Sep9
Matthew 17:1-5…Ready
17:1 After six days (Connects Jesus’ previous announcement concerning the disciples “Seeing the Son of man coming in His Kingdom”-(16:21, 28, Mark 9:1) Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, (Jesus’ inner circle) and led them up a high mountain by themselves. (Mtn. “Hermon”9,232 ft.-(Matt. 16:13). Reminiscent of Moses encountering the glory of God on a mountain. Possibly late at night, since Luke’s Gospels tells us they were very sleepy.(Luke 9:32) No doubt tuckered out having just climbed 9000 feet up a mountain. If it was night it would have made the light of Christ even more shocking and blinding.-(New) 2 There he was transfigured (3339-Greek-metamorphosis, to change, transform. It’s the same kind of metamorphosis where a caterpillar becomes a butterfly-(New)) before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. (Expresses Jesus’ divine radiance and glory.-{Heb. 1:3) The imagery echoes the radiant appearance of Moses after encountering God on Mount Sinai (Ex. 34:29-35)-(New) 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses (Rep. Law) and Elijah, (Rep. Prophecy) talking with Jesus (i.e. Discussing Jesus’ approaching death on the cross.-{Luke 9:31-32) 4 Peter said (cuts in and blurts out) to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters (Shrines, Memorials. Peter was trying to preserve & prolong the moment.)—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (Peter was attempting to make Moses & Elijah equal with Jesus. He did not know what he was saying.-{Mark 9:6, Luke 9:33}) 5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them Expresses the Shekinah glory and presence of God-(Ex. 13:21-22, 19:16-18) and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son”, whom I love; with him, I am well pleased. Listen to him. (Emphasizes the Saving & redeeming work of Christ having fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, bringing a New Covenant to the world.)
Continued From Book
“Teaches how from time to time God gives us mountain top moments to strengthen and encourage our faith.”⇒ Just like the disciples, Jesus gives us what we need to sustain and propel our faith. It’s the vision of Jesus’ power & glory that gives us hope and something to hang onto through the pain and hardships of life. Jesus had just delivered to the disciples the hard news concerning His suffering and death and their need to take up their own cross-(16:21-25) By transfiguring Himself before them whatever doubts they still had should have been gone. So too for us. When life takes a dark turn, where there’s deep despair, distress, and disillusionment, Jesus shines a bright light of hope to sustain and encourage us. As believers the only way we’re going to persevere if the faith and make it through the hard times of being a Christian is knowing Jesus is coming back. God’s mountain top moments can come in a variety of ways. It may not come with bright lights, clouds, or a divine voice from heaven. It can happen during a Sunday morning sermon, worship service, bible study, prayer time, mission trip, spiritual retreat, etc. Times when we saw God use us in a mighty way. Times when we experienced the grace and presence of God in remarkable ways. Times when we experienced the power and glory of God unlike anything we’ve had ever seen before. Mountaintop moments are not designed by God just to give us warm fuzzies at high feelings—they are designed to solidify our conviction and to courage and strengthen our faith. [Note: Because we can’t really hear God without God’s help. How much more do we need to pray for divine illumination in opening our hearts and minds so we can understand His word and ways.]
“Gives hope and encouragement in times of trials and hardships, knowing there’s glorious future awaiting us.” ⇒ As the revelatory as the transfiguration is in revealing Jesus’ divinity to the disciples. It is also an event that is full of promise and encouragement, that whatever may come to pass, whatever suffering they will experience, they have seen the end of all things – the glory of who Jesus is. In other words, they have experienced the full reality of the victorious God, and now they know, all other realities are dim in comparison. For us the transfiguration is a message of hope. Whatever happens in our lives of faith, whatever people say about us and our faith, whatever difficulties fall upon us in our lives, especially because of our faith – Jesus is the ultimate conqueror of all things. He will be vindicated in glory and along with Him through our faith we will be vindicated as well. You could say Jesus’ glory is like a beacon of light that shines bright in the midst of a dark world. It’s a light that guides us through the darkest valleys. It’s a promise that no matter how dark things may seem, the light of Jesus can never be extinguished. When the way ahead of you is hard, look to the glory of Jesus. When the way ahead of you is filled with hardships, discouragement, disappointments, and failures, rejoice that there is a glorious end in sight. When the way ahead of you is filled with struggles and hardships, rest and sufficiency of Jesus in all He has accomplished and fulfilled on your behalf.
“Teaches how in times of burdens God sends people to comfort, encourage, and lift us up.” ⇒ It may not be a Moses or Elijah, but it can be a godly friend, a ……… (To be Continued)
“Displays how we will all know each other when we get to Heaven.” ⇒ No one told the disciples who the Two were with Jesus…but they knew them! Moses had died approximately 1400 years before this event took place, and Elijah had been taken up to heaven about 850 years earlier. That means that we won’t have to introduce ourselves to everybody…we will know them and they will know us. We will recognize Apostle Paul, Peter……we will recognize Moses, Elias. We will know all of those who ask Christ into their heart.
“Teaches no matter how much we want to preserve mountaintop experiences, real life is lived in the valley below” ⇒ We all love the mountaintop experiences – those times when were experiencing a great movement of God. Where our hearts are stirred and on fire for God. Sometimes it happens on a men’s retreat or at a conference where we feel close to God. Sometime God draws exceptionally close during a time of corporate worship or private prayer. Sometimes it happens when we are out in nature and viewing God’s beautiful creation. Sometimes it happens when we are on top of an actual mountain looking around at God’s beautiful creation. We all love the mountaintop experiences. But we can’t live on the mountaintop forever. There is work to do in the valley. There are people to reach, problems to solve, battles to fight. We need to learn to walk with God not only during the extraordinary moments on the mountain, but during the very ordinary moments of daily life as well. One day we will have the ultimate mountaintop experience for all of eternity. But for now, we live in the valley as we walk the road of the cross with Christ. We can be in church on Sunday, but we must be prepared for Monday.
“Teaches the only one were to listen too is Jesus. (To often we let competing voices bring Jesus down to a lower level).” ⇒ We live in a world with many voices fighting for our attention. With all the tweets, blogs, podcasts, and compelling advice from Alexa, Siri, and others, we can find it difficult to know which voices to trust. There’s voices of scoffers. Voices of second guessing. Voices of self-doubt, self-criticism, and all the “would’ves, should’ves, and could’ves. There’s “voices” all around us trying to turn our attention away from the Lord and heed them instead. We find it in the voice of compromise, calling us to throw away our convictions. We find it in the voice of materialism, calling us to focus upon worldly riches instead of spiritual. We find it in the voices of immediate gratification. We find it in the voices of satisfaction, calling us to stop growing spiritually. We find it in the voices of convenience, calling us to do whatever is easiest at the time. The path of least resistance. We find it in the voices of peer pressure, calling us to follow the crowd. everyone is doing it. We find it in the voices of pride, calling us to do whatever we want instead of what God wants. If not careful we can start to treat Jesus like others. Putting Him in a long line of prophets and great teachers. That He was a loving and caring person with good morals. Or we create a God in our own image who is more pleasing to us than the one true God in the bible. We create a God who loves us unconditionally and welcomes us, no matter what we’ve done and no matter what we believe, into His kingdom. That He won’t hold us accountable for our actions and still be with Him in paradise. We carry the idea with us in our image of Judgment Day. We want a cuddly old guy who’ll give us a hug and sent us on into heaven, chuckling that “kids will be kids” as He sees the list of our sins.
Additional Notes & Applications
Teaches how God often leads us to a special place and a special time so that we can better hear from Him.
Teaches how Jesus’ transfiguration is in itself a pledge to our own immortality.
Displays how we will be able to recognize our ancestors in heaven who have died thousands of years before.-(V. 3)
Encourage believers that there is life after the grave. That we don’t simply vanish into oblivion.
Teaches how just like Peter, Jesus’ glory should move us to worship
Warns how we can’t put Jesus in a box and control how we experience Him.-(V. 4)
Teaches how often times when God’s working in a way we like and were experiencing good things. We want to hold things off and hunger down where were at, prolonging them as long as possible.-(V. 4) Not realizing that God may have something better for us than what we can now see.
Teaches how Saints are not to be venerated or made equal with Jesus.
Teaches how suffering is going to be a part of life in this world. If anyone tells you if you come to Jesus your life is going to be easy, all your troubles and problems will go away. Life will be wonderful, you’ll live a happy, blessed, and healthy life. They are sorely mistaken.
Teaches how Sacredness in not in clouds, mountains, and memorials (tabernacles or even days on a calendar. But it is Christ touching something, be it a mountain, a cloud, a word, a human soul – transforms it into “sacred”.
Assures believers of our ultimate transformation and future glory in Christ’s Kingdom. Just as Jesus was transfigured, so too will believers be transformed as well. As soon as we believe and Spirit filled. We will start to go through a metamorphose change, starting from the inside out. There will still be struggles with the flesh. There’s still suffering we have to go through, there’s still sanctification battles we have to fight with our indwelling sin. But we know by Jesus’ Transfiguration that God has a glorious future that awaits us in heaven, and how ravishing and beautiful it will be. But as we journey towards that end, we need to remember that it’s a gradual work and a daily decision to walk it out. Trusting that God is working it out in our lives, slowly transforming us into the image of Christ day by day. Going from one glory to the next. And that one day we ourselves will be glorious; free from sin, death, and mourning, and crying, and pain. (cf. 2-Corn. 3:18, 4:17, Eph. 4:22-24)
Does not mean Jesus shows favoritism to some disciples and not to others. But rather knows those who need spiritual strengthening more than others. That Jesus prepares those who will play a key role in His Kingdom. Thereby increasing our faith and understanding of who He is and motivate us to tell others of His glory.
When it comes to the exact location of the mount of the Transfiguration is unknown. There have been four different sites have been suggested as the Mount of Transfiguration. Traditionally it was considered to be Mount Tabor, but that was quite a distance from Caesarea Philippi and contained a military fortress at the peak during this time. Many assume they began ascending Mt. Hermon since they were already located at its base. But, Mark 9:14 indicates scribes present at the base of the mountain when they return. This suggests somewhere closer to a Jewish region, not northern Galilee. In the end, we simply cannot be sure where they were because none of the gospels provide a precise location.
We know according to Luke’s Gospel Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus about His approaching death in Jerusalem. Since Moses represented Law, we can picture him saying something to Jesus like; “Jesus in your life you have fulfilled all of the Law of God that was given through me which no one else could ever do. By obeying and keeping the entire Law of God you have made many righteous before God. And you will now stand in their place having fulfilled all of the Law on their behalf and nailing it to the cross.” Since Elijah was known as the greatest of the Prophets we can picture him saying something to Jesus like; “You know Jesus by your life, death, and resurrection you are fulfilling all the words of the prophets. They spoke not only of your birth, but all of what you would suffer and how you will triumph over sin and death. (Note: Moses and Elijah’s conversation about Jesus’ approaching death also reveals how even after we die we will know about worldly current events.)
We are not told how Peter knew he was looking at Moses and Elijah. Did Jesus introduce them to Peter. Did Moses and Elijah introduce themselves to Peter. Did they have name tags on. Did Peter recognize them form pictures. No it couldn’t have been pictures, because there were no photographs back then. Did Peter just know it intuitively. Did Peter deduce it from overhearing their conversation with Jesus, thinking this guy must be Moses, that guy must be Elijah. (Note: If we were ever asked if we will know each other in heaven. This would not be a bad place to look for an answer.)
The term “Transfigured” is the Greek word we get “metamorphosis” from. It is the term we use to describe the process of something being transformed from one creature to another. It is the same thing where a caterpillar goes through a metamorphosis to become a butterfly. But to crossover and apply the transformation of a caterpillar directly to the transfiguration of Jesus is a mistake. Jesus does not become something else. Jesus is. He doesn’t become, He doesn’t change, He doesn’t evolve. In the truest sense a caterpillar doesn’t become something else either, no, conceptually, a caterpillar is another form of what it truly deep down is – a butterfly. A caterpillar has always had the butterfly deep within and in a sense the form of a caterpillar is veil that hides the true identity within – a butterfly. Jesus does not become something different, Jesus is seen for who He is. What the disciples see is not Jesus becoming something else for a moment, what they see is a pulling away of the veil of humanity to expose the spiritual reality of who Jesus really is. They see a stripping away of what they thought was Jesus and are faced with reality – the divinity before them. It was as if for a moment Jesus’ human body was peeled back, striping off His humanity and now standing there before them who He really is, God in the flesh. It’s is a momentary removal of the humanity of Jesus before Peter, James and John to reveal to them who He actually is.
The luminous light that Matthew describes, saying “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.” Is the same image we see throughout the bible to show the glory of God. In the book of Revelations Jesus is seen in this way: “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.”-(Rev. 1:14-15) In the book of Exodus, when Moses comes down from Mt Sinai his face shown brightly with the glory of God. Here we see the dazzling brightness of Jesus revealing the same kind of reality – But whereas Moses is only reflecting the glory of God. Jesus is producing the glory of God, because He is God. The glory originates with Him, it doesn’t originate with Moses. Jesus’s glory is of a different nature than Moses’s. Moses’s face shone because he was reflecting another’s glory; Jesus’s face shone because of His own glory. Moses’s face was radiant because of his proximity to Yahweh; Jesus’s face was radiant because he is God. (Heb. 1:3) Moses’ glory was temporary, his face had to be veiled because the radiance was fading.-(2-Corn. 3:12-18) But Jesus’ glory is superior because it is a lasting glory of a New Covenant, not written on stone, but written on the heart, that does not fade but lasts forever.-(2-Corn. 3:7-11)
For those who would have a hard time believing what the disciples saw. Both John and Peter will validate and confirm this event in their own words. John will recall in his Gospel what they had seen on the Mn’t. of the Transfiguration by writing; “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”-(John 1:14b) Peter will later write “For 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 the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.” -(2 Peter 1:16–18)
LESSONS FROM THE TRANSFIGURATION
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Gives encouragement in our own resurrection.
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Teaches how God will give us what we need when were struggling in our faith to believe.
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Encourages us to stay the course and not lose hope that there’s a glorious future that awaits us.
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Motivates us in our hardships and struggles that is not it, that there’s more to come.
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GIves hope and strength of faith to face the challenges and hardships to come
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Increases our motivation to work for Jesus, for everything we do matters. It is useful. It is not in vain.
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Displays the transformation all believers will go through, becoming more and more like Christ Jesus.
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The spiritual experience can empower and inspire us to live faithful and changed lives.
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Displays our need to lay aside our own preconceived ideas and expectations and listen to Jesus.
- Posted by David Costa/
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