Introducing Jesus: Week 27
July 26, 2020 • Luke 9:28–45
Audio Transcript:
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Mosaic. If you're new, or if you're visiting, please fill out a Connection Card online. If you're tuning in online, I just need to share how rapturous that experience was. I feel like today is my birthday, it's Christmas, it's Easter, it's my anniversary and it's pay day all in one. Just singing in person, seeing my brothers and sisters in person, what a gift this is. Hopefully, we'll reopen soon. August 26th is the date, tentative date. While we prepare for that, we are doing living streaming as you see. As Pastor James said, "Please excuse the technical difficulties." With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word?
Holy God, what a gift your presence is. What a gift the presence and the fellowship of our brothers and sisters is. Lord, thank you for giving us the gift of your son, Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you that you came in the flesh, God incarnate. That you tabernacled with us. That you pitched your tent to be with us, to welcome us in to your presence. Lord, we repent of all our sin, which is clogging up our vision of you. We want to see you more clearly than ever. We pray that you do increase our faith. We pray that you do give us mountaintop experiences in your presence. I pray that you do prepare us for the spiritual warfare when you tell us to go down into the valley of the shadow of death and to wage spiritual warfare against the demonic in your name, through prayer, by your word with the gospel.
We pray over the city, Lord. We pray, Holy Spirit, continue to build up your church in this city. Bless every single gospel proclaiming church. Bless every single church that's faithful to your holy scriptures. I pray draw many to yourself. You have many in this city, that's why you called us to be here for such a time as this. We pray that you bless our time in the holy scriptures and we thank you for them. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.
First of all, I want to say I will be sweating a lot during this sermon. By the way, I miss that. I missed sweating for Jesus, that's number one. Number two, this ... there's 24 people in the room, 25% of which are my family. That takes me right back to when we started the church. It's a great time to restart.
Today, we are in Luke chapter nine. The title of the sermon is, A Glimpse of Glory. That's the official title. The unofficial title is, In a Tent with Jesus, that's the unofficial title, A Glimpse of Glory. I'll start with a quote, Os Guinness, he's a British writer, but spent a lot of time in the United States and a great cultural critic of the United States, he said this about the US, he said, "We have too much to live with and too little to live for. Everything is permitted and nothing is important." What do you live for? What is most important in your life? What gets you up early in the morning without an alarm clock? What gives you energy to keep striving, to keep working? And the Christian life is work, and to keep fighting the Christian life is a fight.
The text right before this, Tyler did an incredible job last week. The text before this is about denying yourself. Jesus calls every Christian on a daily basis to deny yourself. What gives you the power to do it, to take up your cross daily and follow Jesus, why? "Follow me," Jesus said. "Fight the good fight of faith. Repent of and mortify sin." Why? Why? Because you get more God. You get more of God's glory in your life. You become more transformed in order to look more like Jesus, in order to show Jesus more clearly to others.
The Chapter 9 of Luke begins with a question. "Who is Jesus?" Luke 9:9, Herod said, "John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things?" And he sought to see Him. And then Luke 9:18-20, now what happened, "That as he was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He asked them, 'Who do the crowds say that I am?' And they answered, John, the Baptist, but others say, Elijah, and others that you're one of the prophets of old has risen.' Then he said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?" And Peter answered, 'Christ of God.'"
So that's what people say. That's what Peter says. Today, we hear clearly, this is what God, the Father says about Jesus Christ, and we get the transfiguration. The transfiguration is right in the middle of Jesus's ministry. That's why it's right in the middle of Matthew and Mark and Luke. It's to show us that this moment to show Christ's glory, this moment is in the top three most important moments in Jesus's ministry. One was His incarnation, the birth, ultimately his passion of the Christ, and in the middle you get the transfiguration. Right after the transfiguration Luke 9:51, "When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem." Isaiah says he set his face like flint. He showed Peter and James and John, this is who I am, was reminded himself now, I'm going to reveal that glory through the suffering, death, and resurrection.
Today we are in Luke 9:20-45. I'll read Luke 9:28-36 to begin our time in the holy scriptures. Would you look at the text with me? Luke 9:28, "Now about eight days after these things, he took with him Peter, and John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
"Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory, and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, 'Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah,' not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud saying, 'This is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him.' And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone, and they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts.
