Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13)
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Transcript
So good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors here we're going to be in Matthew 17. so you can go ahead and flip there and follow follow along with us on the screen one of my favorite parts of stories of recounting stories in history is the art of illusion that is illusion with an a not an eye i've been told that i don't enunciate which is certainly an opinion to have but i want you to be confused like i'm gonna do a magic trick.
Now this is illusion with a alluding to something illusion is a phrase or an event that actually alludes to something without having to explicitly tell the whole story so illusion can come in different forms it can be in the form of foreshadowing so if you've ever watched frozen two and thought wow this plot is incredibly confusing it is but as my wife has told me if you just listen the first song maybe have the lyric sheet out in front of you it's the it's foreshadowing it's the key to understanding the rest of the story a lot of times you can have a illusion that goes backwards or even outside of the story itself and in.
Movies they call these easter eggs these are just things that are put there to draw your mind to something else toy story does this they have easter eggs that point to uh the movie the shining so stories can do this going backwards uh in real life these are called inside jokes right you can tell an inside joke you just have to give a phrase and all of a sudden your friend is taken back to a decade before when you're in college to one of those crazy stories they're illusions sometimes you have it in in stories where they go backwards and forward at the same time.
So hamilton does this the musical hamilton so the very last song of the first act is packed with a ton of illusions uh that basically in the last song all these melodies are sung by some of the main characters and it's telling you everything that's happened in the first act hamilton's rise is coming to america his relentless work ethic his uh his marriage and then it comes to this big crescendo finish that ends with the famous line from the musical i'm not throwing away my shot which in and of itself is a double illusion it's a double entendre it points backward to how he came to america also and he's not going to waste his.
Shot also pointing forward to when he's going to waste his he's not going to waste his shot or he's going to waste his shot i got the whole story right you guys um but yeah i get excited about illusions i know you guys seem really excited about illusions but if you do appreciate them and the art of illusion and storytelling our God is brilliant at it and how he wrote the Bible the Bible is packed with illusions to point backwards and forwards i mean you can read different parts of the Bible and it's not giving you explicit stories.
But it just gives you a picture of something that takes you back to something that happened in the old testament it gives you a picture of something that points forward to what is coming and this story in particular today in Matthew 17 is packed with illusions so we're gonna follow this this is uh famously known as the the transfiguration uh so this is what uh how it is famously referred to as we're gonna follow the disciples and Jesus up the mount.
For the transfiguration and we're gonna see the illusions that are packed into this story and my hope is simply this for today that we can appreciate what is happening in this story we can step back from it and be blown away by the glory of the lord that he is worthy of worship because of how glorious he is so let me pray and then we'll jump into the text father i thank you that you have given us these stories from the life of.
Jesus God i pray that you would speak to us this morning that you would help us be present that we would listen and that we would be blown away by your glory we ask this in Jesus name amen all right verse 1 and after six days Jesus took with him Peter and james and john his brother and led them up a high mountain by themselves all right so just some if you weren't here last week or you didn't listen last week this is uh transitioning off of last week's story where uh Peter has a pretty high moment uh he confesses that.
Jesus the messiah the first confession of that type so he's riding high and then shortly after that uh he tries to rebuke Jesus it does not go well Jesus calls him Satan uh and then uses his failure as a means to teach the disciples so Peter's coming off a really low moment and what i love just about this first verse is this is a picture of who our God is that he's gracious that even in Peter's failure he has plans for him that he signs him take him up.
For this this mountaintop experience i love how gracious our God is to those of us who fall on our faces and fail and then he takes Peter and james and john these are commonly referred to as the three Jesus pours into 12 disciples and then more specifically he pours into three there's going to be three major leaders in the new testament Church so he takes them up the mountain this is the story picks up in verse two and he was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.
Behold there appeared to them Moses and elijah talking with him and Peter said to Jesus lord it is good that we are here if you wish i will make three tents here one for you and one for Moses and one for elijah he was still speaking when behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said this is my beloved son with whom i'm well pleased listen to him when the disciples heard this they fell on their faces and were terrifying.
