A Glimpse of Glory Matthew 17:1-8

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in Milltown, and they have one of those old churches there that the songs are playing from the church during the week.
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And I think that church has since closed, but this was a few years ago. And the song they were playing was, holy, holy, holy.
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I don't think all of Milltown could hear it. And that's what heaven's going to be like one day, just these wonderful, rich hymns that no one will ever object to because everyone will agree that indeed he is holy and worthy of our praise.
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Now, sometimes you might think that we who live in the 21st century got a raw deal because we don't have the experience of those in Bible times.
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We haven't had the experience of Abraham who spoke with God. We haven't had the experience of Jacob who wrestled with God.
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We haven't had the experience of Moses who witnessed God open wide the Red Sea so that he and his people could cross.
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We haven't had the experience of Elijah being swept up into heaven.
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But what we must understand is that we may very well experience an even greater event than these people experienced.
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The Apostle Paul describes this future grand event in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 16 and 17.
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The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
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Then we who are alive who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
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This event, just read, of course describes the rapture of the church.
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The time when all believers alive at that time will see the glory of Christ as he comes to the sky and people will be raised to life with him.
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This event will not be a regional event. This will be a global event. Every corner of planet
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Earth, this will be the experience. Cemeteries all over the place will be ripped open as the dead are raised to life.
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And those who are alive at that time will be caught up together with them in the air.
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It almost sounds like science fiction, but this is reality. This is actually going to happen. It tells you the world we live in.
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This is not a mundane place. This is a supernatural world that we live in where extraordinary things happen.
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And this event will be unlike any other. Can you imagine going through an otherwise mundane day and suddenly being jolted into the sky to meet
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Jesus in the air? The book that never lies tells us this will happen.
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This will be the experience of some believers. And if this happens in our lifetime, we will see the glory of Christ in the most spectacular way.
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Now during Jesus' ministry, there were many times when his glory was not seen. If one saw him on the road, he looked just like any ordinary man.
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But there were moments when his glory was seen. His glory was seen when he performed miracles.
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You see that he quiets the storm and his disciples look at him like, who is this guy that we spend time with?
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He looks like us, but he just calms the storm in a moment. Now when we talk about the glory of Christ, there's one event during his earthly ministry before his resurrection that stands out more than any other, and that is the
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Mount of Transfiguration. Three men witnessed this event.
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And this is the event we're going to look at today. And Jesus planned that these three eyewitnesses would see this event and they would be able to tell the whole world what they saw.
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So that's what we're going to focus on this morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew. So this time
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I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 17. We'll be looking at verses one through eight.
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And if you're using one of those red Bibles, it's on page 977. This sermon is titled,
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A Glimpse of Glory. What I'll do is begin by reading the text.
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This is the preaching that we do in this church. We read the text, explain the text, apply the text.
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Okay, if you want to understand what kind of preaching we do, that's what we do. And love opening up the word of God.
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So here's the word. And after six days, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
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And he was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.
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And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here.
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If you wish, I will make three tents here. One for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.
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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
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I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
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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.
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Here's our big idea this morning. Understand that Jesus is
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God's ultimate spokesman. Understand that Jesus is God's ultimate spokesman.
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And we will see three manifestations how in this text. But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were one week ago.
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We're always coming from somewhere and going to somewhere. Last week we looked at the end of chapter 16 where Jesus explained that if anyone would come after him, one must live a life of self -denial and take up his cross.
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In Jesus' life, he showed what the difficult path is and he expects anyone who would follow him to understand that this is how it will be.
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To follow Jesus is the best path, yes, but it's also the harder path. He doesn't sugarcoat it.
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It is the path less traveled because people fall for the lies of Satan and the world because they are appealing to their sinful desires.
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Even though the path is hard, what everyone finds who goes down this path is that this is the only place where true life is found.
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It is only found in following Jesus who alone will lead you to glory.
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Now this leads us to our text that we've already read, but now we'll zero in on. Let's begin by looking at verse 1 where once again, the author
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Matthew writes, and after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
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The time that had passed between Jesus' conversation with his disciples where he tells them, you must deny yourself, you must take up your cross and follow me.
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The time between that and this glorious event that we're going to look at here is six days.
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What we read in verse 1 is that Jesus went up on a high mountain with only three of his disciples. Now this is interesting.
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Of all the people Jesus could have chosen, he chose twelve. So that's a small circle right there.
