The Transfiguration #1

Introduction and Prayer for Illumination

0:04 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, July 20th, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. As we return this morning to our consecutive expositions in the Gospel according to Mark, we find ourselves in the ninth chapter and the first paragraph. You will remember that the first verse should be found as the last verse of chapter 8. It is found in such division in the parallel passages in Matthew and in Luke.

0:44 And so we take up the reading this morning at Mark 2, and we'll read through verse 8. And after six days, Jesus takes with him Peter and James, and he says, And brings them up into a high mountain, apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistering, exceeding white, as no fuller on earth can whiten them. And there appeared unto them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

1:29 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. For he knew not what to answer, for they were sore afraid. And there came a cloud overshadowing them, and there came a voice out of the cloud, This is my beloved Son, hear ye him.

2:02 And suddenly, looking at him, he said, And looking round about, they saw no one any more save Jesus only with themselves.

2:15 Now let us seek the face of God in prayer and ask the Lord by his Spirit to come and open our eyes to behold something of the majesty and glory of Christ as set before us in this portion of his word. Let us pray. Our Father, we have celebrated in our hymn, together, that your word is indeed the heaven-drawn picture of Christ, the living word. And yet we acknowledge that left to ourselves, though the picture is exceedingly clear, our eyes are tragically dim. And we therefore plead with the psalmist, Open thou our eyes, that we may behold wondrous, wondrous things out of your law. May the Spirit, whose ministry it is to take of the things of Christ and to reveal them with clarity and power, may he be present, doing that work in which he most delights. And may he find in us a people who are quick to receive the revelation of Scripture, a people quick to believe.

3:40 May not the Lord, Jesus, have to say to us, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that is written. O God, make us wise and make us quick of heart to believe everything that we shall see in your word today. Come by your Spirit, we pray, and meet us, we plead, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

4:09 Amen.

The Awe and Reverence of the Transfiguration

4:15 One very, very careful student of this passage who lived and who left the legacy of his thought in a commentary when commenting upon this passage opened his first sentence of commentary with these words. The Transfiguration is one of those passages in the Savior's earthly history which an expositor would rather pass over in reverent silence.

4:49 This man, after spending many hours before this passage, found within him a longing to pass over the task of attempting to comment upon the passage, not because he thought it irrelevant, but because he saw such dimensions of the majesty and the glory of Christ that he felt reverent silence was more appropriate than carelessness. If we are able to read, if we are able to be free from sin, then this is a beautiful commentary. In a sense, this passage is like the burning bush of the New Testament. You'll remember when Moses came upon that bush in the wilderness there in Exodus. We are told that there was something in him that was drawn to that bush as he beheld it burning with fire and yet not consumed. And there was something in its fiery beauty that drew to the fire. It was not something which would cause the fire, that drew him by its brightness.

5:51 And yet when he knew it was God manifesting Himself in that form, there was a sense in which that very bush that drew by its glorious brightness repelled by its mysterious and awesome presence. And perhaps the best thing we can do under the imagery of that burning bush is to take, as it were, the shoes from off our carnal feet and draw near in holy reverence, standing with Peter, James, and John, beholding this display of the majesty and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we come to the passage this morning, my efforts will be focused almost exclusively upon attempting to give an explanation. An accurate exposition of the content of the passage with but perhaps five, seven minutes of one strand of application at the end. And then, God willing, next week, in our next exposition, we shall concentrate on the abiding message of this incident as it relates to the Lord Jesus, as it related to the disciples, and as it relates to us. So as we think our way through, through the passage this morning,

The Precise Setting: Time, Witnesses, and Place

7:17 attempting to grasp precisely what is set before us by the inspiration of the Spirit, we shall consider, first of all, the precise setting of the transfiguration. The precise setting of the transfiguration. It is given to us in these words in Mark's Gospel, and after six days, Jesus takes, with him, Peter, James, and John, and brings them up into a high mountain apart by themselves. And in that statement of the first two parts of verse 2 of Mark 9, there are three things set before us about the precise setting of the transfiguration, and then I'm going to import a very vital aspect of the setting, not mentioned by Mark, but we will import it from the parallel passage in Luke's Gospel. First of all, note, with reference to the precise setting of the transfiguration, the time of this event.

8:30 The passage begins with the words, and after six days. Now those of you who have been with us for the regular expositions will have noted again and again how Mark, along with Matthew and Luke and James, and John, to some degree, are relatively indifferent to the particular time sequences of the events in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. We have had occasion to note that some of the materials are gathered not chronologically, but in terms of various themes. That's why they may be found in different orders in the various Gospel records.

9:12 They are not purporting to set forth a strict chronological record of the various events in the life of Jesus and the various sayings of Jesus. However, this is a very stark and evident exception. For in Matthew's Gospel we find the same precision after six days, and then the account of the transfiguration follows in Matthew 17. In Luke chapter 9, we are told, after about eight days, and then we have a record of the same event.

