The Transfiguration Of Jesus

The Witnesses on the Mountain and Christ's Manifested Divinity 0:57

Well in order to understand why we can start by asking ourselves just who is there, and in today's text it starts with Jesus Himself, which that alone should be good enough. But it also has Peter and James and John. This is kind of like the Mount Rushmore of the New Testament. I mean, I suppose Paul would be on there too, but these are titans of the New Testament.

So you have them, but not only do you have them, not only do you have the titans of the New Testament, Jesus and Peter and James and John. But out of the blue, you get this confluence, this crossover series by which the Old Testament heroes of Moses and Elijah join them on the mountain.

Jesus, Peter, James, John, Moses, and Elijah. Even if they had just gotten together for a cup of coffee or something, that would be good enough. But what happens is even more significant, far more significant than that. See, even though the participants are fascinating, it's what happens when they got together that is so amazing.

Specifically, I'm referring to this transfiguration, the transfiguration that we see here in Jesus Christ when He did something that none of the other participants could do, when Jesus did something that no one else on that hill could do, including Moses and Elijah, when He was transformed in a sense where the bright light of His divinity broke through and away through His clothes and through His face.

His face shines like the sun. His clothes are whiter than light itself. Now, the question we're going to try to answer this morning is, why did He do it? Why did He do it?

And why now? Well, we'll get to some of these answers, but just briefly, let me note this.

Eyewitnesses to His Majesty: Peter and John's Testimony 2:35

Whatever the reason, whatever the effect of this event was, we know it had this effect upon the people who immediately saw it. We know that this moment, seared into the consciousness, tattooed upon the heart, the divinity of Jesus Christ, in a way that men like Peter and John could only write about in years yet to come.

You remember, it was in our call to worship this morning. We see Peter, and he's writing about what happened in times past, and he says, look, to all the people who are wondering about this Jesus, we were there. We were eyewitnesses. We saw what happened on the hillside.

This one took on a divine light that no other man is capable of taking on. He says, we did not follow cunningly devised fables. This wasn't made up last week on the back of a matchbox. We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses to His majesty.

You see, they'd seen miraculous things. They'd seen great power and great authority from Jesus, but they saw something in the transfiguration that was even more critical. They saw His royal kingship demonstrated. Peter says we saw His majesty.

This is not merely a worker of great works and a doer of great deeds. This is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. We were eyewitnesses to His majesty. And that's what Peter understood.

That's what James, that's what John understood in a way that they might not have understood with such clarity prior to this event. Whatever the case, I think R.C. Sproul had it right. There's a lot of cool things in scripture, but this has got to be right near the top as one would like to have seen.

Well, we can't see it firsthand, but we can see it in the pages of scripture.

The Historical Setting: Six Days After Caesarea Philippi 4:18

“Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.”

— Matthew 17:1-2 (NKJV)

So let's return to scripture now. Verses one and two, I'll look at these and then we'll work our way through as time allows. Verse one. Now, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, He said, John, his brother, and he 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 as white as the light. All right. Verse 1 begins by dating the event.

This happened in real time and space. Newsflash. All the events in Scripture happen in real time and space. These are real events that happen to real people.

Six days after something, Jesus and His closest compadres, His closest friends, His closest apostles, they go up the mountain. Now, the question this begs is, if it says now after six days, Peter took them up, six days after what? After six days, they went up to the mountain. Six days after what?

Well, what did we study last week? What did we study last time we gathered? Well, we studied in chapter 16, the very end of chapter 16. You remember, Jesus takes His disciples on a field trip, but He took them to an unusual place.

He took them to a den of scum and villainy. He took them to Caesarea Philippi, which is on the north end of Israel. This is a long way from Jerusalem, so to speak. It's not on His usual circuit.

But He took them up to Caesarea Philippi, up to this place that was renowned for having the gates of hell, the gates of Hades that were there. There was a cave that was understood was the cave to the underworld. And He took His disciples right up to this region, and He made this teaching point.

He says, the church, the church that will follow, the church that will come, It will prevail over the gates of hell, all the powers of this earth. So in chapter 16, Caesarea Philippi, is talking. He uses the word church for the first time in the Bible. And He talks about the power and the authority that the church will be given to prevail over all the depravity and wickedness of this age.

So that's the very end of chapter 16.

The Son of Man Coming in His Kingdom 6:17

However, the last verse in chapter 16 that we looked at last week said this. He tells His disciples that they're going to prevail, that the church will win, And even when things look dark and bleak, He says they'll win. But then He said something interesting to those men who were in front of Him.

He said this, He says, assuredly, I say to you, and it's like he gathers them close. He says, assuredly, guys, let's huddle up. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some of you, there are some who are standing here with me. There are some who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.

This implies majesty, this implies reign and rule, His kingdom, right? The Son of Man coming in His kingdom. So this is the very last verse in verse 16. He says, some of you that are standing here, not some generation, you know, 2,000 some odd years later.

Some who are standing here in the hearing of my voice will not taste death. You will not die. It's not going to be all of you who will see this. But some of you will not taste death until you see the Son of Man coming in His power, coming in His kingdom.

Now, what were the implications of that to those guys? The guys who heard the promise that you can argue was given to him. Well, it might have, the implications might have something to do with what happened next when it says that six days later this event occurs. He gives us pronunciation and then six days later, what happens?

What did the disciples see on the Mount of Transfiguration? What did some of them see? Well, they saw this. They saw the Son of Man coming in His kingdom with power.

Verse 2 of our text says that once Jesus and His hand-picked disciples reached the top of the mountain, that He was transformed before their eyes. And not only did His power and authority manifest through the brightness of the light, and not only His divinity, but also His majesty, His kingship was demonstrated at this time.

Which is why Peter, when he's recollecting what went down, he says, we weren't just eyewitnesses to His power and awesomeness and holiness, we're eyewitnesses to His majesty. They understood something about the kingdom and the king that they previously had not. And so you can make a correlation that this text has everything to do with what just happened in the verses prior.

Now, before we move out of verses one and two, let me mention one other observation. Jesus transfigured. I don't know what it looked like other than it was bright, bright, bright, bright, bright as the sun. Whenever a gospel author had to relate something's brightness to anything.

The sun is the brightest object you can have. And it says it's sort of like that. So bright you can't even really bear to look at it.

God Is Light: John's Witness to the Divine Glory 8:54

So he says that in verses 1 and 2. With that said, later, later, later on, John, in 1 John chapter 1, he refers back to this event too, just like Peter referred back to it. John does. He says this in 1 John 1.

He says, that which was from the beginning, which we've heard and which we've seen with our own eyes. You know, this is a real historical event. That which we've looked upon, our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The life was manifested and we've seen it and we bear witness and we declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father was manifested in front of us.

This is the message that we've heard from Him and declare to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. John knew of that which he spoke. Why? Because he saw it.

He could credibly, credibly say, God is light and in Him is no darkness of all. No shade of variation, no shade of change, no shade of gray, no hints, no hues, no tint. God is light. In all likelihood, what he says way back in 1 John 1, or way forward in 1 John 1, has everything to do with Matthew 17.

Moses and Elijah Appear: The Promise of Elijah's Return 9:57

“And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

— Matthew 17:3-4 (NKJV)

All right, let's look at verses 3 and 4. Verse 3. So we have this transfiguration that's occurred, and verse 3 says, behold, as if that's not enough, behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here.

If you wish, let us make three tabernacles, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. All right, does anyone know what the last book in the Old Testament is? Malachi. That's right, Malachi.

Malachi. Malachi 4. God declares something interesting. In the last part of the last book of the Old Testament, God declares something.

He said this, that the Messiah that the people had been looking forward to for all their time, all the ages, the Messiah that they kept looking forward to, God says, yeah, He's going to come, but He's going to be preceded by someone else. He's going to be preceded by someone else. Specifically, God says this, Malachi 4, behold, I will send you Elijah.

I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord. Now, for centuries and centuries and centuries on up into the present, Jewish folks have anticipated and believed that Elijah would return. Now, why would they believe that? Well, number one, no one saw him die.

He was, you know, taken up in a chariot. But they believe that Elijah is going to return. They believe it to the degree that Passover feast to this day, they have an empty chair at Passover feast. Who do they expect?

Who do they desire to fill that open seat at the table on Passover? Elijah, right? So there's an anticipation of Elijah's return, even to this day, amongst Israelites, amongst Orthodox Jews. Now, in today's chapter, if you were to go a few verses further than we have time to today, the disciples are going to ask Jesus, they're going to be, all right, so what's the deal with Elijah?

What's going on? I mean, we understand he's coming back, so what's going to happen? And Jesus explains it, and He says, look, it's not so much that Elijah, you know, there's going to be some transmigration of souls or what have you. It's not like he's just going to show back up in the same way.

The Old Testament scriptures were anticipating someone who would come in the spirit of Elijah, who would be the spiritual successor of Elijah. We'd have the last prophet who would come to point to the sun, and his name would be who? John the Baptist. So Jesus says, the Elijah that's anticipated, he has come, and his name was John.

And the people killed him. So that's the answer to the question as far as who is the Elijah that's being referenced in Malachi. And yet it's fascinating and interesting that at the same time as God says in Malachi 4, behold, I will send Elijah before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

Well, guess who shows up in Matthew 17. Elijah and Moses. So, in verse 3, behold, Moses and Elijah appeared talking with Jesus. Now, I don't want to just jump to the next verses without lingering on this for a moment.

Why in the world would this happen? Why would Moses and Elijah show up? I mean, Jesus did a whole lot of stuff, and Moses didn't show up to that. Why did Moses and Elijah show up?

Why was that necessary? Why was it warranted? I mean, these guys were lesser lights than Christ Himself. Why is it that these guys showed up at this time?

Well, I mean, most of this we'd have to speculate to know the mind of God, to know exactly what He's doing. But we know what they ended up doing on the hillside. I might not know all the reasons why God sent them at this time, but we know what they actually did. They talked.

We see this in other gospel records as well. But they spoke of Jesus about what was about to go down in Jerusalem. So Moses and Elijah show up, and while Peter and James and John are taking all this in, these three just heavyweights are sitting in front of them, and they're talking about what's about to happen, the eminence of not only Christ's crucifixion, but His resurrection.

And guess what? The entire ministry of Moses and Elijah pointed forward to that event, to the crucifixion, to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Christ the Fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets 13:57

So He spoke with them about this. Now, beyond that, it's important to remember that a Jewish understanding of Moses and Elijah would see Moses as symbolic of what? Of the law. Moses was symbolic of the law.

Moses typified the law. At the same time, Elijah typified or symbolized the prophets. Well, Elijah, in a sense, you could say that the law and the prophets, the law and the prophets, those are verses you see throughout scripture, references back to the books of the law, also the books of the prophets, the two men who spoke most to those eras of time and those books in scripture are Moses and Elijah.

And in Luke 24, Jesus talks about the law and the prophets, and he said this. He said, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled that were written of in the law and the prophets. Elsewhere in Matthew, he said, don't think I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill. So everything that had been written in the Old Testament, all the laws, all the prophets, every page, every dot, everything you see in the Old Testament pointed forward to He who would come in the new, pointed forward to Jesus. All of that was neon signs, neon arrows pointing forward to Jesus Christ.

And he says, I didn't come to abrogate all that, to destroy all that, to forget all that. I came to fulfill all that. And so there was His kingship displayed in the moment of the transfiguration, with those who typified the law and the prophets with Him in front of a Jewish audience so that they would understand.

The Light From Within: Christ's Supremacy Over Moses and Elijah 15:25

Now, I want you to notice something. You have Jesus, you have Moses, and you have Elijah. As great as Moses and Elijah were, and they were as great as great can be in the eyes of Israel, neither of them shone with the light that came from within. One of the things that Peter, James, and John were able to see as observant Jews was that no light came out of Moses.

No light came out of Elijah. Rather, the light came out of Christ. Why? Because Christ of those three was divine.

Christ transcended them all. In the book of Hebrews, that's the point of the book of Hebrews. The author of Hebrews is writing to a Jewish audience, and he says, don't you guys get it? Yes, we love the law.

Yes, we love Moses. Yes, we love the prophets. Yes, we know that there's angels. Yes, we know all that stuff's important, but Jesus is more important than all of it combined.

Jesus is the fulfillment of all the things that the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, Moses, all these shadows and types pointed forward to. And in a very real way, the Jewish audience of Peter, James, and John saw that, and they saw that Jesus, with the light shining through Him, but not out of these other two guys, that Jesus was the pinnacle.

Jesus was the fulfillment of all of Israel's history. And Moses and Elijah, as important as they were, they came to give fealty to Christ Himself.

The Father's Voice: This Is My Beloved Son, Hear Him 16:39

“While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”

— Matthew 17:5 (NKJV)

All right, let's see what happens in verses 5 through 8. So in the previous verses. They've seen this go down. And Peter has this bright idea.

He says, hey, this is really neat, what's happening here. And the other gospel records say he spoke out of kind of ignorance and fear because he didn't know what to say. And so he just was impulsive. And he says, Jesus, this is really good that we're here with you.

We could make three tents, three tabernacles for the three of you. So what happens next? Let's look at verses five through eight. Now, while Peter was still speaking.

Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, this, the one in the middle, the one with the light coming through, not the other guys, the one in the middle with the light coming through Him, the divine one, the king, this is My beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Listen to Him. The other guys are valuable and important, and in various times, various ways, and histories past, I have used them for My purposes. But now in these last days, I have sent My son. That's actually how the book of Hebrews opens up.

It says, in many of the various and diverse ways, God spoke to us in times past through the prophets, through the Moseses, through the Elijahs, through the Isaiahs, through Amos, through Ezekiel, through all these guys that were so important. Yes, he spoke through them. But now the keynote speaker has arrived. Now My son has arrived.

Those other two guys are great. are. I love them both, God seems to be implying here. But this, the one in the middle, is My son.

The Sin of Leveling Christ With the Prophets 18:18

And Peter's error in that moment was that he equivocated, I'll make tabernacles for all three as if they're all of equal value. And while the words are still in his mouth, God stops him. That doesn't happen too often. I think it happened in Nebuchadnezzar when God came down in Nebuchadnezzar.

If the words are still in your mouth when God shows up and stops the presses, you know it's something significant. In this case, a significant error was being made. Peter thought, we'll just go ahead and build these three tabernacles, and God again stops him. The cloud comes up, the voice speaks out, this is My beloved son and whom I'm well pleased, listen to Him.

Peter had inadvertently lumped in Jesus with these other guys, and if he had built tabernacles for each of the three, it would have suggested that each was of equal effort and equal time and equal worth, and that would have set a blasphemous precedent. You see, when God says, this is My beloved son whom I'm well, please.

He was elevating His son above all the prophets of mankind combined. Now, most of the pagan religions of our day, do they have a Jesus? Yeah, they have a Jesus, but what do they do with this Jesus? Well, they refer to him as what?

As a prophet. They take him and they put him in the same tents as all the other prophets. They don't elevate Him to the divine son of God Himself. They say he's a prophet.

So the mistake that many religious beliefs have in our day and age is the mistake that Peter was sort of trending towards here, in ignorance and out of fear and so forth. The idea of sort of leveling all three of these guys as if they're somewhat equal. And God just obliterates that concept right there as he would obliterate it in our own time and age across every religion and every denomination.

There's no one like Jesus. No one like Jesus. And so God stops Peter cold and says, no, this, the one in the middle, the one with the light, this is My beloved son and whom I am well pleased. And as if that wasn't enough, because we heard that phrase somewhere else in scripture.

Where else have we heard that phrase before? Christ's baptism, right? Christ's baptism. He comes up and this is My beloved son and whom I am well pleased, and the dove comes down.

But he adds something here in this text of Matthew 17. He not only says this is My beloved son and whom I'm well pleased, but He says, listen to Him. Listen to him. The other guys are good, but they pointed to Him.

And I'm sure over time, Peter probably recognized the nature of his error, but for the moment he was just shell-shocked. And because he was shell-shocked, what did he do? He falls down. The cloud comes, the voice booms forth, and in all honesty, if that ever happens to you, and I will have the same reaction, if you're speaking one day, just talking, and a cloud comes over and a voice boomed forth and it's the voice of God the Father, you will be petrified.

And that's the case here. Peter and the others, they just melt into a puddle. At one moment things are great, they can't believe what they're seeing, they're thinking no one's gonna believe this, I got to go tell everybody. And then Peter makes this error, the cloud comes over, the voice comes, next thing we know that they're down.

Arise, Do Not Be Afraid: Christ the Intercessor Lifts the Fallen 21:10

However, I want you to notice something that's really cool in verse 7. After these men buried their faces in the dirt, after these men buried their faces in the dirt, after they quaked in fear, all of a sudden, without even looking up, they feel something. They feel the hand of Christ touch them, lift them up, and say, arise.

Arise, do not be afraid. Now that's just the coolest thing. So many of the times we get pictures of God's love for you and I, pictures of tenderness, such as in Revelation when we read that God will wipe the tears from our eyes. There's no more tender image of God's love for you than this idea that all the tears that you've cried up until this day and yet to come, that He'll wipe them all away as a father does. to their son, to their daughter.

Well, at the same time, we see that expression of tenderness here. Peter and the others have messed up, they're quaking, they're fearful. Oh, woe is me. They're like Isaiah, remember?

Woe is me. I have unclean lips and my eyes have seen the king. It's the same concept, just falling down. But here Jesus lifts them up and says, All right, guys, it's okay.

Do not be afraid. Now, fear before a radiant, majestic, holy king is a natural thing. I mean, if you had no intercessor, if you had no Savior, if you were just to appear before God on that great day yet to come, as some will, and you had no one between you and Him, it would be the most dreadful thing imaginable.

If you were to stand before God on that day yet to come with no intercessor between you and Him, just Him and you, you would melt like a wax figurine before a blast furnace. There's a reference another pastor has had. It's apropos. You would melt into a puddle.

That would be the estate. There's people who think, you know, when I get to heaven, I'm going to tell God how it is. I can't wait to get there and tell him all these things and such. No, you won't.

It's not going to work that way. Sinful people standing before holy God, apart from any intercession, will melt into a puddle. Not unlike we see here in Matthew 17, where the Father's voice booms forward. But here's the thing.

These men had an intercessor who lifted them up. These men had a Savior who touches them gently and says, arise and stand. Do not be afraid. Now, why shouldn't they be afraid?

It's not because God is any less powerful than He was 10 seconds earlier. They shouldn't be afraid because Jesus, the intercessor, has got them in His literal hands, just as He has you and I in His hands, in His spiritual hands. He says, do not be afraid.

The Wall of Separation Broken Down: The Purpose of Christ's Ministry 23:41

You know, the whole point of Christ's ministry was this. It was to reunite fallen created men with a holy creator. That's why He came. He came down to break down the wall of separation that man had set up through sin.

To break it down, to save and redeem and hold and comfort and adopt God's children. So it's perfectly reasonable to fear God. I mean, Scripture says repeatedly, fear of God is 100% appropriate. But we don't fear Him as Christians, as those who have no hope that we're not acceptable to Him.

But we're acceptable only, as Landy said earlier, because He sees us through the righteousness of His Son, which is not attained by our works and is only attained by our faith. The gospel is about God lifting all of us out of the dirt, so to speak, not burying us beneath it. And so even though Peter had erred in his words and his thoughts, I'm sure he was kicking himself the whole way down the hill.

Even as he erred in his words and his thoughts, he found forgiveness and he found repentance and he found all the salvation at the touch of his Savior's hand, as you and I do. You know, in your own life, if it feels like you've messed up so bad, like you're just melting in a puddle before God, if it feels like you've done all manner of things wrong and very few things right, or maybe it's just one thing wrong that you can't even forgive yourself for, if it feels like you're just buried in the dirt before a holy God, know this, the hand of God, the hand of Christ is extended to you even now to pick you up, say, Arise, do not fear, for I am with you, and I am your intercessor, I am your paraclete, I'm one who stands between you and the wrath of God.

Why? Because I drank it down. Your salvation does not come because you work your way into heaven by climbing rungs of your deeds until you get there. Your salvation comes because Jesus died on the cross and He didn't stay dead.

And we who have faith in Him have an eternal hope. That's why even the thief who is next to Him is in paradise this day.

Tell No One Until the Resurrection: The Greater Sign of Calvary 25:34

All right, let's look at our final verse, verse 9. Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, tell this vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead. All right. Why not?

Why couldn't they tell? That's so often things we ask. We say, why can't they tell this amazing thing that they saw? Well, here's the thing.

They could tell just after the Son of Man had risen. They could tell. In fact, they wrote about it, but not until the Son of Man had arisen. You see, here's the thing.

Christ's ministry was always misunderstood by the very people He was ministering to. Just go through any page of the gospel records, and you'll see Jesus saying the most rich, wise, loving, kind things, and you just see people not get it. Not get it. They misunderstood what He said.

They misunderstood who He was. They thought He was something other than that which He was. They wanted a Savior who was different from Him, and when He showed up to save them from sins that they didn't think was a problem, they killed Him because they were looking for a different Savior. They're still looking for a different Messiah.

You understand that? So Jesus would come, and no one would get the picture. Even His own disciples got confused at various intervals. They were misinterpreting, misunderstanding His signs.

And so He says, they're going to misunderstand this one too. You can tell them, but not just yet. Verse 9 says it can be shared only after the Son of Man is risen from the dead, which is like the umpteenth time He's told His own disciples what's about to go down, which is ironic because they would continually reject that.

One chapter earlier, Peter had said, no, it'll never happen. It'll never happen. You know, perish the thought, Jesus. Jesus kept telling them, look, this is why I'm here.

This is my purpose. This is my mission, and I will complete it. I'll set My face like Flint and march into that city where I know what's going to happen to Me there, but I'll do it because it's necessary for you. And so even here in verse 9, He says, let's keep this to ourselves for now.

You can tell everyone only after I'm dead, but more importantly, after I've risen from the dead. So we see that in verse 9. All right, as we close up here, this sign, this transfiguration is a sign of divinity. It's a sign of majesty.

It's something that no one else has done. This wasn't Jesus performing an external miracle, touching someone, and something happens in them that demonstrates that He's awesome, that He's majestic. This is something that comes from Himself that emanates in such a way that it's inexplainable. The only frame of reference I even had for this was when Moses' face shined for a little bit because it reflected God's glory.

Well, here God's glory just breaks through in its entirety through Christ Himself. So that said, this is quite the sign that everyone saw, but it was not the most important sign that the people would get. You know, no one has ever been saved, not one, not anywhere. No one has ever been saved because what happened on the mountain in Matthew 17.

But people would be saved by what would happen on Calvary and what would happen in the tomb. The sign of divinity that this was, was not the most important or practical sign that the people would get. The best sign they would get would be yet to come in Christ's resurrection. And so Jesus says, we'll keep the transfiguration silent until after this event.

And after the resurrection had occurred, they could describe the one sign in order to help explain the other. Let's pray.