Three points to frame up our time. Talk about a glimpse of heaven, a glimpse of hell, and a gospel microcosm. First of all, a glimpse of heaven, Luke 9:28, "About eight days after these things, he took them, Peter, John, and James, and went up in the mountain to pray." Before every single major event in Jesus life and ministry, he spent significant portion of time in prayer. Jesus was always praying, but Luke points out that he's praying intentionally to show us that something really important is about to happen, to draw our attention to this importance. Luke 9:29, "As he was praying, the appearance of this face was altered and his clothing became dazzling like white."
Jesus Christ said, "I am the light of the world." Not I reflect the light of the world. Jesus is not like the moon reflecting the glory of the sun. Jesus is the son of God and he's like the sun in that, the light comes from within, the glory comes from within. It's inherent to him, it's luminous, it's emanating, it's glistening intensely white. My parallel passage says, "It's so white, such as no earthly bleacher is able to whiten the pre-incarnation glory is revealed just a focus, just a glimpse and Jesus Christ is the focus of the story, just like he's the focus of every story."
He is man, but the man is God. By the way, if you study any of other religious literature, Jewish literature, any other world religion, there is never anything even close to an event like this. Why? Because you can't fake it. You can't manufacture this. Jesus, yes, he was a man. We talked about this in Philippians chapter two, we talked about the glory of his incarnation and the miracle that he did take on flesh. I'm not going to do much here, but I will just say, he was as human as we are. He did not have a sinful flesh, but all the human things that we do, he did. He ate. He drank. He worked. He slept. Jesus got haircuts. Imagine be Jesus' barber. Jesus got haircuts. He had his beard trimmed. He walked. He talked. He grew weary. He even got sick once in a while. He knew some things, he didn't know others. He had to learn by studying and observation.
The God of the universe had to learn to walk, meditate on that, as a baby, as a child, made himself that helpless. He laughed. He wept. He experienced pain and the exasperation and melancholy, and he did bleed. Peter, James, and John, they saw that and they knew he was different. Peter knew, theoretically that you are the Christ, now Jesus like, "Let me show you what that means." In Isaiah 6, by the way, in Isaiah 6, gospel of John tells us that Isaiah saw Jesus. Isaiah 6, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high, lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
"Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two, he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.'" Who's Isaiah talking about? John tells us that Isaiah was talking about Jesus.
John 12:41, "Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him." That's Jesus. That's the holiness of God shown us in Christ. Luke 9:30, the story continues, "And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah." Why Moses and Elijah? This is fascinating, Moses and Elijah were the two men in the holy scriptures who both had previously met God on mountaintops. They experienced the presence, the glory of God. Moses died, he was buried by God. Elijah is one of two people in scripture who actually didn't taste death. It was Elijah and chicken wing right now, say it out loud, or in the comments, who was the other one? I can't hear you. Who? I will by faith believe that you said Enoch. Yes. That's the one, chicken wing. Chicken wing will send ... Next time I'm bringing a bucket of chicken wings, just toss it at you. Just kidding.
What is the importance of these two men showing up on the mountain with the transfiguration of Christ? Well they're the most important people in the old testament. Moses, he brought the law. Elijah symbolizes the greatest of the prophets. We have the law giver and we have the greatest prophet. We have the law and the prophets. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5:17, "Do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." By the way, both Moses and Elijah had experience God before. They knew that they were pointing to Jesus and Jesus here is having a conversation with them about how he is going to fulfill that.
By the way, God's glory, where Jesus shows God's glory, he shows the glory of God, that in the old testament is a euphemism for God. God and his glory are used interchangeably. That's why Exodus 33:18-23, Moses is asking to see God, but what's the language he uses? He says in verse 18, Moses said, "Please show me your glory." He said, "I will make," God said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But," he said, "you cannot see my face. For man shall not see me and live. And the Lord said, 'Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock and while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed. And then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.'"
Here on the mount of transfiguration, Moses ... God said, "You're not going to see my face. I'm going to show you a little bit. I'm only going to give you a glimpse." Here on the mountain, Moses sees the glory of God where? In his face, in the promised land. God said, "No, no, no, because you sinned, you can't go to the promised land." Now God brings him into the promised land. So what atoned? How? How can God show Moses his face, and Moses doesn't die? What happened to Moses sin that Moses can now see God's face and experience his glory and be welcomed into the promise, what happened? What happened was the cross of Jesus Christ, and we'll get there.
