The Transfiguration: Glory on the Mountain and the Path to the Cross

We're in the Gospel of Luke. Y'all know that we've been on an adventure, right?

I guess you could say today, you know, if we actually looked at it,

at the peak and in the valley.

So we're looking at, as you know, we read earlier, the transfiguration of Jesus.

We're kind of putting a highlight on that today, or Luke is,

in the passage that we're at.

But remember this, though. At the outset of his public ministry,

Jesus received a divine endorsement in the form of a voice from heaven. You remember it?

All the way back in chapter 3, verse 22. You are my son, whom I love.

With you, I am well pleased. Y'all remember that? And now Jesus,

who has just revealed that as God's Messiah, we saw that last week, he will suffer and die.

That's back in verse 22 of Luke 9. Is about to turn his face to Jerusalem.

We're going to see that down the road here in verse 51 to inaugurate the events

that's going to lead to where? to his crucifixion where he laid down his life on our behalf. Amen.

And so at this second crucial turning point we see here, we receive yet another

confirmation of Jesus's ministry in the form of a voice from heaven.

Did you see it in the passage today? So it takes us up to the mountain,

if you will, up to the mountain.

Luke tells us that these events took place, look at verse 28, about eight days later.

And I think we picked up with 29, but it tells us that in verse 28, about eight days later.

And by the way, let me say this, eight is not a number traditionally associated

with a specific meaning in Jewish literature, as opposed to seven or 12.

But it does recur in one form or another throughout, and you'll see this,

I've already seen it, throughout Luke's gospel here.

And here it may be intended to remind us as we read this of the period of time

that elapsed between the birth of a son and his circumcision.

A fact that Luke has already placed before us back in chapter 1 verse 59.

We looked at that in chapter 2 verse 21.

And in the same way that circumcision was a response to a son's birth eight days after the fact.

So these events, he's saying, on the mountaintop are connected to the revelation

of Jesus as God's Messiah that occurred eight days later, or occurred eight

days earlier, excuse me, right?

So when Luke makes a point to mention that Jesus was what? What was Jesus doing in this passage?

Praying, right? It's usually a sign, I want you to know this,

you've probably seen it, but that something important is about to happen.

We saw this back in chapter 3, earlier in the same chapter.

And so it comes as no surprise that when Jesus took his inner circle of disciples,

Peter, John, James, up an unidentified

mountain, it was for the purpose of prayer. We see that in verse 28.

And while he was praying, and the three disciples were fighting drowsiness,

anybody fighting drowsiness this morning.

I hope not too many people. I know I heard several had to sleep last night, right?

So you might be there. You might can relate in verse 32. What happened in verse 29, though?

The appearance of his face changed and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.

Y'all, this was something they took note of, right? This was like, wow.

I mean, once Jesus's appearance has changed, Moses and Elijah appear, what does it say there?

In glorious splendor, right? And have an audience with Jesus.

And I think the importance of those two particular men, that's highly debated,

but at the very least here,

it seems certain that they are intended here to represent a witness to and a

continuity with the ministry of Jesus, right?

And in fact, as the symbols of the Old Testament law, who's that?

Moses, right? And the prophetic hoe of the last days, Elijah.

The pair here testifies to Jesus's status as the pinnacle, if you will,

of God's revelation, God's plan.

And something here that jumped out at me, and I'm sure it has you probably before

when you read this passage, but we're about to see there's a new exodus.

A new exodus here. In fact, this account of the transfiguration is the only

one to give us a glimpse here into the conversation between these three dazzling figures.

They actually, it says here in the text, they spoke about his departure when

he was about to bring to fulfillment, which he was about to bring to fulfillment

at Jerusalem, it says in verse 31.

So here in this passage, Luke chooses an unusual word to indicate the subject.

Of this extraordinary conversation.

Literally the word that Luke uses to indicate Jesus's death and his resurrection is what?

I said it earlier, starts with an E, Exodus.

You got it. The event that he was about to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem

is referred to as his Exodus.

I want you all to get this today. This is significant because the Exodus,

if you remember from Egypt, was the foundational event, right,

in the formation of the nation of Israel.

It was the paradigm of salvation, the standard, right, in the Old Testament.

And when the people of Israel actually needed to be reminded of how the Lord

had redeemed them, the example of the Exodus was always close at hand.

We see that in Deuteronomy chapter 6, Psalm 136.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

And now here in this passage we're looking at today, Moses and Elijah are talking

with Jesus about the exodus, his exodus, the defining moment in God's plan of

redemption of who? You and me, right? All of us.

But not the Old Testament exodus that they're discussing, but they're talking

about the new one that Jesus is about to accomplish.

