Sunday Morning Sermon Series - Matthew 17

Now, I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size.

It wasn't the type of people they were going to be. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 17, and you heard it throughout the worship time, but I'm going to read it to you again, because it is important, especially in today's time, trials and tribulations, but all the confusion as well, to hear that there is an absolute truth and an absolute fact that can bring you a sense of peace and also a sense of calm.

Chapter 17 verse 1 says, After six days, Jesus took

Peter, James, and his brother John and led them up onto a high mountain by themselves.

He was transformed in front of them. And His face shone like the sun.

Even His clothes became white as the light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.

Then Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If You want,

I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

While He was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said,

This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him.

Listen to Him. When the disciples heard it, they fell face down and were terrified.

Then Jesus came up, touched them, and said, Get up, do not be afraid. When they looked up, they saw no one except Him, Jesus alone.

So many pastors, speakers, commentators, churches, are heralded today as the apex or the axiom of spiritual worship in life.

And it's amazing, those people who follow preachers, who follow the preaching ministry of any pastor, are constantly led into a place where the

Holy Spirit of God is shutted away. They memorize the words of man.

They adhere to the emotions of a church service, yet they still walk in darkness and don't have the confidence that only can come by the presence of the

Holy Spirit. I'm here to tell you today, don't hear the words of a stupid church or a dumb preacher.

Hear the word of the living God, and I promise you, you will leave different than you walked in here today.

Now let's look at this just for a second. What's really cool about this passage is that in all four

Gospels, it recounts this event. Please don't use the word story.

This is not a story. This is something that happened and had many eyewitnesses who wrote about it.

Even after the Gospels were written, early church fathers were told this story by the disciples and then their disciples.

And there is a consistency in all four Gospels of what happened. It's amazing.

Even Peter, who did not write a Gospel, talked about this. He said, we were eyewitnesses of Christ's majesty.

Now think about this for a second. Peter, James, and John. Christ had set them apart to be disciples, but even at this time, they were still very clueless.

You may feel like that in your own personal life. You may know that God is calling you.

You may know that you need to do something to find that peace and that connection with God Almighty, but you're still unclear.

I'm here to tell you that without doubt, you're never going to have faith. Do not come to a place in your life where you're looking at super Christians because here, let me tell you something, there ain't no such thing.

The pretense of religion will drive you further away from Christ than the humility of your heart will bid you to Him.

Please listen to me on this. And here's what's so amazing. God will speak to you when you least expect it.

If you're one of those folks that you feel guilty because you fall asleep at night praying to God, stop.

If you're one of those folks that feels like I need to do this, this, and this, and then God will speak to me,

I'm here to tell you today, God is speaking to you already. Stop trying to get emotional or stop trying to get holy and religious.

Sit back, be silent, and hear the Word of God. So as these three disciples and Jesus are walking up, and we think it was

Mount Hiram, but we're really not sure. As they were walking up to this mountain, it says here that Jesus was transfigured.

The Greek word is metamorphou. It literally means not just an outward appearance of transformation, but it emanates from the inside and it is manifested on the outside.

If I can for a second, please listen. You can know the grace of God and know you are saved.

1 John 5 .13 says this, These things that I write to you that you may know the

Son of God. You can know Jesus Christ. And here's the number one way you can know.

Here's the number one way. If the metamorphosis of repentance and faith in Christ.

You alright, baby? Oh, okay, okay, okay. I thought you were ninja -ing me or something, you know?

You can know the power and the peace of knowing your salvation not based upon the outward change and the inward is the same, but you can know the peace and the power of God by watching

Him change the inside and you help change the outside.

In other words, if you're here today and you're a heroin addict, if you're here today and you're an alcoholic, if you're here today and here's more of a reality for some of us in here, if you are a prideful, scared, if you're one of those folks that God is calling you and you're resisting

Him, listen, just do me a favor today, give up. Just surrender and let

God change the inside and in time the outside will be transfigured. As Jesus is sitting there,

He's transfigured. The disciples are like, oh my gosh, suddenly Moses and Elijah are pictured there with Jesus.

