Born for Glory

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Don Filcek; Matthew 17:1-13 Born for Glory

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called
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Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Welcome to Recast Church.
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I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here coming to you from the pine forest.
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So I am thankful for the people who have helped us to decorate for, obviously it's a little different in here, for the
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Christmas party tonight and kind of set the tone for the festivities of the season. I'm glad that we have an opportunity to gather together in the name of Jesus Christ.
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How many of you are glad that we have that freedom and that opportunity to get together? And that's a beautiful thing. My prayer for us as a church is that we would continue to grow in faith, grow in community, and grow in service.
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And that's what God has been doing with us and among us and through us for the past ten years. And we hope for many, many more years of growing together in that way.
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Over the years, I've tried to mix things up over the holidays a bit. And so there are times when I've done a specific sermon series, you know, starting in the book of Matthew at the start or in the book of Luke, kind of going through the passages that are about Christmas.
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But occasionally over the years, I've gone back to a series that I started a few years ago, probably six or seven years ago now, in the book of Matthew.
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We've been slowly picking our way for several years, again, through the book of Matthew.
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And it's been kind of a slow tour through that book. And I really like to go back to it because the
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Christmas season, it's really good for us to think about Jesus Christ and who he is. I personally benefit, and trust that you will too, over the next few weeks by connecting the baby in the manger to the holy life of the adult who grew up to be our
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Lord and Savior, to live a sinless life in perfection and to be the sacrifice for us. And I hope that that's rich for you.
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I hope it's deep for you. I hope it's meaningful for you. You know, the reality is, I don't know if you think about this, baby
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Jesus didn't do much. He really didn't. He sat there in a manger, and he was all cute and stuff. And it probably wasn't a silent night, just to clarify.
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The donkey still brayed. The baby probably wailed, as babies tend to do. How many of you know that Mary had a labor and delivery that night?
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Is that ever a quiet thing? It was probably not a silent night. And the reality is, 8 -pound baby
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Jesus makes for an amazing model of the humility of God come in flesh, right?
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And my goal is not at all to minimize the incarnation of Christ, but rather to accentuate the incarnation, the
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God coming among us in flesh and not remaining as a baby, but coming to us and demonstrating to us what
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God is like in the development of a human life. It's a beautiful thing. So the incarnation means something as we come to our text this morning.
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The significance of the birth of that miraculous baby in Bethlehem is revealed in the day -by -day development of his life.
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Miracle by miracle, parable by parable, sacrifice by sacrifice, he showed us the
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Father in time as he grew. And so our text this morning shows us that he came here to show us what glory truly is.
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I've entitled this message, Born for Glory, despite the fact that nothing in the text mentions his birth, but here in Matthew 17,
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I think it's fair for us to presume his birth and then to develop his life accordingly.
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He came here with purpose. He came here to show us a lot of things. Really, he came here to show us someone, and he came here to do for us what we could never do for ourselves, and that is to draw us close to the
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Father and bring us back into a right relationship with him. So the baby in the manger was born for glory.
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So let's open our Bibles, if you're not already there, to Matthew 17, verses 1 through 3. Matthew 17, 1 through 3, you can navigate in your device or the
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Bible that you brought with you. If you don't have a Bible or a means to get to the text of the Bible, grab the Bible in the seat in front of you.
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There should be one in your row at least, and follow along. Matthew 17, verses 1 through 13.
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Recast, this is God's holy and precious and powerful word to us this morning.
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And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them.
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And his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them
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Moses and Elijah talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it's good that we're here?
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If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.
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He was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said,
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This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
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But Jesus came and touched them, saying, Rise and have no fear. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
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And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, Tell no one the vision until the
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Son of Man is raised from the dead. And the disciples asked him, Then why do the scribes say that Elijah must come?
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He answered, Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased.
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So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the
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Baptist. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity that we have.
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This holiday season just seems like it's just snapped up upon us. It's here all of a sudden in just a couple more weeks in Christmas Day.
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Father, you give us these cycles and these rhythms of life and celebration and hope and a bunch of tools to help us to grow closer to you in our faith.
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Father, I pray that this would be a meaningful season for us, that it would not just be the hustle and bustle, quick by presence, open them and move out into the next year.
