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You're listening to audio from Meadows Church in Langley, BC.
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For more information about Meadows Church, go to Meadowschurch.ca.
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I love that we're back.
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We get to uh share a meal around tables.
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We get to let be led by worship by Caleb and Meg, Levi on Cajon.
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And we get to dig into our Encountering Jesus series.
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And I'm excited to dive in today and to smell the smells and to see the sights, and we're gonna experience this passage as if we're one of the few of the disciples.
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I love it.
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I do miss this, though as I think of the incredible summer we had, and the ministry kind of changed that we had when July hit.
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And it was epic.
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We had just a chance to pour into our community.
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We had a hundred kids at our July soccer camp.
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It was unbelievable the amount of community kids that came.
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And I had one family from our community that said, Mike, I just want you to know this soccer camp is an entire season of LUSA soccer in one week.
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If you added up the hours that spent there, that's how much development is happening.
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And I love that we get to build into this community in just soccer development.
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But there's so much more, and I want to celebrate with you that 13 kids in Brees Jesus this summer at soccer camp.
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And we handed out 13 Bibles to kids that didn't have a Bible previously at soccer camp.
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It was amazing.
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And we can celebrate that as a church.
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And from there we did some uh summer barbecues, and then we went into our Maker Fun Factory day camp, where 71 kids came to that.
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And we had 35 volunteers, many of which were junior leaders.
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We started a junior leaders program this year.
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Kim led that, and it and Becca, and it was it was awesome.
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And some of the leaders weren't at a point where they were like, I'm wholesale into Jesus, but they did say, I want to learn more and I want to keep growing and I want to serve alongside people who know Jesus.
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And it was awesome that they got to serve and they got to see what God was doing at camp.
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Out of the 71 kids, there were 17 kids that made decisions to follow Jesus.
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These are kids that had not made decisions at previous camps and are like, I want to choose Jesus.
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I love it.
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You'll hear a story of that at the end of this Encountering Jesus session.
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We also handed out 14 Bibles, and we have some families that are starting to connect into Meadows Church because of what is happening through our day camp ministry.
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So praise God for that, amen.
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So good, but I've been missing this.
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So I want to dive in with you guys today.
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We have a barn burner of a text today.
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Really?
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It is there there's controversy in this one.
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I just love it.
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In the first verse, I might add, Mark 9 is where we're gonna be.
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NIV translation, and uh we're gonna dive into that.
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But first, when we last left our fearless hero Jesus, he had landed at Basseda, healed a blind man, and then, if you remember, if you were with us before the summer break, he then headed up to Caesarea Philippi, which was the town for pagan worship.
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If if there was a town in the Middle East that that was devoted to these things, these articles and these gods, it was Caesarea Philippi.
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The town was a special place because the Benius Spring, which made the surrounding area fertile, and it is one of three sources that actually make up the Jordan River.
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So it provided plenty for the whole area, and so they set up these shrines here.
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You can see the grotto of Pan in the picture.
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That was the cave from which the spring was inside and the water came out and created uh water for the land.
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It was here at the mouth of this cave that the Romans devoted their worship to pagan gods.
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And they created these little niches.
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You can see it in the diagram there if you look really closely.
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And these, if you go to Caesarea Philippi today, you can still see these niches where they worshipped the gods that they put as statues in these niches.
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And it was at this place, and I'm getting to the punchline, we're getting back to where we're at at Mark 9, but I want to give you the history.
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It was here in this place that Jesus asked a very important question.
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In all the pagan worship, in all the crazy different views about God, Jesus asked the question, Who do you say that I am?
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And Peter gives this like money, money answer.
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He says, You're the Messiah.
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You're the Christ.
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Right after Peter's great answer, Jesus then tells them that he would be rejected and that he'd be killed, but would rise again on the third day.
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Well, Peter is just flabbergasted that Jesus would say this and took offense to it.
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He went on a mission to say something to Jesus.
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You see, the Messiah was supposed to come and conquer the Roman Empire and create a golden age for Israel.
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Peter didn't see Jesus coming as this suffering servant.
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And so Peter tells Jesus not to talk like that.
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Jesus' response is one that would actually rebuke Peter in the harshest of ways, though he meant it more for Satan than him.
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He said this: He said, Get behind me, Satan.
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You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
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He's speaking in the direction of Peter, but it is Peter that is tempting Jesus, and Jesus is having none of it, and he says, Get away from me, Satan.
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Peter was a part of that, and it took him off guard.
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And he was quiet after that.
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Jesus then goes on to teach a little more, and now you're up to date in the world of sports.
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We are at Mark 9, verse 1, and I love the background, but I love digging into scripture.
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Join me in a word of prayer, and then we're gonna dive in.
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God, I thank you so much for this time that we've been able to just diving into your word.
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We're able to hear your story.
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And I just pray that today would it impact it on the way that you want us uh to grow.
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God, speak to our own hearts individually as we read your word and as we discuss together.
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In Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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Well, I will say this that if you are not caught up in the Mark series, or if you want to know more about Caesarea Philippi, uh you can go back and listen on wherever you get your podcasts.
