WWUTT 2041 The Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-2)

Jesus led three of his disciples up on a mountain where he was transfigured before them.

And this was to show them the glory that he was in was not an earthly glory, but heavenly when we understand the text.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we are up to chapter 17.

This is the account of the transfiguration. When Jesus goes up on a mountain with Peter, James, and John and is transfigured before them.

Let me go ahead and read here verses 1 through 13 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the

Lord. And six days later, Jesus brought with him Peter and James and John his brother and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light.

And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him.

And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish,

I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.

And behold, a voice out of the cloud said, This is my beloved son, with whom

I am well pleased. Listen to him. And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.

And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, Get up, do not be afraid.

And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell the vision to no one until the

Son of Man has risen from the dead. And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

And he answered and said, Elijah is coming and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah already came.

And they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the

Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them about John the

Baptist. Now there is a lot going on here that we're not going to do in just one day.

So this is what we're investing in this week is studying the transfiguration. And I actually want to look at the very end of this account first and jump back to something that we've read in chapter 16.

I said when we finished up 16 last week that those last couple of verses, I would come back to in light of the transfiguration, like in the context of the transfiguration, what was

Jesus talking about when he said, Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the

Son of Man coming in his kingdom. So that's what we're going to go back to. But first, looking at the end of this account, chapter 17, verses 12 and 13,

Jesus says, I say to you that Elijah already came and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished.

So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.

Then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them about John the Baptist. And I come to that part first because that's what we had just read in chapter 16.

Jesus telling his disciples that he was going to suffer. The disciples are not expecting that.

And we're going to see several occasions where Jesus reminds them of this. It's like the first time comes up in chapter 16, but then we see it two other times where he talks about,

I'm going to go into Jerusalem. They're going to arrest me. I'm going to be tried. I'm going to be put to death, but I'm coming back three days later.

Like he repeatedly tells his disciples this, but they they're still not getting it.

They still don't understand it. What the disciples are anticipating is that they're going to go into Jerusalem and Jesus is finally now going to assume the throne of David.

Remember, that's where they're going. They were passing by Caesarea Philippi when

Jesus had asked them the question, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, well, some say

John the Baptist. Some say Elijah or Jeremiah or another prophet. And Jesus saying, but who do you say that I am?

And Peter responds, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. It was there at Caesarea Philippi that Jesus asked them that question.

They're on their way from Galilee back to Jerusalem, and there may be this anticipation among the disciples that this is it.

Finally, we're going to go back into the capital city. Jesus is going to kick out the Herod's, and he's going to do that work of making

Israel a great superpower again, because that's what our Messiah is going to do. That's what the Jews expected their

Messiah was going to do. We didn't talk about this when we were in the section on John the Baptist. When John had been arrested and he was in prison, remember that he sent his disciples to Jesus asking him, are you the one that is to come, or are we going to be expecting another?

And the thing that John the Baptist had not yet seen, the thing that even he was anticipating that he had not seen from this

Messiah that was coming, is where's your army? Where is this great military emancipation that the

Messiah is going to do? And you don't seem to be that guy. So are you the one, or are we looking for another?

The disciples are still expecting that that's what's going to take place. When we go back to Jerusalem, this is what

Jesus is going to do. But Jesus is instead telling them that he's going to go into Jerusalem and be arrested and put to death, but he's coming back to life.

And remember, it was this very thing that Jesus said to his disciples and was saying to them that caused

Peter to have to pull him aside and say, far be it from you, Lord, God forbid,

I will never let this happen to you. But then Jesus says to Peter, what? Get behind me,

Satan, for you are a stumbling block to me. You are not setting your mind on God's interests, but on man's.

You're not thinking with the mind of God, you're thinking with the mind of a man. And then right after saying that to Peter, he says to his disciples, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

What were the disciples expecting to take up in following Jesus? They thought they would be taking up swords.

Remember, there's even a zealot among them. There's Simon the zealot that is one of the disciples.

They had these expectations of the Messiah coming and making Israel great.

And so we're following Jesus because we think he's the one. Look at the miracles that he's doing. He's clearly the one that has been sent from God.

They're expecting an earthly conquest, not a heavenly kingdom.

That's what they have in their minds. And they still haven't gotten that out of their minds. And as Jesus continues to teach them these things, they still don't yet understand this.