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Within that circle was an even smaller circle. There were three. These three were
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Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John. James and John were called the sons of thunder according to Mark 3 .17.
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Now what does that mean? One Bible commentator said that it refers to their intense, outspoken personalities.
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This type of personality also describes Peter well. So in lots of ways, Peter was also a son of thunder.
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So Jesus picks three men to be in his inner circle and all three of these have strong personalities.
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The strongest of the others. This makes sense when you think about it. For one to lead, it's good if the person's more vocal.
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Jesus chose the three most vocal and outwardly passionate of the twelve to be the leaders of the twelve.
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Now what these men are about to experience on this mountain is hard to put into words. You read a book, it doesn't quite capture what actually happened.
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But we're going to do our best today to try to capture this. And if we leave boring today, or if we leave bored today, there's something seriously wrong with us.
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Okay, I'm just going to tell you that right up front, okay? There should be no boredom here as we look at this event, arguably one of the greatest events in world history.
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Now at this point, the disciples had seen Jesus do many mighty things.
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But as they saw him doing these mighty things, he still looked like them, as I've already told you.
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But now he's about to look different from them. Let's see this in verse two. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.
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What verse two tells us is that he's transfigured. In Greek, this word is metamorphose.
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This is, in English, this is the word metamorphosis. What it means simply is to be transformed into something else.
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And in this case, it is to be transformed into something glorious. The second half of verse two tells us what his appearance looked like.
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His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. This sounds like the appearance of an angel.
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In Luke 24 4, as the tomb was rolled away, two angels stood before the women. And what that text says is that the angels had dazzling apparel.
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So his clothes would have been an incredibly bright white, and his face also had that same brightness as verse two says.
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It was shone like the sun. We had that eclipse a few years back.
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Do you guys remember that? And they told you to get those fancy glasses. I remember Brianne and I, we kind of made the mistake.
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We looked up in there without the glasses. And for a few days, I'm not kidding, our eyes did not feel quite right.
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It was so bright. You know, as a child, you're told, don't look into the sun, right?
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It'll mess with your eyes. And here, they're seeing this dazzling brightness before them.
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What we read here is the glory of Christ on display. This is not how
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Jesus was seen during his ministry, but this is how we will see Jesus in heaven.
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Revelation 21 -23 says this concerning the future heaven and Christ's appearance. The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the
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Lamb. What glory means in these passages is a bright light.
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A brighter light than it has ever been seen on earth. Theologians call this brightness that radiates
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Christ, they call it the beatific vision. Beatific means blessed, and what this is communicating is that it's a blessing.
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It's the greatest blessing to see Christ with your eyes in all of his glory.
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This event in verse 2 that the disciples are witnessing not only previewed future heaven, but it also previewed the coming of Christ.
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And I read the coming of Christ earlier during our call to worship. The last verse of our text last week was verse 28.
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And what Jesus told the disciples in that verse is, truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the
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Son of Man coming in His kingdom. This verse is describing the event of what we see in our text.
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The disciples get a preview of the Son of Man coming in His glory and what He will look like when
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He comes in His glory when He returns to the earth. As Matthew 24 -30 describes, then will appear in heaven the sign of the
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Son of Man. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the
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Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
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This preview of future heaven and Christ's return is what these three disciples get to see with their own eyes right here.
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Can you imagine them telling this to the rest of the disciples? You guys saw what? They would tell them this.
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It's interesting that they weren't blinded as they saw Jesus here. In Acts 9, the
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Apostle Paul is on the road to Damascus. Jesus appears to him. The light is so bright that Paul is blinded.
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Of course, he was called Saul at that point. But he's blinded and it takes him days to get his vision back.
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But the Lord kept him from being blind here. And I think the reason is because they needed to see what was going on here as we're going to see in this text.
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And they needed to be eyewitnesses of what they saw. Now as Jesus has been transfigured before them,
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Peter notices that Jesus isn't the only one there. There's two other men standing beside Jesus.
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Verse 3 tells us, And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him.
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Okay, well that's interesting. These two men are two well -known prophets from the
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Old Testament. My Old Testament professor once said that their presence here shows that they were the two greatest prophets of the
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Old Testament. Moses and Elijah. Moses wrote the first five books of the
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Bible. And he is known, as you know, for leading the Israelites across the Red Sea. Elijah was known as a prophet who was faithful in the midst of great hardship.
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And there's a close connection between Elijah and the coming of the Messiah. More on that next week.
