You can turn with me to Luke's Gospel, to Luke chapter 9. We're continuing in our series called Kingdom Come. We're working our way through Luke's Gospel. We're continuing in chapter 9. This morning we're going to be looking at the Transfiguration, which takes place in Luke 9:28-36. If you don't have a Bible with you, the text will be up on the screen. And so we'll turn there in a moment. But first, let's bow our heads and pray.
Lord, we are reminded by the testimony of the Garritys, your ways are not our ways, and that is such a good thing. And we are reminded by their testimony, Lord, that you are always at work doing a thousand things that we don't see, that we don't understand. And yet you promise us that you are doing and orchestrating all of those things for our good, and for your glory. Lord, there's no way I can know what's going on in every life and every heart here this morning, but you know, and you have ordained that your word would be preached. And because your word is sharper than any two-edged sword, because your word is perfect and powerful, because your word accomplishes everything it sets out to do, we now place our faith at your feet And we sit under your word. We ask that by your Spirit you would form us and conform us to the image of your Son Jesus. Amen.
Well, it's obviously the Christmas season. The Christmas decorations are up. We've even got our own little mini Christmas tree. We went the coward's route. We didn't do a true German tree where you actually have lit candles. We decided that might be a little too risky, although Dave maybe wanted it to happen so we could burn down, get insurance money, and rebuild a brand new building, right? Maybe next year, Dave. Maybe that'll be the route we go. But you set it all up and the ladies came and descended. We have a tradition as well when we get back from visiting family for Thanksgiving. Sometime that first week that we're back, we set up the Christmas tree. And I have to kind of fight my inner curmudgeon when we set up the Christmas tree because I think it's a huge amount of work and the thing just kind of looks droopy and Charlie Brown-ish. But our kids are at an age where they just love it. And so Case has developed his own, you know, ornamental practice where he stands back and he throws the bulbs at the tree and is almost more excited if it doesn't stick because then he gets to throw it again. And so now Lincoln has picked up that practice, but this was the first year in doing the tree and the ornaments and the decorating that Lincoln, our little guy, our 2.5-year-old, really had an idea of what was going on. You know, last year he was just sort of along for the ride, overwhelmed. This year we're explaining, this is your ornament. They get a new ornament every year. You get to put it on wherever you want. And so Lincoln was just in awe the entire night. And it's so much fun just to sit there and watch. All the kids are in that place where Christmas is still just filled with mystery and wonder. And you tell them the story of Jesus and the nativity, and it's new and it's amazing. But Lincoln especially, this is really kind of like the first Christmas for him all over again, because he can't even remember last year. And one of my favorite things right now is a couple times a day he'll come along and— my sister-in-law Brooke lives with us and she works from home, and so a couple times a day she tells the story Lincoln will come waddling along, "Bookie! Bookie!" and grab her hand and come and bring her into the living room and say, "A Christmas tree! A Christmas tree!" You know, it's like the tree wasn't there 5 minutes ago, but that's Lincoln's little world. It's like every time he comes around the corner and he sees the Christmas tree, A Christmas tree! And he's excited all over again. Running around the house to get Aunt Brooky and to tell her. It's this incredible thing to behold.
Well, I say that because you think of what it's like being one of the disciples. In the first bit that you're with Jesus, it's just these incredible things happening, whether it's the wedding at Cana or the greater miracles that start to unfold later. Incredible event after incredible event, healing after healing, miracle after miracle. And initially, these things are just mind-boggling. After a while though, you get the sense as you go through the Gospels, the disciples, even though they're usually a little slow on the uptake, they're starting to realize Jesus can do stuff. And every time He tries to do stuff, it works. And then you start to wonder, man, if the disciples are anything like me, Does there come a point where those extraordinary things start becoming ordinary? You see, oh, Jesus healed another cripple today. Yeah, it's like the 85th cripple He's healed. This guy only had one broken leg. He didn't have two. Does that stuff become mundane instead of phenomenal? Everyday life with Jesus is a pretty incredible thing, but after a while, incredible just becomes normal. You lose that 2.5-year-old sense of wonder. A Christmas tree! I'm living with Jesus! That's a sad fact of the fall, is our hearts have this warped tendency to get bored, to get complacent with amazing and beautiful things.
