Come And See His Transfiguration

Near the end of his time on earth, Jesus took three of his most trusted disciples to a mountaintop. There he revealed to them the true glory he had been given from the Father.

The memory of that shining image never left Peter, who wrote later of hearing God's voice on the sacred mountain, This is my beloved Son, listen to him. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer. Today we continue our series on Come and See Jesus, pictures of the Savior that teach us about his mission on earth.

Later in our broadcast, Erwin Lutzer will speak on Come and See His Transfiguration. The Moody Choir comes now to open our service. O Lord of my soul, get the heart of His benefits, who are given all my iniquities, who live all my diseases.

We feel alive from destruction, who crown in Thee with loving kindness and tender mercy. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name, bless His holy name, bless His holy name, bless His holy name, bless His holy name, bless His name. We're so grateful to the choir for lifting our souls into the presence of the Lord by singing Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul.

I hope that you have come here today to do just that. If you take your hymnals, please, and turn to 264, Praise Ye the Triune God, 264. Our scripture reading today is by Pastor Steve Mason.

He's our pastor of young adults and evangelism. And you'll notice that we will have the opportunity of joining with him as he reads to us. Then we'll be singing the two choruses listed, I Worship You Almighty God, and Come Let Us Adore Him.

And once we stand to sing, 264 will continue to stand until we have sung both of those choruses. We as Christians believe in the Trinity. We need to understand that that makes Christianity unique from all the religions of the world. Most people think that the religions of the world are fundamentally the same and superficially different. But when compared with Christianity, they are superficially the same and fundamentally different. Islam does believe in one God, but they strongly deny the Trinity.

In fact, the idea of the incarnation is an abomination to the Islam faith. On the other hand, you have the Hindus with their belief in many gods. As Christians, we believe strongly in one God. We believe in the unity of God. But we also believe that God is a plurality within that unity. And we speak of it as the three persons of the Trinity.

How blessed, how unique. Notice as we sing 264, praise ye the Father for his loving kindness. Stands at two, praise the Savior, great is his compassion.

Stands at three, praise ye the Spirit, comforter of Israel. Is it biblical to pray to the Father and the Son and the Spirit? Yes, we do pray in the name of Jesus to the Father.

That's the pattern. But even when we pray to the Son and the Spirit, we are praying to God. Notice how the choir is going to be singing the pilgrims hymn. And if you look in the middle right of the words that are there in your bulletin, you'll notice the line, glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Another reference to the Trinity. And it ends by saying, endless your grace, oh endless your grace, beyond all mortal dream, both now and forever and onto ages and ages, Amen. Let's pray together and then we shall sing with enthusiasm and joy and with hearts of worship. Praise ye the triune God. And our Father today, we thank you that you are God. And we thank you for the Son and the blessed Holy Spirit. And we bow before the Trinity today, thanking you that Jesus said these words, Father, as thou art in me and I in thee, that they may be one in us.

We thank you, Father, that the Trinity is a model for our own fellowship. So now we worship, we praise and we adore. In Jesus' name, Amen. Heavenly God, we thank you that you are God. Praise ye the triune God. Praise ye the triune God.

Praise ye the triune God. Praise ye the Savior. Praise ye the Son of God. Praise ye the Spirit. Praise ye the Son of God.

God's name is Jesus. Praise ye the Spirit. Praise ye the Son of God. Praise ye the Spirit. Praise ye the Father. Praise ye the Spirit. Praise ye the Son of God. Our scripture reading this morning comes to us from the Psalms, Psalm 25 verses 1 through 10. As pastors have said, I will read the bold.

Please join me on the standard print. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. In you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame.

But they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. Show me your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God, my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.

Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways. According to your love, remember me, for you are good, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he instructs sinners in his way. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep his demands of his covenant. I worship you, Almighty God, there is none like you. I bless you, Prince of Peace, that is what I want to do. I give you praise, for you are my righteousness. I worship you, Almighty God, there is none like you. I worship you, Almighty God, there is none like you.

I bless you, Prince of Peace, that is what I want to do. I give you praise, for you are my righteousness. I worship you, Almighty God, there is none like you. O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. We'll give him all our glory, We'll give him all our glory, We'll give him all our glory, Christ the Lord. For we are only serving, For we are only serving, For we are only serving, Christ the Lord. We'll praise his name for heaven, We'll praise his name for heaven, We'll praise his name for heaven. Christ the Lord. Even before we call on your name to ask you, O God, When we seek for the words to glorify you, You hear our prayer.