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But Father, that we would be mindful and thoughtful and slower in our demeanor, in our contemplation of you.
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Father, I pray that the glory of Jesus Christ would not be lost on us this season, that we would not give our hearts over into some sappy sentimentalism or just merely thoughts of a baby in a manger, but that we would recognize who was in that manger.
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The glory, all of your glory wrapped up in that infant child. The power that he would exercise moving forward in his life as our
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King and our Savior. The hope of mankind. So Father, I pray that from a place of recognizing who you are and who your son is that you sent among us for our salvation,
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Father, that we would rejoice. We would rejoice in these songs, that it would be so much more, again, than just an exercise of our voices, but it would exercise our minds and it would exercise our emotions and our spirits this morning.
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That we would rejoice and exalt in you, lift you high and recognize how worthy you truly are.
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And I ask this in Jesus' name. Yeah, you can go ahead and take your seats there.
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And a big thanks to the worship band for leading us. I hope you were able to come before the throne of God and worship him in glory this morning.
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Get comfortable during the remainder of our time. If you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts while supplies last back there.
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If you need to use the restrooms, they're out at the barn doors down the hallway on the left -hand side. You're not going to distract me if you get up.
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And so if you need that to keep your focus on God's word over the remainder of our time, do so. And please keep your
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Bibles open to Matthew chapter 17, verses 1 through 13. If you lost your place or in your device, navigate back over to there.
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So that you can see that the things that I'm saying are coming from God's word. That's our goal. Aladdin didn't know it, but Jasmine was the princess, right?
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Luke didn't know it, but Vader was his father. Frodo didn't know it, but he was being escorted through the wilderness by the rightful king,
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Aragorn. He knew him as Strider. Too much geekdom there? Maybe just a skosh?
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But I think you guys are tracking with at least some of that. We like a case of mistaken identity in our fiction, don't we?
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We like the twist where someone isn't quite what they appear at face value. And all of a sudden, you realize that something different is going on under the surface.
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This person's identity is different than what we imagined in our minds. Occasionally, it can be fun in real life.
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Over the last ten years, I've had a handful of fun conversations at coffee shops around the area. I overhear someone at another table talking about this church in the area.
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Recast. So I'm a pretty outgoing individual, and I have no problem engaging in conversation.
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And at least a couple of times, I've had a conversation with somebody about this church, and they didn't even know
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I was the pastor. So those can be fun, and you kind of have to be selective about whether or not you want to reveal that at the end, depending on how the conversation goes.
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But those kinds of things can be fun, can't they? Just depends. At least fun for us. Maybe not for them. But what do you see when you look into the core of the nativity scene?
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What do you see when you look into the manger? Do you see a cute baby?
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Do you have some fuzzy notions? Maybe because those of you that have been raised in the church or have a relationship with Christ, you have certainly some kind of notion of trying to pack
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God into that little frame, right? Some kind of thoughts there, but a little bit hard to discern, a little bit hard to figure out.
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What does that mean that the second person of the triune God came in human flesh and was born to a woman?
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How does that work? Maybe the nativity for some of us has become so cliche, and you can say the word incarnation without a shred of wonder and awe anymore.
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This is going to be my 47th Christmas, and that's a lot of time to build up immunity to wonder and awe.
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Some of you know what I'm talking about? It's a lot of time to build up an immunity to wonder and awe over the things that we find to become more and more routine.
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Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about. It can be just like Christmas is here, and it's gone, and have we taken the time to really reflect and to think about who
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Christ is? Obviously, there's a little bit of a funny thing because this is incarnation season, right?
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But should it be that way? Is the incarnation just a December thing?
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Or should that wonder and awe of God in flesh come among us to save us? Should that wonder and awe just be a lifetime, all year long of wonder and awe about what he has done for us?
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So let's jump into the text and let the story of the transfiguration of Christ reveal the identity of that baby in the manger to show us his glory, to show us who he is.
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In verse 1, we get a time stamp and a location here in Matthew chapter 17. Back in chapter 16, the disciples and Jesus were having an intimate moment discussing his identity.
