Well, now we turn to the preaching of God's Word.
As James had mentioned this morning,
next week we will be continuing our series in the book of Exodus.
This evening, though, we'll be looking at a text from the book of Matthew.
Matthew 17, verses 1-17.
This is the story of the transfiguration.
So if you have your Bibles, you can turn there with me.
And as you do, as we prepare to read this passage tonight,
I want us to first consider our hearts and our attitudes
in how we approach the text,
and also how we respond to the text.
Most of you may know Charles Spurgeon,
who was the famous English minister from the 1800s.
He was a powerful preacher,
a great orator who would speak in front of thousands
and captivate the hearts and minds of those people.
We know that many people were led to open displays of emotion when he preached.
And though Spurgeon didn't really care about senseless emotion
just for the sake of emotion,
emotion that lacked any sort of spiritual depth,
he saw an appropriate place for emotion within the church.
He once wrote this.
He said,
And I thought of that quote tonight,
especially pertaining to this text,
because I think this text kind of does an emotional check for us.
I think this text can really evoke emotion within our hearts.
And while emotion in itself isn't the object of our aim,
when we look at this glorious passage,
we should have the desire to see the reality of Christ's identity.
That we may look at this glorious passage
and that we may experience the beauty of the Gospel.
That it might stir within us this deeper affection for Christ,
this longing that we see His face.
And so let's turn to this passage.
Matthew chapter 17, verses 1 through 13.
And after six days,
Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, His brother,
and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
And He was transfigured before them.
And His face shone like the sun,
and His clothes became white as light.
And behold, there appeared to them
Moses and Elijah talking with Him.
And Peter said to Jesus,
Lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents here.
One for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.
And a voice from the cloud said,
This is my beloved Son,
with whom I am well pleased.
Listen to Him.
When the disciples heard this,
they fell on their faces and were terrified.
But Jesus came and touched them,
saying, Rise and have no fear.
And when they lifted their eyes,
they saw no one but Jesus only.
And as they were coming down the mountain,
Jesus commanded them,
Tell no one of this vision
until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.
The disciples asked Him,
Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?
He answered, Elijah does come,
and He will restore all things.
But I tell you that Elijah has already come.
And they did not recognize Him,
but did to Him whatever they pleased.
And so also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.
Then the disciples understood
that He was speaking to them of John the Baptist.
This is the Word of God.
Will you pray with me?
Almighty God, You are the Father of lights.
And so we ask, Lord,
that You'll shine in our hearts and in our minds
that we might understand Your message
as You speak to us through Your Word.
May the Gospel come to us not only in word,
but also in the power of Your Holy Spirit this evening.
May He guide us in truth
and strengthen us to all obedience
so that we may glorify You.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Now I wonder how many of us have had the opportunity
to share the Gospel before.
Maybe some of us haven't been so blessed
as to somewhat ask us so bluntly,
so who is this Jesus character?
What did He do?
What does He say?
What is His message?
But perhaps some of us have.
Maybe we've had the opportunity
to share the Gospel before,
to share the narrative of Jesus' life.
And the question,
when you have that opportunity,
or if you ever have that opportunity in the future,
what stories will you include
in the life of Jesus
as you retell it?
Certainly, I would imagine
you may start with the nativity scene,
talk about Jesus being born of a virgin,
being placed in a manger
in the city of Bethlehem,
His birth announced to the shepherds.
You may talk about something about His ministry,
Him feeding the 5,000,
or turning water into wine,
healing the sick and the lame.
Maybe something about His message,
what He has done,
what He says about the Kingdom of God,
what He says about Himself.
Certainly, we'd include
the passion narrative in there
where Jesus is arrested and crucified,
how He's resurrected and ascends to Heaven.
But would we choose to include
this story of the transfiguration?
Do we find it important
and essential to the life
and ministry of Jesus?
My guess is that probably many of us
would probably not include it.
I don't know personally if I would include it
until I look at this text
and prepare for it this evening.
And I wonder if it's in part
because we may not really understand
where this fits into
the narrative,
Matthew's narrative
of His Gospel.
Perhaps we don't really understand
when it talks about Moses and Elijah,
what do they have to do with this story?