But Jesus came and touched them saying rise and have no fear and when they lifted up their eyes they saw no one but Jesus only all right so there's a lot packed into this event so before we jump into kind of the illusions that are happening in this story uh let's just describe what is what is happening so it says he goes on uh takes them up the mount and then he is transfigured that comes from the greek word metamorphoso which is exactly what it sounds like it's where we get our english word metamorphosis he transformed he metamorphosized he uh transfigured he transformed into something else and he uh the transformation is that he shines.
Bright like the sun like white light emanating from his face from his clothes now if you are familiar with uh other stories you might import and say oh that that's cool i know what this is like i've seen transformers i've seen the incredible hulk i've even seen gannon off the gray turning the ground off the white i get this and i just want to detach ourselves from things pictures we might have because this is real life and this situation is incredible they're standing next to.
Jesus and all of a sudden he transfigures and is emitting white bright light like the sun i don't know if you've looked at the sun you guys lately it's bright it will blind you this this light is emanating from him and then all of a sudden Moses and elijah show up you might be thinking oh cool that's neat too like i've seen star wars uh you know episode six where uh yoda and obi-wan show up as force ghosts at the end and reveal himself luke skywalker yay no this is not neat again this would have been equal parts mesmerizing and terrifying all at the same time.
Because Moses and elijah were pretty terrifying figures in their own right incredible men big figures in the old testament did incredible things and and had gravitas like this is a big deal shining bright light white light Moses and elijah appear then Peter suggests that they should mark this occasion with tents which may seem a little bit weird uh it isn't for uh jewish culture tense had some significance uh we we don't really know for i don't really know for sure exactly what this means there's a few different theories uh maybe he's trying to mark this occasion as a memorial which is something commonly they did in in jewish history uh maybe there's some some tie-ins.
The tabernacle and the tent possibly maybe there's some tie-ins to the feast of booths a celebration that the jewish people had and commemorating God's providing out of egypt uh into the promised land it's possible a few of these things but Peter wants to mark this occasion in the midst of trying to mark this occasion God the father speaks a cloud surrounds the mountain and God speaks anytime this happens in the Bible people fall in fear it's a picture of his holiness is.
So powerful that when he speaks to us as sinners people hit the floor and fear and he says this is my son with whom i am well pleased there's a lot happening in this one part of the story so why why does Jesus take him on the mountain why go to all this trouble for all these events what's the significance of what Jesus is trying to communicate in this situation a lot of the significance a lot of the illusions here deal with the two people that show up Moses and elijah they are significant.
For a reason and if you're familiar with the old testament some of the stories some of these pictures are going to start to come to mind so let's look at Moses first and figure out why he's here and what this is pointing to Moses comes out he takes the people of of God out of egypt brings them through the red sea they're wandering in the in the wilderness and then all of a sudden they show up to mount sinai and at mount sinai this is where Moses is going to go up on the mountain he's going to receive the 10 commandments on tablets he's going to receive the law to take down to the people.
And we'll pick it up in Exodus 24 15 and 16 which says then Moses went up on the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain the glory of the lord dwelt on mount sinai and the cloud covered it six days and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud now that should sound familiar we put the stories side by side which i know may be difficult because we have small screens but if you can't.
See it just stay with me uh the settings are similar so setting matters in the Bible both of these on on a mountain that's meant to draw your mind to okay uh there's some some mountain similarities then you get to even the detail of six days so Jesus waits six days before he takes the disciples up to the mount of transfiguration that's not an accident because Moses had to wait six days before he received from before he met with the glory of the.
Lord it says the glory of the lord dwelt on mount sinai and a cloud covered it it's intentional a bright cloud shadows the disciples and covers them and the glory of the lord called out to Moses from the cloud and in our story today the voice of the lord comes through the cloud it's intentional for a reason he's drawing uh their mind to something else to the events of mount sinai when when Moses comes down the mountain in Exodus 34 it says.
When Moses came down from mount sinai with two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain Moses did not know that his skin the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God aaron all the people of Israel saw Moses behold the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him again the similarities you put them up side by side his the skin of his face shone and his face shone like the sun what happens on sinai is that Moses encounters the glory of the.