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I love Spotify for listening to podcasts, but wherever you get it, you can get caught up on the Encountering Jesus series there.
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All right, Mark 9, verse 1.
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And he said to them, Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.
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After six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone.
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Right off the bat, in verse one, here's the controversy.
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Did you catch it?
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Jesus is talking to his disciples and using the patented truly I tell you, which means, listen up, this is really important what I'm about to say.
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And then he drops a bomb.
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He says, Some of you standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God has come with power.
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Do you mean to tell me that Jesus is prophesying that some of these dudes, some of those dudes will not die before God brings the kingdom of God in power?
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Is that what he's saying here?
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People trying to prove that the Bible and that Jesus is wrong have a field day with this verse and the companion verse in Matthew's gospel.
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Because I'm pretty sure we're in 2026 A.D.
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And if you look at the disciples, they may have lived until 100 A.D.
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So what is Jesus saying here?
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If they're not supposed to die till the kingdom of God is gonna come, I'm pretty sure I'm looking around and this doesn't look like heaven.
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Did Jesus make a prophetic statement that bombed?
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Did Jesus, the Messiah, God with skin on his face, did he just make a mistake?
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Did he make an error?
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You see, people trying to discredit Jesus in the Bible would say, aha! I got you, Christians.
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Look at this text.
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But it's it's good.
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It's good to be curious.
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It's good uh to dive in and ask the tough questions uh while reading our Bible.
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Uh how else are we gonna find truth and come head to head with some of those inner doubts that we have?
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We need to talk about it.
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Jesus loved big, authentic questions, and so do I.
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And so we're gonna dive in at Meadows Church.
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And so as I geeked out for a while on this question, digging in and after reading a lot of smart dudes' thoughts, which are in commentaries, I got a relatively easy answer on this one.
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You see, we've often talked about how we need to read the Bible as a synergistic book.
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We need to read it as one book.
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We can't isolate verses and then create theology or uh our mindsets based on that one isolated verse.
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Let me give you an example.
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It's foundational to us that Jesus never sinned and was a perfect sacrifice to pay for sins.
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So 1 Corinthians 5.21, Hebrews 4.15, 1 Peter 2.22, to name a couple, all talk about this, and there's lots more.
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And so if we're looking at the context of the whole book, either Jesus is an heir and gives a false prophecy, which actually goes against many verses in Scripture, or we should clue into this.
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We should clue into the fact and the reason why both Mark and Matthew choose to include this verse right before the transfiguration.
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Part of it comes from the fact that the very next word, if we're being synergistic, if we're looking at the book as a whole, the fact that the next words after verse 1 are, after six days, Jesus did some stuff, we should probably be pointed towards those things.
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It's not a false prophecy.
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There's something big about to go down in six days.
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And the Gospel of Mark often uses pithy transition statements in his accounts of Jesus.
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It's all one other word, uh noteworthy thing, and then we'll move on from this, is that the kingdom of God term is used 15 times in Mark.
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When he uses the kingdom of God term, he's referring not to a destination place.
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We're not talking about heaven like the skeptics would say, but when he does talk about it, instead the kingdom of God term refers to God's active royal rule.
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In other words, he's talking about God's presence and ministry breaking into our human world like no other time before in history.
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So Jesus says, some of you won't taste death before seeing the power of the kingdom.
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The verse in question actually sets up this incredible moment with Peter, James, and John with Jesus.
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It's amazing and it will change their lives forever, particularly Peter.
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Did the verse do its job?
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Are you guys encapsulated and want to know what's happening?
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Let's dig into it.
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After six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain where they were all alone.
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Now, if we're smelling the smells and we're seeing the sights, and we see that Jesus is a real person that walked on real places, then I want to know where he's from, where he went.
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And modern scholarship says that this is the mountain, Mount Hermon, where he went.
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It's a high mountain, 9,000 feet above sea level, and it's close enough to Caesarea Philippi for Jesus and his homies to make the one-to-two-day walk up the mountain.
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So look at this view.
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This is the top of Mount Hermon.
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Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up this steep mountain with a view similar to this.
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And he's about to rock their world.
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There, he, this is Jesus, was transfigured before them.
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And Mark's gonna tell you what just transfigured is, but essentially it is the veil, the blinders of the spiritual realm are removed from the disciples' eyes, and they see what Jesus is in his full glory or in more of his glory.
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He is transfigured before them.
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And I want you to picture this, because it's an amazing picture.
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Verse 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.
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And it's not as I think we can bleach clothes pretty good in this day and age, but back then, bleaching clothes, entirely different things.
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So if we contextualize it, it's really white.
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Luke gives another metaphor for the clothing, and I love it.
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Have you guys ever been in a thunderstorm?
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Kim and I, when we were recently married, we we went outside and it was pouring down like the most warm rain ever.
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It was awesome.
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If you've ever been there, we were walking along and having fun, and suddenly in the sky it was dark outside, and the the whole area lit up as this big bolt of lightning shot and then split into like four and went right over our heads.
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And at that moment we said, we shouldn't be here.
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And we also said, Wow.
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Because you could feel the lightning as it goes.