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Who is he? And he says to his disciples, Who do you say that I am? And of course, we know that Peter answered,
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Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But the location for that event, for that discussion, was quite a bit north and a little bit east of the
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Sea of Galilee. Actually, one of the furthest recorded locations that we have Jesus traveling during his lifetime.
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Quite a ways north. You don't even see the Dead Sea on there. You don't even see Jerusalem on there. He's quite a bit north of the
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Sea of Galilee when he had that conversation. And I think with intention because he doesn't want the Jews to know his true identity yet.
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He doesn't want that to be clearly revealed. So he's up in what would have been called
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Gentile territory. There's not a lot of Jews living up near Caesarea Philippi. It was a Roman outpost.
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And this was, again, a pagan Gentile region. Think pig farms and people who worshipped the
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Roman Emperor. And that was primarily who was up in this area. So he's taken his disciples already a little ways out of the gazing eyes of Jewish leadership.
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And six days, we're told in our text, in verse 1, six days after Peter declared that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Son of the living God, now Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on a high mountain to be alone.
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Now the highest peak that we have currently in Palestine is Mount Hermon. And it happens to be in the
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Caesarea Philippi area. So it's kind of interesting that he says, took him up on a high mountain. And then the highest mountain there is actually a snow -capped peak.
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And so we probably wouldn't assume that he took him all the way up to the snowy peak. They weren't probably up there with ropes and belaying and stuff.
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I mean, they're up on the side, on the flank of this mountain, probably a little ways up. And that's the location.
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That's the likely location of this account. So, you know, you can get into, maybe you've heard a sermon on this.
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And we could make much about his choice of Peter, James, and John. And we could go into their lives and who they were and what's significant about them.
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But that's all open to debate. The text doesn't tell us why he selected these three.
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But the fact that he only chose three of them does inform us. It shows that Jesus was not above selecting out specific people for special blessings.
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Have you noticed that in your life? That's God's prerogative. God's prerogative to bless somebody with something that he doesn't bless us with.
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And we've got to be okay with that. I wonder, knowing the nature of the disciples and the way that they interacted with one another,
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I wonder sometimes if there wasn't a little bit of animosity about this exact event. We know that they were constantly competing, saying,
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Who's going to be greatest in the kingdom? And make sure that I'm sitting at your right hand when you come into your kingdom and all that stuff. And so I wonder if Thad and Tom got salty about this later when they found out.
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Or if Barth, Bartholomew, if he woke up in the morning wondering where Jesus and the three disciples had disappeared to and why wasn't
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I invited to go along? Can you imagine that kind of interplay among these guys? But the pace of the text gets quickly to the point, right away in verse 2.
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No dilly -dallying about what he's brought them up there to do. Jesus led Peter, James, and John up the mountain alone, and he was suddenly transfigured before them, the text of the
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English Standard Version says. Transfigured before them. Transfigured is a good word because it's an uncommon word.
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How many of you used the word transfigured in the last month? You didn't unless you were talking about this passage, right?
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That's the only context in which we would use that word in English. But I think it's a good word because it's an uncommon word.
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It's a word that forces us to think a little bit. Transformed, I think, is a too generic word.
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Changed is too nondescript. But transfigured requires us to think for just a moment.
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And what's happened is his figure, his appearance, is being transformed. It's changed. His outer appearance shifted to something else.
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Fortunately, verse 2 defines that shift in appearance so that we're not left guessing. What was changed about him?
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What about his appearance was different? Verse 2 tells us his face specifically shone like the sun.
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Sun pretty bright? Yeah, they're saying we couldn't stand to look at his face, it was so bright.
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This is a stark and a shocking thing that's happened. His clothes become white as light, the text tells us.
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And consider for just a moment, to tie this back into the manger, consider for just a moment that he who was once wrapped in nondescript swaddling cloths is now revealed in blindingly white fashion.
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Robes of glory. Jesus is indeed the God of glory and he's showing this to his disciples.
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He is the second person of the triune God. Eternally God, co -equal with Father and Spirit.
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Clothed in glory from eternity past. And here he brings Peter, James, and John to see the reality behind what was mere words for them in chapter 16.
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Peter got it right when he said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Did he get that right? Was he right? But did he understand what he was saying?
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I don't believe he really understood or grasped what that meant until the glory of Christ was revealed to him.
