Mark 9:2-29 (October 30 2022)

The Transfiguration as a Preview of Resurrection Glory

If you have your Bible, you can turn your Bible to Mark chapter 9. We're going to be in verses 2 through 29 this morning. If you're new with us, we just go through the book of Mark one section at a time.

And today we come to two stories. One is the story of the transfiguration, where Jesus goes up onto the mountain with a few of his disciples. And then we have the story when they come down from the mountain and Jesus heals a boy with an unclean spirit.

So I want us to begin by reading that first passage in verses 2 through 13. And the Word of God says this,. And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them. And his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses. And they were talking with Jesus.

And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say.

For they were terrified.

And a cloud overshadowed them. And a voice came out of the cloud. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean. And they asked him, Why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come? And he said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all things.

And how is it written of the Son of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come. And they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him.

This is the word of God to us this morning. Amen. So we come to a turning point in Mark's Gospel. Events after Peter, what we saw last week, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ. And after that, events take a decided turn in this narrative.

Immediately after Peter's confession, Jesus began talking about suffering and death and resurrection. He didn't really talk about it before, but he hardly stops talking about it after Peter's confession that he is the Christ.

For you see, Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the long-awaited Deliverer. The one who is anointed. And that means, because he's the Christ, that means he must suffer and die and rise again.

It's bound up in the office of being the Christ. And so the story of Mark's Gospel turns toward Jerusalem, where Jesus will be killed. Now at the beginning of Mark, Jesus was baptized. It's one of the first stories we came across in Mark chapter 1.

And in the transfiguration here in Mark chapter 9, what we have is a baptism-like event that marks a transition in the book. And it's right at halfway in the book. So the first half of Mark goes, you could say, from baptism through Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ.

He's baptized into service. And then that first half of the book ends with Peter confessing. And then the second half of the book is the transfiguration through Jesus' death and resurrection. The fulfillment of what it means for Jesus to be the Christ.

It's what he came to do, to die and rise again. And so, I said the transfiguration is a baptism-like event. What does that mean? How is the transfiguration like baptism? Well, there's a few things that are similar.

First, you have the presence of the Spirit. And so, at his baptism, the Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove. And here, in the transfiguration, we have where it says the cloud overshadowed them. What do clouds have to do with the Spirit?

Well, I think they're associated. Because Haggai tells us that the cloud in the tabernacle was the Spirit. Moses is here on the mountain. And we remember from back in Exodus that the Spirit led Moses and God's people with a cloud by day.

And Elijah is present on the mountain here. And if we remember back to his story in the Old Testament, he was taken up into the clouds by the Spirit. So, cloud and Spirit are associated in Scripture. And the cloud comes upon Jesus as the dove did at his baptism.

So, that's the first thing. The presence of the Spirit. The second thing is the presence of Elijah, which would make us think of John the Baptist, who comes dressed like Elijah and was an Elijah figure in the story of Jesus' baptism.

He was the one who baptized Jesus. And then down in verse 13 here in chapter 9, Jesus refers to John, calling him Elijah.

So, that's the second thing.

The third thing is the presence of the Father's voice. At Jesus' baptism, the Father says this, You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. And then here in the transfiguration, This is my beloved Son, listen to Him.

In both cases, the Father's voice from heaven calling Jesus his beloved Son. So, Jesus' baptism was a baptism into service, after which He went about teaching and healing. And after the transfiguration, He's going to go further up and further in in His mission and in His service that He was baptized into.

So, we can say that Jesus' transfiguration fulfills His baptism and continues it. He will continue to teach.

He will continue to heal.

But He will move towards His ultimate reason for coming. He will move to His ultimate, the pinnacle of His service. He'll move towards His death and resurrection. And resurrection is what we have a preview of here in the transfiguration.

And so, Jesus was transfigured before them. His clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. Jesus appeared to Peter and James and John in dazzling appearance. Bright like the noonday sun.

This was glorious. Now, this is often taken as a revelation of the divinity of Jesus. A moment where we get a glimpse of who Jesus is truly as God, without His humanity getting in the way.

And that may be the case.

But I don't think that is all of the story here. I don't think that is all what is going on here. Because in context, before it and after it, you have all this talk about death and resurrection. I believe what we are getting in the transfiguration is a preview of Jesus' resurrection.

