Authority Revealed

0:00 · But I think in the church today,

0:01 · we can make the same mistakes.

0:04 · We try to make tents alongside Jesus

0:06 · to add him to our lives instead of putting him above it.

0:11 · We make a tent for Jesus and my politics.

0:15 · We make a tent for Jesus and my sports teams.

0:18 · We make a tent for Jesus and my kids' activities.

0:21 · Jesus and my career.

0:23 · Jesus and my sin.

0:25 · Jesus and, and we add these things next to him

0:28 · when he is the one and only

0:30 · and he cannot even be contained by a tent

0:32 · because he is so much bigger and glorious than it all.

0:40 · And for the last seven weeks,

0:42 · we've been working through this series

0:43 · that we've called Miracles.

0:45 · And we said from the very beginning

0:47 · that the whole point of this,

0:49 · that the whole point of the miracles of the gospels

0:51 · is to answer the question of who is Jesus.

0:57 · And as we've gone miracle by miracle,

0:59 · week by week, we've seen different glimpses

1:02 · of the authority of Christ.

1:04 · We've seen his authority over nature,

1:06 · where a hurricane sat down at his command.

1:09 · We've seen his authority over demons

1:11 · as he cast out a legion into pigs and off a cliff.

1:14 · What a sight to be seen.

1:16 · We've seen his authority over sin,

1:19 · that a paralyzed man was forgiven

1:21 · before he was ever healed.

1:23 · We've seen Christ's authority over disease

1:26 · as an unclean woman in a crowd who was cast out,

1:30 · just touched the robe of Christ

1:32 · and who was called daughter and welcomed into a community.

1:35 · We've seen Christ's authority over religion,

1:38 · that the Pharisees' man-made checklist was torn down

1:42 · as Jesus had compassion over people

1:45 · over their processes.

1:47 · And then we've also seen his authority over scarcity,

1:49 · where 15,000 plus people were fed

1:53 · with a little boy's lunch.

1:55 · Seven miracles, seven categories of Jesus' authority,

2:00 · seven answers to that same question over and over again

2:03 · is who is Jesus.

2:07 · In church today, as we wrap up this series,

2:11 · we get the final answer.

2:13 · And today is not one of these miracles

2:15 · where Jesus is doing something for someone.

2:18 · Today is not a healing or a casting out or a feeding.

2:22 · Today is a curtain getting pulled back

2:26 · for three disciples and for you and me 2,000 years

2:30 · where we pull back the curtains

2:32 · and we get to see the full picture of who Jesus is.

2:38 · Recently, I took my oldest son Archie,

2:41 · who is eight years old, to the movie theater

2:44 · and we went and saw his first Star Wars movie

2:46 · in theaters, The Mandalorian and Grogu.

2:50 · And yeah, that's the most excited you've been yet

2:53 · is clapping for a Star Wars movie.

2:55 · You better say amen later, all right?

2:56 · You are on it now, okay?

2:59 · But here is the crazy thing about that.

3:00 · As I was doing the math is he's eight years old

3:03 · and I saw my first Star Wars movie at eight years old

3:07 · as episode one, The Phantom Menace in theaters, all right?

3:11 · And some of you thought I was gonna say

3:13 · a Star Wars movie that happened before

3:14 · because some of you were there for the original ones,

3:16 · some of you were there for the opening night

3:18 · of It's a Wonderful Life.

3:22 · Okay, we won't get into math there too much.

3:25 · But as we got to see this movie,

3:26 · it was just awesome watching my sharing with my son

3:29 · just as he got to see this whole world being built.

3:33 · And Star Wars is just a great franchise.

3:36 · I mean, The Empire Strikes Back,

3:38 · one of the greatest cinematic movies of all time,

3:41 · but arguably the greatest sequel we have ever seen.

3:43 · And in that, there's this one moment

3:45 · that if you haven't seen it, shame on you.

3:48 · That's your homework after go watch Star Wars.

3:50 · But in that movie, I'm gonna spoil it for you,

3:53 · Darth Vader is he's talking to Luke

3:54 · right after he's cut off his hand,

3:56 · which is just a messed up move, right?

3:59 · But he says, Luke, I am your father.

4:03 · And the curtain pulled back

4:04 · and everything in that story changes.

4:06 · As the curtain comes, all of a sudden,

4:08 · everything we thought we knew, our minds are blown.

4:11 · There's another mini curtain

4:13 · in Return of the Jedi,

4:15 · is that after they take off Darth Vader's mask,

4:17 · we've been hearing James Earl Jones' voice

4:19 · for three movies.

4:20 · It's a shriveled up white guy

4:21 · who looks like Humpty Dumpty,

4:23 · which kinda just burst a different bubble.

4:26 · But here's the deal.

4:28 · Just as Star Wars pulled back to the curtains

4:30 · and showed us something

4:31 · and opened our minds to something else,

4:33 · today, we get to see the disciples'

4:36 · curtain pulling back moment.

4:38 · And it's ours too.

4:40 · As we get to see in Matthew 17

4:43 · how Jesus, his authority is revealed

4:46 · in a way that is not seen anywhere else in scripture.

4:51 · So let me ask you the question

4:52 · this whole series has been building towards.

4:55 · The question that this text is going to answer today

4:57 · in six different ways is, who is Jesus?

5:02 · And the first response we get

5:05 · that we see in Matthew 17, verse one,

5:07 · is Jesus is the one who calls.