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When he sees here in this text, he sees standing before him what he had declared just six days earlier.
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And when he sees it, his heart is struck with terror. What he was able to say with a pretty straight face and kind of proud of himself,
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I got it. And Jesus actually says, you know, only God has revealed this to you, Peter. Now he's terrorized by the reality.
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And how often do we utter simple statements like incarnation or that God came in flesh among us and dwelt among us?
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How often do we utter phrases without the weight of those statements truly impacting us?
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And I think it's because, again, we don't enter into the wonder and the awe of it. We don't put it all together.
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We don't see all the components. We don't relate the transfiguration to the manger. We want to just talk about the manger this time of the year.
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We don't want to talk about the life. We don't want to talk about all these other things. But at the end of the day, all of that comes together to synthesize for us a vision, an image of who
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Jesus Christ is. And here, the image, when he pulls back his humanity and reveals who he is under there, they're terrified of him.
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Now let's back up and consider how this would have struck you. Put yourself in Peter, James, or John's shoes.
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They've been zeroing in on the identity of Jesus, right? They're starting to get it a little bit. They've observed his miracles.
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They have observed a lot of things. They've listened to his authoritative teachings. They've left all that they have, including even family, for the cause of following their rabbi,
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Jesus. Do you think that they knew he was special? How many of you think that the disciples, Peter, James, and John, already knew that Jesus was special?
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Did they already know that? Of course they did. They wouldn't have left everything to follow him if there wasn't already a connection, some kind of notion that, man, this guy is amazing.
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So as they're walking along a mountain trail, not quite sure what he's up to but following him, do you think they were shocked when he suddenly blazed out at them with blinding glory?
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Do you think they were shocked? Would you be shocked if you're walking along with a friend?
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If I'm walking along in the woods with you, and you stop and you pull this kind of trick with me, I'm calling it a code brown, okay?
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I'm going to run, and then I'm going to clean up the mess later. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? I mean, this is like, this is, did
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I just say that out loud? My wife is so embarrassed right now. But really,
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I mean, they didn't see this coming. They had no framework with which to process what their senses were taking in.
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They never observed anything like this before. Have you? Have you ever been walking along with a friend, and suddenly they're like, bam!
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And it's like, light! And it's like, ah! I mean, that would be like shocking to your system, right? Terror is the word that's used here.
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Mark's account of this, by the way, we think it would be kind of a cool experience. I mean, I've actually been guilty at times of thinking, man, it would be really cool to be there on the mountain of transfiguration, see
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Jesus in his glory. Wouldn't that be amazing? No, it would be flat out terrifying, and the text says as much.
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Mark's account, by the way, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have this account, and so they all talk about it from different sources and probably talking with the different disciples that were a part of it, so they each bring a little bit of a different angle.
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But Mark's account of this has the disciples terrified before Peter even speaks.
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As a matter of fact, it says that he speaks out of terror. So in his fear, he just kind of is the kind of person who talks when he gets nervous.
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So that was Peter. But Matthew doesn't show their terror until the voice of God in verse 6, but they were terrified from the get -go in this circumstance.
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Matthew says, behold, in verse 3, which is his way of saying check this out. When you see behold in Scripture, recognize that the author is trying to get your attention to something specific, and he says, check this out,
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Moses and Elijah also appeared with the bright and shiny Jesus, and they're talking to him.
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Now, there are many possible reasons given by scholars why Moses and Elijah, why these two would have been called up from, you know, obviously the afterlife to be brought into the presence of Jesus, to talk with him there on that mountain.
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But the most consistently held view that I came across this week is that they came as representatives of the law and the prophets.
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Moses, the great giver of the law, who was friend of God and talked with him face to face. Amazing, amazing account, obviously, in the book of Exodus.
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And Elijah, the first of the great prophets. And so the law and the prophets meet with Jesus before his sacrifice.
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It's kind of the image of what we're being told here. In essence, they are real people. They're real people that showed up, but there's still a metaphor in their office submitting themselves to the
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Son of God before his sacrifice. Now, others down through history have connected these two guys at different levels. They're both men whose death was shrouded in mystery.
