Jesus' Authority Revealed
In our exploration of Matthew 17:1-13, we behold the profound moment of Jesus' transfiguration, where His divine glory is revealed to Peter, James, and John. This event serves as a miraculous revelation of Christ's true nature rather than a typical miracle. We see Jesus transformed, His face shining like the sun, and His clothes becoming dazzling white, symbolizing His intrinsic glory. The appearance of Moses and Elijah alongside Him signifies the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, emphasizing that Jesus is the culmination of both. As God the Father declares Jesus as His beloved Son, we are reminded of the importance of listening to Him, underscoring the command to prioritize Christ above all else.
As we delve deeper, we recognize that the transfiguration is not merely about glory but also about the necessity of the cross. Jesus' journey down the mountain leads to His impending suffering and death, which is central to His mission. The conversation between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah highlights the significance of the cross, framing it as the ultimate act of humility and love. We are challenged to keep the cross at the forefront of our lives, ensuring that it remains central in our daily walk with Christ, as we strive to reflect His glory and share His message with others.
Key Takeaways
- Jesus' transfiguration reveals His intrinsic glory, setting Him apart as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.
- God commands us to listen to Jesus, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing His teachings in our lives.
- The transfiguration foreshadows the necessity of the cross, highlighting that Jesus' mission involves suffering and sacrifice.
- Moses and Elijah's conversation with Jesus underscores the centrality of the cross in God's redemptive plan.
- We are called to ensure that the cross remains central in our lives, not allowing distractions to diminish its significance.
Scripture References
Discussion Questions
- What does the transfiguration reveal about the nature of Jesus and His authority?
- How can we actively listen to Jesus in our daily lives?
- Why is it important to understand the connection between Jesus' glory and His suffering?
- In what ways can we ensure that the cross remains central in our lives and our church community?
- How does the conversation between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah shape our understanding of the Old Testament and its fulfillment in Christ?
Matthew 17:1-13
Miracles of Jesus: Jesus’ Authority Revealed
Matthew 17:1-13
Beholding the Glory of Christ:
The glory of Christ revealed. (V. 1-4)
The glory of Christ confirmed. (V. 5-8)
The glory of Christ’s cross. (V. 9-13)
Transcript
· How about now? All right, I found Yeah,
· it's in a different spot. I was like,
· "Where's the button?"
· Uh good morning. I'm Pastor DJ. I'm the
· pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix. And
· if you're new with us, welcome in. Come
· find me afterwards. I'd love to chat
· with you and get to
· know you more and talk about Jesus.
· But till then, open your Bibles to
· Matthew chapter 17.
· Matthew chapter 17. If you don't have a
· Bible, there's one in the seatback
· either in front of you or near you,
· there should be. And that is our gift to
· you. If you don't have a Bible, feel
· free to use it, highlight it, underline
· it, mark it up, make notes, make it your
· Bible. We will gladly replace it.
· And as you're turning there, I want to
· thank everyone from the bottom of my
· heart who has put in all the blood,
· sweat, and tears. Yes, even some blood
· for VBS.
· But everyone's been working really hard.
· And I was thanking someone this week,
· and she's like, "You know, I do it for
· the Lord, not for recognition." And I
· said, "Amen to that." And I know that
· that is the heart of this church. And
· so, but you know who you are. Those of
· you who have helped get our VBS set up.
· And we will have some lunch lunchy snack
· stuff too as well for those who want to
· stay and help us finish preparing what
· we have. There's a few things left to do
· after service.
· And I'm very excited to see what God
· does with this year's VBS.
· Well, this is our last sermon in our
· miracles of Jesus series.
· Our text this morning is often called or
· referred to as the transfiguration.
· The transfiguration.
· So, no one will be healed, no demons
· will be cast out, no children raised
· from the dead, no storms ceasing.
· However,
· what Peter, James, and John are about to
· experience
· will leave them completely terrified.
· They will be scared out of their minds.
· The Transfiguration isn't so much a
· miracle of Jesus as it is
· a miraculous revelation of who Jesus is.
· And it's an invitation to behold the
· glory of Christ.
· And so, that's our main heading this
· morning, beholding the glory
· of Christ. And if you have an outline,
· that's what you'll see there at the top.
· Let's pray. Father, we thank you for
· this morning.
· Thank you for your word.
· And I pray now,
· like Peter, James, and John, that we
· would just see you.
· That we would see Christ
· exalted in this place.
· The name above every name.
· God, help us to see
· the cross.
· Help us to see
· the centrality
· of the cross.
· Even in a text like the Transfiguration,
· the cross takes center stage.
· We thank you for it. Pray that you'd
· give us ears to hear
· what your spirit has to say to the
· church here
· at Crossroads Phoenix. In Jesus' name.
· Amen.
· Well, let's stand as we read Matthew
· 17:1-13.
· And if you're unable to stand, no
· worries. Uh just stand with us in in
· heart and spirit as we simply honor and
· show honor to God's word this morning.
· Matthew 17 beginning of verse 1. After 6
· days, Jesus took Peter, James, and his
· brother John and led them up a high on a
· high mountain by themselves.
· He was transfigured in front of them,
· and his face shone like the sun. His
· clothes became as white as the light.
· Suddenly, or behold, Moses and Elijah
· appeared to them
· talking with him.
· And then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord,
· it's good for us to be here.
· I will set up three shelters here, one
· for you, one for Moses, and one for
· Elijah."
· While he was still speaking, suddenly a
· bright cloud covered them, and a voice
· from the cloud said, "This is my beloved
· son with whom I am well pleased. Listen
· to him."
· When the disciples heard this, they fell
· face down and were terrified.
· Jesus came up, touched them, and said,
· "Get up. Don't be afraid."
· When they looked up, they saw no one
· except Jesus alone.
· As they were coming down the mountain,
· Jesus commanded them, "Don't tell anyone
· about the vision until the Son of Man is
· raised from the dead."
· So the disciples asked him, "Why then do
· the scribes say that Elijah must come
· first?"
· "Elijah is coming and will restore
· everything," he replied. "But I tell you
· Elijah has already come, and they didn't
· recognize him.
· On the contrary, they did whatever they
· pleased to him. In the same way, 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. Thanks, you can be seated.
· Amen.
· >> [clears throat]
· >> Well, at this point in Matthew
· walking with Jesus is getting
· more serious
· for the disciples. It's been fun
· seeing the miracles and schooling the
· Pharisees and the Sadducees and
· experiencing the blessings that come
· with, I don't know, hanging out with God
· incarnate.
· But in chapter 16,
· there is a little bit of a change in
· tone.
· And while we're not going through the
· entire Gospel of Matthew, which I want
· to so bad, I want you to know and see
· some of the the context leading up to
· the Transfiguration.
· And in chapter 16,
· Peter confesses Jesus is the Messiah. He
· is the Christ, the son of the living
· God.
· And it is after that confession that
· Jesus starts to point out a sobering
· truth. And if you look up or back in
· your Bible at Matthew 16 verse 21,
· it says this,
· "From then on,
· Jesus began to point out or to show to
· his disciples that it was what?
· Necessary
· for him to go to Jerusalem and suffer
· many things from the chief or from the
· elders, chief priests, and scribes, be
· killed,
· and be raised the third day."
· Well, Peter didn't like what he was
· hearing.
· Lord, that sounds a little bit like kind
· of that's like a big giant bummer.
· Um Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord.
· I don't like hearing that. I don't like
· hearing that that doesn't sound right
· that you would suffer and die. So, Peter
· rebukes Jesus.
· He just called him the Messiah, the
· Christ, right? The Son of the Living
· God. It's not like Peter's oblivious. He
· knows who he is. And yes,
· he had the audacity to rebuke the Son of
· the Living God.
· Jesus corrects Peter, of course he does,
· and goes into a solemn discourse.
· In summary, saying this, look,
· if you want to follow me,
· deny yourself, take up your cross,
· follow me, and be willing to give up
· your life.
· Things are starting to get serious.
