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and the glory forever. There is this
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idea we have just seen in Matthew 16 and verse 27, where the Son of
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Man is going to come in the glory of God. His Father at
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the second coming. And then in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 28,
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Jesus says that the Son of Man was going to sit on his glorious
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throne in the regeneration. That is referring to the end of
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time again. And then in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 30, we have Jesus
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as he speaks and he says that the Son of Man is going to come
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in his glory in the destruction of Jerusalem in judgment.
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Matthew 24 and verse 30, And then in a parable
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pointing us to the end of time, we have those words,
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when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the
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holy angels with him, then will he sit upon his glorious throne,
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Matthew 25:31. And so with each one
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of these references, we have this picture that is then illustrated
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in Matthew chapter 17. The word glory is not found there, but it's
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in evidence. It's in full view. On the other side of that, we have
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glory implied. As you have the apostles that
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have gone up with Jesus in Matthew 17 coming down, and the other apostles are
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trying to perform this exorcism, this removal of this
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one that is possessed, this boy, and the disciples couldn't do
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it. And Jesus comes along. It's a one-off. It never occurs
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any other time in Scripture. And Jesus demonstrates his ability to do
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what no one else can do. Glory, as it is mentioned,
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as it is illustrated, and as it's implied.
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But it's that center event that I want us to draw some lessons
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from this morning. There was a unique way
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in which Matthew 17 and the transfiguration affected
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those 3 apostles. But believe there are some things that we
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can learn as we strive to serve that Jesus, the Jesus that
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we commemorated around the Lord's Supper, physical suffering
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in his body on the cross. The Jesus that we adore and
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we worship, the Jesus whose blood saves and purchases us from our
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sins, the Jesus whom we long to serve and to be reunited
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with someday. I want us to think about 4 things we learn from
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this event that can help us in that pursuit. The first thing
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I think that we learn as we look at these events is that you need
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to build on what you know. This is a more general observation
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of what we see in the text that we have already read. When you
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think about Peter, James, and John,
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they're going with Jesus up on this incredible experience.
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No day like this day. But this wasn't their first
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day with him. These are the individuals, along with
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the others, that Jesus called who had been walking with him for about 3 years,
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and they had heard his teaching. It's masterful. They had seen his
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works. Incredible. But nothing prepared them
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for what they were going to see on this day.
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And I want you to think about the fact that as Jesus is walking with
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them, is mentoring them and trying to get them to grow, they had
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had some great successes. They'd also had some terrible failures.
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You know, the growth curve doesn't work like this, does it? Spiritually speaking,
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we're not just better today than we were yesterday. Hopefully in the long term,
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that's what we're going for. But if we were to chart it, it would be
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more like this. I do some things well. I follow Christ.
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I look more like him, and then I fall back, and I'm struggling once again.
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And the disciples are just like that. They have been sitting
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and listening to Jesus. They've been processing his will, and when
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he gets it right, he acknowledges that, but then he also says,
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well, you need to grow. You know, but the thing I want you to
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keep in mind as you see all that Jesus does, even on this occasion,
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is that Jesus Jesus is so patient with them.
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Keep in mind that he understands our frame. He knows that we're but dust.
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He knows that we've still got a lot to learn. The apostles,
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even after this occasion, are going to have to be taught so much more.
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I think about in Acts chapter 1, after they walked with Jesus and he's about
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to ascend to heaven, after it's all done, his earthly ministry,
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their last question to him is, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom
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to Israel? They still were learning. And I want you to
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notice how Matthew kind of shows us that through the gospel and how so
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often they needed Jesus to teach them a lesson after they've seen something incredible.
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In Matthew chapter 8, for example, in verse 26, there's a storm
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on the Sea of Galilee and they are so afraid.