5:11 · Matthew, chapter 17, starting in verse one,

5:13 · as they jump into this story,

5:15 · it says this, after six days,

5:17 · Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John

5:20 · and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.

5:26 · As we jump into this story,

5:27 · we kinda have to pick up some context

5:29 · because it starts here and it says after six days.

5:32 · And we gotta ask, what happened during that time?

5:36 · Well, if you go back to chapter six,

5:38 · six days earlier in Matthew 16,

5:41 · Peter has this brilliant moment

5:43 · where Jesus asks, who am I?

5:45 · And he says, you are the Messiah,

5:46 · the son of the living God.

5:48 · He gives the right answer.

5:49 · He doesn't fully know what he's saying though

5:51 · in that moment.

5:52 · And then right after that,

5:53 · Jesus predicts his own death for the very first time.

5:57 · And as he's predicting his own death,

5:58 · he then tells the disciples,

6:00 · not only will I die,

6:03 · but he's like, one day,

6:04 · you will have to pick up your cross and follow me.

6:07 · And their minds are just racing.

6:08 · They have no idea what he's saying.

6:09 · They don't understand the full picture yet.

6:12 · And then following these huge conversations,

6:15 · all of a sudden there is six days of silence.

6:19 · Six days of letting that land,

6:22 · letting that marinate.

6:24 · If your spouse tells you something

6:26 · that blows your whole worldview

6:27 · and doesn't talk to you for six days,

6:29 · you probably think you're in trouble at that point.

6:31 · But six days of silence

6:34 · and notice the first thing Jesus does.

6:37 · He doesn't pull the disciples.

6:38 · He doesn't put it up for a vote.

6:40 · He doesn't take volunteers instead.

6:42 · He calls.

6:43 · And he calls three names,

6:45 · handpicked, his inner circle.

6:47 · These three men were with him

6:49 · when he raised Jarius' daughter from the dead.

6:51 · They were with him in Gethsemane

6:53 · the night before the cross.

6:54 · And they are the ones he chooses now

6:57 · for the most glorious moment of his earthly ministry.

7:01 · Now a side note is important here.

7:03 · As he calls these men,

7:04 · he says you're gonna go up on this mountain with me.

7:07 · If he didn't pick the most qualified men,

7:10 · he picked the most flawed.

7:12 · You see a guy like Peter.

7:14 · Peter would later deny him.

7:15 · Peter throughout the gospels

7:17 · is who I identify with most

7:18 · because Peter speaks before he thinks.

7:22 · And he usually says really stupid things.

7:23 · He wished he could take back and he cannot.

7:26 · Maybe some of you are like me

7:27 · where your mind is racing the whole time

7:29 · and instead of you actually thinking

7:31 · about what you're gonna say, you say it

7:32 · and then you're like I should not have said that.

7:34 · And then you say more words

7:35 · to make up for what you shouldn't say

7:36 · and the hole gets deeper and deeper and deeper.

7:40 · And Peter was this guy who would just say things

7:42 · and constantly get himself in trouble.

7:45 · James was not any better.

7:47 · James would ask for the best seat in the kingdom.

7:50 · He's like, Jesus, when you're sitting on the throne,

7:51 · can I be right next to you?

7:54 · He didn't understand what he was asking.

7:56 · John would want to call down fire on a Samaritan village.

8:01 · Sons of thunder indeed, this guy was a baller.

8:04 · Like let's just call down fire.

8:06 · The point is these were not Polish disciples.

8:09 · These were the ones that Jesus was still working on.

8:12 · Maybe the most.

8:14 · And here's the beautiful thing.

8:15 · This has happened throughout history.

8:17 · I think of Augustine of Hippo.

8:19 · 1600 years ago, the last guy

8:22 · and the last person you'd expect to call,

8:25 · God to call was this man, Augustine.

8:27 · He was a brilliant young philosopher

8:29 · who was a staunch atheist

8:31 · and into the big things of the day.

8:33 · He was in his early 30s.

8:35 · He was sleeping and living with a girlfriend

8:36 · that he would never marry.

8:38 · He was chasing every new trend and philosophy

8:40 · he could find.

8:41 · He was running from God over a decade

8:44 · while his mother prayed for him day by day with tears.

8:48 · But then one day,

8:49 · as he was sitting in a garden in Milan,

8:51 · he heard a child's voice in the distance

8:54 · singing, tolle legge, tolle legge,

8:58 · take up and read, take up and read.

9:02 · Augustine would then go and pick up a Bible.

9:05 · He opened it to Romans 13

9:07 · and in that garden that he came back to,

9:09 · God called him.

9:11 · Augustine went on to become one of the most

9:12 · important theologians in the church

9:15 · that has ever produced in history.

9:18 · And here's the deal.

9:18 · If God can call Augustine in a garden,

9:21 · he can call you in a chair in cross church.

9:23 · Surprise.

9:25 · And here's the first truth

9:27 · that the text wants us to see

9:30 · is that Jesus calls who Jesus calls.

9:34 · He doesn't call the most talented.

9:36 · He doesn't call the most worthy.

9:38 · He doesn't call the people who have the rest

9:40 · of their life look like it is polished

9:42 · and right on the inside.

9:44 · He calls the people that are willing to surrender to him

9:48 · that might have baggage and hurt in their life,

9:50 · but he will use it in an amazing way.