It's a battle every week in worship, isn't it? If things don't go perfectly according to plan, my little heart, my mind can lose attention so quickly. But in today's text, something so amazing happens that even after all this time with Jesus, the disciples are shocked in a fresh way.
So turn with me now to Luke 9, we'll start at verse 28. Hear God's holy and authoritative word. Now, about 8 days after these sayings, he took with him Peter, 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. And 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 alone, and they kept silent and told no one in those days anything. Of what they had seen. The word of the Lord. May he write its truth upon our hearts.
6 · The preacher introduces the first major theological claim of the sermon: that the Transfiguration reveals the glory of God as both awesome and awful (in the archaic sense of inspiring reverential fear)
The first thing I think we see as we turn our attention to the Transfiguration this morning is we see how awesome, even how awful, the glory of God is. How awesome and how awful the glory of God is.
7 · The preacher establishes that Peter, James, and John constitute Jesus' inner circle—His closest friends—based on their repeated selection for special events and the nicknames Jesus gave them
Now, I don't think it's inaccurate to look at Peter, James, and John and think these are probably Jesus's best friends. Now it almost sounds sacrilegious, like Jesus couldn't have played favorites. But at the same time, Jesus is a human. He engages in relationships just like the rest of us. And everything we read in the Gospels, there's all these points where he specifically singles out Peter, James, and John, and he invites them to come along with him. Special occasions we read just a little bit ago, right? The raising of Jairus's daughter from the dead. Not all the disciples see it. He only brings Peter, James, and John into the room to witness it. He's even given them nicknames. It's almost like they're in college together, right? Peter's real name is Simon. Jesus renames him. James and John? The sons of thunder, right? He's given His buddies nicknames.
8 · The preacher explains that Jesus invites His three closest disciples to pray with Him on the mountain, and suggests that by this point, prayer with Jesus had become routine—so ordinary that the other disciples weren't even disappointed to be left behind
Well, here, Jesus takes His 3 closest companions, the 3 disciples who are really invited into His inner circle, and He asks them, I want you to climb the mountain with Me and I want you to pray. Come with me and pray. We're going to leave everyone else behind. Now you think of this and you think, at this point, how many times have the disciples prayed with Jesus? Jesus is basically the definition of a prayerful person. He's the definition of a prayer warrior. So you know they're praying constantly with Him. Countless episodes where they've prayed. And so it's maybe even the other disciples aren't even that disappointed this time to get left out. Well, they're just going to the mountain to pray. We've all prayed with Jesus lots of times. Not a big deal to stay back.
9 · The preacher observes that Peter, James, and John fall asleep during prayer with Jesus, and interprets this detail as Luke's deliberate commentary on the fickleness of human hearts—even in the presence of the Son of God
But while they're praying, Peter, John, and James start to fall asleep. And so they're up there praying with Jesus and then nodding off. There's this sense as you read the text and the way the translation comes about that there's just kind of that struggle. We've all had it in church too, right? You know, like you're just fighting it off. And the harder you fight it, just like you can almost feel your eyes going cross-eyed. I can see like 17 preachers right now. It's like, I can see 17 Jesuses. That's kind of what they're fighting through. They're tired. They've climbed the mountain. They're dozing. They're fighting it. But in that little passing comment, it's not randomly there. Luke again, I think, is showing us just how fickle our hearts can become, right?
