Now, have any of you ever flipped to the end of a book and read the last page?
I know some people who do this religiously.
They pick a book off the shelf, they read the first page, and then they flip to the last page.
And that's rather controversial among people who read books, but some people swear by it.
Now, I've confessed I have sometimes read something at the end of a book.
About a year ago, I was reading Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.
And I was absolutely engrossed by this murder mystery set in 14th century and how it was set in this ostensibly idyllic monastery.
But this monastery was filled with murders, intrigue, history, hidden labyrinths, conspiracies.
And I greatly enjoyed this book, and I really savored it.
And I was slowly trying to figure out who, which one of these monks was responsible for all of these murders.
But one day, I was flipping through the book, and my eyes accidentally landed on the first line of the final chapter.
And I couldn't help but read it.
And it was this, the abbey burned for three days and three nights.
Now, I didn't know how the rest of the book was precisely going to turn out.
But I knew something was going to happen.
I knew that this ostensibly peaceful monastery was going to burn to the ground.
And even though I wanted to forget that line, I couldn't.
And I enjoyed the rest of the book.
It's one of my favorite books.
But I did have something in the story slightly spoiled for me.
I read with new eyes.
I couldn't help but read each page in light of what was coming.
And while this passage that we've just read is in many ways like we have just skipped to the end of our Bibles.
Like we have read a chapter from the book of Revelation.
And all of a sudden, we see Jesus in new light.
We see Him in His own glorious light.
And from this point on, we cannot help but read Luke's gospel with this passage in mind.
But this is a vision of the end that we don't have to cheat to get.
It's not that we flip to the end of our Bibles and we read things out of order.
Luke is putting this deliberately right here in his gospel.
Right before Jesus travels to Jerusalem.
He wants us to see Jesus clothed in His majesty.
You know, we would be doing Luke's gospel an injustice if we tried to forget this vision took place
and just read the rest of his gospel like there was no transfiguration.
From this point on, we are supposed to read Luke's gospel with a sense of who Jesus really is.
And so what I want us to do is as we look at this passage today, I want us to see this vision of Jesus.
I want us to see this vision of Jesus because it's not simply what we need as we read the rest of Luke's gospel.
It's what we need to have in mind whenever we think about our Savior.
And so what we're going to be doing is we're going to be looking through this passage
to see three things it shows us about Jesus Christ.
Three things it reveals about our Savior.
These are truths that should forever change the way we read Scripture and the way we see Jesus.
And the first thing I want you to see, and most basically,
is that here we see Jesus as God incarnate.
We see Jesus as God in the flesh.
Now up to this point, Luke has spent a great deal of time telling us that Jesus is human.
He gives us one of the longest accounts of Jesus' birth.
He even mentions his circumcision.
He talks about how Jesus is baptized.
He presents him constantly having face-to-face conversations.
He's eating.
He's sleeping.
He's praying.
And all of these things are physical.
They involve Jesus' human body.
No one can read Luke's gospel and think that this is some sort of ghost or apparition.
He was really and truly human.
And certainly, Luke has also been telling us that Jesus is more than human.
Both we as readers and the disciples themselves,
they have heard Jesus say divine words and speak with divine authority and power.
In Luke's gospel, when Jesus says things, things happen.
Things that only God can do.
That only God does in Scripture.
Things like still, the winds, and the waves.
He says things that only God can say.
He forgives sins.
But in the transfiguration, we have something different.
Hear the disciples not only hear with their ears, but see with their eyes.
Jesus being divine.
Suddenly, Jesus' disciples wake up from their dozing prayers.
And they discover his face and his clothing are changed.
They have now become dazzling white.
So it's hard to look at.
This is a divine glory.
Jesus is blazing with uncreated light like a beacon.
He does not have a flashlight in his pocket.
There is no special light show here.
This is simply Jesus' face radiating.
His clothes radiating.
This cloud comes and engulfs Jesus and his light so that his disciples are too terrified to really draw close to him.
This is a glory that we see described throughout the Old Testament as only belonging to God.
It's the same glory that Moses glimpsed in Exodus 33 when he asked to see a portion of God's glory.
He saw the back of God on Mount Sinai.
And this glory cloud is the same, shining with the same light as what entered into the tabernacle
and what entered into the temple and dwelt above the mercy seat.
This is a light that only the high priest would see once per year and only after filling the entire room with incense
lest he capture just too much of a glimpse of this glory.
