Well, I've really enjoyed being with you again, this fourth time, and Carol as well has enjoyed the time with you. Thank you for all of you who took us out to lunch and took us out to supper. We enjoyed everyone, and thank you for providing such comfortable accommodations in the Missionary House. I know that some, someone, probably several someone's have the ministry of cleaning that house and mowing the lawn and taking care of things there. Thank you.
It's a great blessing to me, and I'm sure to others who stay there. And we we enjoy it, enjoy this church, and so thankful that we've been able to come here these four times. And thank the Lord for His blessing upon the the study of His Word. I preached through this passage of Scripture about seven months ago at my church, but I, as you have noticed, I I don't use notes, and I don't usually keep the notes that that I. Compile in the process of getting ready for a message.
Consequently, when I preach through the same passage seven months later, the sermons are quite different. If you were to listen on on Bullet Licks website, we're on we have YouTube and other other ways that our the sermons are put out there. If you were to listen to them, then you would see that they were different sermons than the ones that I preached here. I Prepared each one of the sermons that I preached here, you might say, fresh. Not the first time that I've ever preached from this passage, of course.
So there are some things that overlap, but that that makes more work on the preacher when you do it that way. When I do it that way, there are times when I really wish that I could go back and look at the notes that I had made. Several months earlier, but I rarely feel that way at the end. At the end of the studying, because I always see things going through it again that I never saw the first time, and that's been the case here. And so, the studying and preparation for these messages.
Has been a blessing to me. Hope that the Lord continues to bless in the delivery. I felt His presence. You have been very encouraging in the way that you pay attention so so carefully and are looking at me. And you look like you are listening.
And if you are not listening, you are pretty good at faking it.
So I appreciate the effort that you put into it. Tonight we are going to be. Focusing on what it says in Matthew chapter 17, what it tells us about the transfiguration, and this final sermon is what was said on the Mount of Transfiguration. What was said, and we'll see what Peter said. That'll be the first thing, and secondly, what God the Father said.
That'll be second. Thirdly, what Jesus said, and then fourthly, what the occupied mountaintop said. What the occupied mountaintop said. Let's read first.
Now, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Then Peter answered and said to said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him." And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, "Arise and do not be afraid." When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. I will draw my text and my comments from that part of the scripture. But let me point out something to you from verse nine.
Now, as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead." Why did Jesus command them to be quiet?
Well, one reason is that they they did not fully understand what had gone on, and they were just. We saw on Sunday that. That Peter's confession of the Christ was a pregnant confession. It was, it was true. It was living.
It was right, but it was not fully grown. And Jesus said, "It's going to be better if you just don't talk about this until after the Son of Man is risen from the dead." Not everything that needs to be said needs to be said right now, and we have a responsibility to pray that the Lord gives us wisdom and exercise discernment that we will know when something does need to be said and when silence is best. I think that Peter spoke. On the Mount of Transfiguration, when he ought to have remained silent, and there are many times that we speak when we ought to have remained silent. The Book of Proverbs says that even a fool, if he keeps silent, people will think him wise.
And so, there are times when it is wise to be quiet.
Now I don't think that what I'm getting ready to say was the main reason that Jesus told them to keep quiet, but I do think that it is a significant consideration for us, and that is that there are some things that are so precious and so special that they just need to remain between you and the Lord. And if you try to tell someone else, they're not going to understand, or they might think that you're bragging because you've had that kind of experience or that kind of insight. And so, again, we need to exercise discernment when we are talking about the the special intimacy that we have enjoyed with the Lord. All right. I just wanted to make those comments regarding what Jesus said, and now let's turn our attention to to what was said on the Mount of Transfiguration.
And let's first of all see what Peter said. Verse four. Then Peter answered. That's interesting. Then Peter answered.
He had not been asked a question. And that leads me to say it may have been better if he had just remained silent. But I suppose that the word "answered" here could just mean in response to what he had seen. This is what he said, and he said he said something that had had a couple of good things in it. One of the good things is that he says, "Lord, it is good for us to be here.
