Transfigured

The Setting of the Transfiguration in Luke, Mark, and Matthew

You'll take your Bibles, please, and turn with me to the 9th chapter of the Gospel according to Luke. Luke chapter 9, beginning at verse 28. Chapter 9, beginning at verse 28, a very well-known passage, a story also recorded for us both in Mark chapter 9 and in Matthew chapter 17.

So the Synoptic Gospels all record for us what is normally called the Transfiguration. Transfiguration. Just a few thoughts on this event in the life of our Lord Jesus this evening before we pray. So many days after these things, he took along Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

While he was praying, the appearance of his face became different and his clothing became white and gleaming. Behold, two men were talking with him, and they were Moses and Elijah, who, appearing in glory, were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Now, Peter and his companions had been overcome with sleep, but when they were fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As these were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here.

Let us make three tabernacles, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah, not realizing what he was saying. While he was saying this, a cloud formed and began to overshadow them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.

Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him. When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone, and they kept silent. He reported to no one in those days any of the things which they had seen.

The Disciples’ Sleep, Peter’s Impulsiveness, and the Honesty of the Gospel Accounts

Now, once again, this is a very familiar text to most of us. If you've grown up in the church, you may have, well, if you're really old like me, then you may have even seen a flannel board presentation of this particular story.

Now, how many people in the room understand what I just said about flannel? Look at that. Okay. All the rest of you are going, Well, we know who gets Social Security in this room. But it is one of those stories that we have heard many, many times before.

And sometimes because of its familiarity, we don't necessarily think through all of its ramifications. And sometimes familiarity brings a bit of contempt as well. We don't think about what really has taken place here.

For example, we might want to consider what did Peter, James, and John think of this particular encounter? How were they changed by this? Well, we certainly get somewhat of an insight into Peter. I've always found it to be somewhat humorous and insightful, the way that Luke expresses himself later on in his account when he records that the disciples were not exactly keeping up with Jesus in their prayer vigil.

In fact, they had fallen asleep. And evidently, this was not first. This happened more than once. It happens in the Garden of Gethsemane. It happens on the Mount of Transfiguration. I think it's one of the evidences of the honesty of the biblical accounts that there are a number of places where we are informed that the disciples weren't exactly the cutting edge of spirituality necessarily at this particular point.

And if these books had been written specifically to make these guys look better, this type of stuff wouldn't be there. But it is there. It's honest. And I like how Luke, when he records what Peter says, let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.

He then says, I'm not realizing what he was saying. I am thankful that the scriptures are honest with us that Peter very often spoke before engaging his brain. Very often he said things sometimes very zealous things.

I'll die for you. May it never be. Get behind me Satan. Peter was just one of those folks that the tongue was faster than the mind very often. And that took place here upon the mountain. But once that they entered into that cloud and they they heard the voice out of the cloud saying, this is my son, my chosen one.

Listen to him. Maybe not during the ministry of Jesus, but certainly once they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, they could now have the great light that came from the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, the coming of the spirit, the period of time during between the resurrection and the ascension when Jesus is ministering to them and explaining the scriptures to them.

Peter’s Later Recollection and the More Sure Word of Prophecy

Certainly with that kind of spiritual assistance, certainly they must have thought back more than once to the voice that they heard. And yet, as special as that would have been, as valuable as that would have been, it strikes me that it is Peter himself who writing undoubtedly many years later referring to this very event, which clearly when you have something recorded by all three of the Synoptic Gospels, this is core to the oral preaching of the early church.

Everybody knew this story. Everybody knew this story. Peter yet says despite that, we have the more sure word of prophecy. Even his own experience, even his own recollection of hearing the voice, that wasn't as sure a foundation as the scriptures that had been given and then preserved and revered by the people of God generation after generation after generation.

That man's personal experience, as precious as it might have been, was not as certain as that which God had preserved for us. But I'm certain there were times in their lives when they thought back and had to consider the great privilege that had been theirs to be there upon that mountain.

And what would it have been like? I mean Luke tells us that they they have to become fully awake and so there is this, it's sort of like when you first wake up and maybe a noise has awoken you and you probably had that that feeling, did I hear something or was that part of my dream?

I'm not 100 certain. And so if you are waking up and Jesus is glowing and you've never seen Jesus glow before, this was not something that happened on a regular basis. The thought would be across your mind, am I really seeing this?

Am I really experiencing this? I've always wanted to ask. Maybe, you know, I don't know when we get to heaven whether there's just going to be an automatic opening of understanding or just how it's going to be.

We often say, someday I'm going to ask the Apostle Paul X, Y, or Z. Well, maybe. We certainly have plenty of time for it. You know, it's not like anyone's on a real tight schedule, I would imagine. Eternity is a fairly long time.

I'm not sure how it's going to work, but one of the questions I have when I read this story is, how did they know it was Moses and Elijah? They didn't have cell phones back there. They didn't have pictures.

I mean, you don't have James going, I recognize him, that's Moses. That's not happening. So how'd they know? Well, only Luke gives us a little bit of a clue. Matthew and Mark don't give us this, but notice what Luke says when it talks about Moses and Elijah who appear in glory were speaking of his departure which he was about to accomplish with Jerusalem.

His departure. That's a very odd term, isn't it? So there was a discussion going on and certainly a part of it included the fact that Christ was going to return to his pre-incarnate glory. He was going to return back in the presence of the Father.

Now, how listening to that conversation would necessarily cause someone to be able to identify, that's Moses, that's Elijah. Was there supernatural insight given? Did they refer to each other in such a way that the I don't know.

That's one of those questions that I would like to have an answer to someday. Like I said, I don't know if in the eternal state that's knowledge we're just going to have or not really even care to know because there's so much more to know.

I don't know. I don't know. But I would like to find out how they knew this was Moses and Elijah. They're listening in because they know they're speaking of his departure which he was about to accomplish Jerusalem.

Moses, Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, and the Glory of God in Christ

Now, you've probably heard sermons about Peter minding the things of men in Matthew chapter 16, which in Matthew's chronology was right before this event. That is, he still had the wrong ideas as to what the Messiah was to be and he was minding the ideas of glory and exaltation and power and things like that and wasn't minding the things of God.

So, maybe Peter was trying to show Jesus that he had gotten the message. And so, now let's just mind the things of God and let's build ourselves three tabernacles and let's just stay up here in the glory.

And I mean, who needs to go back down off this mountain? This is great seeing Jesus glowing and the power radiating from him. When Moses and Elijah come to visit you, you're a big deal. This is important.

They're like, this is great stuff. Let's just stay here. Let's just stay here. You've probably heard sermons about that. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong about that. And I think it's an appropriate thing to point out that they've got to come down off the mountain.

And as soon as they come down off the mountain, they're running into sickness and disease and demonization and evil and all sorts of stuff down here in the real world. You can't live on mountaintops. There is an appropriate place for pointing that out.

And I would say it's normally on the last day of some type of retreat that you have just had where everyone's sky high and everything's wonderful. And you're going to have to go back to the real world and deal with your people at work and the people driving down the roads that are doing odd and strange things.

I think there's an appropriate application of that. But what I wanted to point your attention to, just to ponder a little bit, Moses and Elijah, normally, most commentaries, most commentators, when you ask the question, why those three?

Why not Abraham and Isaac? Why not Joseph, Jacob, David? I don't want to be great prophets like Isaiah. It's Moses and Elijah. Well, Moses, okay, but Elijah's not one of the first people we think of as necessarily the next person you would consider.

Generally, most commentators have been satisfied, I certainly was for a long time, to just go, well, what you have going on here, and I'm not saying this is wrong, by the way, I'm just simply saying this is the standard way of doing it.

Moses represents the law. Elijah represents the prophets. And what are they talking with Jesus about? Well, what he's going to accomplish with Jesus. So, what's the message that's being communicated there?

Well, the law and the prophets, what is Jesus going to say after his resurrection? They testify of me. And starting with Moses, he goes all the way through and shows how this Messiah was necessary for him to suffer, and so on and so forth.

And so, it makes perfect sense that Moses and Elijah would be the two men representing law, representing the prophets, and they are on board. They understand, and they're talking with the one that's going to accomplish what their writings foretold was going to take place, and their ministries foretold what was going to take place.

And I think there is much truth in that. I don't think that should be ignored. I think it should be considered. I think it's a valid insight. But it wasn't until just recently that I was doing some reading, and I ran across another explanation that I think has some merit as well.

I hadn't thought about it. But when you think about the lives of Moses and Elijah, both of them had what we might call mountaintop experiences with God as well. Remember what happened to Moses. Moses, Exodus 33.

God takes him up on the mountaintop, and Moses asks, let me see your glory. And Yahweh says, then cannot see me and live. But this is what I'll do. I've chosen you. I've revealed myself to you. There's all sorts of connections between what happens there and what's quoted in Romans 9 and places like that, and God's sovereignty, and freedom, and all those things.

