The Transfiguration
Matthew 16:28-17:13
January 29, 2012
You will remember that the last couple of weeks
We have been studying a very difficult reality.
Jesus not only revealed the coming victory of His church,
But also the means by which His church would obtain victory.
In short, the church gains victory through the suffering of the Savior.
Matthew 16:21 “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.”
Without a doubt that was a difficult truth to swallow.
The church could not exist apart from the public suffering, death,
And resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And now, thanks to the explanation of the rest of the New Testament
We understand why.
• His Suffering was to make Him a merciful High Priest
• His Death was to atone for sin.
• His Resurrection was to defeat the grave.
We understand it now, and it all makes perfect sense.
But, as you will remember,
That was the first time the disciples had ever heard that.
That verse said, “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples…”
They had never heard that.
• They had been told by John that He was “the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world”
• Andrew told Peter “We have found the Messiah”
• Philip told Nathanael “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and
also the Prophets wrote”
And even recently Peter called Him “the Christ, the Son of the Living God”
So they understood and believed He was the Messiah,
But they did not understand the reality of His suffering.
In fact it was so foreign to them that Peter actually pulled Jesus aside
And said, “Forbid it Lord! This shall never happen to You.”
Of course that earned Peter a rebuke
And it prompted Jesus into a new theological lesson.
Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
But this was all relatively new information to the disciples,
And certainly it came as a shock.
They had signed up to follow Him,
But they hadn’t necessarily expected that He was
Headed to a crucifixion when they said they would follow.
But it was from there that Jesus actually gave some incentive.
He appealed to their human logic.
He knew it would be hard to let go of this life, so He gave them an option.
Matthew 16:25-26 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
He told them that there was a choice to be made.
He was going to the cross.
They could either follow Him there and gain eternal life,
Or they could abandon Him and keep this one, thus forfeiting eternal life.
The choice was theirs.
If you want eternal life, you must pay the cost.
And then came a very pivotal verse.
Matthew 16:27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”
That verse revealed two very important things.
1) That the decision we make will be rewarded.
The decision to follow will be met with eternal reward.
The decision to forsake will be met with eternal punishment.
2) The suffering of the Savior won’t last forever.
Sure He was presently headed to Jerusalem to publicly suffer crucifixion
But rest assured that suffering won’t last forever.
For the humiliation of Christ is only for a time, glory is coming.
“For the Son of man is going to come in the glory of His Father and with His angels and will then repay…”
• The humility is temporary, “glory” is coming.
• The rejection is temporary, He will come “with His angels”
• The suffering is temporary, He “will then repay”
And to make sure we understood that point,
Jesus made another statement that we see here this morning.
(28) “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
Not only did Jesus promise that
A day was coming when His glory would be revealed,
But He also promised that
Some of the twelve would see that glory before they died.
He was saying, “I will return in glory and I’ll prove it by letting some of you see that glory before you die.”
And that is the event we study this morning.
“Six days later” Jesus would make good on His promise.
This morning we study what is commonly known as
“The Transfiguration”.
But beyond seeing the event, I also want to show you why it happened.
4 things
#1 GLORY REVEALED
Matthew 17:1-2
“Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.”
I don’t really know why Jesus picked these three,
Except that it was evident that these three had a more personal
And intimate relationship with Jesus than the rest did.
These were the same three that accompanied Him further in the garden.
• It could very well have been that these three were the leaders.
• Most certainly He needed three to fulfill the O.T. requirement of witnesses.
Deuteronomy teaches that on the testimony of two or three witnesses a matter is to be confirmed.
But these three see something special.
(2) “And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.”
We are all aware of what took place when Jesus came to this earth.
Philippians 2:5-7 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”
From eternity past Jesus “existed in the form of God”,
But for the last 30 or so years He existed “in the likeness of men.”
On this day, the real Jesus stepped out.
All this world had ever seen was the costume He was wearing.
Isaiah 53 described the costume:
Isaiah 53:1-3 “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
Isaiah depicted the costume Jesus had been wearing.
It was not stately…
It was not majestic…
It was not attractive…
It was full of sorrows and woe…
It was not esteemed, in fact it was despised…
But on this day the costume was removed.
On this day, for just a few moments the real Jesus stepped out.
And the result?
“His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.”
What tremendous glory He has!
In fact, the world has never seen anything like it.
You may remember that Moses took on himself the glory of God, but do you remember what Moses did?
He hid it behind a veil.
But no veil could hide this glory, for even “His garments became as white as light”
It is certain that Jesus was a beacon on this mountain top.
He had a glory no garment could cover.
And we are reminded of a very important fact,
And that is that his suffering and humiliation is only temporary.
We tend to think more of Jesus as the suffering servant
Than we do as the glorified king.
(Namely because so much of Scripture deals with His suffering)
But rest assured His humiliation is the strange part.
His glory is the norm.
The next time this world sees Jesus, it will be in this type of glory.
Remember how John saw Him?
Revelation 1:12-16 “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.”
Remember the vision of the 2nd Coming?
Revelation 19:11-16 “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
This is the normal Jesus.
This is the expected Jesus.
The veil of flesh was temporary, it was the costume.
And on this day, for just a moment, the real Jesus shined through.
He was transfigured and His glory shown!
That is why John was able to say when he wrote His gospel:
John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John said, we saw His flesh, but rest assured He was full of glory.
John knew, because on this day he saw it.
So the glory of Jesus was revealed.
Glory as bright as the sun, glory that no garment could contain.
This is the real Jesus!
Glory Revealed
#2 CROSS REINFORCED
Matthew 17:3-5
Now, I realize that it is difficult to see the cross being reinforced
From this particular passage,
So I need to borrow a verse from Luke’s gospel here for a moment.
Luke 9:29-31 “And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming. And behold, two men were talking with Him; and they were Moses and Elijah, who, appearing in glory, were speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”
We see here in Matthew’s gospel that “Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.”
We know who they are, and we know why they are here.
(And this was not a vision, these men were really there)
But together they are representative of the Law and the Prophets.
And so here on the mountain we have the Written Word,
The Spoken Word, and the Incarnate Word
And thanks to Luke’s gospel we know what they are talking about.
“speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem”
“departure” there does not indicate His ascension.
It speaks of His death.
Peter uses the same word in his epistle to speak of his own death.
2 Peter 1:15 “And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.”
Furthermore the term “accomplish” speaks of victory
Over and through a suffering.
1 Peter 5:9 “But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”
Jesus, Moses, and Elijah had convened on this mountain top in their glory
And were speaking about the coming crucifixion of our Lord.
This was not a “nice to have you back conversation” this was a conversation about what He was about to endure.
And so Jesus, even though temporarily out of his shell,
Is still looking to the cross,
And it is obvious all of heaven anticipates it with Him.
But it is at this point that Peter jumps in again.
(4) “Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
So Jesus is having a conversation about the crucifixion,
But again Peter has other plans.
When Jesus first spoke of the cross, it was clear that Peter didn’t like it f
Or he took Jesus aside and rebuked Him.
But when Peter sees Jesus glorified and talking with Moses and Elijah
This is more like it. “Lord, it is good”
It is like Peter is saying, “Now this is what I’m talking about, no more foolish talk about suffering and death.”
In fact it is clear that Peter wanted this to be a permanent thing.
“I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
What Peter is doing here is trying to push Jesus to just stay like this.
No more humiliation, no more suffering, no more talk of a cross.
Just keep your glory, keep Moses and Elijah,
Stay on this mountain and let Your glory remain.
I think we can agree that Peter just never learns.
He always has to throw his two cents in.
My dad has said, “Peter was always broadcasting when he should have been tuning in.”
Man is that ever true.
(5) “While he was still speaking…”
That means that Peter had more to say, but God interrupted him.
“While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”
So while Peter is still in the middle of telling Jesus
What He ought to do next, God intervenes.
He reminds Peter of several things.
1) “This is My beloved Son”
That is to remind Peter of Jesus’ status.
Jesus, not Peter, is the Son of God, and Jesus, not Peter will make the plans.
2) “with whom I am well-pleased”
That is a statement that links very closely to the sacrificial aspect of Jesus’ life as He is the only acceptable sacrifice to the Father.
3) “listen to Him!”
God told Peter it was time for him to stop talking and start listening.
For the past week Peter has had this idea
That Jesus didn’t need to go to the cross,
And despite the messages of Jesus
It is apparent that Peter still wanted to get his point across.
At this point, God from heaven intervenes and says, “Peter, enough is enough, quit talking and start listening.”
I don’t know if God has ever told you to shut your mouth,
But He did here to Peter.
Jesus was here for one purpose, and that was the cross.
Peter didn’t like it, Peter chose to argue with it,
And God finally put a stop to it.
And on this mountain, not only was the glory of Jesus revealed,
But His cross was reinforced.
Jesus was here to suffer and die.
Glory Revealed, Cross Reinforced
#3 HUMILITY RESUMED
Matthew 17:6-8
This is one of those obvious statements.
“When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified.”
I can picture James and John holding their hands over Peter’s mouth.
“Quit talking Peter before He kills us all!”
These men don’t know what is about to happen.
(7) “And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” And lifting their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.”
Here they saw “Jesus Himself alone”
• It was a nice moment.
• It must have felt good to wear the glory for a few more minutes.
• But now, it is back to the focus.
The glory is once again concealed it is normal Jesus.
It must have felt great to have it for a few moments,
But now it is back to the mission.
So once again Jesus tells His glory “good-bye”.
Once again He veils Himself in human flesh.
And that is a very dramatic point to be made to those who are watching.
There is no doubt they saw His glory
And there is no doubt they wanted it to remain.
But after a stern rebuke from heaven that the cross comes first,
They now see Jesus back in humble form.
It should have really sunk in at this moment what He was here to do.
No more arguing, no more manipulating, no more discouraging.
This is the plan of God and it is time to get back to it.
Glory Revealed, Cross Reinforced, Humility Resumed
#4 TRUTH REALIZED
Matthew 17:9-13
So the event has occurred,
Jesus has done just as He said He would back in chapter 16.
These men saw His glory before they tasted death.
(9) “As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”
Now that seems strange.
They just saw the glory, but they aren’t to tell anyone until after the resurrection.
That opens the door for us to ask, then what was the purpose?
It obviously wasn’t a proof of His ministry for the present.
It obviously wasn’t meant to comfort the disciples.
WHY THEN DID JESUS EVEN GO THROUGH THE TRANSFIGURATION?
Jesus explicitly says it is information to be reserved for after “the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”
That only leaves one reason why.
So that after He rose and even ascended,
The disciples could speak with certainty
That Jesus would in fact return in glory to judge the world.
And if you will remember they did.
Peter did at Pentecost.
And even later in his epistle as he told his people to be holy,
He reinforced it by assuring them of the Lord’s return in glory.
2 Peter 1:16-18 “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales 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, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased” — and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.”
Peter told his people to be holy and referenced this event
As proof that it matters.
And so this event was not for the 12, in reality it was for you and me.
This is to prove to us that Jesus has glory and He will return in it.
(10) “And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
This question kind of seems out of the blue.
But it really isn’t.
The disciples are just trying to iron out problems
That they couldn’t sort out in their own mind.
You see, all their life they had been taught that
Elijah would come before the Messiah.
Malachi 4:5-6 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”
And so they were waiting for Elijah.
And they thought he had just come, but he left.
So now they were confused.
If You are the Messiah, where is Elijah?
They were trying to get their theology straight.
(11-13) “And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.”
So we get Jesus’ answer.
• Elijah did come.
• But they killed him.
• And they will do the same to Me.
You see, the reason the disciples hadn’t recognized Elijah
Is because they had no room for suffering in their Messianic story.
They weren’t prepared for the suffering of the forerunner,
They weren’t prepared for the suffering of the Messiah.
And this was a major hurdle they were now having to get over.
(Peter had even argued with it)
But after being told to be quiet and listen on the mountain,
That is what they are doing and Jesus tells them straight.
“Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.”
And so it finally begins to sink in to the disciples.
• It took a revelation from Jesus.
• It took a rebuke from Jesus.
• It took a rebuke from God on the mountain.
• And now another revelation from Jesus.
But for the first time the disciples are beginning to understand
That suffering really is a part of the equation.
They hadn’t wanted to believe it.
They wanted a life of ease following the Messiah to glory,
And even when Jesus told them otherwise they didn’t want to believe it.
Now friends, we have the same issues.
We are kind of like the disciples were.
We don’t really want to follow the Savior to suffering either,
And if God said it was necessary we would probably argue just like Peter.
But the truth is the truth.
The call to follow Jesus is first a call to suffer and then a call to glory.
What Jesus did here on the mountain was simply reinforce
What He taught them back in Caesarea Philippi
“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
And so as the reality is sinking in to the disciples,
Let it sink in to you as well.
We are called to deny self, take up the cross and follow Jesus.
No, it won’t always be pleasant, yes some of it will be hard.
But it is the call none the less.
We must choose to follow anyway,
Knowing that the glory that follows will be worth it.
Matthew 16:26-27 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”