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Have you ever been in that type of situation?
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Luke uses this picture to describe Jesus in his account.
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Luke 9, verse 29 says, Jesus' clothing were as bright as flashes of lightning.
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Matthew also tells the story.
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And he says that Jesus' face shone like the sun, and that his clothes became as bright as light itself.
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Like what a scene.
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I don't even this is an artist's rendering of it.
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I think it pales in comparison to what actually happened.
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Jesus has been walking around as flesh and blood human to them, doing amazing things, but still flesh and blood, and then suddenly, boom, light bulb.
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He just transformed into his full glory.
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Amazing.
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And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
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And Mark is a precise and precision writer, and he doesn't have any of the extras, the details, but Luke does, and in Luke 9, verse 31, he actually talks about what they spoke of.
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You see, Elijah and Moses were speaking to Jesus, says they spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem, his death and his resurrection.
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Do you remember that conversation we were talking about about Peter?
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Where Jesus had said, I'm going to die and I'm going to rise from the dead on the third day.
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This is confirmation to these three people who are watching this happening that about what is going to go down.
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And not only that, but Jesus is actually being comforted, and Jesus is being encouraged to do what he needs to do, to die on the cross and to rise from the dead for each of us.
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Well, Peter and James and John, they are dumbfounded by what's happening.
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And Peter actually says something really dumb out of fear in this next verse.
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Verse 5 says this.
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Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.
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Let us put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
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He did not know what to say.
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They were so frightened.
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And there wasn't like this weird look, it wasn't an awkward moment.
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Verse 7 just continues, then a cloud appeared and covered them.
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And if you know about clouds in the Old Testament, it was a representation of God's presence over the temple for the Israelites.
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And so it's God's presence with them, and says, and then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud.
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This is my son whom I love.
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Listen to him.
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Can you picture that?
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I don't even know where that voice would be coming from.
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But just the incredible experience that Peter, James, and John got to experience.
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Just the three of them.
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Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
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Suddenly it was just like.
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And it's the three big men, and it's Jesus.
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And as they were coming down the mountain, first, as they're coming down the mountain, I don't know about you, but I would be like, what just happened?
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Like I would be telling, talking about, did you see that?
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Did you see when his face went like sun and like when the flashes of lightning, the clothes, and the ah.
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Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
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They kept the matters to themselves, discussing what rising from the dead meant.
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Good night, that would be hard.
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Seriously, to not tell anybody what had just transpired?
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In 2 Peter 1.18, Peter writes about this very scene as a defense for him sharing the gospel and his gospel presentation.
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Like this is crazy that it's not Jesus rising from the dead and coming to the upper room to hang out with the disciples.
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That wasn't the moment that he wanted to share with everybody.
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He wanted to share this moment, the transfiguration.
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You see, this was Peter's aha moment.
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And he retells it in 2 Peter 1, verse 16-18.
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Here it is.
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For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power.
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In other words, it's not a myth, it's not a fairy tale.
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This is real, and this is why.
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But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
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He, Jesus, received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory, saying, This is my son whom I love, with him I am well pleased.
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We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
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He's been telling people about it.
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This is a key moment for Peter that he goes back to in his ministry again and again.
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What are those moments for you?
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Where has God shown up?
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Where have you you seen him working and you're like, whoa, that was cool?
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There's some key moments in my life, uh, and uh one of them was actually when I first came to Christ as a teenager.
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My uh uh I I had just come to faith, and there was a missions trip that summer, and I'm like, I'm going.
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Mexico missions trip.
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There's a bunch of us, and we went down there to build some homes, which I wasn't great at.
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And then there was the opportunities to uh to share the gospel by sharing the the Jesus film in Spanish.
00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:16.960
And so we're off to a remote community to share this with people in our 15-passenger van, with like, I think there was 25 of us crammed in on there.
00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:20.480
A different day of age in Mexico.
00:22:20.720 --> 00:22:33.359
And we're heading to the place, and picture this the van sputters and stops on the side of the road in this deserted location in Mexico close to dusk.
00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:41.119
15 gringos, 20, 25 gringos, whatever our our group was, all there.
00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:43.440
And one guy trying to figure it out.
00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:51.039
One guy, Kevin, he goes out and he looks in the van, opens up the hood, steam's coming out, and he's like, I don't know what to do.
00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:52.240
He had his tool belt.
00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:55.359
He was trying to figure out what was going on in this van.
00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:56.960
Nothing.
00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:05.519
And I feel like it's the start of a movie that uh directors would want to make, right?
00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:10.480
It wouldn't go well for the 15 plus people that were in that van.
00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:11.680
But no.
00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:16.640
He tried everything, he couldn't do anything, and so we said, you know what, we're gonna pray.
00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:26.880
And I'll tell you that the moment the words say, and Lord Jesus, we need you to start this van, the driver turned the key without the mechanic touching anything, and it started.
00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:29.440
And we're able to go along our way.
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:33.440
And for the next week, we got to bless that community.
00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:40.880
Uh, that night with the the gospel through through the Jesus film in Spanish, and then in other ways that we're able to be there.
