Mark 9:2–13 — The Road to Glory

This sermon is from Mark chapter 9 verses 2 through 13 and is entitled "The Road to Glory."

Mark 9:2–13

It was delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, September 28, 2025.

The disciples of Jesus have been on the road with him for quite a while,

and they finally have their eyes opened in the last couple of verses to see that Jesus is the Christ.

And we know also that from a heavenly perspective, their eyes are really only half open, because they don't understand what the Christ is actually supposed to do.

What is the role of the Messiah?

They still have their earthly expectations, and they aren't really giving them an accurate view of what is to come.

They can't understand just how difficult the road ahead is really going to be.

I was thinking this week how grateful I am for the work of some more really modern authors

like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien who have written these beautiful stories like The Chronicles

of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings.

And I read these pretty early in my life and it gave me this frame of reference, a lens

kind of through which to view reality.

And even though these are fictional stories, I was introduced to this concept of the journey

to the end being a difficult one that we can't always see the end of clearly.

But if we fix our eyes on what is true and who is good, we are much better equipped to

deal with the difficulty of the journey.

And so when I think about those stories, who is it that rolls with the punches, deals with

the challenges of the road the best in those stories?

In Narnia, it's characters like the Beavers in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe who

courageous and unafraid despite being small creatures in the face of a pretty

discouraging reality with the white witch controlling all of Narnia because

they remain confident in the power of Aslan to restore all things. And if you

go to Middle Earth, it is characters like Gandalf who recognize the difficulty of

the journey. They don't shy away from saying it's gonna be hard, but they also

have hope that evil will not triumph in the end. And their ability to persevere

through the journey is largely dependent on two things. First, their eyes being

fixed on the glorious end that is to come. And second, their willingness to accept

that the road there leads through suffering. And these themes and these

stories ring true because their authors believed the truth of God's word on the

subject, it just kind of permeates everything that they write about.

So in this passage of Mark, the disciples and we as readers of God's word are going

to be encouraged to hold both of these same things in our minds as we persevere.

First, we fix our eyes on Jesus, on his victory, on his glory.

All of history and the law and the prophets all point to Jesus as the final victorious

living Word of God and choosing to behold Him and worship Him equips us for everything

leading to the day that we stand in glory with Him.

But second, we also recognize that the road to glory does lead through suffering.

It did for Jesus and it will to some extent for us.

So we want to recognize that this is difficult and it's painful at times and we don't want

ignore it or just kind of pretend like everything is fine and the pain doesn't exist, but rather,

it is used by God to transform us, as Paul says, from glory to glory. So let's read the first half

of this and get a vision of the glory of Jesus. This is Mark chapter 9, starting with verse 2.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus, and Peter said to Jesus,

"Rabbi, it is good that we are here.

"Let us make three tents, one for you,

"and one for Moses, and one for Elijah,

"for he did not know what to say,

"for they were terrified.

"And a cloud overshadowed them,

"and a voice came out of the cloud.

"This is my beloved son.

"Listen to him."

And suddenly looking around,

they no longer saw anyone with them, but Jesus only.

Okay, so this is a very unique passage in the Gospels.

Let's talk about a few aspects of it.

First let's talk about how this is a picture of what is to come.

Let's talk about who was there, and then let's talk about Peter's comment that he makes.

So first, this is a picture of what will happen after the suffering Jesus has been telling

them to expect.

He is taking his closest group of disciples, this insider of the insiders, this three out

of the twelve, and giving them a view of the brightness of his eternal glory to remember

when things are in the darkest moments in the road ahead.

The resurrected Jesus is radiant and his clothes are white and he is transformed here

into how he will be seen after the resurrection.

The word used for "transformed" here is where we actually get the word "metamorphosis"

from the Greek.

It's like a caterpillar being turned into a butterfly.

And it will be used later in the letters that make up the New Testament to describe what

happens to us.

Paul will use this word when he says we are transformed from glory to glory.

People who behold the glory of God, which is on display in the person of Jesus, are transformed.

If you think back, a Moses face shown after speaking with God, the face of Stephen, it

says in Acts, shown like an angel as he stood before his accusers.

And here the disciples witness the glory of God as Jesus shines in white.

And isn't it interesting that in order to get them through what was to come, Jesus thought

important to give them a glimpse of reality, the truest version of reality, showing them a preview

of his glory unveiled. But it wasn't just the disciples that were there. Let's talk about who

else was there. Some other people show up. Let's talk about Elijah and Moses having a conversation

with Jesus. I can barely picture it because it's so incredible. We know who these guys are, and

were not actually told in the passage how they knew who they were. We don't know if it was just

divine revelation or did they introduce themselves? Were they wearing name tags? We don't know, right?