Once is enough, once is enough, Surpassing all we know. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, And to the Holy Spirit. Even with darkness sealing us in, We bring your name. And through all the days that follow so fast, We trust in you. And bless your grace, O endless your grace, The Alamo, Lord of dreams. Both now and forever, And unto ages, And ages.

Amen. I particularly love the words that have just been sung that read, Even with darkness sealing us in, We breathe your name. And through all the days that follow so fast, We trust in you.

At the end of the day, forever and ever, We do trust in God. Thank you so much, choir. Father, in the name of Jesus, we just want to thank you today for your greatness and for your love.

We thank you that you are not hampered by borders. We thank you today that in countries that are walled off and sealed, where no gospel literature is supposed to get in, we thank you that you have your churches and you have your people and that your word has penetrated all of those boundaries. And we ask today that you will invigorate us as a congregation as we tell others about Jesus and build bridges to our community. We ask today, Lord God, make us strong for Jesus' sake.

Now, there are so many other concerns that we can pray about for our nation and its needs. But we simply commend ourselves to you and pray that the gifts that we have brought with us would be a credit to you because they're offered by hearts that are holy and passionately devoted to you with love and exuberance. In Jesus' name, amen. Praise him, all creatures, hear me, Lord. Praise him, our God, even when he knows. Praise, Father, the Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

We often sing, don't we? Jesus shall reign where'er the Son does his successive journeys run. But when you look at society now, it sure doesn't seem as if Jesus is ruling and reigning, does it? They seem to be mocking the Son.

And so the question is, how do we keep on going in a world that seems to be spinning out of control with so many problems and so many needs and the ugliness of human nature being seen for what it is? You know, the disciples had the same problem. They had a problem because Jesus told them that he was going to die in Jerusalem. And the Bible says that Peter took him aside saying, not so, Lord.

You're not going to die. And the reason that Peter said that is because the idea of a Messiah dying was demeaning. In those days, it was believed that when the Messiah comes, he's going to establish the kingdom.

He's going to do away with Rome. He's going to unite the tribes of Israel that were so scattered and they were warring one another. And so the idea was that the Messiah comes triumphantly and he comes to win. He doesn't come to die on a cross. Peter takes Jesus aside and says, no, you don't. And Jesus says, get you behind me, Satan. The very same mouth that just earlier in context had said that you were the Son of God is now saying words that really originated with the devil.

Because if Jesus had not died, redemption would not be accomplished. Well, Jesus knows that it's time for the disciples to have some encouragement and he needs some encouragement. And he knew that you and I living 20 centuries from these events, we would need some encouragement. And so he takes the disciples to a mountain. Today, I invite you to come and see the transfiguration. Now, I know that in your bulletin, the text that is mentioned is Matthew chapter 17. I had originally intended to preach from there.

But upon further thought, I decided to use the account in Luke. They're almost identical. When the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, particularly, but also John, when they wrote about the same event, their stories can be reconciled. But one would emphasize one thing.

One might include some words that the other omitted. And so what we're going to do is to look in the gospel of Luke today, chapter 9. Luke chapter 9, where we have the story of the transfiguration given as recorded here. You'll notice in verse 27 of Luke 9, it says, But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. And then Jesus gives them a little glimpse of the coming kingdom. And maybe you're here today and what you need more than anything else is a glimpse of the coming kingdom. Because your world last week might not have gone the way in which you intended it nor the way in which you planned it. And part of my responsibility as your pastor is to preach in such a way that I help you worship on Sunday and work better on Monday. So that's the agenda. By the time you're through listening, I believe you're going to be encouraged.

And you're going to say, no matter what, I know how it's going to end. Verse 28, Now about eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter and John and James and went to the mountain to pray. On three occasions, Jesus took these three men who had been businessmen together to special places where the other disciples didn't get to go. In the house of Jarius, when the little girl died, Jesus shut everybody out. He went into the room and he brought with him Peter, James and John. Those were the only three men allowed with him in the room when he raised her from the dead. Here you have Peter, James and John invited to the Mount of Transfiguration. And in Gethsemane, when Jesus is at his greatest agony, he took with him Peter, James and John.