Here they're having a conversation. Jesus isn't asking them questions, Jesus isn't interested in how Moses and Elijah are doing. Jesus is the one speaking. Jesus is at the center of the story. It's clear that who the greatest is. In Luke 9:32, "Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him." Now, some of the crucial points in Jesus' ministry, you see the disciples falling asleep. You got that in the Garden of Gethsemane, et cetera, why is this point ... I think partially, it's because physically they were exhausted.
The mountain that they climbed was the one next to Phillip Caesarea, you're probably talking about 5000 feet, 6000 to climb to the top. Mount Washington, I think it's around 5000 feet to the very top, has anyone climbed Mount Washington? How long does it take? I think if you're booking it it's like five, six hours to get to the top, right? Maybe if you're really in shape, maybe less. So hours climbing the mountain, they're physically exhausted, so they fall asleep, and they're about to miss the most glorious moment in their life to date. A question you could ask is, why isn't Jesus asleep? One of the things that I read, one of the commentators say, and I think this is actually very interesting, that Jesus, yes he was human, but he was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit descended upon Jesus at the start of his ministry when he got baptized, remember in the form of the dove, we saw that. Now everything Jesus did in his ministry was by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has a supernatural energy that the disciples don't yet, because the disciples don't yet have the Spirit of God within them. I just want to point that out. Jesus is praying. The disciples are asleep. When they wake up, it says, "When they became fully awake, they saw his glory." I think this is very symbolic language that one of the reasons why we don't see the glory of God as he wants to reveal it to us, and experience the presence of God as he wants to gift it to us is because of spiritual sleep.
Luke 9:33, "And as the men were parting from him, Peter said that, 'Jesus master, it's good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah,' not knowing what he said." Peter is perpetually sticking his foot in his mouth. That's another situation where the ... he doesn't know what to say, but he's going to say something ... thinking out loud. I read a lot about what is going on here. My theory, my sanctified imagination says that, I think Peter so enjoyed that moment, he so enjoyed the glory of God, it was so rapturous, he's like, 'I don't want anything else. I've never experienced anything more glorious. Let's stay here, three tents, I'll build them. We'll go glamping. I'll build the tents myself.'
By the way, Paul was a tent maker, that's interesting. The incarnation was, the word for incarnation is tabernacled in John 1, Jesus pitched a tent with us, he came to live with us. I think what's happening here is, Peter, he wanted to build the three tents and say, "Okay, John, you're the grace guy, we're going to bunk you up with Moses to balance each other out. And then Elijah, you're kind of a nut, but so is James, you guys can have a tent. And, who's left? Yeah, I guess I get a tent with Jesus." I think that was his thought process. I can totally relate.
The beauty here is, that he wanted to be with Jesus in the fullness of it. John 9:34, "As he was saying these things, God interrupts him and a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud." What's fascinating is in the old testament when God is bringing the people of Israel out of captivity in Egypt, there was the pillar of cloud, and the pillar of fire. Those were both symbols of the presence of God. Then Jude tells us that it was actually Jesus that led the people of God out of Egypt. The fire and the cloud, they symbolize the presence of Jesus Christ. In the second coming, Daniel tells that Jesus will come on the clouds, and his appearance will be glorious, like fire. You have this combination of Jesus right here, in the clouds, the clouds are overshadowing, and his face is showing a fire.
In Second Chronicles when Solomon finishes the temple, it says that the fire comes down from heaven, consuming the sacrifice, showing that sin must be atoned for. Then what we see in the history of the old testament is Ezekiel 10 and Ezekiel 11 outlines this in First Samuel 4 is that because of their idolatry, the people of God, the glory of God left the temple. God's glory was withdrawn. Glory departed for 600 years. Then when we see the story, the incarnation, remember when the angels come to the shepherds, what do they say? It says, "That the glory of God shown in the sky." It says in Luke 2:14, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those whom he is pleased."
God brings the glory back to the people of God. In Luke 9:35, "And a voice came out of the cloud saying, 'This is my son, my chosen one, listen to him.'" Herod said, "Who is he?" I'm not sure, the disciples said the other people, they say that you're a prophet. Peter said, "You are the Christ." And God the Father says, "This is my son, my chosen one." I was actually meditating on that phrase this week. I was thinking about my pops, my pops has two sons. He loves saying that phrase, "Yeah, this is my son, yeah, that's my son." I was meditating on it, because I've never said that. I've said something even better, that's my daughter. I love to see how proud God the Father is of his son here.