And Peter here, he instinctively understands that this is a divine glory, which is why he responds the way he does.
If you look at verse 33,
Master, it is good that we come here.
Let's make three shelters.
One for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for you.
His reaction is precisely what you would expect from a young Jewish boy who has really mastered his Old Testament catechism.
He knows what to do when he sees divine glory.
What do you do with divine glory in the Old Testament?
You put it in a tabernacle.
And the word you have in your Bible is either tent or shelter, depending on the version.
That is the Greek word for tabernacle.
He is proposing building a tabernacle like the Old Testament tabernacle and putting Jesus inside it.
Peter wants simultaneously for this glory to dwell with him, but also to keep it slightly far away so that it doesn't destroy him, like in the tabernacle.
And yet Peter's reaction, as much as we can say it's rooted in a sort of standard Jewish understanding of things from the Old Testament,
this is a pretty good answer when you're waking up sleep deprived, and if you're going to give a wrong answer, this is a good one.
But he's misunderstood things.
They don't need to build a tabernacle for Jesus.
He has been tabernacling with them the entire time.
As it says in John 1, 14,
And the word became flesh, or literally tabernacled, among us.
And we have seen his glory full of grace and truth.
Jesus is tabernacling.
His tabernacling is his taking on of flesh.
He is dwelling among us.
As Paul says in Philippians 2, 6, and 7,
Though he was in the form of God,
Jesus took the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
In other words, hiding his glory.
In just a few moments, or a few minutes,
this tabernacling is going to continue.
The glory is going to be concealed once again.
Jesus is going to walk down the mountain with feet that are clothed,
not with glory, but with dust.
With calloused feet, one foot in front of another,
like any other man in his day.
But just because that glory is gone from sight,
doesn't mean that it's not there.
From this point on, Peter, James, and John
know what is behind the veil, so to speak.
They have a glimpse of who Jesus is.
They have seen him as both God and man.
From this point on, Jesus is going to go to Jerusalem.
He's going to be crucified, die, and be buried.
Outwardly, these three disciples are going to see
everything the other disciples are going to be seeing.
They're going to see Jesus put one foot in front of another.
They're going to see Jesus be nailed to a cross.
They're going to see his body carried to a tomb.
But for these three, it has new significance.
Jesus is going to suffer as the King of glory.
He's going to be crowned not with light,
but with a crown of thorns.
And they understand that the Lord of life
is about to be nailed to the cross
and suffer the pains of death.
What we are called to do is read the gospel story
like Peter, James, and John who experienced it.
When you see Christ suffering on the cross,
you need to know who is there suffering on your behalf.
No matter how much the glory may be obscured
by the wormwood and the gall,
the one who is nailed there
is the one who is upholding the universe
by the word of his power.
The one that the Bible says
is the one for whom and by whom all things exist.
And someone like that
is only on the cross
because he wants to be.
The second person of the Trinity
is suffering for you
as a Jewish peasant
mocked and jeered to his dying breath for you.
You are called to behold Jesus there
in his suffering glory
filled with love and wonder
because of the glory that lies beneath that suffering.
And if you see that,
then you will be changed.
It is a vision that changed Peter.
It stuck with him throughout the rest of his life.
He says this in 2 Peter 1, 16-18
which he wrote as an old man.
For we do not follow cleverly devised myths
when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For when he received honor and glory
from God the Father
and the voice was born to him
by the majestic glory
this is my beloved son
with whom I am well pleased.
We ourselves heard this very voice
born from heaven
for we were with him on the holy mountain.
When you're walking through a forest
it's actually quite difficult
to walk in a straight line.
It takes a fair amount of skill
to figure out how to walk in a straight line
in the forest.
If you're all on your own
you often end up veering to one side or another
and if you're
it's a really thick forest
and it's really obscure
and you're really unskilled
you can even end up
wandering in an entire circle.
And that's because people go through forests
and they usually go from tree to tree
and they just say well I'm going to go
from that point to that point to that point.
And they lose all sense of perspective.
The way you get through a forest
is you focus on a single tree
or a landmark way off in the distance
and you pick that point
and you walk straight towards it.
When you get there
you pick another point
lined up just the same way
and you have to be very careful.
You need something in the distance
to focus on
in order to not become lost.
Well what we're supposed to focus on
in the Christian life
is our love of Christ.
It's that which makes sense of everything
everything we do
everything we experience.