9:54 Now the unbelieving critic comes to this and says, see, see, full of contradictions, how can anyone believe the Bible? Matthew and Mark say six days, Luke says eight days, contradiction, the Bible is not the infallible, inerrant Word of God. Well, unbelieving mind, hold your horses. Matthew says, as does Mark, and after meaning by that six full days intervened between the events recorded at the end of chapter eight, the revelation Jesus made of Himself as the Christ, the Son of the living God, the first clear predictions of the necessity of His suffering, death, and resurrection, the call to radical discipleship and cross bearing. It was six days from the time He spoke those words, day one intervened, two, three, four, five, six, and on the seventh, or next day, the events here recorded occurred. Now Luke tells us, after about, indicating He is not speaking with great precision,

11:20 He is doing one of two things. He is either using an idiom, which means after about a week, after about the, of a week's, He could have been including the day on which the sayings were spoken, the six intervening days, and the day on which the transfiguration occurred. And we use this kind of juggling of the numbers in speaking of time frames, all of the time. For example, most of you know that back in the month of May, I went abroad to preach in Scotland and in England.

12:03 And on more than one occasion, I said to people, where were you? I said, I was in Scotland and England preaching for 13 days. Now that was true. There were 13 days in which I was actually engaged in preaching, both in Scotland and in England.

12:23 On other occasions, I have said in letters and in face-to-face conversation that I was gone on a preaching tour to the UK for 15 days. Well, were you preaching for 13 or 15 days? Well, I was gone on a preaching tour for 15 days. When I say 15, I was including the day of travel on the 8th, when I flew to London, and the day of travel on the 23rd, when I flew home.

12:53 But all of that was inclusive of a preaching tour in Scotland and England. When I was being more precise about the actual days in which I was engaged in opening my mouth, in opening up the Scriptures, expounding and applying, I said I preached for 13 days. Now, no one is ready to indict me as a liar. People understand that we speak with that flexibility.

13:19 Remember, the Scriptures are the Word of God in the language, patterns of men. And rather than undermine my faith in Scripture, this only strengthens my faith. That there was no collusion between the Gospel writers. And isn't it interesting that when the documents were circulated with living witnesses still alive, nobody rose up and said, these are witnesses who cannot be trusted.

13:44 They don't know the difference between six and eight days. It takes the so-called advancement of the modern critical scholar to point out, how stupid we are in believing the simple artless record of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So lest the devil find any hook in anyone who may struggle with unbelief, I felt that little bit of obvious reconciliation of only an apparent discrepancy was in order. But the important thing is this.

14:17 As we come to the threshold of examining this passage, the Holy Spirit is saying, He is saying to us, don't examine without locking into your mind that body of revelation that proceeded six days earlier. Come to this incident of the transfiguration with your mind full of the great issues recorded in the latter part of chapter 8. With Jesus' formal announcement of His coming death, resurrection. With His announcement that He would come again at the last day as the Judge of all mankind. With His call to discipleship that if any man would come after Him, He must deny Himself, take up His cross and follow Him. After six days of these shocking, these tremendously profound statements of our Lord, it is then and precisely then that the transfiguration takes place. And so we shall have occasion in both expounding and applying the passage

15:41 to remember that God intends that we should do so with the backdrop clearly in our mind, Christ has announced His coming death. It will be the death of Messiah Son of God. It will be a death. It will be a death.

15:58 It will be a death. It will be a death. to provide salvation for a people who in entering into that salvation will deny themselves, take up a cross and follow Him. And it will be in the language that we've expounded in recent days the responsibility of every man to weigh those issues of discipleship and to be prepared at any cost to become a disciple of Christ because the day is coming when anyone who is ashamed of Christ and of His words will be judged by the Son of Man when He sits upon the throne of His glory.

16:40 Well, then the second thing that is set before us with regard to the setting is not only the time of the setting, but the witnesses of this event. The witnesses of this event. By the clearly revealed, initiative of Jesus, it is Peter, James, and John who alone are taken by Christ into the mountain. Now back in chapter 5 and verse 37, we have the record of a similar separation of the three from the twelve.

17:24 Our Lord is about to raise someone from the dead. And we read in Mark 5.37, He permitted no man to follow with Him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James. We shall find, God willing, in our subsequent studies in the incident of the Garden of Gethsemane, chapter 14 and verse 33, that the Lord will again single out these three, Peter, James, and John, and bring them into this, this peculiar inner circle of privileged exposure to Himself and to His dealings with His heavenly Father. Now the question automatically is raised in our minds, why three and why these three? And I ask that if you would be spared what I have had to undergo, reading pages and pages of commentary, reading pages and pages of commentary, reading pages and pages of commentary, speculating, some of it rather reverent, some of it undisciplined and fanciful, I would spare all of the possible answers to the question and say that it appears to me there is only one thing that we can say for certain from the Word of God as to why Jesus chose three

18:53 and took them with Him in order that they should witness this amazing event.