But these guys were significant figures in the history of God's people. They're not just any

two guys from history. So Moses was the deliverer sent to lead Israel out of Egypt through the desert

and to the doorstep of the Promised Land. We've seen Mark make lots of connections back to

the Exodus story throughout the first eight chapters. Importantly though, Moses was also the

one who was given the word of God to deliver to God's people on Mount Sinai. Moses is also the

one responsible for writing the first five books for the Bible, which are referred to as the Pentateuch.

This is something that the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write down these books of the Bible.

And then Elijah. So Elijah is probably best known out of all of the prophets to witness to Israel

during the time of the kings. He performed miracles like calling down fire that consumed a water-soaked

sacrifice and the altar that it was on. He went up on, interestingly, Mount Sinai, just like Moses

and received the word of the Lord for the people,

and specifically for wicked kings and queens,

like Ahab and Jezebel.

And important to today's passage,

he was the prophet who was prophesied to return

to prepare the way for the great and awesome day of the Lord.

So it's not just any two guys,

it's two men with an awful lot of similarities

showing up really to testify to the glory of Jesus, to be there at this moment when Jesus

is transfigured and God speaks. These two men who, let's look at some of these similarities here,

they were representative of the law and the prophets, which are actually the two groups

of writing that prophesied and testified to the coming of who? Jesus. These are two men who

Both were responsible for hearing the word of the Lord and delivering it to the people,

and here they stand with the person John calls the living word of God.

So we've got representatives of the revealed word of God up to this point,

and it is here in their presence that we hear the audible voice of God proclaim,

"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."

This is Jesus, church. This is the beginning and the end, the absolute final revealed word of God,

God in the flesh, who's teaching throughout the Gospels and the writings of the Apostles,

what we refer to as the New Testament is the revelation of God to man on all things necessary

for us on the road to eternity with Jesus. And so when faced with Jesus and a glimpse of his glory,

Peter blurts out, "It's good that we are here.

We should make you some tents."

And I'll admit, it's kind of funny.

It's kind of awkward that in the presence of God's glory and the most famous people

of Israel's history, you say something about camping, right?

Mark even says that Peter said this because he was terrified and he did not know really

what to say, but just because he didn't know what to say.

And he didn't understand why they were being shown this.

It doesn't mean that this was a senseless comment.

And so as I dug into this just a little bit,

I kind of moved from laughing at Peter

to identifying with him.

Let me explain.

Think with me about where the presence of God

has shown up in the past, in Exodus,

in the desert wandering of Israel.

God would show up as a cloud during the day

and a pillar of fire at night,

leading them through the desert.

The presence of the Lord went with them.

And the dwelling place throughout those years

in the desert was called the tent of meeting,

the tabernacle, eventually.

Peter isn't going on a tangent here, I don't think.

He's trying to express a feeling

that is too great for words.

Peter stands glimpsing the glory of God

and the men who have led them to the presence of God

in the ancient past and says,

"It's so good to be here.

I'll do anything to stay."

It's at this point that I go from laughing at Peter

to completely identifying with how he feels

because as I look around, the world is absolutely crazy

and it's not calming down anytime soon

And we can all identify, I think, with the way that Peter's heart yearns for the nearness of God,

even though he doesn't understand things completely.

So before we look at these last few verses, I just kind of want to sit with that for a moment

and make some observations.

The first witness to the glory of God was the written word of God.

So the law and the prophets revealed the glory of God

from the creation account to the justice of God

on display in the law to the visions of prophets like Daniel.

God's word, scripture,

gives us a clear view of the glory of God

and we desperately need that.

Second though, we do need a way to respond to that.

Peter struggled with words to express himself.

And I think this is one of the primary roles for music

in our expression of worship.

The best songs for worship are the ones

that give us true words to sing,

that express our true response to the glory of God.

These moments, like on a Sunday morning

that we spend gathered around God's word

and singing songs that respond to God's glory.

They are medicine for the soul.

They are encouraging and they give us

a right perspective of reality,

but they are also preparing us for the road ahead.

Verse eight says that this time came to a close

for the disciples as well,

and suddenly they didn't see anyone but Jesus only.

everything always comes back to Jesus only.

And Jesus was leading them forward on a road

that led to Jerusalem, to persecution, to suffering,

but ultimately to glory.

And it was a road that he was going to walk with them.

