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[0:01] If you would please take your Bibles and go to Matthew chapter 17. If you're visiting with us, there's a Bible, black Bible in front of you.

[0:16] And you'll find, go to the back of that Bible, find page 14, page 14 to find Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17, we'll do the first 13 verses.

[0:30] Matthew chapter 17, the first 13 verses, again that black Bible, page 14. Matthew chapter 17, yes sir.

[0:48] I have the clicker. I'm one click away. I won't quit my day job. Matthew chapter 17.

[0:59] And six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. And he was transformed before them.

[1:10] And his face shone as the sun. And his garments became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them conversing with him.

[1:25] And answering, Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you want, I'll make three tents here. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud enveloped them.

[1:39] And behold, a voice out of the cloud saying, This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him. And hearing this, the disciples fell on their faces and were much afraid.

[1:53] And Jesus came. And touching them, he said, Arise and do not be afraid. And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

[2:08] And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then do the scribes say, It's necessary Elijah to come first?

[2:25] And answering, he said, Elijah is coming and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah already came. And they did not recognize him. But did to him whatever they wanted.

[2:36] In the same way, The Son of Man is going to suffer by them. Then the disciples understood. They had spoken to them about John the Baptist. Democratic Senator Chris Coons.

[2:56] He told CNN's John Berman the following, Quote, I'm enough of a sort of traditionalist about our institutions.

[3:10] Even when there's a lot that our president does that I find disturbing, offensive, unconventional. I have a hard time with the idea of a crowd on a globally devised sporting event chanting, Lock him up about our president.

[3:25] Coons added, I frankly think the office of the presidency deserves respect. Even when the actions of our president at times don't. End quote. Now we said this in response to what people did When President Trump was introduced at game five of the World Series.

[3:43] He was introduced. And people were chanting, Lock him up. Impeach Trump. Things like that. Now wherever you may land with the president, Whether you agree with him or not, I'd like to stir the pot with you.

[3:55] Just to kind of get your blood pumping. So then you stay awake. Wherever you may land with the president, Quite honestly, I really don't care. But the senator is right.

[4:07] The office deserves respect at every level. And the younger generation has lost that, In my opinion. And not just with the presidency, But other things as well.

[4:20] The position deserves respect. And if we say this with the presidents, Who deserves respect, How much more so for Jesus?

[4:35] Matthew's gospel is about bowing down and worshipping Jesus, The Messiah King of Israel. You should do that because he deserves it. If you want to put this passage in any way, You can put it like this.

[4:48] Jesus deserves my worship. You can put it that way. Or he deserves my life.

[5:00] Or you can say, He deserves my praise. I'm just giving you different ways you can say this. But I title it, He deserves it. He deserves you to bow down.

[5:11] He deserves you to worship Him. He deserves our worship. Statement. A couple of statements. Christ Jesus deserves our worship.

[5:23] Faith, love, fear, focus, obedience. I kind of put those in commas, But you actually should even put those all together. Because they're all encompassing.

[5:34] When there's faith, there's obedience. When there's fear, there's love. When there's a focus, there's love. They're together. They're not like individual type aspects. It's all encompassing.

[5:48] Christ Jesus deserves our worship. And when you worship, It means you have faith, Fear, focus, obedience. Another statement.

[5:59] Jesus' true, glorious identity Was revealed to reassure us That He truly is who He says He is. And thus deserves our faith, Love, fear, focus, and obedience.

[6:13] And this glorious Christ Will still have to suffer. He displays Himself in all that He is. But it's not to suffer.

[6:29] Which is, it's good for us to see this. Because in this life, we will suffer. We gotta remind ourselves of this. If Jesus suffered, so will we.

[6:42] But if Jesus was glorified, And if we've been united with our Lord, We will be glorified as well. So don't miss that.

[6:57] He reassures us That He has suffered and died. He has gloriously risen. And He will gloriously return. He deserves all our praise.

[7:08] Part of the reason that we celebrate The Lord's Supper, Which we'll do that later, Is we're proclaiming the Lord's death Until He comes. We're proclaiming this promise That He's gonna return.

[7:21] In the future, He's coming back. We're thinking about that. That's, it should be, The forefront of our minds. And when you're suffering, That seems to be more At the forefront of your mind.

[7:37] Right? Another statement for you. The awesomeness of Jesus Is displayed gloriously. The glory that comes after the suffering.

[7:49] The crown after the cross. The exaltation after humiliation. Yet, He reminded the disciples That suffering and death Must come first In the same way came to John.

[8:04] The Father assured these three disciples Jesus truly is His Son. Who truly pleased Him. And should be obeyed.

[8:14] This true, real life experience, It counterbalanced what Jesus had just said About death, About a cross.

[8:32] Beyond death comes life. Glorious life. And so this gave these disciples, And it gives us extraordinary confirmation Of His lordship.

[8:47] Of His control. When things seem to unravel, God knows. He's got it.

[8:58] He's in control. He's sovereign. And this, When this unfolds before us Who Jesus really is, It's a good reminder.

[9:10] Oh, that's right. God is God and I'm not. Yeah, that's right. Okay, good. Good, good. I'm glad. It's not all on me.

[9:21] Right? It's not all on you. So notice, How we begin. First, Reassurance given, The glorious Christ.

[9:33] First three verses. And six days later, Again, We take the view that Chapter 16, Verse 28, Refers to this time Of Jesus being transformed.

[9:47] He took with Him Peter, James, and John, His brother, James' brother, Brought them up To a high mountain By themselves. It reminds us Of Moses' experience On Mount Sinai.

[10:00] It reminds us Of Elijah's experience On Mount Carmel. And these three Were the closest to Jesus, Peter, James, and John. John being really close. They would experience Something that would Just rock their world.

[10:13] Look at verse 2. And New York Xander says He was transfigured. Literally, The word is Metamorphosis. He was transformed. They got a glimpse Of the coming kingdom By Jesus' transformation.

[10:33] Boom! It's like the veil Came off. Now Moses' face Did shine, It's true.

[10:44] But Jesus noticed His face shone As the sun. Second, His garments Became as white As light. This anticipated What God's people Would see When Jesus Would return.

[11:00] And what they Would experience Themselves When Jesus Would return. On that last day. And then notice What happens Verse 3.

[11:12] And look Or behold Moses and Elijah Appeared to them Conversing Talking with him. These are Key Figures And representatives Of the Old Testament.

[11:27] I mean Not simply that But this part of it I mean Moses with the law The great law giver Elijah with the prophets Outstanding among The prophets Both had Mountaintop experiences And they were Types of Christ They pointed forward To the Messiah In the Old Testament What was the Messiah Going to be like?

[11:48] Look at Moses In the Old Testament What was the Messiah Going to be like? Look at Elijah They pointed To Jesus Jesus being The anti-type Moses and Elijah Being types Descriptions Representatives Of what Jesus Was going to be like.

[12:10] So this is happening Before them It's unfolding Here's Jesus Every glorious Christ Then a wrong response.

[12:27] Way to go Peter. You gotta love them. Verse 4 In answering I don't remember Jesus actually Talking to him That's sarcastic In answering Jesus Excuse me Peter said to Jesus Lord it is good For us to be here If you want I will make Three tents Here One for you One for Moses One for Elijah Okay Describe this Tents Tabernacles Tents Kind of reenacts The Feast of Tabernacles So it's having Longer Stay with Jesus And the key Visitors Interesting He wanted To make Three tents What about him And James And John Maybe they would Stay with one of them I don't know But what's most Important is this He put Jesus On par With these Two guys Do you notice that He was

[13:27] One writer Put it like this Blurring the Uniqueness Of the Messiah Of the Son of God Because he It wasn't about Moses and Elijah It was about Jesus and his glory Peter's response Was wrong He blurred The uniqueness Of as What we were just saying You are the Glorious Christ The greatest Of all delights Your power Is unequaled Your love Beyond all heights And setting up These three tents Would have had Two bad results First Depreciation Of Jesus Second Deification Of Moses and Elijah To Messiah status That's why That was A wrong response It's not so much About him saying Let's stay

[14:28] I mean Okay And you know Peter putting his foot In his mouth I mean That's true But it goes beyond that He was depreciating Jesus There was a Godness That was put Into Moses and Elijah Notice We have this tendency To get our focus Off of Jesus Too Don't we We begin to Depreciate the son He doesn't know What he's doing He can't be sovereign In that He can't be in control Of that Oh really Maybe Maybe we are A lot like Peter Notice what happens Reassurance Given again

[15:28] Obey my son Verse 5 While he's still speaking Behold A bright cloud Better would be Envelop them It reminds us Of the Shekinah glory The visible Manifestation Of God's presence Remember you saw that Months ago When we looked at Exodus chapter 40 When they built The tabernacle And the glory of God Which was a depiction Of the manifestation Of his presence Came into the tabernacle So this is kind of What's happening here Not to mention The clouds that come back When Jesus When Jesus comes back Clouds that come When Jesus comes back But the Shekinah glory Envelops them Swallows them Maybe You want to put that down And then it says And behold A voice out of the clouds Saying this is my beloved son

[16:29] With whom I'm well pleased A heavenly voice Repeating the approval From Jesus' baptism And then some Listen to him No no no It's not Moses No no no no It's not Elijah No No Peter Him My son Christ This was the father's voice Speaking of his eternal Only begotten son He alone is unique Above these two others And only he Should be obeyed Period The disciples Were confused Have gotten confused Over So talk about Jesus Suffering What's all this Suffering stuff What is this?

[17:21] So this voice Confirmed Jesus' Exact identity And was to Complete endorsement From the father Jesus is First and foremost And we need to be Reminded of that Don't we?

[17:41] Like almost all the time Daily Reminding ourselves No no Jesus You're first and foremost I get so caught up In so many other things This is my beloved son I'm well pleased with him Obey him Obey him Remember what we said Just a few moments ago Peter setting up these tents The whole tent thing That he came up with Depreciation of Jesus Deification of Moses And Elijah Right?

[18:18] He said that That's the reason For the voice No no no no no Peter My son's not like them They They Point to him You Obey Jesus He Must be your focus Moses and Elijah Were not God's Beloved son In whom the father Is so pleased And takes his great pleasure Really Peter?

[18:51] You put Moses and Elijah On the same level? What are you thinking? No way That reassurance Is given once again And the father says Obey my son That's how you should respond So we do not obey The Old Testament Law per se As Christians We live under the law Of Christ We've talked about this before Christ who's fulfilled The law Christ who's the ultimate Interpreter of the law The focus now Is on Jesus Moses Moses glory Pales in comparison To the glory Of the eternal Beloved Begotten Son of God The Messiah So this Vision Is meant to display

[19:51] Similarities With Moses On Mount Sinai Elijah On Mount Carmel Yes it's true But it's also meant To show The absolute Uniqueness Exclusivity And matchlessness Of Jesus He's absolute He's exclusive There's no one like him So you have the father And Jesus They temporarily Peel back And they uncover Who the glorious Christ really is They got a Just a little Taste of it Peter James And John And they'll see This glory return At Jesus Resurrection His ascension And his Return to earth So amid Suffering

[20:52] That comes Glory Is inevitable Totally guaranteed Even though There's suffering There will be glory Even though There's a cross There will be a crown That's a promise Well How do you know God's gonna keep His promise Well he did it With Jesus If he did it With his son With whom He's Well please And if you're United to his son Guess what's Gonna happen To you The same Thing Brethren The same Thing Oh Christian So at the end Of the day It's not Moses Who we Should be Obeying Jesus Jesus Alone Should be Our focus And should Be Obeying You know You think about How How did God

[21:54] Do this God in the flesh I mean What a mystery How the eternal Son of God Came into our world As a human baby And then how Jesus' divine nature And his human nature They were linked Here At his Transformation It's like Staggering That's why We sing that song Come behold The wondrous mystery Come behold The wondrous mystery It's a mystery One thing's for sure Matthew's account Of the transformation Guarantees Jesus truly Is Jesus He fulfilled All biblical prophecy He's God's promise Of a future kingdom It will happen It will And it gives A stamp of approval Authenticates Not just Jesus His identity As the Messiah Son of God The King of Israel

[22:54] But also And anticipates His future coming And his future judging Of the whole world You see That all here From Matthew 17 It's A small window Into who he really is And what he will do In the future But not Just his future But ours as well We will face A future of glory Because of our unity And oneness To the Lord Jesus Christ Because of our Faith And worship Of him alone Because we're united To the son We will be glorified We will have a crown Even though now We suffer Even though now We bear up a cross Which is why you If you're not a Christian You should respond to Jesus You should respond to the gospel You should trust Christ And I'll tell you

[23:56] It's not going to be Your best life now It might be Your worst life You might have A horrible life It might be The worst thing To become a Christian Oh but yet It's so worth it You wonder why?

[24:12] We just read it Glory The kingdom Is so valuable It's priceless Is it not worth it?

[24:24] Yes it is So then you kind of see I'd describe this As like a better response Verse 6 And the disciples Hearing this Fell on their faces And were very much afraid Now not that we want To be afraid But you went from Enthusiasm To sheer terror Because this Cloud Swallows them Maybe they thought They were going to die This was a better response Yeah But notice What happens Here In verse 7 and 8 Which I describe As this Reassurance given Only Jesus Jesus came And touching them He said Arise And don't be afraid And lifting up their eyes

[25:27] They saw no one Except Jesus Himself Alone Tells them No rise Stop fearing And when they Looked up The only person Before them Was Jesus Alone Which underscored What the father Just said Obey My son Only Only him Jesus is now One writer Put it like this Quote The locusts Of God's presence In other words How was God With these disciples By his beloved son The reassurance Is given Because here Jesus Himself There Alone With them He must be Their focus They should Stay on target

[26:28] With Jesus He should be Central to them They just saw him In all his glory And now Here he is All by himself Just as he was Thus he truly Deserves all our praise There he is He reassured them Here I am It's just me He reassured them Who he really was And how they should Respond to him Trust me He is saying Obey me Believe me Embrace me Because only me Jesus Himself Alone Verse 9 I think of this As like a Another wrong response Look at verse 9 As they were coming down From the mountain Jesus commanded them Saying Tell the vision To no one Until the son of man Is risen from the dead Why do I say it Wrong response

[27:28] Because Of the political messiah That people were so desirous To have To have for themselves Dr. Carson Puts it like this To quote Avoid superficial messianism People did not understand Jesus' identity And mission They get it wrong They minimize Who Jesus really is Or they make Jesus Who they want him to be Not who he proclaims himself To be That's so easy For us to do So he has this You know Glory Right Just A reassurance Is given To these three disciples There were key Key disciples Amongst the twelve He walks through This whole time But then he reminds them Of something Remembrance Given now

[28:28] The son will suffer I'm still gonna suffer Guys Because the disciples Start in With this question In verse 10 And the disciples Asked him Saying Why then do the scribes Say that Elijah Must come first Or is necessary It must happen Elijah to come first So they're confused Wait How does this How does this measure up With the whole Messiah dying And rising thing What do you mean After you rise From the dead What's going on We just saw Elijah That's like A big deal What does this So mean They didn't Understand the Messiah Dying and rising With Elijah's Coming That's proclaimed In Malachi Chapter 4 Verses 5 and 6 Which the scribes They talked about I'll put it In other words Another way To put this

[29:29] In other words Why must Jesus The Christ Still suffer In Jerusalem And why must The restoration Spoken by Malachi Be delayed They're trying To figure out The timing Of everything And it's purpose They didn't Understand So notice What Jesus says Verse 11 Answering He said Elijah's coming And will restore All things Verse 12 But I say to you Elijah already came And they did not Recognize him But did him Whatever they wanted In the same way The son of man Is going to Suffer by them Now There's three parts To Jesus' answer First There is some Future coming Of Elijah Who will restore All things So what was Jesus talking about I don't know That's a mystery

[30:29] We can go Into certain things There in the book Of Revelation The spirit and power Of Elijah Is one of the two Witnesses will come But Jesus doesn't Go into detail About this Okay That's the first Part of his answer No it's the second one He linked John the Baptist With Elijah As a way to say That Elijah Already has come Verse 12 I say to you Elijah already came But instead of Responding to him They did to him Whatever they wanted They Meaning not just The Romans But they Meaning The Jewish people Specifically the Jewish Leaders In other words The people did not Respond appropriately He's talking about John the Baptist John the Baptist Came To prepare the way For Jesus John the Baptist

[31:30] Came to prepare the way For the Lord So people Some people did But the people Were called to respond Especially the Jewish Leaders Didn't happen Jesus says They did to him Whatever they wanted They killed him He got killed He was arrested And then John the Baptist Was beheaded Right Which comes to The third part Of Jesus' answer He Linked John's suffering With his own In the same way The son of man Is going to suffer By them As he did to John So the son of man Will suffer by them So what's Jesus' point He's saying Look guys Focus on the fact

[32:31] That John the Baptist Came In the spirit And power of Elijah Not on the whole experience That you saw of Elijah Here on the mountain You guys are concerned About this No Focus on this John the Baptist Came In the spirit And power of Elijah But he died He suffered So that should be Their focus And if They have this focus They will understand That John's fate Is a foreshadowing Of Jesus' fate In other words Though they just saw Jesus in all his Glorious splendor It doesn't mean He won't suffer He would still suffer He would still die Glory comes Is that not The theme That runs through the Bible

[33:33] Culminating and climaxing With the Messiah himself Suffering Death Glory You see that Throughout the Old Testament You see that In the New Testament There's suffering And yet glory follows There's a cross And yet there's a crown We gotta be reminded of this In our own personal lives Cause when we follow Jesus He says You Will Suffer You will Cause he said If anyone wishes To come after me He must do what Deny himself Take up his cross And follow me Disciples verse 13 Finally got it He spoke to them About John the Baptist John's ministry Was a fulfillment

[34:33] Of Malachi's prophecy But also that His suffering And death John the Baptist Foreshadowed Jesus Suffering and death That's what Jesus Was trying to communicate I'm the glorious Christ He says This is who I am Yes Let me reassure you I'm in charge But I'm still gonna have to die Jesus' True Glorious identity Was revealed To reassure us That he truly is Who he says he is And thus he deserves Our faith Love Fear Focus Obedience But the glorious Christ Will still have to suffer And so will you So will you Christian We are united With our With our Savior With the Son of God We're united And we're connected With him We're gonna have to suffer He still deserves

[35:38] Our worship That's the response We should have Christ deserves Our worship Christ deserves Our worship Faith of fear Focus Obedience Be reassured Of that today Reassure yourself In so many different ways When the Father Looks at you He looks at his Son Says This is my beloved Son With whom I'm well pleased Because you're In union with the Son of God So he's well pleased with you Because of what Christ Has done for you And so you identify You're connected You're united With your Savior So may it spur you on To faith Love Devotion Obedience Passion for him And we do that In a way That we do that In a tangible way It's through the elements Bread and the juice

[36:39] Reminding yourself Of the gospel So if you're here You're a Christian You know the Lord Jesus You might say I'm not a member Of this church Hey you come from a church Of like faith And practice And as Baptists We would prefer That you've been baptized By immersion Partake of the Lord's Supper With us You don't have to become A member here If you're not a Christian It's not for you And we also encourage you If you're a Christian And you have something Against someone else And you've not gone To try and reconcile With them And you There's something that's there And you can't Break free from that Maybe it would be better For you not To partake Of the Lord's Supper To wait Wait maybe the next time We partake of that Next month But this is our time To reflect upon the gospel To fill our minds With the mind of Christ

[37:40] To fill our mind With the things Of the Spirit Who points To Jesus So let's do that Let's take a moment And pray Our Lord Jesus We are praying That at this time In these few moments That we celebrate As we call it The Lord's Supper Or call it communion We commune with you We renew once again Our devotion Our love for you Our commitment To your truth Our commitment

[38:41] To you Lord Jesus We renew once again What you've done For us We renew And we think And we Ponder What you've done For us At the cross Let your mind Think on these things Let your mind Ponder on these things After a few moments Of thinking Reflecting I'll have the men come They'll Pass out the bread To us Let this be a time For you to think To ponder what Christ has done To ponder what

[40:10]  Jesus Please A Is The Events Going to To ponder Aえ I Am An Am At foot