So that's why Jesus says to them, you must deny yourself. You must take up a cross, an instrument of death, not an instrument of conquest.

For the kingdom of God is not going to come in earthly power. It is going to come in the power of the

Holy Spirit. Jesus says whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Like if you accomplish this task of spreading Christendom in the world, but you lose your soul doing it, you try to justify to yourself that the end justify the means, what will you have profited?

You will have lost your soul. Our inheritance is not in earthly conquest.

And nor was the disciples, and that's what it was that they were expecting. Our inheritance is in a heavenly kingdom in Christ.

And that's what Jesus is teaching them. And he does say to them in verse 27, I'm still in chapter 16, verse 27, he says, the son of man is going to come in the glory of the father with his angels and will then repay each one according to his deeds.

So Jesus says that day is coming. And when that day comes, it's going to be unmistakable.

We're not going to be journeying like this, homeless and going to Jerusalem and then in great power, going to overthrow the

Herod's and kick out the Romans and all this other kind of thing. That's not the way that day is going to transpire.

It will be the son of man coming in the glory of his father with his holy angels and will judge the earth and righteousness.

That day will be clearly demonstrated to all. Everyone will see it.

Everyone will know here's the glory of God in judgment. But then

Jesus says in verse 28, truly, I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom.

Now, many have taken that verse, verse 28, to be the explainer of verse 27.

Again, Jesus says, the son of man is going to come in the glory of his father with his angels and will then repay each one according to his deeds.

And so then when Jesus says there are some of you standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom, it's often interpreted that Jesus is talking about the same thing in both verses and he's not.

27 and 28 are not about the same thing. He's telling his disciples there will be a day of glory in which the son of man will judge the world in righteousness.

That's verse 27. But the coming of his kingdom is not that day. So when he says some of those who are standing here will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom, he's not talking about 27.

He's not talking about verse 27. He's not talking about coming back in the glory of the father in judgment.

He's talking about the coming of a kingdom that will happen before that. So this is not about the end times.

Verse 28 is not about the end times. But oftentimes 28 is also like to try to explain this.

People will use the transfiguration and say that what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 16, 28 was actually the transfiguration that Peter, James, and John would witness.

So let me come back to that again. Verse 28, Jesus says, well, let me go back to 27.

So you're hearing it all together. In 27, we read, the son of man is going to come in the glory of his father with his angels and will then repay each one according to his deeds.

Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom.

Once again, the son of man coming in his kingdom is not what he had just said in verse 27 about the son of man coming in the glory of the father with his angels and will then repay each one according to his deeds.

The coming of his kingdom is not that, because the coming of the kingdom is happening now with the spread of the gospel throughout the world.

If I may borrow from Luke 17, 20 and 21, Jesus was questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming.

He answered and said, the kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, look here or there, for behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.

So when Jesus talks about the son of man coming in his kingdom, that's not verse 27.

That's not the son of man coming in the glory of his father. The son of man coming in his kingdom happens before that.

And this is the work that he's going to commission the disciples to do, that we'll read about at the end of Matthew, the very last thing

Jesus says at the end of Matthew. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the

Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always to the very end of the age.

That's the building of the kingdom. And the son of man, there are some here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom.

Well, that happened in the book of Acts. And there were many of the disciples and the apostles who indeed witness the coming of the kingdom of God through the spreading of the gospel, the son of man coming in his kingdom.

Jesus ascended into heaven right before their very eyes, where he was enthroned at the right hand of God.

And then reigning in heaven, his kingdom is spreading in the earth through the advancement of the gospel.

And the disciples and the apostles witnessed all of this. And they witnessed, they understood that this was not, then, an earthly conquest in that sense.

This is the advancement of a heavenly kingdom. Something spiritual is happening here, not something that you can point to on a globe.

Now, oftentimes, the transfiguration is used to explain verse 28. And I've done this before.

Like, I've done this very thing where Jesus says, there are some standing here who won't taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom.

And then Jesus is transfigured before them in chapter 17. And that's the fulfillment of what

Jesus had just said at the end of chapter 16. I think that's partly true. So I'm not going to say

I'm entirely wrong whenever I've done that before, whenever I've used the transfiguration to explain

Matthew 16, 28. It's partly true because they do see Jesus transfigured before them.

It's all in the context of these things that he's been teaching his disciples through chapter 16.