9:54 · And maybe you walked in today

9:55 · and maybe you feel like you have a weight on you

9:58 · when you come into church.

9:59 · Maybe you feel like, man, I'm at the center.

10:01 · Like this place is gonna like cave in on me.

10:04 · Guess what?

10:04 · If it would have caved in,

10:05 · it would have done it on some of the rest of us

10:07 · who have been here a lot longer than you.

10:10 · And maybe you come in and you feel unworthy

10:12 · to be in the presence of Christ we all are.

10:15 · Yet Jesus graciously calls us.

10:19 · But we see he is the one who calls,

10:20 · but he is also the one who reveals.

10:22 · Verse two of this story,

10:24 · it takes an awesome turn in here

10:26 · as he calls them up to the mountain.

10:28 · They thought they were going for a hike, a nice stroll.

10:31 · And then it says this,

10:32 · that he was transfigured in front of them.

10:35 · That is a loaded sentence.

10:37 · He was transfigured in front of them

10:39 · and his face shone like the sun.

10:43 · His clothes became as white as the lights.

10:49 · Verse two is an important verse.

10:50 · It is the pivot of the passage,

10:53 · the pivot of the entire series up to this point.

10:56 · The Greek word here for transfigured is metamorpho.

11:00 · It's where we get our word metamorphous.

11:03 · But here's something that we need to understand

11:05 · is Jesus is not becoming something that he was not before.

11:09 · Instead, he's revealing something that he always was.

11:14 · For 30 plus years,

11:16 · the divine glory of Jesus had been wrapped

11:18 · in the flesh of mankind.

11:21 · For 30 years, at Jesus, he walked the earth.

11:23 · He had been kind of muting his power,

11:26 · and muting who he was.

11:27 · That it says that in Philippians,

11:29 · it tells us that he came down to know our likeness,

11:32 · to know our weakness.

11:34 · That Jesus knows what it's like to be tempted,

11:37 · to be weak, and to be a broken human.

11:41 · Yesterday, I worked out with my brother-in-law

11:44 · who was like six, four, and really jacked.

11:47 · He's like, let's lift weights together.

11:49 · I'm like, this sounds like a bad idea.

11:51 · We used muscles that I didn't know existed on my body,

11:54 · and I haven't used in 15 plus years.

11:58 · I'm sore here, all right?

12:00 · And he's like, what weights do you wanna start with?

12:01 · I was like, where are the women's weights?

12:03 · I'm gonna start there.

12:05 · And here's the deal.

12:07 · And that was funny, right?

12:09 · Okay, all right.

12:10 · You laughed a little bit too hard at that.

12:11 · Now you're judging me.

12:12 · You wanna fight after?

12:13 · Let's go.

12:14 · Okay, what were we talking about?

12:15 · But here's the deal.

12:17 · Jesus knows what it's like to be broken,

12:21 · to be weak, to get hurt,

12:23 · to be in this flesh that is here today,

12:26 · but is breaking down day by day and is passing away.

12:30 · And he wrapped himself in this flesh.

12:32 · He was hiding the glory of who he was,

12:35 · but then on this mountain, he starts to show it.

12:39 · We actually see a precedent for this

12:40 · in the Old Testament that as they're hiking up,

12:44 · all of a sudden, this brightness shows.

12:47 · And we see this in Exodus chapter 34.

12:50 · Moses also came down with his face shining,

12:53 · but it was a reflection of what was being shown

12:57 · where Jesus is the glory.

12:59 · You think about this for a second.

13:01 · They are just hiking up a mountain with Christ,

13:04 · and out of nowhere, he begins to shine.

13:07 · I was trying to think about this last week

13:09 · because I like to hike more than I like to lift weights.

13:13 · Okay, I'll be honest about that.

13:14 · But as I hike, I'm also not a Boy Scout.

13:17 · I can get lost very easy.

13:18 · Asked my wife, I use Google Maps for everything

13:21 · because especially in the suburbs,

13:22 · I get lost in communities

13:23 · because it's street ends and it shouldn't end,

13:25 · and then you have no idea where you are,

13:27 · and I'm like, and then I have no cell service

13:29 · and no surprise, so it's bad.

13:31 · But when I'm hiking, here's what I do,

13:33 · is I watch the feet of the person I'm with

13:35 · that knows where we're going because I do not.

13:38 · And here, you look at this passage,

13:41 · all of a sudden, Peter's just watching the feet of Christ.

13:44 · They're just going up this mountain,

13:45 · and he turns around, and Jesus' face is shining like the sun.

13:52 · Think about that for a second.

13:53 · Just seeing that picture is his face is radiating glory.

13:58 · It is the radiance of God's glory

14:00 · in the exact expression of his nature

14:02 · as Hebrews 1-3 tells us.

14:06 · Churches is important because this is the question

14:08 · every human being eventually has to answer

14:11 · that they experienced on this day

14:14 · is have you seen the real Jesus?

14:17 · Have you seen this Jesus?

14:19 · Not the Jesus that's on a t-shirt

14:22 · that has kind of come down to our level,

14:25 · not the Jesus that's on a bumper sticker,

14:27 · not the Jesus that's a cuddly Jesus

14:29 · that's on a little coloring sheet

14:31 · that we give away at VBS.

14:33 · Have you seen the real, radiant, glorious Jesus

14:37 · that was up on that mountain?