Notice that all of these experiences that these three had were experiences that surrounded the topic of death. And there was a reason for that, as we shall see. So let's simply move through the events very quickly of the transfiguration and then we will ask ourselves what difference this should make.

Not only today, but on Monday morning. First of all, we see here the son's transformation. You'll notice it says, And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered and his clothing became dazzling white. It's amazing what happens when we pray. Your countenance may change. Jesus is up on the mountain and he's praying and suddenly he is transfigured.

Luke doesn't use the word, but Matthew does. The Greek word transfigured is our word metamorphose. And what happens when in metamorphose, you know, is the inner nature. There's an outward change, but it's based on the inner nature. And we think of the word metamorphose when we think of how butterflies are created by God. Metamorphose. There's that there's that inner nature that comes out.

And that's what happened here. The inner nature of Jesus just broke forth and you saw the glory, the wonder and the beauty and the dazzling light of God. And so Jesus was transfigured before them, the scripture says. And we can see here in the text that this was really an indication of his coming glory, the kingdom. Again, I'm quoting Matthew when it says that his face shone like the sun. Now, you can't stand too close to the sun, can you?

Ninety three million miles away from the sun is about right, but it gives you an idea of the of the dazzling brilliance and beauty and effulgence of God. Remember, Jesus said this is the sun coming in his kingdom. This is Jesus as he is, as he is in glory, as you and I shall someday see him. And there's even more to the story as we shall learn in a moment. So here we have Jesus. He is in this dazzling beauty and glory. And now we see the saints participation. We notice that two Old Testament saints show up on the Mount of Transfiguration.

The first is Moses. I need to pause there. Aren't you happy for him? Aren't you happy for Moses?

You should be. Remember the Old Testament. He wasn't allowed in the land. He was buried on Mount Nebo. You can go to Israel today, look across the Dead Sea. If you're on the Jordan side and you can see Mount Nebo where Moses was buried and Satan and Michael had a little tussle about Moses body. Some people don't think the body is important. The dead body, the dead body is important. But Moses is there and you kind of feel bad for him because you remember he was supposed to speak to the rock and he smote the rock and God says, Moses, you're a great guy.

But because you hit the rock, instead of speaking to it, you will not see the land that has been your vision and your dream for all of your life. So when Moses dies, we're kind of sad. He wrote Psalm 91 very plaintively, you know, and saying, boy, teach us to number our days because life is tough and it's hard. And he goes on and on. You say, oh, poor Moses.

But you know what? He made it across the Jordan River. He did make it into the land 15 centuries later. He's on top of the Mount of Transfiguration.

He got in. I'm really happy for Moses. He was remarkable because the Bible says of him that he spoke to God like a man speaks to his friend. He represents the law, the law.

Oftentimes you hear, you know, the law of Moses. That's what he represented. And then Elijah, he represents the prophets. Elijah was a remarkable man, full of strength and power.

In fact, he did not die, but he was taken to heaven directly. What a what a remarkable man Elijah was. And so he represents the law and the prophets. And there they are on the Mount of Transfiguration.

And we are told what they were talking about. It says two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, verse 31, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he, that is Jesus, was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. I can imagine Moses saying, Lord Jesus, you know, I had an exodus. That's the Greek word. You know that the Greek word is exodus. We have exits in this building. And the second book of the Old Testament is called Exodus.

Why? Exodus is a going out. They went out of Egypt and they went into the promised land. They moved out so that they could go in. And I can imagine Moses saying, well, you know, Lord Jesus, I had an exodus, too, but it sure isn't going to wasn't as glorious and as important as yours.

And there they are. They're talking about his exodus that he's going to accomplish in Jerusalem. Old Testament, what happens? They move out of the slavery of Egypt and the exodus took them into Canaan. Jesus goes into Jerusalem, crucified on a cross on the outskirts of the city. And and he moves he moves into heaven. When Moses had his exodus, he took a whole group of people with him into the promised land, though he did not quite get there.

But eventually they did. Jesus, when he dies, he takes a whole group of people with him. Old Testament saints, New Testament saints who trust him. His exodus takes us all the way to the pearly gates. So there they are. They're discussing his exodus that he's going to accomplish in Jerusalem.

