Mat 17;1-8 Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James, and his brother John, and *led them up on a high mountain by themselves. 2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Peter responded and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If You want, I will make three tabernacles here: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. 7 And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” 8 And raising their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.
We all have an inward desire to enjoy something that is transcendent, supernatural… a mystery, magic, a feeling that something bigger is surrounding us. That is why horror movies are popular. This is an innate desire of beings created in the image of God with an eternal soul in us, reflecting a built-in need we all have, as human beings—a need for contact with something ‘transcendent’ and ‘eternal’ and ‘other-worldly’, the spiritual world. It’s an expression of our need for an encounter with our Creator’s glory and majesty.
When God meets that inclination in us in a personal way, and shows us something of what He is really like—when He, as it were, opens our eyes and allows us to see the depths of the mystery of His majesty and glory—it’s far more startling than a mere ‘scary story’. The real experience of God’s self-revelation shocks us, and terrifies us, and shakes us to the core of our being. This morning, we come to just such a story… a scene. It confronts us with the realization that we are in the presence of Someone who is greater than we realized. And it’s meant by God to so impact us with the glorious majesty of Jesus Christ, that we are changed and made to obey him.
This is a passage called the Transfiguration of the Lord. It is a fancy word used for something that happened to the Lord which cannot be explained. One man said, “silently pass over this sacred portion.” Such dimension of the majesty of the glory of the Lord is better grasped with silent meditation of this passage. This passage is like the burning bush of the New Testament. Just like Moses, we need to take off our shoes in holy reverence with Peter, James and John. Let us climb this mountain with them to behold the holy majesty and glory of Lord Jesus Christ. Let us climb this mountain with a few steps.
We will see the passage 1-8 in 4 headings, and maybe look at some applications next week.
- Setting of the scene: When, who, where, what situation/time, eye witnesses, place, spiritual mindset/climate of Transfiguration.
- Scene of Transfiguration and 2 strange visitors.
- Response of Peter to this scene.
- Third strange visitor and his message.
Our time will go by seeing this, and next week, maybe we’ll look at how this impacts us and some applications flowing from this passage.
Setting of the Scene: Time, Witnesses, Place, and Spiritual Climate
When/Time:
The time of this event is after 6 days. Generally, the gospels are not written in chronological events, but this event is and is specifically mentioned to have happened after the Caesarea Philippi event. This scene comes after 6 days. Notice Luke 9:28: “About eight days after Jesus said this.” Said what? We have been seeing for the last few weeks.
Now Luke says 8 days. What? Matthew and Mark say 6 days and Luke says 8 days. Unbelieving hearts and critics say, “see, again a big mistake in the Bible, you cannot believe the Bible,” and so on. How can two men say different days?
Again, you have to understand the context. Matthew and Mark say “after 6 days,” meaning exactly 6 full days happened between the Caesarea Philippi event with the disciples—Peter’s confession, Jesus’ death announcement, and the radical call for discipleship, and 4 powerful reasons for that. This event happened after 6 days. They left Caesarea Philippi on day 1, and the 8th day was the Transfiguration day when this happened, with 6 days in between. This is the exact number, but Luke tells us “after about 8 days,” indicating he is not speaking with great precision; he is using an idiom—”after about a week’s time.” He included the day in Caesarea Philippi and 6 days in between, and including the day in which this event occurred. We use this kind of juggling all the time. Example: I would have gone for a trip… it is a 6-day trip according to the trip organizer. I may say to friends, “I am going on a 6-day trip with family,” but I took one day to go and one day to come, so when I write a leave letter or inform someone officially, I went on a trip for 8 days. Someone may say, “what, 6 or 8 days?” Both are true, right? One exact number of trip days, like Matthew and Mark used, but to give the total picture approximately, I included travel days back and forth… all-inclusive 8 days. No one will say I am a liar. We understand we can speak like this.
So the word of God is spoken in our language and has written like this. See, this difference, rather than creating doubt in the word of God, actually strengthens our faith. These 3 gospel writers, oh, we have to be exactly same, didn’t copy and discuss with one another and write the same things. No, they each wrote by the Holy Spirit’s direction without copying, in their personal diversity with which they saw these events. Even when documents were circulated. When Luke wrote, Matthew and Mark’s gospel was there. They all read and understood what it meant. Nobody rose up and said, “oh no,” these are witnesses we can trust them. Only modern, stupid, sinful, critical men ready and waiting to find fault with holy scripture will find these silly reasons not to believe, but those people understood.
What is the point of the Holy Spirit in this connection? The Holy Spirit says, “Do not examine this passage without locking into your mind that there was a 6 days gap between the last incident.” Come to the transfiguration with your mind recorded and remembered with the great truths taught in Caesarea Philippi. The connection is important. This time connection is so important because the meaning of this whole passage becomes clear to us only when we understand it. I wonder how people can start Matthew 17 and try to preach and understand this scene. They cannot without understanding what happened in Matthew 16. Many people have missed this.
The Holy Spirit wants us to remember the event 6 days prior: after Peter’s great confession, Jesus’ formal first-time announcement of his death and resurrection. We saw how the disciples, especially Peter, were completely against it and rebuked the Lord, and he rebuked him, “Get thee behind Satan,” and with his terms of discipleship and 4 motives for that, and finally ending that passage saying, “those who are there will not taste death without seeing the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” After 6 days of these shocking, profound statements, 6 days after he said some of you will not taste death before you see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom… here is the first sample of his kingdom power in the transfiguration. See the providence even for us, it has been 6 days since we saw the last passage, now we enter the transfiguration scene, so remember that and come. Nothing is recorded to be said or done by our Lord Jesus for six days before his transfiguration. We have seen the time.
The Witnesses of this Scene:
Verse 1: “He took with him Peter, James, John.” These 3 are the inner circle. Mark 5:37 (raising the synagogue leader Jairus’ daughter from the dead), Luke 8:51: “He permitted no one to go in except Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother of the girl.” They alone, at that time, were witnesses of His resurrection power. He took only these 3, in Gethsemane, he took only 3 to be closer to him when praying.
The question is, why 3 and only these 3? So many guesses. If you compare this, you get one idea. There is one reason: 2 Peter 1:16, talking about this event, Peter says, “we are not talking about cleverly devised stories, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” This is the only reference to this incident. “We have seen and were eye witnesses of his majestic glory.” The rule of the Old Testament and New Testament, if a truth/fact is to be established it has to have 2 or 3 witnesses, so we see 3 men. Why these three? Again, that reason is only known to the sovereign will which has mercy on whom it has. God is sovereign in giving spiritual privileges. He gave this privilege to these 3. It was to them that He chose to reveal His glory. The Lord had a peculiar task to be witnesses so He took them here… made them his inner circle, and so that this event could be validated with 2 or 3 witnesses… He trusted them to serve as faithful eyewitnesses of this remarkable event—this is divine revelation of God. And the past two-thousand years of the church’s testimony through their written witness has proven that choice to have been providential and wise. Okay, when: 6 days, who: 3, now, where.
Place of the Event:
Some say Mount Tabor but more authentic say Mount Hermon because the city of Caesarea Philippi sat at the base of lofty Mount Hermon. Mount Tabor stands some fifty miles away, back in the territory of Herod Antipas. So Jesus could have gone to Hermon… this is the highest peak in Israel, rising to 9,232 feet. Very tall mountain, verse 1 says high mountain. This was a real retreat… going away from the crowd and the world… no one to disturb, a real aloneness. Only Jesus and 3 above from the world on the top of the highest mountain… just imagine you are there… what feeling… the majestic silence of that region… no humans, cold breeze, echoes of that mountain, no signal… no one suddenly enter and disturb… they climb the long mountain and go… maybe took a day and reached the top at night. Time, witnesses, place, next spiritual climate.
Spiritual Climate of this Event:
Luke 9:29: “As he was praying,” 6 days after the saying, Peter, John, and James with him on the highest mountain, and the spiritual climate is he was in prayer.
What was Jesus praying for? We can guess: before any important ministry he would always give himself for long, lonely praying. Before starting his ministry after baptism, before selecting apostles, going to the cross, he prayed not only for himself, but for his disciples; he prayed for Peter that “Satan may not sift you…” So whenever the Lord expected a crisis in his or his disciples’ life, he gave himself to prayer concentrated on these issues.
But now what was the reason for this prayer? Again, the connection can give us a clue. It had been 6 days since the Blessed confession… not had little time to enjoy… after 2.5 years of ministry and teaching they understood who it was… and he thought he will share his mission to the disciples as they realized that he is Christ, the Son of the living God. He predicted, “I must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, and die and rise.” How sad their response… Peter rebukes… how heartbroken the Lord must be… he saw Satan in Peter and rebuked him… “Get thee behind Satan”… then he adds his terms of discipleship and provides 4 powerful reasons for that… ending with judgment.
These are things the disciples are thinking… “how can our long-awaited Messiah suffer or die… and terms and reasons going in their mind… we never thought of a dying Messiah… we followed him so we can promote our self and be in glory… now not only he dies, but tells us to die to self…” They must be wondering, “did we waste our time following him…?” So they need to grasp the truth and their eyes need to be opened. They just heard and are in shock…
Think of the Lord himself. We shouldn’t think this didn’t affect Jesus emotionally… we small problems how sensitive sometimes cannot sleep… he was completely pure and sensitive without any sin… How he must have felt. One side all the leaders, scribes who claimed experts in the Bible, didn’t have a clue about what is the work of the Messiah in suffering and dying though many passages like Isaiah 58 and Psalms many places clearly say that. Instead of welcoming him, they want to kill him. The Nation didn’t understand his mission… he came to his own, own didn’t understand or accept him… blind to what scripture said. He thought at least he will make his disciples understand scriptures… and the Messiah mission work… after 2.5 years of training, when he announced the great work he has come to do… even the leader so opposite… rebukes him, gives room to Satan and tries to divert him… and he had to call him “Get behind Satan…”
We think “I have such a big problem in life…” For a moment… forget your problem, and see do you grasp a little bit what difficulty the Lord was facing… in the midst of all these blind and spiritual morons… how will he make them understand… will they never grasp his mission… who will carry his gospel to the ends of the world…?
What would the Lord be doing in such a season? No comfort from anybody in the world… all Bible morons… depraved mind… no idea of the Messiah and what the Bible says… in a heartbroken state… lonely in the high mountain… I guess he must be crying out to the Father for 2 things: For grace to do his mission—go to Jerusalem and die and do the work the Father gave him, and secondly, in loving care, praying for these disciples. “Father give them understanding… They still don’t understand… Without your help, they will stumble at his death and turn away. They be given spiritual perception to see glory and understand… the purpose of his death… understand the terms of discipleship… Make them realize great truths… Saving by losing life law, profit and loss calculation, value of a soul, and then the glory of his coming power… and follow me denying self and taking the cross, and follow him.” That must be his heart crying prayer in loneliness in the high mountain…
I am thinking… when he is heartbroken like that… crying loud with tears to the Father… You know what the disciples were doing…? What they always did… Luke 9:32: “Peter and his companions were very sleepy.” Imagine in the high mountain, hardly any sound, Jesus giving himself for an intense praying, and they are sleeping. Maybe it is also night…
In this situation, just think how the Lord would have felt… how insensitive even his disciples… in this heartbroken state… I imagine… This scene of transfiguration could be the Father’s suddenly surprising answer to the prayer of Jesus in the midst of that peculiar burden our Lord had.
Scene of Transfiguration
Let us look at the event. As he was praying and the disciples sleeping.
Something unexplainable happened… We’re not told very much about this; and perhaps it’s best that we’re not. We are told, however, what God has wanted us to know. 2 things are mentioned here: His body showed some effect, and there were 2 strange visitors.
Verse 2-3: “And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.”
Transfigured—Metamorphoses… something happened to him… that is inexplicable… but his body, which had appeared in weakness and dishonor, now appeared in power and glory. He was transfigured, metamorphothe—he was metamorphosed. They didn’t have words to explain this… suddenly, divine glory was revealed in him… how…? Funny stories in tradition and movies we see how suddenly if gods had come in human form… suddenly men become gods… men will be in ordinary dress, suddenly royal dress, then they will be wearing a crown, a spear in their hand, wearing all Kalyan jewellery… myths and foolish stories. Here we see real transfiguration… to reveal his glory. Christ was both God and man but, in the days of his flesh, he took on him the form of a servant (morphen doulou), Philippians 2:7. He drew a veil over the glory of his Godhead but now, in his transfiguration, he put by that veil, appeared en morphe theou—in the form of God (Philippians 2:6), and gave his disciples a glimpse of his glory, which could not but change his form. Brightness of light… God is light (1 John 1:5), dwells in the light (1 Timothy 6:16), covers himself with light (Psalm 104:2). And therefore when Christ would appear in the form of God, he appeared in light, the most glorious of all visible beings.
So much glory and brightness that Luke 9:32 says the scene filled with brightness it made the disciples fully awake… and they saw this. Can you imagine what that must have been like, during that dark night in that secluded place? Were the disciples awakened by the brightness? Did they think, at first, that they had overslept and that daylight had fallen on them? Did they have to hold their hands to their eyes to shield themselves from the brightness?
Matthew’s record emphasizes 2 features of Jesus: his face and his garments. Mark only talks about his garment, not his face… “His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.” Luke says, “the appearance/fashion of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning… raiment dazzling.” See, no copying from others… Each one according to his impression of the Holy Spirit has written in their diversity. All trying to explain is something beyond the capturing power of language… language can give only comparisons… not explain the actual things…
Something happened to his face and his dress… It happens before them. This was not a vision, dream, or imagination. Something happened in space, time, history in front of them… as I stand before you today. This event is true, happened really.
Face: Jesus of Nazareth who was seen as an ordinary man without any change to his face features or body size or form… That face before was just like any other face… if he stands with 1000 Jews, no difference… Now suddenly shines with the brilliance of the new day sun… It is comparable… simile… what is the brightest thing you have seen in this world… the sun, nothing more than that to compare… then we could use that… brightest we know is the sun, they use it. Try to go out and for a few seconds try to look at the sun in the afternoon… if you do it more than a few seconds, it may even blind you… they don’t know of anything comparable to this… the brightest we know is the sun, they use it.
That ordinary face… That very face which they saw for the last 2.5 years… it was not someone else… the same face… they didn’t have any doubts if this was Jesus… now glows with a brilliance and glory that nothing short of supernatural… With thought soaked in Old Testament history and experience… Moses when he came from God’s presence in Exodus… his face reflects sunlight, he reflected God’s light and his face also shone, people and Aaron could see and were afraid to come near him. But here, we’re told that Jesus’ face radiated—not from being in the presence of God; but because He truly was God. His was not a mere reflected light; no external source of light… but was like the sun itself in its brightness and strength… glory was coming from inside. The indwelling divine glory, which dwelt in Him as in a shrine, and then shone through the veil of His flesh. Disciples with Old Testament history, they knew it was the outshining of something divine and heavenly… Later John would say, “we beheld his glory…”
Then his dress, starting from his neck, shoulder, and went down to the ankles, became glistering… dazzlingly white.
When the sun reflects a polished piece of metal, or even when sun reflects off a mirror, how it will blind our eyes. Concentrated brightness strikes the eye pupil with pain… all his garments became bright with unusual brightness… an exceeding white… no one can whiten them… nowhere in the world is anything white like that. Peter said, “we saw his glory…” the outshining of majestic glory. Perhaps this is meant to convey to us the unspeakable purity and holiness of our Lord in His glory. It’s hard to grasp what a stunning and shocking sight this must have been.
This happened when he was praying… as if the calm ecstasy of communion with the Father brought to the surface the hidden glory of the Son. Can it be that such glory always accompanied His prayers, and that its presence may have been one reason for the sedulous privacy of these, except on this one occasion, when He desired that His faithful three should be ‘eye-witnesses of His majesty’?
The Two Strange Visitors
Then not only did something happen to his body; notice the visitors. While the three are gazing with dazzled eyes, suddenly, as if shaped out of air, there stand by Jesus two mighty forms, evidently men, out of nowhere 2 beings appear… strange visitors… who are they? Moses and Elijah.
Just imagine with a Jewish mind to see these 2 men… what a stun of awe and wonder must have touched the gazers as the conviction of who these were filled their minds, and they recognized the mighty lawgiver and the prophet! Think of the scene: the 3 sinners looking at 3 perfected ones… 3 men from the world looking at 3 coming from heaven.
Moses stood as representation and above all Old Testament characters… the revelation of the law and theocracy for the nation of Israel was given by this great prophet. He stands there as a symbol of the entire law and history portion of the Old Testament.
Elijah, the greatest prophet taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire… a great restorer of the theocracy when the entire nation went against law and God… he was the representative prophetic ministry that was always calling Israel back to be faithful to God’s covenant.
These two are symbolic representatives of the law and the prophets and the entire divine revelation of the Old Testament up to that time… coming to focus on these two. They both stand there… wow… who can be two greater men than these for the Jewish mind… all their life they read what these men have written… and they are the most admired and respected prophets. And Jesus must be standing in the center, and they on both sides, indicating… symbolic of how Jesus Himself is the center subject of the two great divisions of the Old Testament scriptures—that is, of the Law and the Prophets. Jesus spoke to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection; and “beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27).
Why did only two appear? I think God could have made all the saints—Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Joshua, Samuel, David, and all the Prophets, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiah, Daniel… all in a line standing… how wonderful… but God’s wisdom has brought these two who represent all of them… they stand.
Silly questions people always ask: “How did they know Moses and Elijah… has these disciples seen photos, name tags, Jesus introduced them…?” So much questioning and explanation. Simply, I don’t know. If God can make these two rise up and appear… it is not a big thing to make them realize who these two are… how, we don’t know… but they clearly knew.
They didn’t just appear… Mark 9:4: they were talking with Jesus… amazing… more amazing… the disciples were given the privilege of overhearing… what a blessed opportunity… eavesdropping… wouldn’t you want to overhear what Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus? One of the things I eagerly desire… these men coming from glory, perfected, representing the entire Old Testament, talking with the perfect Son of God…
What were they talking about? What else? Matthew or Mark doesn’t tell… Luke 9:31 says… talking of his departure which he will accomplish at Jerusalem…
It is the same thing 6 days ago he predicted: “I must go to Jerusalem, many suffering, die, and be raised.” He will accomplish this in Jerusalem… they were talking about what he will accomplish in Jerusalem… what great redemption will be accomplished. This is the yearning of all creation, the purpose for which he came.
This is the very thing the disciples don’t want to talk about… they completely rejected it. Even rebuked… “No, Lord… never this should happen to you…” Whom can the Lord talk about this now? One side his disciples whom he trained for so much time… don’t understand fully, maybe didn’t speak with him properly for 6 days… and another side… the whole nation rejecting him… the whole religious leader who should know all this from the Old Testament and train people the purpose of the Messiah… they are dull, blind, sinful… and wanting to kill him… one side dull disciples and a nation wanting to kill him…
Now Jesus stands alone in his great mission… and goes to the mountain and prays, pouring his heart to the Father… what does the Father do?