10 · The preacher tells a personal story about being overwhelmed and nervous praying in the presence of John Piper, illustrating the awe and anxiety that comes with praying alongside someone famous and spiritually respected
I'll never forget when I was a member in college, the church I was a member of was Bethlehem Baptist Church. It's a well-known church. It's the church where John Piper is the pastor at. And that was the reason I was there. I was sitting under his teaching. I was getting my doors blown off by preaching every week. And they had this practice at Bethlehem before the evening service on Saturday nights. They would gather for prayer. And so I had gone to one and it was a small gathering and at this point they had two different campuses for the church and so sometimes Pastor John was preaching live at your campus, other times he was on the video screen. Well, this time he was going to be preaching live at this campus and I didn't know any better but I had gone to the prayer meeting a couple times and prayed with folks and this time I was there and here comes Pastor John because he's going to be preaching at that campus that night to pray with us. And immediately I'm just like, oh, Pastor John! It's not just me in the room with another 2,000 people, it's like 20 of us in the room. And there's just this kind of overwhelming feeling that comes over you. Here he is, I'm 19, 20 years old, college student, and I'm going to pray with John Piper. So I catch myself during the prayer kind of glancing over and trying not to stare at him. You do the little kid thing, like your kids at the table, like, no, close your eyes. Like all the little moves, trying to peek. I'm totally doing all that and I'm 19 years old. And then when he prays, you know, it's like I've never listened to a prayer so hard in my life. You know, like, oh, how is he praying? What's he praying about? How's everyone— you know, I'm even listening like as other people are praying, like how's he responding to how they're praying? Like everyone in the room is taking their cues from what he does. And then it gets like you're kind of going around and there's like obviously everyone is expected you're going to pray at some point, and clearly it's now my turn, and you're just thinking, don't say anything stupid or heretical. It's just this horrible stumbling. Jesus and God and you love us. Thank you for this church. In my head, that's how it came out. And you think back on it, it's just actually super embarrassing. And super pathetic. And that's just praying with a well-known pastor, right?
11 · The preacher contrasts the privilege of praying with the Son of God—who uniquely knows the Father—with the disciples' sleepiness, showing how the extraordinary had become tedious and ordinary for them
Peter, James, and John, they get invited to a private prayer session with the Son of God. Think of how truly transformative it must have been just to listen to Jesus pray. Here is the one uniquely gifted to teach us how to commune and fellowship with the Father. Jesus is the one, more than anyone else, who knows what it is to have meaningful relational intimacy with the Father in prayer. How much do you hang on His words? How nervous are you when it's your turn to pray. And we read in Luke's Gospel, actually, they're struggling to stay awake. Praying with the Messiah has become normal. It's almost become tedious. They're not 2.5-year-olds seeing the Christmas tree for the first time. They're 33-year-olds grumpily complaining about how hard it is to put the tree together.
12 · The preacher notes that Luke intentionally connects the Transfiguration to Jesus praying, and extracts a brief applicatory implication: if Jesus prays so the Father will act, we should pray with the same expectation
When the Transfiguration happens, though, their awe is renewed. At the Transfiguration, this amazing thing happens that they're completely not expecting, and Luke very intentionally connects the Transfiguration happens Because Jesus is praying. It's not like, well, okay, time to take Him up to the mountain and then just stand there and kind of do your lightning rod pose and the transfiguration is going to happen. No, Luke says Jesus prays. Jesus, Son of God, prays so the Father will move. That says a little bit, as an aside here, about why we should pray. Jesus prays so the Father will move. We should pray so the Father will move, right?
13 · The preacher vividly narrates the moment the disciples witness Jesus transformed—His clothes glowing white—and Moses and Elijah suddenly appearing beside Him, jarring the disciples from drowsiness into astonished alertness
Well, there they are and Jesus gets transformed right before their eyes. Doing the cross-eyed, trying not to fall asleep. And all of a sudden, whoa, like, am I dreaming right now? No, this is really happening. Jesus, His clothes are glowing. They're white with light. And then all of a sudden, beside Him, you've got two guys. And you look and you realize, somehow they realize, it's Moses and Elijah. They're able to identify it. It's Moses. And Elijah.
14 · The preacher uses a personal story about his high school teacher's rant against the overuse of the word 'awesome' to illustrate how cheapening language leaves us without adequate vocabulary to describe truly awe-inspiring realities
It's awesome. Now, I had a calculus teacher in high school and he was also a football coach and really into weightlifting and had like the Coke bottle glasses. So he was this kind of weird combination of a guy like your quintessential geeky calculus teacher but also like the buffest guy in the school. So Mr. Bunt was an interesting guy. He was also a really strong believer. He'd grown up, I think his parents were missionaries in Africa and grew up in the Navigators. There's a few of us he would bring to his home and disciple us and we were doing like the Scripture memorization thing and he would get off on these little quirky passionate rants and one night we're sitting there and it was myself and kind of our ragtag group of immature 15-16-year-olds and he starts going off on language. I just don't understand people today and how careless they are with their words! And I'm thinking, oh, he's going to talk about profanity or something. I can't, I just can't handle how people will call things awesome that aren't awesome. And I'm like, what? And we all kind of look at each other and for like 20 minutes he goes on this rant about how we have neutered the word awesome. He's like, you guys call ice cream awesome, right? You call a nice 3-point shot in a basketball game awesome. You have no idea what awesome is. And at the time, I remember sitting there thinking, "He is just over-the-top crazy. Like, I don't get why he's doing this, but this is like a whole new level of weird, even for Mr. Bunch. Take a chill pill, man." But he totally has a point. We do have a tendency to cheapen words. And so the silliest of things get described as awesome. And then we see something truly amazing. You go to visit the Grand Canyon, you realize— I'm kind of stumbling for how to talk about this thing. Because I realize I've so lowered my vocabulary that I don't really have words to express how stunning and magnificent what I'm seeing actually is.
