Sermon Central
-
Lent 2019 - The Transfiguration Of Jesus Series
Contributed by Stephen Belokur on Mar 13, 2019 (message contributor)
Summary: The Transfiguration of Jesus is a moment in time when we get a glimpse of Jesus heavenly Glory and we also get another testimony of Jesus as the Father's one and only Son. We also see Him discussing His "departure" with Moses and Elijah.
Lent 2019 - The Transfiguration
Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …
“This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”
And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people - this has now been witnessed to at the proper time.”
Please open your Bibles to Luke 9:28-36
In this section of Scripture we will be reading about the transfiguration of Jesus.
But prior to this section we read of Jesus questioning His disciples to see if they REALLY know who He is or not.
Once He determines that they profess that they do know who He really is He tells them that He is going to be crucified soon and will be raised from the dead on the third day.
As it turns out what they thought they knew about Jesus did not really match up with reality and Peter even tries to set Jesus straight.
Jesus then challenges His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him even if they have to give up their own lives to do so.
With that in mind let’s go ahead and read: Luke 9:28-36
So, what do we see here?
About eight days after Jesus said this, He took Peter, John and James with Him and went up onto a mountain to pray.
- Jesus was a pray warrior
- If there was ever anyone who you would think did not need to pray it would be Jesus, the Son of God
- Sometimes:
o Jesus would go off on His own to pray
o Sometimes He would pray privately with the twelve
o We see Him praying for the twelve
o We see Him praying for all who would believe
o In Gethsemane, the day before the crucifixion, Jesus took the remaining eleven disciples with Him. He then left eight of them a short distance away and took Peter, James and John further with Him
o This time He took Peter, James and John with Him all the way to the top of the mountain
As He was praying, the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
There [Jesus] was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.
What did Jesus look like before the transfiguration?
- No one actually knows what Jesus looked like and I always feel uncomfortable when I see pictures representing what an artist might think He looked like
- In Isaiah 53:2 we don’t get a photo but we do get a description …
o [Jesus] grew up before [the LORD] like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
- He was not tall, well built and handsome with a deep resounding voice.
- (Repeat) He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
What did Jesus look like during the transfiguration?
- His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light
- So, no one even then knew what He looked like other than the radiance of glory!
What an awesome experience to see the radiance of God’s glory!
Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.
- We see that Moses and Elijah appeared in glorious splendor, but, we are not told that it was the same as the appearance of Jesus Himself.
- They are talking with Jesus about “His departure”,
o His exodus from this mortal life
o His eventual exodus from this world back to His Father
- This is an amazing thing, “They spoke about His departure, which HE was about to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem!”
- When we think of the reasons for Jesus’ death we often think of:
o the guilt of those who planned for and most likely prayed for Jesus death!
o the guilt of those were false witnesses against Jesus.
