Impressed by Jesus (Part 2)

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Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth.

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Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now, let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

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Moses is not the eternal Son of God. He absorbs some glory, but then it fades away.

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Who Jesus is at essence level, at nature level, at character level, is the eternal Son of God, and the

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Shekinah glory is pouring out. And when I read 1 John 1 -5 now, it is impressive.

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God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him.

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I wonder if people down below were looking up there. If it was

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Mount Hermon, there would probably be snow at the top, and the snow doesn't look so bright. Laundered clothes don't look so bright in comparison with the

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Son of Man. Listen to Daniel 7. I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took

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His seat. His vesture was like white snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool.

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His throne was ablaze with flames. Its wheels were a burning fire.

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The eternal Son of God. That's why when I was in California, and I get the knock, knock, knock, and two people come to my door, and I already know what's going to happen.

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It's going to be bad. You're going to come to my house and try to damn me and my children and say bad things about Jesus.

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Dishonorable things about Jesus. Things that only an anti -Christ spirit would say, 1 John 4.

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And the two Mormons are like, we're here to talk to you about Jesus. And I'm thinking, you're going to defame

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Jesus and dishonor Him. Matthew takes 28 chapters to try to show you that He's the eternal

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Son of Glory, and now you're going to tell me He's some created being. How foolish.

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Remember 1 ,500 years earlier? Exodus 33, Moses said,

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I pray Thee, show me Thy glory. And 1 ,500 years later,

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Moses had to be tucked to the side. God said, I will make all of my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the

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Lord before you. I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious and show compassion on whom I'll show compassion.

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But you cannot see my face, for no man can see me and live. Behold, there's a place by me, you shall stand there in the rock.

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It will come about while my glory is passing by. I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

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Then I'll take my hand away and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. The glory of God, the majesty of God.

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The Old Testament idea of glory is heavy. There's a lot of weight. It leaves an impression. If you do stare at the sun today for 20 seconds and then turn away and close your eyes, you'll still see the sun because there's a lasting impression in your eye.

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On some mountain, we see a little hint of who

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Jesus is. Perfectly timed, I'm on my way to the cross. And how does this encourage the disciples?

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We'll see. Sinclair Ferguson said this. His glory was seen.

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His power and kingly majesty were momentarily visible. Sinclair Ferguson.

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It was a foretaste of that day when his kingdom would come with power in his resurrection.

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It was a foretaste, too, of the day of his final glory. Now, you know

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I respect Sinclair Ferguson and what he said is true. But he could have added as well.

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It was also more than just future -looking.

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It was also what was Jesus like before his incarnation. The pre -incarnated

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Jesus is now on display. I love John 17. And now, Father, glorify me,

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Jesus said in your own presence, with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. And now, for a split second, the word has become flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

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I know John is talking about a different glory than this. But all the same.

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Verse 3. What is going on here? Matthew says with very

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Matthean language. And behold, look. You've got to pay attention to this. As I've said to you many times, people read the

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Bible way too fast. It's one of their problems. One is we don't read the Bible enough. Problem two, when we read it, we don't read with understanding.

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Too fast. And behold, there appeared to them,

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Peter, James, and John, Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Now, wait a second.

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How did they know it was Moses? How did they know it was Elijah? Say, well, maybe

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Moses said Mr. Elijah or Elijah the prophet. We don't know, but they recognize him.

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And I can't prove it, but I would say if you're worried that people in heaven won't recognize you in your resurrected, glorified body,

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I wouldn't worry about it. I think they'll recognize you. Vice versa. Moses and Elijah.

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Moses dies 1 ,400 years prior. Elijah dies 900 years prior. And now we have the man who exemplifies and embodies the law and the man who exemplifies and embodies the prophets.

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All of the Old Testament is bearing witness to this great Jesus, the law and the prophets.