· What I love about Jesus is that he
· matches the sobering reality of
· suffering and death with the joyous
· reality of future glory. So, he doesn't
· leave them on a low note.
· Jesus balances the truth of suffering in
· this life with also the truth of coming
· kingdom glory. And so, if you look back
· at Matthew 16:28,
· Jesus says, "Truly I tell you,
· there are some standing here
· who will not taste death until they see
· what? The Son of Man coming in his
· kingdom."
· And what do you read? Chapter 17:1,
· knowing and remembering that chapter
· divisions are not
· in the original.
· They're added for help, but they're
· connected still. The end of 16 is
· connected with 17. After 6 days, right?
· A week later, we find ourselves in
· chapter 17.
· And what's happening? Some of them,
· Peter, James, and John to be exact, will
· see Jesus
· in his glory.
· So, yes, I believe that
· the transfiguration is a fulfillment of
· what Jesus just said about a week ago.
· And so, the first thing we see, I want
· to point I want us to see three
· different things here in the text.
· Verses 1 through 4, the first point, the
· first thing,
· the glory of Christ revealed. The glory
· of Christ is revealed.
· Now, Luke [clears throat] tells us
· Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and
· Luke gives us the reason to go up the
· mountain to pray. That's what they're
· going to do.
· And Luke also adds that he, Jesus, was
· transfigured
· while he was praying. Fascinating.
· Also, what we learn
· is the disciples, as they often did,
· fell asleep.
· The disciples fell asleep, and before we
· judge them too harshly, we probably
· would, too, right? Jesus would pray for
· hours and hours. I don't know, maybe you
· do, but
· you probably fall asleep, too. So would
· I.
· And according to Luke, the disciples
· woke up to Jesus being transfigured. So,
· as Jesus' face shone like the sun, and
· his clothes became white as light,
· it's probably difficult to stay asleep.
· Getting bright around here.
· I couldn't even sleep under these
· lights, and that's like nothing, right,
· compared to the glory of Christ.
· And so, it wakes them up.
· And I like what Mark says, so I'm
· sprinkling in, just so we have the full
· picture, but in Mark 9, verse 3, his
· Mark's transfiguration account, he says
· this about the clothes of Jesus.
· He says, "And his clothes became
· dazzling,
· extremely white as no launderer on earth
· could whiten them.
· Meaning no amount of bleach in anyone's
· laundry could make clothes this white
· and bright.
· That's what Mark says.
· And so this is a glimpse into the
· majestic glory of Christ. And what we
· need to remember is that this Jesus
· is no less real
· than the Jesus they've been walking
· around with, but this is him revealing
· just a a glimpse of his glory.
· And suddenly, right? Or behold,
· Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus.
· Having a conversation with him.
· Now there are various interpretations as
· to why Moses and Elijah, right? Why
· Moses and Elijah of all the Old
· Testament folks that could have been
· so-and-so or so-and-so. Why Moses and
· Elijah? And we don't have uh time to
· cover every reason. I believe that there
· it's multifaceted. We could preach for
· like six, seven weeks on different
· aspects of the transfiguration, right?
· But I do want to go over a few. And for
· one, Moses represents the Old Testament
· law.
· In fact, the Old Testament law that God
· gave Moses was often called simply the
· law of Moses. Kind of summar-
· summarizing Genesis to Deuteronomy would
· be referred to mostly as simply the law
· of Moses, the Pentateuch, those first
· five books of the Bible.
· Elijah would represent the Old Testament
· prophetic ministry. Those who have gone
· before Christ came, ending with John the
· Baptist, but those like Isaiah,
· Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and of course
· Elijah, Elisha and others
· representing that prophetic ministry,
· those who prophesied the Messiah's
· coming.
· And now as we know in the New Testament,
· what we know about Christ is that Jesus
· fulfills the law and the prophets
· perfectly, right? He kept the law
· perfect.
· He never fell short of the standards
· that God set.
· He didn't break one of the 10
· Commandments
· like we do basically every day.
· But not one. Even if you and I could
· keep nine,
· what does the scripture say? If you've
· broken one, you might as well have
· broken them all. The the the
· expectation, the requirement is
· perfection and you and I don't have it.
· Jesus does.
· And he fulfills perfectly the law. He
· also fulfilled the prophecies concerning
· him perfectly. No prophecy goes
· unfulfilled in Christ. Now there are
· still things to come, yes,
· the new heavens and the new earth and
· future glory that we all look forward
· to, but no prophecy concerning Jesus
· Christ goes unfulfilled.
· We see him fulfilling law and the
· prophets. We also see Jesus as the
· greater than Moses and Elijah.
· If you remember when
· when Moses went up Mount Sinai to
· receive the law, he would come down, you
· remember this, with his face glowing.
· You remember that?
· With his face glowing and what was it?
· Moses was reflecting
· the glory of God having been in God's
· presence for a period of time.
· This, Matthew 17, is different. Jesus
· isn't reflecting
· any glory.
· He is This is his own intrinsic glory
· shining forth.
· He's not reflecting the
· whatever glory that Moses or Elijah
· might have. I don't know. This is Jesus
· revealing his own intrinsic glory.
· And then Peter opens his mouth, right?
· He says, "Lord, this is pretty awesome.
· It's pretty amazing.
· Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going
· to set up three shelters for you guys.
· One for you, Jesus, one for Moses, and
· one for Elijah."
· Now, Mark
· kind of gives us a little bit of insight
· into Peter, right? Mark says Peter spoke
· because he didn't know what to say.
· The guy is like, "I don't know what to
· say, but I got to say something. Oh,
· Lord, here's what I'm going to do. Build
· three houses."
· What's the implication?
· Oh, we'll get to that.
· But Peter is taken back by the whole
· thing, and he doesn't know what to say,
· and he just blurted something out.
· And he's immediately silenced
· by the Father from heaven.
· And that's our second point here.
· The glory of Christ we see the glory of
· Christ confirmed. Confirmed.
· Now, I love verse 5.
· While he was still speaking,
· God doesn't wait for Peter to finish
· what he has to say.
· Suddenly, a bright cloud covers them,
· and the voice says, "This is my beloved
· son, with whom I am well pleased." Sound
· familiar?
· The Father said that at Jesus' baptism
· when we have the Father speaking from
· heaven.
· We have the Spirit descending on him
· like on Jesus like a dove.
· And we have the Son being baptized by
· John the Baptist.
· And here we have the Father speaks from
· heaven again. The Son is being
· transfigured and the Holy Spirit there
· in the cloud, I believe, represents
· quite possibly the Spirit being there.
· But we know that the Spirit testifies
· the same.
· And they fall face down terrified.
· And this whole scene
· has many parallels to Exodus.
· Um and I just want to give us a few so
· that we can see the bigger picture.
· When Moses received the law from God at
· Mount Sinai, it says this. Exodus 24:16.
· The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount
· Sinai and the cloud covered it six days.
· And on the seventh day, he called to
· Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
· Verse one here it says after six days,
· what? Jesus took Peter, James, and John
· up the mountain.
· Mount Sinai was covered with a cloud
· here in verse five of our text. A bright
· cloud covers them.
· The Lord Yahweh called out to Moses.
· Here the Father speaks. This is my
· beloved son.
· The disciples are terrified of the glory
· and majesty of Christ and the
· declaration of the Father. In Exodus
· 34:30, we read what? Aaron and all the
· people of Israel saw Moses and behold,
· the skin of his face shone and they were
· what? Afraid to come near him.
· The Israelites were afraid of the
· reflected glory of Moses, just like the
· disciples are terrified, probably even
· more so, by the intrinsic glory of
· Christ.
· There are other parallels we could make
· to Moses and Elijah, both of their
· ministries, both of their God-given
· ministries experienced rejection and
· suffering.
· Elijah, as you know, raised a widow's
· son from the dead, Jesus raised the
· dead, too. There's There's all kinds of
· parallels.
· But here's what I want you to see.
· The Father then says something
· specifically about Jesus, "Listen to
· him."