And if you want to grow
in your love of Christ
then you need to focus your eyes
upon His glory
and upon His suffering in glory.
Because when you behold
Christ's suffering in glory
then you will understand
that the reason Christ was there
on that cross
was because of His love for you.
You see in Him a love
that as the Apostle says
bears all things
believes all things
hopes all things
and endures all things.
And seeing that
will change you.
It will stick with you
just like it did with Peter.
The gospel story
will take on
new significance
new power.
Your love for your Savior
will grow
it will get into your bones
it will begin to pour out
of you.
You will naturally seek
to love your neighbor
because of your love for Christ.
You will love your spouse
as Christ loved the church
and you will love the church
because the church
is the apple of His eye.
But if you want those things
and you want to be loving
to those around you
you need to see
His glory first.
You need to focus
on that
and everything else
falls into place.
But the second thing
I want you to see
in this passage
is not simply
Jesus as God incarnate.
I want you to see
that in this passage
Jesus
comes as the greater
Moses and Elijah.
Jesus is not simply
there on the mountaintop
by Himself
blazing with light
like a lighthouse.
No, there are two other figures
who appear there
as well.
There's Moses
and Elijah.
Now, why those two?
This is a question
that's debated a lot
and perhaps it's because
Jesus is the fulfillment
of the law
of Moses
and He's also the fulfillment
of the prophets.
Elijah symbolizes
the prophets.
That's possible.
It's also possible
that Moses
is the premier example
of a prophet
and Elijah
he is the example
of someone
who turns the hearts
back to God
and He brings in
the new heavens
and the new earth
and He brings in
the Messiah.
That's also possible.
I think those are
perfectly reasonable
explanations.
I don't want to get lost
in those details though.
What I want you to see
is that Jesus came
to fulfill the work
of Moses and Elijah.
He came to be
a better prophet,
be the ultimate prophet.
Now what do prophets do?
Well they reveal
the will of God
to His people.
They tell the people
who God is
and what He wants.
Prophets are the one
they commune with God.
They come back
and they tell people
what He said
and what they need to know.
They have God's ear
and they listen to Him.
They listen to every word.
But the great irony
of Moses and Elijah
is that even though
they are prophets,
even though they are
great legendary prophets
who reveal the will of God
on a daily basis,
they still longed
to have a greater revelation
of Him
than they possessed.
Their ministry,
as great as it was,
left them wanting more.
Both wanted God
to reveal Himself to them
more clearly.
Now this mountaintop
transfiguration
is what Moses and Elijah
have been looking for
their entire earthly lives.
They have been longing
and hoping
for this moment.
Both are men
who wanted to meet God
more fully.
Now Moses seems
to have been interested
very much in seeing God.
God.
Hebrews 11, 27
says this,
By faith he left Egypt
not being afraid
of the anger of the king
for he endured
as seeing Him
who is invisible.
His eyes were focused
on the invisible God.
And then in Exodus 33,
as we read,
Moses takes his shot
and he asks,
Can I see you?
Can I see your glory?
Can I have a glimpse
of the glory
of this invisible God?
Now Elijah
is very similar.
At the lowest point
of his life,
when he is despairing
of Israel,
ever turning back
to God,
he goes into the wilderness,
he travels
to Mount Horeb
and he wants
to meet with God
and to speak with Him.
They both hid in caves
on the same mountain.
They may have even hidden
in the same cave.
And Moses saw
the glory of God
pass by obliquely
and in part.
Elijah heard God
come in a low whisper,
not in thunder
and lightning.
Both of them
came out of the cave
with their faces covered
to make sure
that they don't get
too much of a glimpse
of this glory.
And so both of them
can say partially
their wish
has been granted.
Moses is able
to go away
saying that he has seen
the back of God.
Elijah is able
to go away
saying that he has heard
God whisper.
But as wonderful
and powerful
as both of those
experiences were,
this passage is greater.
And it's really
the true fulfillment
of all of their hopes
and prayers.
On this mountain,
in this transfiguration,
Moses is able to say,
not only have I seen
God's back,
but I have seen
God's face.
I have seen
the face of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God,
God of God,
light of light,
very God
of very God.
And Elijah,
he is now able
to say,
not only have I heard
God in a low whisper,
but I have heard him
with a clear voice.
For I have spoken
and had a face-to-face
conversation
with the Word
of God himself.
Jesus is what
both of them
have been hoping
to see and hear
all this time.
