Hidden Light

The Transfiguration and the Hiddenness of God

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 Roseberg.

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 them. 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, one for Moses, 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. Light and darkness. We know the distinction. They're often used as metaphors for truth and lies. You'll note that we who are deceived are described as, well, sitting in the darkness.

And we always say, regarding somebody who's been deceived, they'll say, Well, I didn't know I was in the dark regarding those things. So we understand how light and darkness works. But you're going to note something, and that is this, is that God is hiding.

And I mean that. I mean, have any of you seen Him? I haven't seen Him. How tall is Jesus, by the way? What shade of brown is His hair? What color are His eyes? Does He have muscular biceps like me? I mean, what do we know about Christ?

Y 'all have not seen Him. So that's important to note also as we're kind of working some things out in this text, because, boy, there is a lot to work out in this text. You'll note that in Scripture, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says words like this in chapter 6.

When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so that their fasting may be seen by others. By the way, as we're coming up to Lent, this is a good thing to hear, right?

So if you decide you're going to fast during the Lenten season, don't go around going, What's wrong with you? Well, I'm fasting.

Oh, okay.

Christ says, Truly I say to you, they have already received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father, and listen to the words, who is in secret.

And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. So you'll note that God, well, He's in secret. Luther likes to describe God as working in the world through different masks. It's kind of an interesting way of putting it.

But you'll note that something is going on here in our text where Jesus, the mask, comes off for just a little bit. That's kind of the big part of our text, is that Jesus' mask comes off and we get to see God.

And you'll note it's all punctuated by light. So in our Old Testament text, we saw that Moses, when he went up to Mount Sinai, he received from God the covenant. He comes down with the two tablets, the Ten Commandments.

This is why we talk about the two tables of the law, one table regarding God, the other table regarding human beings. It's a convenient way to talk about this. You'll note he comes down from the mountain and his face is glowing.

But here's the thing. Moses' face is glowing not because he is the sun, but more like kind of a lunar kind of glowing. There's an afterglow, there's a reflected light of the glory of God because he's met with God face to face.

And as a result of it, the people there got to see for a second light that they hadn't seen before, and God being in secret, hiding, isn't hiding so much at the moment. That's kind of the point of what's going on at Mount Sinai.

But you'll note that Moses, when he comes down from the mountain,.

He has the law.

And the law is not one of these things that can save you. It can't save me, it can't save you. In fact, the law is, well, if I can use a, let me use a metaphor that may not hit well with some people. Unfortunately, that's how this works.

But if you've seen the Harry Potter movies or if you've read the books, there's a thing called a howler.

All right?

So those poor students at Hogwarts, when their mom or dad wants to chew them out and really give it to them, they send a howler. And in the voice of their parents, they get chewed out by their parents in front of all of their school buddies and friends, and it's just a horrible experience.

I would note that the law of God oftentimes behaves like a howler, but the thing never turns off. And so when the law looks at you, you go, Sinner! Sinner! Sinner! Quiet! No! You're a sinner! You're guilty!

How do you silence the law, right? And so here in 2 Corinthians, talking about this very text that we looked at in Exodus, it says the ministry of death, that's what the law does. It kills us so that God can make us alive in Christ, by the way.

It's an important function of the law. But that doesn't mean the law is bad. No, the law is holy. The law is good. The problem is, we are not. So the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory.

And then note the words, which was being brought to an end. The glory being brought to an end? Yeah, see, part of the reason why Moses put the veil on his face is, number one, well, we know people were freaked out, so he had to hide his face.

But the other reason why is because he didn't want people to know that the glory was fading, until it had recharged after he had gone and met with God again. Then Paul notes,. For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, and indeed the law condemns all of us, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it. This is the glory of Christ, the glory of the Gospel, the glory of the New Covenant, the glory of the announcement that we are forgiven and pardoned in Christ, all by grace through faith because of God's great love for us.

For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, how much more will what is permanent have glory? Great questions, the Apostle Paul points out. So that glory helps us out a little bit here. But you'll note that Moses, who brought down the Ten Commandments, who gave the law, was he allowed to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land?

No.

What happened to Moses? Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the Promised Land, and that is that Moses disobeyed the voice of God, and God's law rightly condemned him as well. We read in the book of Numbers 20, it says this, Now there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves together against Moses.

This is the second time this happened, and against Aaron. And the people quarreled with Moses and said, Oh, would that we had perished when our brothers perished before Yahweh! Why have you brought the assembly of Yahweh into this wilderness so that we should die here, both we and our cattle?