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So these two prophets hold a huge role, as you can see. And so it makes sense that these are the two prophets that appear with Jesus on this mountain to mark the importance of the
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God -man who stands with them. Now what Peter says in verse 4 is just odd.
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Okay, so let's read that here. This is bizarre. He says this. Lord, it is good that we are here.
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If you wish, I will make three tents here. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
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Okay, we should give Peter a pass here. If we were there, we might have said something worse than him. I don't know. But this is what he says.
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Jesus tells Jesus... Jesus tells... I'm sorry, not Jesus.
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Peter tells Jesus, Moses, and Elijah that he will build a tent for them. Now in the parallel passage in Luke 9 .33,
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the author Luke makes the comment that Peter said this. As he said this, not knowing what he said.
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Okay, Luke's like, he didn't know what he was talking about as he said this. Now, why might
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Peter have said that they should build a tent for Jesus and the two prophets? This is interesting to think about.
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If you're just reading through your Bible and not really carefully thinking through the text, you're going to miss this, okay?
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So this is very important for us to understand. Last week, we saw
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Peter tell Jesus that he couldn't die because he did not understand that the Messiah needed to suffer.
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Remember that? And Jesus told him, get behind me, Satan. What Peter might be doing here is telling
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Jesus to live on this mountain along with Moses and Elijah and therefore avoid the future suffering that he described.
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That Peter did not want him to suffer, of course. Now, the reference to tents is significant to understand.
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In the Old Testament, the Jews had festivals and one of the festivals held was the Feast of Booths.
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The Feast of Booths took place six months before the Passover, the time when the crucifixion of Christ would take place.
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So the chronology fits that during the Feast of Booths is when this episode is taking place.
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What Israelites would do to celebrate the Feast of Booths was to set up tents and stay in those tents during the festival to commemorate the time when the
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Lord led Israel out of Egypt as the Israelites during this time lived in tents for 40 years in the wilderness.
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So that's what this festival was marking. So it was a fitting time in Peter's mind to build these tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah on this mountain.
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If everyone else is living in tents, why not have them live in tents too? Okay, it still sounds bizarre,
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I know, but you see where he's coming from. But as these men stand with Jesus, they are here for a reason as I alluded to above.
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In times past, Moses was God's spokesman and Elijah was God's spokesman also.
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And now Moses and Elijah are standing before these three disciples explaining to them that Jesus is the ultimate spokesman of God.
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In the parallel passage in Luke 9, we learn something very interesting about this encounter between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.
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What verse 31 of that chapter tells us is that Moses and Elijah spoke to Jesus about His departure which
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He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Okay, so you're reading Matthew. You don't really understand this fully unless you read
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Luke. Matthew just tells us they're talking. Luke tells us what they're talking about.
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Okay, let me read that again. They spoke to Jesus. So Moses and Elijah, these two great
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Old Testament prophets who are on this mountain, they speak to Jesus about His departure which
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He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now what does Luke mean by departure? Moses and Elijah are talking to Jesus about His death, resurrection, and soon departure from the earth as He would ascend to heaven.
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Remember the last two Sundays when we saw Peter protest Jesus dying on the cross?
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Well, these two prophets from the Old Testament aren't protesting this, are they? They're talking to Him about it.
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They wrote about this. They're encouraged by this. They're telling Him, this is what you're going to do. This is what we wrote about.
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This is the reason why we were your prophets. Now Moses and Elijah play a very key role in the work of the
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Messiah. Moses' delivering of Israel from bondage to slavery in Egypt pictures the bondage of sin that Jesus delivers
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His people from. And Elijah, as I mentioned above, is closely tied with the coming of the
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Messiah. You know, when John the Baptist comes, they ask him, are you Elijah? Last week, what we saw, not last week, a couple weeks ago, when
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Jesus is talking to His disciples and He says to them, who do the people say that I am? What do they say?
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One of the things they say is Elijah. Elijah is tied with the coming of the
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Messiah. Now what these men are telling
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Peter, James, and John and the whole world is that this man is the focus of all of history.
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He is the focus of God's great plan of redemption. And the goal of redemption is to gather a people for Himself where God will once again dwell with man.
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This man that they pointed ahead to in the Old Testament is about to accomplish His mission.
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Their work was significant, Moses and Elijah, because of the man they stand next to.
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This is a great passage, by the way, to take an Orthodox Jew to. They believe in Moses and Elijah, but they don't believe in Jesus.