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Moses sees the glory of God on Sinai. Elijah sees the glory of God on Horeb. And now the two main divisions of the

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Old Testament, law and prophets, are being fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

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Jesus had already said in Matthew 5, didn't He? Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or prophets.

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I have not come to abolish them, but to what? Fulfill. I, Moses, representing the law, give testimony to the fact that Jesus in the

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Old Testament is going to suffer and die and be raised. The prophets give testimony.

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I, Elijah, representing them, when I look at the Old Testament prophets and I look at Isaiah, I look at Psalm 22,

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Jesus is going to suffer and then be raised. It's cross, then crown. It's suffering, then glory.

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Witness number one, witness number two, all the Bible witness. And what were they talking about?

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They were talking. Mark gives the language that it went on for a long time. They talk for a long time.

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You know how I love S. Lewis Johnson. He said, You think they ought to have spoken about how the

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Jericho Juleps and the Jerusalem Jimbos were getting ready for spring training for baseball season?

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Or they were thinking about how the Beersheba Bears and the Dan Donkeys will do in the coming National Football League race this fall?

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Or maybe politics, when will he get the ax? Who shall succeed Herod? What were they talking about?

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The Jesus Seminar? New Perspectives on Paul? Some other weird kind of theological thing?

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Turn to Luke 9, we're told exactly what they're talking about. And it is the theme of heaven. It is the centerpiece of the universe.

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Moses and Elijah were talking with Jesus about His death, about Calvary.

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And as the angels ministered to Jesus when He was getting tempted, now we have all of the law, all of the prophets.

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We have Moses and Elijah coming alongside, encouraging the God -man. Luke 9, verse 31.

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Don't you love it? Aren't you impressed? Who appeared in glory and spoke of His departure.

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Greek? They spoke of His exodus. They spoke about His exodus, which

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He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. They're talking to Him about His impending death, His exodus.

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2 Peter 1 talks about Peter's departure, his death. But when you think of exodus, before you think of 2

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Peter 1 .15, what do you think of? And now and forever, when you think of the first exodus, you must think of the last exodus.

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As great as the Passover was in Exodus 12 and 13, and then we have the exodus from Egypt in chapter 14 and following, and the song in 15, as great as that was, it was only from physical bondage, right?

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Exodus 1 is replaced with Exodus 2, and the flood that should go through the mind of anybody who is an

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Old Testament student. They were talking about His death, His departure,

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His going away. God conquered the enemies in the Old Testament to physically release them from bondage, the

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Israelites. And now Jesus is on His way to Calvary to ransom, to give

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Himself a ransom to redeem, to buy out of sinful bondage His people, the elect.

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They were talking about the cross, and they were talking about it for a long time. Sin is so horrible, it's going to take the

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God -man to die on behalf of sinners, to supply all God's holy demands in His law, and yet show

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His kindness and His love. The first exodus showed the power of God, the wisdom of God, the grace of God, and the last exodus shows it even more.

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Jesus, the God -man, needs encouragement like any other man. Of course, there's a big fight about the deity of Christ.

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He is God, but if you forget about the humanity of Christ, you're also in peril. He needs to be strengthened and encouraged.

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On His way to Calvary, and He goes to pray, and God the Father answers His prayer in many ways, including giving

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Him Moses and Elijah to come speak to Him, preparing

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Jesus to bear the sins of the chosen ones. By the way, what will you talk about in heaven for all eternity?

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That exact subject, worthy as the Lamb who was slain. You never get over it.

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And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Christ, our

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Passover, has been sacrificed, 1 Corinthians 5, and He is going to His exodus.

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Moses, Elijah, are bolstering Jesus, fortifying

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Jesus, encouraging Jesus, because we've just heard from Peter, who did the exact opposite.

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Jesus, no, no, no, you're not going to go to the cross. You go to glory first. That's satanic. That's wrong thinking.

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And now the Father answers the prayer, and here's Moses and Elijah. It's always been this. No wonder it's always been this.