In all the Christ glory, the humility of this, look how glorious he is and he's humbling himself. He's shrouding himself with flesh in order to atone for our sins. The point here is he's the one that's worth dying for and living for. He is the most important one. He's the one for whom we deny ourselves, to get more of him, for whom we sacrifice to get more of him, for whom we mortify sin to get more of him. By the way, this is so practical, and yes I'm still on point one, it's so good, but point two is going to be a lot shorter. It's so practical in that we always make decision based on what we find important. We make decisions based on what we find important. For whom am I willing to sacrifice my life, for my family? I will lay my life down for my family. I think everyone would say that.
I work every waking minute, other than when I sabbath for my family, for the kingdom of God. If you find comfort to be important, you'll do everything you can do be comfortable. You will work until you don't have to work. If you find being in shape important, you will do everything you can to sacrifice what you can, endure as much pain as you need to get that. If you find wealth important, you will pursue that and sacrifice whatever to get that. If you find security important, relationship important, et cetera, et cetera.
By the way, when we look at all of the negative outfall in our life, most of the time it's ... these components are a result of valuing something ultimately that shouldn't be valued ultimately. That's why Jesus comes. In the bookend between deny yourself and follow me, take up your cross daily and I'm going to set my face like flint and go the cross, there, he shows us this is why it's worth it, to sacrifice absolutely everything. In Luke 9:36, "And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone and they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen." From there, and this is almost anti-climatic, they descend from the mountain, they just had a glorious rapturous mountaintop experience, and we go from Jesus in glory to little boy in misery. We go from the mountaintop to the valley of the shadow of death. We just got a glimpse of heaven, now we're going to get a glimpse of hell, and this is point two.
The reason why this text is here right after the transfiguration where God doesn't do anything arbitrarily, he's orchestrated this, it's to show us that we are at war. A lot of people ask, "Why is there so much bad in the world? If God is good, why is there so much bad in the world?" Actually part of that answer is, because there's a spiritual war, we're in a war. We live in a war. The universe is at war. God is good. Satan is evil. The two kingdoms are clashing. There's angles and there's demons at war. Luke 9:37-40, "And the next day when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him and behold a man from the crowd cried out, 'Teacher, I beg you to look at my son for he is my only child. And behold a spirit seizes him and he suddenly cries out, it convulses him so that foams at the mouth and shatters him and will hardly leave him, and I beg your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.'"
The parallel passages in Mark 9 and Matthew 17 say that the demon actually threw the boy in fire and water. Why? Because Satan is a murderer, and occasionally it rendered the child mute, so as the child's in water drowning he can't cry out for help, in fire, he can't cry out for help, that's how evil Satan is. This has been the case since infancy. The word here is for a boy who is not yet had his Bar Mitzvah, so he's I don't know, nine, 10. Sometimes our problems in life are physical, sometimes they are emotional, sometimes they're chemical, sometimes hormonal, but we can't forget that there is a category of the demonic. Sometimes our ailments are demonic. Sometimes the problems that we experience are from the demonic realm, so what do we do?
Jesus, what's your reaction to this gentlemen who's been in pain for years? The child has been in pain for years. Jesus' reaction is surprising, because he ... his reaction is irritability. He's irritated. Jesus answered, "Oh faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here." Who's he talking to? He's talking to the disciples, twisted, faithless generation, including the father, that's interesting. Why? Verse 42, "While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in convulsion, but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy and gave him back to his father, and all were astonished at the majesty of Jesus." Jesus is irritated with the disciples and the father. Why? Because of their lack of faith. You're faithless. What annoys Jesus is our lack of faith.
Why does Jesus rebuke the disciples and the father? They're lack of faith, they're lack of repentance, they're lack of obedience, and they're lack of prayer. In Mark 9:22-29, the parallel passage. "It was often," that's the father talking, "It does often cast him into fire, into water to destroy him, but you ... if you can do anything," this is the father talking, "have compassion on us and help us." And Jesus said to him, "If you can," exclamation mark, maybe a question mark, "all things are possible for one who believes. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, 'I believe. Help my unbelief.