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Elijah was taken up in a fiery chariot. Those of you who were in Sunday school might know that. And Moses was all alone on Mount Nebo when it says
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God took him and we're unclear about how his death took place. And so there's a lot of mystery that's shrouded in that.
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So some people look at the kind of mystical idea of these two guys showing up on the mountain. They've never died, so they're there or whatever.
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But one of the more interesting connections that I find credible is that there's another connection here. Moses and Elijah both had meetings with God during their lifetime on a mountain.
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As a matter of fact, the same mountain. They both encountered God on Mount Sinai. Moses at the giving of the law.
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And Elijah at the same mountain when he was running from Jezebel. And God met with both of them on the mountain.
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And here they are once again chilling with God on the mountain. Luke tells us in his gospel account what they were talking about.
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What is Jesus and Moses and Elijah talking about? Matthew doesn't give us this account, but Luke does, and he says this.
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He says, they, that is Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, they spoke of Jesus' departure, which was about to be accomplished at Jerusalem.
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What were they talking about? The sacrifice of Jesus Christ, his death, his atoning work, the centerpiece, the linchpin of all of human history.
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Jesus, Moses, and Elijah are there chilling on the mountain talking about the coming death of the
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Messiah. And Mark's gospel tells us that Peter didn't know what to say because they were so terrified, so he spoke.
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It's interesting to think about the way that the disciples interacted with one another. These guys who knew each other, and yet at times it feels like they're throwing the other one under the bus.
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The way that Mark talks about Peter here is kind of humorous and funny. How many of you know that the phrase, I don't know what to say, right before you say something is not a good idea?
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Like, what comes next is probably dumb or at least not brilliant, okay? I don't know what to say, so I'm going to fill this emptiness with my voice.
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We get the image throughout the gospels, by the way, of a Peter who liked that idea. He liked to fill emptiness with his own voice.
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In fear? Oh, I guess I'll talk. Jesus trying to tell me he's going to be crucified?
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I guess I'll rebuke him. No, no way that that's going to happen to you, Jesus. Don't know what to say?
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I guess I'll say something. And what he says first is actually kind of funny.
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Lord, it is good that we're here. Lord, it's good that we're here, talking about him and James and John.
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I don't want to put too much weight on my interpretation of this phrase, but Mark openly says that what
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Peter said was out of ignorance, and God Almighty saw fit to interrupt him from the cloud.
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So I think it's good to infer that Peter was just blabbering and was not very mindful or thoughtful about what he was saying.
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The entirety of Peter's quote in verse 4 betrays a bentho that I think Peter had that I think many of us can relate to.
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He sees himself as an assistant to Jesus. It's a good thing that I'm here to help.
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He thought it was a good thing he was there so he could help them out and provide some structure and some order to this conference.
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It's a subtle and thin line, isn't it, between serving God because he is worthy and serving
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God because I think I have something to offer him. I think Peter was across that line.
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In this moment, Peter's notion that he can help Jesus out is missing the glory of this moment.
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What was it for? He wants to make three lean -tos, he says, to shelter Jesus, Moses, and Elijah from the elements.
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The implication is that Peter expected this to be a long visit by Moses and Elijah. As a matter of fact, I think that the implication is that he thought this was it.
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It's all going down right now. This is going to be the big dance. This is going to happen. Jesus in his glory.
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Moses there. Elijah there. It's kingdom time is what Peter's thinking. We're going to set up shop right here on this mountain.
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Maybe this is the place where we launch our first attack against the Romans. Peter literally thought he had something to add to this august gathering.
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Glad that we're here to help you get some shelter for the long conference, Jesus. Peter didn't realize that the event was orchestrated for him to take in something instead of to do something.
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He was brought along to observe and believe, and instead, he wants to participate and do. Peter seemed eager to act, eager to speak, eager to do when he should have been slow, or he should have been eager to receive, eager to listen, and eager to understand.
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But while Peter was still speaking, the father showed up to relieve him of his foolishness.
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The father shows up in a light -producing cloud. There's a little bit of an irony in the phrase that it was a bright cloud, and then they were overshadowed by it, overshadowed by brilliance.
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And the father interrupted Peter's misunderstanding with clarity, blazing, lightning clarity.