You see, in the first exodus, if you remember God's people, what?

They were hopelessly enslaved to a cruel tyrant. When they couldn't help themselves, what happened?

God sent them a deliverer who would lead them out of bondage.

And now, Eastwood, Jesus has come to lead his people out from even a greater

slavery, slavery to sin and death.

We see that in John chapter 8, 34.

John 8 · chapter mention

In fact, through his death and his resurrection and his ascension,

the greater Moses, Jesus is the greater Moses, by the way, will lead God's people

in a greater exodus to free them from a greater bondage. Do you see that today?

Aren't you grateful that Jesus had his exodus? Amen.

Aren't you grateful that we can go back to that point? We'll talk about that

more in just a moment as Christians, because just as the first exodus created the nation of Israel.

Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension essentially formed the New Testament church.

Yes, that's us, right? That's us. And just as Israelites would look back on

the exodus from Egypt to remember God's love and his deliverance, guess what?

Now we sitting here at Eastwood Baptist Church today, us Christians look back

to the death and resurrection of Christ frequently in order to be reminded of what?

Of the salvation that we have received.

We did that last Sunday when we took the Lord's Supper, amen?

We did that this morning.

We did the Lord's Supper before Sunday school and the first Sunday of the month

in the back this morning. We remembered this, we looked back.

And it's hard to imagine that the Jesus that we see here in this passage is

the same Jesus that suffered and

died for us because we see that the transfigured Jesus on the mountain.

Don't miss this, is the same as the disfigured Jesus on the cross.

For your sin, for my sin.

Aren't you grateful that you had an exodus from your bondage to sin?

Let me tell you, if you hadn't experienced that exodus today,

I pray today before you leave that you experience the greatest exodus of all.

And that's from your bondage to sin and death, because Jesus has paid your price. Amen.

He has paid it on the cross. He shed his blood for you. And here on the Mount

of Transfiguration, we see again, verse 29, that Jesus's clothes are bright

like a flash of lightning.

Have you ever had a lightning strike near you? In fact, some of y'all may have experienced this.

I've been near a vehicle before, and there's been like an amazing flash of lightning,

and it's like I'm touching the handle, and I get shocked. You ever had that happen?

I had an old dog one time. It was a bird dog, English setter.

In fact, I used to quail hunt a whole lot. Any quail hunters in the room anymore?

Dove hunters? I don't know. But I tell you, we used to love it.

We used to love to watch the dogs work. But hang with me.

But he had, my dad found these old metal barrels.

And we used to put the cedar shavings in them to pack it in.

You know, make a comfortable bed. The only problem with metal barrels is that

if lightning is close by, you could get zapped.

And our poor dog got zapped.

After that, he was never the same. I can just say he, in the sense of every

time the rumble of thunder happened in the background, it was like he went crazy.

Okay, he gets crazy. I watched the dog eat through chain link fences.

I watched, y'all saying that can't happen. I watched it. I mean,

he ate down part of his other house that we had that was wooden.

He would eat his dog bowls because he'd get so nervous. But my point is here,

lightning makes an impact, right?

And you can imagine you may not get hit with it

directly but sometimes the effects are so

close you're like whoa how much y'all you

ever watch those youtube videos that you know if the serious

storms or is that just me brother ronnie occasionally i'll go you know like

i i think i could have been a storm chaser in in another setting but i've always

kind of had that fascination with bad weather and you know wanting to be in

the middle of the tornado but anyway not really but as close as you could get, right, and escape.

But anyway, it's kind of like there's an impact here. And when Jesus was,

he was shining bright like lightning, and he saw all this glory on display.

And at the crucifixion, though, Jesus' clothes, get this, church,

would be soaked in blood and divided among the wicked men.

And on this mountain, Jesus is surrounded by Moses and Elijah in splendor,

we see in verse 30. But there on the cross, he would hang between two criminals.

Here he's enveloped in the cloud of God's presence, church.

But there he would hang on the cross in utter darkness, it tells us.

A little bit later in this book, in chapter 23.

And here he hears the voice of a father expressing his delight in him.

My beloved son, that's my son, right?

In whom I'm well pleased, listen to him. But there on the cross,

Jesus would be forsaken by the father for us, for you, for me.

Because scripture says, and we sing a song about this too, he became sin who

knew no sin that you and I might become the righteousness of God in him.

You see, the transfiguration puts the glory of Jesus on display here in a way

that's obvious to those looking on. I mean, that's that lightning, right?

But at the cross, the humility and love of Jesus shines through church in a

way that's perhaps harder to perceive at first, but ultimately it's even more breathtaking.

The splendor that's on display at the cross, the grace, the mercy, the justice, all of it.