And it's expressed in his choosing of Moses. But remember what happens is God places Moses in the cleft of the rock, and then covers him with his hand, and then he only sees his backside. He does not see his full glory.

So, there is a limitation in Moses's experience of encountering God in that context. And if you think about it, something similar happens to Elijah. Remember when he's in the cave, and you've got the rushing wind, and all the other supernatural things that take place.

But then when God actually communicates to him, it's just in a still small voice. Neither one, even though they had direct communication with God in a special way, in a similar context, neither one really saw the glory of God.

And so, is it possible that maybe the reason Moses and Elijah are here is because now, in the only way that it's really possible for it to be, the way that God has ordained for it to be. What does John 1 18 say?

No man has seen God at any time. The monogamistos, the unique God, the God, the one and only, the Son. He has exegeted. He has explained the Father. The one who has been seen is the Son. That's exactly John's point in John chapter 12, verse 41, when he makes reference to Isaiah's temple vision where he saw Yahweh sitting upon his throne, lofty and lifted up.

What does John say? He actually, who did he actually see? It was Jesus. It was Jesus. And so, in God's decree, the revelation of God, the glory of God, is now seen in the God-man. And this was God's intention all along.

Maybe that's why they were limited in what they could see back then. But now, here, at the fulfillment of time, the cross is coming. Jesus is just, remember, in Matthew chapter 16, it's necessary they go to Jerusalem to be betrayed.

Now I'm starting to teach my apostles this. And right then, they get to see, in glorious fulfillment, not only the law and the prophets, but those who had only seen a limited glory of God in their encounters with God.

Now, they stand in the very presence of the glorious one, speaking of what he's going to accomplish, not try to accomplish, but actually accomplish in Jerusalem, by the way. And then, upon their departure, the cloud comes, and you have the witness of the Father to the Son.

The Father’s Voice, the Son, and Listening to Him

Now, you may recall, when we covered the Synoptic Gospels for years, that there's a slight difference in the terminology that is used in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And there are even variations amongst the manuscripts.

But here, in Luke, it is, this is my Son, my chosen one, listen to him. In Matthew and Mark, it's my beloved Son. Now, when I look at that phrase, the chosen one, listen to him, I am again struck with the parallel to what John communicates to us.

When he says it is through the Son that we have knowledge of the Father. It's through the Son that the Father is explained to us. And then how is, what's the term that's used in the prologue of John, the Son?

He is the Logos, the Word. And what do you do with the Word? You hear the Word. This is my Son, my chosen one, listen to him. Listen to him, hear him. What did Jesus say to Pilate, John chapter 18? He said, he who is of the truth, hear his my words.

Hear his my words. This is clearly a central part of Jesus' teaching. Now, just an application as we're out of time. One, do not be surprised when the world does not hear what Christ has to say. As long as the world remains in rebellion against God, his words, even when repeated by those of us today who seek to represent him, will be mocked and ridiculed and not heard by those who remain under God's judgment.

Pilate did not hear what Jesus said. But Peter, James, and John did. What was the difference? It's all of God. It wasn't anything about intelligence, because I get the feeling that if you wanted to do an IQ test, that Pilate was probably a little bit of a brighter bulb than Peter was.

That doesn't matter to God. It's irrelevant to God. So, don't be surprised in our day. It doesn't make it feel any better, but just you need to expect that when you try to speak the truth, the world will not hear, unless the Spirit of God is there.

But secondly, for us as we pray, this isn't just a childhood story. All three Gospels place it on a specific day. All three Gospels place it within a particular part of Jesus' ministry. It's between particular events that lead to specific places and specific events and specific happenings in specific years.

This happens in history, and we only know about it because God in his decree has chosen that we should know. That he allowed this encounter to take place. He chose this encounter to take place to teach his disciples something and to teach us something as well.

Jesus was more than just a Galilean preacher. He could meet on the mountaintop with Moses and Elijah and speak with certainty about what he was going to accomplish in his life. And yet, when the cloud leaves, they're there alone with Jesus and he doesn't glow anymore.

And they walk down the mountain and they walk right into suffering and pain and anguish. And Jesus is just as obedient to the Father there as he was glorious on the mountain. It took place in history.

And someday we will see our glorious Lord just as glorious as he was on the Mount of Transfiguration. But the only reason any one of us will ever get to see him in that state is because he veiled that glory, walked in obedience, and accomplished redemption by which you and I are saved.