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And remember, some of these are seasoned fishermen. And Jesus,
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in his reply when they wake him up, is, You men of little
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faith, why are you afraid? Jesus is
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in the boat, but it's more than that. Go back a few verses
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earlier that day in Matthew chapter 8 and verse 16. They were witnesses
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and they saw as Jesus healed many who were demon-possessed
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and all who were ill. Go forward a little bit in time and
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then Peter, one of these 3, is wanting to walk on the
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Sea of Galilee. And as he walks, he takes his eyes off of Jesus and
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he begins to sink. And you remember Jesus' statement in Matthew chapter 14 and verse
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31 is, you of little faith, why did
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you doubt? Now, this is right moments
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after they had been there. And you remember John tells us
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that Andrew finds a little boy with the 5 loaves and the 2 fish,
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and out of that Jesus makes a meal for 5,000
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men. And he is one of the ones who's collecting 12 baskets of leftovers.
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He has just seen that. Matthew 14:19 through 21,
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and he fails so soon thereafter.
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Or just a week before, Caesarea Philippi, Matthew 16:8,
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Jesus tells them to beware of the leaven of the Sadducees and
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the Pharisees, and they begin to talk among themselves, and Jesus says, you of little
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faith, why are you discussing among yourselves that you have no bread?
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And so, all the way through, Jesus is demonstrating
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to them that they still had so much to learn. As long
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as we are in Christ, we're going to continue to
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strive and to grow and to mature,
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and he understands that. I want you to think about what one
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of these men said late in his life after
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he had walked with Jesus so long, and he tells him in that last letter
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that he writes, 2 Peter, that the Lord's told him he's about to have to
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fold this body of clay. He's about to do what he had promised, and he's
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going to no longer be among them. And Peter writes, Grace and peace
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be unto you, and the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
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according as his divine power has given unto us
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everything we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge
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of him who called us by his own glory and virtue, whereby are given unto
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us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these
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you might be made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
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the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside all this, Giving all
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diligence, or devotion, add to your faith virtue, and to
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virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to
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patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
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For if these things be in you and abound, or increase,
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they shall make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge
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of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But he who lacks these things is
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blind and cannot see afar off and has forgotten that he was purged from
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his old sins, Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling
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and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall
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never fall. For so an entrance shall be given unto you into the everlasting kingdom
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of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:2-11.
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And then he comes at the end of the letter and he says, wherefore,
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seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in him in
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peace, having no spot and blameless, and account the longsuffering
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of our Lord salvation. As also our dear beloved
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Paul, according to the wisdom that has been given unto him, has written unto
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you, in which are some things hard to be understood, which those
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that are unlearned and unstable twist, as they do the rest of the Scripture,
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to their own destruction. And you, seeing that you know these things before,
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be diligent that you do not fall according to the
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error of the wicked and fall from your own steadfastness,
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but grow in in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
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Christ, to whom be glory now and forever. Amen.
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2 Peter 3:14-18. And here's what I want you to see,
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that there is a difference. There is a difference between the
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one who is growing and adding these graces to
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their life and the one who has forgotten these things and has been blinded to
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these things. And there's a difference in the one who is growing in the
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grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the one who either teaches
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a distorted message or believes a distorted message and falls
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away. And our Lord sees the difference.
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As we think on what's happening here, Peter, James, and John,
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they're given an incredible lesson in an incredible classroom that
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we're going to see more about here in just a few moments. And it's just
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more for them as fodder to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.
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The longer that you serve Jesus, I believe the
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more you'll find that we're never experienced enough, we're never mature enough
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and spiritual enough to say that we've learned everything we needed
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to know, that we have arrived at the place that we want to be,
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that we never will be at the place where we don't have new
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challenges to overcome, where we're never at the spot where everything
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is as it should be. And so as we see these men,
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this inner circle called out for this special ministry,
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That they are called to build on what they know,
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and that was going to continue for the rest of their lives. And it
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is for you and me that way. You know, as I look out here,
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I realize that there are those who have been Christians literally
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for days, some for months, some for years,
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and some for many decades. But all
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of us have that in common, that we're at a place where we need to
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be building on what we've already accumulated, and we're never satisfied.
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We're always wanting to learn more about him and his word,
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and that's what we learn up on the mountain. But then number 2,
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we learn from this that we need to see Jesus as he is.