14:40 · And you see, he was revealed here,

14:43 · but he hasn't been stopped being revealed

14:45 · throughout history.

14:47 · Through scripture, we see how Christ

14:50 · continually reveals himself,

14:52 · and we see he is the one who calls,

14:54 · he is the one who reveals, but it keeps going on.

14:57 · He is also the one who fulfills.

14:59 · Check out verse three.

15:00 · It says suddenly, Moses and Elijah

15:02 · appear to them, talking with them.

15:05 · I love this whole situation's already crazy.

15:08 · They go up on a mountain,

15:09 · and Jesus is just radiating like the sun,

15:11 · and then Matthew's like, and then suddenly,

15:13 · all of a sudden, there's Elijah and Moses.

15:15 · The story just keeps getting crazier.

15:17 · In verse four, then Peter said to Jesus,

15:21 · Lord, it's good for us to be here.

15:24 · He is my man, Captain Obvious.

15:26 · You are seeing Jesus shine like the sun,

15:30 · and you're like, dude, it is good I'm here.

15:32 · Like, nope, duh, Peter, stop talking.

15:35 · And then he goes on.

15:37 · If you want, I will set up three shelters here,

15:41 · one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

15:46 · Let's break down this passage a little bit

15:48 · as we see the one who fulfills in Christ

15:51 · is out of nowhere, Moses and Elijah appear.

15:53 · Now, this is important because in the Old Testament,

15:56 · Moses represented the law,

15:59 · and Elijah represents the prophets.

16:02 · So together, these two men

16:04 · represent the whole Old Testament,

16:07 · the entire Bible that the early followers of Christ

16:10 · and the Jews of that day that they knew their Bible,

16:13 · it's represented physically in Elijah and Moses

16:17 · on that mountain.

16:18 · In every law Moses delivered was a shadow

16:21 · of a lawgiver who was coming.

16:23 · Every prophecy that Elijah ever spoke

16:25 · was a sign pointing to a Messiah who would arrive.

16:29 · And now here they are standing next to Christ,

16:32 · pointing to him.

16:34 · And Luke actually fills in the detail

16:36 · that Matthew leaves out here in Luke 9.31.

16:39 · He says Moses and Elijah were speaking to Jesus

16:43 · of his departure,

16:45 · which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

16:47 · You see, the Greek word for departure here was Exodus.

16:51 · As Moses in the Old Testament

16:53 · led God's people out of slavery from Egypt,

16:57 · but what's about to happen here

16:59 · is they're talking about to Jesus

17:01 · how he's about to lead people out of slavery

17:03 · and sin into a new life in him.

17:08 · And the prophet of the first Exodus

17:09 · is standing on the mountain

17:10 · talking to the prophet of the new one,

17:12 · getting him ready for the cross.

17:14 · But Peter, you've got to love Peter.

17:19 · He just can't handle it.

17:21 · He just can't keep his mouth shut.

17:24 · You all have someone like that in your life.

17:26 · Maybe you are married to them like my wife.

17:30 · But he's just so overwhelmed

17:33 · that he just starts talking.

17:35 · And as he starts talking,

17:36 · he doesn't even know where his words are going.

17:38 · He's just saying them.

17:39 · He's like, man, it's good for us to be here.

17:41 · This is so great.

17:41 · I'm so excited.

17:42 · Whatever.

17:42 · And he's like, you know what?

17:43 · Jesus, it's great for us to be here.

17:44 · I'm gonna build you three shelters, three tents.

17:47 · I'll give you a tent for Jesus,

17:49 · a tent for Elijah, and a tent for Moses.

17:52 · And it's gonna be great.

17:53 · But here is the problem.

17:54 · What is happening is he's speaking this

17:57 · like he's gonna bring three tents

17:58 · of three equal billing

18:00 · that would be for the three people

18:01 · who are standing on that mountain.

18:04 · Recently, we heard about this conference

18:06 · that's happening in the fall in North Phoenix.

18:09 · And it's a next gen conference.

18:11 · So I sent it to all of our staff here at Crosshurch.

18:14 · It was like, hey, this would be a good thing

18:15 · for you to go to,

18:16 · for you to take some of your key team members.

18:18 · And I'm like, it's gonna be awesome.

18:20 · It's local.

18:21 · It's great.

18:21 · I don't really like conferences.

18:22 · But I'm like, this one's gonna be good.

18:25 · And about two weeks later,

18:26 · they emailed me and said,

18:27 · hey, we lost our keynote speaker.

18:30 · Will you be the keynote speaker?

18:33 · In this conference that I had such a great opinion of,

18:36 · I was like, it ain't gonna be that great anymore

18:38 · if they need me to be the keynote speaker.

18:41 · And then I said, yes.

18:42 · I was like, I got talked into it.

18:43 · And then it's funny

18:44 · because there's three keynote speakers,

18:46 · but they put me at the very top

18:47 · because I look 15 years old.

18:49 · They're like, we gotta put a young guy out there.

18:51 · So they put me on the top of it.

18:53 · And here's the deal.

18:54 · Is this Peter is almost doing the same thing.

18:56 · He's like, he's thinking these three speakers

18:58 · and he's putting them at equal capacity.

19:00 · Is there's Jesus, there's Moses, there's Elijah.

19:03 · They're all in this level playing field.

19:04 · I'll build you a tent for each one.