15 · The preacher explains that the Transfiguration is the unveiling of Jesus' true glory, normally veiled in the mystery of the incarnation so people can interact with God without dying
Well, Peter, James, and John have seen awesome stuff with Jesus. They have seen incredible things. But they've never seen anything like this. What's happening at the Transfiguration is for a brief time, the veil is being pulled back. These three guys, Jesus' three friends, they're given a glimpse, they're given a foretaste and a preview of what Jesus' glory truly looks like. Part of the mystery of the incarnation is that the eternal Word of God has been clothed in flesh, and part of the mystery of that is the glory of the unseen God is now contained and somehow veiled in a human body. People walk around Galilee and Judea, and they're not dying every time they look at Jesus, because that's what's supposed to happen when you look at God. Somehow, mysteriously, God has protected people. He's muted His own glory in Jesus for a time so that we can interact with Him. But at Transfiguration, for a few minutes, God allows the brilliance of the sun to start breaking through. It's like a cloudy day and you see the sun behind the clouds and the beams start coming out and the brilliance of starts just filling everything around you.
16 · The preacher corrects a sentimental view of the Transfiguration, emphasizing that the scene is awful (in the archaic sense)—inspiring reverential wonder and holy fear
This, what Peter, James, and John are seeing, this is awesome. This is awful. Not in the sense of being terrible, but in that archaic sense of the word. It's awful because the scene inspires reverential wonder and fear. When we really pause to think about the Transfiguration, we can have this sense of, "Wow! Wouldn't it have been so cool to have been there?" No. It would have been terrifyingly, terribly, wondrously breathtaking. These guys are trembling. They're filled with holy fear, in part because they realize in ways that at first escape us, they realize the full significance of what's going on.
17 · The preacher explains that Moses and Elijah's appearance is strategic, not arbitrary—they represent the Law and the Prophets, the entirety of Old Testament revelation, and their presence signifies that all of God's prior redemptive activity points forward to Jesus' coming work
This whole episode is just chock-full of Old Testament images and Old Testament ideas and Old Testament fulfillment. Moses and Elijah, it's not just like God's up in heaven Well, any volunteers? Okay, Moses, Elijah, you look kind of bored. You guys can go down. No, this is strategic. Moses and Elijah appear because Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets. And the Law and the Prophets represent a description of the entire Old Testament Scriptures. These two guys are there with Jesus because they represent all of God's redemptive activity with His people in the Old Testament. They represent the full extent of God's revelation to His people at this point. And they're here talking and discussing what Jesus is about to accomplish.
18 · The preacher asserts that the Transfiguration demonstrates Jesus is not merely associating with Moses and Elijah as equals, but that He is the fulfillment and goal toward which Moses and Elijah pointed—the better Moses, the perfect Elijah, the telos of all Old Testament Scripture
It's not that Jesus is welcomed into their fraternity like, wow, cool, Jesus is hanging out with Moses and Elijah. No, the point being made is that Moses and Elijah were pointing forward to Jesus. He's the better Moses. He's the more perfect Elijah. He's the end, the telos, the goal of the Law and the Prophets. And all of those words in the Old Testament were written in preparation for Jesus and His arrival and His coming.