And it's finally
fulfilled on this mountain.
And this is because
Jesus is our true prophet.
He reveals the will
of God to us.
Indeed, he reveals
God himself to us
in a way that is
far superior
than any other prophet
and leaves no one
wanting anything.
He reveals the will
of the Father
as the Son
who has dwelt with him
in perfect communion
from eternity past.
And he comes
with a greater recommendation
than any other prophet.
Moses and Elijah,
they both had,
they came with signs.
And Jesus comes
with signs too.
He has great signs,
wonderful signs,
more than Moses
and Elijah
put together.
But,
Jesus comes not only
with signs
but with the very words
of God the Father
blasting from heaven,
this is my Son,
my chosen one,
listen to him.
In Deuteronomy 18.15
it describes
what a prophet does.
God says he will
send a prophet
and says you will
listen to him.
This is the fulfillment
of that as well.
Because whenever you hear
anything Jesus say,
you can take that
as definitionally,
literally,
the word of God.
Because he is God.
Unlike any other prophet.
And so Jesus,
God in the flesh,
he came to reveal God
to us as the prophet
to whom all other prophets
pointed to and longed for.
And you can see this
in one other thing
I want you to see
in the passage.
It's how he's described
as performing
Moses' work.
There's one other word
besides tabernacle
which is kind of hidden
under the Greek
and it's in verse 31.
It says that
Moses and Elijah
spoke with Jesus
about his departure.
Most of your Bibles
are going to have
a little footnote there
and at the bottom
it's going to say
that's the word Exodus.
That's the word Exodus
in the Greek.
Moses and Elijah
are speaking to Jesus
about how he will perform
the greater Exodus.
How much more important
and magnificent
his work is
than their small,
feeble foreshadowings.
The Exodus
was never about
simply moving
the people of Israel
from one location
to another
and all the logistical
challenges
that that involved.
The Exodus
is about more
than logistics.
It pointed forward
to a greater
new Exodus
performed by Christ himself.
And Jesus
is going to come down
from that mountain,
he is going to enter
into the land of death,
and then go into
the land of life
in his death,
burial,
resurrection,
and ascension.
And it is through
that work
that we are saved
from our slavery
to sin
and we are brought
into a new
promised land
of the kingdom
of God.
And when we are saved
and when we are baptized,
we follow him
as through
the Red Sea.
We are baptized
into his death
and we are raised
with him into life.
And all of this
was foreshadowed
by Moses.
And there are
so many other
glimpses
that you can get
of Christ's work
in the Old Testament.
Seeing Jesus
as the greater
Moses and Elijah
should make us
read our Bibles
more carefully.
You know,
particularly
the Old Testament.
When we open up
our Bibles
and we turn
to Genesis,
Exodus,
Leviticus,
Numbers,
and Deuteronomy
or whatever
obscure Old Testament
book we do,
we need to realize
we are not entering
into hostile territory.
We're not even
entering into
alien territory.
We are not
uncomfortable
houseguests
in a foreign land.
We are reading
Christian books.
And these are books
that are about Christ,
written by people
who longed to see Christ
and hoped
that he would come soon.
Jesus comes
fulfilling everything
that has come before.
And so we should
listen to him.
We are called
to listen to
his words
in the Gospels
knowing that it is
the fulfillment
of God's plan
from eternity past
and that has been
performed
from Adam
all the way
through the Old Testament.
And Jesus comes
fulfilling it all.
There's nowhere else
we should go
except to Jesus.
He has the words
of eternal life.
To whom else
shall we go?
But there's the final thing
that I want us to see
in this passage.
It's that Jesus comes
as he,
we can see Jesus
as he will come again.
This is Jesus
as he will appear
on the final day
when he shall come
riding on the clouds.
The first time he came
he took the form
of a servant
hiding his glory,
putting it aside
so to speak.
But now
he has been exalted
above all others.
The Father
has declared
that the Son
is the Son
and he is worthy
of all praise
and honor
and glory
forever
and ever.
He now appears
in glory
and splendor.
A glory
that was his
from eternity past
and yet it is given
to him by the Father
after he has performed
his mediatorial work.
No one
can mistake
Jesus anymore
for a poor
Jewish peasant.
Because now
you will notice him
on the final day
and he shall come
to judge the world
and rescue his people
as he is
in this passage.
On that day
he shall appear
clothed in majesty.