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Here is what you need to know, Peter and company. Here's why you've been brought along, to witness these things.
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This is my son, with whom I am well pleased.
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Listen to him. Now, some think that by offering to build shelters to Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, that Peter was actually placing them all at the same level.
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He was not yet clear that Jesus was more special than Moses, more special than Elijah.
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And so he's basically saying, hey, let me just build each one of you your own little tabernacle, so to speak.
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And if this is the case, then the father shows up to correct any notion that this was a conferencing of equals on the mountaintop.
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No mention of Moses, no mention of Elijah. Here's what you need, disciples.
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Here's what you need if you're a follower of Christ. The father wants the glory of Jesus to be known in clear terms among his people.
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God gives the clear identity of Jesus in his statement. He is my beloved son.
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God gives the standing of Jesus. He has my good pleasure.
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In other words, the son brings joy always to his heavenly father.
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He's always in a position of giving joy to God. And then
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God gives instructions based on those two identifiers. So he's my beloved son. He has my good pleasure. So listen to him.
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Much more than just hear him with your ears. Listen to him implies an obedience, a paying attention to an end, a movement in our hearts towards following him, heeding him and listening for his instructions.
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The father is telling us here in no uncertain terms to pay attention to the words of his son. Do what he says.
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Above the law and above the prophets, Jesus. Peter, James, and John are overloaded by all of that glory in one place and they fell on their faces in the presence of the almighty.
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Peter silenced for just a moment at least. They were terrified,
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Matthew says, terrified. Can you see them trembling? Can you imagine why they would be trembling?
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Would you be there trembling? Jesus came near and he touched them and he encouraged their hearts and he said, rise, rise and have no fear.
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Have you ever considered that Jesus is able to both terrorize and to calm? We may be moved to overemphasize one or the other depending on our upbringing, depending on our relationship with God and what we've studied and the way that we feel about things, but do not forget that the thing that instigated that terror in the disciples in the first place was a revelation of the true divine glory of his nature.
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The guy they walked with, the guy that they ate with, the guy that they left all to follow, the guy that they knew was special and unique, still terrified them when they saw his true glory, his true nature.
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But with tenderness, he draws them back into peace. And in verse 8, when they lifted up their eyes, there is plain old
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Jesus. His face calming, probably a smile, saying, get up guys, no need to fear, it's just me.
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No cloud of glory, no Moses, no Elijah, no sequined and bedazzling fashion, no blinding face of glory, just the face of their master and teacher.
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Jesus selected them for this experience. Do you imagine that it had an impact on them? What do you think?
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Raise your hand if you think it had an impact on them. Would this have impacted you if you had this experience?
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I think you would. I think that the power, the beauty is, even just understanding, even believing it, even trusting it can impact us.
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And we're not present for it. But reading about it and believing it can alter our lives.
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If you believe that Jesus really is this glorious, if he really is this powerful, that has the power to transform you and change you.
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Peter said this at the start of his second letter, showing the place that this event had in his own life.
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To validate his message and to clarify why anybody should pay attention to what he's writing as scripture, he said,
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This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven.
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For we were with him on the holy mountain. We were there.
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We saw it with our own eyes. We heard it with our own ears. This event defined the glory of Jesus for Peter for a lifetime.
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He was there, let me remind you, he was there at the feeding of the 5 ,000. He saw that. He saw
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Jesus calm the storm. Do you remember he walked on water with Jesus? This very
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Peter. He heard the teachings of Jesus. He saw him cast out demons. He saw him perform many miracles.
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And all of those things certainly did press on his heart the identity of his master. But the force of the transfiguration was pivotal in Peter's heart.
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And he points to it in his letter. In this event, Peter beheld the glory of Jesus.
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He audibly heard God's endorsement of his only son. Verses 9 -13 explain then, a little bit of a caveat, explain why
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Jesus wanted to keep this event hidden from everyone until after he was raised from the dead. Which, by the way, the very phrase implies, how many of you know that in order to be raised from the dead, something else has to happen first?
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You have to die. But even Peter, James, and John, by their question about Elijah, betray a misunderstanding.
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They've just taken in this amazing, miraculous event, and the first question is about Elijah? Why do you think that's a little bit strange?
