The Transfiguration #2

Driving home: And as we seek to contemplate all of the mysteries bound up in the person of our Lord Jesus, truly God and yet truly man, in all the integrity of Godhood and yet veiled so that he appeared as an ordinary man, we come aga…

The mystery of the Transfiguration is compared to Moses encountering the burning bush, signifying holy ground and the incomprehensible nature of God's revelation.

Our Father, when we come to such portions of Scripture as the one read in our hearing, we feel that we, like Moses, have come to a bush that burns and yet is not consumed. And we hear you say to us, Take off the shoes from off your feet, for the place whereon you stand is holy ground. And as we seek to contemplate all of the mysteries bound up in the person of our Lord Jesus, truly God and yet truly man, in all the integrity of Godhood and yet veiled so that he appeared as an ordinary man, we come again to this portion in which something of his inherent glory breaks forth before the eyes of hi...

2:44 - 4:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My son, as you now embark upon your official public ministry, you are my son, my beloved, in whom my soul delights. Now that public ministry of poured-out life in lengthy vigils of prayer, ministering while virtue went o…

Martin laments the lack of verbal encouragement from fathers to sons, highlighting a common spiritual starvation and the importance of paternal affirmation, which the Father provided to Jesus.

And he says, in all that you've accomplished in that ministry up till this point, all of the validation given to your identity as Messiah, you have fulfilled all of the things that were said would be true of Messiah when he came. I'm well pleased with you, my son, my beloved son, in whom I am well. I'm well pleased. Now, the tragedy with this is that we live in a day when there are precious few fathers that understand the role of verbal reinforcement of encouragement to their sons.

43:06 - 43:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My son, as you now embark upon your official public ministry, you are my son, my beloved, in whom my soul delights. Now that public ministry of poured-out life in lengthy vigils of prayer, ministering while virtue went o…

Martin recounts counseling a young man who had never been hugged or told 'I love you' by his father, illustrating the deep human need for affirmation that Jesus received from His Father.

Never put a hand on the shoulder. Never put a hand on the shoulder of the son and said, son, I love you. I sat with a man in his mid-twenties in my study recently and said, did your father ever say you and hug you? He said, no.

44:02 - 44:13 Read in full sermon

The point: View the doctrine of the Trinity not as an abstraction but as it accomplishes the redemption of sinners.

The gesture of ballplayers patting a pitcher's rump is used as a common example of encouragement, even among 'ungodly' people, to emphasize the universal need for affirmation.

A little squeeze on the shoulder, a hug, a pat on the back, a little tap on the rump like ballplayers do. Even rough, ungodly ballplayers, when the pitcher's having a rough time, they go out to the mound and pat him on the rump. Don't they? It's a way of encouragement.

44:48 - 45:03 Read in full sermon