· This is a direct fulfillment of
· Deuteronomy 18:15.
· When Moses himself says this, "The Lord
· your God
· will raise up for you a prophet like me
· from among you, from your brothers." And
· then what does Moses say? "It is to him
· you shall what? Listen."
· The Father's specifically saying that, I
· believe, I am convinced of, to show and
· to bring that out. He is the greater
· than Moses prophet that we need to
· listen to.
· Muhammad was about 600 years too late.
· Islam, right, Muhammad claims to be
· what? The great the prophet spoken of
· here in Deuteronomy 18:15. That's what
· Muhammad claims to be and what Islam
· claims him to to be.
· Problem is, the Father already declared
· that's Christ, and so did Peter, um in
· the book of Acts confirms that as well.
· It's the prophet
· who is spoken of.
· Unfortunately, Muhammad was about 600
· years too late to the party.
· This was already fulfilled 600 years
· before Muhammad was even a thought in
· anyone's mind.
· Christ [snorts] is the greater than
· Moses, greater than Elijah prophet. It's
· so it's all coming together here. Christ
· is the greater than Moses, greater than
· Elijah prophet, priest, and king. And we
· must listen to him. This is not a
· suggestion.
· This is actually a command.
· This is an imperative when God when the
· Father says, "Listen to him." That is an
· imperative command. Listen to Jesus
· Christ.
· And did you know
· that the gospel itself, the good news of
· Jesus Christ is actually a command to be
· obeyed? Did you know the gospel is
· actually a command?
· The gospel is not a suggestion.
· It is a command. It's a It's not a
· suggestion to consider, it's a command
· to believe. Did you know that?
· Paul teaches this in 2 Corinthians 1:8.
· And in 2 Corinthians 1, basically Paul
· is describing the future return of Jesus
· Christ. And he says he's going to come
· and he's going to righteously judge.
· Let me describe it for you in his terms.
· 2 Thessalonians 1:8. He's going to come
· in what? Flaming fire.
· In flaming fire inflicting vengeance on
· those who do not know God and on those
· who do not obey the gospel of our Lord
· Jesus.
· Rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ
· is not like rejecting vanilla ice cream
· in favor of chocolate ice cream. Like
· it's some neutral choice. Like this is
· an even playing field. Like it has no
· other ramifications. Okay, you prefer
· this over this. No, no, no, no.
· Rejecting the gospel is an overt act of
· disobedience to God, to the command to
· believe the gospel.
· And here in our text, the Father is
· commanding
· listening to Jesus.
· And at the Father's voice, they are
· completely terrified. Rightfully so.
· And God in his grace relieves them of
· his of their terror when Jesus come
· and as he does with many who have fallen
· down terrified,
· he does this with John in Revelation 2,
· just comes, touches them, says, "Get up.
· Don't be afraid."
· They look up and everyone's gone
· except Jesus.
· Why? Because it's all about him.
· This is not about being infatuated with
· Moses or Elijah. It's about centering
· all of the attention on Jesus Christ.
· And now it's time to come down the
· mountain, right?
· Let's go down the mountain. Verses 9
· through 13, our final point, the glory
· of Christ's cross.
· >> [clears throat]
· >> The glory of Christ's cross.
· I don't want you and I to miss this.
· Please don't miss this.
· You realize
· our lives depend on verse 9, Jesus
· coming down that mountain.
· Though Jesus revealed his great glory,
· his purity, his majesty, He will come
· down that mountain to go to the cross.
· Because remember back in chapter 16
· verse 21, when Jesus was pointing this
· out to the disciples, he said, "It is
· necessary."
· Not optional. The cross is not seen as
· optional in the Trinity. The Father,
· Son, and Holy Spirit all agree the cross
· is necessary.
· It is necessary
· for him
· to go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed,
· and be raised.
· And so when Peter pulls the Messiah
· aside and says, "Oh, no, no, no, no,
· Lord, this will never happen to you."
· What is Peter saying?
· He's saying, "You're the Messiah. You're
· the Christ. You're the son of the living
· God. You don't need to die on a cross.
· You don't need to do that. It's
· completely unnecessary.
· You can have the crown without the
· cross."
· And while that's true that Jesus is too
· good, too pure, too holy for a cross,
· too perfect to die such a horrible
· death, the scriptures declare it's
· necessary because it is his mission. His
· mission from the get-go, from eternity
· past, read Ephesians,
· is to go to the cross
· for you and for me.
· And so Jesus tells Peter those strong
· words, right? "Get behind me, Satan."
· Right? You're like, "Man, those are
· strong words, Jesus." Right? Like, "Get
· behind me, Satan. Man, you just called
· Peter Satan. Geez." No, no.
· He says, "You Get behind me, Satan. Why,
· Peter? Why? Because you're not thinking
· about God's concerns, but human
· concerns." In other words, back in
· chapter 16, Peter is focused on merely
· human concerns, which would be what?
· Anything you and I would be concerned
· about, um avoiding a painful and
· excruciating death if we don't have to,
· right? Or if we think we don't have to.
· But God that's Peter's concern, right?
· Avoid Lord like you don't need to go
· through that. God's concern was what?
· The salvation of his people which
· requires
· Christ death on the cross.
· The reason Jesus rebukes Peter so
· strongly is because of the the necessity
· of the cross is that important to God's
· agenda. And so when we come here, Peter
· speaks up again right at the
· transfiguration. Here he is talking
· again.
· And he says, "Let me build you Moses and
· Elijah three shelters or three
· tabernacles." God interrupts Peter
· again. Stop Peter. Stop.
· Listen to him.
· Listen to him.
· And he's about to tell him going down
· the mountain, "I got to suffer and die
· again."
· Listen to Jesus. Why? Because Jesus
· ultimate mission wasn't to come show off
· his glory on a mountain and go back to
· heaven without going to the cross.
· Peter's like, "Man, it's good to be
· here. Let's build uh little houses and
· what?"
· What would be the implication?
· What point is Peter missing?
· Let's build houses and what? Stay up
· here.
· That's what you do if you built a little
· tabernacle up there. The implication is
· that you'd stay up there for a little
· while.
· And that wasn't the point. The point was
· never to stay on the mountain in glory.
· It was to come down to the cross.
· When you read the other gospel accounts,
· Luke especially,
· please don't miss this.
· Turn over to Luke 9. Um so we'll be out
· of Matthew 17. I need you to see
· something yourself in Luke 9.
· So, Matthew, Mark, Luke, you'll go
· through Mark.
· And
· Luke 9, beginning at verse 28.
· >> [snorts]
· >> Here's what I want you to see. I'll give
· you a second.
· >> [clears throat]
· >> The cross
· has been center stage in the
· transfiguration
· all along.
· Luke 9, beginning at verse 28. About 8
· days after this is Luke's way of saying
· about a week later. It's not a
· contradiction. Well, they said 6 days
· after they said No, this happened on the
· 7th day, but he's saying about 8 days
· after this conversation. Luke is saying
· about a week later. He took along Peter,
· James, and John and went up on the
· mountain to pray. And he was I'm sorry,
· as he was praying,
· the appearance of his face changed and
· his clothes became dazzling white.
· Suddenly, two men were talking with him,
· Moses and Elijah. Don't miss verse 31.
· They appeared in glory
· and were what? Speaking of his
· departure, which he was about to
· accomplish in Jerusalem.
· When Moses and Elijah
· appear talking with Jesus, what's the
· topic of conversation?
· The cross is.
· The cross is the conversation. They're
· talking about his departure, which he
· was about to accomplish in Jerusalem,
· which would be his death on the cross in
· Jerusalem and his resurrection.
· The Greek word for uh departure
· there is the Greek word exodus.
· Exodus, what does it sound like? Exodus.
· Right?
· They're talking about the exodus Jesus
· is about to accomplish at Jerusalem,
· which refers to his death. One of the
· major themes in the Gospels, especially
· in Matthew,
· especially in Matthew, who gives some of
· the most obscure Old Testament
· references to explain himself, and it
· does kind of puzzle people, but you have
· to understand this major motif or theme,
· that Jesus Christ is king and leading a
· second exodus from this world into glory
· for those who are in Christ.