I love this. You know, growing up Catholic, and it's really not even fair I say

I was Catholic or Episcopal or whatever because I never went to church. I always had this picture of heaven, like this wispy, cloudy, you know, old white guy with long beard, you know, and everybody's angels and flapping around.

Guys, that's nothing. The Word of God doesn't describe that at all. In fact, the early

Thessalonican church, like some of us, were concerned. They were concerned about their loved ones who die and go on last night or Friday night, whenever it was.

Robert looked up and he said, I am so ready for heaven. And it's really cool, even though that may be a little for our flesh hearts to accept,

I can tell you this. And here's a perfect example. Moses lived 1400 years before Jesus did.

Elijah about 900 years before Jesus did. The disciples never met either one of them.

Moses and Elijah never knew the name Yeshua or Jesus. They didn't understand it as far as the name of Messiah.

Yet, because of the Spirit of the living God, they knew their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Guys, when we get to heaven, you are going to know, we are going to know each other.

I'm going to be able to walk up and go, Baby Christian, how are you? I'm going to be able to see

Pastor John and sit there and go, we made it brother, we're here. We don't have to live in this fear and this doubt.

In other words, one of the things that maybe you're struggling with is a sense of loss and control and you don't want to surrender to God because of fears of this, that, and the other.

I'm telling you now, the reality that is coming will so overshadow the fake feelings and understandings we have now of life, it is going to be absolutely unbelievable.

Moses and Elijah are sitting there talking with Christ and we know from Luke chapter 9 and the other parts of the

Gospel, what they were talking about is Jesus' upcoming death.

This is also something that's really beautiful if you think about it. Here is the Son of God. He has been told about all the way back in Genesis 3 .15.

Thousands and thousands of years God said, I am sending the ultimate sacrifice.

All the Old Testament points to the cross of Jesus Christ and says, hold on!

The Messiah, the Lamb of God is coming to take away the sin of the world. Jesus knew from before the world was even created that He would be offered as a sacrifice to redeem a man that had not even fallen yet.

Think about that. There was no red alert in the Garden of Eden. There is no, oh my gosh, when you fall in sin, because before the world was even created,

Jesus Christ was already on the way to the cross for you. But here's what's even more amazing.

We see Christology here. We see the hypostatic union of the physical manifestation of Jesus in the flesh and His Spirit knowing that He was

God Almighty. He knew that the victory of the grave was just days away, and yet He was still scared.

He was still nervous. Oh, please, don't super -spiritualize the real Jesus, for we,

His people, desperately need to see the reality of Who and What He is. That even though He is the living embodiment,

He is the Great I Am, He is the Alpha, the Omega, the Beginning and the End, He is the

Conqueror of the grave, the scars of His flesh could not hold Him down. And the power and the

Spirit of Almighty God broke asunder the grave so that we could have the hope, but even still, there was still fear.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, it says Jesus prayed with sweats like drop of blood falling from His brow, and He said to God, If there be any other way, let this cup pass from Me.

Yet God in Him still said, Yet not My will, but Thy will be done.

I see a brother across the street, guys who is physically dying and in pain, and it breaks my heart even so much more to see his family's heart break, to see a six -year -old little boy crying and distraught.

Yet I know this, I know this, that Christ can identify with our pain in a way that human beings never can.

And it's okay to mourn. It's okay to weep. It's okay to hurt. It's okay to miss.

But remember this, that Christ was transfigured even before His death. What's that mean?

It's that the assurance of the resurrection and the power of eternal life is guaranteed even before death comes knocking at your door.

You as God's people, we as the family of God, can live in the power of a sanctified life elected, called, and set apart by Jesus Christ Himself with the confidence and assurance that no matter what comes against us in this world, we are going to win.