What do they have to do
with God's overall plan of redemption?
But it's my hope
as we walk through this text tonight
that we gain a better appreciation
for who Jesus is
and a better understanding
for how this narrative
fits into God's plan of redemption.
And so then I think it's important
as we begin
to understand the context of this passage.
At the very beginning in verse 1,
it begins after six days.
So it's important to understand
what was happening
before chapter 17 was recorded.
After six days.
What happened six days ago?
Well, if we look back in Matthew 16,
starting in verse 13,
we see that Jesus and His disciples
have arrived in Caesarea Philippi.
And we see this important conversation
that's recorded by Matthew
here in His Gospel.
Because Jesus turns to His disciples
and He says,
Who do people say the Son of Man is?
Disciples respond,
Well, some say it's John the Baptist,
some say Elijah,
some say another prophet.
And Jesus asks them bluntly,
Who do you say the Son of Man is?
Peter responds,
You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God.
So we see Jesus' response.
First, He blesses Peter
for recognizing His true identity.
But then He tells His disciples,
Don't tell anyone that I'm the Christ.
And He goes on from there
to say how He must go to Jerusalem,
how He must suffer and be killed,
and how He will rise again
on the third day.
And so Peter, maybe,
because he had a little confidence
in getting the first answer right,
he responds again to Jesus and says,
Far be it from you, Lord.
This will never happen to you.
We know how Jesus responds.
He turns from blessing Peter
to rebuking Him.
He says,
Get behind me, Satan.
You are a hindrance to me.
Not only was Jesus going to suffer,
but He was calling on His disciples
to suffer with Him.
And so we see then
that this transfiguration,
this story really stands
at a pivotal moment
in Jesus' ministry.
It's really a watershed
because if you look to the one side,
it's all that's happened
in Jesus' ministry
to bring Him to this point
where Peter recognizes
that He is truly the Christ.
And then we look from here
the transfiguration onward,
and this is Jesus' journey
to the cross
where He is to suffer and die.
And so these themes
that Matthew begins in chapter 16,
He's continuing on to chapter 17
where Jesus,
talking about who Jesus is
and what He is to accomplish.
And so that's what I want
our focus to be tonight.
First, to think about Jesus' identity
and secondly, Jesus' mission.
And so let's look first
at Jesus' identity.
You've probably heard the expression
know your audience, right?
It's advice that's given
to public speakers
and maybe others
in a large group
or maybe a small group
when they want to communicate
effectively or persuasively
to those around them.
In order to do that,
you have to know your audience.
You need to know their background.
You need to know their story,
what they're going to understand
about what you're communicating
to them.
And so that's what we really see
Matthew doing here
throughout his Gospel.
Matthew is largely writing
to a Jewish audience.
And so he's very careful
to point out
as he goes along in his Gospel
exactly who Jesus is.
He's not just a good teacher.
He's not just a good leader or man.
He is truly the Messiah,
the one who has been anticipated,
the one who Jewish tradition
and prophecy
and history points to.
And so he directly links
who Jesus is,
talks about Jesus fulfilling
Old Testament prophecy
and that's what we begin to see
in this passage here,
these allusions going back
to the Old Testament,
primarily the book of Exodus.
So while we're not studying
the book of Exodus tonight,
we're going to be turning back there
quite a bit to see these allusions
that Matthew uses.
If we look at verse 1,
after six days,
Jesus took with him
Peter and James
and John, his brother,
and led them up
on a high mountain
by themselves.
Now if you were a Jew
in that day and age
and you were familiar
with the Old Testament,
this may trigger a memory
from Exodus 24
where God commands Moses
to come with Aaron
and Nadab
and Abihu to worship.
And as Moses ascends
Mount Sinai,
it says that he's covered
by a cloud for six days.
Then in verse 2 here
we see in our text,
Matthew,
he immediately enters
into this glorious vision
and Jesus was transfigured
before him
and his face shone
like the sun
and his clothes
became white as light.
And so we see here
this glorious unveiling.
This word transfigured,
it can be translated
as transformed.
It's actually only used
a few times
in the New Testament
apart from Matthew and Mark
talking about
the transfiguration story here.
Paul uses it
a couple times
and he's not talking about
a physical transformation
so much as a spiritual transformation.
You may know Romans 12 too.
Paul writes,
do not be conformed
to this world
but be transformed
by the renewal of your mind.
And so we see in this case
it's not only talking about
a spiritual transformation of Christ
but this physical transformation.
But we need to understand
when this transformation
is not as if Jesus
is changing in some way
but rather
this previously hidden dimension
of his glory
is now being revealed
to his disciples.
As if all the dullness
of earthly conditions
were temporarily stripped away
so that his true nature
could be revealed
to these men.
And so again,
the question is
does this remind you
of anything from the Old Testament?
If we look back to Exodus 34,
Moses up on Mount Sinai
for 30 days and 40 nights.
40 days, 40 nights
where he receives
these Ten Commandments
and he returns
to the people of Israel
and it says
the skin of his face shone
to such a degree
that it scared the Israelites.
He had to wear a veil
over his face
so they wouldn't be afraid.
And so while we see
some differences here,
this allusion
to the Old Testament,
there's actually
some obvious differences
as well
because while Moses' face
shone as a reflection
of God's glory,
we see here in our passage
that Jesus shone
with his own innate glory.
Jesus here is the source
of light.
It's a glory of such intensity
and such otherness.
It again reminds us
of the story in Exodus
where Moses comes to God
and he asks,
may I see your glory?
God responds to him,
you cannot see my face
and live.
So he puts Moses
in the crack of a rock
and he passes over him
with his hand in front of him
until he has passed by
and Moses is allowed
to see his back.
And so this is the glory of God.
This incomparable glory
that we see
throughout the Old Testament
is now what we see
displayed in Christ here.
And so while Jesus
has been transfigured,
he's transformed,
this glimpse of his glory
is being seen,
we see with him also
Moses and Elijah
appear with him.
And I think this may be
at the point
that we may become
confused a little bit.
What role do they
have to play here?
I think even Jesus' disciples
were a little confused.
We see Peter
in his request,
hey, how about I build
some tents for you guys?
We'll talk about that
in a second,
but here we must question
what is the purpose
of Elijah and Moses
in this text?
I think maybe
most common interpretation
that we hear nowadays
is that maybe
Moses represents the law
and Elijah represents
the prophets.
And while there may be
some level of truth there,
we need to consider
this passage
in the context of that day,
how it would have been
received by the disciples
and others
when they read
Matthew's account.
Because Moses wasn't
only considered
a lawgiver in that time,
he was considered
a prophet himself.
He's spoken of
as a prophet
in the Old Testament.
Not only that,
but Elijah,
would he have been
considered as a representation
or representative
for all the prophets?
Maybe, maybe not.
He wasn't one
of the writing prophets.
And so what do we do here
with this image
of Elijah and Moses?
I think the most
compelling argument
may be this.
One commentator writes
that their appearance
sums up the entire drama
of the old order
from beginning to end.
Moses being the predecessor
and Elijah being
the precursor
of the Messiah.
And so these men,
as they stand
within the Old Testament,
they point
to the coming
of the Messiah.
The one who would come
to provide salvation
for his people.
And so,
though they add
to the drama
in this narrative,
this isn't the climax
of Matthew's story.
Because we see that Matthew,
he really cuts Peter off
as he's kind of
making this request.
Let me build you some tents.
He says,
Behold,
he focuses our attention
on this bright cloud
that's overshadowing them.
Again,
it may remind the reader
of the story
of Exodus
where God's presence
is repeatedly seen
appear in a cloud.
Not only on Mount Sinai,
but also in the wilderness,
leading the people of Israel
through the wilderness.
But it's not only
the appearance of the cloud
that's important
in this text,
it's the voice coming
from the cloud.
Matthew is directing
our focus here
to the climax
of the passage,
which is the voice
of God from this cloud.
This is my Son
whom I love.
With Him I am well pleased.
Listen to Him.
And so in these
two chapters,
16 and 17,
we see repeated
a profession
of Christ's identity
from Peter.
And now,
a proclamation
from the voice
of God Himself.
Jesus is
the Son of God.
And so you might have
heard these words before.
These are the words
that were recorded
by Matthew
in Matthew chapter 3
after Jesus' baptism.
When the Spirit of God
descends like a dove
and repeats
these same words,
except here,
Matthew adds
an extra command
at the end.
He says,
listen to me.
So again,
if we were to
look back at the Old Testament,
it may jog our memories
to the text
that Roddy read earlier
from Deuteronomy 18,
verse 15,
where God promises
to send a new prophet.
And He prophesies
through Moses,
the Lord your God
will raise up for you
a prophet like me
from among you,
from your brothers.
Listen to Him.
It says.
So we see here
that Jesus
is clearly
this prophet
that has been prophesied.
God's own Son
has been sent.
So Matthew
is pointing out here
not only the identity
that Jesus shares
in God's glory,
but He also shares
in God's authority.
And we are to
listen to Him.
And so when the disciples
hear this,
it says that they
fall down in fear.
Now it's interesting
when you compare
this narrative
to the Gospel of Mark
and the Gospel of Luke
who both talk about
the transfiguration.
Mark and Luke
both talk about
the disciples' reaction,
their fear,
much earlier on
in the narrative.
But here,
Matthew reserves
this description
of their fear
until after these words
are spoken.
As if it's the appropriate
time for us
and the disciples
to have an emotional response
when we recognize
the identity
and the authority
of Jesus,
the Son of God,
the Messiah.
And it says
when they raise
their heads,
it says literally
in the Greek
they see
only Jesus Himself.
And so left before them
is not Moses,
it's not Elijah,
it's only Jesus.
It's only Jesus
who possesses this glory.
It's only Jesus
who possesses this authority.
It is only Jesus
to whom
we are to listen.
And so imagine
the lasting impact
that this would have
on the disciples.
I mean,
this may evoke emotion
in us who are just reading it,
but if you are there
seeing a glimpse
of God's glory
in His Son,
Jesus.
We think about
the Gospel of John,
how He writes
in John 1.14,
and the Word
became flesh
and dwelt among us
and we have seen
His glory.
The glory
as of the only Son
from the Father
full of grace
and truth.
This is what John
has witnessed firsthand.
We think about
Peter's writing.
2 Peter 1.16,
he writes this,
Therefore,
we did 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 a 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
and we were with Him
on that holy mountain.
And so we see
that these men
were moved
by the glory
of God.
But we recognize
that what they saw
was just a glimpse
of Jesus' glory.
Because Jesus didn't remain
in His unveiled glory here.
We know that
as they descended
the mountain beforehand,
Jesus goes back
to as He was before.
And so we may question,
well, why didn't He
remain in His glory?
He revealed Himself
to His disciples.
Why not to everyone else
at this point?
But that really goes
into our second point here,
the mission of Jesus.
We've identified Jesus
as His identity
as the Son of God,
as the Messiah.
Well, what is His mission?
If we look back
to when Moses and Elijah
appear in this text,
we talked about Peter's response,
a rather odd suggestion.
This is a good thing.
We're all here.
How about I build you
a tent, Jesus,
and you one, Moses,
and one for you, Elijah.
We don't really know
what He meant by that,
what He wanted to do
with these tents,
what He expected
to become of this.
But it seems
that He has some sense
that the day of the Lord
was near.
And He had this desire
for the Messiah
to remain among His people.
But the thing is
that this desire
for the immediate establishment
of God's kingdom
that God may dwell
right there personally
among His people,
it goes to show
Peter's continued
lack of understanding.
We already looked
at chapter 16
where Peter rebukes Jesus
for saying,
no, no, no,
Lord,
you're not going to suffer
and die.
That can't be.
We question,
now,
is this just a continuation
of Peter's misunderstanding?
Now, He's saying,
Jesus, look,
you don't have to suffer.
You are here in Your glory.
You can remain in Your glory.
Let's set up Your kingdom now
so that everyone knows it.
But we see Jesus' response
in verse 9
that this is not a part
of His plan.
He commands His disciples
not to tell anyone
what had happened
until the Son of Man
is raised from the dead.
And so we see
that this is a repeated command
that's recorded by Matthew
that Jesus says
throughout His ministry.
In chapter 16,
we already looked at it.
When Peter declares
Jesus as the Christ,
Jesus responds by saying
to His disciples,
don't tell anybody.
When Jesus performed miracles
early in the Gospel of Matthew,
multiple times,
He tells these people,
the recipients of these miracles,
don't tell anybody.
And so why the secrecy?
Well, it seems as though
Jesus is wanting to avoid
creating any misunderstanding
of who He is
and what He's here to accomplish.
You may know that the Jews
were expecting Messiah to come,
but they wanted this Messiah
to come set up an earthly kingdom
to overthrow the Roman Empire.
So Jesus wanted this ambition,
this desire,
not to be a distraction
to the people,
not to be a distraction
from what He had actually
been called to do,
what His mission actually was,
to come and suffer and die.
And so we see an allusion
to this mission
when we go back to look
at the voice of God
again in the cloud.
We talked about
that it reminds us
of Jesus' baptism
where the Spirit of God
came down
and spoke these same words
of His Son Jesus,
this is my Son
with whom I'm well pleased.
It reminds us of Deuteronomy
where it talks about
listening to Jesus.
But I think there's
a third allusion here
because when God says
this is my beloved Son
with whom I am well pleased,
that second part
of that phrase,
in whom I'm well pleased,
in whom I take delight,
this again is a repetition
of an Old Testament prophecy
if we go back
to the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 42,
which is one of these
servant songs,
one of several servant songs
in the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 42.1 says this,
Behold my servant,
whom I uphold,
my chosen,
in whom my soul delights.
So God prophesied
through Isaiah
that this Messiah
who was coming,
who would possess all power
and all authority,
was coming as a servant
to His people.
And so we see this theme
more clearly
in the second part
of our passage here.
When Jesus is descending
the mountain
with His disciples,
His disciples are
obviously confused.
They've seen a glimpse
of Jesus' glory.
They've seen Him
talking with Moses
and Elijah,
so they assume
that the day of the Lord
is near,
and they ask,
why do the scribes
say that first Elijah
must come?
Maybe a peculiar question
to us,
but it was obvious
that they themselves
understood another prophecy
from the book of Malachi.
Malachi 4.5 says,
Behold,
I will send you Elijah
the prophet
before the great
and awesome day
of the Lord comes.
And so if the disciples
knew this,
they knew the scribes
knew this,
they had just seen Elijah
with Jesus
in His glory,
if the day of the Lord
is near,
why didn't Elijah
stick around?
What's going on here?
They want to know.
Jesus clarifies
in verse 12.
He says,
I tell you that Elijah
has already come,
and they did not
recognize Him,
but did to Him
whatever they pleased.
So also the Son of Man
will certainly suffer
at their hands.
And so Jesus
is making clear
to His disciples,
once again,
if we look back
in Matthew 11,
He's already said this
to His disciples,
that John the Baptist
is Elijah.
So yes,
this prophecy says
that Elijah will come.
John the Baptist
is the fulfillment
of the prophecy.
John the Baptist
was to prepare
the way for the Lord.
He has done so,
yet He was not recognized
and He was persecuted
and killed.
And so Jesus says,
in the same way,
I too must suffer
and die.
And so Jesus
is making clear here
that this transfiguration
is really only
a mere foreshadowing
of what is to come.
Where Jesus' glory
would be eternally revealed,
where Jesus would live
in perfect communion
with His people,
but that day
has not come.
He's making the point
that the cross
precedes the crown,
that pain
precedes glory,
that His humiliation
precedes
His exaltation.
And so this is
the counterintuitive
plan
of salvation.
Jesus says
later in the Gospel
of Matthew,
in chapter 20,
the Son of Man
came not to be served,
but to serve
and to give His life
as a ransom for many.
This is the good news
of the Gospel,
that the Messiah
has come
to serve His people
and to save them
from their sins.
And so this is exactly
what we read about
if you were part
of a community group
this past week
and looked at
Philippians 2.
Philippians 2,
it says that
though Jesus
was in the form
of God,
He did not account
equality with God,
a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself
by taking the form
of a servant
being born
in the likeness
of men
and being found
in human form.
He humbled Himself
by becoming obedient
to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
And so we see though
that Jesus did not
stay in the grave.
On the third day
we know that He rose
from the grave,
that He ascended
into heaven,
that He sits
at the right hand
of God the Father Almighty
where He will come
to judge the living
and the dead.
So we can be confident
that Jesus will come again,
that Jesus will establish
His eternal kingdom.
And so what does that mean
for us now, believer,
as we stand in between
the already and the not yet?
Yes, Jesus has been
has come and He has provided
a means of salvation,
but He has promised
to come again.
What are we to do?
What's our response
to this narrative?
We see Jesus' command here,
God's command in the cloud
to listen to Him.
It says that in verse 5.
And so not only are we
to admire who Jesus is,
not only are we to respect Him
or even remain in awe of Him,
we are to listen to Him.
And so this command,
it means much more
than just hearing.
It's about hearing and obeying.
Obeying all that Jesus has said.
And then following Him.
Following Jesus on His path
to Jerusalem.
This is what Jesus had just said
in chapter 16.
If anyone comes after Me,
let him deny himself
and take up His cross
and follow Me.
And so not only are we saved
through the blood of Jesus,
we are also called
to become more and more like Him
as we copy Him
and follow Him in His suffering.
It's Jesus that creates
this pattern for us
of being brought low
in order to be brought up.
And so as we continue
in the Gospel though,
this call to suffer
doesn't stand alone.
Because this call to suffer
we see coupled with this call
to share the good news
of the Gospel.
We already looked at
how before Jesus' death
and resurrection,
He wants this to remain a secret.
He doesn't want others
to know of His identity
to that point in time.
But this command changes.
He says,
only do so until after
the Son of Man
has raised from the dead.
And so in the final verses
of Matthew's Gospel,
Matthew 28,
He again peers to His disciples
on a mountaintop
and these are the words
that He says to them.
He says,
all authority in heaven
and on earth
has been given to Me.
Go therefore
and make disciples
of all nations,
baptizing them
in the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe
all I have commanded you
and behold,
I am with you always
to the end of the age.
And so this is how we respond.
By listening to the Son.
By following in His example.
By sharing this good news
of the Gospel with others.
And we do so
with an eager anticipation
for when we too
will see God's glory.
And because this is the reality here,
that the vision of God
is the ultimate goal
of Christianity.
It's not just that
we may have faith.
It's not just that
our sins may be forgiven.
Our faith is the means
of our salvation,
but our goal
of our salvation
is that we may see Christ.
We are on a pilgrimage
in this life.
A pilgrimage
from faith
to sight.
And so may we long
for the day
when we may see Christ
in all His glory.
When we may behold
His shining face.
In the book of Revelation,
John writes
of his vision
of a new Jerusalem.
We know that Jesus
is coming again.
He's going to establish
a new heaven
and a new earth.
And this is what John says
of this new Jerusalem.
And I saw no temple
in the city
for its temple
is the Lord God,
the Almighty,
and the Lamb.
And the city
has no need
of sun or moon
to shine on it
for the glory
of God
gives its light
and its lamp
is the Lamb.
And so as we conclude,
we can do so
in the same way
that we began
as Spurgeon
urges us
to respond
not only
with our heads
but also
our hearts
that we may rejoice
in the arrival
of the Messiah
who brings salvation
to His people.
That we may long
for His return
when we too
may see God
in all His glory.
And so may that desire
for the vision of Christ
surpass all else
in our lives.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank You
for revealing
just a glimpse
of Your glory
to Your disciples.
That that was recorded
in Your Word
that we may understand
Your true identity.
That we may understand
better Your mission.
And so Lord,
may that compel us
to desire
to see Your face also.
And as we await
for Your return,
Lord,
we pray that we'll be
faithful in listening
to You.
To understand
Your identity.
To see Your suffering
and desire
to follow in it
knowing that we are
made more and more
like You.
God, may it be
our heart's desire
to see the face
of Jesus.
Our Savior,
the Son of God.
We pray this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.