Well, you'll notice it says these words. Now, Peter and those who are with him, that is the other two disciples, were heavy with sleep. Oh, Peter, you know, I'm all for sleep.

But here? Possibly he's not the only person who, when in the presence of God, has fallen asleep. In fact, Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples are sleeping.

I don't know if Peter had a sleep deficiency and he tended to make up for it on certain occasions. But there he is. But when they were fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said.

Where in the world is he getting this? They're talking about Jesus Christ's departure. And suddenly it triggers something in Peter's mind and he's saying, let's stay here on the mountaintop and let us be sure that we build these three tents, these booths, these tabernacles, and let's stay here for one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus. To his everlasting credit, he didn't apparently think that he was worthy of one himself.

But what triggered that in his mind? They're talking about the exodus. And one of the feasts of Israel was the Feast of Booths, and scholars tell us that it was the time of year, very probably, when the Feast of Booths, mentioned in Leviticus chapter 23, was now being celebrated.

It is the last of Israel's seven feasts. And during the Feast of Booths, for one full week, they lived, as it were, in a tent. It was just a makeshift tent or booth, oftentimes made with branches.

So that you could see the stars through it. And they lived there as a reminder of what they endured in the desert. That's what the Feast of Booths was all about. A number of years ago, I was on a high-rise building. Someone, I don't remember who, invited me to the top of one of the large buildings here in Chicago, the tall buildings. And as we looked down, we saw during the Feast of Booths, here in the city, that the Jewish people keeping the Feast of Booths were building booths on the top of other high-rises. If you've never seen this, during the Feast of Booths, which is going to occur sometime after Passover, what you need to do is to go there and go to the top of the building, and you'll see that little structure there and that little structure there as the Jewish people, the Orthodox Jewish people are still keeping the Feast of Booths.

So it seems to me here that Peter, thinking about this, says, let's celebrate the Feast of Booths here and let's stay up here all week and enjoy this. Well, the Bible says he didn't know what he was talking about. Have you ever said anything and you didn't know what you were talking about? Have you ever had that experience? Have you ever had the experience of wishing that after you had said something that your mouth had been taped shut early in the morning?

I came across a prayer and I hadn't planned to share this, so I'm going to have to make it up a little bit, but the prayer goes something like this. Lord, Lord, I've not yet been angry today. Lord, I have not yet had evil thoughts today. Lord, I have not yet slandered anyone today.

Lord, I have not yet misused my tongue in any way, Lord. But Lord, you know that in a moment I'm going to get out of bed. God is saying, Peter, look, this is not the time to stay on the mountaintop.

You've seen the glimpse of glory. But I need to go to Jerusalem to die, Jesus is saying. And furthermore, Peter, when you stop to think of it, Jesus isn't exactly worthy to be in a booth with Moses and Elijah because he is an entirely different class by himself. And so Peter does not quite know what he is saying. And then you'll notice it says, as he was saying these things, now we get to the Father's affirmation. As he was saying these things, the cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered into the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my son, my chosen one, listen to him. And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found there alone, and they were alone with Jesus. The voice from the cloud, it's the Shekinah glory of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament, whenever God accompanied his people, it was with a cloud, and the cloud was representative of the fact that he was with them. And now the glorious cloud of glory comes upon the top of the mountain, and out of that cloud comes a voice, this is my son. And the fact that Jesus Christ was God's son means that he had the very nature of God. As Christians throughout the years have believed that the nature of Jesus is not similar to that of God the Father, but the same nature as God the Father. Now you and I are sons and daughters of God, but we're sons and daughters by adoption.

We're grandfathered in. We do not have the nature of God. But Jesus has the very nature of God. And then the Father says, in whom I am well pleased, that's what Matthew includes, in whom I am well pleased. And in saying that, the Father says, I agree with everything that Jesus has done, and I'm going to agree with everything that he's going to accomplish, and my pleasure rests upon him. And then we notice in the text, and you ought to really underline that, listen to him.

Last part of verse 35. Listen to him. When he tells you that he's going to Jerusalem to die, listen to him. When he tells him that you should take up your cross and follow him, listen to him. When he tells you that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man can come to the Father except through him, listen to him. People say, well, I want to know how to please God.

Fine. Find what the Son said as recorded in the New Testament and listen to him. And then they're left alone just with Jesus.