I enjoy the company of the saints. It's good to see Moses and Elijah be here with my brothers James and John. To be here with you, this is a good place. This is this is the attitude of a Christian towards other Christian people." I seriously doubt the profession of faith that anyone has made, who does not want to be with God's people on a regular basis. It is a very bad sign.
In the gospel, but in the Epistle of First John, John gives us several. Markers of genuine Christianity, and one of them is: we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brothers. There was a time when I was in my early twenties that I was beset with a time of serious doubt concerning my salvation. And it was related to my succumbing to a persistent sin, and I was left asking myself, if I am really a Christian, how could I continue to struggle so unsuccessfully with this sin? And.
As I was seeking to know the truth of my spiritual condition, there was a book that came into my hands. I don't remember where it came from, which is unusual. I usually remember where I got books, but this book was called *The Christian's Great Interest*. It was written by a man named William Guthrie. He was a Puritan.
And for commendation, those of you who may never have heard of it, you've probably heard of John Owen. One time, John Owen, the the great theologian of the Puritan movement, pulled out a copy of the Christian's Great Interest, and he said, "I consider this divine to be one of the greatest who has ever written." It is my vade mecum. It's a Latin phrase that means constant comat constant companion. That's pretty high praise. That's a pretty good thing to have blurb to have written on the back of your book that John Owen considered it one of the best books ever, and that he constantly carried a copy with him.
So I don't remember how I got that book. I was twenty-one, twenty-two years old, and I started reading it. The book is a. It's entitled "The Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ." And the first part is the leading the reader through a series of evidences that a person who is a believer shows these evidences, and then the second half of the book is if you're not a Christian, here's how you become one. I haven't read it since that time, but I remember it as being a very good book, and it helped me to help me to know with confidence and have assurance of my salvation.
But one of the things.
Now that was the first time when I read that book. That's the first time that I ever read the breakdown of who Jesus is as the Christ, as the Anointed One. The one that ten-minute excursion. Excursus that I took with you on Sunday morning, that means he is a prophet, he is a priest, and he is a king. And at the conclusion of that, then William Guthrie asked the question that I asked you: If you have received Jesus in this way as your prophet and as your priest and as your king, in what other way can you receive the Christ?
You have received Christ if you are receiving him this way.
So that really helped me. And then also Guthrie brought forward that we we know that we've passed from death to life because we love the brethren. And I I remembered a recent conversation that I had with my parents about someone who was newly converted, and I didn't know I didn't know this man. He had been quite a good basketball player in southeastern Ohio. I didn't know him.
He was dating an old girlfriend of mine. I mean, I had no reason to really like him, but but when I heard that he was that he was professing faith in Christ and that he was growing, my heart genuinely rejoiced. I was so happy that he was making progress in the faith. That man, Kenny Hurst, ended up marrying the girl that I had dated, and became the associate pastor of the church where my dad pastored for over forty years, and succeeded him very ably as the pastor of that church, and just retired last year after pastoring there for twenty years. I bring all that up to say it's a good thing that Peter loved to be in the presence of the saints, and that is a a good marker that someone is a Christian, and it's a bad marker if they don't like Christians.
When I was in college, there was a friend of mine. In fact, we were roommates. And he he liked he liked the party life, and he he was not a believer at the time. He he thought he was. He professed to be, but he wasn't.
And one day he said to me, "Jimmy, you're the only Christian that I like." And as flattering as that is to me, it's a bad sign. There were Christians all around him, and he just liked one, and he didn't like me because I was a Christian. He later on was converted, and praise God, he remains one of my best friends to this day, after having been friends with him for over fifty years. Christian people. Like to be around Christian people.
What fellowship has light with darkness?
Now, this was good. Peter says it's good for us to be here. And then, you know, there was something else good about what he said. He said, "If you wish, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish," and that is a good attitude to have.
It's a good thing to say. It's a good thing to live by. If the Lord wills, and to see the exercise of God's sovereignty in in little things that happen that happen contrary to the way that you might wish they had happened. Pastor was telling me that on Monday night. The computer messed up, and probably the sermon that I preached on Monday night would not be available on sermon audio.
