The Divine Confirmation - Luke 9:28-36

Well, good morning, and welcome to Faith Bible Church. We're glad you're here.

So continue to pray for anyone going, well, all of our young people, but especially going into college.

You need a lot of prayer cover when you go into a place like that. For announcements, the

Summer Bible Studies continuing Fridays, next one's August 25th at 5 .30,

and we're gonna continue that probably into mid to end of September, depending on how long it takes to get through that, but that's about roughly the timeline.

The Bible counseling, of course, next is Saturday, August 26th at 11, and I think you all know about that.

And Missionary of the Month is Darcy. Victor talked about her and what an amazing ministry she has and translation and just getting the word out.

We've got the word here, we don't have any, there's nothing really encumbering us from sharing the word with anybody in this country.

So we don't have the barriers that are just mountains to them, but the plane is level, we can just get out there and do it as the

Lord leads. And I think that's it for announcements.

I guess I missed anything. I wanted to share just a little bit from Spurgeon.

I was looking, reading through, I always enjoy morning and evening with Charles Spurgeon, and the verse this time, the passage was, "'He shall stand and feed in the strength of the

Lord.'" And that's Micah 5, 4. "'He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord.'" And it talks about Christ's reign in the church,

His reign over our lives. His reign is practical in its character. His reign is continual in its duration.

And I'll read the last paragraph. "'His reign is effectually powerful in its action. "'He shall feed in the strength of Jehovah.

"'Wherever Christ is, there is God, "'and whatever Christ does is the act of the

Most High. "'Oh, it is a joyful truth to consider "'that He who stands today "'representing the interests of His people, "'us, is very

God of very God, "'to whom every knee shall bow. "'Happy are we who belong to such a shepherd, "'a shepherd whose humanity communes with us, "'and whose divinity protects us.

"'Let us worship and bow down before Him "'as the people of His pasture.

"'And we do serve a shepherd king.'" What a contrast to almost any religion in the world is that we have a, picturing a shepherd and a king together, you just don't find it.

It's only with the true God, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So let's open in prayer together. Lord God, we thank you that you have brought us all together here,

Father, to worship you, to honor you, to bring you glory. Lord, may we bow down before you this morning, because you are worthy of our worship and our adoration, that Father, you are the spring, the fountain of everything that is good and right.

Father, may we just grow together today as we open your word, as pastor presents the message to him,

Father. Lord, may we just be touched. May our lives be changed in a way that we could be more effective in sharing with those around us,

Father. God bless our time. May our voices be a sweet aroma,

Father, to you. And Lord, we just are blessed to be here today. So God be with those that aren't here today, that are not well, that are sick, that are having difficulties,

Father. Lord, may you just surround them in your love and your care, and that they would be encouraged and blessed by your presence.

Father, bless us now, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's play this song, and I think it's good for us just to pause and think about our

Savior and what he is to us. So if you would stand together with me. ♪

Mercy ♪ Scripture reading is gonna be on Luke 24, verses 44 through 49.

Luke chapter 24, verses 44, 49. Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the

Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus is written that the

Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in the name to all nations.

Beginning from Jerusalem, you are witnesses of these things, and behold,

I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

This is the word of the Lord. In fact, we're talking about the majesty and glory of our Lord. And we wanna think about how majestic he is and how glorious our

Lord is. Please turn with me to Luke chapter nine.

Luke chapter nine, verses 28 through 36. Luke chapter nine, verses 28 through 36.

Now it came to pass about eight days after these sayings that he took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

As he prayed, the appearance of his father's face was altered and his robe became white and glistening.

And behold, two men talked with him who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his disease, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep. And when they were fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

Then it happened as they were parting from him that Peter said to Jesus, master, it is good for us to be here and let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

Not knowing what he said, while he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them and they were fearful as they entered the cloud.

And a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him. When the voice had ceased,

Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that it is not just human testimony of who

Jesus is, but it is the divine testimony, the divine confirmation that Jesus dying on the cross for our sin was not a mistake in human history, but a divinely ordained event in your redemptive history.

And Father, we pray that you would help us to trust what Jesus has done with all of our lives, knowing that it is the most important thing that's ever happened on earth.