Even Jesus needed that encouragement. Even Jesus needed that reassurance and that love from His family.

Moses and Elijah are sitting there. Now, in truth, we're fallen creatures.

We are absolute idiots. I promise you. I'm a licensed, ordained senior pastor.

I'm here to tell you, I'm the biggest idiot in this room. Amen. Wrong time to say amen.

You're going to hell. Guys, listen.

It's beautiful. Listen. We still screw up. Here's Peter.

Here's James and John. The stalwart, the bulwarks of the early church.

They're sitting there and Jesus Christ, Moses, and Elijah are all of a sudden sitting right here.

Once again, it's hard for our little weak human brains to comprehend this, but I'm telling you, they saw it.

And as they saw it, Peter looks up and Peter gets in the moment. Man, he gets in that church moment, don't he?

He sits there and says, okay, here's what we need to do. We need to build a tabernacle.

Now, guys, for some of you, especially those of you who grew up in religious understandings, yes, the tabernacle.

We've got to make the tabernacle. Guys, the tabernacle he's referring to are a bunch of lean -to sticks.

Okay? If you have a church that wants you to give money so they can build a gilded, glorified, gold -lettered...

walk out of that place. Listen to me. Our tithes and offerings should go to ministry, not bigger, fancier buildings for the arrogance and the personalities of a preacher.

These tabernacles are simply lean -tos. That's all they are. And Peter wants to build them real quick.

All of a sudden, when Peter says that, it says, while he was still speaking... You see, even in our stupidity, it's important that God interrupts us, lest we do more damage than we already do just simply walking around.

And see, here's what's really important, people, is you let the Word of God speak and you shut your mouth.

Too many pastors and church people I know try to get in the way of God's Word by trying to make everything organized and controlled and make it fancy.

Let me take control of this situation and bring about a standing, operated procedure.

But in the middle of our best -laid plans, God's Word interrupts and says, Hey! This is

My Son in whom I am well pleased. Your job is not to build tabernacles.

Your job is to listen to Him. That's your job. Listen to Him.

All of a sudden, what happens? The moment that voice speaks, Elijah and Moses are gone.

And it's Jesus alone. Today, I would have you remember those two words.

Jesus alone. There is no better axiom for us in this country today.

There is no better philosophy for us to live a sanctified life and to know the peace of God than those two words,

Yesus monos. Or just simply, Jesus alone. I would point to you just a couple of things this morning.

I would point to you just a couple of things. Charles Spurgeon identified this two hundred years ago when he said, in this passage of Scripture that we read, some

Christians want to see it as Jesus and Moses only. You see,

Moses was the lawgiver. He was that first institutive person who brought about through the law of God, who had it written down, brought about a national identity for the first time.

They had just left Egypt. They had nothing in common except a belief that God was going to fulfill

His promises and then God gave them an identity for the first time after Egypt.

After that horrible time, God gave them an identity after He had sanctified them and molded them to get them ready to be a nation.

He said, for now you are going to be Israel. You are going to be the people of God.

And your identity is not going to be in a flag. Your identity is not going to be in anything else except My Word.

Oh, that the United States would go back to that mentality again. That the only adherence that we have is not what divides us or what is important to us individually in a sectarian motion or idea.

Oh, that we would go back to a time that it's God's Word and God's Word alone that guides us.

For there is no other hope for our nation or our churches or your individual families or your individual life save the

Word of God. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing is not the words of a pastor or a church that are going to bring salvation and fixing your life or your children.

It's going to be an adherence and an obedience to the Word of God. Some people still want to see

Moses and Jesus. But at the end of the day after God speaks, it's still

Jesus alone. The other side is some people want to see Jesus and Elijah.

You see, Elijah 900 years before Christ, he was that passionate prophet.

He was that guy that culminated and cemented the idea of what it was to be a prophet of God.

He called down fire from heaven. People wanted to be around him. They identified

God with Elijah and his passion and the emotions and all that other stuff.

