Christ's Glory Now Shining in the Word

The Transfiguration and the Command to Listen to Christ

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrook. The Holy Gospel according to.

St. Matthew, the 17th chapter. 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. And his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.

And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord it is good that we are here. If you wish I will make three tents here. One for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.

He was still speaking when behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said, 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 they were terrified.

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. And as they were coming down the mountain Jesus commanded them, tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.

This is the Gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Have you ever not paid attention when somebody told you something kind of important and then the thing that they warned you about with their words came about and then you heard those horrible words that followed, I told you so.

Now I may or may not have heard those words from my wife two, three thousand times, but the point is this, is that we human beings, because of our fall into sin, we have a tendency to take important words and go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it, and not listen or pay attention to a lick of them, right?

And as a result of it we can find ourselves getting in all kinds of trouble. I would note the same is true when it comes to the Word of God. Do not let this point just fly in one ear and out the other and go about your merry way for the rest of your life.

Pay attention to these words because it's important. Remember in Deuteronomy 18 God himself, Yahweh said, he would raise up a prophet like Moses, he would put words in his mouth, and to him we must listen and anyone who doesn't listen to him, God will hold him accountable for it.

Faithfulness to the Word of God Against Church Drift

Right? Think of it this way. How many times have you lamented or really been sorrowful because a church that was formerly faithful is no longer faithful? And when we talk about faithful we have to say faithful to what?

You know, the Word of God. Maybe it begins with them saying, you know, we really need to embrace female pastors. And maybe after that it's we really need to recognize that love is love and that if somebody loves somebody of the same sex we should just, we should bless that and let God do that.

And when they start talking and doing things like this, the alarm bells go off in your mind and you say, why are they going off in your mind? Because the Word of God says don't do that! Right? It's actually kind of that simple.

But when you point these things out, the Word of God says what do they say? Well, we've probably just misunderstood this text. Well, that was only for that time, right? Or they'll say something, well, that's old covenant stuff.

That has nothing to do with the new covenant. People who say these things are doing what? They are attacking the Word of God. And it's kind of like football, if you would. Like, you know, the guys on the line of scrimmage, right?

They go after each other to create a hole so that then the ball can come through, right? So the idea then is that they're on the line of scrimmage and they're lined up against the Word of God. And they use all of their arguments for the purpose of taking their guy and running him through in order to bring a new agenda into the church that is contrary to the Word of God.

And you'll note this is not something new. Not something new at all. When you think back to the history of Israel, you look at the time of King Josiah, the Word of God had gone mysteriously missing, right?

People were not hearing it and the temple that was in Jerusalem, well, they had male cult shrine prostitutes and incense altars to Asherah and Baal and the starry host of heaven. Basically, DEI took over the temple before DEI ever existed.

It was diversity of gods. Inclusion and equity and all that kind of stuff. And the temple of God itself became the place where you can worship anyone, anything, and do anything, all contrary to the Word of God.

And when Josiah read the Word of God for the first time in his life, he realized oh no, we're in deep kimchi here. All of that being said, it seems like an odd focus for Transfiguration Sunday, but I would beg to differ.

You'll note that our gospel text doesn't have as its focus this idea that we need to seek after our transfiguration experience. Have you baked yourself in the glory of God yet? How powerful was the sunscreen they had to put on while Jesus was shining, right?

Have you had this glory experience yourself? That's not the emphasis. Not even close. So it says, after six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John. Why? He needed two witnesses to validate something, so he brought two plus one, so he's got three.

Brought them up to a high mountain. We don't even know for sure which one this is. It's debated hotly is the best way I can put it. And the text says he was transfigured before them. Interesting thing here.

The Greek word for transfigured is metamorpho and it's the same exact verb that is used in Romans chapter 12 when it says do not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Same concept. Same word. Be transfigured, be transformed from what? From sinful, steeped in iniquity to being holy, right? And living your life in good works towards other in fear of God. That's kind of the idea here.

So Christ, he's transfigured. One minute he's Jesus and next thing you know he is, well, hard to look at. His clothes became white as light, his face shone like the sun, and then out of nowhere appears Moses and Elijah.

I would remind you that Moses was forbidden to enter the promised land and God had him die before the children of Israel crossed into the promised land. But here Moses makes an appearance in the promised land.