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Moses and Elijah are giving their stamp of approval that Jesus really is the
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Messiah. That He's the Chosen One. That He's the Savior of the world. And yet,
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Jews don't believe that. They read Moses and Elijah blinded.
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The whole point of their ministry was to point ahead to the redemption.
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They're calling Israel to repent, to walk in God's ways. The only way one can do that is if one believes in Jesus as the
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Messiah. Do you understand that? If you understand the
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Old Testament without understanding Christ, the true Christ, you missed the whole point.
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Orthodox Judaism is a works -righteousness system. Obey the law of Moses, and God will have favor on you, and you will go to heaven.
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Moses and Elijah are saying no. You must recognize that you can't keep the law.
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We're telling you to repent. And the only way you're saved is by grace alone, through faith alone.
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And all this points ahead to the finished work of Christ on the cross. A great place to take an
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Orthodox Jew. The moment of transfiguration. And Moses and Elijah understand that.
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So, here's point one. Understand that Jesus is God's ultimate spokesman. And the first manifestation how?
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Is through displaying His former prophets alongside Him. The second manifestation how we are to understand that Jesus is
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God's ultimate spokesman is by declaring His divine endorsement upon Him.
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This is our shortest point of the morning, but we'll see this in the first half of verse 5.
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Okay, declaring His divine endorsement upon Him. Now, if you think things were majestic, it's going to get more majestic here.
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Now, Moses and Elijah are not only, not the only endorsement of Jesus here on this mountain.
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He receives a much more important one in the beginning and middle of verse 5. Let's read this.
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So, Peter was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.
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And a voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.
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What we read is that Jesus' Father in Heaven gives Jesus His approval here.
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He tells the three disciples that this is my Son with whom I am well pleased. As He says all of this, a cloud is overtaking.
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The disciples. This is reminiscent of how God appeared to His people in the
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Old Testament. The Lord often showed His presence with Israel in this way. In Exodus 13, verses 21 and 22, we read that the
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Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.
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The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
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Now, what we know, of course, is that God does not have a body. Of course, the second person of the Trinity does, right? Jesus, but God, the
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Father and the Holy Spirit do not have a body. They have spirit. You cannot see a spirit.
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So, at times, God shows His presence in different ways. One of those ways is through a cloud that was shown numerous times in the
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Old Testament, as we see here in verse five. As Peter was speaking, a bright cloud came over them.
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Okay, this is not just any cloud. Sometimes you see that fog, right? That goes low down on the road when you're driving and you can hardly see.
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This is not a cloud like that. This is a bright, dazzling cloud that is before them.
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In the first point, we notice that Jesus' appearance was dazzling in white. And now we see the
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Father shows His presence through a dazzling cloud. One thing that we love about the winter, there's a lot of things we hate about the winter, right?
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But one thing that we enjoy about the winter is when that sun shines down on that fresh snow.
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Isn't that beautiful? And it just radiates. That displays the glory of God in some faint way.
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But the brightness of that pales in comparison to the brightness of the cloud and the brightness of Jesus, right?
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Who's still standing before them. This would have been an incredible sight to see.
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Again, it's an understatement of the century to say that. In heaven one day, this should be one of the most interesting conversations we have.
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We'll try to find Peter and James and John will ask them, what was it like to be on that mountain?
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What was it like? They see two great prophets from the Old Testament.
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They see Jesus in His glory. They see this bright cloud which represents the glory of the
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Father. And they hear a voice out of this cloud. And this voice of the Father gives
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His stamp of approval to Jesus by telling Him, this is My Son. This is not some rogue prophet who comes on the scene and declares himself to be a prophet from God and declares himself to be the
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Messiah. You know what's interesting? Do you know how many false messiahs there were in the history of Israel?
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A lot. Do you know how many people were fooled by these false messiahs?
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Quite a few people. So when Jesus comes on the scene, they're thinking, is this just another one of these pretenders?
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No, of course not. Did any of these false messiahs have a voice from heaven saying, this is
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My Son? No, they did not. The disciples had already seen enough.
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During His ministry, they had seen His miracles. They had listened to the truth about what
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He taught. And they recently officially confessed in chapter 16, verse 16, that You are the
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Christ, the Son of the living God. Now the Father is officially giving
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His approval as He proclaims, this is My beloved Son with whom
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I am well pleased. You must understand that the disciples weren't there at Jesus' baptism, when the
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Father said the same thing when Jesus was baptized. He said, this is My Son with whom I am well pleased.