We pray that your spirit would work through all of us to open our eyes and our minds to receive your word, so that our minds would be changed.

In Jesus' name, amen. So this divine confirmation, this passage is often called the

Mount of Transfiguration. It comes right after Peter's confession.

And as you may have noticed, that Luke is extremely concise.

A lot of the details and words that you might find in Matthew and Mark, Luke often leaves out.

So it might be helpful to even consider Matthew and Mark's account of the

Mount of Transfiguration to read it along with Luke.

However, what Luke wants to highlight here is that after Peter, right, one of the disciples of Jesus, confesses that Jesus is the

Messiah, and of course, Jesus adds, right, you're not thinking what kind of Messiah this is.

This is not the conquering one that you're expecting. This is not the one who's gonna free you from Rome right now.

This is the one who's come here to be rejected, to suffer, and to die, and rise on the third day.

Now, after Jesus corrects that, we get a very supernatural account of what happens right after that, and that is

God himself comes to confirm what kind of Messiah Jesus is.

And this is important because if Jesus died on the cross, the opponents of Christianity could easily just say, well,

Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, and he just failed, and Rome just put an end to him.

And in fact, that's what the early Jews said, the Jewish leaders, right?

They spread that false news. However, what we do get here is that Jesus dying on the cross was not a mistake in God's redemptive history.

In fact, God has confirmed it even much before that Jesus ever got to Jerusalem.

It's not only enough that God has confirmed it in the Old Testament, right? Look back at Psalm 22,

Psalm 53, among many passages that talk about the messianic suffering.

But rather, God has confirmed it in front of three witnesses, right?

Peter, James, and John. And according to the Old Testament, for anything to stay in trial, you needed two or three witnesses.

And he confirms exactly what Jesus has said. He is the Messiah who has come to suffer, right?

No wonder that Peter, James, and John, although they do fall asleep, but when they do wake up, they get to hear the part of it that Jesus is talking to Moses and Elijah about his exit, right, his exodus, his departure.

New King James Version has his decease, his death, right? They're not hiding it.

The early disciples actually got to hear God's very voice from the cloud that this, in fact, is his son, and he confirms what his son has come to do.

And this is important because that changes how we view the cross.

And in fact, that actually changed how anyone viewed the cross. The cross is not just a symbol of humiliation and a sign of death penalty, but now the cross is a symbol of victory, right?

That's why the main point of this text is that Jesus is divinely confirmed as the suffering

Messiah whose glory surpasses all others. Jesus is divinely confirmed as the suffering

Messiah whose glory surpasses all others. First, the suffering

Messiah's glory surpasses the glory of all the Old Testament prophets. The suffering

Messiah's glory surpasses the glory of all the Old Testament prophets. Now, while we heard the messianic confession from Peter's mouth last week, today we will witness the glory of the suffering

Messiah. We heard last week, we will see the glory this week.

And similar to last week's passage, the context of the messianic revelation happens during prayer, right?

Now it came to pass about eight days after these sayings that he took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

Before I get to the context of prayer, it's important to note that Matthew and Mark actually say six days, but here they're eight days.

Note the keyword about, that's in front. But not only that, there is a

Jewish way of counting numbers where the ends are included, so the beginning and the end.

So depending on how you count, it could be about eight days or six days.

So there are different ways to explaining it, but I think the keyword really is about. And I think what

Luke was trying to get at is a week has passed. Now, remember

Jesus was praying right before Peter's confession of his messianic identity, that he's the

Christ of God. But not only that, Jesus also prayed before his baptism in which

God the Father and God the Spirit confirmed Jesus as the Son of God, right?

All three persons of the Trinity showed up during Jesus' baptism.

And what preceded that was Jesus' prayer. Luke really highlights the theme of Jesus praying before an important event in God's redemptive history, right?

Luke depicts Jesus' nearness to his Father before each significant development of his ministry.

Now, until last week's account, Jesus, unlike the last week's account, rather,

Jesus only takes three disciples, and they are Peter, James, and John, three fishermen.

And not that their careers have any ties to that, it's that they're the closest ones to Jesus.