19:02 And that reason is, as suggested to us in 2 Peter 1 and verse 16. This is the only other explicit reference to this event in the New Testament. There may be a veiled reference to it in John chapter 1, but this is an explicit reference by one of the witnesses. Peter says in 2 Peter 1, verse 16, We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you, Peter, and John, when we made known to you, Peter, and John, when we made known to you, Peter, and John, when we made known to you, Peter, and John, when we made known to you, Peter, and John, the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus.

19:39 But we were witnesses of His majesty, for He received from God the Father honor and glory when there was born such a voice to Him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. This voice we ourselves have in when Him in the Holy Spirit ascended and ascended to the небoody Punkt in the meuides divino soverign Alleluia, we wage ourії melusia in the Holy Mountain in the way of the Holy Mountain. We are witnesses of His majestic glory. If a fact is to be received as a fact when brought before us by anyone other than God as formal testimony, it is to have two or three witnesses. Matthew 18, 16, and 1 Timothy 5, 19.

20:49 So all I am prepared to say, passing by all of the speculation, is that our Lord, who obviously had a peculiar task for Peter and for James and John, sets them apart, marks them out, takes divine initiative to bring them into the inner circle of exposure to this event so that this event could be validated by the necessary two or three witnesses. And so God shows Himself to be absolutely sovereign in the dispensing of spiritual privileges, and yet, concerned with us as creatures, that in embracing the testimony of those who've received that sovereignly given revelation, we would have the, the confidence that we are indeed not following cunningly devised fables, but we are receiving the valid testimony of the two or three witnesses who beheld the very events. But then we notice in the third place, under the setting, not only the time of the event and the witnesses to the event, but also the place of the event. The Scripture,

22:15 the Scripture is careful to tell us that after six days Jesus takes with Him Peter and James and John and brings them up into a high mountain apart themselves. Now again, there is all, what mountain was it? And it's very interesting that early in the church, a tradition was established that it was one of the well-known mountains, in Israel. A tradition was established that it was Mount Tabor, and then people discovered it couldn't have been Mount Tabor, and then another tradition was established that it had to be Mount Hermon, but then as time went on, people found more and more reasons to be suspicious of that tradition, so more sane commentators have said, if God wanted us to know what mountain it was, He'd tell us. And there are at least three or four mountains in northern Palestine, in that general area, easily accessible by a day's journey from Caesarea Philippi, which could be called a high mountain, for there are three or four mountains that are approximately 4,000 feet in height. But the important thing is this, that it was a retreat that was a real retreat this time.

23:43 We've noticed in the Gospel of Mark there are times when it says Jesus would go aside, with His disciples, but no sooner does He speak to them, but we found Him turning and speaking to the multitudes. It wasn't a real retreat. There was only semi-privacy. If I may illustrate it this way, a man may leave his place of work and say, oh, I want some time alone, and he goes home to his own home, and there in the privacy of his home, he's within relatively close proximity to his wife and to his children.

24:16 But now if he wants more retreat, retirement, he may say to his wife and his children, I need some time alone. And then he goes off into his little study down in the basement. He's got a little area, six by eight, and he's double studied it and filled it with all kinds of acoustical batting and tried to cut out all noise. He wants to be alone to think, to read, to pray.

24:40 But if there's an emergency, he's still accessible to the knock on the door by his wife or one of his kids coming, or wants to spend a little time with daddy. So, is there any hope they bring. So he says, after the frustration of several interruptions, I really need to be alone. And then he gets in his car, drives 30 miles to their little cottage out in the woods where there's no phone.

25:01 The only way you can get to it is drive within three miles, walk the final three miles. Now he's really alone. Now, when he said at his office, I'm going home to be alone, there was a certain aloneness in his house. When he said to those in his house, I want to be alone, and went down into his little prayer closet, there was more real aloneness.

25:21 When he says to his wife and kids, I'm going out to the cabin to be alone, now that's really alone. Just him and his dog, the birds and the squirrels. And that's it. Well, what we have in this passage is an emphasis upon a real alone, aloneness of Jesus with the three.

25:40 So he does not go up into the nearest gnome. Where he might be accessible to the other nine or to the multitudes, but goes away into a high mountain. And the emphasis in the original is very clear that he might be found apart, three, into a high mountain, apart by themselves. And so there is this emphasis upon the true seclusion of Jesus.

The Spiritual Climate: Jesus's Intense Prayer

26:15 With Peter, with James, and with John. Now then, the fourth aspect of the setting of the transfiguration, I import from Luke's account, but it's vital. Luke chapter 9. And I trust you will not find this tedious, as I've said so often.

26:37 We may have newcomers who are here since I last said it. My task is to expound the scriptures in where God has given some of these intimate, strokes of detail. They are there for our profit. May we relish every stroke in the picture that God is painting in this passage.

26:58 In Luke chapter 9, we read in verse 28. And it came to pass about eight days. You see the emphasis again? Upon this time period, connected with the previous sayings, which are exactly the same in all three gospel records.

27:18 And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter, James, and John, and went up into the mountain to pray. Luke's unique contribution. He says that the main burden upon our Lord, when he singles out Peter, James, and John to go with him into the mountain, was that he might give himself to a concentration. He prayed an intense season of prayer.

27:58 And it was while he was engaged in this extended season of prayer, for Luke goes on to tell us that at the beginning of the incident, Peter, James, and John were asleep. They were drowsy, had already fallen asleep, and were just being awakened. So that he had already obviously entered in to some degree of extended communion. Communion and fellowship with his Father in the medium of conscious prayer.

28:32 And this is what I am calling as to the setting of the transfiguration, the spiritual climate of this event. Yes, we are to know what is revealed to us about the time, about the witnesses, about the place, but we ought all to remember, the spiritual climate of this event. Jesus is giving himself for some reason to a concentrated intense season of prayer. Now we know from the Scriptures, whenever he did that, there was a reason.

29:14 On the great threshold activities of our Lord, we find him giving himself to prayer. And when we ask the question, What was the peculiar burden? The burden of this concentrated season of prayer. Perhaps we can take our clue from a passage such as Luke 22, when Jesus says to Peter, Satan has desired you to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith does not fail.

29:45 And when you are converted, strengthen your brethren. In other words, whenever the Lord Jesus anticipated a great crisis in his life, or in the life of his disciples, he gave himself to prayer, concentrated upon these issues. And I would like to suggest, I cannot dogmatize, but by the overall analogy of Scripture, I would like to suggest, that when the text begins with the words, af- don'ting what has preceded. Well, what preceded?

30:24 This amazing affirmation voiced by Peter on behalf of the others, You are the Son of the Living God. You are the Son of the Living God. You are the Son of the Living God. You are the Son of the Living God.

30:33 You are the Son of the Living God. Followed by the shocking prediction, I must suffer, be rejected, I must be killed, I must be raised from the dead. Peter says, no Lord, this shall never be to you. Get behind me, Satan.

30:52 The shocking prediction, that he who is Son of God and Messiah, must come to messianic accomplishment in the way of rejection, suffering and death. This thing had been dumped upon them with a shocking effect. Then he adds to it that strange call, if any man will come after me, let him take up his cross, the symbol of shame, rejection, death. Take up his cross and follow me.

31:27 What will it profit if a man gain the whole world and lose his own soul? And then climaxing in that statement, whosoever is ashamed, ashamed of me and my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed. Some of you shall not taste death till you see the Kingdom of God coming with power. These are the issues that are whirling through the minds and spirits of the disciples.

31:52 How can it be that our longed-for Messiah will be rejected? When he come to a throne by way of a cross. And as our Lord Jesus knows that he is now, not only facing the redemption, rejection in the hostility of the scribes and pharisees and chief priests, but he doesn't even have spiritual sympathy with his own intimate disciples. The chief of them he had to call on and say get behind me.

32:26 What do you think our Lord would be doing in such a season of prayer if it would not be that twin concern of crying to his own Father for grace to do, for grace to do, for grace to do, for grace to do, what he has just so freshly predicted he must do? And then praying for these disciples, staggering as it were before the newly given revelations, puzzled and perplexed as to how they can all I believe there is every reason to assume that the great first prayer was that he might be strengthened to his time. The opposition stood in his way, and in tender loving concern for his poor disciples who yet see things so dimly and indistinctly that they would not be occasioned. His death would not be the occasion of scandal and causing them to turn away, but that they would be strengthened and given spiritual perception to see that all that he said was indeed true. That glory, the glory of the Son of Man, the glory of the Son of Man, coming in his power,

33:49 would foment rejection, suffering and death. And if that is indeed a proper assumption, then it is accurate to say in a very real sense the entire event of the Transfiguration is the Father's surprising answer to the prayer of Jesus Christ in the midst of that peculiar setting of spiritual concern. So the spiritual climate of this event was the Lord Jesus deeply engaged in intensive prayer. Now, we move on in the next place having looked at the precise setting of the Transfiguration to the specific details of the Transfiguration. And as I have sought to organize the details in the text into some kind of logical and logical reasonable categories, it appears to me that we have three very simple categories in which the specific details are set before us. First of all, those which relate to Jesus, those which relate in the second place to his disciples, and those which relate to God the Father.

Specific Details: Jesus's Transfiguration and Attendants

35:14 Now, let's look at them in that order. That's the order in which they come to us. What are the details of the Transfiguration? What are the details of the Transfiguration?

35:23 Well, we are first of all directed to those relating to Jesus, his person and his attendants. Verse 2b, And before them his garments became glistering exceeding white, as no fuller on earth than white in them. And there appear unto them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. In those verses, the attention is drawn to the specifics of the transfiguration as they relate to Jesus in His person and in these strange heavenly attendants, Moses and Elijah, who come into that setting. Now Mark and Matthew both use the verb He was transfigured before them. And because they use this verb and say that the significance is to be found in the technical meaning of the word, the Greek word from which we get our English word, metamorphosis or metamorphosis. It'll come out yet.

36:48 Metamorphosis or metamorphosis. There it is. Both pronunciations are correct. Not the tongue-tied one I gave you, but the two proper ones.

36:57 And we are led to believe by some of the commentators that in the technical, use of that word is the key to the transfiguration. I reject that position for this simple reason. Luke describes the same event and does not use that word. If it were essential to understanding what happened to His person and the key lexical word, then surely it would be brought forward by all those who record this event.

37:31 But what God does, is bypassing all relations and vital questions that men ask. The record focuses upon two things with respect to the person of Jesus. His face and His garments. In Matthew 17.2, Matthew tells us in very simple language something about His face and about His garments. He was transfigured for them. And how did they know this? They knew it with reference to something about His face.

38:07 His face shined.

38:11 And something about His garments. His garments became white as the light. Mark focuses only on the garments. Notice verse 3.

38:22 And His garments, no word about His face, His garments became glistering white as no fuller, no carter of wool who sorts and separates and cleans it and then possibly then bleached it as no earthly man who works it making wool. No white could ever make wool with a whiteness that approached the whiteness of the garments of Jesus. And then Luke, in Luke 9.29, He likewise focuses upon the countenance and the raiments, but with totally different language.

38:58 You see, here was something that eludes the capturing power of language. You can only talk around it while saying a little about it in its essence. As He was praying, the fact, the fashion of His countenance was old and His raiment became old and dazzling. You see, here there is no wooden copying between the various gospel writers.

39:28 Each one according to the dress of the Spirit of God upon his own mind with his own inference and vocabulary draws language that is rich in its diversity but is one in its emphasis.

39:48 With respect to his person, something, something happened to his face. Something happened to his garments. Mark tells us that right in front of them he was transfixed. This was not a vision.

40:06 This was not something that happened in an exalted state of mind that they projected into reality. Something occurred in time history right in front of them. As I stand in front of you preaching, as you sit in front of me listening, so is the truth. Oh, in their very presence, something happened.

40:29 And what happened was this. Jesus of Nazareth, whom they named Jesus of Nazareth, without any alteration of the shape of His eyebrows, without any alteration of the shape and size of His nose. If it was prominent, it didn't undergo a quick nose job and become a classic nose. His lips, in whatever fullness they were, the cut of His chin, the shape of His ear.

40:59 Nothing was changed to the essential form and line and measurements of His face. But from that face, I say it reverently, that could have been lost in any crowd of Jews, for there was no form nor comeliness that we should desire Him. Suddenly that face shines with a brilliance exceeding the brilliance of the new days, which they knew to be some other. You see, They had no question.

41:34 Has an angel come and whisked and replaced his presence by his own angelic presence? There's not a shred of evidence that they question that this was Jesus. But it was Jesus transfigured before them, transfigured in terms that from an ordinary countenance, with the ordinary hue and tone of human flesh, now the brilliant, the glorious, nothing short, supernatural, and with their tremendous taproots of thought in Old Testament history and Old Testament experience, the shining of something that was divine and heavenly. And then something happened to his garments, since apart from his hands and his feet, the only part of his flesh they would see would be his face. This garment that came from the neck and shoulders and went down to the ankles, that very garment became, Mark says,

42:49 was used to describe what happened when the sun reflected off a polished piece of metal. And you'll know what happens sometimes when you're driving. And when the sun is at a certain point and you get that bright reflection off other people's windshields, how it blinds you, that's the word you would have used if you lived in that day. There was a man named Mark.

43:11 He was a man of the world. He was a man of the world. He was a man of the world. He was a man of the world.

43:11 He was a glistering windshield. That kind of concentrated brightness that almost strikes the eye with...

43:20 That's what happened to his garments. All of his garments became bright with that unusual light and brightness described by Mark as that which was exceeding white, as no carter or fuller on earth could whiten them. Now those are the facts as given to us in Scripture, which are the facts that we need to understand. Now those are the facts as given to us in Scripture, with reference to the transfiguration as it came to manifestation in the person of Jesus.

43:53 And Peter describes this as behold His glory.

44:05 Glorifying of the very holiness and the majesty of the Godhead. But then with relationship to the person of Jesus, not only did something happen in His person, but with...

44:24 But then with respect to these attendants. Verse 4. And unto them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Suddenly, while the disciples are beholding this amazement, this...

44:46 And yet as we'll see subsequently, this fearful sight... And Elijah.

44:57 And there's no real significance in the order here, because later on Mark reverses it. Some try to make a big deal out of the fact it's Elijah soon, with Moses. And they make a big deal. Just read down, it goes on later, he said, let's build a tent, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.

45:12 He reverses the order. Don't you men ever make big deals out of nothing. In your attempts to be careful exegetes, don't become fools, all right? Now, how did they know it was Moses and Elijah?

45:27 I don't know. But if God...

45:33 No big deal for Him to let the people know to whom He appears that that's who it is. So that doesn't bother me. How? I...

45:41 But they knew it was Moses. How? But they knew it was Moses. And they knew Elijah.

45:45 Why did Moses and Elijah appear? Of all the characters who could have appeared, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Isaiah, Jeremiah, again, I don't know. The suggestion that seems most reasonable to me is that Moses stood head and shoulder above all the Old Testament characters as the organ of revelation, the great organizer of the theocracy. He was the great prophet and God said he would raise up a prophet like unto him the whole body of the Old Testament revelation that shaped and molded the religious and national life as Israel was mediated through Moses.

46:29 So he stands, as it were, as head over the entire administration of the law. And Elijah, this man taken up to heaven in a whirlwind and a chariot of fire, great restorer of the theocracy at the point when the entire nation had just about apostatized, and dis-covenanted themselves. He was the great symbol of the prophetic order who were all winning the nation back to covenant fidelity. So it could be, and this to me is the most reasonable explanation, that God sends Moses and Elijah as the symbolic representatives of the entire law, the whole Old Testament economy and revelation, coming, as it were, to a pinpoint focus, in these two people. Then the question is asked, wait a minute, Elijah never died. He went up to heaven in a whirlwind. I can understand him appearing in bodily form.

47:30 Where did Moses get his body? I don't know. I don't know. And I won't bother you with all the speculations.

47:37 But this much I know, if God can raise up my body from dust that's gone into the ground and some been eaten by the worms and others eaten by the raccoons and all the rest, if God wants to give Moses a resurrection body ahead of time, that's his business and that doesn't trouble me. But all I know is the text says that Moses just appeared there. Notice what the Scripture tells us. We are told in Mark chapter 9 and verse 4, and they were talking with Jesus.

48:15 And obviously the disciples were given the privilege of listening in on this conversation. What holy eavesdropping. Wouldn't you love to hear Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus? And what do you think they were talking about?

48:29 Well, Mark doesn't tell us, but Luke does. There was a focus to their conversation. And the focus was according to Luke 9 in verse 31, this, And behold, there were with him two men who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared to him during his exodus, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. About eight days later, the events in which Jesus for the first time predicts His coming death in plain, blunt, unequivocal terms. I must suffer. I must be rejected. I must die.

49:33 Would you be my disciple? Deny yourself, take up a cross, and following of a religion, a day of Jesus' coming, in which the one who was on the cross will be on the throne, be disowned and discarded by Him in that day. What response does He get from the disciples? He gets this open opposition from Peter.

50:03 No, Lord, this shall never be to you. Peter becomes the adversary. The others obviously have no understanding of what he says. As he is praying for strength to face the horrible Lord baptism, there's this rejecting religious establishment out there.

50:32 The disciples all around. And what does the Father do? He sends two out of heaven who understand what it's all about. And they're talking about His coming exodus.

50:44 They're talking about His coming decease in Jerusalem. And that word used translated decease, the Greek word is used by Peter concerning His own death in 2 Peter 1.15. So it does refer to His coming death.

51:02 So they're having a conversation about the central acts of redemption by which Messiah is in charge. And the Bible says, But on which the very salvation that took Moses and Elijah to heaven rested. For He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And the only reason Moses and Elijah were in heaven and came out of heaven is because in time and space the Son of God who came out of heaven would die on a cross and rise from the dead for their justification and for ours.

51:43 And they knew this far better than Peter, James, and John. So what are they talking about? They're talking about the activities of Jesus of Nazareth, God's Messiah. The activities by which He will redeem all of His people from every age of redemptive history.

Specific Details: The Disciples' Response

52:06 That's what the transfiguration was in direct relationship to Jesus. Now, what about those details hastily now with relationship to the disciples? Well, notice, there's an action described in verse 5 and a reason given for it in verse 6. What's the action described?

52:28 When they see, when they hear, Peter speaking again as the brash, impetuous one. And Peter answers. What? Nobody asked him a question.

52:43 Nobody addressed him. It's a way of saying, responds to this whole situation and says to Jesus, Rabbi, you must be here.

52:58 And for Moses, one for Elijah. Now, by comparing this with Luke's Gospel, it's evident that Peter said this just as Moses and Elijah were about to leave. And he said, wait a minute. Lord, this is good for us all to be here.

53:13 You, Moses, Elijah, appeared how? Not in shame and humiliation, but how? In glory, Luke tells us. They appeared in glory with all of...

53:24 He said, Lord, this is the place to be. You've been talking to us about rejection, suffering. Death. You've been saying we must bear crosses and deny self.

53:37 Lord, that doesn't appear good to me to you, but ah, glory. Lord, this is good. This is good stuff. Lord, let's capture this for a while.

53:48 So he says, let's build three booths. Not permanent tabernacles, not temples, but three booths like they built in their feast of tabernacles. He says, we need to have booths. Let's make this arrangement at least permanent enough to have a pup tent here for a few more hours, a couple days.

54:05 A few nights. It's good for us to be here. Let us. We'll all together.

54:10 We'll all pitch in, Lord. And we don't care about ourselves. We're willing to lie out ovens,

54:16 but a booth for you, a booth for Elijah, and a booth for Moses.

54:22 Now, that's what he said. And remember, this is the marvelous stroke of God's work of grace in Peter. Mark got his materials from Peter. So Peter had to tell this on himself.

54:33 Look at the reason given in verse 6.

54:37 For he knew not what to ask, and, sir, for they became sore afraid. This statement was not an expression of carefully thought-out, well-reasoned response. It was, as one commentator called it, the babblings of one frightened out of his wits. The babblings of one frightened out of his wits.

55:02 Now, Luke is not quite so kind to Peter as Peter was in describing it to Mark and Mark passing it on, because in Luke's gospel we read this. Luke chapter 9.

55:16 And it came to pass, verse 33, as they were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, see, they were on their way to go back to heaven. He said, it's good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for you, for Moses and Elijah, not knowing what he said. He just was speaking in ignorance, Luke says.

55:33 He was just showing his ignorance. He was opening his mouth and showing his ignorance. Mark tells us, with a little more reserve, that this thing was said, because they were in the horrible paralysis of a deep grip of fear. They were afraid.

55:56 We read again that it prostrated them. They were so afraid, the Lord Jesus had to stoop and touch them and dispel their fears. And so the focus of the activities relating to the disciples is their action through Peter, the rationale behind it, and then what of those that focus on God, the Father, verse 7.

Specific Details: The Father's Revelation

56:20 And here we have two forms of revelation from the Father, a visual and a verbal. Look at them. And there came a cloud overshadowing them, and there came a voice out of the cloud. Two forms of revelation made by the Father.

56:38 One was visual. As Moses and Elijah begin to depart, Peter blurts out, let's capture this scene of glory. Capture this! Sooner does he say, thou begins to envelop them all.

57:03 That cloud was an ordinary cloud that was floating by the mountain. That cloud was the ancient symbol of God's special presence that appeared, you remember, over His people in the wilderness, hovered above the tabernacle, filled the inner place of the temple under Solomon. And these Jews knew very well what that cloud was. It was nothing.

57:28 Nothing other than that specially chosen means both of them. That was the mystery of the cloud. The cloud was God in His special presence. But a cloud covers that which it envelops.

57:47 What is God like? He covered Himself with it. The cloud both revealed and sealed the special, mysterious, awesome presence of God. And then out of that cloud, the very voice of God speaks.

58:12 And this is what it says. This is My Beloved Son. There is a word of identification. This is My Beloved Son.

58:25 In Luke, this is My Chosen One. And there again is no contradiction. The Beloved is the Chosen, and the Chosen is the Beloved. And He is chosen because He is beloved.

58:40 And He is beloved as the Chosen. This is the Chosen. This is My Beloved Son. And that being true, there is not only a word of identification, but a word of direction.

58:52 A present imperative with the emphasis thrown forward upon the pronoun Him. Be continually hearing. That would be a literal rendering. Him.

59:05 Moses and Elijah have done their work. And all that I purpose to be accomplished through them is now embodied in the writings of the Scripture. In the writings of the Scripture. But now my final and living revelation is before you.

59:20 Him be continually hearing. And so the Father crowns this whole transfiguration event with His own visual presence in the cloud, which both revealed and concealed Him. And then His own verbal pronouncement that identifies Jesus as the Beloved. And then His own verbal pronouncement that identifies Jesus as the Beloved.

59:44 And then His own verbal pronouncement that identifies Jesus as the Beloved. And directs them to hear Him. And then the passage closes with this brief statement, the sequel to the transfiguration. We've looked at the specific circumstances in which it occurred.

The Sequel: Jesus Only

59:59 We've looked at the specific factors involved. Now the sequel, verse 8. Suddenly, just as suddenly as all of us looking round about, Moses and Elijah are gone. No more voices from heaven.

60:16 The glow upon His countenance. The brightness of His garments. And what do they see? They see only Jesus.

60:27 Now in the form in which they had known Him from the first time they beheld Him. Jesus with themselves. And that's how the account closes. Now as I said, God willing, next week, I hope to open up the profound significance of this event as God helps me.

Climactic Application: Hear Him!

60:48 But I want to make in our closing moments this morning one very simple, pointed application. And it is simply to highlight what is the climactic point of this account. It's the voice out of the cloud that says, hear Him. Him!

61:11 And that verb,

61:16 to let your ears that come out over His larynx and form words, and then register on your eardrums and go by the auditorium, your inner to the brain. It means that, yes, but it means more. To hear means to receive.

61:37 To give yourself up to. Unitive power.

61:44 Now in the context, do you see the significance of this? It's after six days. Six days in which no doubt the disciples are trying to come to grips with this epical revelation Christ has made. I must suffer.

61:59 I must suffer.

62:02 The Son of God, He accomplished my messianic mission in the way of rejection and suffering and death and resurrection. And Peter, you're prepared to stand in the way and say, Lord, this shall never be. Peter, the Father,

62:20 listen to Him. Peter, don't listen to the profusions of your own.

62:30 Think of Messiah coming on a white charger and crushing the head of His enemies with carnage and cogitations. Stop listening to your own.

62:48 Listen to Him, beloved one. This is my Son, my beloved. My beloved. I said that at the end of His years of obscurity when He stood in the waters of Jordan.

63:05 I spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved Son. I was willing to identify myself with Him as my well-beloved. Oh, as He has gone through these years of ministry and healing and raising the dead, He's told that He can only accomplish His mission by suffering rejection and death and resurrection. Him be here in His voice to regulate all of your messianic expectations, all of your notions about how sinners can be made right with God, how the kingdom of God can be ushered in.

63:46 Hear Him, hear Him, and hear Him alone.

63:53 Does He say that the only way to be His follower is to say no to yourself, take up a cross and follow Him? You would say, you will lose it, beloved son, as Messiah, that prophet greater than Moses and taking Moses to heaven and leaving him down to supplement what my son said.

64:41 Whoever will not hearken unto that prophet shall be cut off from among the people. Does He call self-denial to identification with Him in a sinful and an adulterous generation as the only nation? Listen, tell you there's an easier way. Listen to Him.

65:23 Listen to Him. Listen to Him. Listen to Him. Neither think it's all a lark.

65:31 Listen to Him when He says a day is coming, when He's going to sit on the throne of His glory. And whoever's been ashamed of Him in His words, He'll be ashamed of them. Maybe you thought it strange when six days ago He spoke of cross and glory, but now you've seen Him shining like the face of the noonday. You've seen His...

66:03 Know that it is God, who judges the world. You'd better listen to Him. You'd better listen to Him. You've seen Him in this breaking forth of the essential glory of what He owes and has,

66:21 but what for a time has been veiled for wise and good reasons. You've stumbled before His claims that He will judge you in the last day. They are the claims of the One to whom I've added nothing here upon the mount. I've just pulled back the veil and let some of the glory leak out.

66:41 It's there. It's always been there. But it's been veiled. Veiled.

66:48 Flesh the dead sea. And God just parts the veil a little bit and the countenance glows and the garments glisten. He says, hear Him. Hear Him!

67:00 And oh, dear people sitting here this morning, though Jesus was just the ordinary Jesus of Nazareth in His outward form, after the transfiguration, the disciples from there on in always had to think of Him in terms of what they saw Him to be on that mount. And that's what He is this very hour. Oh, my friend, hear Him. Hear Him.

67:29 Hear Him! Especially in the latter part of Mark,

67:36 there is no sinner to be made right with God, but through the bloodletting of God's incarnate Son. And His bloodletting, His glorious resurrection from the dead. Don't think there's any way to enter into the benefits of that salvation apart from saying no!

67:58 Righteousness, self-willing, and throwing yourself upon the mercy of God in Christ. Give yourself up to be His loyal follower and disciple.

68:13 Hear Him. That's the grade of the mount of transfiguration, the voice that calls us to hear Him. May God grant that we will have ears to hear and hearts to obey. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

68:38 Our Father, we bless You and praise You forever recording for us an incident hidden from all the thronging multitudes who pressed in upon our Lord Jesus in the days of His flesh. An event hidden even from that inner circle of the other nine. We thank You that You've taken us into the company of Peter, James, and John. Oh, what a privilege is ours.

69:11 May we not despise that privilege. May we not squander that privilege. May we not barter it away with the cheap toys and trinkets of this world and of its carnal appeals. Oh, write Your word upon our hearts that we may hear it.

69:33 May we may hear Him who is Your well-beloved, who is the very outshining of Your glory. Oh, God, seal this word to all of our hearts, to the praise of Your dear Son, and to the good of our souls. Amen.