And why have you made us come out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates. There is no water to drink. This will be very much akin to the text we'll hear next week.

So then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and they fell on their faces, and then the glory of the Lord appeared to them. Here we go again, glory showing up.

And they fell on their faces, and Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, Take the staff, assemble the congregation, you and Aaron and your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. Speak to the rock.

Now, we will learn next week, because this is the readings for next week, that Moses, the first time that this kind of happened, he was told by God to strike the rock. And you'll note that the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians makes it clear, 1 Corinthians 10, that the rock itself is Christ.

So Christ can only be struck once. But Moses isn't listening very carefully to God. God said, You tell the rock to give its water, and it will give its water. You go and you speak to the rock. The rock is Christ.

So shall you bring water out of the rock for them, and give them drink to the congregation and their cattle. So Moses took the staff from before Yahweh, as he commanded him, and then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, you rebels.

Shall we bring water out for you out of this rock? And then Moses lifted up his hand, and he struck the rock with his staff. Not once, twice. And you can hear the awkward silence. Uh-oh, something's wrong here.

And so the water came out abundantly, the congregation drank, and their livestock. And then Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in me and uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I had given them.

Fatal error on his part, which means Moses is going to be forbidden to enter the Promised Land. In fact, when we get to Deuteronomy 34, which records the death of Moses for us, it says these words,. Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite of Jericho, and Yahweh showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all of Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, and the Negev, and the plain that is the valley of Jericho, the city, the palm trees as far as Zoar.

And so you'll note, God gives him like a highlight reel, like one of those travelogue things, Let me show you what you didn't get to see. That's a little painful. So God shows him the Promised Land, so he at least gets some kind of a glimpse there.

He's not allowed to lead the people of Israel into it. And he says, This is the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to your offspring. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.

So Moses, the servant of Yahweh, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Yahweh. Here's what you didn't get to see, and then he dies. And then he's buried, and we have no idea where Moses is buried.

God buried him, so there would be no memorial to him. So you'll note, the lawgiver is condemned by the law. Who brought the children of Israel in Exodus? Who brought them into the Promised Land? It was Yeshua, Joshua, who happens to have the exact same name as Jesus.

Just keep that in mind. That's Jesus' Hebrew name. All of this is a little bit of background story as we get into our Gospel text. So when we look at our Gospel text, we can kind of start to figure out some of the things that are going on here.

It says, After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, his brother. Now, a little bit of a note here. The Gospel of Matthew is written in such a way that you're always the 13th disciple.

It's weird. This is one of those texts that breaks the fourth wall constantly. And so you'll note, you and I, we are along for this ride. We are eyewitnesses of it with our ears, and eyewitnesses by reading it out.

But we're kind of like fourth disciples sitting there. Why Peter, James, and John? Well, you'll note that in the Old Testament, in order to establish a fact, you had to have at least two to three witnesses.

Jesus was always good in that regard. He always brought the higher number. He always brought three. And you'll note in your context here, Peter, James, and John have already seen Jesus raise Jairus' daughter from the dead, the 12-year-old girl who had died.

And so he's the one, he said to her, Talitha Kume, the little girl I tell you will rise, and they are all witnesses of this. So he led them up a high mountain by themselves. And you can already tell, if you know your Old Testament, something big is going to happen here.

And I mean really big. Big important things happen on high mountains. It invokes Mount Sinai. And so that's what's going on here. And then all of a sudden, before their eyes, he was transfigured, and his face shone like the sun.

His clothes became white as light. And so this, then, is kind of the big revealing. Christ decides to kind of take the mask off for a minute. And we can see exactly who he is. In Psalm 104, it says these wonderful words, starting at verse 1.

Bless Yahweh, O my soul. O Yahweh my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. Ah, that's right.

God clothes himself with light as a garment. And this, then, shows us who Jesus is. Do you have doubts that Jesus is God in human flesh? Well, you'll note that Jesus, he legitimately shines, whereas Moses had to reflect the glory of God.

Christ, he shows his glory, and we see exactly who he is. For a moment, we get a glimpse of the eternal Son of God, and it's hard to make the features out. And then it says this, And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him.

Now stop for a second here. Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. Moses is now in the Promised Land. And it took the church fathers to help me see this fact. And it's beautiful when you think about it.

It's absolutely beautiful, because the law forbade Moses to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land because he stood condemned, like so many of the people who fell in the wilderness. And he did, in fact, he did fall in the wilderness, one of the last to fall.