They were fired up for God when Elijah was around. But you see, guys, it is not smoke machines, a light show, fancy music or preaching.

It's not the pretenses of religion. I still hear people say, oh, pastor, if you'll just wear a suit and tie.

There was this guy who was the greatest preacher of all time named John the Baptist and he wore camel hair.

Guys, please, let go of your silliness. Please let go.

The other side of that same token is you want to be different for the sake of being different just to be different to find a niche or a market to try to reach people.

People, listen to me. I don't reach people. The Holy Spirit of God reaches people. I don't save people.

I cannot save anyone. There is no power in me. My job is to be a mirror.

I am to reflect the glory of God and let the Holy Spirit of God work in people's lives. There are people in this room who struggle with drugs and alcohol, broken marriages, homosexuality, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Guys, I'm here to tell you, I can't fix you, but I can show you someone who can.

Every Christian in this room should be a preacher of that Gospel. The passion should come from being plugged into the

Holy Spirit, not something manufactured to try to get people to make an emotional decision. Guys, it's not emotion.

It's not passion. It is Jesus alone. Look, maybe some of you in this room need to identify with some of these groupings that I've said, the disciples.

Maybe you need to identify with not Moses, but Christ. Not Elijah, but Christ. Let's just look at this for a second and quit worrying about the outline.

Just hear the Word of God. What was God's response?

What was God's response when Peter said, hey, let's put all of you on the same level.

First of all, God does this. If you look with us here in the selfishness of Peter.

By the way, check out Peter. Listen to his words. Church people, listen to his words.

When he sees Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, look what he says. It is good for us to be here.

What about the other 12 disciples? What about the rest of the people in Jerusalem who are under Roman oppression?

What about the whole stinking world? Do you measure your spiritual maturity by how you feel leaving church?

It's good for us to be here? My gosh, that is not the call of Christ. That is not the mission of the church for us to feel good and for us to be here.

What it is important is we need to be out there. We need to be in the lives.

Listen, ministry is not the stupid choir or the stupid music or the idiot preacher.

That's the halftime show. The real game is what are you going to do in the life of somebody else?

It's not you standing up and going homosexuality is wrong, God hates fags, blah, blah, blah, whatever.

It's how you get into the life of an individual and be a disciple maker for Jesus Christ.

What ministry do you have here today? If you think your butt sitting in a chair on Sunday morning is ministry, stop smoking crack, humble yourself before God, repent and get involved in the life of someone in this room or out there.

Peter sits there and goes, it's good for us. And God said, zip -a -da -lip.

In the Greek -Italian, that's how it... He sits there and says, while he was still speaking, verse 5, suddenly a bright cloud covered them.

Please, this ain't Casper the ghost. This is the same cloud that led the children of Israel out of Egypt.

It's the Shekinah glory of God. It's not that holy laughter garbage or any of that other stuff church wants to be.

It's the visible understanding of God's presence. But the reason it had to be a cloud was this.

Because if a sinful human comes into contact with the real glory of God, they're going to drop dead.

And so it has to be shielded and clouded by that cloud. And God said, hey!

Be silent. Listen. It says, this is My beloved

Son. I take delight in Him. Listen to Him. Guys, you know what we need to do here on every

Sunday morning? It's for all of us. It's not just for a place for sinners to be saved. It's a place for us as Christians to be revived.

Remember, revival has nothing to do with lost people getting saved. It has to do with that which is alive and been called to sleep or dead is being reawoken and regenerated again.

Listen to me today. We need to redirect our focus. We need to come to a place where we need to hear

Him. If we listen to anything or anyone today, we need to listen to Jesus Christ.

Listen and focus to Him. It also should be a refocusing of our worship.

When you're worshiping God, sometimes... Now, I'm going to admit something to you, and if y 'all want to fire me as a pastor,

I totally understand. But I'm going to be real with you. Sometimes when I'm up here worshiping

God, thoughts will just pop into my head. And they're not good thoughts.