19 · The preacher observes that Peter's initial reaction—excitement about building tents and staying on the mountain—reveals that he is enthusiastic but not yet sufficiently awed
Now initially, Peter kind of has that response like we would have. Man, it'd be really cool to be there. That's Peter's first response, right? Jesus, let's get some tents! Like, let's camp out here! Let's capture this for a while! Let's hang out! That's Peter's initial reaction. Peter is excited. He's enthusiastic. But his head hasn't caught up with his heart. He'd kind of be expressing what my son Case loves to talk about. This is awesome, dude! That's where Peter's at right now. And Lincoln will imitate it. "This is awesome, dude!" You know, he can't say the words right. That's where Peter's at. "This is amazing! Let's build some tents! Build a house!" Peter's excited, but he's not sufficiently in awe.
20 · The preacher traces the Transfiguration's deliberate echo of Mount Sinai, explaining that the cloud descending represents God's Shekinah glory—the same glory that descended when God gave the Law to Moses
And then the cloud descends. Peter and James and John would have immediately realized the significance of Mount Sinai. The cloud that covered the mountain when God gave the Law to Moses, that cloud represents God's Shekinah glory. That phrase is just talking about— it represents the enormity of God's person and His character and His majesty descending and coming on the mountain where Moses is. And so now that that cloud is coming and descending on Mount Hermon, Jesus didn't just light up and start glowing. It's not just that Moses and Elijah dropped by to hang out. No. The glory— Peter, James, and John are suddenly realizing— the glory of Almighty God is now descending on the mountain. And now Peter isn't thinking about making tents. Now they're truly filled with awe. And they're rightfully afraid and they're shaken to their core. Because the glory of God is an awesome thing. The glory of God is an awful thing. And now it surrounds them.
21 · The preacher connects the Transfiguration to the earlier confession of Peter and Jesus' prediction of suffering, showing how the voice from the cloud ("This is my Son; listen to him") confirms Jesus' words about the cross
If that's not enough, they're surrounded by this cloud of God's glory. Standing next to Moses and Elijah and Jesus, you kind of see the three of them just kind of like shaking and the clouds there and not everything's as clear as it was before. Then a voice calls out. And it's clearly the voice of God. And what He reveals, what He says about the Messiah, about the way of glory and about the way of the cross connects the transfiguration with everything that's just happened around it. Now, if you're a guest and you weren't here with us or you need a refresher, remember a few weeks ago, we looked and saw earlier in Luke 9, Peter has made his famous confession, right? "Who do people say that I am?" "Moses, Elijah, one of the prophets. I don't know." "Peter, who do you say I am?" "You're the Christ." There's a little bit of that sense in the text. Peter doesn't totally get what He's saying, but this is connected with that confession. Jesus then informs them immediately after Peter says, "You're the Christ." Jesus then says, "You're right, and the Christ has to suffer and He has to die." It's the most explicit prediction of the cross, the most upfront preview of the coming suffering that we've had up to this point in the Gospel. And then Jesus follows it up by saying, I am the Christ. I'm going to suffer and die and be raised on the third day. And you, if you would follow Me, must take up your own cross. And you must deny yourself. And you must be willing to lose your life for My sake. And so it goes from like really excited, like, He's the Christ! to, wait, what? He's going to suffer? I've got to suffer? At first they're wigged out because He's going to suffer and now they're wigging out because, well, I didn't sign up for a cross. That's the kind of stuff that's been happening just before this. Now you fast forward to the mountain. Moses and Elijah come specifically to discuss with Jesus the journey He's about to take to Jerusalem. The sense you get is they're encouraging Him. They're supporting Him. They're discussing the fateful turn that's about to happen begins to set his face, Luke will say, towards Jerusalem and towards his own death. But when God speaks out of the cloud, he removes all doubt about whether Jesus is right to predict that he's going to suffer. Up to this point, you kind of imagine the disciples discussing, I don't know, is he really going to suffer? Is he just kind of trying to throw some hyperbole at us to make sure we're really committed? This really is the Messiah. He can't really suffer, right? Or it can't really be that bad, right? When this voice speaks, it confirms what Jesus has said. Verse 35, and a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my Son, my chosen one. Listen to him. When that voice speaks, there can be no more doubt. Jesus is clearly the Son of God. Jesus is clearly the Messiah, and we are all called to listen to Him. Peter, James, and John, and everyone who's hearing this, and everyone who's reading it. The entire scene is actually meant to mimic what happened on Mount Sinai, where Moses encounters God and receives the Ten Commandments. We were at the leadership Christmas party all the ministry team leaders, and we were talking about our favorite movies. And Emily Beecher says, I love The Ten Commandments, you know, the Charlton Heston version where he's got the tablets and the lightning's coming and all that stuff. That's what this whole scene with the Transfiguration is meant to be mimicking. It's a parallel to that. On Sinai, God introduces himself and says to Moses, I am Yahweh, right? I am that I am. And then he gives the law. I am Yahweh, and here are my words. Obey them. But here on the Mount of Transfiguration, God introduces his Son. This is my Son, the chosen one. And then he finishes by saying, listen to him. The connection is unmistakable. Jesus' instructions and His promises and His commands, they are placed on the same level as God's commands, as the words and the law that God gave to Moses. The words of Jesus, this voice is saying, are equivalent in authority and power to the words of Yahweh. They will never pass away. It's actually the fulfillment of Moses' own prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15. Yahweh, the Lord your God, will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen. That is what's being fulfilled on that mountain.