Kind of fascinating in the presence of Christ, right? Moses and Elijah, they were talking with him. Luke tells us what they were talking to him about. They were talking to Jesus about his exodus. In other words, his crucifixion, his death, right?

Now Peter chimes in. Peter, gotta love him, but I always read this voice with a lot of nervousness and anxiety. Lord, it's good that we're here. Would you like me to make three tents? One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.

He doesn't know what he's talking about here. But, you know, what a great idea, right? But while he's still talking out of nowhere comes this bright cloud just zooming on in, right? And here we've got the voice of the Father speaking.

Remember, you can't see the Father, but he's shrouded by the cloud. And again, you'll note, yeah, Jesus was transfigured, but here comes the point. The Father speaks. This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

Listen to Him! Now you'll note the response of the disciples. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and they were terrified. Okay? That's kind of standard operating procedure when the unholy is in the immediate context of the holy.

You get the point here. But again, the voice said, listen to.

Him! Well,.

What should I be listening to Jesus about? I don't know. Everything. He is, after all, God in human flesh. Well, where can I find the words of Jesus? Should I just focus on the red letters so that I can be woke?

No, because you'll note that Jesus is the same God in human flesh who had Moses write the things that were written in the Old Testament, right? So that being the case, if you want to pay attention then to Jesus and to hear Him, that's going to require you to, are you ready for this?

This is going to sound really controversial. Read the Word. Study it. Make sure that you're hearing it correctly taught. That focuses on Christ. Listen to Jesus. In fact, Peter in our Epistle text references the Mount of Transfiguration.

Loved working with my Greek students this week on this text for this very reason. When Peter gets to the point where he says, when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to Him by the majestic glory, when Peter is writing in the Greek about what happened at the Mount of Transfiguration, all of a sudden the Greek gets really kind of convoluted.

It's not very clear. It's like he can't find the right words to describe what had happened to him. The most lucid part of that particular verse is when he quotes the Father, this is my beloved Son. But you're going to note here, Peter in our Epistle text is referencing the Mount of Transfiguration.

Again, not so that we would seek after such experiences. He said, he is pointing out the Mount of Transfiguration for two very important reasons. One is by way of contrast and the second is to point us to something really important regarding the light of Christ in the Transfiguration.

He says, when we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, we were with them on the holy mountain. And then here comes the contrast, verse 19, and we, that's all of us Christians, we have something more sure.

What's that something that we have that's more sure? More sure than what? The voice of the Father they heard on the Mount of Transfiguration. Something more sure than any spiritual experience that you could possibly have or seek after.

He says we have something more sure, more sure, more certain, more reliable. That's kind of how the Greek word works there. And he says, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a light, a lamp, shining in a dark place.

So what did he just do there? Listen. In order to understand this, you have to understand an important bit. This is second Peter. Was there a third Peter in the Bible? Why? Because Peter's about to die.

He's not that far away from his death. And so you can almost think of this as Peter's last will and testament. And what's really fascinating is that Peter, as he's beginning to die, does something very important.

Paul, in his last epistle, as he's preparing to die, does the same thing. And here's another interesting bit when we go back into the Old Testament. Remember Joshua, the son of Nun? No, that doesn't mean he doesn't have parents.

But Joshua, the son of Nun, as he's getting ready to die and is well advanced in years, he does the same thing that Peter does that Paul does. And it's this. He points us to the Word. Peter in this text is saying that the Word of God is more reliable than any religious experience, including the Mount of Transfiguration.

It is more sure and more certain than any religious experience, including the pinnacle experience, the Mount of Transfiguration. And he then takes Jesus' light that was shining that he saw and it's like he takes it and grabs it and then squishes it down and shoves it right down into the Bible.

He says, there! That's where the light of Christ is now. You want to hear God's voice? Open your Bible and read it. And so he says, it is a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Knowing this, first of all, no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. This should silence a bunch of critics, don't you think? Well, the Bible is just merely a human product. Liar!

Peter, who was with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, says that no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man and no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Well, if that's true, then you're saying that it's true that the earth was created in six days. Now you're starting to smell the roast. Well, that's ridiculous. Don't we need, as Christians, to be following the truth and the truth is that Charles Darwin told us and taught us that we all evolved from monkeys because of reasons.

Let me give you a text on this. It's from the Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 30 says something very important. Verse 5. Every word of God proves true. God is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words lest he rebuke you and you be found to be a liar.

