A Glimpse of His Glory
Matthew 17:1-13
March 25, 2007
I think it’s possible that no one in here would be upset if God were to give them some sort of experience that would send shivers down their spine and change their lives forever.
Maybe He’d take you to some faraway place filled with clouds and angels and harps and stuff and He’d talk with you.
You’d come out of that with some profound insight that you’d want to share with the world and hope they’d listen and catch your excitement so they could have just a part of what you’ve experienced.
Would anybody here turn down something like that? Probably not. I wouldn’t, as long as it wasn’t up too high…
God allowed three of Jesus’ disciples to have that kind of experience, but what He told them wasn’t anything they hadn’t heard already.
But God felt like they needed to hear it again, for some reason.
Let’s take a look at this passage, and see what God says to them, because it has major implications for us as well.
Matthew 17:1-13 (page 694) –
1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
(Note: Luke adds here that they were talking about Jesus’ departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem. His death and departure would bring about the salvation He came to purchase.)
4 Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don’t be afraid." 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."
10 The disciples asked him, "Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?"
11 Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.
Before we get into today’s passage, I want to go back to look at the verse just prior to this one, 16:28 –
“I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
There are four general explanations of this verse:
* those who would witness the Resurrection and Ascension;
* the Holy Spirit’s coming at Pentecost; and
* all who would take part in the spread of the church after Pentecost, especially as they would witness the rapid multiplication of disciples and the mission to the Gentiles;
* Peter, James, and John, who would witness the Transfiguration a few days later.
(Life Application Concise New Testament Commentary, Expositor’s Bible Commentary
I personally prefer the third idea – the idea that Jesus caused His glory to be seen in the spread of the Church.
But the reason I bring this up is because of the fact that some associate Jesus’ words about not dying with the event of our passage for today.
And I’m not saying it’s not possible that this is the right interpretation – I simply think that given the weight of the commentators I’ve read, the transfiguration is probably not what Jesus is referring to here.
Now let’s turn our attention to today’s passage.
Here’s Jesus taking his three closest friends
Think waaaaaaaaay back to the story of the Exodus, when Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt.
During that time, Moses went up to the mountain to obtain the Law of God. When he came back down, his face was so radiant that he had to cover it so people could even look at him.
Being in the presence of God had caused his face to actually shine with the glory of God.
But in the case of our passage today, Jesus’ face wasn’t just made to shine.
He was transfigured – He was changed.
The word here in the original language is “metamorphoo,” which means to “transfigure,” “transform,” or “change in form.”
It suggests a change of inward nature that is outwardly visible. (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)
It wasn’t that His appearance was altered because of some outside source like He went through some cosmic plastic surgery.
He was changed inside and it showed on the outside.
Oooooh, there’s a lesson right there, isn’t there? But don’t worry – we’ll get to that in a bit.
But I want to point out a couple things of this episode that stick out to me.
The first thing I want to mention is that there was a purpose to this visit.
Luke tells us that Jesus had business with Moses and Elijah. He needed to talk with them about what was going to happen to Him in Jerusalem.
Isn’t that interesting? Why did He need to talk with them? It’s not like He needed their permission to die and save the world, right?
“Hey Mo and Eli! Step over here, okay? Listen – I’ve got this idea and I want to bounce it off you. How about I go and die so people can be forgiven and go to heaven? What do you think?”
And Elijah saying something like, “You know, that’s just crazy enough to work. Go for it. What do you think, Mo?”
“I’m not so sure. Maybe would should take a poll or something to see if people even want to be saved. After all, what’s the use in dying if no one wants what it brings? Besides, if it doesn’t work, then that’s a huge waste of heavenly resources, don’t you think?”
The second thing I want to point out is the word of God that was directed to the guys who were with Jesus.
God the Father tells the disciples to do one thing: listen to Jesus.
And that’s what I hope you’ll take away from here today.
Listen to Jesus!
Why? Because the Father loves Him and is well-pleased with Him.
I think it’s interesting that Jesus told them to not tell anyone about their experience. There are probably some really cool reasons for that, but my guess is that one of the reasons is so they couldn’t brag about it.
The command on the mountain wasn’t, “Tell everyone what you saw,” it was, “Listen to Jesus.”
I think it would have been hard for me to keep my mouth shut about that – which is probably one of the reasons I wasn’t there…
“Hey everybody! I just saw Jesus talking with – get this – Moses and Elijah! Man, it was cool! And then we heard a voice from – get this – God Himself! And He told us to listen to Jesus. You guys really need to listen to Jesus – He’s the real deal, man!
“Hey wait! Where ya going?”
Nope. The command was to listen to Jesus.
I think that the world’s problems would be solved if everyone would just listen to Jesus.
I think that the problems that show up in churches would be solved if everyone involved would simply listen to Jesus.