Peter is one of the main apostles, but so are James and John. And James and John are brothers, they're the

Zebedee brothers. One could actually argue that James and John's mom was actually

Jesus' aunt. And that's when you look at the crucifixion account of Beth about all of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John, and see which women were present, you can actually connect

John and James' mom to the sister of Mary.

So it is no wonder why they were so close, right? And John is also the beloved disciple who lays his head on Jesus' chest during the

Last Supper. They're very close. And those three will remain the close inner circle for the rest of the gospel.

Now, verse 29 shows Jesus' transformation while he is praying. The appearance of his face was altered, and his robe became white and glistening.

Sometimes a direct wooden translation speaks volume.

So a wooden translation would sound like this. The appearance of his face was other, right?

The appearance of his face was other. It changed. This is not to suppose that Jesus put on someone else's face like some identity theft here, but rather his glorious form was revealed that it just looked like other, right?

And because of Luke's conciseness, I will share what other gospel writers depict of this scene.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 17 to be exact, he describes

Jesus' face shown like the sun. You can see the radiance of that glory.

And his robe was glistening. Think dazzling like lightning, right?

The verb has the sense of lightning in it. Now, the gospel, according to Mark, describes his robe as white like snow, so white that no launderer on earth could bleach it like that, right?

What a statement. It's not just very white. It's just, it's unnaturally white.

It's supernaturally white. There's no whiteness like that on earth that could be replicated.

And what happened to Jesus was not a natural occurrence. Of course, it was supernatural.

And this transfiguration would have been an echo of Moses' transfiguration in Exodus 34, 29 through 35.

Remember, Moses was up in the mountain to receive the law, and he's been spending a lot of time with God.

And his face started shining, too, as he came down. And however, what we will see here is that Jesus' glory far surpasses that of Moses.

While Moses radiantly came down to give the law, Jesus radiantly will come down the mountain to establish a whole new order.

Jesus didn't come to give another set of laws that are just better. He changes how his people and the whole world interact with not only the law, but God himself.

And now speaking of Moses, he actually does show up in verse 31. And behold, two men talked with him who were

Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Now, both Moses and Elijah are also gloriously radiating, and they talk with Jesus.

Thus, the significance of Moses and Elijah is debated.

And one popular view is that Moses represents the law and Elijah represents the prophets.

Now, the first part makes sense that Moses represents the law, because he is the main author of the

Pentateuch, right? Genesis to Deuteronomy, he wrote the law. He received the law from the

Mount Sinai. He's the one who gave the law. However, the second part is not quite clear how

Elijah would be the one representing the prophets. After all,

Elijah is not the first prophet that shows up. Not only that, in terms of how the books are ordered, the

Old Testament is ordered in a way depending on sections. And in the

Jewish ordering of the Old Testament, they have two different parts of prophets, the former prophets and the latter prophets.

The former prophets are the prophets like Samuel, right, first and second

Samuel. The latter prophets are like Isaiah, Jeremiah.

Now, the question is, Elijah is not the first prophet because he comes after Samuel, right?

But he is also not even a prophet who gets a book named after him, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or even

Samuel, again, right? So, because of that,

I think the second option makes more sense, and in fact, until this week, I held to this view.

Then I studied more and I realized, that makes sense. Why would it be Elijah that represents the prophets?

In fact, Moses could represent the prophets too. He was the prophet Parke's loss in the

Old Testament. Or even Samuel, Samuel came and he starts it off.

He starts off the kingdom, the nation. Now, I think the more persuasive view is this.

Moses represents the fulfilled promises of God, the fulfilled deliverance of God.

Think the Red Sea, think of deliverance from Egypt. Think, right, the

Promised Land. Now, while Elijah represents the hope of restoration in the future.

And this is in the context of how the first century Jews viewed Elijah. Remember, as we saw, even in the chapter nine, right?

In the context of chapter nine, we saw that Elijah is this future eschatological figure who would come in the last days to restore

Israel, right? Multiple times, even in chapter nine, we have seen how

Jesus could be the Elijah. He's the Elijah, he's Elijah who came, right?

They were looking at Malachi three and four for this eschatological prophet,

Elijah, who would restore the kingdom of Israel. So, what we would see here is that Moses and Elijah, they represent both the past and the future of deliverance of Israel.