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I think about these men, and of all the people who
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would have had exposure to Jesus, don't you think that these
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men had an insight into Jesus that others didn't?
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They knew the lines on his face, no doubt, walking so closely with him.
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They knew his voice inflection. They knew his sense of
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humor. They knew his personality.
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The relationship had to be comfortable and familiar, even though
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he was perpetually amazing them. But with all of that,
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there's nothing to prepare them for what they see up
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on the mountain. And Matthew explains it to us that Jesus
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is transfigured before them. A metamorphosis,
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like the caterpillar to a butterfly. Something different is seen,
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and it is described by Matthew as changed. Jesus is
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changed in front of them. What does that change look like?
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Well, it says that his face shined like the sun.
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But in addition to that, his clothes are made as white as the light.
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And Mark comments on this in Mark 9:2, and he says it is brighter
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than any launderer can make white. Make it bright. And so,
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they get a view of Jesus like they haven't seen him before.
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They had been hungry with him.
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They had been tired. They had just seen him fall asleep
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in the boat. They saw the emotions, the ups
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and downs that he experienced like they did, but what they see
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is something different here. This is set off for
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us by Matthew by saying, behold, a marker for an unexpected
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event. It's like you weren't expecting this to come at all.
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It's more amplified by the bright cloud
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that overshadows them. Luke says that it envelops them. Can you
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imagine? You know, God had revealed himself through the cloud
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throughout history. He revealed himself in the cloud in
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the Exodus— in the wilderness rather, in Exodus 13:21.
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He had revealed himself at the tabernacle in Exodus 40:34.
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He had revealed himself like this at the temple in 1 Kings
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8:10-11. It's incredibly different
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from what they had seen day by day.
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You know, we're in the last phase. We're in the maximum phase of
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Solar Cycle 25. From what I understand,
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I know very little about these sorts of things, but there's an 11-year cycle,
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and in that there's solar magnetic activity, and there's sunspots
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and anomalies that can happen. And last year was
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when it peaked. And I don't have social media, but Kathy shares
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it with me. Everybody's taking their pictures. You remember because
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of that solar magnetic activity,
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unlike in our lifetime at least,
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that you could go out at night and take your camera and you would
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see different hues of pink and red and green and purple,
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what they typically call the Northern Lights.
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Did you see it? Did you go out and were you able to see that?
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And I thought, this far south? But then
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I did some research. Did you know that they saw the Northern Lights in Haiti,
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in Singapore? There were reports of it at
18:23.330 --> 18:27.231
the equator. You can't get any further south than that, at least in the Northern
18:27.247 --> 18:30.473
Hemisphere. People who could look up and see what
18:30.973 --> 18:34.614
was— the sun's always had that kind of energy. It's always
18:34.646 --> 18:38.097
got that kind of power. But God, through his providence,
18:38.161 --> 18:41.516
allowed the curtains to be pulled back, and we could see it as it really
18:41.629 --> 18:45.155
is. And I think about how incredible. And I
18:45.655 --> 18:49.465
think sometimes these discoveries come because man grows more sophisticated,
18:49.786 --> 18:53.695
and we have our own technologies. We now have AI and all the incredible
18:53.711 --> 18:57.188
things that it can do. And then God will show us in some way to
18:57.688 --> 19:01.322
say, look, you can't do what I can do. And NASA
19:01.822 --> 19:04.623
has been sending us back the Hubble Telescope,
19:04.703 --> 19:08.596
incredible pictures that we've been able to derive from that. But NASA's been sending
19:08.628 --> 19:10.919
back pictures from the James Webb Telescope.
19:12.218 --> 19:15.731
Unlike anything that's been seen before. This is not an
19:15.827 --> 19:19.387
adequate representation of a picture of the— at
19:19.451 --> 19:23.348
that time, this was in 2022, and the pictures keep coming. They're not declassifying
19:23.445 --> 19:27.310
all of them at the same time, but this is the farthest point in the
19:27.810 --> 19:31.127
universe that man has ever seen. And somewhere in
19:31.159 --> 19:34.655
the bottom third of that, there is a cluster galaxy,
19:35.713 --> 19:39.450
and that cluster galaxy serves as a magnifying glass.