00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:49.039
To me, that was such a small but amazing moment of how God worked in my life as a teenager on a missions trip.
00:23:49.519 --> 00:23:53.119
I mean, this moment doesn't even come close to the transfiguration.
00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:57.680
That was the key moment in Peter's life.
00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:07.359
So, what do we do with this text?
00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:23.839
As I was thinking about those key moments, I think we'll probably land the plane there, but you could look at this story, and there's something else here that I think would be really interesting if you want to just spend some time uh at your tables talking about later.
00:24:24.319 --> 00:24:32.000
If Jesus is in his full glory in that place, then this is the way that we will see Jesus in heaven.
00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:38.960
In Revelations, it talks about how we won't need the sun, but we will bask in the glory and the light of God alone.
00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:44.720
And I look at that and I scratch my head, and it's mystifying to me because I just don't know.
00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:46.799
I can't wrap my head around it.
00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:50.319
But this gives you an idea of what's happening.
00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:54.160
There is light beaming out of Jesus.
00:24:55.839 --> 00:24:58.640
I think we get a little taste of heaven in that moment.
00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:01.200
What do you think?
00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:08.799
I think we can also take an encouragement from Moses and Elijah.
00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:09.599
Why Moses?
00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:10.799
Why Elijah?
00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:14.640
And by the way, how did Peter, James, and John know it was Moses and Elijah?
00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:16.319
Do they wear name tags?
00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:17.759
No.
00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:20.400
I'm sure Moses had the staff.
00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:23.599
And I'm sure they knew what Elijah looked like.
00:25:23.680 --> 00:25:27.039
Or maybe the conversation had the names in it.
00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:31.440
But it was for surely Moses and Elijah in that moment.
00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:37.039
And I think about Jesus' journey and what he would have to face.
00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:53.039
God brought Moses and Elijah to that moment for a fully human and fully God Jesus who would need to go down the road to Jerusalem where he would die an excruciating death on a cross.
00:25:53.359 --> 00:26:01.839
In Gethsemane, he would be sweating blood because he was in such anguish about what would happen.
00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:08.319
And Moses and Elijah were there in that moment to give Jesus what he needed to keep going.
00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:17.440
I think a little on that note is where I want to land, and maybe I'll invite the worship team up for a closing song.
00:26:20.559 --> 00:26:25.519
I think we can focus on Peter's experience with Jesus.
00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:30.640
Peter is far, far from perfect.
00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:33.119
He was an out there type of guy.
00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:41.680
Like when Jesus was walking on water and they thought he was a ghost coming towards him, only Peter would say, if it's you, let me walk on water.
00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:43.440
Like he was out there.
00:26:44.640 --> 00:26:49.759
God met Peter again and again, and despite Peter's trips and stumbles.
00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:54.000
I mean, Peter denied Jesus three times right before his death.
00:26:54.640 --> 00:27:06.640
But then later in his ministry, Peter would preach to a crowd in Jerusalem, and 3,000 people would give their lives to Jesus and be baptized that day.
00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:09.599
In the highs and the lows.
00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:12.400
Peter pursued Jesus.
00:27:13.519 --> 00:27:16.640
And God worked profoundly in his life.
00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:21.599
Even revealing Jesus' full glory to Peter.
00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:25.119
God gave him what he needed.
00:27:25.200 --> 00:27:28.079
And I believe that God gives us what we need too.
00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:30.559
He wants to meet us where we're at.
00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:42.000
And as we say that we want to follow Jesus and make him known in all we do, as we live into that purpose more and more, God meets us in that.
00:27:43.359 --> 00:27:55.200
So I just want to invite us to embrace this moment, the Jesus moment that we've already had in our lives, and what Jesus wants to do today in our lives.
00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:57.920
I invite you to just close your eyes.
00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:03.119
Maybe during the song today.
00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:13.680
Show up.
00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:21.200
Or maybe there's a change.
00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:31.920
This Jesus that's with you wherever you go.
00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:43.759
Thank you for Peter's journey.
00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:47.200
That we can see in Scripture.
00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:55.359
God, thank you that you revealed yourself in such a powerful way to us.
00:28:57.440 --> 00:28:59.759
And God, I pray for each of our journeys.
00:29:01.759 --> 00:29:10.720
I know that you want us, Access, to feel our way towards you through what you created and how you're speaking to us.
00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:14.559
God help us.
00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:17.839
We want more of you.
00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:24.319
Reveal yourself to us and give us what we need, Jesus.
00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:26.559
To make you known in all we do.
00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:29.039
In Jesus' name.
00:29:29.359 --> 00:29:30.000
Amen.
00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:35.119
We're so glad you chose to join us today.
00:29:35.279 --> 00:29:43.200
To find out more about Meadows Church and how you can get involved, connect with a pastor or how you can partner with us in ministry.
00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:45.119
Go to Meadowschurch.ca.
00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:06.480
You're listening to audio from Meadows Church in Langley, BC.
00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:10.400
For more information about Meadows Church, go to Meadowschurch.ca.
00:00:13.199 --> 00:00:14.560
I love that we're back.