What an experience. Peter talks about this in 2 Peter later on. He talks about the glorious experience on the mountaintop, wonderful, gracious experience, and to be alone with Jesus. Moses is gone.

The law is gone. The prophets, yes, they've spoken, and they still speak to us today, but then there's Jesus alone. Just give me Jesus is not that the song that we heard recently.

Just give me Jesus. What difference should this story make to us? First of all, what did it mean? You know, when the Bible uses the word glory, it's speaking of the sum of God's attributes. When the Bible speaks of glory, it's speaking of God in his brilliance, God in his holiness, God in his might, God in his dazzling light and brightness. In fact, the Hebrew word glory means heavy. You know, we use the word today when we say, well, you know, he told me that, and that's pretty heavy. What we mean is weighty. The glory of God is the most weighty thing in the universe.

It is the purpose to which all things have their source, their support, and their end, and they all contribute to it. I was at a conference this past week, came back yesterday, and I, in one of the messages, was emphasizing the little phrase in the book of Ephesians that we should live to the praise of his glory. Now, at this point, we have to think very carefully. What this meant to Jesus was a great encouragement, because Jesus is anticipating not the horror that you see in the Passion movie, terrible though that is, what Jesus is anticipating is, is that in a space of three hours, all the horrors of hell that someone would experience for all eternity are going to be comprised into those three hours.

That's something that can never be portrayed on a movie. And so Jesus is anticipating that, and he begins to realize, yes, first comes the cross, but on the other side is the crown. First of all comes the agony, and then comes the glory. First of all, there's Jerusalem, and then there's heaven. Now, isn't it interesting that when Jesus prayed in John 17, this is what he says. Father, he said, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

Here, here, oh, yeah, I was thinking about this this week. I have to preach a couple of messages on the glory of God sometime. Listen, that it is so important to realize that when Jesus came from heaven to earth, he left glory behind, but he brought some with him.

That's what was seen on the Mount of Transfiguration, but that's only a sliver of the glory that he actually has. So this for Jesus was a great, great encouragement. It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay.

It's going to end all right. What did it mean to the disciples, Peter, James, and John? Well, to them, it prepared them for death. I believe that when James came to die, you know, the Bible says in Acts chapter 12 that James had his head cut off by Herod. He beheaded him.

It's this James. He's the first of the inner circle of the apostles to die. Now, we know that Stephen died before that time, but Stephen was not part of the inner circle of 12. Judas, of course, had died.

Yes, most assuredly. He will die later on. He will have died before James, but of the 11 who were true to the faith, James is the first to die. And I can imagine that when that time came for beheading, he probably said to himself, it's not that bad. I've seen glory.

I've seen what it's like on the other side. I saw Jesus. I met Moses and Elijah.

By the way, could I throw this in at no extra cost? I don't think in heaven we're going to need name tags. I don't get any hint here that Jesus had to say, now, Peter, James, and John, this is Moses and this is Elijah. And Moses and Elijah, I want you to meet these three fishermen of mine over here.

No, no, no, no, no. We're going to have intuitive knowledge in heaven. They would have said to themselves, we've seen the glory. That's how James died. Peter died by being crucified upside down, tradition says, because when he was martyred, he said, I'm not worthy to die like Jesus did. Crucify me, but let me hang upside down. That's the way he died.

John lived a normal life, but with an awful lot of persecution and eventually was exiled on the island of Patmos. But can you imagine the difference that it made? Can you imagine that they said to themselves, we will never view death the same again. We have seen the glory. That's what it meant to them. What should it mean to us?

Now we come to indescribable blessing. If this were not in the scriptures, I wouldn't believe it, but Jesus said it. I believe it. I'm listening to him. So I accept it.

He says in John chapter 17, as he begins to pray for us near the end of his wonderful prayer, he says, O Father, the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them. Wow. You've got glory.

You really do. You've got glory. You say, well, just look at me.

Well, I'm looking at you right now. With the eye of faith, I see glory. And what happens is when Jesus comes in glory, the Bible says we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. I assume, even though the text isn't as clear as we might want it to be, that Moses and Elijah had a body something like Jesus, even though I'm sure it was not as beautiful and shining as much, but they too had glory because it's going to end okay. We're headed for glory. And what I want you to do is to get started on your glory hunt.

