February 6, 2005
Iliff and Saltillo UM Church
"Transfiguration: What Does it Mean?"
Mark 9:2-12
INTRODUCTION: Just prior to the transfiguration experience Jesus began to tell his disciples about his impending death and that he must suffer many things and be rejected by people. He told them that after three days he would rise again. His disciples didn’t want to hear about that and Peter, especially, spoke up objecting to his suffering and dying. After these difficult teachings, the disciples may have felt confused and depressed by all that Jesus was trying to tell them. They couldn’t grasp it because they were thinking in human terms and he was trying to get them to understand in the light of eternity.
Six days afterward, Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to the Mountain to pray. (Mt. Hermon, 9000 ft.) During the night the disciples became sleepy and were dozing off when something happened. Because the very appearance of Jesus started to change right before their eyes, they knew that it was really Jesus. Previously dressed in a dull, dusty robe from the day, he was now wearing a GLISTENING WHITE ROBE that “became DAZZLING white--whiter than any bleach could make it.” His face shone with the glory of the Lord. Luke’s account says that His clothes “became as bright as a flash of lightning.” (Luke 9:29). Matthew describes the transformation as “his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light.” (Matt. 17:2). It is hard for us to imagine such an experience as this. Scripture says it was a good experience, but it was also frightening to them.
Today I want to look at the purpose of this experience for the three disciples and the purpose of it for us today. Why would there have been such an experience in the first place for these three? Why not the others too? What does it say to us today?
1. Seeing His Divine Nature: This is the second time the Lord took the disciples into a special time with him. Peter, James, and John were the three in the inner circle of the group of twelve and among the first to hear Jesus’ call. (Mark 1:16-19). They may have been:
1. the most READY to understand and to accept this great truth.
2. they headed the gospel lists of the disciples (Mark 3:16) (LEADERSHIP)
3. They were the ones present at certain healings and others were not (Luke 8:51)
The transfiguration revealed Christ’s DIVINE nature to them. The disciples could not be powerful witnesses until they had grasped this truth, and neither can we. We have to know that Jesus has ALL power and ALL authority or else our prayers and or witness is weak. The disciples had to see with their own eyes this divine side of Him. The transfiguration that took place in His appearance showed them that he was no mere man. The change took place GRADUALLY before their very eyes and it started from the INSIDE outward. Matthew Henry comments that “the light shone not UPON Him but from WITHIN him. He was irradiated with celestial glory and it was HIMSELF glorified--not just His CLOTHES. Jesus said, “I AM the light of the world ( John 8:12).
What they saw on that night could help them to understand what happened after the resurrection--Matthew 28:3 says “His clothes were DAZZLING.”
When he changed GRADUALLY, they knew it was Jesus. I John 1:1,2 gives us another reason for this experience. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard and seen with OUR EYES which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared and we have seen it and testify to it and we proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and has appeared to us.”
It was Peter, James, and John who were eyewitnesses to bear record of Jesus to the world. They could say, “I saw it with my own eyes. I saw the one who came from heaven. I know wherein I speak.” John was the one who survived them all and told of SEEING HIS GLORY. John 1:14 he said, “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld HIS GLORY and the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.”
And so did Peter (II Peter 1:16-18). “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus--BUT WERE EYEWITNESSES.”
Story: A cowboy was riding across the prairie and he came across another, who was lying on the ground with his ear to a wagon track. The man on the ground gasped, “Wagon, two horses--one white, one black. Man is driving, smoking pipe. Woman has blue dress, wears a bonnet.”
The first cowboy said, “You mean you can tell all that by listening to the ground?”
The cowboy on the ground said, “No! It ran over me, half an hour ago!”
APPLICATION: As we live our lives among people who are not yet believers, we have to have a Christian EXPERIENCE that has CHANGED our life--that we can say, “YES, THIS HAS HAPPENED TO ME.” It has to be real--we have to have experienced a change from the INSIDE OUT--we are a new creation because of the work that Christ is doing in our lives. “If any person be in Christ, he is a new creation” (II Cor. 5:17). Scripture says that “...we are being changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of God.” We can tell people, “I KNOW WHO JESUS IS (He is God) and I have experienced the transformation that the Lord brings.”