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How many of you think they had a little bit of misunderstanding in their priorities? Okay, the voice from heaven says, this is my beloved son, in whom
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I'm well pleased. Listen to him. And then he's like, don't tell anybody what you saw. And they're like, but what about Elijah?
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What about Elijah? I still think that maybe, I have a hunch that maybe Peter was the one speaking here, but I don't know.
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The text isn't very clear, it just says the disciples were talking with him about these things. But they assumed that now that Elijah has shown up, by the way, there's a bunch of prophecies in the
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Old Testament that pointed to the arrival of Elijah before the arrival of the
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Messiah, and when Elijah comes, then will come the end of time. And so they're ready for it.
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They actually think, well, we just saw Elijah. He was here. Which, by the way, we don't even know how they knew that it was
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Moses and Elijah, but we're assuming that Jesus said something, or that they said something. By the way, when you see something that's kind of a discrepancy or a weirdness like that, a lot of times our mind turns away from the obvious, and it's likely they just said, hey,
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I'm Elijah. Hey, I'm Moses. You know, it's just that simple. It's not that confusing. So they assumed that now that Elijah showed up, it's kingdom time.
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When Jesus showed up in his glory with Moses and Elijah, it would be reasonable for them to assume that he was getting ready to kick out the
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Romans and set up his earthly kingdom. And then he says, keep it a secret? Can you imagine how confusing that would be?
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If your assumption was that Jesus was going to come in power and kick out the Romans and set up his kingdom, and Israel was going to come back into her former glory, and everything was going to be amazing, and the
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Messiah was going to reign and rule here on this planet. And then he says, keep it secret. How are we going to keep this thing secret,
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Jesus? Elijah just showed up. That's the signal that the end is coming. The end is here, right?
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We just saw you in your power and your glory. Let's do it. Let's hold this back.
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So now that Jesus told them to be quiet, they're like, what? What was all that Old Testament prophecy about Elijah about?
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And so Jesus uses this as a chance to reemphasize that his kingdom is going to be born out of suffering and sacrifice.
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Yes, I've just shown you my immense power. And in showing you my immense power, it's going to highlight for you my humility.
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My humility in coming to suffer and die for you. Because I don't have to. You just saw my glory.
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You saw what I'm capable of. You saw that I don't need to be bound by this world and the physical laws that are around us.
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But you know what? I'm going to die and I'm going to suffer. And he goes on to clarify that. And so Jesus uses this as a chance to reemphasize that kingdom being born out of suffering and sacrifice.
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John the Baptist was an Elijah -type figure, he goes on to say, that the Old Testament prophecies predicted.
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He came. He prepared the hearts of the people through a baptism of repentance for the Messiah who was coming.
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Then he was thrown into prison and summarily beheaded.
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And in verse 12, Jesus connects his future to a similar fate to the Elijah figure who preceded him.
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The Son of Man will certainly also suffer at the same hands. So Jesus went from showing his glory and power one moment to declaring his need to suffer the next.
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He wanted them to keep what they had seen to themselves until after the resurrection because he didn't want to give the misunderstanding that his kingdom was going to be established by his power rather than by his suffering.
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You see, he wanted Peter, James, and John, and even us, recast, to know that he is indeed the glorious Son of God through this text so that we would appreciate all the more his humility.
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So let me suggest three applications from this text as we prepare our hearts to celebrate Christmas this season.
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The first is to take some time to think about how much glory was hiding in that manger. How much glory was there?
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What were the angels all singing about again? Who did the Magis come to honor? Do you know
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Jesus as the God of glory? This text exists to reveal the glory of the
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Son to us. And let me suggest to you, I think what is true of me is true of all of you, and that is that my spiritual life would be set back by taking a month off every year from robust, accurate theological understanding of who
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Jesus Christ is. We do not need holiday sentimentality about 8 -pound baby
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Jesus in the manger. We need reminders that he is the one who created all things, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, and all things were created through him and for him.
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And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church.
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He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything, everything, everything, he might be preeminent.
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And in him all of the fullness of God was pleased to...
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Do not give in to sentimentality, but give yourselves to right thinking about who was the king that was born to us.