How do we do it? You know that that word metamorphosis, transfiguration, it occurs twice somewhere else in the New Testament? For example, in Romans chapter 12, it says this, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. There's the word, but be transfigured by the renewing of your mind. If you renew your mind through the scriptures, you begin to imbibe more of the glory, the transfiguration. And then 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, where it says, we all with open face, behold us in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. We are being transformed from the one degree of glory to another degree of glory, even by the Lord, the spirit. How do we begin even in this life to experience glory?

Tell you how, by what we think and by what we look at. We're to think the scriptures, transformed by the renewing of the mind and having thought the scriptures, we then are transformed also by gazing at Jesus and becoming like him. Number of years ago, I told you the story and it's coming to mind and so I'm going to tell it again. You remember the story of the great stone face, little Ernest? What happened is there was this village on the side of a mountain and across the valley on the other side of the mountain, there were stones that were thrown together in such a way that they resembled a man's face, kind man it appeared and there was this legend in the village that says someday somebody is going to come who is going to be like the great stone face, who will resemble him.

So everybody looked for him. One day a poet came to the town and they said, this is the great stone face. This is the man because he had such a kind disposition but as they looked at him and they got to know him they said, no, this isn't it. Then they said, well, there's a philosopher who's coming and he resembles the great stone face. Now little Ernest brought up in this village just loved and adored that great stone face. For hours he would sit on a rock, look across the valley and look at that great stone face day in and day out.

He never missed a day from looking at the great stone face. Well, you probably figured out how the story even ends when he became a man. He was giving a speech in the little village and they could see the silhouette. They could see his silhouette and off in the distance they could see the great stone face and they said, Ernest is the one who resembles the great stone face.

Don't miss it. We become what we gaze at. You become what you gaze at.

You gaze at television, you become what you gaze at. You gaze at the word beyond the sacred page. I see the Lord. We begin to imbibe the glory as we look at Jesus.

So my word to you today is to worship and we should worship tomorrow but tomorrow morning remember glory is coming. This world doesn't have a lot of glory. Today what you can do is to take the letter L out of the word glory and you get gory. That's about what we've got. Just read your newspapers. Gory.

But glory is coming. A woman by the name of Frances Chadwick back on the 4th of July 1952 was going to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast, 21 miles. And it was a very foggy day and she got into the water.

She had already swum the English Channel. She got into the water and it was so foggy and the water was cold that day. But she kept on going and eventually she became so exhausted that she said to the people in the boat who were next to her please take me out of the water I can't continue. Well they took her out of the water and they discovered that they were only one half mile from the shore and she said this later. She said I could have made it if only I'd been able to see the shore. Her problem was not ultimately the cold or the weariness though that certainly played a part. The problem was the fog.

The fog obscured the shore and so she didn't make it. The transfiguration of Jesus reminds us so explicitly and vividly my friend that's the shore. It's going to be okay.

Keep going. Let's pray. Our Father today we are so thankful for Jesus. We thank you for this vision of him in glory and beauty and holiness and light. We thank you Father that with the eye of imagination we can try to begin to think about what the kingdom will be when the king comes and we thank you that along with Peter, James and John every believer who's trusted Christ as Savior will be there to enjoy the glory to participate in the glory for Jesus has granted us the glory that he himself is.

Lord I'm reminded of the words of Cowper how thou canst think so well of me and be the God thou art is darkness to my intellect but sunshine to my heart. For these mercies we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. On today's Moody Church Hour Pastor Lutzer brought a message on Come and See His Transfiguration the sixth of eight pictures of the life of Christ in a series entitled Come and See Jesus. Soon to come the Passion of Christ the fateful final days of his life on earth.

And that passion began in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed with his disciples. Next week join us as Dr. Lutzer speaks on Come and See His Agony. Our eight part series on Come and See Jesus can be yours on CD for a gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour.

Our thank you to you will be a set of eight messages you can hear and then pass on to others. Just call us at 1-800-215-5001. Let us know you'd like to support Moody Church's ministry. Call 1-800-215-5001 or you can write to us at Moody Church Media 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago, Illinois 60614. Mention the series Come and See Jesus when you write or call. Online go to moodyoffer.com that's moodyoffer.com Join us next time for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.