So how do we listen to Jesus today? It’s not like He’s talking audibly to people on a regular basis nowadays, unless you believe what some of these televangelists are telling you.
Of course, God’s not speaking to you. He’s only speaking to them, because they’re so special…
So how do we listen to Jesus today? You know the answer don’t you? We hear Jesus today by reading God’s Word – the Bible.
That’s where we hear the voice of God today. That’s where we see the words of Jesus. That’s where we open ourselves to the Spirit of Jesus doing something in our lives to make us more like Jesus.
We simply need to get into the Word of God if we want to hear from Jesus today.
And you know what will happen?
Jesus will transfigure you. He’ll change you on the inside so that it shows on the outside.
He’ll do something in you that others will be able to see.
But it only comes when we’re willing to listen to Jesus.
Listening is so much more than hearing. The Father isn’t saying, “Allow the sound waves of My Son’s voice to penetrate your eardrum so your brain can process those waves into words you can understand in your language.”
The Father is saying, “Listen – and do – what He says. Listen so that it means something in who you are and how you act as my Son’s representatives on earth.
You see, the fact is that if you consider yourself to be Christian, you are a representative of Christ.
The question is this: what kind of representative are you?
If you’re anything like me, then as I asked that question, your heart was pained, because you know that you haven’t always been the best representative of Jesus.
There have been things in your life that don’t point to the life-changing power of Jesus. Am I right?
And if the truth were known, it would be seen that even right now you’re struggling to live a life that would please Jesus and would exhibit that you’re listening to Him.
Hey folks – I’m right there with you. Far from perfect, but wanting more, and seeing Jesus transform and transfigure me as I live for Him, with His help.
Here’s what I’m doing, and I’d invite you to do the same thing:
1. Commit to listening to God through regular time in the Bible.
For some of you, this is a re-commitment. But you can’t do it enough, that’s for sure.
2. Commit to putting God’s Word into play in my life. In other words, taking what I’m reading and doing it, asking God to help me do it.
Look at the back of your note-taking guide, please.
There’s a Scripture passage back there. It’s there every week along with this area to help you make applications from the message.
The verse is the key to that and I’d like you to read it aloud with me.
22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
Did you catch that last part? God will bless you for doing what the Bible says. And He wants to help you do it. Isn’t that cool?
So often we think that we’re supposed to follow and obey Jesus so we don’t get zapped by God.
But really, God has us obey Him for our benefit. He protects us from sin and showers blessings on us as we listen and obey Jesus.
3. Ask for help – from God and from another Christian who would be willing to walk with you and support you as you live for Jesus.
I’m constantly asking for help from God, and constantly asking for help from others who have walked the road before me.
We need each other. That’s one of the reasons God put other people around us.
There is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian. In fact, even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.
I’ve always wondered about that, by the way. If the Lone Ranger was so tough, why did he always send Tonto into town to get beat up?
And if you’re a person who’s been walking with Jesus for a while, make yourself available to someone who wants to be a person who listens to Jesus and is transformed by Him.
Folks, if we want to really be a church that actually makes an impact for Jesus in our area, we need to be a church that’s characterized by people who listen to Jesus.
And I mean really listen – listen so that it does something in us so we can do something for Jesus.
I’ve been telling you about some special meetings we’ve had with your leadership, and really, the point of the meetings was to try and filter out the outside voices and listen to what Jesus says to us.
You’ll be hearing more in the coming weeks as we get ready for our Local Church Conference in May.
And my hope and anticipation is that you will commit to being a church that is bent and focused on listening to Jesus.
That as we evaluate what we do and why we do it, we’ll ask, “Is this what Jesus would want us to do?”
As we evaluate what we might do in the future, we ask, “Is this what Jesus wants us to do?”
That when we ask, “Why?” we’ll be able to say, “Because we believe that’s what Jesus would want for us to do.”
And we come to those conclusions through the Word of God and prayer, committing to follow the course we believe Jesus would have us take.
Will you join me in asking God to make us a church that is filled with people who are listening to Jesus and doing what He commands us to do, both as individuals and as a church body?
Will you? Because if you will, there’s no stopping us from becoming all Jesus wants us to be as a church.
And when that happens, people will find salvation. They’ll find the full life that Jesus wants for us and them. They’ll find that Jesus doesn’t just save them from the penalty of their sin, He also changes lives from the inside out.
He “metamorphosizes” them into people who live like they really love Jesus and don’t just give Him lip-service.
Because they see Jesus alive in you, they’ll want Jesus alive in them.
So what do you say? Will you commit to be a person who listens to Jesus? And will you commit to being the kind of person Jesus can live in and use?
I hope so.
In a world of despair and hopelessness, we can be a beacon of hope as we live for Jesus instead of ourselves.
And that happens as we listen to Jesus. Really listen. Will you do that?
Let’s pray.