22 · The preacher cites Hebrews 1:1-2 to reinforce that God's final and authoritative word has come through His Son Jesus, calling the congregation to listen to Him
Hebrews 1 says, long ago, at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us. By his Son. Listen to what he says.
23 · The preacher identifies the central theological claim that Jesus' words establish: all His glory comes through the cross
And what has Luke just put in the mouth of Jesus? What has Jesus just said? The words of Christ are that all of his glory will come through the cross. All the glory he's meant to achieve in this world and after is meant to go on a pathway of suffering.
24 · The preacher argues that the Transfiguration involves two unveilings: Jesus' glory and the mystery of how the shameful cross becomes the path to that glory
There's actually two unveilings that happen on the mountain. Usually we think of the Transfiguration and it's the unveiling of Jesus' glory, but the context tells us there's two things that are being revealed here. There's two going on. The first is you see the glory, but the second is the mystery of how this shameful cross could be the destiny of the Messiah also begins to glean. To gain clarity. When Peter, James, and John first hear of the cross, all they're thinking is absolute shame and total contempt. This is a horrible way to die. This is the worst way to die. Your reputation doesn't recover from being crucified. And if you're hanging out with a dude that was crucified, your reputation is toast as well. But now, on the mountain, as they glimpse Jesus in His glory, They're able to preview God's plan, that somehow He will transform disgrace into glory, that He'll turn ashes into beauty, as the song says. The key for understanding the Transfiguration is the cross. They're intentionally connected, and the parallels are remarkable.
25 · The preacher traces a series of deliberate contrasts between the Transfiguration and the crucifixion, showing how every element of glory on the mountain has a corresponding element of shame at Calvary—clothing, companions, light/darkness, the Father's declaration, and Peter's response
Think with me here, comparing the Transfiguration on this mountain and the cross on the hill to come. Jesus' glory is revealed on Mount Hermon, but His shame will be displayed on the hill of Calvary. Here on this mountain, Jesus is clothed in white light. Later at Golgotha, He'll be stripped and lots will be cast for His bloody, shredded clothes. Now Jesus is standing with Moses and Elijah, the perfection of the Law and the Prophets. He's discussing the sacrifice to come. At the cross, He's going to hang between two criminals, and one of them is going to openly mock Him. On this mountain, a cloud of glory covers the scene. On the hill of Golgotha, darkness is going to cover the entire land, not in glory, but in shame. Now the Father declares with a voice in the midst of the crowd, "This is my beloved Son." He declares his pleasure in the Son, declares that the Son is the chosen one, his special instrument. There, the Father turns his face away. The Son cries out in agony, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" On this mountain, Peter wants to linger. He's just confessed Jesus as the Christ, and he wants to stay. At the cross, Peter is going to flee and hide. The confession is gonna have to come from a pagan centurion witnessing the death of Jesus and saying, "Truly, this is the Son of God."