Lord so much so so that he absorbs some of that glory when he comes down the mountain his face is radiating bright so much so that they are fearful of him someone said that when he wants to communicate with him in the future he's got to wear a shroud to cover the glory of the lord that was on his face in the same way Jesus face shines like the sun emanating uh the glory of God it's intentional it's an illusion it's meant to take you back to sinai and the question is why why are these events.
So similar what is God doing here and unfolding the story why the comparison to sinai because it is at mount sinai where Moses delivers the law and Moses being present at the transfiguration it is the picture that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law you gotta go back to Matthew 5 which was like a year ago for us when we were in Matthew 5 and it says that that Jesus came to fulfill the law he's the fulfillment of the law he's the fulfillment of Moses that's the picture that's being shown here he's the fulfillment of the old testament law and it's also going to show that he's the fulfillment of the prophets which is why.
Elijah shows up elijah is one of the biggest prophets of the old testament when they when they think of of great prophets he's he's at the top and there's this uh story from first kings uh where where elijah has a mountaintop showdown with the prophets of baal and God uh just absolutely shows up and shows out and elijah thinks that this is going to cause the nation of Israel to repent and they don't in fact jezebel the queen at the time tries to have him killed.
So he runs off he's dismayed and he shows up to mount horeb which is the same a different name for the same mountain of mount sinai and he shouldn't he climbs up mount horeb and on the mountain the glory of the lord comes surrounds the mountain in a storm surrounds the mountain and speaks to elijah and i love the encouragement that comes from that story because he's encouraging elijah a soldier who is who has fought some wars for the lord on the battlefield and being a prophet and elijah's discouraged and what he assures to elijah in that moment is that his work will continue that his work of correcting the people and also pointing to.
A messiah that is coming that is going to continue through elisha and through the rest of the prophets and all of the prophets are doing just that they're correcting the people they're also calling that one day a messiah is going to come and that messiah is right here Moses and elijah right there in front of him elijah represents that Jesus has come to fulfill all of the work of the prophets and when you combine those two pictures together what you have is that.
Jesus is the filament of not just the law but the prophets he's he's the fulfillment of the entire old testament now that's going to take some time to sink in on with the disciples but that's exactly what's happening here these allusions to Jesus fulfills the old testament in the midst of all of this is they're absorbing this God the father calls out and says this is my beloved son with whom i'm well pleased listen to him that's what he says to the disciples which is an illusion in and of itself.
Because that's what Moses says in deuteronomy 18 15 the lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you from your brothers it is him you shall listen the same thing that God tells the disciples listen to him Jesus is the fulfillment of the old testament the disciples encounter uh the glory of the lord and fear on their faces and the story continues in verse 9 it says and as they were coming down the mountain Jesus commanded them tell no one the vision until the son of man is raised from the dead again it's alluding to what is coming.
Verse 10. and the disciples asked him then why do the scribes say that first elijah must come he answered elijah does come and he will restore all things but i tell you that elijah had already has already come and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased so also the son of man will certainly suffer at their hands then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of john the baptist so there might have been a little bit of confusion here elijah shows up.
But he doesn't stay and they're wondering why isn't elijah supposed to come that's one of the prophecies from the old testament is saying that elijah must come first and Jesus makes it clear he did and elijah type figure came it was john the baptist now from this moment forward the entire narrative of Matthew is turning most of the entirety of Jesus ministry in Matthew has been in galilee that's the setting but from this moment forward everything is moving towards Jerusalem everything is moving towards the cross i mean the the significance of walking down the mountain and geographically you have galilee in the north and you have Jerusalem in the south they are literally.
For the rest of Matthew as we go this descending upon Jerusalem everything is heading towards the cross so the transfiguration is the big shift as they move towards the cross which makes the transfiguration not just an illusion that points back to the fulfillment of the entire old testament it's actually going to point forward to what is to come when the old testament finds its entire fulfillment at the cross and even the parallels between what happens on the mount of transfiguration and what happens on the hill of calvary even those parallels show this is going to the cross in Matthew 17.