You know? You men, you know what I'm thinking? You know what I'm talking about, right? Please, I'm feeling very insecure.

Okay. I thought I was crazy for a moment. I'm alright? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Guys, when

I'm worshiping or when I'm praying, here's the other thing that hits me. I start thinking about how it affects me.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, God. Yeah, I know, baby.

Hang in there. Hang in there. Let the miracle happen. Listen to me. Guys, it happens to all of us.

We all struggle. Remember, there's only one race of people. There's only one problem of humanity. It's sin.

Not Democrats or Republicans. The commonality shows a singular author of life.

But it also shows us in that singular authorship, it shows us a singular authority.

Listen to Him. Redirect your focus. Redirect your worship.

And it should be focused upon the name and the Word of God Almighty as revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ.

There's an exclusivity in that name. Guys, please listen to me for just a second.

And I say this with all humility. And I mean not to offend with human words, but with the truth of the

Word of God. Jesus said in John 14, verse 6, I am the way.

I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the

Father except by me. I know in today's world, we all want to just get along.

But our worship, our redirection, needs to understand the exclusivity of the name of Jesus Christ.

Acts 4 .12 says, there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Guys, it is not many paths to God. It is the reality of understanding there is only one way to joy, peace, heaven, resurrection.

And it's not through many different avenues. Listen, and some of you may be in here to say, well, right,

I understand that. Maybe there's not many ways, but Jesus is the best way. That is a contradiction in logic.

For there's not many ways, but He's the best way. By default, there is something saying that there is a multiplicity of ways.

Listen, it's not that Jesus is the best way. Jesus is the only way.

And I'm not saying that to you to put everybody else down. I'm saying to you, quit trusting in other things, for you will hear those words in Matthew 7, just ten chapters ago, where many will come unto

Me that day, Jesus said, and saying, Lord, Lord... Jesus will go, who are you? Lord, don't you know

Me? Lord, I fed the sick. I healed the sick. I fed the poor. I did miracles in your name.

And Jesus will say unto them, depart from Me, you worker of sin, for I never knew you.

Some of the most religious people in this room are going to split the gates of hell open because you did not understand the exclusivity of Jesus Christ.

You trusted more in a letter in a church or a membership or a creed or a religion, and you left

Jesus Christ over here instead of being His Lord. He was more of an option.

I'm here to warn you today that there is no prayer you can pray in your heart.

There is no religious creed that you can claim. There is no church attendance nor tithing that you should hold dear to your heart.

It is only by faith in the name of Jesus Christ will you ever hope to be able to escape hell and know the peace of heaven.

Some may say, that's hellfire and brimstone preaching. No, I'm here to tell you that's called truth.

And some of you in this room, maybe some of you have been members of a church for 30 years, are still in the dangers of the flames of hell because you see the faults and the failures of this world but not the arrogance in your own life.

You have never fully surrendered. You want to take your prayer and your membership instead of your submission to the

Lord God Almighty. That's what God was saying. Redirect your focus to Jesus and Jesus alone.

Now look at the disciples just for a second. Look at the disciples' response to hearing the

Word of God. They did this. Immediately they jumped up.

Raising their hands, began speaking in other tongues. Running out to join the seminary and on a mission trip.

They immediately changed their rags and ACDC t -shirts to a suit and tie with a new aplomb for understanding of the cultural elitism of a

Southern Baptist religion. They adhered to a new voice and dialect. Let me tell you something.

When God calls you to salvation, people, you will come to know the fear of God.

People say, we should never be afraid of God. Okay, buddy. You're going to be one day.

You're going to be afraid of God one day when you come face to face in reality with the holiness that you have rejected your entire life here on earth.

Listen, it can't be helped. It can't be helped. You see, because the reality of the holiness of God immediately does two things.