Every knee will bow,
every tongue will confess
that Jesus
is Lord.
And Christian,
what we have
in this passage
is Jesus
how you will worship him
for the rest
of eternity.
This is who you will
stand before.
This is who you will
worship.
This is who you will
seek to glorify
every single day
for the rest of your life.
This is who you will
give an account to.
Now what does a vision
like that entail?
Well, this is either
a wonderful vision
or a terrifying vision.
You look to Revelation.
The book of Revelation
is a kind of scary book
for some people.
My grandmother was blind
and she was actually
scared of the book
of Revelation
because she would hear this
and she had no idea
what any of this involved.
She was kind of scared
by the book.
That's a sort of typical
reaction in many ways.
Many of us,
if we saw the glory of Jesus
and he just was right here
at this moment,
we would fall down
and we would be quite
literally terrified.
This is the reaction
of Isaiah.
He falls down
when he has the vision
of God in the temple.
He says,
Woe is me.
I am a man of unclean lips
because he understands
he is a sinner
in the sight of God.
He is just
and deserving
of his displeasure.
But,
if you are in Jesus Christ,
if you are clothed
in his blood,
if you are washed in him,
this sight
is no longer terrifying.
It becomes the most
wonderful sight
in the world.
This is the sight
of your Savior.
This is the sight
of your Savior
who has come
to save you
here on earth.
It is the sight
of your Savior
who bled
and died for you.
The glory
of the Lamb
now blazing
in all
of its fullness.
One of the great
ways that
the church
has talked about
our future hope
as Christians
is saying
that we hope
to see something.
The $10 word
is the beatific vision.
But what it really is
is we see
Jesus Christ
and we see
him in his glory
and we behold
him to which
for whom
we have been made
and to which
our hearts
are constantly drawn
and we find
our fullness
in beholding him,
praising him,
and worshipping him
forevermore.
In heaven,
what do you expect
to find?
I expect we're going
to find many
wonderful things.
But the Lamb,
he is the glory
of Emmanuel's land.
He is the chief
and greatest pleasure.
He is the one
to whom we are
to direct our entire lives,
the one to whom
we desire to go.
And we are this day
operating as pilgrims.
But we're pilgrims
heading home,
desiring to see
this vision.
And we need to have it.
Because when everything
else seems to get
grim and dark,
we become like
the psalmist
in Psalm 73,
where the psalmist
confesses that
I was envious
of the arrogant
when I saw
the prosperity
of the wicked.
Because the arrogant
and the wicked,
they seem not to suffer.
They seem to be able
to get away
with anything.
What solves
the psalmist's problem
though in that psalm?
It's that he goes
into the sanctuary.
And he goes
into the sanctuary
and then he says,
until I went
into the sanctuary
of God,
then I discerned
their ends.
But what we are
called to do
is we are called
to come into church,
to gather together
and to focus our eyes
upon Jesus Christ.
To have a longer view
as we walk
through the forest
of this world
and to focus
on Jesus Christ.
And once we see him,
everything else
falls into place.
The troubles
that we face
year after year
seem to melt away
because the glory
of Christ
is so bright.
It doesn't always mean
that it makes it easier.
But it does
give us comfort
in the midst
of suffering.
And we are called
to go through this life
as pilgrims
focusing upon
the glory
of our Savior
to come.
I want to close.
I want you just
to consider for a moment
that do you want
to see Jesus?
Do you want
to see
his glory?
And if you do,
then you must
behold his glory
first
by faith.
You know,
we have seen
the glory of Jesus Christ.
As it says
in John 1, 14,
we have seen Jesus
full of grace
and truth.
faith.
We have seen
him by faith.
And a day
is coming
when faith
shall be sight.
But you need
the faith
first.
A day
is coming
when we will
know him
not in part
but in full.
And if you
desire Jesus Christ,
you will know
true joy
and lasting pleasure.
You will know
the joy
of Jesus Christ.
He is the fountain
of fountains.
Everything good
is in him.
So we are called
not to look
anywhere else
in this life.
Be careful
where your eyes go.
Don't have them
go to the right
or to the left.
Be careful
what you find
drawing your eyes.
And when you
find your eyes
moving to the
things of this world,
focus them back
upon Jesus
and upon the
conviction
that his glory
is better
and it is
more wonderful
and it is
what we
truly need.
And we shall
one day see him
and we shall
see our Savior
face to face.
Amen.
Let us pray.