He's showing beforehand how He will be. And so, this isn't a revelation of deity so much as it is a revelation, or a preview rather, of glorified humanity. Humanity as we were meant to be and as we will be.

You see, Jesus is going to die, but He's going to rise again. And He's going to be like this. Like what we see on the mountain of transfiguration. Humanity was created in the image of God.

And made to glow.

To reflect the bright, intense glory of God. Like the face of Moses when he came down off the mountain.

And his face shone.

Or like Stephen who looked up into the heavens and saw the glory of God and his face was like that of the angels. As one commentator put it, we as people, we are made to glow, but sin has dimmed us. That we are not in dazzling array, that we are not shining like the bright noonday sun teaches us something about the darkening and the decaying effects of sin.

It shows us just how much sin has marred this place and how much it has marred us. And it ought to lead us to repentance. But, it also ought to give us hope. Because the transfiguration is a preview of the resurrection of Jesus where He would rise again in a glorified human body, victorious over Satan and sin and death.

And His resurrection, elsewhere in Scripture it tells us His resurrection was the first fruits. His resurrection was the down payment, the promise of more resurrection to come. Jesus is the first born from the dead, but He is not the last.

And so what we see here in a preview of the resurrection, we see that not only is this Jesus' future when He would rise again, this is our future too. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul teaches us about our resurrection bodies, glorified heavenly bodies.

He teaches us that our earthly bodies which are sown into the ground at our burial are raised as heavenly bodies. And Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 15, 42 and following,. So it is with the resurrection of the dead.

What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written,. The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual.

The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.

Just as we have been born the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

So here's the hope.

If you die in faith, you will be raised in glory. If you die in faith, you will be raised in glory. You too will be transfigured. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, we shall all be changed and the dead will be raised imperishable.

Now I know some among us are grieving the loss of loved ones, mothers and daughters and fathers and sons and friends and husbands.

And wives.

In the transfiguration, I want you to see and be comforted by a glimpse of future glory for those who have died in faith. You see, the transfiguration is a preview of Christ's resurrection. And that means it is a guarantee of our own resurrection.

Jesus' resurrection is a guarantee of our own resurrection. And so be comforted with the words of Paul found in Romans 8. The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Here we have a preview, a glimpse, of that glory that will be revealed to us.

The Mountain Cannot Be Kept

Now in verse 5, we have Peter.

Kent Hughes said in his commentary, Peter always had something to say when there was nothing to be said. And here again, he speaks up. And Mark tells us because he didn't know what else to say. He was terrified, so he just talked.

And he suggests building three tents. You might say three tabernacles. One for each of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. You see, he wants to preserve the glory of this moment. The glory that has been made manifest.

On the mountain.

And given the mobility of the tabernacle in the Old Testament, maybe he wants to preserve it and then transport it down from the mountain to the land. You ever have one of those just kind of perfect moments where everything in the world just seems right and you just want to freeze time?

Peter's having one of those moments. He wants to remain in this state of glory and who wouldn't? But it doesn't work that way, does it? You don't get glory first. Or easily. He got things out of order.

You see, first, the Son of Man must suffer many things. The biblical pattern is death and then resurrection. Suffering and then glory. Test and then reward. It's like the old weight room slogan,.

No pain, no gain.

It's kind of cheesy because we've heard it a lot, but there's something profoundly true about it. They can't remain on the mountain. They can't remain in glory. They must go down the mountain and leave it behind because there's more work to do.

And that's what Moses and Elijah and Jesus were talking about in verse 4. See, in verse 4, they're talking together. Luke's account tells us what they were talking about.

His departure.

That is, His death. And so Jesus descends the mountain and willingly, willingly, willingly.

Sets His face towards Jerusalem.

And the cross.

Moses, Sinai, and the Glory of the Lord

Now before we move on to the next story in the passage, I want us to see the connection between Jesus going up on the Mount of Transfiguration and Moses going up on Mount Sinai. You see, in Exodus 24, verses 15 through 18, it says this,.

Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day, he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. And Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. So I want you to notice, a cloud covered the mountain as the cloud overshadowed Jesus and Peter and James and John.

Glory dwelt on the mountain as glory was revealed on the mountain in Mark 9. There's a possible connection between the fire on Sinai and the intense white of Jesus' clothing at the Transfiguration. And notice it was after six days, on the seventh day, that Moses went up.