But that being the case here, Moses is now in the Promised Land, in a high mountain in the Promised Land, in the very presence and glory of Christ. This is the terminus of the exodus. This shows that there is forgiveness, mercy, and grace in Jesus Christ, because Jesus has led now him into the Promised Land.

And rather than Moses talking to his servant, Yeshua, he is instead talking to his Lord, Yeshua. And we learn from the Gospel of Luke that what they are conversing about, what they are discussing, Moses and Elijah, is Jesus' exodus.

You see, Jesus is the true Moses, if you would. Each and every one of us were born in slavery, born enslaved to sin, enslaved to the devil, enslaved to our sinful passions, enslaved to the world. Under the dominion of darkness, having been deceived by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, we have been paying the penalties and cost of our sin ever since.

It comes to us in sin, in misery, broken lives, of people who suffer greatly and die. And not only die in this world, but also die eternally, perishing in the flames of hell. Deceived, indeed, we are.

But see here, the light has come out. The mask has come off. We see Jesus for who he really is. And we also see a stunning thing. Moses is there. Elijah is there. Moses is finally able to be brought into the promised land, which tells us that in Christ, we are being led by him to the real promised land.

And that though God's law condemn each of us and condemn us rightly, there is forgiveness, mercy, and grace in Christ. And you'll also notice that Moses and Elijah, they serve a very important function in the Old Testament.

Moses is the great lawgiver, the one who gave us the first five books of the Bible. Elijah is a representative of the prophets. In fact, he's the great miracle-working prophet of the Old Testament, one of two.

And he stands then together between the two of them. They are representatives of the entire Old Testament. But I would note then, Christ choosing Peter, James, and John also to be there was very important because they are representatives of the men who will write the New Testament.

And so you'll see then that these representatives of all of the Scriptures, all of the Bible, are there. And what are they testifying to? Who are they testifying about? They are all pointing us to Jesus.

So Peter, you've got to love Peter. He blurts out something good and then something kind of stupid. He blurts out, Lord, it is good that we are here. True. It's absolutely true. It is great that they are there.

Christ intended them to be there. He wanted them to see his light, to see his glory. He wanted them to see him with his mask off so that they can see him as he truly is. And that's what they got to see.

But then Peter says something really boneheaded. I mean, really boneheaded. He says, if you wish, I will make three tents here. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. Now, we all hear this and we think, well, that's kind of lame.

I mean, it kind of invokes the Jewish Feast of Sukkot, the Feast of Booths. But here's the issue. The church fathers helped me out on this one as well. Here's the issue. Peter is making Jesus equal with Moses and Elijah.

And that ain't going to work. That ain't going to work because Moses and Elijah are there as glorified human beings, creatures, important ones for sure, but they are not on the same level as Jesus Christ.

He is God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made. And so putting him on the same level with Moses and Elijah, it's an easy mistake to make, but it is a mistake nonetheless. And so God the Father at this point decides that he's going to intervene.

And he's swift to do so. While he was still speaking, then behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And a voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. You listen to him.

Listen to him. Listen to the voice of the Father. This invokes another prophecy, prophecy from Deuteronomy 18, where Moses prophesied that God would raise up a prophet like him from among the children of Israel.

And to him you must listen. That's the fulfillment. Moses prophesied about Christ, and now the Heavenly Father speaks from a cloud of glory, glory upon glory, and says, This is my beloved son. I am well pleased.

Harkening back to Jesus' baptism, you listen to him. Listen to him. It is all about him. And you'll note then at this point, Moses and Elijah just disappear, and there is only Jesus at this point. That is not a detail that you can throw away either.

The point is this, is that Moses and Elijah testify of Christ. They are not on the same level as he is, and we are to listen to him. Moses and Elijah point us to Jesus. The Old Testament points us to Christ, but everything is about him.

And when they disappear, there is only Jesus, because it was always about him and only about him from the very beginning of the Scriptures. When you read yourself into the biblical text, and you say nonsensical things like, I'm going to go and slay my Goliaths, and bizarre things like that, and you make the Bible about yourself, and you say, you know, one of the weird, stupid prophecies I heard recently from these wingnut wackerdoodles is they're saying, God is telling us that we need to go and build our own Goshen.

Oh, give me a break. Okay, I don't live anywhere near Egypt. That's just nonsense. You're reading yourself into the text. It's all about Christ. But you'll note then that when Moses and Elijah disappear, Christ puts the mask back on.

The light is hidden again. But when Jesus then comes to his terrified disciples, and indeed they were terrified hearing the voice of the Father, they fell on their faces, and they were shaking in their sandals.