He sends 2 greatest men of the Old Testament from heaven to appear and give him assurance and make the dull disciples understand… what it is all about… They are talking about death… what assurance it should give them that Christ is indeed fulfilling all the Old Testament… all what Moses and Elijah wrote about… The Law with its requirement and its sacrifices, and Prophecy with its forward-looking gaze.
They are talking about his death… redemption he will accomplish… which will not only redeem Peter, James, and John there, and even the redemption by which God took this Moses and Elijah and every Old Testament saint in heaven, dependent on what he will accomplish in Jerusalem. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of heaven… The only reason Moses and Elijah were in heaven and came now is in the coming time… the Son of God will die on the cross and rise from the dead for their justification. They knew that far better than anyone… Perhaps the strength came to Jesus from seeing how they yearned for the fulfillment of the typified redemption; perhaps it came from His being able to speak to them as He could not to any on earth. It was also to strengthen and prepare him for the cross.
So they are talking about this death. They are talking about his death which redeems every elect person in all the redemptive history… the great work he will accomplish… that discussion going on and the disciples heard it.
So we have seen the setting of the scene, the scene, and the visitors to the scene.
Response of Peter to This Scene
Now the response of the disciples: what impact it had on them?
Peter again is brash… couldn’t control his emotion… this is overwhelming… he cannot keep his mouth shut… it says Peter answered… answered why? No one asked him a question… this was Peter’s response to this situation…
Verse 4: Peter responded and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If You want, I will make three tabernacles here: one for You, one for Moses, and one for one for Elijah.”
He said this as Moses and Elijah were about to leave. He is so excited… He is half dazed, but, true to his rash nature, thinks that he must say something, and that to do something will relieve the tension of his spirit. Thoroughly enjoyed this scene… didn’t want to end this. “Lord, this is the place to be… you have been talking about suffering and death… bear cross… We didn’t like that place… it shouldn’t be… this is glory… this is what we were waiting for. This shouldn’t end so soon. Let us enjoy this for some more time. Let us build 3 tents… not permanent… but temporary tents like they build in the festival of booths… we may spend a few more days here…” He didn’t say 6 tents including them… no… “We are okay, we will sleep outside… open sky… but for you 3… we will make for 3 tents…”
Mark, which was dictated mostly by Peter to Mark, says the reason he said this: “for he knew not what to answer.” This was not a carefully thought out answer… it was the blabbering of one frightened out of his wits. They were paralyzed in deep fear. Luke plainly says “not knowing what he said.”
We understand Peter’s eagerness… the best place to be and to enjoy it for long… but He didn’t realize Jesus displayed this to strengthen their faith and not continue to reveal this glory, he has to go and accomplish His Father’s will in Jerusalem.
Secondly, Peter erred terribly in wishing to build “three tabernacles”: one for the Lord Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Peter erred in placing them all on equal standing. If anything, Peter, James, John, Moses and Elijah—all five—should have built a tabernacle for Jesus. Those glorified Old Testament saints were simply sinners like them; the Master and glorious one in that scene was Jesus.
The Third Strange Visitor and His Message
There was a third visitor.
Verse 5: While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!”
We see the third visitor… who is it? Jehovah God, the Father. Two forms of revelation from the Father: visual and verbal.
As they were about to leave… Peter shouts… “Lord, let us continue… we will build 3 tents…” As soon as he said that… a cloud comes… the cloud overshadowing them… no ordinary cloud floating by the mountains. It was the bright cloud of the ancient symbol of God’s presence when it led them in the wilderness… filled the tabernacle and Solomon’s temple… the glorious cloud—the Shekinah glory—that covered Mount Sinai at the giving of the law.