And what happened was they both showed up on the mountain to talk to the transfigured

Jesus. Now, what do they talk about? They talk about his death.

The wooden translation of the word is actually Exodus. Exodus is a Greek word for departure.

That's what the word Exodus, the second book of the Bible's named, Exodus, departure.

And in Jesus' departure, the context is at Jerusalem.

It will start in Jerusalem. And what we need to know is that it's more than just his death that is in picture here.

I believe his departure starts with the crucifixion in Jerusalem, but it continued to the ascension and eventually his second coming.

It's this whole post -cross, post -crucifixion part of Jesus' ministry.

They're talking about precisely God's redemptive plan through Jesus, through Jesus' suffering and death specifically.

And the theme of Jerusalem is important here because after chapter nine, at the end of chapter nine,

Jesus will face Jerusalem and he will journey toward there. And from chapter nine until he gets to Jerusalem, it will all be pointing to Jerusalem.

In one sense, Luke narrates his gospel around the cross.

It anticipates the cross. It's directed toward the cross.

Now, his journeys to his death in Jerusalem and he faithfully follows the plan as the suffering

Messiah who dies for his people. That's the center of the gospel. And verses 32 through 33 shift the attention to Jesus' disciples' reaction when they wake up from their sleep as they witness the magnificent sight.

But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep and when they were fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

Now, as Jesus was praying, his disciples unfortunately fell asleep and this will not be the last time they fall asleep during Jesus' prayer.

The fact that they were sleeping means that they actually missed most of the conversation that Jesus had with Moses and Elijah on his road to suffering and death.

Now, as Moses and Elijah are about to leave, Peter, hoping to prolong their stay, suggests that they build three tents.

That's what tabernacles mean. Tabernacles mean tents, right? And in one sense, there is that one, the tabernacle in the

Old Testament in which God's presence dwelt. But tabernacles, in plural, it means tents, right?

Master, it is good for us to be here and let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

Now, the gesture of building tents or tabernacles, actually, it signifies the feast of the tabernacles or the feast of the booths.

You might have heard of this, the feast of the booths. And if you live around a large

Jewish community around autumn, they actually celebrate this.

You will see tents coming up. Symbolically, they don't actually live there like the ancient

Jews were supposed to for a week to commemorate God's deliverance and provision in the wilderness.

But you will see, actually, if you have any Jewish friends who are still practicing, they do build tents still for a week.

And they're supposed to stay there according to the law. Now, the feast of the booths or the feast of the tabernacles is one of the main

Jewish festivals. And they built it really as a commemoration to God's faithful provision, right?

Because they were living in tents, too, in the wilderness. They're looking back. And in Peter's mind, building three tents would be, one, it will actually prolong the stay of Moses and Elijah, right?

They have to stay a week. But second, what an honorable way to treat Jesus, right?

He's gonna be treated the same way as Elijah and Moses. That's what's going on in Peter's mind.

Because remember, Moses is the prophet par excellence, right? God spoke to him face to face.

And Elijah, look at the miracles that God did through Elijah, right? What a fighter, right?

Ironically, Peter's seeming way of honoring Jesus would be, would prove to be totally inadequate because Jesus is greater than Moses and Elijah combined.

Peter's suggestion to commemorate Jesus the same way as Elijah and Moses would have been a gross underestimation.

And that kind of points to what Hezekiah read this morning. The prophets, the law, the

Psalms all point to Jesus. How can you say that just a part of them is equivalent to Jesus himself?

Now, when we consider Jesus dying on the cross, glory may be the last word we have in mind.

He was mocked, He was spat on, He was beaten. He was utterly humiliated by Rome and the

Jewish leaders. We might be thinking, what glory? There's just blood, right?

A half -beaten man, many would hesitate to call glory. Glorious.

Now, however, that is not how the gospel authors see the cross. Matthew sees

Jesus crucified as the reigning king, the Davidic king, from the cross, crowned with thorns.

John sees Jesus' glory fully revealed on the cross. Remember Jesus' prayer in John 17.

The father glorifies his son as the son glorifies the father. When? On the cross.