And we see in verse 2 here in Mark 9 that it was after six days, and therefore on the seventh, that Jesus and Peter and James and John went up on the mountain. Further, we obviously see that Moses is in both accounts.

There are tabernacles in both the Exodus and the Transfiguration accounts. God, the Father's voice is speaking in both accounts. God gives the law to Moses at Sinai. He tells the disciples to listen to Jesus at the Transfiguration, which is a type of law.

And so we have all sorts of connections. And I make this point because I want to make one last connection that leads in to the story of Jesus healing the boy with the unclean spirit. When Moses comes down off the mountain, what does he find?

Do you remember Nexus 31 -32? He comes down and he finds faithlessness. They're worshiping the golden calf. And when Jesus comes down the mountain,.

What does He find?

Let's read about it in verses 14 -29. And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, the scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw Him, were greatly amazed and ran up to Him and greeted Him.

And He asked them, what are you arguing about with them? And someone from the crowd answered Him, Teacher, I brought My Son to you for He has a spirit that makes Him mute. And whenever it seizes Him, it throws Him down.

And He foams and grinds His teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked Your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able. And He answered them, O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you bringing to Me?

And they brought the boy to Him. And when the spirit saw Him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked His Father, how long has this been happening to Him?

And He said, from childhood. And it has often cast Him into fire and into water to destroy Him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.

And Jesus said to Him,.

If you can, all things are possible for one who believes. And immediately the father of the child cried out and said, I believe! Help my unbelief! And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit,.

Saying to it,.

You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again. And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out. And the boy was like a corpse.

So that most of them said,.

He's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, His disciples asked Him privately, why could we not cast it out? And He said to them, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.

This is the Word of God to us. So Jesus comes down the mountain. And He too finds a people lacking faith. The disciples and the scribes are arguing. A crowd is gathered. Jesus interrupts them to ask what all the commotion is about.

And a man comes to tell Him the story. His son has an evil spirit.

That makes him mute,.

That seizes him and throws him down, that makes him foam at the mouth and grind his teeth, that makes his body rigid. And He asks the disciples to cast it out, but they could not do it. And Jesus' response here is interesting.

He says, O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? O faithless generation. This is language that's from Deuteronomy 32, from Psalm 95, that refers to Israel in the wilderness. Jesus is comparing Israel in His day to the wilderness generation.

And He is condemning their unfaithfulness. And the boy suffers. Since childhood, he has been tormented by this demon. And his father says to Jesus, but if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.

Now this request is a mixed bag. I mean, on the one hand, he's come to the right place. He's come to the right man, Jesus. But on the other hand, he doesn't seem convinced.

If you can.

And Jesus calls him out on it in verse 23.

When He exclaims,.

If you can,.

Of course you can. Of course I can.

All things are possible for one who believes. And the father immediately cried out,.

I believe.

Help my unbelief. And so to his credit, the man did not pretend. He believed, but not perfectly. He believed, but not fully. He believed, but not all the way. He believed, but he wanted to believe still more.

And he asked for that too. Help my unbelief. We said it several weeks ago, and we'll say it again today. A little faith goes a long way. He didn't have perfect faith. He didn't have mature faith. He didn't have full faith.

But he went to Jesus.

And a little faith goes a long way. Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit.

That convulsed the boy,.

Leaving him appearing dead, but Jesus raised him up. And we can see that even when we are faithless, God is faithful. And He does all things well. Now the disciples wanted to know why couldn't we do that?

Previously, we've read in Mark about how they've gone out in the name of Jesus and they have cast out demons and they have healed others. But they couldn't do it here. And they asked Him why not?

And Jesus said to them,.

This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. Now, they've done it before. Why can't they now?

Because they lack prayer.

Perhaps they were overconfident from their past ministry. Perhaps they were relying on their own strength, on their own power, and that's why they neglected to pray. But Jesus, Son of God, very God of very God, still prayed.

But His disciples lack prayer. And therefore, they lack power. Because they lack prayer,.

They lack power.

Do you ever feel like you lack power.

In your Christian walk?

Do you ever feel like you lack power in your evangelism witnessing about Jesus? Do you ever feel like you lack power in your fight against sin?

Well, let me ask you,.

Do you pray? Do you pray?

I know a common struggle for Christians is prayer.

Many people,.

They know we're supposed to pray. We know we ought to pray. But often, we don't know what to say. If that's your experience, I want to invite you to come next Sunday night to Corporate Prayer. 6 p .m. next Sunday night.