And then he said, "But God is sovereign over these things." That's just the attitude that we ought to have. If you wish, let this come to pass. There were some good things about what Peter said, but what he said was mostly ignorant. And I use the word ignorant because that's what Mark and Luke say about it. They say, Mark says he didn't know what he was saying, and Luke says he didn't realize what he was saying.
It's obvious that he was saying something that was wrong, but he was ignorant. He He didn't do it intentionally. He had good purpose, but it was wrong. It was bad. Later on, Peter was probably ribbed about it and admitted, "Yeah, I said that.
I didn't know any better." What was wrong with what he said? We've seen a couple things that were right, but what was wrong?
Well, for one thing, he puts Jesus on the same level with Moses and Elijah. And that was a big mistake. Jesus is infinitely superior to Moses and Elijah, as great as Moses and Elijah were, and as great as any man might be. Jesus does not belong in a tent right beside theirs.
So that's the main thing. He put Jesus on the same level with Moses and Elijah. But is it really the main thing? Maybe not. When you consider this, if Jesus had listened to Peter, if Peter was right, then the cross never would have happened.
This is a renewal of what happened a week earlier, when Peter takes Jesus aside and says, "Far be it from you, Lord," and then follows that rebuke from Jesus, "Get behind me, Satan." And what had been a really nice day turned into a very glum day was probably followed by six days of of sad, hurt feelings, and so on. And Peter thought, "Man, that place at Caesarea Philippi, that's not a good place to be. But here on the Mount of Transfiguration, this is more like it. This is what we have in mind for the Messiah. Nobody can stand before a guy who can do this.
It's good for us to be here." But if Jesus had listened to Peter and stayed there, then it would have meant that the whole world, including Peter and Moses and Elijah, would have been lost. He didn't know what he was saying; it was ignorant. Let's move on now and see what it was that God said. You can tell that. Peter's not saying something good, because of the way he gets interrupted by the cloud.
Verse five: While he was still speaking, and the other evangelists make that point, while he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. God spoke first of all symbolically when He brought this bright cloud over them, and He is showing His disapproval. And this is clear that they felt the disapproval.
Because in verse six it says, and when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were greatly afraid. And the other evangelists put this fear even before the voice—that when the cloud overshadows them, that they are overtaken with fear. They know that something wrong has been said. And they fall on their faces in fear. God speaks through the cloud to say there's something wrong, and then He speaks with His voice and says, "Here is the truth of the matter." I think that this is one of the most succinct, concentrated gospel presentations in the Bible.
With three phrases, God tells us who Jesus is, what Jesus does, and how we are to respond to it. For who Jesus is, He says, "This is my Son. He is my beloved Son. I love Him." That's who He is. What does He do?
In whom I am well pleased. He's not just repeating what he said in the first phrase. I love my son, and he is doing exactly what I want him to do. I am pleased with the way that he is living and the way that he is teaching. I am pleased with him.
And then, how are we to respond to that? Listen to him. Hear him. Keep on hearing him. Keep on listening to him.
And this is just another way of saying, believe in him. Because the word "hear," "hear," or "listen," does not mean merely that we listen to his words, like I might read them to you right now, but rather that we listen to them in such a way that we alter our behavior because of them. Reprogram your way of thinking to be in consonance with what Jesus says. And Jesus will tell you that the way of salvation. Everything that He tells you, listen to Him.
When I was just still a teenage preacher, my dad asked me if I would preach a series of meetings similar to this one at the church where he was pastor. I think it was the first time that I had been asked to speak a series of meetings, and so in order to prepare for that, I decided that I was going to go out into the woods of southeastern Ohio. Wayne National Forest covers much of the area where I grew up. I was going to go out into Wayne National Forest and spend a few days just fasting and praying and seeking the Lord's blessing on the upcoming meetings. And so I took a jug of water and a sleeping bag and a .22 rifle, and my dad dropped me off at the edge of the forest.