"When Jesus saw that the crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit saying to it, 'You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.' After crying out and convulsing him terribly came out and the boy was like a corpse so that most of him said he is dead, but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, 'Why could we not cast it out?' And he said to them, 'This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.'"
I believe, help my unbelief, I kind of believe, make my faith stronger. Jesus rebuked the father and the disciples because they forgot one thing, they forgot to pray. They tried to cast out a demon without praying. The father, for years, this has been happening to his child, and this is why Jesus rebukes the father. Why didn't you ask sooner? Why didn't you come to God sooner? Why did it take this for you to come to God in prayer? That's a word from the Lord for some of us today. Some of us aren't relying on the Lord, aren't dependent on the Lord, because we think we got this.
What are the things in your life that you just don't even pray about? Jesus says, "Pray for all things." What are the things in your life? Perhaps it's your work. Do you pray for your work? Perhaps it's food. As you're cooking your food, you're like, "I got this. I don't need you for this food." Jesus says you can't do anything without me, driving, and by the way, I love this ... my wife taught me this, every time we get in the car we pray, we're going to pray, every single time. Jesus said pray for everything. Whatever we do, we have mic issues today, three minutes before the service started, what was I doing like a crazy man? I was walking around praying, casting out demons from the sound system, hallelujah, praise Jesus. We need to pray for everything. Prayer is the beginning of the Christian life and it's every single step in the Christian life.
Prayer and faith, they're intertwined. This is how we become Christians, and this is how we grow. It's the beginning, it's the middle, it's the end, it's everything. Faith isn't just knowing the things about God, it's taking that knowledge and acting upon it. In the business world, and the startup world, they say ideas are a dime a dozen. Ideas don't really matter. What matters is execution. Well, we have the greatest ideas in the world, that's the kingdom of God, and it's the gospel, is that Jesus is holy. It's that God hates sin. It's that God wants the best thing for us. Now, are you acting on those ideas? The reason why Jesus brings Peter from the mountaintop, "No, we're not staying in a tent up there. Peter we're going to come down, because I haven't called you to be monks, I've called you to be missionaries waging war against the demonic." What are our weapons? It's prayer and scripture. This is what we're here for, this is what we're doing. Do you believe like that.
Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer, he was asked on his deathbed, "Hey do you ... you're about to die, how sure are you of everything that you have written about?" He said, "I believe them, the promises of God enough to venture in eternity on them." Scripture says, "Look to Jesus. Grab onto Jesus. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Grab his hand." We were at the beach yesterday in Jamestown, Rhode Island, and my daughter, Milana, she wanted to jump over waves, but she realized she can't do it herself. She came up to me and grabbed my hand and said, "Dad, we're going to jump together." I was just pulling her up and she felt like she was jumping. That gall, that audacity of, "I'm going to grab your hand, and I'm not letting go." That's what prayer is, that's what faith is.
The other thing that I'll mention about faith, because glory, seeing God's glory, faith is vision. That's why Jesus said, "Hey, sin is actually something in your eye. Like take out the speck in your eye, take out the 2x4 in your eye before you judge ... help anybody with their sin." This is absolutely correct. I see God more clearly, I see God's plan more clearly the closer I am to him. The more I repent of sin and fight it, that's clearing of vision, the clearer I see God and his will. That's a spiritual life. It's a battle. Peter comes down the mountain, James came ... John, they just had this glorious experience with God, a few chapters later, you know what Jesus says to Peter after Peter tried to keep Jesus from going to the cross, what did he say?
"Get behind me," what? "Get behind me Satan." You're like, "How does that happen?" It's spiritual amnesia. That's why every day we need to go pursue God in prayer on the mountaintops. Second Corinthians, 4:16-18, "So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day, for this light momentary affliction's preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. Look to the things that are unseen, that's faith. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." How do we look to the things that are unseen through prayer and through faith?
C.S. Lewis said, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the son has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else." When you see God the Son in his glory, everything else makes sense. We got a glimpse of heaven and a glimpse of hell, and finally a gospel microcosm. Verse 43, "But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, 'Let these words sink into your ears. The son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men,' but they did not understand the saying, and it was concealed from the so they that might not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about the saying."