00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:17.679
We get to uh share a meal around tables.
00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:23.280
We get to let be led by worship by Caleb and Meg, Levi on Cajon.
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And we get to dig into our Encountering Jesus series.
00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:38.960
And I'm excited to dive in today and to smell the smells and to see the sights, and we're gonna experience this passage as if we're one of the few of the disciples.
00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:41.520
I love it.
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I do miss this, though as I think of the incredible summer we had, and the ministry kind of changed that we had when July hit.
00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:52.159
And it was epic.
00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:56.000
We had just a chance to pour into our community.
00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:59.200
We had a hundred kids at our July soccer camp.
00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:03.759
It was unbelievable the amount of community kids that came.
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And I had one family from our community that said, Mike, I just want you to know this soccer camp is an entire season of LUSA soccer in one week.
00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:21.359
If you added up the hours that spent there, that's how much development is happening.
00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:26.239
And I love that we get to build into this community in just soccer development.
00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:35.280
But there's so much more, and I want to celebrate with you that 13 kids in Brees Jesus this summer at soccer camp.
00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:42.400
And we handed out 13 Bibles to kids that didn't have a Bible previously at soccer camp.
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It was amazing.
00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:46.159
And we can celebrate that as a church.
00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:54.959
And from there we did some uh summer barbecues, and then we went into our Maker Fun Factory day camp, where 71 kids came to that.
00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:59.359
And we had 35 volunteers, many of which were junior leaders.
00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:01.760
We started a junior leaders program this year.
00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:06.239
Kim led that, and it and Becca, and it was it was awesome.
00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:17.599
And some of the leaders weren't at a point where they were like, I'm wholesale into Jesus, but they did say, I want to learn more and I want to keep growing and I want to serve alongside people who know Jesus.
00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:22.400
And it was awesome that they got to serve and they got to see what God was doing at camp.
00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:28.000
Out of the 71 kids, there were 17 kids that made decisions to follow Jesus.
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These are kids that had not made decisions at previous camps and are like, I want to choose Jesus.
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I love it.
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You'll hear a story of that at the end of this Encountering Jesus session.
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We also handed out 14 Bibles, and we have some families that are starting to connect into Meadows Church because of what is happening through our day camp ministry.
00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:52.080
So praise God for that, amen.
00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:56.000
So good, but I've been missing this.
00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:58.400
So I want to dive in with you guys today.
00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:01.280
We have a barn burner of a text today.
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Really?
00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:05.599
It is there there's controversy in this one.
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I just love it.
00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:10.000
In the first verse, I might add, Mark 9 is where we're gonna be.
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NIV translation, and uh we're gonna dive into that.
00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:35.759
But first, when we last left our fearless hero Jesus, he had landed at Basseda, healed a blind man, and then, if you remember, if you were with us before the summer break, he then headed up to Caesarea Philippi, which was the town for pagan worship.
00:03:36.479 --> 00:03:45.759
If if there was a town in the Middle East that that was devoted to these things, these articles and these gods, it was Caesarea Philippi.
00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:58.879
The town was a special place because the Benius Spring, which made the surrounding area fertile, and it is one of three sources that actually make up the Jordan River.
00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:05.759
So it provided plenty for the whole area, and so they set up these shrines here.
00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.639
You can see the grotto of Pan in the picture.
00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:17.279
That was the cave from which the spring was inside and the water came out and created uh water for the land.
00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:28.319
It was here at the mouth of this cave that the Romans devoted their worship to pagan gods.
00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:30.959
And they created these little niches.
00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:34.480
You can see it in the diagram there if you look really closely.
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And these, if you go to Caesarea Philippi today, you can still see these niches where they worshipped the gods that they put as statues in these niches.
00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:53.439
And it was at this place, and I'm getting to the punchline, we're getting back to where we're at at Mark 9, but I want to give you the history.
00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:59.519
It was here in this place that Jesus asked a very important question.
00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:09.040
In all the pagan worship, in all the crazy different views about God, Jesus asked the question, Who do you say that I am?
00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:14.560
And Peter gives this like money, money answer.
00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:16.879
He says, You're the Messiah.
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You're the Christ.
00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:28.720
Right after Peter's great answer, Jesus then tells them that he would be rejected and that he'd be killed, but would rise again on the third day.
00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:36.160
Well, Peter is just flabbergasted that Jesus would say this and took offense to it.
00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:39.199
He went on a mission to say something to Jesus.
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You see, the Messiah was supposed to come and conquer the Roman Empire and create a golden age for Israel.
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Peter didn't see Jesus coming as this suffering servant.
00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:56.160
And so Peter tells Jesus not to talk like that.
00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:07.120
Jesus' response is one that would actually rebuke Peter in the harshest of ways, though he meant it more for Satan than him.
00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:10.160
He said this: He said, Get behind me, Satan.
00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:14.079
You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:23.439
He's speaking in the direction of Peter, but it is Peter that is tempting Jesus, and Jesus is having none of it, and he says, Get away from me, Satan.
00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:27.439
Peter was a part of that, and it took him off guard.
00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:29.199
And he was quiet after that.