These Jews knew very well what that cloud was… these disciples knew… God was there in his special presence… No one can see God and live… what is God like…? he covers himself in a cloud. The Cloud both revealed and concealed… a special, mysterious, awesome presence of God. And then out of that cloud… the very voice of God speaks:
“This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!”
There is a word of identification. “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.” He is the adequate object of the eternal, divine love, an unbroken union of love; the object of the ever-unruffled divine complacency, in whom the Father can glass Himself as in a pure mirror.
There is a word of command. “Hear him”… be continually hearing him.
Moses and Elijah have done their work… all I wanted to do through them is embodied in the writing of the Old Testament… now my final and living revelation is he. Hear him… If He is the beloved Son, listening to Him is listening to God.
So the Father comes with his own visual presence in the cloud.
Verse 6: When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified.
Oh, the terror of this cloud… who could stand before it? The scariest thing for a sinful man is this cloud of divine presence. More scary than seeing any devil… since man sinned, and heard God’s voice in the garden, extraordinary appearances of God have ever been terrible to man, who, knowing he has no reason to expect any good, has been afraid to hear anything immediately from God.
When all fall prostrate… I wonder even Moses and Elijah would have… Jesus stands here… it is his Father… when he leaves this world… the Bible says this cloud received him. That bright cloud was ‘His own calm home, His habitation from eternity,’ and where no man, compassed with flesh and sin, could live, He enters as the Son into the bosom of the Father.
What a revelation this was of our Lord in His glory! He is what Peter said He was—the Christ, the Son of the living God! God walked on this earth in human flesh! The Man who died on the cross is the theme of the Scriptures! And here, on this mysterious and wondrous night, He peeled back the flesh of His humility to reveal the splendor of His deity to His friends.
We see the remaining verses ending the scene. We will look at them next week. We will see more applications from this passage next week.
Application: The Enduring Command
I want to finish today morning with one application: What does God want us to understand and do from this passage? The whole command of this scene comes from the voice: “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!”
Whoever would know the mind of God, must hearken to Jesus Christ, for by him God has in these last days spoken to us. This voice from heaven has made all the sayings of Christ as authentic as if they had been thus spoken out of a cloud. God does here, as it were, turn us over to Christ for all the revelations of his mind.
Moses and Elijah are going back… Moses, representing all the Old Testament law books and history, forming the nation Israel, said: Deuteronomy 18:15: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.”
Elijah, representing all Old Testament prophets prophecing about the coming Messiah, said Hear Him… Moses and Elias were now with him; the law and the prophets—hitherto it was said, “Hear them.” Now, Hear Him.
Hear Him… that word is more than take time to listen to the vibrations of sound he makes… register in your mind… To hear means eagerly receive, to believe, hold fast, abide in them, meditate them, let them fill your mind, keep thinking of them, allow the force of its truth to affect your mind and heart and so you obey them… live your entire life according to what you hear from him… Hear him…
The world speaks to you in 100 voices, so many things calling you for attention… stop hearing any other voices in the world… Hear Him. The only thing that is important in life and eternity is whether you heard him.
Do you understand the importance of this in the context? After 6 days… the disciples are trying to grasp this revelation that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, die, and rise again on the third day. They are not hearing, they don’t like to hear. They want to close their ears… Peter never wants even to think about that… Peter! The Father says, “Peter, listen to him.”
Don’t listen to your own fleshly wisdom or Jewish traditions, childhood upbringing, prejudices… that think of a political warrior as the Messiah coming on a horse and killing enemies in a fleshly way. Peter, stop listening to all the voices of your own heart and mind… stop listening to the voice of the world. Listen to Him…
“This is my beloved son… he is doing all I wanted…” Hear him… Let his words regulate your thinking about Messianic expectations… all the ideas of how sinners can be saved… hear him… how the kingdom of God will come… hear him, hear him, hear him alone… How you should live… hear him.