I'd already found on the map a place that looked like it was miles from any house or any other kind of structure, and I checked reading on my compass and I headed for that place. And so I walked for hours through the forest, and found a place that I thought was suitable. I'd hoped to find a rock, a rock house, but I didn't. I didn't bring a tent with me, and I didn't find a rock house. And I just rolled out my sleeping bag, and and I brought a volume of Matthew Henry's commentary.
And E. M. Bounds' book, *The Preacher and Prayer*, and I read I read the the whole preaching and prayer while I was out there, and was studying in Matthew Henry's commentary, and. Had some interesting experiences that have nothing to do with this sermon, but after after some time, I don't remember how long it was. It wasn't the whole week.
I'd planned to stay the whole week. The weather got got real stormy, and like I told you, I never brought a sleeping bag, and so I was going to get wet. I knew that that was a dangerous situation. And so, when there was just about an hour of daylight left, I decided I was going to roll up my sleeping bag and grab my rifle, and head out. And so I did.
And since I was going to be coming out in the dark, if I never hurried, I was I was running. And after I'd run for some time, I I thought. Are you sure you're going the right direction? You better check your compass. And so I pulled the compass out, and I looked at the compass, and I thought the compass is malfunctioning because that that little needle that's supposed to be pointing north is pointing south.
I know it is. And then, of course, I thought.
Well, maybe the—I mean—the compass is not broken. It was a nice compass. It's floating in water. It looks okay. All right, change things around so that the the north really is north.
And what that means is, you are going 180 degrees in the wrong direction. And I had to make a choice. Am I going to trust my instincts? Everything inside of me said that that was the way to go, and everything inside of the compass was saying, "You are one hundred percent wrong. Go the other way." I thought, "Okay, I'll trust the compass." And I turned around and ran in the direction that the compass told me to run, and lo and behold, I came out of the woods about one hundred yards from the very place where I went into that pathless wilderness.
The compass was right. I listened to the compass, and that is what the Lord tells us to do with Jesus. Listen to him. Everything inside of you may be saying, "No, it's some other way." No, you've got to trust the compass. You've got to trust Jesus.
This is my beloved son. He's right. Listen to him. It's God's summary and a gospel presentation. That's what Peter said.
That's what God said.
Now let's see what Jesus said. First of all, Jesus does a little symbolic communication in verse seven. But Jesus came and touched them. There, there's so much symbolism in that. There's so much tenderness in that.
They had fallen down; they fell on their faces. You know, if you just get hit on the head, I'm not sure that you always fall on your face. I think that they were so thunderstruck by the cloud and by the voice that they were already heading in that direction. Getting on their faces in in a position of extreme reverence. That position, when you're down there on your face, is a way of saying, "I'm just going to go ahead and get here before you put me here.
I'm just going to voluntarily submit. I have come to understand very quickly that you can kill me if you want to." And I'm going to get into position that says I'm not going to fuss with you about this. If you cut off my head, just go right ahead. But I'm I'm done fighting. That's that's what getting down on your knees before someone says I'm not going to fight you.
You are superior to me, and I acknowledge that. And this is one of the reasons why I think that it's good for us as Christians if we are physically able, at least once a day, to get down on our knees before God. I don't think you always have to pray that way, and I usually don't. But unless I forget, I get down on my knees before I get in the bed and pray, just as a reminder to myself. I am in submission to you, and just want to show that kind of respect to the Lord.
So they're down there on their faces, frightened. They were greatly afraid, it says in verse six. And Jesus came and touched them, and I think that He said with His touch. What he proceeded to say with his words. Arise, and do not be afraid.
And so it may be that he comes along and he perhaps gently puts a hand under one of their chins, or maybe takes them by the arms. But. This is not a rough thing. He's not kicking them and saying, "Get up and get moving." It's something that is gentle, something that is comforting, but also something that is encouraging, in the sense that it imparts courage. And he he touched them.
It's pretty interesting. I've looked up to see how many times in the Scripture does it say Jesus touched someone. I'm not counting the times it says he touched. Just the times that it says Jesus touched someone. It's only four times.