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John the Baptist was there baptizing Jesus. But here, the disciples hear it themselves.
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This is Jesus' identity. He's not an ordinary man.
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He's not the guy who the people would see on the road. This is ordinary guy. Remember, He wasn't even good looking.
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Isaiah 53 says He wasn't even that attractive. He's just an ordinary guy who did extraordinary things.
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And now they see Him for who He really is. The conversation that Jesus had with Moses and Elijah on this mountain showed the disciples, these three disciples, that Jesus going to Jerusalem to die and rise again was
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God's plan all along. As these men know of this plan of redemption.
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The great prophets of the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah, gave their endorsement. And now the Father does as well.
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And what they're both saying is, He is from God. He is the
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Messiah. He is God's Son. He is the Savior of the world. We talk about this a lot, right?
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How if you ask someone, if you ask a friend, if you ask a family member, if you ask a neighbor, someone on the street, a classmate, do you respect
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Jesus? Oh yeah, oh yeah, I respect Jesus. And then you say, well, do you believe that Jesus is the
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Messiah? The long -awaited prophet from the Old Testament, the Anointed One, do you believe that?
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Do you believe that Jesus is not only man, but He is also fully God? The second person of the
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Trinity. Do you believe that He is the Savior of the world? Do you believe that He is coming in the future to judge?
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Then they might say, well, that's not the Jesus that I like. Because people love a
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Jesus of their own imagination, right? Not the Jesus of the Bible. This is who He is.
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And if you don't believe in Jesus for everything I just said, you don't believe in Jesus. So understand that Jesus is
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God's ultimate spokesman. The second manifestation, how, is through declaring His divine endorsement upon Him.
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The third manifestation, how, we are to understand that Jesus is God's ultimate spokesman is through preparing
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His future spokesman to carry His message. And we'll see this in the remainder of these verses.
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Now, we've already seen the Father tell the disciples of Jesus' true identity. And what the
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Father tells the disciples at the end of verse five is something so important to see that they would always remember.
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What He says is this, listen to Him. Listen to Him.
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You know how you have those moments in life that are etched in your memory? Life is full of millions of mundane moments that we soon forget.
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But we all have certain moments of big events in our life that are etched in our memories. Think of those memories right now.
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Your wedding day. Hansy's coming up, right, next week. The birth of a child.
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An exciting birthday as a kid. Getting caught in a blizzard. They're not always happy ones, right?
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Seeing a giant bear with her cubs. A Christmas to remember with your family.
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The day you came to faith in Christ. The day you were baptized. These are dramatic events in your life.
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I remember my dad telling me one time, he's like, I don't remember much from my childhood, but I remember I threw a piece of glass on the ground and my mom got angry at me.
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Traumatic events, right? Etched in your memory. There's a million, millions of other events you don't remember because there's nothing significant about it.
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It was just an ordinary day, right? But we do know that there are no ordinary days. But you know what I mean? I mean, there's some things that stand out more than others.
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It goes without saying that this event would stand out in the memories of the disciples. Once they heard this from the
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Father, this glorious scene goes away. In verses six through eight, we read, when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
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But Jesus came and touched them saying, rise and have no fear. And when they looked at their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
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The reaction these three disciples have is what people have when they are met with the glory of Almighty God. They fall on their faces and they're terrified.
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Now, none of us have experienced this. But one day, all who are in Christ will experience what it is like to be in the presence of God.
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Can you imagine how they would have looked at Jesus after this event? It was enough to see
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Him do His miracles, but now they see Him in all of His glory right before them. But this is remarkable about Jesus though.
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As we see Him in all of His glory, He still is the guy they know. The friend they know.
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Even though He's so great, He's so approachable. What verse 7 tells us is that Jesus touches them and tells them, rise and have no fear.
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They would have been terrified of Him. They're in the presence of greatness. We have this experience in life of being around someone in a high position.
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Some of these people will not talk to commoners and give off an air of superiority.
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I mean, you know who I'm talking about. I'm too good for you. We don't talk to your kind, right? But I am friends with the president of the
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Central Seminary, Matt Murrell. And this was the seminary that I graduated from. One thing
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I love about Matt is how approachable he is. Even though he pastors a large church and is president of a seminary,
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I feel very comfortable reaching out to him. Every Christian should be that approachable. For example,
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Matt, we're having a little pastor's retreat here in March. And I wanted to go to a retreat where he was leading it because I like him a lot.