I will build my church. I'm going to go and be put to death. But do not fear because I'm coming back again.

And the son of man is going to come in his kingdom. And you're going to witness that. And so to give them a taste of that, he takes

Peter, James, and John up on the mountain, and he's then transfigured before them. Basically, the veil of his flesh is taken away so that they might see the glory of the son of man, that even

Moses and Elijah are standing there with him, just baffling to the disciples.

We'll talk more about that tomorrow when we come back to this particular passage. But Jesus giving them a taste of exactly everything that he's been talking about.

This is not going to happen the way that you expect it. And the transfiguration, not at all the way that Peter, James, and John would have expected something like that.

They're looking for another David, one even greater than David, who's going to come and sit on the throne of David, and he's going to overthrow the

Herods and the Caesars. And Israel will become the great empire in the earth instead of what

Alexander the Great did several generations before, and then what the Romans have done now in spreading their empire in the world.

Israel is supposed to be that empire. That's their expectation, but Jesus shows them something different, and he shows them the glory that he really has, and that what they're going to build is even more magnificent than what you might be expecting from an earthly kingdom.

But he says to his disciples not to tell anybody about the vision until Jesus has risen from the dead.

Remember going back to verse 9. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell the vision to no one until the

Son of Man rises from the dead. Now, he's probably talking about the other disciples, not just, you know, in your teaching, exclude this part about the transfiguration until after the

Son of Man rises from the dead. Even the other disciples aren't to know about this. There was something about Peter, James, and John that Jesus trusted them with this that he did not give to the other disciples, but they would come to know that later.

So just like we actually have a multitude of disciples that were following Jesus, and then there's the twelve, and then there's even a core of closer disciples among the twelve, which included

Peter and the brothers James and John. And so he shows them specifically just this thing.

Peter especially being kind of the leader of the rest of them, and that he may know what is going to happen here.

You're the one that rebuked me, you know, and yet Peter gets the privilege of being able to see Jesus transfigured before him.

But Peter being a leader of the rest of the disciples, it's going to be given to him to see this vision and know that the kingdom that we are building is not what everybody's expecting.

It's not going to be an earthly advancement. This is the heavenly kingdom that we are building.

And Peter being given that opportunity to see Jesus, who he really is, and James and John seeing the same thing.

And both of them, both Peter and John, write about the fact that they were witnesses to the transfiguration in two of their epistles, in 2

Peter and in 1 John, right at the beginning, in the first chapter of both.

So Peter makes the reference here. Let me read in 2 Peter 1 .16.

For we did not make known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, following cleverly devised myths, but being eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved

Son with whom I am well pleased. And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

And we have as more sure the prophetic word to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes by one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the

Holy Spirit spoke from God. Now what's interesting about both of Peter's epistles, 1 and 2

Peter, is that they are suffering letters. These are instructions from the apostle on how to suffer well in the midst of hardship and even persecution before we are to join

Christ forever in his glorious kingdom. That's what Peter's letters are about. So he came to understand this later, but here at the start of Matthew 17, these disciples are still following Jesus with this expectation that he is going to become a military

Messiah who is going to assume an earthly throne and establish an earthly kingdom.

But Jesus is showing them there's something greater than that going on.

And so this even puts into context the question that Jesus had asked at the end of chapter 16.

What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

We are not out to build an empire on earth. Our mission must be building the kingdom of God through the preaching of the gospel.

And we must be faithful to that calling. God is the one who will change hearts, who will transform hearts and minds and bring those in darkness into light and transfer those of the kingdom of destruction into the eternal kingdom of Christ.

If we go out with the gospel, we will be faithful to that commission that Jesus has given to us.

It's not about building Christendom. It's about preaching Christ. And God will do the work that he intends to do through that preaching of the gospel.

Let's finish with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here at the very start of the

Transfiguration. And I pray that as we continue to go through this, we see the glory of Christ.

We understand that the mission is to preach Christ. And that there is a responsibility upon each and every one of us that we would die to ourselves.

Not trying to advance what we have in our minds should be my course of life or the state of the world or what my kids need to be doing or whatever else.

We desire to honor Christ. There's a lot to do today just in terms of keeping ourselves unstained by the world.

Give us the strength to resist temptation. Help us to love one another and share the gospel with others.

That your kingdom may be advanced to the glory of your name. It is in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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