In fact, John Calvin actually put it this way.

He said, for in the cross of Christ, as in a splendid theater,

the incomparable goodness of God is set before the world.

The glory of God shines indeed in all creatures on high and below,

but never more brightly than in the cross.

If it be objected that nothing could be less glorious than Christ's death,

I reply that in that death we see a boundless glory which is concealed from the ungodly.

That's what John Calvin said.

In fact, I hope y'all see in this passage, hang with me a minute, but a new tent.

A new tent. Let's take a look at it. At first, Peter's desire here,

we see this in verse 33, if you want to look again, to erect three shelters.

Some translation may say booze, so it's tent, right? Three shelters for Jesus,

Moses, and Elijah. It seems strange, doesn't it?

It's like, wow, all this glory on this way. It's like, at first we think,

you know, Luke tells us here that Peter did not know what he was saying.

That comment has led people to actually assume that the suggestion was a ludicrous one that he made.

But that's not necessarily the case.

Because scholar Edwards notes this, and I want to share it with you.

I want to quote this, that he said, he said, Luke does not say Peter did not

know what to say, but he did not know what he was saying.

And I think that's important because that's to say there was more truth here

to what Peter was saying than he even understood in this moment.

Because in order to understand what's happening

here y'all we as we read the text we

need to be familiar with an event that's recorded in

exodus chapter 40 we're talking about exodus right in

Exodus 40 · chapter mention

verse 34 and 35 because in those verses

moses had just finished assembling the

tabernacle and he elaborately constructed

tent where god would meet his people during their

time in the wilderness and we read that after

Moses finished the work let me quote then the cloud covered the tent of meeting

and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle Moses could not enter the tent

it says of meeting because the cloud had settled on it and the glory of the

Lord filled the tabernacle.

Luke's account here that we look at today on the transfiguration makes contact

with that passage, I think, in at least three places, and I want to share them with you this morning.

First, Peter's suggestion here that he might build shelters for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.

It uses that same Greek word, skene,

that appears, you guessed it, in the account of the tabernacle in Exodus 40

in what we call the Septuagint, which is basically, I know that's a big word,

but it's basically the Greek Old Testament.

And the second aspect of this passage here that connects to Exodus 40 is the

presence of glory. You see it in the passage in Luke 2, right?

In Moses' day, the tabernacle was filled with the shining glory of the Lord.

In fact, on the mountain here, we saw this, Jesus' clothing becomes like lightning

while Moses and Elijah appear in glorious splendor, it says in verse 30.

And finally, as we see in this passage, just as a cloud appeared to fill the

tabernacle, so the disciples on the mountain were enveloped in a terrifying

cloud, it says in verse 34.

Do you see those similarities? Because far from being a mere coincidence, church,

this overlap here between Luke's account in the Exodus 40 passage,

it points us, I think, to an important meaning in these events.

Jesus is the new and better tabernacle.

We already saw he was the new, he was the better Moses, right?

And now we see he's the new and better tabernacle. He's the place where the

glory and the presence of God dwells with his people.

And at the Mount of Transfiguration here, we see in this passage,

the disciples saw with their own

eyes, church, what John described at the beginning of his gospel account.

Listen to what he said, the word became flesh and made his dwelling,

and the Greek word there is skenun, or tabernacled among us.

You see, we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came

from the Father, Scripture says, full of grace and truth in John chapter 1. Wow.

John 1 · chapter mention

And then we see this morning a not so new command, okay?

In fact, after the cloud appeared as we look in the text and covered them,

the disciples heard a voice saying what? Look at verse 35.

This is my Son whom I have chosen. Listen to him.

In fact, we've already seen the importance here, church, of Jesus' status as the Son of God.

We've already seen that already earlier in chapter 3 of Luke.

But here at the transfiguration, as at his baptism, Jesus' unique status as

God's Son and chosen servant is proclaimed.

Wow. Moses was one of the greatest figures in all of history of the Old Testament.

In other words, if you look at it, he was the mediator who brought the law of God to his people.

He led them out of slavery in Egypt.

Elijah was one of the greatest prophets in the history of Israel.

But the father, don't miss this

in this passage, the father looks on Jesus and he says, that's my son.

Not Moses, not Elijah, but Jesus, right? Moses and Elijah were faithful servants,

but Jesus is the very Son of God.

The proclamation of Jesus' status as the Son, as the Chosen One,

it has a practical application, I think, for all of us.

The voice from heaven tells the three disciples what to do. What are we to do

in verse 35 as the disciples? What?

Come on, listen to him.

You can imagine how it would impact faithful Jews like Peter,

James, and John for God to look at Moses and Elijah and Jesus and say of Jesus alone, listen to him.