The son is glorified when the father is glorified. There is this triune glory here. And why is this?

The crucifixion glorifies the triune God because the crucifixion reveals who

God is. He's the suffering Messiah. He's the compassionate

Messiah who took on the sin of the world and faced God's wrath so that God could freely justify and still remain just.

How could God be righteous and merciful at the same time? Look at the glory of the cross.

He did not let one single sin go. He didn't, he never pardoned unjustly.

All of it was paid for on the cross. Now he can compassionately forgive those who come to Jesus for forgiveness.

Now, Luke also holds the superiority of Jesus' glory as the suffering

Messiah. Jesus is the Messiah whose glory does not come from the amount of land conquered nor the number of people vanquished, but rather his glory shines forth when he is faithfully obeying his father to deliver a great number of his people as he hangs from the cross.

Jesus' glory radiates when it is revealed that he must suffer and die.

His glory in his death and humiliation for the sake of his people far surpasses that of any glory of the

Old Testament. Jesus is greater than Moses, and Jesus is greater than Elijah, and Jesus is greater than all of them combined because he is the suffering

Messiah. The suffering, the crucifixion, the mockery and death that we would normally think to be inferior is precisely the reason what makes

Jesus superior, and it's because what God does with that, and that's the deliverance of his people, not just the

Jews, but anyone from all the nations.

That's a glorious victory. That's the glory of the risen king.

He is superior to all of them because he came to die to save his people, and to view

Jesus as just another prophet, which many false religions do, is a huge, gross underestimation.

He cannot be just another prophet equivalent to Elijah and Moses. The Bible specifically shows that he has to be greater than them all.

Second, we must listen to Jesus because God the Father confirms Jesus' messianic identity.

We must listen to Jesus because God the Father confirms Jesus' messianic identity. Now, when

Peter fails to see the surpassing glory of Jesus, God himself responds.

While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them. The cloud overshadowing actually points back to Exodus again.

Exodus 40, 34 through 35. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the

Lord filled the tabernacle, the tent. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the cloud filled the tabernacle.

In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it's called the Septuagint. The cloud overshadows the tabernacle when the glory of the

Lord filled the tent of tabernacle. So the English translation says the cloud settled on it.

The Greek translation says the cloud overshadowed it. Now, what this means is when the cloud comes as Peter is rambling on about building tabernacles, ironically,

God himself shows up. In the same way that he showed up when the tabernacle was built.

So when none other than God himself came to testify of his son, it is no longer the revered prophets who testify to Jesus' messianic identity.

It is God, the one who sent the Messiah, comes. And this, of course, strikes a great fear.

They were fearful as they entered the cloud, right? Another sign that it is God who showed up.

Whenever God shows up, people get scared because of how holy he is.

He is utterly other. There is none like him in purity and love and righteousness and everything.

He is so different. Now, from the cloud,

God speaks. This is my beloved son, hear him.

Now, what's important here is that God shows up and reveals himself in front of, actually in the midst of the cloud.

And what's significant here is that in the Old Testament, not even Moses, God's faithful servant, who's in the scene right now, could enter the tabernacle because of the glory cloud that settled on it, that overshadowed it.

Yet, here, Jesus' disciples and Moses and Elijah can enter the cloud because they are with Jesus.

Only Jesus can make it possible for anyone to stand before God's presence.

After all, Jesus is the greater deliverer than Moses, who can provide for his people what

Moses could not even experience himself. Moses could not enter the tabernacle when the cloud overshadowed the tabernacle.

But through Jesus, even the unknown fishermen can enter

God's presence and live. That's who

Jesus is. Now, from the cloud, God speaks, right?

What does he mean by beloved son? Now, some translations actually have my chosen one.

And I'll explain both. The discrepancy exists because that some older manuscripts have my chosen one instead of my beloved son.

Now, both Matthew and Mark have my beloved son. So what some theologians believe is that the scribes who are copying the

New Testament, right, they see the differences in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Matthew and Mark are together and Luke is different. So they smooth it out and say, okay, my beloved son.

It's historically correct because Matthew and Mark both said beloved son. And personally,

I think either one is a powerful testimony from God of his son. The chosen one would highlight

Jesus' messianic servanthood because it alludes back to Isaiah 42 .1.