00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:35.040
Jesus then goes on to teach a little more, and now you're up to date in the world of sports.
00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:42.639
We are at Mark 9, verse 1, and I love the background, but I love digging into scripture.
00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:45.439
Join me in a word of prayer, and then we're gonna dive in.
00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:52.399
God, I thank you so much for this time that we've been able to just diving into your word.
00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:55.680
We're able to hear your story.
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And I just pray that today would it impact it on the way that you want us uh to grow.
00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:07.519
God, speak to our own hearts individually as we read your word and as we discuss together.
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In Jesus' name.
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Amen.
00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:23.040
Well, I will say this that if you are not caught up in the Mark series, or if you want to know more about Caesarea Philippi, uh you can go back and listen on wherever you get your podcasts.
00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:29.120
I love Spotify for listening to podcasts, but wherever you get it, you can get caught up on the Encountering Jesus series there.
00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:31.600
All right, Mark 9, verse 1.
00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:45.680
And he said to them, Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.
00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:54.399
After six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone.
00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:59.279
Right off the bat, in verse one, here's the controversy.
00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:00.639
Did you catch it?
00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:11.040
Jesus is talking to his disciples and using the patented truly I tell you, which means, listen up, this is really important what I'm about to say.
00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:13.360
And then he drops a bomb.
00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:23.680
He says, Some of you standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God has come with power.
00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:37.600
Do you mean to tell me that Jesus is prophesying that some of these dudes, some of those dudes will not die before God brings the kingdom of God in power?
00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:39.840
Is that what he's saying here?
00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:51.519
People trying to prove that the Bible and that Jesus is wrong have a field day with this verse and the companion verse in Matthew's gospel.
00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:55.600
Because I'm pretty sure we're in 2026 A.D.
00:08:56.080 --> 00:09:03.039
And if you look at the disciples, they may have lived until 100 A.D.
00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:07.759
So what is Jesus saying here?
00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:17.120
If they're not supposed to die till the kingdom of God is gonna come, I'm pretty sure I'm looking around and this doesn't look like heaven.
00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:22.080
Did Jesus make a prophetic statement that bombed?
00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:28.399
Did Jesus, the Messiah, God with skin on his face, did he just make a mistake?
00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:30.639
Did he make an error?
00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:38.159
You see, people trying to discredit Jesus in the Bible would say, aha! I got you, Christians.
00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:39.919
Look at this text.
00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:42.480
But it's it's good.
00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:44.399
It's good to be curious.
00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:50.480
It's good uh to dive in and ask the tough questions uh while reading our Bible.
00:09:50.639 --> 00:09:56.960
Uh how else are we gonna find truth and come head to head with some of those inner doubts that we have?
00:09:57.200 --> 00:09:58.720
We need to talk about it.
00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:03.279
Jesus loved big, authentic questions, and so do I.
00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:05.759
And so we're gonna dive in at Meadows Church.
00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:18.639
And so as I geeked out for a while on this question, digging in and after reading a lot of smart dudes' thoughts, which are in commentaries, I got a relatively easy answer on this one.
00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:25.200
You see, we've often talked about how we need to read the Bible as a synergistic book.
00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:27.360
We need to read it as one book.
00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:35.759
We can't isolate verses and then create theology or uh our mindsets based on that one isolated verse.
00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:37.679
Let me give you an example.
00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:45.279
It's foundational to us that Jesus never sinned and was a perfect sacrifice to pay for sins.
00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:54.720
So 1 Corinthians 5.21, Hebrews 4.15, 1 Peter 2.22, to name a couple, all talk about this, and there's lots more.
00:10:55.200 --> 00:11:11.440
And so if we're looking at the context of the whole book, either Jesus is an heir and gives a false prophecy, which actually goes against many verses in Scripture, or we should clue into this.
00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:20.960
We should clue into the fact and the reason why both Mark and Matthew choose to include this verse right before the transfiguration.
00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:40.000
Part of it comes from the fact that the very next word, if we're being synergistic, if we're looking at the book as a whole, the fact that the next words after verse 1 are, after six days, Jesus did some stuff, we should probably be pointed towards those things.
00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:41.440
It's not a false prophecy.
00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:44.799
There's something big about to go down in six days.
00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:53.360
And the Gospel of Mark often uses pithy transition statements in his accounts of Jesus.
00:11:53.840 --> 00:12:03.120
It's all one other word, uh noteworthy thing, and then we'll move on from this, is that the kingdom of God term is used 15 times in Mark.
00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:08.799
When he uses the kingdom of God term, he's referring not to a destination place.
00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:23.840
We're not talking about heaven like the skeptics would say, but when he does talk about it, instead the kingdom of God term refers to God's active royal rule.
00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:32.480
In other words, he's talking about God's presence and ministry breaking into our human world like no other time before in history.
00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:43.600
So Jesus says, some of you won't taste death before seeing the power of the kingdom.
00:12:44.879 --> 00:12:51.600
The verse in question actually sets up this incredible moment with Peter, James, and John with Jesus.
00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:57.360
It's amazing and it will change their lives forever, particularly Peter.