19:06 · But what Peter does not understand

19:09 · is that as he's putting them all in the level

19:11 · playing field is there's three buildings

19:14 · that he's trying to make three tents today

19:16 · when really only one belongs.

19:19 · Is they are not on the same plane.

19:22 · That Jesus over everything,

19:24 · as we sang here today,

19:25 · that Jesus rise above all the prophets and the law.

19:29 · He came to fulfill them to be what they're pointing to

19:32 · not to be equal with them.

19:35 · Now today we're not offering to build tents

19:37 · for Elijah and Moses and Jesus.

19:40 · But I think in the church today

19:42 · we can make the same mistakes

19:44 · of we try to make tents with alongside Jesus

19:48 · to add him to our lives instead of putting him above it.

19:52 · We make a tent for Jesus and my politics.

19:56 · We make a tent for Jesus and my sports teams.

20:00 · We make a tent for Jesus and my kids' activities.

20:03 · Jesus and my career.

20:05 · Jesus and my sin.

20:06 · Jesus and, and we add these things next to him

20:10 · when he is the one and only

20:11 · and he cannot even be contained by a tent

20:14 · because he is so much bigger and glorious than it all.

20:18 · And here we see the one that the other two

20:23 · were pointing to as the fulfillment of it all.

20:27 · And here's what you need to hear

20:28 · is Jesus did not come to compliment your life,

20:31 · to compliment your worldview,

20:33 · to compliment your religion.

20:34 · He came to fulfill it

20:36 · and be the savior of everything we know.

20:40 · We see the one who calls,

20:42 · the one who reveals,

20:43 · the one who fulfills,

20:44 · but it doesn't stop there.

20:45 · We also see the one who commands.

20:48 · Keep going in verse five.

20:50 · It says, while he was still speaking,

20:52 · this is while Peter is still

20:54 · in the middle of his sentence.

20:56 · It says, suddenly a bright cloud covered them

20:58 · and a voice from the cloud said,

21:00 · this is my beloved son

21:03 · with whom I am well pleased.

21:07 · Listen to him.

21:11 · What I love in this verse

21:12 · is Peter is literally still talking.

21:15 · He's in the middle of a sentence

21:17 · with his three tense idea

21:19 · and the father in heaven sitting on the throne

21:22 · literally interrupts him.

21:26 · Just imagine being in Peter's shoes for a second.

21:28 · He's probably messed himself after this happened, all right?

21:32 · He's talking and then God interrupts him.

21:35 · And he interrupts him within a bright cloud.

21:38 · The bright cloud is what the Old Testament

21:40 · calls the Shekinah glory.

21:42 · It is the visible manifestation of God's presence.

21:45 · It led Israel out of Egypt.

21:48 · It descended on Mount Sinai.

21:50 · It filled the temple at its dedication.

21:52 · It is the very presence of the Almighty God.

21:57 · And out of that cloud comes this voice,

22:01 · not an angel, not a prophet,

22:04 · the voice of God, the father himself.

22:08 · If we thought James Earl Jones

22:10 · sounded awesome as Darth Vader,

22:12 · can you imagine what the voice of God sounds like?

22:17 · And as it speaks, it says three things.

22:20 · First, he says, this is my beloved son.

22:23 · I love this because these same words

22:25 · that are speaking to start Jesus's ministry

22:27 · at his baptism.

22:29 · It is the same voice,

22:30 · the same phrase that comes down from heaven.

22:32 · It is literally giving God the father stamp of approval

22:36 · that he is God in human flesh.

22:40 · But then he goes on and he says,

22:41 · not only is this my beloved son,

22:42 · the second thing he says is,

22:44 · it's with whom I am well pleased.

22:46 · The father confirms the obedience of the son,

22:49 · the perfection of the son.

22:51 · Even though Jesus understands

22:53 · what it's like to be human,

22:55 · is Jesus does not sin and is not broken

22:57 · the same way me and you are.

23:00 · He deals with temporary struggles

23:02 · and he is still perfect,

23:03 · where we deal with what we have here on earth

23:05 · and we screw up time and time again,

23:08 · which is why we are not on equal footing

23:10 · as Jesus Christ.

23:13 · And then the last thing the voice from heaven says

23:15 · is listen to him.

23:20 · This is the hinge of the entire transfiguration

23:24 · that the father interrupts Peter

23:25 · and says, in effect, Peter stop,

23:28 · be quiet, stop building tents,

23:31 · stop trying to put my son in a box,

23:32 · stop talking, stop, stop, stop.

23:36 · And then he said, start listening.

23:39 · You've probably had those moments,

23:40 · especially if you're a parent

23:41 · where your kids will never stop talking

23:44 · and you're like just stop,

23:45 · stop talking, stop talking.

23:47 · I have four of them,

23:47 · so we have that a lot, right?

23:49 · Sometimes we try to play the quiet game

23:51 · after we filled them with handles,

23:52 · ice cream and we're on our way home

23:53 · and it's already two hours past bedtime,

23:55 · we're like stop, stop, stop,

23:56 · we're like quiet game

23:57 · and it works for 30 seconds

23:58 · and then it's loud again.

24:01 · But he interrupts Christ

24:02 · or he interrupts Peter here

24:04 · and he almost interrupts him

24:05 · not to chastise him

24:07 · but interrupts him

24:08 · because he has something greater for him.