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Of course it's been this way, rather, because Peter says He's foreordained before the foundation of the world the

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Passover Lamb. It had to be. Verse 4, Matthew 17. Peter's not asked a question, but that doesn't stop

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Peter. Jesus, Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it's good that we're here.

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If you wish, I'll make three tents here. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.

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Okay. Now, some commentators say

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Peter wasn't asked a question, and he just ran in his mouth. Sometimes Peter did do that.

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But I think here, there's a spiritual paradigm. You know spiritual paradigms, don't you?

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Theology leads to methodology, leads to doxology. That's a good spiritual paradigm. Indicative, and then imperative.

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That's a spiritual paradigm that we have to see. And here's one right here. Revelation demands response.

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When God shows Himself, you respond. Generally as well. You look at Niagara Falls, and you smell it, you see it, you taste it.

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You're up at the precipice. You're as close as you can get without jumping over that bar. And you're like, this is impressive!

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Revelation of God in creation demands a response. Thank you, God. Contrary to those in Romans 1 who don't thank

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Him. And spiritually, it's the same thing. When you realize what has been going on, when you realize in your own life our sin and the atonement in light of our sin, we're thankful.

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Something has to be said. Why do we sing a hymn at the end of the sermon? Well, because Revelation demands a response.

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Have to respond. I think that's what Peter's doing here. We know he didn't really know what to say, because Mark says he did not know what to answer, for they had become terrified.

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He didn't really know what to say, but he's got something right here. Let's do something for all three of you.

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That's the wrong part. Like, they're all on the same level. Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.

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And even if it was like a little Olympic stand, where the middle one's a little taller, and the second place is a little shorter, and third place is almost on the ground, they're all kind of alike.

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No, no, he's got that part all wrong. But he does have something right.

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When you have a literal king in a literal kingdom, showing forth his affords and glory, what do you want to do?

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You want to put a tabernacle up. Thy kingdom come. What do you do in the kingdom?

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Zechariah 14 .16 says, Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the king, the

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Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of booths. The kingdom's here.

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Put the booths up. We've got a real king. We've got a real kingdom. We've got real land. We've got real booths.

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Get the booths up. Now, while I might not be a dispensationalist,

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I, along with Peter, am premillennial. You're like, oh, great.

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Just so you don't think premillennialism is wicked, I'll just stand with Spurgeon and Sibbes and James Boyce and now

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Peter. He just got done talking about the kingdom in chapter 16, verse 28. The king has now shown his glory.

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And Peter, it's not like when F .F. Bruce says that Peter was acting in a stupid fashion.

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The whole scheme is a stupidity. It's stupid to put Jesus, Moses, and Elijah on the same wavelength.

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But it's not stupid for him to say, There's an inauguration coming right about now. But he's forgotten that it's cross before crown.

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Verse 5. He was still speaking.

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Peter's still speaking. Here's one of those Matthewan things. Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.

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Luke says it engulfs them. And a voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased.

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Listen to him. Peter is first corrected by Jesus on the mountain. Now the Father corrects

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Peter. While he was still speaking. So Peter's blabbing along.

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He's terrified. He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know what to say. He doesn't have the order right.

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He doesn't know what's going on. And now it's as if the Father says, That's enough, Peter. Be quiet.

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Or to quote the southern gentleman, S. Lewis Johnson, Shut up, Peter. I didn't say that he did.

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The same statement that the Father says about the son endorsing his ministry.

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The baptism. This is my beloved son. This is my choice one. This is the one I love. I'm well pleased in him.

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Listen to him. Moses fades away. Elijah fades away. There's nothing wrong with Moses.

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There's nothing wrong with Elijah. But the fulfillment is Jesus. Listen to him. The approval of the

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Father is on the son. Don't put Moses and Elijah, as it were,

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Peter, above Jesus. Listen to him.

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Hear him. Hear ye him. Moses wouldn't have disagreed.

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Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 18, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you from your countrymen.

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You shall listen to him. Listen to him. He's the one.