· Moses led the first exodus out of Egypt
· into uh the promised land, and he gets
· them close, and Joshua takes over, and
· all that. Yes. But Moses leads that
· first exodus from
· Egypt to to Canaan literally,
· physically. Jesus is leading the second
· spiritual exodus from this world to
· glory.
· That is a major motif that you have to
· understand, and so he's speaking They're
· speaking about his exodus.
· And And Peter uses this exact same word
· in 2 Peter 1:15 when he's writing. He's
· saying, "You know, I want to remind you
· of the truth, so you'll be established
· in the truth, because I'm about to die."
· And what does Peter say about his own
· death? 2 Peter 1:15, he says, "And I
· will make every effort
· so that after my departure, or after my
· exodus, when he dies to go and goes to
· be with the Lord, after my exodus, you
· will be You may be able at any time to
· recall these things." He cares about the
· people knowing the word, loving the
· Lord, and growing in their maturity when
· he's gone. So, he's writing to them
· saying, "After my exodus, I want you
· guys to know all this stuff."
· Of all the things Jesus, Moses, and
· Elijah could have talked about, it was
· the cross.
· Moses could have been like, "Hey Jesus,
· remember when you parted the Red Sea?
· That was awesome. Or Elijah, remember
· when you allowed me to raise that
· widow's son? Or or called down fire from
· heaven on Mount Carmel?
· That was cool, huh? Yes, it was."
· But none of those compare to the cross.
· And here, Moses and Elijah are not
· talking about the past. They are talking
· about the future, the departure Jesus is
· about to accomplish. This is about to
· happen. It's coming, and it's all Moses
· and Elijah could talk about, and it's
· all we ought to be able to talk about.
· We,
· Cross Church Phoenix, may we be about
· preaching Christ and him crucified.
· It's about knowing Christ.
· And Christ reiterates the centrality of
· the cross as they come down the
· mountain, right? The disciples ask about
· Elijah, right? Why do they say Elijah's
· supposed to come? Yes, it's a great
· question because that is on the
· prophetic calendar. It's legit prophecy.
· And Jesus says, "Yeah, that's absolutely
· true. And you know what? Elijah has
· come. It was John the Baptist in the
· spirit and power of Elijah.
· And look what they did to him."
· Jesus immediately takes it back to, "And
· look what they did. You remember what
· they did?"
· They beheaded John the Baptist. That's
· what just happened a little while ago, a
· few chapters back.
· John the Baptist lost his life because
· some king was having a party, liked how
· this woman danced, and said, "What do
· you want? I'll give you anything she you
· want." And she says, "John the Baptist's
· head on a platter." And he's got to do
· it because he's a man of his word,
· right?
· And so John gives up his life for
· seemingly the most ridiculous thing
· ever.
· And Jesus says,
· "You know how they treated him?
· They imprisoned him, chopped off his
· head.
· Suffered many things from the other
· people. Guess what's going to happen to
· me?
· I'm going to suffer the same and die.
· Right?
· They killed John the Baptist. Guess
· what's going to happen to me? I'm going
· to suffer and be killed at their hands
· just like John."
· The glory the the glory of Christ cross
· is center stage from beginning to end in
· the transfiguration. The cross is the
· greatest act of humility in the history
· of the universe because it's Christ in
· all his glory steps down to suffer and
· die on a cross made for sinners like you
· and I. We should be there.
· The step Christ took down from the glory
· to becoming a man of flesh, Emmanuel,
· God with us. The step down is eternally
· greater than if you became a slug to
· save slugs.
· It would be we can't even comprehend the
· step down.
· And Paul says, right, that this is
· an act of humility. Have this mind in
· you which was in Christ Jesus cuz he was
· humble.
· And he took on the form of a servant.
· Became man, fully God, fully man. He was
· obedient to death, even death on a
· cross.
· The cross is the focus of Moses, the
· focus of Elijah, Peter, James, John, all
· the rest, all the disciples, Matthew,
· Mark.
· Name the rest of them.
· It's the focus of all of them.
· Jesus fulfills the law and the prophets
· and he accomplishes what? Their
· salvation, too.
· Christ had to die for Moses and Elijah's
· sins, too.
· The cross is the focus of the Trinity,
· the Father and Holy Spirit confirming
· Christ the Son. The cross is the central
· focus of Moses and Elijah. Is it yours?
· Is the cross your focus?
· Or are you distracted by eternally
· lesser things like lunch?
· Something. Just
· Nothing wrong with going I know we're
· all hungry, right?
· But I'm trying to say what I'm trying to
· say is is anything
· Does anything anything take away
· from the cross in your life? Anything?
· Because if Christ's
· and him crucified is not central in your
· life, whatever else is is an unworthy
· idol.
· Can I just put it to you that way? It's
· an unworthy idol. You get rid of it. The
· old King James, right? It says, "Mortify
· it." Right? Kill it. Mortify it. Take
· care of it.
· I don't care what's in the way.
· If sports is in the way of the cross in
· your life, get rid of it.
· Get rid of it.
· You think it's worth it? No, it's not.
· There is no no sports or game more
· important.
· Right? Come February,
· churches I don't know. We'll see what
· happens, right? The Super Bowl becomes
· more important than God.
· There's no sports game more important.
· There's no accomplishment more vital.
· There's no life goal more worthy than
· knowing Jesus Christ. Can I just put it
· that way?
· Yes, we have hobbies and we go to work
· and we have to do things. I'm not I I
· what I'm saying is is the cross of
· Christ central in your life, in your
· daily walk with Jesus?
· Or does it take a backseat Monday
· through Saturday and oh yeah, Jesus on
· Sunday?
· My challenge for our church is that the
· It's in our name, Cross Church, right?
· It's in the name.
· Are we Are all of us about the cross?
· We're about to have like 65 kids in VBS,
· if they all come.
· And it's going to be fun.
· We'll do cool things.
· But we must give them Christ and we must
· show him the cross, show them the cross
· and what he did for them on the cross,
· because if we don't, it's all for
· nothing. It's a complete Our VBS will be
· a complete waste of time if we don't
· show them Christ and him crucified. You
· say, "Even at a young age, my
· five-year-olds coming to They don't need
· to know about Jesus' excruciating death
· on the cross?" Yes.
· Yes.
· As I was working on this this week, I
· confess that I really struggle with
· application of it. I was like, "How do
· we apply this text?" Like really,
· the whole point is just the majesty and
· glory of Christ. I was like, "Well, then
· that's going to be the application."
· Will you, not just on Sunday, but every
· day behold the glory of Christ in your
· own life? When you wake up in the
· morning, Christ and him crucified,
· that's what I want to know more about.
· When you go to work,
· how can I learn How can I just be more
· like Christ today?
· When you go, play, do stuff, whatever,
· hang out with friends and fam,
· how can I be like Christ or how can I
· just I don't know, consume more of God,
· learn more and grow closer to him. Don't
· let anything get in the way.
· May the cross
· of Christ be central in our lives this
· morning.
· And we have um
· another celebration this morning of
· baptism. So, I want to invite Mona to
· come on down and we're going to
· uh baptize her. And I also want to
· invite the worship team to come on up so
· we're ready for the last song. Um
· but uh here, let me meet you down here.
· All right.
· Oops. Don't get close to there.
· All right, come here, Mona.
· All right, everyone, this is Mona.
· Everyone say hi, Mona. Hi, Mona. What's
· up? Yeah, so she came up to me um
· actually we talked last week and you
· basically you're like, "We need to talk
· about baptism, too."
· And I said, "All right, let's meet and
· talk about it." And you had um you've
· come to Christ as well, but have never
· been baptized as a disciple of Jesus
· Christ. And so we met, we talked through
· the gospel. She's like, "That's me. I
· love the Lord. I've come to him, but I
· want to obey him
· in uh baptism." So, we're here to do
· that, right? We're here to obey God and
· do what he says.