00:12:58.159 --> 00:12:59.759
Did the verse do its job?
00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:04.159
Are you guys encapsulated and want to know what's happening?
00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:05.919
Let's dig into it.
00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:14.399
After six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain where they were all alone.
00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:26.399
Now, if we're smelling the smells and we're seeing the sights, and we see that Jesus is a real person that walked on real places, then I want to know where he's from, where he went.
00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:32.879
And modern scholarship says that this is the mountain, Mount Hermon, where he went.
00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:44.399
It's a high mountain, 9,000 feet above sea level, and it's close enough to Caesarea Philippi for Jesus and his homies to make the one-to-two-day walk up the mountain.
00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:49.279
So look at this view.
00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:52.960
This is the top of Mount Hermon.
00:13:54.399 --> 00:14:00.960
Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up this steep mountain with a view similar to this.
00:14:01.919 --> 00:14:04.159
And he's about to rock their world.
00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:13.360
There, he, this is Jesus, was transfigured before them.
00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:27.840
And Mark's gonna tell you what just transfigured is, but essentially it is the veil, the blinders of the spiritual realm are removed from the disciples' eyes, and they see what Jesus is in his full glory or in more of his glory.
00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:30.080
He is transfigured before them.
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And I want you to picture this, because it's an amazing picture.
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Verse 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.
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And it's not as I think we can bleach clothes pretty good in this day and age, but back then, bleaching clothes, entirely different things.
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So if we contextualize it, it's really white.
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Luke gives another metaphor for the clothing, and I love it.
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Have you guys ever been in a thunderstorm?
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Kim and I, when we were recently married, we we went outside and it was pouring down like the most warm rain ever.
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It was awesome.
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If you've ever been there, we were walking along and having fun, and suddenly in the sky it was dark outside, and the the whole area lit up as this big bolt of lightning shot and then split into like four and went right over our heads.
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And at that moment we said, we shouldn't be here.
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And we also said, Wow.
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Because you could feel the lightning as it goes.
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Have you ever been in that type of situation?
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Luke uses this picture to describe Jesus in his account.
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Luke 9, verse 29 says, Jesus' clothing were as bright as flashes of lightning.
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Matthew also tells the story.
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And he says that Jesus' face shone like the sun, and that his clothes became as bright as light itself.
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Like what a scene.
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I don't even this is an artist's rendering of it.
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I think it pales in comparison to what actually happened.
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Jesus has been walking around as flesh and blood human to them, doing amazing things, but still flesh and blood, and then suddenly, boom, light bulb.
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He just transformed into his full glory.
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Amazing.
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And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
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And Mark is a precise and precision writer, and he doesn't have any of the extras, the details, but Luke does, and in Luke 9, verse 31, he actually talks about what they spoke of.
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You see, Elijah and Moses were speaking to Jesus, says they spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem, his death and his resurrection.
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Do you remember that conversation we were talking about about Peter?
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Where Jesus had said, I'm going to die and I'm going to rise from the dead on the third day.
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This is confirmation to these three people who are watching this happening that about what is going to go down.
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And not only that, but Jesus is actually being comforted, and Jesus is being encouraged to do what he needs to do, to die on the cross and to rise from the dead for each of us.
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Well, Peter and James and John, they are dumbfounded by what's happening.
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And Peter actually says something really dumb out of fear in this next verse.
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Verse 5 says this.
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Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.
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Let us put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
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He did not know what to say.
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They were so frightened.
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And there wasn't like this weird look, it wasn't an awkward moment.
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Verse 7 just continues, then a cloud appeared and covered them.
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And if you know about clouds in the Old Testament, it was a representation of God's presence over the temple for the Israelites.
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And so it's God's presence with them, and says, and then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud.
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This is my son whom I love.
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Listen to him.
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Can you picture that?
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I don't even know where that voice would be coming from.
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But just the incredible experience that Peter, James, and John got to experience.
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Just the three of them.
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Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
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Suddenly it was just like.
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And it's the three big men, and it's Jesus.
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And as they were coming down the mountain, first, as they're coming down the mountain, I don't know about you, but I would be like, what just happened?
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Like I would be telling, talking about, did you see that?
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Did you see when his face went like sun and like when the flashes of lightning, the clothes, and the ah.
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Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
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They kept the matters to themselves, discussing what rising from the dead meant.
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Good night, that would be hard.
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Seriously, to not tell anybody what had just transpired?
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In 2 Peter 1.18, Peter writes about this very scene as a defense for him sharing the gospel and his gospel presentation.
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Like this is crazy that it's not Jesus rising from the dead and coming to the upper room to hang out with the disciples.
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That wasn't the moment that he wanted to share with everybody.
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He wanted to share this moment, the transfiguration.
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You see, this was Peter's aha moment.
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And he retells it in 2 Peter 1, verse 16-18.
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Here it is.
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For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power.
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In other words, it's not a myth, it's not a fairy tale.
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This is real, and this is why.
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But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
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He, Jesus, received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory, saying, This is my son whom I love, with him I am well pleased.
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We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
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He's been telling people about it.