Are you saying that the world was completely deluged by the flood? No. The word of God says that and every word of God proves to be true. Well, you just hear people just, well, that's ridiculous. That's just nonsense.

Jesus himself in the Gospel of John says these words. The word of God cannot be broken. Remember, there he is in the Garden of Gethsemane and there arrives the people who are going to arrest Jesus. What does Peter do?

Pulls out a sword and lops off the ear of a fellow by the name of Malchus and Jesus puts an end to that and says, how are the scriptures to be fulfilled? Put that sword away. The word of God cannot be broken.

So, the world was created in six days. Get used to it. It's true. Christ rose bodily from the grave. It's true. The world was deluged by a flood. The children of Israel crossed the Red Sea with a wall of water on the right and a wall of water on the left.

Get used to it. Just put your butts behind you, please. Listen to Christ. The Father said so. Listen to him. So, where do we go from here? I want to point this out. I've already made the point that Paul does the same thing that Peter does as he's getting ready to die and Joshua does the same thing.

I think it would be good to review that. Paul writes in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and I want you to understand that what comes next is a description of what the state of the church will be in the last days because the world has always been like this.

He's describing the complete horrible state of affairs of what the church would be like before the return of Christ. How could the church come to be in such a state, by the way? It's because they are inattentive to the Word of God.

One of the things I was incensed by, and that's the only word I can come to, is a fellow who's a very well-known charismatic theologian by the name of Sam Storms, over the weekend issued an apology. He issued an apology to the broader body of Christ.

The basic gist of the apology was he was apologizing for ever recommending Mike Bickle to anybody in the global church because he recognized by recommending Bickle that he had sent victims his way. It has been now divulged through a very extensive investigation that Mike Bickle of the International House of Prayer, which can only be described as the flagship of the New Apostolic Reformation, only to be compared to Bethel, it was that important that the modern-day prophet Mike Bickle was nothing less than a predator.

Seventeen victims have come forward. Seventeen. And they all say basically the same thing, that Mike Bickle had a very common pickup line that he would use to troll for the chicks at his church, and the pickup line went like this, God has told me that my wife Diane is going to die and that that means you and I can get married.

Horrifying when you think about it. But Sam Storms in his apology said that he takes solace that neither him or anybody else saw anything amiss with Mike Bickle. And I could not remain silent at this point.

I called him a liar, because he is, because I noted that many, including myself, have been for decades warning the body of Christ about Mike Bickle. We knew exactly what he was, and the reason why we knew it is because when you compared what he said to God's Word, it never squared.

Mike Bickle famously said that 80 of the prophecies in the charismatic movement today are false. 80%. The magic eight ball is more accurate than that. Right? So what does this make him? Somebody who deviates from the scripture.

We knew exactly what he was. A wolf. And how do we know that? I didn't even have to attend a single service at IHOP because I could compare what he was saying to the Word of God. And here's the issue.

The charismatic movement and the New Apostolic Reformation are going to continue to be rocked by major scandals until they recognize this important fact that everybody who prophesies falsely is as immoral as a sexual predator.

How do I know this? Because the second commandment says you shall not take or misuse the name of the Lord your God. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie or deceive by God's name.

But what? Call upon it in every trouble. Pray, praise, give thanks. Right? How on earth can you say you are a Christian when you ascribe your false prophecies to a holy God and those who are raising their hand going wait a second, the Bible contradicts what you're saying and they get shut down as what?

You're just a hypercritic. You're a meanie butt. You are a jealous cessationist. You're just jealous because God isn't working in your church and all this kind of nonsense, right? No, that's not it at all.

Y 'all are deviating from the word of God. But this doesn't let us off the hook either. There was a survey done of confessional Lutherans in confessional congregations and they were asked a battery of just basic catechetical theological questions like how we're saved and stuff like this.

Sixty percent gave pure Roman Catholic answers. They were saved by our works. Sixty. So we're not off the hook here. So Paul writes, understand this, in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

People will be lovers of self. No, narcissists. First thing that he says, they didn't even have the word narcissist, they just had the description. Lovers of self, that's what a narcissist is. Lovers of money, Ken Copeland, Jesse Duplantis.

Proud, Mike Signorelli. Arrogant, Mike Signorelli, Isaiah Saldivar. Abusive, disobedient to their parents. Ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous without self-control, Mike Bickle. Brutal, not loving the good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit.

Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. You starting to see the problem here? Paul says avoid such people. Among them are those who creep into households and capture weak widman.

That sounds just like Bickle. Burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning, never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. In some of my conversations that I've had with some of the newer folks that have been joining us for our services online, one of them said that they attended a church where after they left the church, they always felt malnourished.

That they hadn't even been given a meal. They were hungrier when they left than when they arrived because they weren't being fed the word of God. It's a common problem, right? But you're going to note, these are people who are busy.

They go to church. They tithe because they're told they have to, otherwise God's going to destroy their refrigerator, right? They might even read their Bible but none of it makes a lick of sense to them.

They're never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. But here's the issue. It's because they oppose the truth. Just as Janus and Jambres oppose Moses, so these men also oppose the truth. I think of Michael Brown in this particular context.

For years, I've been saying Michael Brown is off and he's lying to people because he says that if you give a false prophecy, that doesn't make you a false prophet. Baloney, the word of God completely disagrees with you.

Well, guess who's embroiled in a sexual scandal himself, right? So when somebody opposes the truth in the church as a theologian and says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you've got it wrong. You're a hypercritic.

The problem's with you. The problem is with them. They oppose the truth. These are men corrupted in mind, disqualified regarding the faith. They'll not get very far. Their follow would be plain to them, as was that of those two men.

But you, however, now he turns his attention to young Pastor Timothy, you, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra with persecutions, which persecutions I endured.

Oh, can you imagine this poor Apostle Paul? He didn't know that he had victory in Jesus, and that all he needed to do was decree and declare health and wealth for himself, and he wouldn't have suffered any of these persecutions.

Maybe it's that that doctrine's a lie, and Paul is the one preaching the truth. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. While evil people and imposters, they're going to go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But as for you, here we go, continue in what you have learned, and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it, and how from childhood you've been acquainted with, are you ready? The sacred writings.

Oh, come on. You want me to just read the Bible? Just the Bible? I mean, it's an old crusty book. How is it supposed to be relevant for my life today? I want a fresh revelation. That's an old and stale one.

It tastes like vegetables and kale, right? How from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation, and there's the point. I want you to note something here.

The devil, the world, your sinful flesh, would all convince you the Bible's not that important. We don't need to pay that much attention to it. But here's the thing. Of all the sacred books, I have to put air quotes around the rest of them, of all the sacred books that are from all the different world religions, there is only one that says that we are saved because of God's mercy, that we are gifted salvation as a result of God's grace, and that God himself sent his son to bleed and to die in our place so that we can be forgiven and pardoned of all of our sins.

And all of this is received by grace through faith as a gift. There is only one book that teaches that, and that's the Bible. You will not find the gospel in the Quran. Not even close. You will not find the gospel in the Vedas.

You will not find the gospels in the Baha 'i Bhagitha. You will not find the gospel even in the Book of Mormon. The gospel exists only in the scriptures. God knows what he's saying. He is not saying, I want you to listen to Jesus because I want to torture you with something old and irrelevant.

He wants you to listen to Jesus because Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Only in the Bible, in the voice of Jesus, can you hear that he has bled and died for all of your sins.

And you can be comforted and no longer have the anxiety of trying to save yourself by being gooder and harder and working harder and all this kind of stuff. It will never work that way. All the other religions of the world send you on that rat wheel where you just work and work and work and work to save yourself, and it feels like you're never going anywhere because you're not.

Only in the scriptures do you hear of the kindness and the mercy and the love of God who richly saves you to the uttermost. Who does all the saving for you. Indeed, Paul is right. The sacred writings, the scriptures, they are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

No other book can do that. All scripture is breathed out by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

That light of Christ in the scriptures is going to transform you. And only it can. And God's word completes you and equips you, not for some good works, but for everyone that you will ever do. So why then would we ever not be attentive to it?

Abiding in Christ's Word and the Sufficiency of Scripture

Christ himself says in the gospel of John, he says that those who abide in my word are those who love me. If you love me, you will abide in my word and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Abide in his word? You mean we have to actually read it? Yes. And the truth will set you free. And here's the important part. In that same gospel, Jesus says, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.

No one can come to me. No one can come to the Father except for through me. You see, there is salvation in no one but Christ. When we think back to what I have made the point regarding Joshua. Joshua, you'll note, he does the same thing as Peter.