He touched the leper and said, "I am willing, be clean." He touched the eyes of the blind men at Jericho and said, "I am willing, receive your sight." He touched the ear of Malchus and healed it in the garden of Gethsemane after Peter had cut off Malchus's ear. And then it says here, Jesus came and touched them. There are other times, you know, like Jesus comes to the the coffin of the widow of Nain and he he touched the coffin. But actually, having Jesus' name and the word "touched" in the same same phrase, it only appears four times in the New Testament. He came and he touched him, and he spoke words that were encouraging.
Arise, and words that were comforting. Be not afraid; you are not going to die. This was not this was not intended to to kill you. Although I'm sure that that was what the disciples thought was going to happen, they were so overwhelmed with the glory of the cloud and the voice that had come from the cloud. Jesus, no, no, that's not it.
Arise and do not be afraid.
So that's what Jesus said. And now finally, let's see what the occupied mountaintop said. In verse eight, it says, "When they had lifted up their eyes." They saw no one but Jesus only, and with those negatives in that sentence, I was tempted to call this point what the unoccupied mountaintops said. But no, that's not the point. The point is that it was fully occupied by the person who deserved to be there.
The main point is not that Moses and Elijah were gone. The main point is that Jesus remained. The main point is not that Jesus abolishes Moses and Elijah. No, Jesus says, "Don't think that I came to abolish the law and the prophets. I did not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." And this is a physical representation of that statement of Jesus.
Moses and Elijah pale into relative insignificance because Jesus has come. I mentioned to you that my dad pastored the. I didn't. I don't think I mentioned the name Storms Creek Missionary Baptist Church. And I'm not sure if you know why so many churches are called missionary Baptist churches.
If they're old churches, like early in the 1800s churches, it's because early in the 1800s, through the Baptist denomination, there came very strong anti-missionary teaching. People who said. That we should not, we should not send out people to the world. God will save the people that He wants to save. We call them hardshell Baptists.
They call themselves primitive Baptists. But the reason that a lot of churches like My dad's church founded in 1812. The reason they identify themselves as missionary Baptist churches is because there were so many anti-missionary Baptist churches, and they wanted to they wanted to distinguish themselves from them. But my dad pastored the Storms Creek Missionary Baptist Church, was founded in 1812. The building that we met in was built in 1958.
My dad went there in 1963, and so it was a relatively new building. But I heard that for the first several years after the old church burned to the ground. That the church didn't want to go into debt, and so they were going to build the building one phase at a time. And so they first of all just built a spacious basement, put a roof on the basement, and then for several years they met in the basement. And then, as they were financially able, they built the superstructure, the church building that I grew up in.
The basement was never meant to be the permanent dwelling place of the church, and so after the after the superstructure was built, the church building was built. They turned they turned the basement into Sunday school rooms, and that's how it is still used to this day. And what happened at that church is an illustration of the relationship between Moses and Elijah and Jesus. Moses and Elijah constitute the basement of the church. the The old covenant is the basement for the church, and when the church is built, when Jesus comes, then.
You turn Moses and Elijah into Sunday school rooms. I mean, they're they're no longer irrelevant, but there should no longer be a Jewish religion. The Jewish religion was foundational to Christianity. It was intended to flower and fruit into Christianity. And.
So that's that is that is the word the the picture here. Moses and Elijah are gone, and there's Jesus only. Jesus only, as the way to get to God. Moses and Elijah spoke the truth. We still read their writings, preach from their writings, respect those men, and revere them as godly men.
But they must never, ever, be in competition with Jesus. The cloud comes down and says, "Don't, don't put my son on the same level with Moses and Elijah." When the cloud lifts, it's Jesus only. And so, let's receive the the message of the witnesses, those who who spoke on the mountain. Peter was ignorant in what he said; he got corrected by the Lord. This is my Son, whom I love.
Jesus, both in his actions and in his words, says, "Arise and don't be afraid." And then the message of the occupied mountaintop is: Jesus alone is the way to get to God. Amen.