19:39.562 --> 19:42.691
And those who are able to look in with specialized lens say that there are
19:43.191 --> 19:46.560
much more distant galaxies back behind it. And as the,
19:47.026 --> 19:51.488
the, the, the imagery keeps coming in, the glory is compounding.
19:52.901 --> 19:56.721
It's there. You know, it was there 100 years ago when technology had
19:56.753 --> 20:00.317
not caught up with what we can now see. That was still
20:00.510 --> 20:04.250
God's magnitude of his greatness. And now
20:04.362 --> 20:07.766
we see it. Oh, how good God is to allow us in our
20:07.814 --> 20:11.301
lifetime to to be able to put our eyes on what people have accepted by
20:11.801 --> 20:14.938
faith. But here's the thing, Peter,
20:15.018 --> 20:18.270
James, and John are up on the
20:18.770 --> 20:22.987
mountain with the one who created
20:23.487 --> 20:27.565
all of that. And what impact did
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that have on them? Hey, John, did that affect you at all?
20:32.380 --> 20:36.571
Understated. The Word became flesh and
20:37.071 --> 20:40.392
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory,
20:41.468 --> 20:44.680
glory as of the Father, full of grace and
20:45.180 --> 20:48.212
truth. John 1:14, hey Peter, did that affect you at
20:48.712 --> 20:52.852
all? Huh. Yes, we heard the voice out of the majestic
20:52.868 --> 20:56.577
glory saying, this is my beloved
20:57.077 --> 21:00.624
Son in whom I'm well pleased. And we
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saw this glory when we heard the voice,
21:05.117 --> 21:07.178
for we were with him on the holy mountain.
21:08.958 --> 21:12.542
Now let me ask you, God's glory doesn't change,
21:12.574 --> 21:15.371
but what does change is us. Hebrews 13:8 says,
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Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever,
21:19.999 --> 21:24.057
but we change. It's such a beautiful truth that
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as I think even in this room today, there are some whose view of
21:28.198 --> 21:32.517
Jesus has changed. Jesus went from a myth to
21:33.017 --> 21:36.344
a man to a great teacher to something profoundly
21:36.360 --> 21:40.093
more. Hey, Jesus went from not just a man
21:40.125 --> 21:43.925
but the Son of Man. That Jesus went from
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being something that's important to someone that's important to us,
21:47.964 --> 21:51.467
like a spouse or a parent or a friend, to being important
21:51.499 --> 21:55.275
to us. Being able to see
21:55.775 --> 21:59.997
Jesus as he is provides the dividing line
22:00.029 --> 22:02.580
in me seeing him as I prefer to see him and how I might want
22:03.080 --> 22:06.655
to keep him and how he is in truth. And God through his word has
22:06.751 --> 22:09.462
thrown open the window so we can see it.
22:10.521 --> 22:14.387
And it is who he is. Yes, he was robed in the
22:14.887 --> 22:18.317
flesh. It was so beautifully said in the prayer this morning. But in addition to
22:18.817 --> 22:21.847
that, he is the pre-incarnate word. In the beginning was the word, and the word
22:22.347 --> 22:26.564
was with God, and the word was God. John 1:1-2. Hebrews 1:1-3
22:27.064 --> 22:31.090
gives us just an equally bright picture. Now listen, Matthew in this description
22:31.154 --> 22:34.396
gives us 4 words for our Lord. That first of all,
22:34.412 --> 22:38.536
he is Jesus, God saves. That second, he is Lord.