He is God's chosen spirit -filled servant who will bring justice to all the nations.

That's the context of Isaiah 42. But really, you don't need to throw out your

Bible just because it has one or the other. What's important is that God is confirming.

And remember, when Matthew, Mark, Luke, and really John too, when they're writing, they can't write everything for verbatim.

They can't capture the whole story or it would be really never -ending to capture every detail.

So while Matthew and Mark captured the angle of my beloved son,

Luke would capture the angle of my chosen one. After all, Luke's theme here is the suffering

Messiah. But either way, I think you can hold to both.

God said both. It's that Matthew and Mark wanted to emphasize one and Luke wanted to emphasize this.

The beloved son highlights Jesus' special position as the one who perfectly represents and reflects

God. Now remember the significance of sonship in the Old Testament and also ancient

Israel. It wasn't just biological. You and I, when we think of sonship, we're thinking biological or genealogical, as in if there's an adoption, right?

It's a family relation. However, in the olden days, the son represented the father, right?

In the Old Testament, Israel was called God's son, not because there's a biological tie to this, but rather because Israel as a holy nation represented

God's holiness, right? That metaphor also gets used in an individual basis too.

If your father's a carpenter, your son's a carpenter, and that's why in Mark 6,

Jesus is called the carpenter, right? Functionally, the son represented and reflected the father.

And it goes on in the Old Testament, some Davidic kings were often called

God's sons because as God rules over Israel, his people, the Davidic kings, right, the kings of Judah would rule over, hopefully righteously, over Israel, God's very people, right?

There's that functional representation. Now, when this sonship is used for Jesus, I believe it intensifies.

When God personally appears before Jesus and publicly proclaims him to be his son,

Israel and previous Davidic kings, while they were just functionally God's sons, they were

God -like in their function. They represented

God in one axis or another, right? Israel represented God in the axis of holiness, and then

Davidic kings represented God in the axis of sovereign rule. However, Jesus is more than just functionally

God's son here. The Messiah is ontologically

God's son as well. After all, Jesus is not ruling, so to say, during his earthly ministry.

So it would be odd to say that he's functionally only. But rather, the

Messiah is ontologically God's son but in his core being, he represents

God. In his core being, Jesus as the

Messiah is the beloved son of God who also happens to be

God the son. In one sense, he is so God -like, he's actually

God. He's so God -like in everything he does and everything he says, he's actually

God. That's what this sonship means when it applies to Jesus because that's who he is.

Now, I unpack both titles here because I believe both were said on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Matthew, Mark said the beloved son, and Luke focuses on the chosen one.

But both really reflect what kind of Messiah Messiah Jesus actually is.

And now, after announcing Jesus' title, God commands the disciples to listen, hear him.

Now, hear him is a command that alludes actually back to Deuteronomy 18 .15.

As Moses is at the end of his earthly ministry, he's dying, he's an old man, and he knows he's not allowed to go to the promised land.

He promises another prophet who will come after him. The Lord your

God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.

It is to him you shall listen. It's a command. It is to him you shall listen. Now, ever since then, the

Jews actually looked forward to a great prophet like Moses. And you can actually see a glimpse of that in John 1 when the

Pharisees send messengers to John the Baptist asking, are you the prophet, right?

With the article the, it's speaking about a specific prophet not just any prophet.

And that's the context here, Deuteronomy 18 .15. There's an eschatological prophet they were expecting who was like Moses.

And when God, from the clouds, revealed that Jesus, that the disciples need to listen to him, what he's saying is

Jesus is the promised prophet like Moses who will deliver his people to God as Moses did.

And now what are the effects of God's testimony? When the voice had ceased,

Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.

Now, in the end, both Elijah and Moses do not stay. In the end, neither

Elijah nor Moses needs to stay because someone greater than both of them is here.

He stays. Jesus stays. Jesus is greater than the eschatological prophet and the founding prophet of Israel.

He is the suffering Messiah whose glory will remain hidden until the right time, right?

That's why the disciples don't talk about it until the crucifixion and the resurrection.