And Jesus comes, and he touches them. And he says, rise and have no fear. Listen to Jesus. I know that God's law rightly condemns each and every one of us, and that it says that we have rightly deserved God's condemnation, and we have all earned the fires of hell by our participation in the wickedness and evil of Satan and this world and our own sinful flesh.

But Christ tells us to rise and have no fear, and the reason for that is that Christ, in his exodus, he takes us through death to life. And he led the way by being crucified for your sins and mine. And now he is leading us through death to life, and we will be with him.

So rise and have no fear. Do not fear the condemnation of the law. Do not fear its fierce voice which rightly accuses you. Do not fear it. Trust Christ. Only listen to him. He has forgiven you of all of your sins.

The Prophetic Word as a Lamp in a Dark Place

And so listening to Jesus, they lifted up their eyes, and they saw no one but Jesus only. Decades later, the apostle Peter, writing his last epistle, the one that he wrote very shortly before he was crucified for his confession of faith in Christ, for being an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus and to his glory, he now points us to where this hidden light is.

And it's not in seeking glorious encounters with God like they had on the Mount of Transfiguration. God's light is hidden now again. He's continuing to wear a mask, but Peter points us to where that light is hidden.

It says in our epistle text, We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory that said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves, we heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

And we have something more sure, more fully confirmed. The prophetic word to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

You see, the light of Christ is found in your Bible. And you'll note that old analog paper Bible sitting on our table or maybe on our nightstand, it doesn't glow. I never use its light to keep me from stubbing my foot or my toe on something at night.

But what Peter is saying here is that that hidden light that only appears and shows us what's really going on so few times in the Scripture, in the Old Testament at Mount Sinai, in the New Testament on the Mount of Transfiguration, that very light of God showing us what is true and what we are to study.

And the difference is, compared to the lies that we've been taught, it is the Scriptures that we find that hidden light. And so he says you will do well to pay attention to the Scriptures as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

This hearkens then to that third commandment. The third commandment we Lutherans recognize is what? Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. And when Luther asked the question, Was ist das? What does this mean?

He answers very simply, that we should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching God's Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. So many places today that call themselves Christian churches do not preach the Word of God.

In fact, they're loathe to do so. I remember over and over again when I was actively pointing out the errors of the purpose-driven church. I even pointed this out to Rick Warren to his face in a conversation that I had with him.

And that was that they are abandoning the preaching of the Scriptures. Rick Warren legitimately taught that if you want to have a church that grows and that is appealing to unbelievers, you've got to stop exegeting long passages of Scripture because the unbeliever is not interested in the Bible.

And when I asked him, I said, Well, where are they supposed to go? He says, Well, we still have a believer's service on Wednesday night. The believers can come on Wednesday, but the unbelievers get to have the church service on Sunday.

It makes no sense when you think about it. And all that does is teach a despising of God's Word. Funny though, shortly after that conversation, Saddleback Church ended their believer's services on Wednesday nights.

They don't exist anymore. The only thing that exists is the unbeliever's service where you get a smattering of God's Word, a few verses out of context here and there. And I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I've heard people say to me that in one service at Kongsvinger, they've heard more Bible in one service than they have heard in a year in a large, big box megachurch.

It's sad when you think about it because here the Scriptures point us to where the light is. The light is in the Scriptures. The job of a pastor is to preach the Word. And in preaching the Word, he must preach Christ.

Moses preached Christ. Elijah preached Christ. Peter, James, and John, they preached Christ. Who am I to preach anything different than Him? As the voice of the Father said, listen to Him. And there was only Jesus after that.

In fact, that's the whole point. There is only Jesus. So we must hear these words and recognize that because of our sinful nature, we have constantly the battle of being inattentive to God's Word, to not hearing it, to not reading it, to not marking it, to not inwardly digesting it.

Instead, to basically not listen to it much at all, to be inattentive. That is the natural way in which our sinful nature behaves. But we must listen to the voice of the Father who tells us to listen to Jesus.

His voice is in the Scripture, and that is where the light is. Do you want to know the difference between truth and error, between truth and lies, between the dominion of darkness and the kingdom of light?

That is all in the Scriptures. God's voice is there to help us, there to give us true light as a lamp to our feet so that we do not stumble on the rocks and fall to our peril in the fires of hell. So rise, have no fear, but listen to Jesus only.

His light now is hidden in the Scriptures and nowhere else. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Support and Closing Notices

If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax-free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. And again that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744.

We thank you for your support. All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message. And again, thank you for listening.