22:38.761 --> 22:42.468
He's master. He's the one in charge. The Father validates him by
22:42.968 --> 22:46.271
saying, this is my beloved Son. And Jesus,
22:46.320 --> 22:49.898
his favorite designation for himself is Son of Man. This allows
22:49.995 --> 22:53.749
him to demonstrate or to point out his humanity and his empathy
22:53.781 --> 22:57.343
with humanity. But not only that, it's a nod to Daniel
22:57.375 --> 23:01.129
7:13 where he is seen to be the Messiah whose
23:01.241 --> 23:04.611
glory was going to come after his suffering, and it allows Jesus
23:05.111 --> 23:08.188
to define himself on his terms and not on the way other people wanted to
23:08.221 --> 23:12.119
identify him. And that's where we find ourselves as
23:12.151 --> 23:16.130
we're traveling with him up on that mountain today, is to see Jesus
23:16.630 --> 23:19.997
as he is. Yes, lowly in the manger.
23:20.879 --> 23:24.553
Yes, one who can experience and understand everything we're going
23:24.569 --> 23:27.954
through, Hebrews 4:15, but the one who is from
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everlasting to everlasting, God the Son,
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who will one day be the one who stands in judgment, but the one
23:35.334 --> 23:38.912
who has been the one who has died for our sins. But then
23:38.944 --> 23:42.853
lesson number 3 is we need to let God clarify mistaken
23:42.885 --> 23:44.391
views of Jesus.
23:46.592 --> 23:50.942
I love Luke's account that we read this morning. Can you blame Peter?
23:52.053 --> 23:55.773
Apparently they were all asleep. And can you imagine waking
23:55.918 --> 23:59.541
up to what you see here? There's Moses and Elijah
23:59.557 --> 24:03.343
that they can somehow readily identify. And then here's Jesus who
24:03.843 --> 24:07.049
they've been walking with for 3 years, but man, he looks different now with this,
24:07.275 --> 24:11.447
this transformation that God has allowed. And Mark 9:6
24:11.947 --> 24:15.238
says, and Peter didn't know what to say, but when did that ever stop Peter
24:15.738 --> 24:19.249
from saying something? And so Peter, in response to that, I think has
24:19.749 --> 24:23.349
something great to say. I think he has so much right
24:23.849 --> 24:27.248
here. He's right. It was good for them to be
24:27.748 --> 24:31.914
there, and it was right for him to want to honor Jesus.
24:33.297 --> 24:36.572
And he does recognize, man, these are 3 of the greatest individuals
24:36.604 --> 24:40.233
who have ever lived, the greatest teachers of all time.
24:41.405 --> 24:44.809
And so he just wants to help. He wants to serve. He wants to step
24:44.857 --> 24:48.309
up. But the Father has a counterproposal for
24:48.809 --> 24:52.660
him. Instead of rolling up his sleeves and stepping forward to be the party
24:53.160 --> 24:57.156
planner, God says, step back and let Jesus
24:57.656 --> 25:01.300
tell you what he wants. You let him be the one who
25:01.397 --> 25:04.957
sets the tone. And to make sure that we're clear on that,
25:05.410 --> 25:08.605
suddenly we see that Elijah and Moses disappear and
25:09.105 --> 25:12.963
it's just Jesus. And the Father is showing us, this is the final communicator
25:13.253 --> 25:16.156
of my will. And so you're to listen to him.
25:17.910 --> 25:21.327
So often as we encounter people, they have a mistaken view of
25:21.344 --> 25:24.778
Christ, but so often that happens with us. He's not just here to
25:25.278 --> 25:28.731
bless us. And give us a comfortable life here. He is not one that we
25:29.231 --> 25:31.780
can form and shape to our will and how we want to serve him on
25:31.844 --> 25:35.437
our terms. The Father speaks throughout all of that
25:35.469 --> 25:39.159
and he says, listen to him. Let the
25:39.223 --> 25:42.993
wicked man forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return
25:43.493 --> 25:45.977
to the Lord and he will have mercy on him, and to our God and
25:46.477 --> 25:50.132
he will abundantly pardon him. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
25:50.632 --> 25:52.861
ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
25:52.910 --> 25:56.414
so are my thoughts— my ways than your ways and my thoughts than your
25:56.463 --> 25:59.486
thoughts. God says,
26:00.229 --> 26:04.364
clear up your mistaken view of my Son and
26:04.864 --> 26:08.928
listen to him, which is the last lesson I think we learn. Listen to him.