What things have you EXPERIENCED in your life that has changed you from the inside out. Things that you knew had to be a work of the Lord and not of yourselves?
2. A Temporary Glimpse: On the mountain, Jesus gave these three disciples just a TEMPORARY glimpse of His divine nature--what he was like before He came to earth in the form of man. His appearance was changed temporarily into the form of a heavenly being. We saw this same description of Jesus in Rev. 1:13-14. It was just a momentary manifestation of his glory and the power of the kingdom to come. The transfiguration is an anticipation and guarantee of the Parousia--the second coming of Christ. At His second coming will be the full power of his kingdom. We pray every Sunday, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” These three disciples were given just a glimpse of his divine nature because His mission was not accomplished yet. He gave them just a glimpse of his glory to show them that his sufferings were voluntary, that he had “humbled himself and became obedient unto death...” (Philippians 2:8). He wanted to prevent the offense of the cross.
They were to keep what they saw on the mountain to themselves until after the resurrection. Why? It would complete the proof of his divine mission. This would be produced with the rest of the evidence (v. 9). He didn’t want them to boast prematurely about it and get puffed up over having a special privilege that the others didn’t have.
Another thing that happened that night on the mountain was the appearance of two Old Testament Figures:
1. Moses--represented the law
2. Elijah--represented the prophets.
Their appearance showed Jesus as the fulfillment of both the Old Testament law and the prophetic promises. It showed that the suffering Messiah was not contrary to the Old Testament revelation but agreed with the testimony of the law and prophets of which these two represented.
Then a cloud overshadowed them--the Shechinah Glory Cloud--the presence of God. And God spoke, ‘This is my beloved Son, hear him.” At his baptism the Father said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” On this occasion the words were added, “hear Him.” Are we hearing him today? And are we doing what he says to do?
3. He is Approachable: Matthew’s account says, “They were afraid and fell on their faces (Matt. 17:6). Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise and be not afraid.”
Even in his GLORY Jesus was approachable. In his glory Jesus was not inaccessible and did not make them keep their distance from him. Believers today have this same access to Him when we pray--He does not make us keep our distance.
Hebrews 4:16 NIV says “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness...let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence.”
KJV says, “let us COME BOLDLY to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy.” The transfiguration shows us that we have this privilege to take our needs to him in spite of our humanness and limitations. Are you doing that today? Some people say, “I can pray for other people but I don’t pray for myself.” Why??
Then the vision disappeared and only Jesus remained with the three disciples. He was not transfigured any more but looked like He did earlier.
STORY: A brilliant magician was performing on an ocean liner. But every time he did a trick, the Captain’s parrot would yell, "It’s a trick. He’s a phony.
That’s not magic." Then one evening during a storm, the ship sank while the magician was performing. The parrot and the magician ended up in the same
lifeboat. For several days they just glared at each other, neither saying a word to the other. Finally the parrot said, "OK, I give up. What did you do
with the ship?"
The parrot couldn’t explain that last trick! It was too much to comprehend. The disciples probably didn’t know what to make of the transfiguration. It was real, but at that point they hadn’t quite figured it out. Today we don’t have to go to great lengths to try to figure out the things of God. We just have to accept it by faith and understand that it DID make a difference in their lives.
What difference did this day make in their lives? What difference does it make in our lives today? It should make a big difference in the way we live our lives and approach him for our needs and the needs of others. The transfiguration shows us these three things:
1. His DIVINE NATURE and POWER and AUTHORITY--We can live an overcoming life because of this. We are not trying to do things in our own power.
2. The disciples not only SAW it with their own eyes but EXPERIENCED it--our Christian experience is something that must change us from the inside out. It must be experienced.
3. Jesus is APPROACHABLE--He does not distance Himself from us in our human experiences. We can always come boldly to the throne.
Shall we pray:
