Well, if you're a parent of little girls like me, and I know many of you are, you are probably
well-versed in the world of Disney princesses.
In fact, Ashlyn and Harper both enjoy not only to watch the princess movies, but they
love to actually dress up and pretend to be those princesses really almost on a daily
basis, right girls?
In fact, you wouldn't believe it, this week Julie and I were treated to a private presentation
of both the little mermaid and the princess and the frog, and it happened in our kitchen.
We were preparing dinner just the other night, Julie and I were, and all of a sudden we heard
music playing, and then comes around the corner as this song is playing a beautiful little
princess named Harper who had turned into the little mermaid, and she began to sing wanting
to be part of your world, and then we thought it was over, and we got back to dinner, and
all of a sudden another song begins to play, and don't ask me what that song was, I don't
remember it, but then all of a sudden we see Tiana come around the corner, and this time
it's Ashlyn that has been transfigured into Tiana, and Tiana comes in and sings this song,
and it's just fun, right?
It's fun.
You know what that's like.
You've done that with your kids, and of course they enjoy to do that.
We enjoy to have a taste of what their imaginations are.
Their characters that are their favorite are constantly changing.
In fact, you never really know what answer you're going to get when you ask them that,
but if you were to ask Ashlyn that today, what would you say, Ashlyn?
Belle.
And I'm glad that you said that because that's what's in my notes.
Right now she says that Belle is her favorite.
Of course, Belle is from Beauty and the Beast, and if you've seen the most recent live action
remake of Beauty and the Beast, then you will remember that in the opening scene of the movie,
it tells a story that illustrates what happened to the prince that became a beast.
And if you remember the way the story went, he was hosting a party.
He was very arrogant, and he was hosting this party with all the people, and a beggar woman
came to the castle and intruded into the party and offered the prince a single rose.
And instead of humbly and graciously receiving the rose, the prince mocked her and dismissed
her in that moment, and she warned him in the process of that, be careful because looks
can be deceiving.
And then, of course, he continues to laugh and to mock and continuing to dismiss her.
And then suddenly, this beggar woman transforms into what the movie would tell you is a beautifully
shining enchantress, which is really just another word for a witch.
And she becomes a witch, and she then curses the prince, and he becomes a beast.
In Mark chapter 9, there is a similar transformation that takes place.
Just as in that fictional party in the movie, this once beggar woman transforms into something
that they had never seen before, something much brighter, shining, but more powerful than
what they had seen.
We get to this particular passage, and we see something happening with Jesus much the same
way.
The disciples had seen him in one form up to this point, and then all of a sudden, he is
transforming and transfigured into something like they had never seen before.
But of course, unlike Beauty and the Beast, the transfiguration of Jesus is not a fairy tale that is meant
to entertain us.
It is in a historical event that proclaims that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and the Messiah
that has come to save us from our sin.
And maybe if I can, after just saying all of that as a precursor to this statement, all the things that my
family enjoys together, can I just say that as parents, we would be wise to consider what we're actually
encouraging our children in their young age to believe in as truth.
Because at some point, they're going to figure out these fictional stories, these other things are not
actually truth.
It's not real.
And when we take the things that are not real and encourage them to believe them as truth, and then we
take the Bible that is very much real, and it is absolute truth, what are they going to think when they get to a
fantastic story like this and say, well, that could never happen, just like it could have never actually
happened that way in the beauty of the beast.
That would never happen.
Surely Jesus didn't do that either.
We need to constantly affirm with our kids the reality of what is fiction and what is not, and the
Bible is not fiction, and we need to prepare them so that when the day comes that their faith is tested
and they are questioning these things, they have clearly been taught that there is a difference between
beauty and the beast and the Bible.
And we need to be careful about that.
And you may find yourself skeptically approaching this passage, maybe considering it to be a
fabrication or a myth, but would warn you not to dismiss God's word as if it's fiction for a number of
reasons, but one is the record of the supernatural and the unexplainable is not a sufficient ground to
deny the truth of the Bible.
Just because you can't comprehend it doesn't mean it's not true.
Neither are the gospels the product of a man's imagination, but they're the eyewitness accounts of
real historical people that were really with Jesus when this took place, and they wrote it down so that
we may know, so that we may have this witness of who Jesus is and understand his gospel in a more
profound way. This is not the work of fiction. This is not a myth. And we need to make sure
that when we come to God's word, we are constantly affirming the inerrancy and the sufficiency of God's
word. Peter later wrote about this account in 2 Peter chapter 1. Here's what he said.
We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus, 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 the voice born from heaven. We were with him on the holy mountain.
This is not a myth. And Paul, or Peter, excuse me, you can tell just on that statement,
beyond the resurrection of Christ, this was a massive part of his preaching.
As he went through preaching that Jesus is the Savior, that he is the Messiah, and he's the Son of
God, this had to have been a part of it because later on, he's addressing here in this passage the
skeptics that maybe denied what he was saying. He said, look, I wouldn't tell new stories. I was there.
I heard the voice. I saw the glory. We were with him on the mountain. This really happened, and it's
proof of who he is. We say, well, how can we know that Peter's not lying? Well, we have to trust the
word of God because the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will endure forever.
Remember, this is the word of God. It's not a collection of fairy tales. It's the word of God
that testifies even of itself that it is inerrant, and that it is infallible, and that it is our
sufficient guide for all things in faith and practice in our life. That's what the scripture is.
It is the two-edged sword that pierces to the dividing of sunder of soul and spirit, and it
discerns the thoughts and intents of our hearts. That's what this book is. It testifies of who God
is. It tells us the story of redemption as he has sent his only son to bear our sins on the cross in
order that we may be given life. It is the perfect word of God, and we need to come to every passage
despite the fact that we may not always be able to comprehend exactly what's happening,
and trust that it is God's truth. A transfiguration of Jesus is a significant moment that's contextually
linked to the events of chapter 8 that we've just finished studying, and it's meant to be understood
in light of what Jesus had just revealed to his disciples in chapter 8 about his identity as the
Messiah, his messianic mission of suffering, execution, and resurrection, and then also their call to follow
him as faithful disciples. And all three of those elements are evident in this story of the transfiguration
and the subsequent discussion as they come off the mountain. Now, if you have a Bible whose layout is
in paragraph format, you'll notice that the actual transfiguration paragraph doesn't begin until verse
2, because verse 1 is actually the conclusion of Jesus's teaching in verse in chapter 8. Look at it
with me in verse 1. And he said to them, truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not
taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. Now, as Alistair Begg says,
this is one of those verses that can derail your home Bible study group in a hurry. And you know what
I mean by that. You decide that you're going to come and you're going to study all of Mark chapter 9,
but you don't really get past verse 1 because everybody has to try to figure out what did Jesus
mean when he said that some of those people wouldn't die before they see the kingdom. What is that all about?
And of course, all sorts of explanations have been given for that, and there probably are maybe even
varying opinions in the room present today. Some have said that this is a reference to the resurrection,
and it could be a reference to the crucifixion and resurrection. Some have said this could be a
reference to Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and empowered the apostles and the believers there.
Some have said this must be a reference to the destruction of the temple in AD 70, that
perhaps Jesus returned as a form of judgment on the temple at that time. There are those
who believe that. There's lots of things that we could think through in regards to this, but there
is one that I think would be helpful for us to dismiss in our time this morning.
In verse 38 of chapter 8, at the end of his call to discipleship, what was it that Jesus said?
He basically said, I'm coming back. The Son of Man will return, and whoever has been ashamed of the
gospel now, he will be ashamed of him in the judgment. And so he's speaking of that second coming,
the return of Christ when he will judge the earth.
Okay? Now, it cannot be that Jesus is referring to that second coming in chapter 9 and verse 1,
and here's why. Jesus has not yet returned, and all of the people that were present in this moment
have been dead for two millennia. Okay? It can't be that. And to suggest otherwise means that we have
to invent an event that has never been spoken of in the Bible. We have to say that there must have
been another time that Jesus came back that he just didn't bother to tell the church about,
that he didn't bother to tell the apostles about. It can't be that. So when you're reading through
in your studies in the gospel of Mark or in Matthew and Luke as well, and you come to this statement,
and you stop for a second, and you think, did I miss it? Did I miss the coming? You haven't missed
the coming. Jesus hasn't returned. That's not what he's referring to here. Okay? He's not referring
to the second coming. So what is he referring to? Well, when we consider the lifespan of these people,
there are a few reasonable conclusions that we can draw. We're not going to draw those conclusions
because pinpointing the exact event is not the purpose of Jesus' statement here.
His point in making this statement in verse number 1 was not so that we would have these discussions to
try to pinpoint an exact event of when this was happening. And if we get so distracted by trying
to figure all of that out, we're going to miss the point of why he made the statement to begin with.
He's saying this in order that we might know that there is a future event that some of those people
will experience that will prove his messiahship and the fact that he is the son of God. That's the
point. Something is coming. It doesn't matter what it is, but it's coming, and it's going to be a
proof to some of the people that are standing here so that they may take my gospel and proclaim it to
the rest of the world so that you might believe in who I am. That's the point. That's the point.
He is the son of man from Daniel 7. He will return to judge the earth. And so he makes this statement
as a way of presenting urgency, urgency to the call of the crowd that they would take serious his call to follow him
because he is indeed coming back.
Well, Matthew 17 and Luke 9 also record this story of the transfiguration.
All three insert this statement in the same sequence.
It follows the same discussion, the same call to discipleship.
There's always a note of timing, and it always goes right into the mountain of the transfiguration.
The gospels don't always follow a chronological order,
but this is a case where all of them do.
In this particular instance, every recording of it includes this sequence.
So it seems clear to me that the gospel authors
considered Jesus to be referring to the transfiguration itself.
So Jesus intended then that this event be a witness of who he is
and what he came to do in making an atonement for our sins.
And so in this one event, we see a summary of Mark's purpose.
And what is Mark's purpose?
To proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and the Son of God
and therefore persuade us to believe in him and follow him as faithful disciples.
We're going to divide it into three portions.
What they saw, what they heard, and then what they asked.
We're only going to get through what they saw this morning, okay?
We'll cover the other two next Sunday, Lord willing, okay?
Would you look with me at verse two?
After six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John
and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
Now, Mark otherwise is never really concerned with notes of timing
in regards to the various events of Jesus's life.
When we get to the timing of the resurrection,
of course, all of the gospels are clear about that.
But Mark's gospel is written in such a way that there's constant movement.
He's constantly pushing the story forward.
So it's very unusual for him to actually notate a specific time frame as he does here.
So I think it should give us pause to at least consider why.
And perhaps it's just a literary dynamic here of connecting the two stories.
I think that's probably what it is.
He doesn't want the reader to consider this moment of transfiguration
apart from what Jesus has just previously written.
And so he writes in this time frame here that connects the previous story to this story
as all of the gospels do.
Now that Jesus had taught them about his identity and purpose,
he was taking a few of the disciples on a bit of a field trip
to demonstrate what it was that he was then teaching them.
Jesus didn't take all the disciples.
Instead, we're told that he took Peter and James and John.
They were the only ones who would accompany him on this trip up the mountain.
And that's not exactly unusual.
There's several instances in the scriptures where Jesus took these three men apart from the other disciples
to places and through experiences that the others did not experience along with them.
Many people have referred to them as Jesus's inner circle.
I don't know if that's the best language for us to use when describing their relationship,
but it's clear that they had a leadership role amongst the 12.
These were probably the men that the others relied on, that they followed, that they listened to.
Maybe that was age.
Maybe it was just a matter of how the relationships were built,
but they clearly had a role to play in leading the other disciples.
It was going to be their responsibility after coming down from the mountain after the resurrection
to communicate to the other disciples what they were about to witness.
The setting of what's happening here is most likely Mount Hermon or Hermon,
however you is right to say it.
I'm not sure.
So I'm just going to say it different ways.
This mountain is located in the district of Caesarea Philippi.
That's where Jesus has just had this previous interaction and lesson,
and it's the highest mountain peak in Palestine.
Some 9,000 feet above sea level is where they would have climbed,
or at least potentially climbed, in order to go to this moment of prayer.
The hike would have taken most of the day,
which explains why Luke also says that the three disciples were heavy with sleep
as Jesus continued in his prayer.
And what they woke up to was something that they would not soon forget.
So look with me again at verse 2.
As they were sleeping, they were woke up to this,
and he was transfigured before them.
His clothes became radiant, intensely white,
as no one on earth could bleach them.
It seems to me that Mark's way of conveying this story seems understated, right?
In fact, it would be so easy to read through this passage
and really miss the phenomenal experience that the disciples were going through.
Because all he says is,
and he was transfigured before them, and he talks about his clothes.
That's all he really says.
It seems understated, doesn't it?
But think for just a moment.
What is happening here?
He's transforming.
His clothes, Mark says.
This is the only way he knew to describe it.
His clothes became radiant.
They were shining.
They were exceedingly white and bright,
so much that no launderer in all of the earth
could ever bleach a garment to be as white and as shining
and as bright as Jesus' clothing was in this moment.
And then Matthew and Luke added in a note
that it wasn't just Jesus' clothing that was transformed.
It was his face even.
He says his face was changed.
And in the process of his face being changed,
it was like the sun.
It was beaming.
It was radiant.
They were witnessing something unlike anything they had ever dreamed before.
They didn't quite understand it.
The three disciples were witnessing Jesus
in the glorified state in which he had existed before his incarnation.
That's what's happening here.
They're seeing Jesus as he has always been,
not just in the way that they had seen him for the last three years
or two and a half years.
Let me explain.
Do you remember studying metamorphosis in elementary school?
If some of you kids have maybe learned that,
you're learning it right now.
Maybe you or your teacher had a container of caterpillars in your classroom
and you, over the course of the school year,
were able to witness the process of metamorphosis take place
where a caterpillar creates a cocoon
and crawls into the cocoon.
And after a matter of time, the cocoon opens up.
And what emerges from the cocoon?
A beautiful butterfly, right?
A beautiful, maybe a moth, but maybe a beautiful butterfly, right?
And so you know what this is.
Metamorphosis, the word we get metamorphosis from,
is the same word that Mark is using here when he says transfigured.
It means transformed.
It means to actually change shape just like a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.
And it's only used a couple of other times in the Bible
outside of the gospel's accounts of the transfiguration.
Paul used it in Romans 12 and verse 2.
You remember that passage?
Be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
And then he uses it again in 1 Corinthians 3.18.
And in both of these cases, Paul is describing the transformation of a person's life
after they come to faith in Christ.
That salvation produces in us a transformation.
So that when individuals come to faith in Jesus Christ,
he does not make them better.
He makes them new.
In fact, the Bible uses that language that in Christ, we are a new creation.
And that's what Paul had in mind when he was using this term
in Romans chapter 12 and 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
Now, the difference between the transformation of a believer
when they come to faith in Christ,
that sanctifying transformation, becoming new in Christ,
there's a difference between what happens to a believer
and what was happening to Jesus in this moment.
Jesus wasn't transforming into something new.
That's not what's happening.
I think particularly the translators of the gospels have intentionally said
transfigured as opposed to transformed to insinuate this truth.
That he was not becoming something new,
but what he always was had been momentarily revealed.
That this pre-human glory of Christ was temporarily unveiled
and revealed to these disciples on the mountain.
It wasn't that he was transformed into something that he had never been before.
It's what he had always been was now finally being seen by these other men.
It was a glimpse of his glory.
And in that, we understand that Jesus was not a man that became a God,
but he is the God who became a man.
And it reminds me of Philippians chapter 2.
We've studied that before as a church.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who though he was in the form of God,
form meaning the very essence and nature of who he is,
the unchanging quality of who Christ is,
though he was in the form of God,
did not count 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.
The miracle of the incarnation is that God became a man,
but in doing this, he never ceased to be God.
When Paul says he emptied himself,
he didn't mean that he emptied himself of his deity.
He means that he emptied himself of the glory,
the demonstration, the manifestation of glory
that is inherently his as the second person of the Trinity.
In his deity, this is how Jesus had existed before his incarnation.
But in the incarnation, that glory was veiled.
It was covered by his humanity.
And for just a moment on this mountain,
Peter, James, and John were witnessing Jesus
in his pre-human glory.
So he's not becoming new.
He's just being revealed.
John, one of the other apostles here on the mountain,
in his gospel, in John chapter one,
he wrote about the incarnation of Jesus.
And in the process of that, he alludes to this moment.
Let me read it to you.
In John chapter one, I'm gonna read the first five verses
and then verse 14.
Here's what John says.
In the beginning was the word, that's Jesus,
and the word was with God,
and the word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him,
and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
So John says, Jesus is God.
He's always been God.
He's the creator.
And we get all of the things that Jesus was before his incarnation.
And then in verse 14, here's what John says.
And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
And then he says, and we have seen his glory.
Glory as of the only son from the father,
full of grace and truth.
What does John mean by we have seen his glory?
Well, you couldn't see Jesus's glory in his regular human form
because Isaiah 53 said that he would come
and nobody would even notice
that they would actually be despised by his appearance.
But John's referring to the mountaintop experience
when he sees literally the glory of Christ.
We have seen his glory.
So after spending three years with Jesus,
witnessing his divine power,
listening to everything that he taught,
John concluded that Jesus is nothing less
than the eternal God who became a man
in order to save us from our sins.
And how was it that John was so confident for this to be true?
Because on the mountain, when Jesus was transfigured,
he witnessed the divine glory of the Lord.
We have seen his glory.
So that Jesus's purpose in taking these three men up
was fulfilled in the writing of John and of Peter both.
Because both of them said,
we have seen him,
therefore believe him and follow him.
That's the purpose of the transfiguration.
Alistair Begg said,
Christ became what he was not,
namely man,
without ever ceasing to be what he was,
namely God.
So the glory of God is not obliterated,
but it is veiled.
And so what we have in this description
is a little pulling back of the curtain,
a little inkling,
a little seed,
a little moment,
a little flash,
as it were,
up into the sky
and on the mountainside
and into the consciousness of these disciples.
What Calvin refers to as
a temporary exhibition of his glory.
A temporary exhibition of his glory.
Verse four.
And there appeared to them,
Elijah with Moses,
and they were talking with Jesus.
This is wild enough as it is.
They've just woken up
after a hike up the mountain.
They're probably cold.
And Jesus has been transfigured.
And then all of a sudden,
as they're gazing on Jesus,
trying to figure out exactly what is happening,
is this a dream?
And as they become more and more awake
and they're realizing what is happening in this moment,
they look up,
and now all of a sudden,
Jesus isn't alone.
The four have become six.
There's two other men with Jesus,
and we're told that it is Moses and Elijah,
two dominant figures from the Old Testament.
How they knew that this was Moses and Elijah were not told.
Perhaps in this moment of revelation,
all things God saw fit to make known,
and they were just aware of it in some supernatural way.
Perhaps Jesus,
as they were awakened,
had a moment of greeting to introduce them.
Can you imagine what this would have been like?
Moses and Elijah weren't fairy tales.
They were real historical figures.
They were heroes to the Jews.
These men had grown up their whole lives
hearing of how Moses had delivered
the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt.
They had listened to and read about
and understood the stories of Elijah
and the miracles that God performed through him.
They had heard all the stories
of how he had opposed Ahab and Jezebel
and how he got on the run.
They'd heard all the stuff.
These were heroes of their faith.
Real historical figures for the Jews.
And now all of a sudden,
Jesus is transfigured,
and now he's saying,
hey guys, I want you to meet Moses and Elijah.
No wonder Mark says they were terrified.
Who wouldn't be terrified in this moment?
Well, what's this all about?
We have to now ask this question.
Why are Moses and Elijah there?
And if somebody was gonna be there
with Jesus in this moment,
why does it have to be Moses and Elijah?
Elijah, and it's important for us to understand this, okay?
Remember, this whole event
is about uniquely revealing to the disciples
what Jesus had just taught them
about his identity and about his purpose.
And there's two things worth noting
about the presence of Moses and Elijah.
The first one is this.
Consider for just a moment,
what was the Jewish custom for establishing a fact?
It necessitated two or three witnesses at least.
For something to be established as a fact,
for an accusation to be brought,
for something legal to actually transact,
it required at least two or three witnesses.
Jesus teaches this over and over.
In Matthew 18, when he's talking about church discipline,
he says, where two or three are gathered in my name,
there I am in the midst of them.
In other words, where there are two or three witnesses
and that are thinking biblically
and living in the spirit,
there I am to direct them
in this process of church discipline.
This is what he means by that.
It establishes a fact.
Now think about this for just a moment.
The presence of Moses and Elijah
are establishing a fact.
They're establishing a witness about Jesus.
Maybe this is the reason Jesus took
three disciples with him on the mountain.
It established a fact that they could then proclaim
to others later.
Moses and Elijah stood as two formal witnesses
of Jesus's identity and purpose.
But how can we know that this is the purpose
of them appearing?
That brings me to my second note,
at least that I've made, and it's this.
Moses and Elijah were representative heads
of the law and the prophets.
Do you know what I mean by that?
The law and the prophets were two divisions
of the Old Testament that the Jews regarded
of the scriptures.
The law represented by Moses
was the first five books, the law.
Maybe it was shuffled in some different ways
by different people,
but normally we would think the first five books.
The Pentateuch, that's the law.
Moses wrote the law given to him by God.
He is the representative head of the law.
Elijah then becomes the representative head,
at least in this moment, of the prophets,
which is the rest of the Old Testament.
Sometimes there was a third division
where the Psalms would be placed,
but it's perfectly fine to include the Psalms
with the prophets because they often prophesy
of the coming Christ.
And so we see the law and the prophets, two witnesses.
And what are these two witnesses,
the law and the prophets doing?
They are witnessing to who Jesus is.
They are witnessing to what he will do.
They are witnessing to the gospel.
And though this appearance was literally taking place,
the presence of Moses and Elijah was symbolic
of the fact that all of the Old Testament
witnessed that Jesus is the son of God and the Messiah.
Or do you see the importance?
Am I making sense here?
Do you get it?
Why is Moses and Elijah there?
Because the law and the prophets speak of Jesus.
They speak of Jesus.
And here in a visible form,
these three disciples are seeing
after everything they've heard.
Remember, they didn't wanna buy
what Jesus was saying about his purpose.
They didn't wanna accept that.
And now they're seeing in a visible way,
two witnesses to the things
that Jesus has been telling us.
All of the scripture testify to him.
They testify to his suffering.
They testify to his death.
They testify to his resurrection.
All of the scriptures speak of him.
That's why Moses and Elijah are there.
Remember, Jesus himself says this in Luke 24
after his resurrection.
You remember Jesus appears to the two disciples
on the Emmaus road.
Do you remember that?
And they're discouraged.
They're leaving Jerusalem
and they're headed home to Emmaus
and someone comes alongside him
and begins to talk.
They don't realize it's Jesus.
He is veiled in some way in that moment
where they couldn't understand that it was him.
And he says, what's wrong with you?
And they said, are you a stranger to Jerusalem?
Do you not know what has taken place
in the last couple of days
and now his body's gone?
We have no idea.
Somebody stole him.
And Jesus says, Luke 24,
oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken.
Was it not necessary that the Christ
should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?
And here's what Jesus did.
And beginning with Moses
and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them
in all the scriptures,
the things concerning himself,
himself.
Jesus, what would it have been like
to have been on that road,
to be in that conversation,
to have Jesus himself
take his Old Testament Bible
and say, let me show you all the places
that testify of Christ.
Let me show you all of it.
And then he does it again.
Just after that in Luke 24,
he peers to the apostles in the room
as they're sulking after the loss of Jesus
and they've lost his body
and they don't know what to do
and some people are saying he's risen
but they don't know if they should believe them.
Jesus appears
and he said to them,
these are my words that I spoke to you
while I was still with you.
Everything written about me
in the law of Moses
and the prophets and the Psalms
must be fulfilled.
And he opened their minds
to understand the scriptures.
And he said to them,
thus it is written
that the Christ should suffer
and on the third day rise from the dead.
That repentance and forgiveness of sin
should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.
Beginning from Jerusalem,
you are witnesses of these things.
What's the purpose of the transfiguration?
That's the purpose of the transfiguration.
He's showing to these disciples in this moment
that God's word is the source of truth.
That these weren't things
that Jesus was just making up off the cuff.
What he was teaching,
what he was doing
was prophesied by the law
and the prophets that would be done.
This is who he is.
Even though the disciples
were in the midst
of this extraordinary experience,
it was the scriptures
that Jesus intended for them to see
as the primary witness
of his identity and purpose.
So then why do we so often dismiss it?
Why do we so often lean into the processes
of our own logic and reasoning ability
or search for some other type of experience
in order to believe
what Jesus himself has pointed out
to these disciples?
The source for this truth is the word.
Go to the word.
You may be here today
and you're trying to figure out
whether or not
you're truly going to believe
and follow Christ.
Listen, you need not search
for some type of
existential experience,
some supernatural sign in the sky.
You need only to open your Bible
because it is the word of God
that the spirit of God uses
to draw us to faith
and make us children of God.
It is the word.
I quoted that passage
in 2 Peter chapter one.
Maybe you'd want to study it later.
Peter refers to this moment
and he's talking about seeing it.
This wasn't cleverly devised.
I was there.
I heard the voice.
And then he says immediately after that,
this is an amazing experience.
He says,
but you have a more sure word of prophecy
and he begins to talk about the scriptures.
And he says,
greater than this experience
that I had on the mountain
is the proof of the scriptures.
All of it's there.
Read your Bible.
You'll see that Christ is the one.
He is the one.
Read your Bible.
Proclaim the Bible.
Teach the Bible
and let everything else
be a servant to the scriptures.
Even your own experience.
In light of our communion service,
I want to conclude this way
by just looking very quickly
at what Jesus and Moses and Elijah
were discussing.
Mark just says they were talking.
Matthew just says they were talking.
Luke tells us what they were talking about.
You can find it in Luke chapter nine
and verses 30 and 31.
Let me read it to you.
Behold, two men were talking with him,
Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory
and spoke of his departure,
which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
So what was it they were talking about?
It was about something
that Jesus would soon accomplish
at Jerusalem
and it was described as a departure.
Let me read it again.
They appeared in glory
and spoke of his departure,
which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
Now this word departure
is the word exodus.
You know that word
because of your familiarity
with the Old Testament.
The book of Exodus
telling the exodus of God's people
coming out of Egypt.
This conversation was not about
Jesus's departure from earth to heaven.
That's not what it's about.
It was about a new exodus
that Jesus would accomplish at Jerusalem.
Now hang with me.
We're almost there, okay?
What was the exodus about?
The first one.
The exodus was when
God delivered his chosen people
from bondage in Egypt.
What is Jesus going to accomplish in Jerusalem
just a few months after this moment?
He will accomplish the deliverance
of God's chosen people
from the bondage of sin and death.
And how would he do it?
It can only happen
through his crucifixion
and his resurrection.
And it wasn't that Moses and Elijah
had to inform him of that.
He already knew it.
This wasn't for Jesus.
This was for those three men
who are gazing on
and hearing
what Jesus has said.
This suffering, this death.
Moses and Elijah are saying it too.
And why are they saying it to Jesus
on the mountain?
Because they had already said it
in the books that God
had inspired them to write.
It was all about Christ.
It was all about his suffering.
It was all about his death.
It was all about his resurrection.
Matt Boswell, Matt Papa
wrote a song last year
called Christ the True and Better.
In the song,
each verse traces a different type
of Christ in the Old Testament.
That Christ is the true and better Adam.
He's the true and better Isaac.
And so on and so forth.
They do a few of them.
And they have a verse about Moses.
Here's what it says.
Christ the True and Better Moses
called to lead a people home.
Standing boldly to earthly powers.
God's great glory to be known.
With his arms stretched wide to heaven.
See the waters part in two.
See the veil is torn forever.
Cleansed with blood.
We pass now through.
Do you see the symbolism in Moses?
Do you see it?
What was Jesus going to accomplish?
Your salvation.
That's what they were talking about.
That's what the transfiguration was about.
The path of his messianic purpose
led directly to the cross of Calvary
where he would provide deliverance for sin
for all who will believe and follow him.
And through his subsequent resurrection
he offers life.
Eternal life.
As a trade for death.
And is this not precisely why we gather
the first Sunday of every month
in order to observe this meal?
For hundreds of years
the Jews gathered on the Passover
to have this meal
to remember the first exodus.
And now
today
Christians gather together
to observe this meal
to remember the second exodus.
To remember his cross.
To remember his blood.
To rejoice in his resurrection
and to proclaim
that he will return.
That is what we do now.