26 · The preacher synthesizes the sermon's central theological claim: Christ's glory comes through the cross, and His glory will become the glory of all who follow Him
Christ's glory will come through the cross. That's what the Transfiguration shows us. His suffering and death on the cross will be transformed into glory. And when it's all said and done, we cannot have the mountain's glory without that hill's infamy. The glory of God is an awful and awesome thing. And the glory of God goes through the cross. And he also promises that Jesus' glory will be our glory. It's the final point. Peter, James, and John can't see it yet, but the path of suffering into glory is actually the very essence of good news. Right now, the disciples are really freaking out. They've gone all in with Jesus, and now they're finding out he's going to suffer, he's going to die, we're going to suffer too if we're going to follow him. We don't want to follow him. This isn't what we signed up for. We thought there were going to be goodies with being in tight with the Messiah. What is going on? Well, they're beginning to see, they're getting a preview that it's good that Jesus suffers. It's good that he goes through the cross to get to his glory. And the reason it's good is because his glory is going to become our glory. John 10:17 says this, Jesus says, for this reason, The Father loves me because I'm the eternal Word of God in flesh, because I'm part of the Trinity. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. The Transfiguration is a glimpse of Jesus in resurrected glory. His entire mission given from the Father is to come and to rescue us from our sin and from certain death. And so just as He lays down His life so He can take it up again, the point is, so will we if we trust in Him, if we lose our life for His sake, if we follow Him, if we place our hope and our dreams and our faith fundamentally in Him and repent of our former life, so will we with Him be raised from the dead into life. His glory will be our glory.
27 · The preacher corrects the false assumption that following Jesus is uniquely difficult while the alternative is easy, arguing instead that every person is on a road of suffering in this fallen world
I think sometimes you hear the call of discipleship of the last 2 weeks, take up your cross, deny yourself, lay down your lives, and you kind of mistakenly think like, well, that's the hard road and the other road is just all easy and daisies. Well, part of the deception of this world is it makes that look like the hard road and it makes the other road, the wide road, look like it's all sunshine and daisies, right? But have none of us lived in a fallen world? It's not just that one road is filled with suffering and the other road is all happiness. That's not the case at all, is it? The truth is every person who's ever lived is on a road of difficulty and suffering in this life. The difference is outside of Christ, that suffering has no greater meaning. It has no redemptive purpose for you. There's no turning point where that suffering becomes for your benefit. The scar of sin has left the world just broken and groaning. You read the newspaper and you look and there's famines going on in Africa and there's children starving, right? You think more specifically, more recently, there's countries just torn apart by by war and terrorism. And there's refugees that are all over the place, and countries don't know what to do with them. The refugees don't know where to go. It's a broken world. It's a suffering world. Terrorists walk around attacking innocent people, and other people watch that, and they're inspired by it, and they flock to join them. You get more personal, and cancer consumes children. People struggle with infertility. Marriages get ripped apart by selfishness. Young girls get sold into sex slavery. And every person who first draws breath is one day going to shudder as that last breath leaves their body. Every person in this world is on the road of suffering. Only Jesus, only the transfigured Jesus, only the suffering Jesus, only the atoning, dying for your sins in your place so that you can have the opportunity of life eternal life. Only that Jesus gives you the opportunity to take the road of suffering that you are inevitably on and transform it into the road of glory.
28 · The preacher cites 2 Corinthians 3:18 to promise that believers are being progressively transformed into the same glory they behold in Christ, connecting Paul's language of transformation to his encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus Road and the Transfiguration
2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "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. That's the promise of the Gospel to us. The description of Jesus on the mountain is similar to the description of Jesus on the Damascus Road. So when Paul is writing about being transformed from one degree of glory to another, he has in his mind the image of glory that blinded him on that road. The Spirit promises that we are being transformed in the same way. If we come to Jesus, if we seek Jesus, if we entrust ourselves to Jesus.
29 · The preacher cites 1 John 3:2 to promise that when Christ appears, all believers will see Him as He is and be transformed into His likeness
1 John 3:2, same John that is on the mountain, right? Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. Jesus hasn't come back, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. That's the promise of the gospel in the Transfiguration. There's a day coming when it's not just going to be Jesus' best friends who see Him in His glory, but it's going to be every friend. There's going to be a day coming when every person who was once far off, who has now been adopted through Jesus, is going to see Him in all the fullness of His glory. And in that day, we're going to look and we're going to say truly for the first time in our entire lives, "This is awesome!" And we will worship and we will be changed. And all the suffering will be light, momentary afflictions when compared with the weight of glory.
30 · The preacher closes the sermon and transitions to a closing prayer or benediction
Would you bow your heads?