The Transfiguration

Introduction

Well, good morning, as we are gathered together here, if but virtually, we’re gathered together again to worship our God, to worship his son. The day that we call the Lord’s day. The day in which much of the religious world calls Easter. We as Christians shouldn’t need much help thinking about Jesus. I want you to think about Jesus this morning as we study together. And as we begin, I want you to think about a particular scene or event from the life of Christ. Maybe think about your favorite. To some, they may focus in upon his birth in a manger. Others may have a particular teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, or one of His parables that they like to focus in on. To another, it may be a miracle, walking on water, feeding the five thousand, healing the lame, the leper, the deaf, the blind, or raising the dead.

Many may be thinking about his suffering on the cross, or certainly of that empty tomb. But for our study this morning, I’d like for us to focus on another event from the life of Christ, one that is too often neglected, but one that I believe ties every event of the life of Christ together. This morning I’d like for us to focus on Jesus and his transfiguration. The three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this event. If you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, that you open them up with me to the book of Matthew, chapter 16 this morning, Matthew chapter 16, where we’ll begin as a lead up to this transfiguration. But before we talk about this transfiguration, and rather than reading one or all three of the gospel accounts, let’s just see if we can remember this wonderful scene.

Jesus takes three of his apostles, Peter, James, and John, up into a high mountain. And in that mountain, something happens. Jesus begins to change before their very eyes. His face begins to shine like the sun itself. And then his clothes, his body and his clothes begin to shine bright, so bright white that no one could launder clothes and make them that bright. And as Jesus is transfigured before them, two other guests mysteriously appear. Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus on that mountain, and they began to talk to Jesus. And the subject of that conversation is his decease. And Peter, as he was wont to do, began to speak, and he said, Lord, it’s good for us to be here. Let’s build three tabernacles, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

And as if this event that these three men are allowed to witness wasn’t glorious enough, something else happens. A cloud descends upon them, and a voice from heaven declares, This is my son, my chosen one, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him.

1. God’s Answer to the Question “Who Am I?”

Moses and Elijah are no longer with them. Peter, James, and John, with their Lord, descend that mountain with the instructions to not tell anyone until. When we think about that powerful experience of what Peter, James, and John got to witness and that Jesus experienced on that mountain of transfiguration. I’d like for us to consider three thoughts this morning. The first thought is, is I’ve asked you to turn to Matthew chapter 16, that I believe the events of the transfiguration in a way answer a question. They are God’s answer to the question that Jesus asked in Matthew chapter 16. Do you have your Bibles turn with me there to Matthew chapter 16 beginning in verse 13? All three of the gospel writers who record the story of the Transfiguration, put it in close proximity to the events that transpired prior to it in the area of Caesarea Philippi.

When Jesus, I’m reading in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 13, when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man am? There’s the question. There’s the question that Jesus is going to answer or ask twice. Who am I? He first phrases it in saying, Who do others say that I am? And to that they replied, verse 14, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, other Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But Jesus wasn’t satisfied with that answer. He pressed them for their own response because Jesus wasn’t simply grooming reporters who would tell what other people think about him. He was preparing witnesses who would tell what they saw and what they knew about him.

And so in verse 15, he asked again, but who do you say that I am? And Peter famously replies, You’re the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And so Jesus’ question, who am I? has now been answered by the masses, and now been answered by his disciples, his followers. And you’ll remember that after this event, that Peter makes that grand confession that Jesus says upon that fact, upon the fact that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, that Jesus would build his church, that Jesus goes on later in chapter 16 to describe what’s going to happen to him. In verse 21, it says, from that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, be raised again the third day.

And Peter again is the one to speak. And he begins to rebuke Jesus and saying, No, no, that won’t happen. We won’t let that happen. And Jesus famously says to him, get behind me, Satan. Because Peter understood the person of Jesus, that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God. But at this moment, at least, he failed to understand the mission of Jesus. That Jesus had to die and be raised on the third day.

And then as we turn our page in our Bible to the 17th chapter of Matthew, we’ve again heard the response of the masses to the question, who am I? We’ve heard the response of Peter and the apostles to the question, who am I? Could it be that on this mountain we hear the Father’s answer to that question? That God declares him to be his son in whom he is well pleased. And so we get the transfiguration scene. As God finally and definitively answering the question, who is the Son of Man? And not only answering the question about his person, but explaining his mission. And that how that in dying and experiencing that humiliation and being raised the third day, that through humiliation he would receive heavenly glory.

2. The Privileged Three Got to See His Glory

What a powerful scene. And those who were there with him in that mountain, those select privileged three, they got to see his glory. I want you to just pause a little bit and think about that scene and try as best that we can try to visualize what it must have been like for those three. What it must have been like to see how privileged they were to just see Jesus in the flesh. But now to see his transformed, his transfigured flesh, of what an indelible mark that must have made in their minds and their memories. They saw Jesus transfigured before them. And then to be able, as these good Israelite men, now followers of Jesus, to also be able to see Moses and Elijah. To see maybe what were intended to be the representative of the law and the prophets before Jesus.

And to hear that voice declare that Jesus is superior to the law and the prophets. Hold your finger there in Matthew 16 and go with us to the book of Hebrews. Maybe they got a visual and vocal demonstration of what we read in Hebrews chapter 1. Look at Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2 that says, God, God who at various times and in different ways spoke in times past by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he is appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the world. Look at verse 3, who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as he has by an inheritance obtained a more excellent name than he, than they.