We're going to gather to pray. We'll pray about various things. But as we do so, I'm going to teach you one way to know what to say. One way to pray using the Bible. And so I invite you to Corporate Prayer next Sunday night.

My hope is that in learning a few different ways to pray, that we can kind of take the pressure off of prayer. Where we know we ought to, but we don't really know what to do, and then we just feel guilty about it because we don't do it.

Has that ever been your experience? I hope we can take the pressure off and then also throw a few logs on the fire of your prayer life so you know what to say.

Take the pressure off,.

But the power on. So come pray with us.

Faith, Prayer, and Pressing On in a Faithless Generation

Now back to Mark.

Jesus and the disciples come down from the mountain to a faithless generation. They've seen the glory of the Lord and of glorified humanity, but Peter cannot transport it and he cannot preserve it because there's more work to do.

Now this looks back to Moses and the wilderness generation, but it also looks forward to the church age down to our present moment. There's still today, in 2022, there's still more work to do. And we too live in a faithless generation.

What Scripture elsewhere calls a crooked and twisted generation.

Now for starters,.

We can see that when we look in the mirror.

When we see the log in our own eyes, we know our sin. We know our hypocrisies. We know our inconsistencies. We know our own failures. We know that we are not always faithful. That's why every Sunday we come in and we confess our sins together and we ask for God's mercy and we thank Him for that.

And then we can look beyond the mirror and we see a culture and a people that like Israel in the wilderness with the golden calf has, as Romans 1 .23 says, exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

And so God has given them up to dishonorable passions and a debased mind. Romans 1 continues to describe so much of our present society. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die,.

They not only do them,.

But give approval to those who practice them. Now I know this is not an encouraging assessment. We would prefer to be up on the mountain of transfiguration with Jesus. We would prefer to be in heaven with Jesus where everything is right and good and glorious, but we're not there yet, and there's more work to do.

And God has you here. God has us here for the problems of 2022. And so there's no room for discouragement or despair about our situation. Jesus came down the mountain to a faithless generation, and we follow in His train.

But let's learn the lesson from the disciples. They were relying on their own strength and power to deliver the boy, and it did not work. This kind cannot be driven out by anything.

But prayer, Jesus said.

And so the exhortation for you this morning is to rely on God, not on your own strength. To rely on His strength, His power. The exhortation is to grow in godliness, to not join the ways of this crooked.

And twisted generation,.

But to put off sin and to put on Christ. To put off disobedience and to put on virtue. And the exhortation this morning.

Is to pray.

To pray, pray, pray, pray. Pray without ceasing. Pray in the strong name of Jesus.

Pray the Lord's Prayer.

Pray the Psalms. In everything, by prayer and supplication,.

With thanksgiving,.

Make your requests known to God. Pray for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life. Pray lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. Pray at all times in the Spirit.

Pray that you may not enter into temptation. Pray for those who persecute you. Pray, pray, pray, pray. This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. The exhortation to you this morning is to seek to increase your faith.

To pursue growing and increasing in faith. And to ask God for it. Like the Father here, I believe, help my unbelief. And it is our faith that overcomes the world. 1 John 5 says, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? And so keep trusting God.

Keep believing God.

Keep the faith, and you overcome the world. And lastly, remember your reward. Which the Transfiguration gives us a preview of. Resurrection, glory, heaven.

Remember your reward.

There's an old folk hymn that we like to sing at our house. I know my Redeemer lives. Glory, hallelujah. And one line of the chorus says, shout on, pray on, we're gaining ground. There's another version of that hymn that says, shout on, press on, we're gaining ground.

I like to put those two ideas together. Pray on and press on. There may be more work to do, but let's pray on and let's press on. And in Christ, we're gaining ground.

Let's pray.

Our Father, we ask You to strengthen us to meet our current moment in this world with faith, for we know that it is our faith that overcomes the world. So give us an increase in faith, Father, I pray.

We believe, help our unbelief. Father, we thank You for the glimpses at Your glory that we see in Your Word, particularly what we see here in the story of the transfiguration of Jesus. And we pray that Your glory would motivate us towards faithfulness and that we would not be a faithless generation.

We pray that Your glory would motivate us towards faithfulness and towards worship and towards godly living and towards love and good deeds. And we ask that You would do this because we ask it in the name of Jesus,.

Amen.