And so with that, let's continue to read

for kind of the other half of this, verses nine through 13.

And as they were coming down the mountain,

he charged them to tell no one what they had seen

until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning,

what this rising from the dead might mean.

And they asked him,

why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?

And he said to them,

Elijah does come first to restore all things.

And how is it written of the Son of Man

that he should suffer many things

and be treated with contempt.

But I tell you that Elijah has come

and they did to him whatever they pleased

as it is written of him.

So beginning with verse nine,

Jesus offers what will be the final command in Mark

to keep silent.

This is the final time that we see this happen

in the gospel of Mark.

But there's something different about this one.

There's a provision.

It's only until the Son of Man rises from the dead.

So they've barely left the glory

of the mountaintop experience behind,

and Jesus is already reminding them

that something else has to come first,

that he is going to suffer and die,

and that it is only through his death and resurrection

that people can understand the glory.

They start to talk amongst themselves, right?

Instead of asking him about what he said

about this son of man dying,

they almost try to sidetrack the conversation

with their next question.

They asked this question about Elijah coming first,

referring to a prophecy out of Malachi 4

where it said that Elijah would come and prepare the way

for the great and awesome day of the Lord.

They're trying to use scripture to argue

against what Jesus has said about his own coming suffering.

They're saying you can't die because Elijah hasn't even come yet.

Now we know specifically from Matthew's Gospel that the coming of John the Baptist was specifically

the fulfillment of this prophecy, and Jesus says as much.

The prophecy referring to the future, any prophecy referring to the future, is difficult

for us because it usually is best understood in hindsight.

It was only very rarely understood by those who first heard it, if you look back through

all of the prophetic references throughout the Old Testament.

And it turns out that God was referring to someone coming in the Spirit, or the same

purpose as Elijah, to turn people back to God, which is what John the Baptist did, and

prepare the way for the Messiah.

What's interesting is that Jesus doesn't answer their question with a discourse about

prophecy.

been interesting to hear, but that's not how Jesus responds.

Instead, he points them right back to his main point.

Look at the pattern of his response.

He says, "Yes, Elijah does come first."

God's word is true, right?

He's not refuting that.

But he says, "How is it written?"

He says, "God's word also speaks

to the suffering of the Messiah."

So Jesus is saying, "Why are you so willing

to believe bits and pieces of God's word

that fit your desires and expectations

and yet ignore the sweeping parts that you don't like.

Specifically, those parts about suffering.

How much can we identify with that?

And how uncomfortable is that?

We love talking about the love of God

and living in heaven and how good that worship concert was,

but we get awfully uncomfortable

when Jesus starts talking about things like

denying our own desires and comfort,

expecting persecution, picking up your cross,

practicing discipline in our pursuit of Jesus

and His way being the only way.

That's harder for us to swallow.

But if we are going to follow Jesus

to the eternal glory of God and eternity in paradise,

we must recognize that the road to that

leads through suffering.

And you might be saying,

gosh, this feels a lot like the last sermon, Dan,

and you'd be right,

because the road to salvation is only ever leading to the cross.

May I never preach anything other than that,

but what did Jesus start by doing in Mark chapter nine?

He starts by giving them a glimpse of his glory.

Because it is from the perspective of the cross

that we are able to see Jesus fully for who he is.

And from the perspective of the cross,

You can see the glory of God displayed in Jesus

as he took our debt and paid our ransom with his own blood

and said, "It is finished."

It is only by understanding the suffering

that Jesus went through on our behalf

that we can honestly say there is no suffering

that I can endure, that is more

than what my Savior endured for me.

But we can also see the glory of the resurrection,

the risen Jesus standing in front of an empty tomb,

rising into the clouds, promising to return,

sending the Holy Spirit to dwell with us on this road

that leads through difficult things

to glory on the other side.

So the invitation from this text is really pretty simple.

It's keep your eyes fixed on Jesus only.

Verse eight says that Jesus is the only one they saw

and keeping our eyes on Jesus only is going to be vital

to our journey as his disciples.

Seeing his glory through the regular reading of his word

and the worshiping of his name with his church,

that is really important.

And also seeing the suffering he endured for us

so that we might be transformed, particularly in the midst of suffering from glory to glory.

So church, keep on worshiping, keep on remembering his sacrifice through communion,

keep on encouraging each other through suffering,

and through it I'll keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

Ecclesia is a church of house churches,

gathering weekly in Council Bloss Iowa and in homes throughout the week.

We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from Scripture and making disciples of Jesus.

You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact a pastor by visiting eclasea-churches.org.