He does the same thing as Paul. As he's getting ready to die, he points the people of Israel to the scriptures. In Joshua 23, it says this a long time afterward when Yahweh had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies and Joshua was old and well advanced in years.

Joshua summoned all of Israel, its elders and its heads, its judges and its officers and he said to them, I am now old and well advanced in years and you have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations for your sake.

For it is the Lord your God who has fought for you. Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes, those nations that remain along with all the nations that have been already cut off from the Jordan to the great sea in the west.

The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight and you shall possess their land just as the Lord your God promised you. Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses.

Huh. If three notable men of scripture, Joshua, Peter, and Paul, as their last will and testament say, pay attention to the Bible, we might just want to heed their words and do so ourselves. And you'll note when you get into the book of Judges, it is a litany of generation after generation who did not listen to the word of God, did not heed the words of Joshua, who went off their merry way.

And you can find some guys practically saying, listen, I know it's wrong. You say it's wrong for me to marry that really hot pagan chick over there who worships Baal. But I, in my heart, know that she's right for me and that God has chosen her for me.

So I'm just going to marry the hot pagan chick. It never worked out well, right? And what is the person doing when they're saying I know the word of God says, but I feel like God is telling me that this is okay.

They're exalting their feelings above the written word. How many people have done that? Too many. So Joshua points us to the word. Peter, as he's getting ready to die, points us to the word. Paul, as he's getting ready to die, points us to the word.

Consider the words of the apostle John in this regard. Gnosticism arose during the later part of the first century, and the apostle John was the last living apostle, and he took it on head on. And here's what he says regarding those who don't abide in the teaching of Christ and go beyond what is written in the word.

He writes in 2 John to a lady who's called the elect lady. Who's she? Well, you've got to remember churches back then were not legal, and churches didn't own property and have buildings and stuff like we have today.

And so churches met in people's homes. You needed a benefactor, somebody who was willing to open their home to have the divine service. Turns out there was a lady who had done that, and John refers to her as the elect lady.

And in verse 9 of this letter that he writes to her, he says, watch yourselves. Actually, verse 8, watch yourselves so you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. In verse 7 he said, many deceivers have gone out into the world.

Not some, many have gone out into the world who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. So watch yourselves. And then he says this in verse 9, everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ.

Notice what he doesn't say. Oh, they're just erring brothers. This is just secondary issues. Just let them be. He doesn't say that. Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God.

Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If we apply this to Katie Sousa, who's now teaching that we need to believe in werewolves, Katie Sousa, kid you not, she's making an argument that we need to believe in werewolves.

Trying to make it look biblical. The scripture says everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ doesn't have God. What's the scriptural evaluation regarding Katie Sousa? She don't have God.

She never has been good at abiding in the teachings of Christ or rightly understanding God's word. So all of those out there saying as Christians we need to believe in UFOs, we need to believe in aliens, we need to believe in shapeshifters and werewolves and vampires and lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

They've gone beyond the teaching. And we cannot say that they have God. And so brothers and sisters, what does this all have to do with the transfiguration? Everything. Because you'll note that all who believe in Christ, in the scriptures it describes that in the new earth to come all the believers having been raised from the dead, that they themselves will shine like the sun.

And I would note, it's an interesting play on words, I don't think we're going to shine like the sun. I think we're going to shine like the sun. Right? And so only Christ can transform us. Only Christ can lead us to the new earth.

And he does so through his word. The father knew what he was saying when he said listen to him. So we need to repent again of our laissez faire attitude regarding the word of God. We need to repent of all the things that we believe that are contrary to the word of God and put them away.

Every word of God proves to be true. And we need to keep hearing this good news. That only in the scriptures, the sacred writings, is it tell of how God himself took on human flesh. Humbled himself and became obedient even to the point of death.

Death on the cross. In order to save and redeem inattentive people who are not prone to listening to his word because of their fall into sin. None of us keeps God's law perfectly and God's law commands us to hear his word, to hold it sacred, to gladly hear and learn it.

But each of us are guilty of not doing so. So let us repent. Let us know then that we are forgiven because of this great God and savior who sent Christ to bleed and die for us. And let us then by the power of the spirit hear the words of Christ.

Hear them. Mark them. Inwardly digest them. Meditate upon them. Hold them sacred. Memorize them and study them. Because as Paul said so rightly it is only in the scriptures, only the scriptures can make us wise for salvation.