24:10 · It's like when your child runs out

24:12 · and you almost need to grab them

24:13 · so they don't get hit by a car

24:14 · or grab them so they don't get hurt

24:15 · and he is interrupting Peter

24:18 · because he's saying, hey,

24:19 · listen to what is so much greater

24:22 · than what our world is saying.

24:24 · Listen to something that is so much more important

24:27 · and I think it begs a question for us today

24:29 · is cross church, how's your listening?

24:33 · If we're honest,

24:36 · I think this is a problem within the American church

24:38 · is we're often very near Jesus

24:41 · but we're often not listening

24:43 · while we are near to Jesus.

24:46 · We have podcasts and small groups

24:48 · and Bible apps and Sunday services

24:50 · and somehow Jesus is still the one voice

24:53 · we are most adept at annoying,

24:56 · ignoring.

24:57 · The father didn't say, be impressed by him.

24:59 · The father said, listen to him.

25:00 · We have more access to the Bible and scripture

25:03 · than any time in history

25:05 · but often we let it be white noise

25:07 · within the midst of the chaos of our worlds.

25:11 · But here we see the one who commands

25:13 · is the one who we listen to,

25:16 · the one who has authority

25:17 · but it continues on through this.

25:19 · He is also the one who saves.

25:21 · Check out verse six.

25:23 · It says when the disciples heard this,

25:25 · they fell face down and were terrified.

25:29 · Yeah, I would think so, all right.

25:31 · Jesus' face is glowing,

25:33 · people popping up who've been dead

25:34 · for a lot of hundreds of years

25:37 · and all of a sudden a voice from heaven speaks.

25:39 · I would be terrified, all right.

25:41 · I think we're all scared and falling down at that moment

25:43 · and they were terrified.

25:44 · They had no idea how to respond to this.

25:46 · It was just too much for them to handle

25:50 · but check out verse seven.

25:53 · As they fell face down

25:55 · and as they were terrified,

25:58 · Jesus came up, he touched them

26:01 · and he said, get up.

26:04 · Don't be afraid.

26:07 · The disciples hear the voice of God

26:10 · thunder out of the cloud of glory

26:15 · and they can't do anything

26:16 · but collapse and fall on the ground.

26:18 · It says they're face down.

26:20 · They are trembling.

26:22 · The Greek word says they feared a great fear.

26:25 · Their life, they are wrecked.

26:27 · They have no idea how to respond

26:28 · and then look at how Jesus responds.

26:33 · He doesn't leave them on the ground.

26:36 · He doesn't scold them for their actions.

26:39 · Instead, he comes to them.

26:42 · He bridges the distance.

26:44 · He reaches down.

26:45 · He touches them and he speaks the two words

26:48 · every terrified sinner needs to hear.

26:51 · Don't be afraid.

26:55 · Let that picture just preach to your heart for a moment.

27:00 · The glorified Christ whose face moments ago

27:04 · was too bright to look at.

27:07 · He bends down and he touches them

27:09 · with the same hand where he was flinging stars

27:12 · into the sky at the beginning of creation.

27:15 · He speaks to them in the same voice

27:17 · that spoke our world into existence.

27:20 · With that same voice,

27:21 · he talks to them and says, do not be afraid.

27:27 · You see, this right here is the gospel encapsulated

27:33 · that the God of glory bends down

27:36 · to lift up the terrified.

27:40 · And so often, I think we run from God

27:42 · because we feel like we are too unworthy.

27:45 · In church, we are.

27:47 · But Jesus knows your sin.

27:50 · He knows your brokenness.

27:51 · He knows your fears.

27:53 · He knows your hurts.

27:54 · He knows your screw ups.

27:56 · He knows how bad of a sinner you are.

27:58 · Paul, I love, who wrote most of the New Testament,

28:01 · it said, I am a chief among sinners.

28:02 · He said that because he knew himself better

28:05 · than he knew anyone else.

28:06 · You know how messed up you are

28:08 · because you know the thoughts,

28:10 · the things you have done,

28:11 · the thoughts that run through your head.

28:12 · You are broken.

28:15 · But you have a God who created you,

28:18 · who loved you, who came down for you,

28:21 · who lived a perfect life for you,

28:23 · who died on a cross for you,

28:25 · who took your sins for you,

28:26 · who rose again to defeat those sins

28:28 · and to save us so we could have a new life in him.

28:33 · Jesus on this mount,

28:36 · he shows that he is the one who saves,

28:39 · the one who calls,

28:41 · the one who reveals,

28:42 · the one who fulfills,

28:43 · the one who commands,

28:45 · the one who saves.

28:46 · And ultimately, this all leads to the fact

28:49 · that he is the only one we worship.

28:52 · In verse eight,

28:54 · as we close out this part of the passage

28:56 · we are looking at today,

28:59 · it says when they looked up,

29:00 · they saw no one except Jesus alone.

29:06 · This might be the most underlined verse

29:09 · in this whole passage for me.

29:12 · That the cloud is gone,

29:14 · the voice is silent,

29:16 · Moses is gone,

29:18 · Elijah is gone,

29:20 · three-tenths will not be necessary,

29:22 · the vision is over,

29:24 · and as they look up,

29:25 · they saw no one except Jesus alone.

29:31 · Three of the most important figures in human history

29:34 · were just standing on that mountain.

29:36 · They saw Moses who parted the Red Sea

29:38 · and led a million people through a wilderness

29:40 · into their freedom.