26:09.915 --> 26:13.521
Now, I want to focus on the part we don't typically look at as we
26:13.796 --> 26:17.523
get ready to draw this lesson to a close. The last thing
26:18.023 --> 26:19.816
they hear the Father say, the only thing they hear the Father say is,
26:19.864 --> 26:23.167
this is my beloved Son. Listen to him. And then they are still on
26:23.199 --> 26:26.711
this experience coming down the mountain, and Jesus is going
26:26.743 --> 26:30.447
to talk to them. First thing we see is that Jesus commands them.
26:30.751 --> 26:34.087
He audibilizes. He says, see to it that you tell no one the vision,
26:34.760 --> 26:37.438
this vision. It is a vision, but a glorious one,
26:38.191 --> 26:42.296
until the Son of Man is raised from the dead. Matthew doesn't
26:42.796 --> 26:46.522
tell us why Jesus says that. Maybe it is because there's this heavenly timetable,
26:46.860 --> 26:50.261
and Jesus wants to be in control of that. That he wants to control the
26:50.761 --> 26:52.887
flow of information as to who he is.
26:54.667 --> 26:57.961
I don't know if they understood it. They don't seem to argue back.
26:59.005 --> 27:03.135
But aren't we confronted so often with Jesus commanding us something that
27:03.635 --> 27:06.468
maybe we don't see the rationale to that? Maybe we don't appreciate why it is
27:06.565 --> 27:09.610
that he says what he says. And yet,
27:10.190 --> 27:13.397
as the Father would say, this is my beloved Son. Listen to him.
27:13.445 --> 27:16.706
Here's what we know. He's faithful and he's trustworthy.
27:17.203 --> 27:20.914
Hebrews 10:23. But then Jesus instructs
27:21.414 --> 27:25.041
them. Now here in verses 10 through 13, we, we have them
27:25.250 --> 27:28.398
turning their focus as they understand that this is all in this picture
27:28.898 --> 27:31.996
that Jesus has been trying to help them to see, that he is going to
27:32.496 --> 27:36.493
suffer and die. He says it 4 times from Matthew 16:21 through Matthew
27:36.993 --> 27:39.320
chapter 20 and verse 19. The Son of Man is going to He's going to
27:39.384 --> 27:42.195
die, and he's going to be raised from the dead. And maybe they can't hear
27:42.695 --> 27:45.953
the raised from the dead part because it's so traumatic to think of
27:46.453 --> 27:49.679
their Savior, their teacher who's about to be taken
27:49.728 --> 27:53.133
away from them. But when he says, don't tell this vision
27:53.633 --> 27:55.911
until the Son of Man is raised from the dead, they go, well, why do
27:56.411 --> 27:59.589
the scribes say that Elijah must first come? Jesus is
27:59.605 --> 28:03.187
then going to explain to them that everything is happening according
28:03.299 --> 28:04.905
to the heavenly plan.
28:06.861 --> 28:10.115
Malachi 3:10 says that Elijah must first come before
28:10.615 --> 28:14.684
the great and terrible day of the Lord. Think about Moses and Elijah
28:15.184 --> 28:18.997
there for just a moment. It was Moses in Deuteronomy
28:19.029 --> 28:22.379
18:15 who said that there is going to be a prophet like
28:22.879 --> 28:26.932
me raised up from among you, from your own countrymen. You are to listen
28:27.830 --> 28:31.678
to him. Malachi 4:5 says that this Elijah
28:31.855 --> 28:36.399
was coming. Jesus had already been teaching this in Matthew 11:14,
28:36.752 --> 28:40.253
and then that he was going to suffer many things. And of course,
28:40.285 --> 28:44.395
by the time this happens, Jesus would tell us— Matthew would tell us
28:45.021 --> 28:48.522
that John the Baptist has already been beheaded by Herod,
28:48.618 --> 28:52.311
Matthew 14:1-12. And so Jesus
28:52.811 --> 28:56.149
is instructing them, and they get it. They put it together. Verse 13,
28:57.631 --> 29:00.801
And then he says, the Son of Man is about to suffer at
29:01.301 --> 29:04.308
their hands. I think the Father says,
29:04.421 --> 29:07.983
listen to Jesus, and gives them this glorious moment, at least
29:08.483 --> 29:11.384
in point— in part because of what's about to happen.