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Oh, glory upon glory. Take the time this season. Maybe it's just to start off this afternoon with some discussions around the table to talk about how you can come into a deeper understanding, to really take it seriously, to really glorify the sun this
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Christmas season. Maybe there's some traditions that need to be tweaked. There's some traditions that need to be added this year around the
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Christmas tree on Sunday morning because you want to identify who you're honoring this year.
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Maybe some things need to change for you and your family. Take the time to consider the glory that was hiding in that manger.
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The second thing is to receive comfort from Jesus this season. I recognize that Christmas is a grab bag for us, right?
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How many of you know that it never, ever, even those of us who are the most optimistic this season, and you were already playing
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Christmas songs before Halloween. There's a couple of you I know, a couple of you. So even if you're that optimistic, it never matches the hype, does it?
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Never. It just can't. At the end of the day, we put so much emphasis on the season and the kindness and all of that stuff, and eventually somebody's like elbowing you at the store and you're trying to get to that one toy that you can't get for your kid and everything goes crazy and you know what
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I'm talking about? And then there's a reality that for some of us, this is just a hard time of the year.
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It's a reminder of people that aren't there around the tree. There's a difficulty in our hearts, and everybody else is joyful and happy, and it's like I can't,
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I don't want to rain on everybody's parade, but man, this is a bummer this year. Let me encourage you to receive comfort from Jesus this season.
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He who could melt us right now with his glory is the one who approached us as an infant.
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The one who caused the fear for Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration is the one who reached down and touched them and called them up out of that very fear.
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He is good, and he is so kind. I encourage everybody in this room to trust him this season.
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If you only ever remain in fear of him, by the way, you cannot be saved by him. It is only when we acknowledge him as trustworthy and good that we accept his offer of peace and hope.
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But if we remain with our face down trembling, and he says, hey, guys, get up and be at peace, and you just remain on the floor trembling, that's not going to help, is it?
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Eat his words that he is good and that he is kind and receive his comfort. That leads to the last application.
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Lean on the gospel this season. The only way we can receive his peace is through the cross.
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He came to pay the punishment that we all deserved for our sins to a person.
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And so we come to communion each week to remember that he stood in our place. How many of you are glad that he stood in your place?
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So glad. His body broken instead of mine. His blood shed instead of mine.
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And so we take a cracker to remember his body broken for us. We take a cup of juice to remember his blood shed for us.
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There's a glory in this statement. I no longer face eternal condemnation because he took the wrath of the
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Father on himself. As verse 12 stated, he suffered at their hands.
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He predicted it and it came to pass. He did indeed suffer at their hands. And he did this for anyone who will trust him by faith.
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And so if you're still figuring this out, then I'd encourage you to skip communion but come and talk to me or one of the elders after the service, and maybe we can talk about how you could start a relationship with Jesus Christ that would deal with the sin problem that you've had in your life and would help set you on a trajectory of hope and purpose.
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But if you belong to Jesus, then let me encourage you to come to the tables during this next song to remember what the
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Lord of glory did for us. Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you so much for the entire counsel of your word that it's not just the beginning of Luke, the beginning of Matthew, this time of the season that helps us to dig into the incarnation, but it's the glory of the transfiguration, the amazing, veiled, hidden glory in that manger that even the disciples in watching him live his life could not grasp without the pulling back of his flesh to show us the immense and blinding glory of his nature.
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So, Father, I pray that you would help us to worship him, to bring honor and glory to him this season, to reflect on his glory, but then,
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Father, that you would also help us to receive comfort from him this year, and that you would help us to reflect rightly on the reason that he came to die for us, to solve a problem that we couldn't fix, our own brokenness, our own sin -cursed hearts, our own inability to keep our own standards up.
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And so we come to communion this morning with grateful hearts. I pray that you would give us a celebratory nature in this, not a morose and dark, oh,
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I'm not worthy, but we all know we're not worthy to love this anyways. So, Father, I pray that that would be the heart with which we line up and we take this cracker and this cup of juice.
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Father, if there's anyone here who doesn't know you, Father, I pray you would give them the boldness to approach me or Dave up here or one of the elders, the elder on duty.
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Father, that you would allow there to be a conversation that would initiate an understanding of the great sacrifice that you've made for each one of us.