29:42 · They saw Elijah who called down fire from heaven

29:45 · and put on a display in front of false gods.

29:49 · They say Jesus,

29:50 · the miracle-working carpenter from Nazareth

29:52 · who has made a name for himself.

29:54 · And when the smoke clears,

29:58 · there is only one of them left.

30:01 · And church, that is the entire point of this miracle.

30:05 · And the entire point of what this series

30:08 · has been building to

30:09 · is when the lights come up at the end of your life,

30:12 · who is going to be left standing in front of you?

30:16 · Let me tell you, it will not be your favorite pastor,

30:19 · which I hope is me for a little bit longer

30:20 · until your next stage of life, all right?

30:22 · It is not going to be your favorite politician.

30:25 · It is not going to be your favorite athlete.

30:27 · If you've been married multiple times,

30:28 · it is not going to be your favorite spouse.

30:30 · It is not going to be your favorite fill in the blank.

30:35 · It is going to be Jesus and Jesus alone.

30:40 · When the smoke clears,

30:41 · the only one left standing in the room is him.

30:47 · And throughout history,

30:49 · people have lived out this truth

30:52 · knowing that he is the one who changes everything.

30:57 · In the year 156 AD,

31:00 · there was a man named Polycarp.

31:02 · And he was an old man, 86 years old.

31:04 · He was the Bishop of Smyrna,

31:06 · but he was arrested by Roman officials

31:08 · and he was ordered to deny Jesus Christ

31:11 · and swear allegiance to Caesar.

31:13 · You had to be told, Caesar is Lord.

31:15 · And he said, they threatened him with,

31:17 · we will feed you to wild beasts.

31:19 · They threatened him with fire.

31:20 · And you know what this old man said to them?

31:24 · He said, 86 years I have served him

31:27 · and he has done me no wrong.

31:30 · How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?

31:34 · He's like, he is the only one

31:36 · left standing at the end of the day.

31:40 · In Matthew 17, we see three men on one mountain

31:46 · where everything changed.

31:49 · You see that 60 seconds on the mountain

31:51 · wrecks them in the best possible way.

31:54 · The Peter is the first one we see from here

31:57 · who says went up with him.

31:59 · This is the same Peter who tried to build three tents.

32:02 · He will one day preach a sermon at Pentecost

32:05 · in Acts chapter two where 3,000 people

32:08 · were saved and baptized.

32:10 · I can't even imagine the logistics

32:12 · of getting that coordinated, all right?

32:14 · You're like, hey, just keep,

32:15 · baptize yourself at this point.

32:17 · Like there's just too many of you, right?

32:18 · It's like just the spirit being poured out

32:21 · in a crazy way.

32:22 · That same Peter will be the first

32:24 · to take the gospel to the Gentiles in Acts 10.

32:26 · The same Peter, according to church tradition,

32:29 · would be crucified upside down

32:31 · because he said, I am unworthy to die

32:33 · the same way as the Lord.

32:35 · And listen to what Peter writes near the end of his life

32:37 · in 2 Peter chapter one verse 16.

32:40 · He says, for we did not follow

32:42 · cleverly contrived myths when we made known

32:44 · to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

32:46 · He said, we didn't make this stuff up.

32:49 · We weren't just like trying to get you

32:50 · in a Ponzi scheme to try to win you over.

32:53 · He says this, instead,

32:55 · we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

32:58 · This is what he's pointing to,

32:59 · the transfiguration, everything that happens

33:02 · when Christ revealed himself.

33:03 · And he says, we ourselves heard this voice

33:06 · when it came from heaven

33:08 · while we were with him on the holy mountain.

33:12 · Peter's like, I'm gonna die for this

33:14 · because I truly know who Jesus is.

33:15 · He's like, I've seen him.

33:17 · Three decades after the transfiguration

33:19 · on the brink of death,

33:21 · Peter looks back and says,

33:23 · I'm staking my whole life

33:25 · what I saw on that mountain.

33:27 · You see James.

33:29 · James was the older brother of John

33:31 · and he was the first of the 12

33:32 · to be martyred and killed for his faith.

33:35 · In Acts chapter 12,

33:36 · he was beheaded by Herod Agrippa around AD 44

33:39 · and after about a decade of ministry, he's gone.

33:43 · And the crazy thing about James

33:45 · is he didn't write a gospel,

33:47 · he didn't write an epistle,

33:48 · he didn't have a church plant that he started

33:50 · that we know about.

33:51 · We don't even know if he pastored a church.

33:53 · But he just had a willingness to die first.

33:57 · Early tradition tells us that on his way,

34:00 · the guy who was walking with him,

34:02 · who was going to behead him and cut his head off

34:04 · that was holding the sword,

34:06 · he's sharing the gospel with that guy

34:08 · on the way to get beheaded.

34:10 · He wins that dude to Christ

34:12 · and he gets his head cut off

34:14 · along with James at the same time.

34:18 · James, the dude who wanted to rain fire on a village.

34:22 · When he approached and he saw Jesus on a mountain,

34:25 · everything else in his life changed.

34:28 · And then there's John.

34:30 · John outlived everybody.

34:33 · He wrote five books of our New Testament,

34:35 · the Gospel of John,

34:36 · first, second, and third,

34:37 · John, super original, and Revelation.

34:40 · And listen to how John opens up his gospel

34:42 · in John 1, 14.

34:43 · He said the word being Jesus became flesh

34:46 · and dwelt among us.