29:13.411 --> 29:16.460
They see Jesus transformed and changed in front of them,
29:16.558 --> 29:18.974
shining so brightly, bright as the sun,
29:20.839 --> 29:24.628
and in just a few weeks, Jesus is going to be arrested.
29:25.740 --> 29:28.294
He's going to be led away. He's not even going to resist. He's not going
29:28.794 --> 29:32.970
to fight. And he is going to endure horrible things
29:34.047 --> 29:37.836
in front of them. They're going to see it. And it's
29:38.336 --> 29:41.861
going to have to be hard for them to appreciate that the Jesus on
29:42.361 --> 29:46.240
the mountain is the man that's in front of them. In fact, they're so affected
29:46.740 --> 29:49.889
by this in a negative way that Matthew 26:56 tells us
29:50.389 --> 29:53.283
that they're all going to forsake him and flee. Now, John is going to be
29:53.783 --> 29:56.510
spotted at the foot of the cross, and as he's there, he's going to look
29:56.558 --> 29:59.737
up at Jesus, and what's he going to see? He is going to see a
29:59.866 --> 30:02.965
bleeding man with a crown on his head.
30:04.025 --> 30:07.637
He's going to see him fastened to a tree. He is going to see him
30:08.039 --> 30:11.956
able to push himself up just to get a breath before he sinks back down,
30:12.133 --> 30:15.248
and slowly over 6 hours, he dies.
30:16.536 --> 30:20.309
Is John trying to reconcile what he saw on the mountain with
30:20.325 --> 30:24.308
what's in front of his eyes? And think about this. Here is Jesus who,
30:24.421 --> 30:27.835
according to the Gospel writers, 3 different times calls out
30:28.335 --> 30:31.883
to the Father. He speaks to him. And we do
30:32.383 --> 30:36.293
have the darkness, and we do have the ripping of the temple
30:36.793 --> 30:41.178
veil. We do have the earthquake. But what we don't have is
30:41.275 --> 30:45.885
what Jesus is had said at his baptism and
30:46.385 --> 30:51.103
what the apostles hear on the Mount of Transfiguration. Do you think if
30:51.603 --> 30:55.567
there was a single moment in Jesus's life when he wanted
30:55.663 --> 30:59.132
all to know that he is the Father's Son, would it have
30:59.632 --> 31:03.242
been in that moment? And yet no
31:03.306 --> 31:03.740
voice.
31:07.658 --> 31:11.491
So often the will and the teaching of Jesus doesn't fit our presuppositions,
31:11.588 --> 31:14.536
our preferences, our purposes.
31:16.195 --> 31:19.202
Sometimes we don't understand what Jesus says,
31:19.700 --> 31:22.754
and more often we may understand it, but we don't like it.
31:23.960 --> 31:28.015
But in all of those moments, the impact of that statement,
31:28.144 --> 31:32.337
this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased, hear him.
31:34.582 --> 31:38.379
Cause us to look at the cross while
31:38.879 --> 31:42.224
not forgetting the mountain where
31:42.724 --> 31:46.137
he was changed and we saw him as he really is. And it's incredible to
31:46.637 --> 31:49.188
me, isn't it, that there's a contrast up on that mountain?
31:50.497 --> 31:52.602
I would have loved to have been able to hear that, I guess. I don't
31:52.618 --> 31:54.836
know. I think I'd have been just like Peter, James, and John. I would have
31:55.336 --> 31:58.565
fallen on my face. I would have been afraid. But what would it
31:59.065 --> 32:02.367
have been? To have heard the voice. What would the voice of
32:02.867 --> 32:05.243
the Father sound like as he says what he says?