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Moses would say that. There's a better prophet coming along. His name he didn't know was Jesus. Now he knows his name is

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Jesus. Listen to him. Luke says that the cloud formed and began to overshadow them.

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It's amazing. Verse 6. What else is going on? When the disciples heard this, when

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Peter, James, and John heard the Father, they heard it. They fell on their faces and were terrified.

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Now you have two options. They got down real low with reverence and honor and homage and honor and it's worship.

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That's that kind of language, but we know it's not that based on what Jesus does in the next verse.

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We know that it's terror. We know it's not reverence. Oh, maybe it might be terror with a little bit of reverence, but it's mainly terror.

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They already were afraid in the transfiguration. Now they're extra afraid. And what does

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Jesus do? Don't miss this. You want to talk about the transcendence of God?

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You see it right on this mountain. You want to talk about the eminence of God, the nearness of God, the compassion of God, the humanity of Jesus, the

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Savior, the eternal Son? And Jesus came. Verse 7.

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I mean, who's a God like this? Muslims don't have a God like this.

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Mormons don't have a God like this. But the eternal Son of God who's cloaked

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Himself with humanity came and touched them, saying,

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Rise and have no fear. I don't know what they were doing, but I can imagine if the cloud is coming, and I'm interrupted from saying some dumb things, and I hear the voice, sometimes the voice of God people hear as like thunder, it's loud, all this happening, it's a kind of glory.

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I might be cowering down. The language is of they're down on their faces and they're afraid.

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And then to have the Lord Jesus Christ to come over and touch them must have been very, very,

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I'm still with you. I'm still here with you. I still love you.

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This episode's over. This episode has encouraged me. This episode has fortified me.

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And now we're back toward the cross. The touch of Jesus Christ to touch the leper, to touch

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Peter, James and John. He touched them. How many hands do you have before you have to touch each of them on the shoulder?

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He didn't bump into them on purpose. He knew how to comfort them, the incarnate, eternal

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Son. And when they lifted up their eyes, verse 8, they saw no one but Jesus only.

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Jesus alone. The final revelation of God. That's Hebrews chapter 1. That's Hebrews chapter 3.

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Listen. For Jesus had been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.

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For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.

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But Christ was faithful as Son over his house, whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and boast of our hope firm until the end.

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He is the greater prophet, Jesus. Authority, superiority, focus.

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Verse 9, we need to wrap things up. And as they were coming down from the mountain,

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Jesus commanded them, tell no one the vision until the

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Son of Man, that's a favorite name of the Lord for Himself, is raised passively by the

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Father from the dead. Don't tell anybody about what's going on, because they're not going to get the suffering and then glory.

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They're not going to get the cross and then the crown. Don't tell anybody. Actually, in the Greek text, it's got an emphasis there.

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It comes first in the clause. Don't tell anybody at all is the idea. Cross, then crown.

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Suffering, then glory. So here's my question.

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Are you impressed? The transfiguration is this glimpse of the glory of God.

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It's a preview. That's what it is. It's a preview. I always have to tell my kids.

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We don't get cable TV, because we're more godly than most of you out there. But we can watch things on the

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Internet. And so they have commercials, and they'll have a commercial of the new movie, and you'll go, I want to see that movie.

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It just pulls you in, because the preview takes all the best stuff, and they craft it in such a way where you want to go to give them your ten bucks.

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They put all the best stuff in. It's a preview. It's a little salt on your tongue. I've got to go see this.

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I can't hardly imagine that when Peter talks about we're partakers of Christ's divine majesty,

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I can hardly believe that one day we'll stand there with Him. Colossians 3.

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When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

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Peter, James, and John, you need to be encouraged. Look who Jesus is, and look at the preview.

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Jesus is encouraged by the law and the prophets. How much more encouraged can we be? Can we be encouraged?

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The answer is yes. The transfiguration of Jesus Christ. And Sunday evenings at 6 p .m.

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We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org

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or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.