34:48 · We observed his glory,

34:49 · the glory as the one and only son from the father.

34:54 · He's saying this guy is God.

34:56 · 60 years later, John is still writing

34:58 · about what he saw on the mountain.

35:01 · And in his final years,

35:03 · as he's exiled on the Isle of Patmos,

35:05 · it's like Survivor,

35:07 · but there's nobody else there

35:08 · and you do not win a million dollars

35:10 · and it doesn't end.

35:12 · And in his final years,

35:14 · he gets one more glimpse

35:16 · of the glorified Christ in Revelation 1

35:18 · and once again,

35:19 · he falls face down to the same Jesus,

35:22 · the same face to the same response.

35:26 · And here's the deal,

35:26 · three men in this story,

35:29 · three trajectories of their life

35:32 · going in opposite direction,

35:33 · but one moment on a mountain

35:36 · changed everything for them.

35:40 · And this is what we see

35:41 · throughout all these miracles of Christ.

35:43 · What we see in this story,

35:44 · this miraculous truth that hits all of us

35:47 · and we need to hear today

35:49 · is when Jesus reveals himself to you,

35:53 · everything about your life changes.

35:56 · You cannot stay the same.

35:59 · That when you see Jesus through his word,

36:02 · that as he wrestles in your heart,

36:03 · when he makes himself known to you,

36:06 · your life cannot stay the same.

36:11 · You see Peter,

36:12 · the fisherman who couldn't keep his mouth shut

36:14 · on the mountain,

36:15 · he became the rock of the early church

36:18 · that it was built upon.

36:19 · John, the disciple who wanted the throne

36:21 · became the first to die for the king.

36:23 · John, James, I'm sorry,

36:26 · John, the son of thunder,

36:27 · became the apostle of love.

36:29 · The mountain made these men.

36:31 · The encounter in seeing Jesus changed

36:34 · everything about their life.

36:35 · And if you hear nothing,

36:37 · my heart for you is that you would see Christ

36:40 · and everything else in your life would change.

36:44 · And here's the deal,

36:45 · maybe for you,

36:47 · it's not gonna be on a mountain

36:49 · where Jesus shows his face like the sun.

36:52 · Maybe he's gonna reveal himself

36:54 · to the way he revealed himself to me

36:56 · when I was 15 years old.

36:59 · When I was 15 years old in my room,

37:02 · that's not a good way to start a story, right?

37:05 · But I was reading my Bible.

37:08 · And as someone who had grown up in church,

37:10 · someone who knew all the Bible answers,

37:12 · I just had this hunger in me of like,

37:13 · I need to figure out if this thing is real or not.

37:16 · And as I'm attempting to read through the Bible,

37:19 · really what the skeptics had on,

37:21 · is this actually true?

37:24 · I came across Ecclesiastes 3 11,

37:26 · which is the most random verse

37:28 · to be your salvation in your life verse.

37:31 · But it said, he had made everything,

37:33 · he has made being God everything appropriate in his time.

37:37 · They said this,

37:38 · he has also put eternity in their hearts.

37:42 · But no one can discover the work God has done

37:45 · from beginning to end.

37:49 · In there, I felt this sense and this spirit

37:52 · that God put and spoke through his word in that verse,

37:55 · that nothing you will do will fill the eternal void

37:59 · that I created in your hearts.

38:02 · That you can make money, you can chase success,

38:06 · you can get fame, you can get influence,

38:08 · you can chase the desires of your sin in your flesh,

38:12 · but none of it will fill your life.

38:17 · Because you have an eternal void in your hearts

38:21 · that can only be filled by an eternal God

38:24 · who knows what he has done from beginning to end,

38:27 · from eternity to eternity,

38:29 · because he is the one who created us,

38:32 · but he is the one who saves us

38:34 · and shows us something else.

38:38 · And maybe you're sitting here today,

38:41 · and you have encountered Jesus.

38:44 · He has revealed himself to you.

38:47 · This is your church family.

38:50 · You serve him.

38:51 · You work for him.

38:53 · He is changing your life,

38:54 · but if you are honest,

38:57 · there's moments where you're like Peter on the mountain

38:59 · and you're building other tents

39:02 · that you're putting right next to Jesus.

39:06 · Maybe you need to tear down the tents

39:08 · of your comfort or your career

39:11 · or putting your family in a place that it shouldn't be,

39:14 · and maybe there are some tents that are blocking,

39:16 · and you need Jesus to rise above it,

39:19 · the one who cannot be contained by a tent,

39:22 · but the one who is meant to be

39:23 · the guiding Lord of your life,

39:25 · who is full of glory

39:26 · that nothing else in our world can touch.

39:31 · But maybe that's not you yet.

39:35 · Maybe you're not a follower of Christ.

39:39 · You're not willing to give the historical answer

39:42 · of I will die for him as the men we studied about

39:46 · and how women and men have responded throughout history.

39:49 · Maybe you don't know Christ yet,

39:53 · but he's revealing himself to you

39:56 · through his word,

39:58 · through the Holy Spirit,

40:00 · through the people around you.

40:03 · And in just a second, as we pray,

40:05 · I wanna give you an invitation

40:06 · to stop saying no to him,

40:09 · to start saying yes to him being the Lord of your life,

40:16 · and see how when Jesus reveals himself to you,

40:21 · how everything in our life changes because of it.