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He's a good guy and I've learned a lot from him over the years. He's like, how about I come up there and we just have our own retreat?
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Sure. Most presidents don't do that, okay? Most people in high positions don't do that.
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I'm just so amazed by that and so grateful to have a friend like that. But every Christian should be approachable.
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It doesn't matter how high a position a Christian has. If you're the CEO of a company, it doesn't matter. You should be down to earth with people.
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If you're the president of the United States, it doesn't matter. You should be down to earth with people.
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What we see Jesus do here is talk to his disciples at their level. He tells them, it's me.
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Rise and have no fear. Don't be afraid. You just saw my greatness, but I'm the one you've been with these last three years.
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He's their friend. In John 15 -14, Jesus calls his disciples his friends.
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Your friends are those who are approachable. His greatness is still there, yes, but he's their friend.
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Once Jesus tells them not to be afraid, they look up at him. And they see the
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Jesus they know, the one in a weakness, the one who looks like them, but they would never look at him the same way.
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They would never look at him the same after this event. Jesus designed this event for these three disciples with a great purpose.
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By God the Father telling these three disciples, this is my beloved son, and listen to him. What he's communicating is that he's not going to be on this earth forever.
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We've seen that. He told them, I'm going to the cross. I'm going to die.
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And when I die, it's your responsibility to carry my message forward.
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As he says, listen to him. He's telling them, listen to everything my son says. What we must understand is that if Jesus is
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God's only son, that this means that he's also God. He's the
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God -man. What this means is that when Jesus speaks, he speaks the very words of God. When the prophets in the
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Old Testament spoke, they spoke on behalf of God. But when Jesus speaks, he not only speaks on behalf of his
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Father, he speaks as God. Jesus is
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God the Father's ultimate message to the world.
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Do you ever wonder why John 1, 1 calls Jesus the Word? You probably remember, you maybe memorized this verse in a
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Wanner growing up, or if you have a Wanner, or just at home, in the beginning was the
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Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Why does
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John call him the Word? You know what the answer is? Jesus is
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God's spokesperson. When the prophets spoke on behalf of God, they were speaking the words of God.
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But no prophet is greater than Jesus because he is God himself. He is
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God's spokesman. He is
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God's revelation to the world. There's three revelations that God gives to the world.
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Creation. You look around the beauty of the world, the majesty of the world we live in.
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God has communicated. He is there. He created this. And you owe him your allegiance.
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He also speaks to us through his Word. The 66 books of the Bible. The other way he speaks to us is through his
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Son who came to this earth. God became a man. And his life and teaching must be looked upon by the world.
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These three disciples already knew that he is the Son of the living God as they made this profession of faith in chapter 16.
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So this event is not only for them, but even more so for the ones who would hear their testimony, including us.
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This is why the Apostle Peter, who was one of the three on the mountain, what he wrote in 2
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Peter 1, verses 18 and 19 is this, we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
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And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention to as a lamp shining in a dark place.
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What Peter is saying here is that we should have utmost confidence in the testimony of Jesus Christ.
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Moses and Elijah gave their endorsement. The Father gave his. There's only one man who redeems humanity from their bondage to sin.
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And there's only one man who will reign forever. He calls all of his followers to listen to what
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Jesus and his word says. The strongest voice in your life should be
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Jesus Christ. Okay, let me say that again. The strongest voice in your life should be
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Jesus Christ. You'll hear lots of voices and most of those voices will be false.
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You go through your week, think of how much falsehood you hear. But Jesus always tells the truth.
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What Jesus says is that those who are truly his will hear his voice. In John 10, 27, he says, my sheep hear my voice.
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I know them and they follow me. That's one thing I love about preaching, by the way. You know who's going to come and listen to me preach?
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To me preach the Bible? God's people. Why? Because they want to hear his voice.
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And as long as I explain it accurately, you are hearing the voice of God. Think about that.
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My sheep hear my voice. They come, people want to hear it.
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You don't come to hear me tell funny stories. You'd be bored out of your mind. I'm not very good at that.
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You don't come to hear me be a comedian. I can tell, you know, I can say something funny every once in a while, but you don't come to hear me be a comedian.
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You don't come to hear me because I'm a great public speaker. You come to hear me because I'm telling you what the Bible says.
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My sheep hear my voice. The main message about Jesus Christ is the cross.