Jesus ascends up the hill with his disciples they are going to the mount where he's going to display the glory of God but at the end of Matthew he's going to walk up the hill where the glory of the lord is going to be going to be displayed in suffering on the mount of transfiguration there are three of his closest disciples who get to see a glimpse of the glory of God but on the hill three of the closest women in his life are going to.
See him on the cross his suffering and the glory of that picture on the mount his garments glisten like white light but on the hill his garments will be torn and divided and taken as he's left naked humiliated on a cross on the mount there are two men two of the holiest men from the old testament but on the hill there are two thieves two rebels to his left and his right pointing to the very people that Jesus is going to redeem and on the mount.
God declares this is my son but on the hill a gentile centurion soldier a roman soldier says truly this was the son of God a foretaste of the very people that Jesus is going to redeem from the mountain this story is going to the cross where the entire old testament is going to find its fulfillment but you cannot begin to appreciate the magnitude of what happens on the cross unless you can understand the glory of God the glory of God that you get a glimpse of.
For a moment at the transfiguration one pastor puts it this way he says the work of God in the cross of Christ strikes us as all-inspiring only after we have first been awed by the glory of God that we need to be all by the glory of God so that we can appreciate what happens at the cross and that's difficult for us because we just don't have good concepts for for glory we see moments of glory where God reflects his glory in creation like moments that take our breath like we can we can imagine a sunrise or a sunset and all of that over the ocean like you could picture the rockies springing out of.
The great plains or you can look at the pictures of galaxies and quasars that we have from the hubble telescope and be just utterly blown away by the glory of God's creation you can find it in the smaller moments of life like holding your newborn baby for the first time or seeing two people covenant to life together on their wedding day before another there are moments that take our breath away that emanate that show the glory of God but it's just it's hard.
For us to conceptualize this it's it's like reflecting his glory is like looking through a mirror that is dim or trying to understand the power of the sun through frosted glass we just we don't get even close to a full picture of the glory of God on this earth one pastor he puts it this way he says what is the glory of God it is who God is it is the essence of his nature the weight of his importance the radiance of his splendor the demonstration of his power the atmosphere of his presence which which i love that those are big pictures of who.
God is but even words can't do justice to the God who's the author of love and and beauty and and perfection and light and all the attributes that we ascribe to him the God of grace and all the things that we love about who he is that reflect his glory all of that though shines brightest at the cross the momentary glory that we see at the transfiguration is most powerfully displayed at the cross the hill of calvary is a glimpse of the glory that we find in Christ.
But it's not just a glimpse of his glory it is the means by which he will bring us into his glory and that is where all this starts to tie together in the Gospel of Matthew is that ultimately he's going to bring us into this same glory if you go back a few chapters to Matthew 13. Jesus is giving us a foretaste of this Matthew 13 43 says then the righteous will shine like the sun and the kingdom of their father he who has ears let them hear that phrase shine like the sun it is the greek word lampa which is where we get our word lamp from shine lampo like the sun is the.
Same phrasing that Matthew's going to use a few chapters later to show that Jesus face shines like the sun same phrasing and what that shows is that the moment of glory hear this the moment of glory that they got to see at the transfiguration is a foretaste it's a foretaste of what awaits Christians it is what is to come one pastor he describes the transfiguration this way he says it was a foretaste of his glorious human body to come after the resurrection.
When he ascended into his father's right hand so it's a picture of his resurrected glorified body and the reason why this is so important for us as Christians is because in the new heavens and the new earth because for those of us who have believed in Jesus that is the future we get a newly resurrected body that will be like Christ we get to share in his glory now why is that so important for us right now what does that mean as we.
Look at the glory of God what does that mean for us right now as Christians this picture that we see in the transfiguration is a foretaste of the glory that awaits us that we will radiate like the lord in mysterious ways that we can't even possibly begin to understand but this powerful picture is significant because right now we feel the effects of sin there will be a day where we don't feel the effects of sin and our bodies and our souls we won't feel the effects of that in the resurrection.