· All right, publicly proclaim you love
· Jesus.
· All right. Well, if you want to step in,
· it's freezing cold. I forgot I'm just
· kidding, it's not. I do that every time
· to see No, I'm just kidding. No, you're
· good. You can step on it.
· >> Facing this
· >> Yeah, facing this way.
· And then if you'll come down here.
· All right.
· All right, Mona, is Jesus Christ your
· personal Lord and Savior?
· >> Yes.
· >> Do you believe that he died on the cross
· for your sins personally and that he
· rose again on the third day to show his
· power and authority over sin and death
· and that he has authority over your
· life?
· >> Yes.
· >> Well, upon your profession of faith, it
· is my privilege to baptize you. You can
· cross your arms if you like. Baptize
· you, my sister, in the name of the
· Father and of the Son and of the Holy
· Spirit. For we are buried with him by
· baptism unto death
· and raised to walk in newness of life.
· >> [applause]
· [applause]
· >> All right, here's a towel for you.
· All right, let's stand and sing our last
· song.
· >> [snorts]
Part of Series
Miracles of Jesus
View all episodesTranscript
· How about now? All right, I found Yeah,
· it's in a different spot. I was like,
· "Where's the button?"
· Uh good morning. I'm Pastor DJ. I'm the
· pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix. And
· if you're new with us, welcome in. Come
· find me afterwards. I'd love to chat
· with you and get to
· know you more and talk about Jesus.
· But till then, open your Bibles to
· Matthew chapter 17.
· Matthew chapter 17. If you don't have a
· Bible, there's one in the seatback
· either in front of you or near you,
· there should be. And that is our gift to
· you. If you don't have a Bible, feel
· free to use it, highlight it, underline
· it, mark it up, make notes, make it your
· Bible. We will gladly replace it.
· And as you're turning there, I want to
· thank everyone from the bottom of my
· heart who has put in all the blood,
· sweat, and tears. Yes, even some blood
· for VBS.
· But everyone's been working really hard.
· And I was thanking someone this week,
· and she's like, "You know, I do it for
· the Lord, not for recognition." And I
· said, "Amen to that." And I know that
· that is the heart of this church. And
· so, but you know who you are. Those of
· you who have helped get our VBS set up.
· And we will have some lunch lunchy snack
· stuff too as well for those who want to
· stay and help us finish preparing what
· we have. There's a few things left to do
· after service.
· And I'm very excited to see what God
· does with this year's VBS.
· Well, this is our last sermon in our
· miracles of Jesus series.
· Our text this morning is often called or
· referred to as the transfiguration.
· The transfiguration.
· So, no one will be healed, no demons
· will be cast out, no children raised
· from the dead, no storms ceasing.
· However,
· what Peter, James, and John are about to
· experience
· will leave them completely terrified.
· They will be scared out of their minds.
· The Transfiguration isn't so much a
· miracle of Jesus as it is
· a miraculous revelation of who Jesus is.
· And it's an invitation to behold the
· glory of Christ.
· And so, that's our main heading this
· morning, beholding the glory
· of Christ. And if you have an outline,
· that's what you'll see there at the top.
· Let's pray. Father, we thank you for
· this morning.
· Thank you for your word.
· And I pray now,
· like Peter, James, and John, that we
· would just see you.
· That we would see Christ
· exalted in this place.
· The name above every name.
· God, help us to see
· the cross.
· Help us to see
· the centrality
· of the cross.
· Even in a text like the Transfiguration,
· the cross takes center stage.
· We thank you for it. Pray that you'd
· give us ears to hear
· what your spirit has to say to the
· church here
· at Crossroads Phoenix. In Jesus' name.
· Amen.
· Well, let's stand as we read Matthew
· 17:1-13.
· And if you're unable to stand, no
· worries. Uh just stand with us in in
· heart and spirit as we simply honor and
· show honor to God's word this morning.
· Matthew 17 beginning of verse 1. After 6
· days, Jesus took Peter, James, and his
· brother John and led them up a high on a
· high mountain by themselves.
· He was transfigured in front of them,
· and his face shone like the sun. His
· clothes became as white as the light.
· Suddenly, or behold, Moses and Elijah
· appeared to them
· talking with him.
· And then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord,
· it's good for us to be here.
· I will set up three shelters here, one
· for you, one for Moses, and one for
· Elijah."
· While he was still speaking, suddenly a
· bright cloud covered them, and a voice
· from the cloud said, "This is my beloved
· son with whom I am well pleased. Listen
· to him."
· When the disciples heard this, they fell
· face down and were terrified.
· Jesus came up, touched them, and said,
· "Get up. Don't be afraid."
· When they looked up, they saw no one
· except Jesus alone.
· As they were coming down the mountain,
· Jesus commanded them, "Don't tell anyone
· about the vision until the Son of Man is
· raised from the dead."
· So the disciples asked him, "Why then do
· the scribes say that Elijah must come
· first?"
· "Elijah is coming and will restore
· everything," he replied. "But I tell you
· Elijah has already come, and they didn't
· recognize him.
· On the contrary, they did whatever they
· pleased to him. In the same way, 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. Thanks, you can be seated.
· Amen.
· >> [clears throat]
· >> Well, at this point in Matthew
· walking with Jesus is getting
· more serious
· for the disciples. It's been fun
· seeing the miracles and schooling the
· Pharisees and the Sadducees and
· experiencing the blessings that come
· with, I don't know, hanging out with God
· incarnate.
· But in chapter 16,
· there is a little bit of a change in
· tone.
· And while we're not going through the
· entire Gospel of Matthew, which I want
· to so bad, I want you to know and see
· some of the the context leading up to
· the Transfiguration.
· And in chapter 16,
· Peter confesses Jesus is the Messiah. He
· is the Christ, the son of the living
· God.
· And it is after that confession that
· Jesus starts to point out a sobering
· truth. And if you look up or back in
· your Bible at Matthew 16 verse 21,
· it says this,
· "From then on,
· Jesus began to point out or to show to
· his disciples that it was what?
· Necessary
· for him to go to Jerusalem and suffer
· many things from the chief or from the
· elders, chief priests, and scribes, be
· killed,
· and be raised the third day."
· Well, Peter didn't like what he was
· hearing.
· Lord, that sounds a little bit like kind
· of that's like a big giant bummer.
· Um Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord.
· I don't like hearing that. I don't like
· hearing that that doesn't sound right
· that you would suffer and die. So, Peter
· rebukes Jesus.
· He just called him the Messiah, the
· Christ, right? The Son of the Living
· God. It's not like Peter's oblivious. He
· knows who he is. And yes,
· he had the audacity to rebuke the Son of
· the Living God.
· Jesus corrects Peter, of course he does,
· and goes into a solemn discourse.
· In summary, saying this, look,
· if you want to follow me,
· deny yourself, take up your cross,
· follow me, and be willing to give up
· your life.
· Things are starting to get serious.
· What I love about Jesus is that he
· matches the sobering reality of
· suffering and death with the joyous
· reality of future glory. So, he doesn't
· leave them on a low note.
· Jesus balances the truth of suffering in
· this life with also the truth of coming
· kingdom glory. And so, if you look back
· at Matthew 16:28,
· Jesus says, "Truly I tell you,
· there are some standing here
· who will not taste death until they see
· what? The Son of Man coming in his
· kingdom."
· And what do you read? Chapter 17:1,
· knowing and remembering that chapter
· divisions are not
· in the original.
· They're added for help, but they're
· connected still. The end of 16 is
· connected with 17. After 6 days, right?
· A week later, we find ourselves in
· chapter 17.
· And what's happening? Some of them,
· Peter, James, and John to be exact, will
· see Jesus
· in his glory.
· So, yes, I believe that
· the transfiguration is a fulfillment of
· what Jesus just said about a week ago.
· And so, the first thing we see, I want
· to point I want us to see three
· different things here in the text.
· Verses 1 through 4, the first point, the
· first thing,
· the glory of Christ revealed. The glory
· of Christ is revealed.