In his transfigured self have something to say about that exodus that he would experience. And so they saw the transfigured Lord. They saw the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, and add to this that they were among the very few who heard the voice of God speaking to them from that cloud. I find it interesting that these privileged three are not the three who by inspiration record this event. Matthew, Mark, and Luke weren’t there. Of the three that went up with them in the mountain, only John writes a gospel account, and John, interestingly, leaves it out of his gospel account. But does John hint at this in John chapter 1? Look at John’s gospel in John chapter 1, though John does not record for us the transfiguration scene that he and he alone among the gospel writers got to see.

But does John hint about this when he says of speaking of the Word who was with God and was God, when he says in John 1, verse 14, as John begins to pin by inspiration his gospel account, he says this in John 1, verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now it’s possible, it may be even likely that when John says we beheld his glory, he just means in everyday occurrences. In his teaching, we beheld his glory. In his miracles we beheld his glory. In his interaction with children and the sick and the old, we beheld the glory of God. But do you think John, even by inspiration, could pin those words without pausing and thinking of him literally beholding the glory of God on that wonderful day of the transfiguration?

3. We Get to Have Our Moment

What an event. What an enviable position they held as they descended from that mountain forever in their minds. The scene that they saw and the voice they would have heard. But as glorious as that scene was, we didn’t get to see it.

They didn’t see Moses and Elijah. They didn’t hear the voice from the cloud declare that this is my son. Hear him. So, what about their mountaintop experience? They were like the Israelites in the old law. It was Moses that went up into Mount Sinai. It was Moses who communed with God. It was Moses who received the revelation of the law of God. The children of Israel just got the law in tablets of stone. And what about you and I? Where’s my mountaintop moment? What am I to gain from this event and the other events in the life of Christ, since I didn’t get to see them.

But if you’re a Christian, you’ve had your moment. If you’re a child of God, you’ve had a moment in your life where it clicked. Where the proverbial light bulb went on. And it all made sense to you. That with Peter, you could make that grand confession. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And unlike Peter, on that day, you understand that he needed to suffer and to die upon that cross, to be raised again on that third day. And you, like those three on that mountain, would figure out later the significance of the glorified Christ. And how it surely signaled that after that humiliation, glory would follow. And so we get to have a moment in which we can understand and we see the truth of God’s word and its application in our lives, and we get to hear the voice of God.

Not in that direct, miraculous sense that those three witnesses did, but when we recognize that God is speaking to me. When I read and understand his word, I see the glory of nature and know that God is declaring himself. When I even look into the mirror and recognize I am made in the image of God, and when I am open up his word, and I understand that this is my moment. Here, God is revealing himself to me in the person of Jesus Christ and through his revealed word. Look at a couple passages of scripture with me in the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 3. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, another apostle who wasn’t on that mountain of transfiguration, is telling us about Moses going up into his mountaintop experience and coming down, and Moses’ face was glowing after being with God, that close to God, so much that the people had to veil their faces.

And Paul makes a contrast here between them and us when he says in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, but we all, that is, we New Testament Christians. We on this side of the cross, we on this side of the empty tomb, we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed in the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Paul says, we are having our moment. Those at the base of the Mount Sinai did not experience it. Those apostles at the base of the Mount of Transfiguration didn’t get to experience it. But we, in our own way, get to have our moment. We with unveiled face behold the glory of God.

We get to have our moment.

Peter was one of those three that experienced this mountaintop moment. And though Peter does not pin a gospel account and tell us the historical retelling of this event, Peter does talk about it. In 2 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 16, Peter and eyewitness of that transfiguration says this. For we, 2 Peter 1, verse 16, for we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father, honor and glory. When such a voice came to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on that holy mountain.

We also have the prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to heed. As a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning shines in your hearts. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Do you see what Peter, one of those eyewitnesses, says? Peter says, we were with him in that mountain. We saw his glory, we saw his majesty, we heard the voice. And so we’re not making up what we’re talking about. We were there. We saw it, Peter says, of he and the rest of those eyewitnesses.

And he says, not only did I, Peter, get to experience that, but he says, you would do well to heed to my message. And experience that light in your own way. Notice again in verse 19, we also made the prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place. Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart. Peter says you listen to the eyewitnesses. And you let that be your light. Now it’s not the light that we saw, but it’s a light.

And you will have the day star, a brighter, much brighter light. Shining in your hearts. Now Peter may be talking about our resurrection and our experience of that glory, but he may also just be talking about in this life. That when we have that moment, that when we understand the will of God, we understand the plan of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ and His church. That the day star shines in our hearts as we come to the light of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus.

Conclusion

What a wonderful scene on that mountain. As they saw our Lord transfigu before them, giving them a glimpse of the end of his mission. That yes, Peter, he must suffer and die. But he’ll be raised on the third day. And then something like this will happen. That’s the mission of our Lord. Have you had that moment in your life? To where you studied the scriptures or heard it preached or taught to you, and you understood the will of God. And you knew that you needed to submit your life and your will to Him. That you needed to obey that gospel in your life, to believe and to confess that faith before others, to repent of your sins, and to be baptized for the remission of your sins.

Though we’re separated through this time, if you need to render obedience to the gospel, please reach out to us. We would love to study with you the Word of God. We would love to help that light shine in your life and in your heart. And if you need to render obedience to that gospel, please reach out to us. We would find a way to assist you. We would find a way to help you obey the gospel today. If we can help you in any spiritual way, in any way in your lives, please reach out to us as we let that day star shine in our hearts.