32:06.544 --> 32:09.147
Here's that magnificence, this omnipotence.
32:13.361 --> 32:16.972
And then there's Jesus, all God,
32:17.086 --> 32:22.165
but he comes up and
32:22.665 --> 32:25.675
he touches them and he reassures them.
32:27.338 --> 32:31.247
Arise and do not be afraid. Don't you love how Matthew
32:31.263 --> 32:34.708
loves to do this? He uses this idea of touch throughout
32:35.208 --> 32:39.306
the Gospel of Matthew. He touches the leper, the unclean one, in Matthew 8:3.
32:40.396 --> 32:43.857
He touches one of his dearer friends, Peter's mother-in-law,
32:44.193 --> 32:46.709
in healing her, Matthew 8:15.
32:47.205 --> 32:50.378
He touched— or actually, the hemorrhaging woman, she takes it on
32:50.410 --> 32:54.239
herself and she touches him in Matthew 9:20-21.
32:54.659 --> 32:58.623
And then you have the 2 blind men that Jesus touches in
32:59.123 --> 33:02.248
Matthew chapter 9 and verse 23. And you have all those sick in Matthew 14
33:02.296 --> 33:06.105
and verse 36 whom Jesus touches. Then you have 2 more blind men in
33:06.605 --> 33:09.265
Matthew chapter 20 and verse 34 whom Jesus touches.
33:10.828 --> 33:14.442
And the compassion and the love and the empathy
33:14.522 --> 33:17.798
that that shows allows
33:17.830 --> 33:19.056
us to put it all together.
33:21.349 --> 33:22.012
And to hear him say,
33:24.580 --> 33:28.763
come unto me, all you who are weary
33:29.763 --> 33:33.368
and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
33:34.655 --> 33:37.407
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,
33:38.922 --> 33:42.233
for I am meek and lowly in heart,
33:43.445 --> 33:47.202
and you can find— you will find Rest to
33:47.702 --> 33:50.433
your souls. Who offers the rest?
33:51.483 --> 33:54.137
The one who knows everything we're going through, Hebrews 4:15,
33:55.612 --> 33:59.405
and the one who is pictured for us as he is,
34:01.274 --> 34:03.747
God who came down.
34:05.655 --> 34:09.906
And you hear what he says? Come to me and
34:09.938 --> 34:12.728
I'll give you rest. He wants to,
34:14.278 --> 34:14.875
and he's able.
34:17.362 --> 34:20.788
Maybe you need to make that decision to make him what
34:21.288 --> 34:23.509
he is anyway in your life, Lord.
34:25.231 --> 34:28.568
God's made him Lord and Christ. If we understand
34:29.068 --> 34:30.500
that, we're going to be just like the folks on Pentecost, and we're going to
34:31.000 --> 34:35.106
say, men and brethren, what shall we do? And the answer hasn't
34:35.606 --> 34:38.084
changed. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ,
34:38.723 --> 34:42.079
for the forgiveness of sins. That's an opportunity we're going to afford you if
34:42.579 --> 34:45.242
you want to take advantage of it publicly as Mike is about to lead us
34:45.307 --> 34:48.743
in a song. If you're ready to make that decision, don't put it off.
34:49.465 --> 34:53.560
Make him Lord as he is, not on your terms, but as he reveals himself
34:54.060 --> 34:56.819
in scripture. And maybe as a child of God, you've stumbled, you've fallen away,
34:56.932 --> 35:00.480
you've forgotten those things, and you need to return to the shepherd
35:00.980 --> 35:04.141
and the guardian of your souls. Maybe that's a need you have today. We want
35:04.173 --> 35:07.128
to throw our arms around you and pray with you and for you as a
35:07.628 --> 35:10.981
child of God. If we can do that, we would love to even right
35:11.481 --> 35:12.330
now as we stand and sing.