· Now, Luke [clears throat] tells us
· Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and
· Luke gives us the reason to go up the
· mountain to pray. That's what they're
· going to do.
· And Luke also adds that he, Jesus, was
· transfigured
· while he was praying. Fascinating.
· Also, what we learn
· is the disciples, as they often did,
· fell asleep.
· The disciples fell asleep, and before we
· judge them too harshly, we probably
· would, too, right? Jesus would pray for
· hours and hours. I don't know, maybe you
· do, but
· you probably fall asleep, too. So would
· I.
· And according to Luke, the disciples
· woke up to Jesus being transfigured. So,
· as Jesus' face shone like the sun, and
· his clothes became white as light,
· it's probably difficult to stay asleep.
· Getting bright around here.
· I couldn't even sleep under these
· lights, and that's like nothing, right,
· compared to the glory of Christ.
· And so, it wakes them up.
· And I like what Mark says, so I'm
· sprinkling in, just so we have the full
· picture, but in Mark 9, verse 3, his
· Mark's transfiguration account, he says
· this about the clothes of Jesus.
· He says, "And his clothes became
· dazzling,
· extremely white as no launderer on earth
· could whiten them.
· Meaning no amount of bleach in anyone's
· laundry could make clothes this white
· and bright.
· That's what Mark says.
· And so this is a glimpse into the
· majestic glory of Christ. And what we
· need to remember is that this Jesus
· is no less real
· than the Jesus they've been walking
· around with, but this is him revealing
· just a a glimpse of his glory.
· And suddenly, right? Or behold,
· Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus.
· Having a conversation with him.
· Now there are various interpretations as
· to why Moses and Elijah, right? Why
· Moses and Elijah of all the Old
· Testament folks that could have been
· so-and-so or so-and-so. Why Moses and
· Elijah? And we don't have uh time to
· cover every reason. I believe that there
· it's multifaceted. We could preach for
· like six, seven weeks on different
· aspects of the transfiguration, right?
· But I do want to go over a few. And for
· one, Moses represents the Old Testament
· law.
· In fact, the Old Testament law that God
· gave Moses was often called simply the
· law of Moses. Kind of summar-
· summarizing Genesis to Deuteronomy would
· be referred to mostly as simply the law
· of Moses, the Pentateuch, those first
· five books of the Bible.
· Elijah would represent the Old Testament
· prophetic ministry. Those who have gone
· before Christ came, ending with John the
· Baptist, but those like Isaiah,
· Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and of course
· Elijah, Elisha and others
· representing that prophetic ministry,
· those who prophesied the Messiah's
· coming.
· And now as we know in the New Testament,
· what we know about Christ is that Jesus
· fulfills the law and the prophets
· perfectly, right? He kept the law
· perfect.
· He never fell short of the standards
· that God set.
· He didn't break one of the 10
· Commandments
· like we do basically every day.
· But not one. Even if you and I could
· keep nine,
· what does the scripture say? If you've
· broken one, you might as well have
· broken them all. The the the
· expectation, the requirement is
· perfection and you and I don't have it.
· Jesus does.
· And he fulfills perfectly the law. He
· also fulfilled the prophecies concerning
· him perfectly. No prophecy goes
· unfulfilled in Christ. Now there are
· still things to come, yes,
· the new heavens and the new earth and
· future glory that we all look forward
· to, but no prophecy concerning Jesus
· Christ goes unfulfilled.
· We see him fulfilling law and the
· prophets. We also see Jesus as the
· greater than Moses and Elijah.
· If you remember when
· when Moses went up Mount Sinai to
· receive the law, he would come down, you
· remember this, with his face glowing.
· You remember that?
· With his face glowing and what was it?
· Moses was reflecting
· the glory of God having been in God's
· presence for a period of time.
· This, Matthew 17, is different. Jesus
· isn't reflecting
· any glory.
· He is This is his own intrinsic glory
· shining forth.
· He's not reflecting the
· whatever glory that Moses or Elijah
· might have. I don't know. This is Jesus
· revealing his own intrinsic glory.
· And then Peter opens his mouth, right?
· He says, "Lord, this is pretty awesome.
· It's pretty amazing.
· Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going
· to set up three shelters for you guys.
· One for you, Jesus, one for Moses, and
· one for Elijah."
· Now, Mark
· kind of gives us a little bit of insight
· into Peter, right? Mark says Peter spoke
· because he didn't know what to say.
· The guy is like, "I don't know what to
· say, but I got to say something. Oh,
· Lord, here's what I'm going to do. Build
· three houses."
· What's the implication?
· Oh, we'll get to that.
· But Peter is taken back by the whole
· thing, and he doesn't know what to say,
· and he just blurted something out.
· And he's immediately silenced
· by the Father from heaven.
· And that's our second point here.
· The glory of Christ we see the glory of
· Christ confirmed. Confirmed.
· Now, I love verse 5.
· While he was still speaking,
· God doesn't wait for Peter to finish
· what he has to say.
· Suddenly, a bright cloud covers them,
· and the voice says, "This is my beloved
· son, with whom I am well pleased." Sound
· familiar?
· The Father said that at Jesus' baptism
· when we have the Father speaking from
· heaven.
· We have the Spirit descending on him
· like on Jesus like a dove.
· And we have the Son being baptized by
· John the Baptist.
· And here we have the Father speaks from
· heaven again. The Son is being
· transfigured and the Holy Spirit there
· in the cloud, I believe, represents
· quite possibly the Spirit being there.
· But we know that the Spirit testifies
· the same.
· And they fall face down terrified.
· And this whole scene
· has many parallels to Exodus.
· Um and I just want to give us a few so
· that we can see the bigger picture.
· When Moses received the law from God at
· Mount Sinai, it says this. Exodus 24:16.
· The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount
· Sinai and the cloud covered it six days.
· And on the seventh day, he called to
· Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
· Verse one here it says after six days,
· what? Jesus took Peter, James, and John
· up the mountain.
· Mount Sinai was covered with a cloud
· here in verse five of our text. A bright
· cloud covers them.
· The Lord Yahweh called out to Moses.
· Here the Father speaks. This is my
· beloved son.
· The disciples are terrified of the glory
· and majesty of Christ and the
· declaration of the Father. In Exodus
· 34:30, we read what? Aaron and all the
· people of Israel saw Moses and behold,
· the skin of his face shone and they were
· what? Afraid to come near him.
· The Israelites were afraid of the
· reflected glory of Moses, just like the
· disciples are terrified, probably even
· more so, by the intrinsic glory of
· Christ.
· There are other parallels we could make
· to Moses and Elijah, both of their
· ministries, both of their God-given
· ministries experienced rejection and
· suffering.
· Elijah, as you know, raised a widow's
· son from the dead, Jesus raised the
· dead, too. There's There's all kinds of
· parallels.
· But here's what I want you to see.
· The Father then says something
· specifically about Jesus, "Listen to
· him."
· This is a direct fulfillment of
· Deuteronomy 18:15.
· When Moses himself says this, "The Lord
· your God
· will raise up for you a prophet like me
· from among you, from your brothers." And
· then what does Moses say? "It is to him
· you shall what? Listen."
· The Father's specifically saying that, I
· believe, I am convinced of, to show and
· to bring that out. He is the greater
· than Moses prophet that we need to
· listen to.
· Muhammad was about 600 years too late.
· Islam, right, Muhammad claims to be
· what? The great the prophet spoken of
· here in Deuteronomy 18:15. That's what
· Muhammad claims to be and what Islam
· claims him to to be.
· Problem is, the Father already declared
· that's Christ, and so did Peter, um in
· the book of Acts confirms that as well.
· It's the prophet
· who is spoken of.
· Unfortunately, Muhammad was about 600
· years too late to the party.
· This was already fulfilled 600 years
· before Muhammad was even a thought in
· anyone's mind.
· Christ [snorts] is the greater than
· Moses, greater than Elijah prophet. It's
· so it's all coming together here. Christ
· is the greater than Moses, greater than
· Elijah prophet, priest, and king. And we
· must listen to him. This is not a
· suggestion.
· This is actually a command.
· This is an imperative when God when the
· Father says, "Listen to him." That is an
· imperative command. Listen to Jesus
· Christ.
· And did you know
· that the gospel itself, the good news of
· Jesus Christ is actually a command to be
· obeyed? Did you know the gospel is
· actually a command?
· The gospel is not a suggestion.
· It is a command. It's a It's not a
· suggestion to consider, it's a command
· to believe. Did you know that?
· Paul teaches this in 2 Corinthians 1:8.
· And in 2 Corinthians 1, basically Paul
· is describing the future return of Jesus
· Christ. And he says he's going to come
· and he's going to righteously judge.
· Let me describe it for you in his terms.
· 2 Thessalonians 1:8. He's going to come
· in what? Flaming fire.
· In flaming fire inflicting vengeance on
· those who do not know God and on those
· who do not obey the gospel of our Lord
· Jesus.
· Rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ
· is not like rejecting vanilla ice cream
· in favor of chocolate ice cream. Like
· it's some neutral choice. Like this is
· an even playing field. Like it has no
· other ramifications. Okay, you prefer
· this over this. No, no, no, no.
· Rejecting the gospel is an overt act of
· disobedience to God, to the command to
· believe the gospel.
· And here in our text, the Father is
· commanding
· listening to Jesus.
· And at the Father's voice, they are
· completely terrified. Rightfully so.
· And God in his grace relieves them of
· his of their terror when Jesus come
· and as he does with many who have fallen
· down terrified,
· he does this with John in Revelation 2,
· just comes, touches them, says, "Get up.
· Don't be afraid."
· They look up and everyone's gone
· except Jesus.
· Why? Because it's all about him.
· This is not about being infatuated with
· Moses or Elijah. It's about centering
· all of the attention on Jesus Christ.
· And now it's time to come down the
· mountain, right?
· Let's go down the mountain. Verses 9
· through 13, our final point, the glory
· of Christ's cross.
· >> [clears throat]
· >> The glory of Christ's cross.
· I don't want you and I to miss this.
· Please don't miss this.
· You realize
· our lives depend on verse 9, Jesus
· coming down that mountain.
· Though Jesus revealed his great glory,
· his purity, his majesty, He will come
· down that mountain to go to the cross.
· Because remember back in chapter 16
· verse 21, when Jesus was pointing this
· out to the disciples, he said, "It is
· necessary."
· Not optional. The cross is not seen as
· optional in the Trinity. The Father,
· Son, and Holy Spirit all agree the cross
· is necessary.
· It is necessary
· for him
· to go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed,
· and be raised.
· And so when Peter pulls the Messiah
· aside and says, "Oh, no, no, no, no,
· Lord, this will never happen to you."
· What is Peter saying?
· He's saying, "You're the Messiah. You're
· the Christ. You're the son of the living
· God. You don't need to die on a cross.
· You don't need to do that. It's
· completely unnecessary.
· You can have the crown without the
· cross."
· And while that's true that Jesus is too
· good, too pure, too holy for a cross,
· too perfect to die such a horrible
· death, the scriptures declare it's
· necessary because it is his mission. His
· mission from the get-go, from eternity
· past, read Ephesians,
· is to go to the cross
· for you and for me.
· And so Jesus tells Peter those strong
· words, right? "Get behind me, Satan."
· Right? You're like, "Man, those are
· strong words, Jesus." Right? Like, "Get
· behind me, Satan. Man, you just called
· Peter Satan. Geez." No, no.
· He says, "You Get behind me, Satan. Why,
· Peter? Why? Because you're not thinking
· about God's concerns, but human
· concerns." In other words, back in
· chapter 16, Peter is focused on merely
· human concerns, which would be what?
· Anything you and I would be concerned
· about, um avoiding a painful and
· excruciating death if we don't have to,
· right? Or if we think we don't have to.
· But God that's Peter's concern, right?
· Avoid Lord like you don't need to go
· through that. God's concern was what?
· The salvation of his people which
· requires
· Christ death on the cross.
· The reason Jesus rebukes Peter so
· strongly is because of the the necessity
· of the cross is that important to God's
· agenda. And so when we come here, Peter
· speaks up again right at the
· transfiguration. Here he is talking
· again.
· And he says, "Let me build you Moses and
· Elijah three shelters or three
· tabernacles." God interrupts Peter
· again. Stop Peter. Stop.
· Listen to him.
· Listen to him.
· And he's about to tell him going down
· the mountain, "I got to suffer and die
· again."
· Listen to Jesus. Why? Because Jesus
· ultimate mission wasn't to come show off
· his glory on a mountain and go back to
· heaven without going to the cross.
· Peter's like, "Man, it's good to be
· here. Let's build uh little houses and
· what?"
· What would be the implication?
· What point is Peter missing?
· Let's build houses and what? Stay up
· here.
· That's what you do if you built a little
· tabernacle up there. The implication is
· that you'd stay up there for a little
· while.
· And that wasn't the point. The point was
· never to stay on the mountain in glory.
· It was to come down to the cross.
· When you read the other gospel accounts,
· Luke especially,
· please don't miss this.
· Turn over to Luke 9. Um so we'll be out
· of Matthew 17. I need you to see
· something yourself in Luke 9.
· So, Matthew, Mark, Luke, you'll go
· through Mark.
· And
· Luke 9, beginning at verse 28.
· >> [snorts]
· >> Here's what I want you to see. I'll give
· you a second.
· >> [clears throat]
· >> The cross
· has been center stage in the
· transfiguration
· all along.
· Luke 9, beginning at verse 28. About 8
· days after this is Luke's way of saying
· about a week later. It's not a
· contradiction. Well, they said 6 days
· after they said No, this happened on the
· 7th day, but he's saying about 8 days
· after this conversation. Luke is saying
· about a week later. He took along Peter,
· James, and John and went up on the
· mountain to pray. And he was I'm sorry,
· as he was praying,
· the appearance of his face changed and
· his clothes became dazzling white.
· Suddenly, two men were talking with him,
· Moses and Elijah. Don't miss verse 31.
· They appeared in glory
· and were what? Speaking of his
· departure, which he was about to
· accomplish in Jerusalem.
· When Moses and Elijah
· appear talking with Jesus, what's the
· topic of conversation?
· The cross is.
· The cross is the conversation. They're
· talking about his departure, which he
· was about to accomplish in Jerusalem,
· which would be his death on the cross in
· Jerusalem and his resurrection.
· The Greek word for uh departure
· there is the Greek word exodus.
· Exodus, what does it sound like? Exodus.
· Right?
· They're talking about the exodus Jesus
· is about to accomplish at Jerusalem,
· which refers to his death. One of the
· major themes in the Gospels, especially
· in Matthew,
· especially in Matthew, who gives some of
· the most obscure Old Testament
· references to explain himself, and it
· does kind of puzzle people, but you have
· to understand this major motif or theme,
· that Jesus Christ is king and leading a
· second exodus from this world into glory
· for those who are in Christ.
· Moses led the first exodus out of Egypt
· into uh the promised land, and he gets
· them close, and Joshua takes over, and
· all that. Yes. But Moses leads that
· first exodus from
· Egypt to to Canaan literally,
· physically. Jesus is leading the second
· spiritual exodus from this world to
· glory.
· That is a major motif that you have to
· understand, and so he's speaking They're
· speaking about his exodus.
· And And Peter uses this exact same word
· in 2 Peter 1:15 when he's writing. He's
· saying, "You know, I want to remind you
· of the truth, so you'll be established
· in the truth, because I'm about to die."
· And what does Peter say about his own
· death? 2 Peter 1:15, he says, "And I
· will make every effort
· so that after my departure, or after my
· exodus, when he dies to go and goes to
· be with the Lord, after my exodus, you
· will be You may be able at any time to
· recall these things." He cares about the
· people knowing the word, loving the
· Lord, and growing in their maturity when
· he's gone. So, he's writing to them
· saying, "After my exodus, I want you
· guys to know all this stuff."
· Of all the things Jesus, Moses, and
· Elijah could have talked about, it was
· the cross.
· Moses could have been like, "Hey Jesus,
· remember when you parted the Red Sea?
· That was awesome. Or Elijah, remember
· when you allowed me to raise that
· widow's son? Or or called down fire from
· heaven on Mount Carmel?
· That was cool, huh? Yes, it was."
· But none of those compare to the cross.
· And here, Moses and Elijah are not
· talking about the past. They are talking
· about the future, the departure Jesus is
· about to accomplish. This is about to
· happen. It's coming, and it's all Moses
· and Elijah could talk about, and it's
· all we ought to be able to talk about.
· We,
· Cross Church Phoenix, may we be about
· preaching Christ and him crucified.
· It's about knowing Christ.
· And Christ reiterates the centrality of
· the cross as they come down the
· mountain, right? The disciples ask about
· Elijah, right? Why do they say Elijah's
· supposed to come? Yes, it's a great
· question because that is on the
· prophetic calendar. It's legit prophecy.
· And Jesus says, "Yeah, that's absolutely
· true. And you know what? Elijah has
· come. It was John the Baptist in the
· spirit and power of Elijah.
· And look what they did to him."
· Jesus immediately takes it back to, "And
· look what they did. You remember what
· they did?"
· They beheaded John the Baptist. That's
· what just happened a little while ago, a
· few chapters back.
· John the Baptist lost his life because
· some king was having a party, liked how
· this woman danced, and said, "What do
· you want? I'll give you anything she you
· want." And she says, "John the Baptist's
· head on a platter." And he's got to do
· it because he's a man of his word,
· right?
· And so John gives up his life for
· seemingly the most ridiculous thing
· ever.
· And Jesus says,
· "You know how they treated him?
· They imprisoned him, chopped off his
· head.
· Suffered many things from the other
· people. Guess what's going to happen to
· me?
· I'm going to suffer the same and die.
· Right?
· They killed John the Baptist. Guess
· what's going to happen to me? I'm going
· to suffer and be killed at their hands
· just like John."
· The glory the the glory of Christ cross
· is center stage from beginning to end in
· the transfiguration. The cross is the
· greatest act of humility in the history
· of the universe because it's Christ in
· all his glory steps down to suffer and
· die on a cross made for sinners like you
· and I. We should be there.
· The step Christ took down from the glory
· to becoming a man of flesh, Emmanuel,
· God with us. The step down is eternally
· greater than if you became a slug to
· save slugs.
· It would be we can't even comprehend the
· step down.
· And Paul says, right, that this is
· an act of humility. Have this mind in
· you which was in Christ Jesus cuz he was
· humble.
· And he took on the form of a servant.
· Became man, fully God, fully man. He was
· obedient to death, even death on a
· cross.
· The cross is the focus of Moses, the
· focus of Elijah, Peter, James, John, all
· the rest, all the disciples, Matthew,
· Mark.
· Name the rest of them.
· It's the focus of all of them.
· Jesus fulfills the law and the prophets
· and he accomplishes what? Their
· salvation, too.
· Christ had to die for Moses and Elijah's
· sins, too.
· The cross is the focus of the Trinity,
· the Father and Holy Spirit confirming
· Christ the Son. The cross is the central
· focus of Moses and Elijah. Is it yours?
· Is the cross your focus?
· Or are you distracted by eternally
· lesser things like lunch?
· Something. Just
· Nothing wrong with going I know we're
· all hungry, right?
· But I'm trying to say what I'm trying to
· say is is anything
· Does anything anything take away
· from the cross in your life? Anything?
· Because if Christ's
· and him crucified is not central in your
· life, whatever else is is an unworthy
· idol.
· Can I just put it to you that way? It's
· an unworthy idol. You get rid of it. The
· old King James, right? It says, "Mortify
· it." Right? Kill it. Mortify it. Take
· care of it.
· I don't care what's in the way.
· If sports is in the way of the cross in
· your life, get rid of it.
· Get rid of it.
· You think it's worth it? No, it's not.
· There is no no sports or game more
· important.
· Right? Come February,
· churches I don't know. We'll see what
· happens, right? The Super Bowl becomes
· more important than God.
· There's no sports game more important.
· There's no accomplishment more vital.
· There's no life goal more worthy than
· knowing Jesus Christ. Can I just put it
· that way?
· Yes, we have hobbies and we go to work
· and we have to do things. I'm not I I
· what I'm saying is is the cross of
· Christ central in your life, in your
· daily walk with Jesus?
· Or does it take a backseat Monday
· through Saturday and oh yeah, Jesus on
· Sunday?
· My challenge for our church is that the
· It's in our name, Cross Church, right?
· It's in the name.
· Are we Are all of us about the cross?
· We're about to have like 65 kids in VBS,
· if they all come.
· And it's going to be fun.
· We'll do cool things.
· But we must give them Christ and we must
· show him the cross, show them the cross
· and what he did for them on the cross,
· because if we don't, it's all for
· nothing. It's a complete Our VBS will be
· a complete waste of time if we don't
· show them Christ and him crucified. You
· say, "Even at a young age, my
· five-year-olds coming to They don't need
· to know about Jesus' excruciating death
· on the cross?" Yes.
· Yes.
· As I was working on this this week, I
· confess that I really struggle with
· application of it. I was like, "How do
· we apply this text?" Like really,
· the whole point is just the majesty and
· glory of Christ. I was like, "Well, then
· that's going to be the application."
· Will you, not just on Sunday, but every
· day behold the glory of Christ in your
· own life? When you wake up in the
· morning, Christ and him crucified,
· that's what I want to know more about.
· When you go to work,
· how can I learn How can I just be more
· like Christ today?
· When you go, play, do stuff, whatever,
· hang out with friends and fam,
· how can I be like Christ or how can I
· just I don't know, consume more of God,
· learn more and grow closer to him. Don't
· let anything get in the way.
· May the cross
· of Christ be central in our lives this
· morning.
· And we have um
· another celebration this morning of
· baptism. So, I want to invite Mona to
· come on down and we're going to
· uh baptize her. And I also want to
· invite the worship team to come on up so
· we're ready for the last song. Um
· but uh here, let me meet you down here.
· All right.
· Oops. Don't get close to there.
· All right, come here, Mona.
· All right, everyone, this is Mona.
· Everyone say hi, Mona. Hi, Mona. What's
· up? Yeah, so she came up to me um
· actually we talked last week and you
· basically you're like, "We need to talk
· about baptism, too."
· And I said, "All right, let's meet and
· talk about it." And you had um you've
· come to Christ as well, but have never
· been baptized as a disciple of Jesus
· Christ. And so we met, we talked through
· the gospel. She's like, "That's me. I
· love the Lord. I've come to him, but I
· want to obey him
· in uh baptism." So, we're here to do
· that, right? We're here to obey God and
· do what he says.
· All right, publicly proclaim you love
· Jesus.
· All right. Well, if you want to step in,
· it's freezing cold. I forgot I'm just
· kidding, it's not. I do that every time
· to see No, I'm just kidding. No, you're
· good. You can step on it.
· >> Facing this
· >> Yeah, facing this way.
· And then if you'll come down here.
· All right.
· All right, Mona, is Jesus Christ your
· personal Lord and Savior?
· >> Yes.
· >> Do you believe that he died on the cross
· for your sins personally and that he
· rose again on the third day to show his
· power and authority over sin and death
· and that he has authority over your
· life?
· >> Yes.
· >> Well, upon your profession of faith, it
· is my privilege to baptize you. You can
· cross your arms if you like. Baptize
· you, my sister, in the name of the
· Father and of the Son and of the Holy
· Spirit. For we are buried with him by
· baptism unto death
· and raised to walk in newness of life.
· >> [applause]
· [applause]
· >> All right, here's a towel for you.
· All right, let's stand and sing our last
· song.
· >> [snorts]
Miracles of Jesus