You see, Jesus, the chosen son, is the supreme revelation church of his heavenly father.

And as a result, we should listen to him.

That's the argument that the author of Hebrews makes, by the way,

at the outset of his letter.

If you remember when we studied that book, in the past, God spoke to our ancestors

through the prophets at many times and in various ways.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir

of all things and through whom also he made the universe, it says in Hebrews 1, 1 and 2.

You see, God does not speak through Jesus in the same manner in which he spoke

through the prophets like Moses and Elijah, does he?

Jesus, church, Jesus is the tabernacle, the presence of God here on earth.

He is the medium of communication. He's the revelation of God.

And we can and we should have great confidence that everything that God wants

to say to us is wrapped up in the person of Jesus.

You know, in a complicated and confusing world, which don't you think we live

in one, right? This is very good news. Amen.

All around us, by the way, are advisors.

There's no shortage of advisors. They abound. And mutually exclusive opinions,

obviously many of them conflicting sometimes are offered with the utmost sincerity around us.

The world offers a never-ending selection of things to value and treasure and listen to, right?

How then do we decide, church, what's right and wrong, true and false,

good and evil? How do we decide?

Here, God the Father gives us very clear guidance. What does he say again?

Listen to Jesus.

Yes, Jesus' words about the nature of his kingdom, they can be unsettling.

You may not like all of them.

He went to the cross, and he calls his followers, as we learned the other week,

to pick up their crosses as well.

But we need to resist the urge, y'all, get this, don't miss this,

to soft-peddle these statements or to ignore them at all.

In fact, we need to listen, and we need to listen to him.

Don't trust Oprah or Buddha or

the latest guru out there who's peddling a book or whatever it might be.

Don't even listen to your own feelings and impulses, right?

Instead, listen to who? Listen to Jesus, God's pleasing and chosen one.

His son. That's my son. Think about it today. Just think about this today as we close for a moment.

Is there any way that you've been resisting the call to listen to him?

Have you been actually making choices in your life that totally just,

just totally oblivious to anything God says in his word to you?

Have you been calling the shots thinking you're the better leader, the better master?

Why have you been resisting? How does this glimpse this morning in this passage

of Jesus's powerful glory, I hope it motivates you to obedience?

Because God the Father said, he's my son. Listen to him.

Listen to him. He's the greater Moses, the greater tabernacle.

Listen to him. Let's stand together. Father God, I pray this morning,

Lord, if there's any here,

God, who may have not experienced this exodus we talked about earlier,

God, it would be their day today, Lord, that they would see themselves in truth

through the power of your Spirit, Lord, that they would realize that they're

a sinner in need of a Savior.

Father, I pray if there's any who's holding on to sin today,

Lord, that they would repent of it.

Lord, they'd say, Jesus, Lord, please forgive me of my sin, Lord.

Cleanse my heart from all this filth.

Lord, you're the one that I should listen to.

And Lord, you died on the cross for me. You shed your blood for me.

You were forsaken by the Father for me.

And if you've never partaken of that exodus, I challenge you today,

I encourage you right where you are, repent of your sin.

Put your faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Believe that He rose for you on the third day. I promise you,

God's never going to let you down. Just give your life to Him. That's the call today.

And if that's you, I encourage you to step out in faith today.

To come down to this altar, to share that with everybody. Just say,

you know what? I was lost, but now I'm found.

I was bound in slavery and bondage of my own sin, but I've been set free.

I've had an exodus in Jesus.

And now I'm set free and I'm in the kingdom of God.

If that's you today, I encourage you to step out now without delay.

There could be some of you here today, maybe you've been going here and maybe

today you realize, you know what, I need to join. I want to be a part of this

body of believers. If that's you, I encourage you to step out in faith and do that.

Some of you that may be a Christian today and have never followed the Lord at

believer's baptism, today could be your day to say, Lord, I'm going to be obedient.

I'm going to follow you. I'm going to do what you asked me to do.

If you could step out and come down and say, you know what? I've never been

baptized. I've never followed the Lord in believer's baptism. I want to do that.

Whatever God's dealing in your heart, it could be something totally different.

I encourage you to do business with God.

It could be at this altar where you stand right now.

Don't let this moment pass you by.

Don't ignore this call today that God has on your life.

Experience your exodus. It may be that God has you here today for this very purpose.

And I encourage you, don't walk away from that. Don't walk away from it.

If you've been neglecting God's word, don't walk away.

Surrender to it. Be obedient, knowing that God the Father said, listen to Jesus.

Don't listen to your friends. Don't listen to the latest self-help book. Listen to Jesus.

Listen to God's word. Listen to him.