It dethrones you and your sensitivities to the righteous calling of the

Word of the living God. It immediately brings you to a place of humility that even on your best five minutes of your life with Jesus Christ, it looks like a filthy rag before the holiness of Almighty God.

That greatest time where you were ethically, morally, religiously good, you can't hold that up in comparison to the righteousness of Almighty God.

Listen, when you come face to face in your life, some of you in your hearts right now, right now, the truth of God's Word is convicting you of your selfishness, self -centeredness, and your understanding that God is calling you to salvation because you've been playing religious church games.

If you are not afraid that it is not the voice of God, if you are not in a healthy fear it is not the voice of God.

Parents, listen to me. Listen to me.

Your children should fear you. Oh, I know. I know all the psycho babble in this world tells you something different.

Listen, here's what they should fear. Not your right hand across their face.

They should fear disappointing you. There's another word for that. It's called respect.

Guys, do you respect God? Do you respect Him? If you have never feared

His justice, if you have never feared His holiness, if you don't fear to this day disappointing

Him, your spiritual life is full of crap. Listen to me today.

It is not the religious highs when we come face to face with God.

It is the humility of knowing the conviction of our sin.

How sinful are you today, those of you that have been saved 30 years? Do you still see in light of the holiness?

I don't know what's going on, but put your butt in a seat and stay there. Holy crap!

It's like Grand Freaking Central Station in here. I'm about ready to shoot somebody. Listen, not really, not really.

Stop being a tool of whatever is going on in your heart and mind and let people hear the

Word of God. So shut your cake hole and listen. Some people in this room desperately need to hear it and you're being used as a tool and you're being played by the other one to cause them a distraction and not hear the truth.

Be silent. Some of us in this room desperately need to hear the truth of God's Word.

And it's being spoken right now not by an old fat man, but by the Holy Spirit of God to their hearts. Because it's not what reverberates off your ear, it's what reverberates off your heart that changes your life.

The disciples' response was one of awe, fear, and respect.

Awe, fear, and respect. Do you respect God? If you don't, you've never come face to face with Him.

Do you feel convicted? If not, you have never known the power of His Holy Spirit.

And if you don't agree with that, that's fine. Keep your opinion to yourself and go back to your

Catholic church. Because it's not a stupid religion I'm talking about here. It's the

Word of God that can change your life. Last thing and I'm done. Sorry, guys.

You have to understand on the level I hate religion, the road to hell is not paved with drugs and alcohol, it's paved with religion.

The harshest words of Jesus Christ were not for those that were prostitutes and drunkards, they were for the religious elite who thought themselves better than others.

It's in that vein that I despise it. Sometimes I get overly emotional about it and I'm sorry.

We could talk for hours about certain things.

But I think it's appropriate, especially with what we're doing today and dealing with with Robert, we can see

God's response to our stupidity. We can see the disciples' response to God's response.

But man, what a blessing it is to see Jesus' response to all of it. Disciples are just being called out.

They're laying face first on the ground. They ain't singing just as I am.

They're probably messing up their diapers a little bit. You know what I mean? They're sitting there.

They're probably scared and trembling. And they've come face to face with all their failures, their stupidities.

Oh my gosh! What's Jesus do? It's so beautiful.

Read it. Read it. It's so beautiful. It says, then

Jesus came up. He left His transfiguration. He left that moment of glory to find just a moment of respite and peace in the worry that was coming towards Him in His impending death.

He left it again to minister to them. And He walks up and instead of telling them how big of a failure they were, how much of a lack of faith in which

He was disappointed again. Another time will you repent and say,

I will never do this again. Peter had just got finished saying, Lord, if everyone else walks away, not

I God, for I am Peter. Hear me roar. I'm going to stand right next to You the whole time.

Idiot moment number 732. What's Jesus do?

He walks to Him. Remember this, people. You're not going to find

Jesus. Jesus is going to find you. You're not going to find religion. Jesus is going to find you.

Jesus walks up to them and look what He does. He sits there and says,