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This is a key moment for Peter that he goes back to in his ministry again and again.
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What are those moments for you?
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Where has God shown up?
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Where have you you seen him working and you're like, whoa, that was cool?
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There's some key moments in my life, uh, and uh one of them was actually when I first came to Christ as a teenager.
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My uh uh I I had just come to faith, and there was a missions trip that summer, and I'm like, I'm going.
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Mexico missions trip.
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There's a bunch of us, and we went down there to build some homes, which I wasn't great at.
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And then there was the opportunities to uh to share the gospel by sharing the the Jesus film in Spanish.
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And so we're off to a remote community to share this with people in our 15-passenger van, with like, I think there was 25 of us crammed in on there.
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A different day of age in Mexico.
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And we're heading to the place, and picture this the van sputters and stops on the side of the road in this deserted location in Mexico close to dusk.
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15 gringos, 20, 25 gringos, whatever our our group was, all there.
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And one guy trying to figure it out.
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One guy, Kevin, he goes out and he looks in the van, opens up the hood, steam's coming out, and he's like, I don't know what to do.
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He had his tool belt.
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He was trying to figure out what was going on in this van.
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Nothing.
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And I feel like it's the start of a movie that uh directors would want to make, right?
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It wouldn't go well for the 15 plus people that were in that van.
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But no.
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He tried everything, he couldn't do anything, and so we said, you know what, we're gonna pray.
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And I'll tell you that the moment the words say, and Lord Jesus, we need you to start this van, the driver turned the key without the mechanic touching anything, and it started.
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And we're able to go along our way.
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And for the next week, we got to bless that community.
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Uh, that night with the the gospel through through the Jesus film in Spanish, and then in other ways that we're able to be there.
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To me, that was such a small but amazing moment of how God worked in my life as a teenager on a missions trip.
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I mean, this moment doesn't even come close to the transfiguration.
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That was the key moment in Peter's life.
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So, what do we do with this text?
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As I was thinking about those key moments, I think we'll probably land the plane there, but you could look at this story, and there's something else here that I think would be really interesting if you want to just spend some time uh at your tables talking about later.
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If Jesus is in his full glory in that place, then this is the way that we will see Jesus in heaven.
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In Revelations, it talks about how we won't need the sun, but we will bask in the glory and the light of God alone.
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And I look at that and I scratch my head, and it's mystifying to me because I just don't know.
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I can't wrap my head around it.
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But this gives you an idea of what's happening.
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There is light beaming out of Jesus.
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I think we get a little taste of heaven in that moment.
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What do you think?
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I think we can also take an encouragement from Moses and Elijah.
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Why Moses?
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Why Elijah?
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And by the way, how did Peter, James, and John know it was Moses and Elijah?
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Do they wear name tags?
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No.
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I'm sure Moses had the staff.
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And I'm sure they knew what Elijah looked like.
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Or maybe the conversation had the names in it.
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But it was for surely Moses and Elijah in that moment.
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And I think about Jesus' journey and what he would have to face.
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God brought Moses and Elijah to that moment for a fully human and fully God Jesus who would need to go down the road to Jerusalem where he would die an excruciating death on a cross.
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In Gethsemane, he would be sweating blood because he was in such anguish about what would happen.
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And Moses and Elijah were there in that moment to give Jesus what he needed to keep going.
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I think a little on that note is where I want to land, and maybe I'll invite the worship team up for a closing song.
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I think we can focus on Peter's experience with Jesus.
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Peter is far, far from perfect.
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He was an out there type of guy.
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Like when Jesus was walking on water and they thought he was a ghost coming towards him, only Peter would say, if it's you, let me walk on water.
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Like he was out there.
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God met Peter again and again, and despite Peter's trips and stumbles.
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I mean, Peter denied Jesus three times right before his death.
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But then later in his ministry, Peter would preach to a crowd in Jerusalem, and 3,000 people would give their lives to Jesus and be baptized that day.
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In the highs and the lows.
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Peter pursued Jesus.
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And God worked profoundly in his life.
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Even revealing Jesus' full glory to Peter.
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God gave him what he needed.
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And I believe that God gives us what we need too.
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He wants to meet us where we're at.
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And as we say that we want to follow Jesus and make him known in all we do, as we live into that purpose more and more, God meets us in that.
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So I just want to invite us to embrace this moment, the Jesus moment that we've already had in our lives, and what Jesus wants to do today in our lives.
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I invite you to just close your eyes.
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Maybe during the song today.
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Show up.
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Or maybe there's a change.
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This Jesus that's with you wherever you go.
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Thank you for Peter's journey.
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That we can see in Scripture.
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God, thank you that you revealed yourself in such a powerful way to us.
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And God, I pray for each of our journeys.
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I know that you want us, Access, to feel our way towards you through what you created and how you're speaking to us.
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God help us.
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We want more of you.
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Reveal yourself to us and give us what we need, Jesus.
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To make you known in all we do.
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In Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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We're so glad you chose to join us today.
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To find out more about Meadows Church and how you can get involved, connect with a pastor or how you can partner with us in ministry.
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Go to Meadowschurch.ca.