Think of this as a letter of recommendation. Remember, a letter of recommendation when you apply to something, whether college or job, a letter of recommendation or reference matters.

Who confirms your abilities and character matters.

You may have a senator or president recommend you at best, right, and what an honor that would be to be recommended by a senator or president.

Now, Jesus Christ, however, is endorsed by none other than God himself.

He gets the best letter of recommendation. This is important because what

Jesus will go through as the Messiah will be extremely confounding to all who witness.

Even the disciples who will hear and have heard that he will suffer and die, he will suffer and die, he will suffer and die.

When it happened, they were confused, scared, and didn't believe.

Even after hearing about it personally from the very person. And that's because when

Jesus came to deliver his people, he totally overthrew all the expectations of the

Messiah's restoration. Jesus will restore his people, not through violence and power in his first coming, but by suffering violence and by being abused by the powerful.

That's a whole different picture. Unless we think the crucified

Messiah was an unexpected wrinkle in God's plan of salvation, God confirms

Jesus' identity as the suffering Messiah himself. This is not,

I heard about it some other time, I heard maybe God speak about it from someone, that yeah, that's what's supposed to happen.

But rather, before three witnesses, Peter, James, and John, God testifies that Jesus indeed is the suffering

Messiah. Lest we think that God made an error and he had to do a damage control when his son was taken up to be crucified.

Oops, I didn't see that coming. Hold on, let's recover this, and we can still restore

Israel. Oh, for sure, yeah, we can take care of sin now. Okay, all done, right?

That's not what happened. This was planned from eternity past. And this was not a mistake at all.

And God's plan of salvation has always included the death and resurrection of his very son,

Jesus Christ. There's no mistake in it. Now, for us, we do not get to experience the

Mount of Transfiguration. We're not promised this.

So you don't need to go up to a mountain hoping for a visit from God through the clouds.

Audibly confirming Christ's identity. We nevertheless have access to God's testimony of who

Jesus is, and it's the Bible. And this is why as Christians, genuine

Christians, we have to hold the Bible with great fear and reverence.

And we have to hold fast to each word of the Bible, because that is

God's testimony. From Genesis to Revelation, we see various prophecies, various typologies that point to the suffering

Messiah. What kind of savior he is. When you read a chapter like Isaiah 53, it reads something like you might read in the

Gospels. Right, he was wounded for our transgressions, our rebellion, he was wounded, he was pierced.

I don't know about you, that sounds like the depiction of the crucifixion. And that's because God personally testifies to what kind of Messiah he has sent through the rest of the

Bible, right? Genesis 3 .15, the offspring of Eve will crush the serpent's head, right?

Satan will be beaten, but he also will be struck on his heel, he also will be wounded.

It starts as early as Genesis 3, of what kind of Messiah is coming.

And for Christians, we need to hold fast to what the Bible says about Jesus.

It's not about what the media say about Jesus, it's not about what your Christian books say about Jesus, although as long as they align with the

Bible, it's true. But the standard of who Jesus is has to come from what

God has testified already. In fact, I would claim that the

Bible is fully sufficient, that we don't need a mount of transfiguration experienced personally.

You and I do not need to go up there waiting for the cloud in which God would speak of who

Jesus is, the Bible is enough. And that's all we need to know about Jesus.

Books, lectures, conferences will be had and they'll try to figure out more about Jesus outside of what the

Bible says. But for Christians, true believers, what

God has already said about his son is fully sufficient.

We need no other. Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that Jesus suffering

Messiah identity, his servant Messiah, that identity is not an accident, but it's been planned.

But not only has it been planned, but it's been confirmed during his earthly ministry in front of three witnesses.

We couldn't get a stronger proof and confirmation of who

Jesus is than that. But not only that, we're thankful for scripture that you've given us so that we individually can check for ourselves what kind of Messiah Jesus is and help us to hold fast to what you have said about your son.

And please cleanse our minds, renew our minds of any garbage or lies that we have held about your son that we got from somewhere else.

In Jesus name, amen. Stand with me as we close and as we think about our

Lord Jesus Christ, let's think about the fact that even the father has said he's exalted.

And our thinking should be that our Lord and savior is exalted. ♪