When we have a glorious body like Christ but right now we do and we feel the physical effects of sin how many of us are are physically suffering maybe you're battling through sickness maybe you're battling through disease maybe you just feel your body physically breaking down maybe you're struggling with some type of chronic pain maybe you have a struggle with with your weight and all the emotional uh struggle that comes with that we feel it physically in this world we feel the physical effects of sin in this world.
Now and it's not just the physical effects how many of us feel the the brutal effect of sin on our souls how many people right now are struggling with depression with with deep sadness this this feeling of just absolute maybe distress in our souls maybe just deep anxiety it's just on our minds all the time how many of us are consistently feeling the burning effects of lust every day just feeling that war that has waged against us how many how many of us are tired of losing our temper on our spouses on our kids on our friends on our family just seeing sin corrupt marriage sin corrupt families sin corrupt friendships how many of us.
Are tired of of of our tongue and our words getting out of control how many are tired of consistently feeling the effects of sin that affects our relationship with God our relationship with others how many of us feel that add iran with the chaos of this year in 2020 and everything that it's come with with broken bodies broken souls and a broken world how many of us feel that i mean i feel that every day i wake up and i have physical pain i have back problems that i don't think will hardly completely ever go away i wrestle with the same sin and temptation every season it's just i i just you feel it you.
Feel the physical and spiritual effects of sin that weighs on us and if you're honest that's everyone in this room we all have our crap we all have our physical bodies that are breaking down until all of us die that is our reality now here is why this picture of the transfiguration is so incredibly important because what it is showing us is a picture of the final state that awaits us that in the midst of suffering we have a picture that we can lift our heads and actually.
See i love what romans 8 says it says 8 16-17 it says the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God if children then heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him in order we might be glorified with him or as the niv says share in his glory for i consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us or as one theologian puts it we're not shadows of our former selves we are shadows of our future self and that is a promise.
So Christian i don't know what it is for you in this season i don't know what you're feeling the effects of sin but you get to lift up your head because this moment and all the suffering that we face right now it isn't the final picture we have a final glorified picture that awaits all of us so we can stand firm in that promise we can pick up our gaze and realize there's a glorified state where all the suffering in this present moment will be a distant memory and all the future glory that awaits us will be endless this moment is a drop in the bucket in comparison to the ocean of eternity.
So wherever you are right now in your journey remember that hope cling to that hope own that promise we are mere shadows of our future selves lindsay is going to come up and we are going to to close out and worship and i want us to reflect on this because i know this has been a hard year i know it's been a hard year for many of us i know some of you are battling cancer and some of you are battling sickness and some of you are battling sin i know some of you are absolutely having a tough go of it.
But if you are a Christian this is it that's the final picture the radiated Christ the momentary glimpse we get on the mount that's it for endless glory that awaits us that's our hope may we sit in that hope as we respond in worship this morning if you are not a Christian if you have not placed your full faith your full hope in Christ my plea for you this morning is to realize this momentary suffering pales in comparison to the glory that awaits that.
If you are a Christian if you place faith in him this is the closest thing to hell you're ever going to see the only thing that awaits us in Christ is glorious if you've not placed faith in Jesus my hope this morning is that you would that you would trust him that you would you would pray and receive him right now and that from eternity in eternity and beyond you will be with us in the presence of the radiating king let me pray.
God i pray that your glory would be so clear to us in ways that we we we cannot even begin to understand without you revealing yourself to us God i pray if there's anyone here that has not placed their faith in you that i pray that right now your glory would overwhelm them that as the disciples fell on their faces in fear they would fall on their faces in in fear knowing that sin is real but also in humility that turns to love and following you realizing that there is a glory that oasis that is.
So much better than this world gotta pray there's any Christians here right now Christians that are that are wrestling that are struggling God i pray right now as we respond and worship that you would make your glory so beautifully clear to them that they would have the strength to persevere in this marathon of life that is filled with suffering knowing that an eternal crown of glory awaits us only because of what you accomplished at the cross only because your blood was poured out.
For us they didn't deserve it only because you conquered death of the resurrection to make a way for us to get to you forever God i pray all of this in your name amen.