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This is what Moses and Elijah were talking to him about. And we know that this is why God the Father sent his son to earth.
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The most famous verse in the Bible, anybody know? What do you think the most famous verse in the Bible is?
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John 3, 16. There we go. Somebody want to quote it? Interactive sermon here?
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Okay. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
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This message, the gospel, God the Father calls these three disciples and all of his followers to proclaim.
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The Father calls all people in the world to respond. As Acts 17, 30 says,
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God commands all people everywhere to repent. You can't talk about Jesus without talking about the cross.
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That symbol is tied to who he is, right? You see crosses everywhere. Jesus, that's what he did.
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You can't follow him unless you understand the cross. While he was on earth,
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Jesus was God's primary spokesman during his ministry. But the message of the cross, and not only that, but everything that flows out from the cross, everything that he taught would be carried on by the 12 disciples.
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Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.
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This was their responsibility. The Old Testament prophets had a responsibility.
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Call Israel to repent. Call them to believe in God. Point ahead to the
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Messiah. Jesus had a responsibility. Call people to himself. And then when he leaves the scene, his disciples carry on the mission.
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Point everybody to him and everything that he commanded. The disciples witnessed the glory of Christ on this mountain.
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They witnessed his glory all through his ministry. They know his significance. They know what he accomplished through his death and resurrection.
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And they know what he taught them about what it means to be his disciple. And going forward, they would be the ones to deliver this message.
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This most important information to the world. By extension, we do that as well. The disciples aren't on the scene anymore, are they?
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But we have their testimony. And we bring it to the world. We bring it to those in our life.
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So how are we doing? Are we following the legacy of Moses and Elijah, of Peter, James, and John, and continuing and saying, listen to what he says right here.
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Understand that Jesus is God's ultimate spokesman. And we've seen three manifestations how in this text.
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The first is through displaying his former prophets alongside him. The second is through declaring his divine endorsement upon him.
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The third is through preparing his future spokesman to carry his message.
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You know, it's interesting. We live in such a corrupt world. And I can just hear God saying, listen to me, right?
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Listen to my son. If you just do that, things will go well for you. You wonder why the world is such a mess.
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You wonder why our country is such a mess. People stop listening to God. You pull the
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Ten Commandments out of the court. You pull the Ten Commandments out of school. You wonder why.
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We live in such a godless place. People stop listening. And when you do, it's to your own demise.
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But all those who do listen, it's for their benefit. Their glorious benefit. Now, none of us know what it was like on that day since words on a page can only capture so much.
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But everyone who is in Christ will see Christ in his glory one day. And this will be the greatest experience any of us will ever have.
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To gaze upon the majesty and beauty of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This book that you hold in your hands declares the glory of this man.
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And may every believer here worship and listen closely to everything he says. We want to obey him in our lives so that we reflect him.
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And there might be someone here who's listening to me. Believe in the Lord Jesus today. He went to the cross.
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He died for your sins. He rose from the dead. And you can be with him in glory one day if you believe that message.
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Now, next Sunday, we are going to look at the final five verses of this section.
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Verses 9 through 13. And I tell you what, there's so much to unpack in those verses. And I can't wait to show you everything that is there as Jesus and his disciples come down from the mountain and he gives them instructions.
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And we're going to see who is Elijah in the fullest sense of understanding that prophecy.
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Who is Elijah? And we'll look at that next Sunday. But this time, let's bow our heads in prayer.
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Father in heaven, thank you for your word. My professor once said that if we're bored from the preaching of the word, there's something seriously wrong.
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And so Lord, we're seeing your glory on display here through these pages. So may that greatly impact the way that we live our lives this day.
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We give you all the praise. We give your son all the praise, all the glory, all the honor. And help us to listen to him.
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Like you call us to do. In Jesus name, Amen. Okay, today's a big day, isn't it?
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So it's like a triple header here. Sunday school service.
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Now we have the potluck. And then towards the end of the potluck, we're going to have the annual meeting.
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So if you're a member, we would love for you to stay. When you're a member, we want your input.
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And we want you to see what's going on with the church and your input. If you're not a member, you can stay too.
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To see what that's all about. If you're interested in becoming a member, you can see what that's all about. You're welcome to stay.
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But there's plenty of food downstairs. So look forward to that time of fellowship with you. And again, three o 'clock, walk for life from St.
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Joseph's Church in Osceola. But please receive the benediction as we close this part.
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The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.