What did he just say? He said, "I'm going to die on the cross." What did Jesus talk about with Elijah and Moses? Well, that's one verse that I missed as I was going verse by verse. Luke 9:31, "Who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem," most likely you have a footnote in your Bible next to the word departure, and at the very bottom, it says, "GK, Greek," and then what does it say? Exodus. The word for departure here is the word exodus.
We often talk about actually when someone passes, they're not longer with us, dearly departed, we use that language, but Jesus isn't just talking about his death, he's talking about his exodus. Who's he talking to about the exodus? He's talking to Moses who knows about an exodus like nobody else knows about an exodus. Moses doesn't want to talk about that exodus, he wants to talk about Jesus' exodus, where Jesus, as the new Moses leads a people out of captivity, out of bondage in liberation. By the way, he says the word accomplish, spoke of his departure, which he was about accomplish at this death in Jerusalem. People don't really accomplish much with death. Death isn't something that we do, it's something that's done to us, we die. But not in the case of Jesus.
Jesus said, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." Jesus Christ had to die for our sins in order to liberate us from captivity, in order to expunge the sin from us, in order to get us into the promised land, in order to show us his glory. In the same what that Moses needed the gospel, he needed Jesus to lead him out of sin and into the promised land. We do the same. We need Jesus Christ. The other thing I will mention here is in terms of the gospel, how this text practically changes our life, there's a battle for glories in your heart. There's a battle for glories. The glory of temporal, earthly, physical pleasure, and the glory of eternity, the glory of God, the glory of Christ.
This Hebrews 11:23-26, "By faith, Moses, when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict, but by faith, Moses, when he was grown up refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God, then to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward." It's a battle of glories. You need to sacrifice things in this world to get more of the glory of God.
I wonder if Peter has ever written about this experience. They didn't say anything about it in the gospel. They came down and didn't say anything. I wonder if Peter's written anything about the transfiguration. Oh, he has. I'm going to read this because it shows us how we can experience more of the glory of God in our life. This is Second Peter 1:16-21, "For we do not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were witnesses of his majesty for when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the majestic glory, 'This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased.' We ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain."
Now what he says next is so important, if you've zoned out, come back, this is so important and then we'll lay in the plain, "And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy is ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the spirit." You know what he just said? Seeing Jesus, man, that was cool, you know what's even cooler than that? Holy scripture. Do you want to see God's glory on a daily basis? Study his scripture. What did God the father say? Listen to him. Listen to him. Listen to him from the scriptures.
That's what changes in Second Corinthians 3:17-18, "Now the Lord is a spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit." The more time we spend with the Lord, the more we become like him. The more we saturate our mind and our hearts with the holy scriptures, the more we are transformed. The greatest thing about heaven is the glory of God, it's God. Will there be night in heaven? No. It will always be bright. I wonder if there's naps in heaven. I don't know, I haven't given that much thought, probably won't be sleeping, but I think Sunday afternoon naps. Jesus Christ will be the source of light in heaven.
I'll close with this story, true story, at the end of World War II, Murdo MacDonald, he was a British soldier, a soldier for the UK, they snuck up to a German concentration camp that had American soldiers in it, and he whispered the good news to an American soldier through the fence that the war was over. The German soldiers in that particular concentration camp, they didn't know yet. They wouldn't find out yet for another three days, until the soldiers of the UK, until they came and liberated the American soldiers. So for three days, the American prisoners of war, for three days, they still had to go through the same hardships. They had to eat the same terrible food. They had to endure the same trials et cetera, et cetera, but do you think their mindset was different? Yeah.
They had to endure the same pain, but they had something that fueled them to get through that. What was that? It was hope. It was faith. This is fact. Now that fact changes the way that I live. That's why Jesus showed them the transfiguration. Yes, deny yourself, yes, take up your cross daily, and yes I'm about to take up my cross, but it's all worth it because I've brought the gospel of hope. With that said, would you please pray with me before we transition to worship?
Jesus we thank you for your transfiguration. We thank you for this glimpse of glory. We thank you, Lord, that you are not a victim, but a victor, and Jesus that you reign. Your truth will triumph over evil. I pray that you give us, not just a glimpse of your glory, but a vision of your glory that enables us to follow you on the daily basis, no matter how hard it is, no matter how great the sacrifice, because it's all worth it. We pray all this in Christs' holy name, Amen.