If he says the only way to be his follower is to say no to self, take the cross, and follow him… Hear Him. If he says, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it”… Hear him. If he says, “If you would save your life, you will lose it… if you lose your life, you will save it.” He makes you calculate profit and loss… “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” If he makes you realize the value of your soul… “Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” If he talks about how he will judge… “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every person according to his deeds.”
Then listen to him and him alone… it is all true…
“Now hear my son… he has revealed me… in him is my word…”
If he calls you to self-denial and cross-bearing and following him as the only way for salvation… hear him… don’t listen to those who tell you that there is an easier way… you don’t have to do all this… just live as you want…
Don’t listen to those who say… “just believe in Jesus died for you… and take baptism and join church… and live your own life…” Don’t hear them… Hear my son… listen to him alone who says deny yourself, take cross… or you will be damned… listen to him…
There is a constant tendency in human nature to “hear man.” Don’t allow the voices of time and this passing world to cloud your ears… where you cannot hear his voice… listen, listen… When he says there is a coming day when all this universe will flee from his presence and he will sit and judge every man according to his deeds… He will judge you… hear and tremble… hear him…
Whoever is ashamed of him and his words he will be ashamed of him…
Maybe you thought it was strange… 6 days ago… he spoke of the Cross and glory… and thought, “oh… he is just an ordinary man, a carpenter… with no power now… saying I will die… suffer…” but now you have seen his face… shining with divine majestic glory…
Seen his garments… you know these manifestations of deity… you saw the greatest men Moses and Elijah talking to him…
You know he is going to judge the world… you better listen to him…
He has given a glimpse of what his glory is… And this is what he is… but now for a short time to accomplish his work of redemption that glory is veiled… don’t be deceived…
Don’t you stumble at his claims he will judge… see this mount… his glory, a little glimpse… taking you to a place where no one is there… see his glory is all there inside him… it is always inside him… veiled in the flesh, the Godhead seen… The veil is just opened a little bit… oh, the face glows and garments glisten… Hear him…
Oh people this morning… what is your impression of Jesus… do you see him just as ordinary Jesus… just come weekly once… hear what he says and forget… not fit to give utmost importance to his words and think of his words… meditate, hold fast… till it transforms your mind and lives… and go live your life as you like…
Do you see a glimpse of his glory?
These three from here on… always have to think of him as they saw him in this mountain… that is what he is at this very moment… oh hear him, hear him… especially do not take his words lightly…
Don’t think there is any other way to follow him… than deny yourself, take the cross, and follow him…
Don’t think there is a way to be saved living with self-will, self-righteousness… This face that shone as the sun… that face which afterward he hid not from shame and spitting… and suffering to die for your sins…
This is the voice the Father is telling the whole world. Hear Him. Hear Him. If only people who scramble around the world, and claim that they were seeking “truth,” would learn from this story! Their search would be over!
May God grant ears to hear and hearts to obey. Let these solemn words of the vision ever ring in our ears, “Listen to Christ.”
Let us see in these words a striking lesson to the whole Church of Christ. There is a constant tendency in human nature to “hear man.” Bishops, priests, deacons, popes, cardinals, councils, presbyterian preachers, and independent ministers are continually exalted to a place which God never intended them to fill, and made practically to usurp the honor of Christ. Against this tendency let us all watch, and be on our guard. Let these solemn words of the vision ever ring in our ears, “Listen to Christ.”
The best of men are only men at their very best. Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles—martyrs, church fathers, reformers, puritans—all, all are sinners, who need a Savior. They may be holy, useful, and honorable in their place—but sinners after all. They must never be allowed to stand between us and Christ. He alone is “the Son, in whom the Father is well pleased.” He alone is sealed and appointed to give the bread of life. He alone has the keys in His hands, “God over all, blessed for ever.” Let us take heed that we hear His voice, and follow Him. Let us value all religious teaching just in proportion as it leads us to Jesus. The sum and substance of saving religion is to “listen to Christ.”
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 