See and Hear Jesus

You have stood as I have stood under the night sky overwhelmed by the innumerable points of light. You've looked westward to the setting sun, watching the sun paint a beautiful kaleidoscope of color in the western sky. And these breathtaking experiences impact us, don't they? They impact us in deep and sometimes indescribable ways.

They elevate our thinking, they widen our perspective, and they help us to deal with sometimes the trivial things of life as well as the difficult things of life. Some of you saw, just for a few moments this morning, the sunrise. Most of you were in bed, right? But just for a few moments, around six o'clock, there was a beautiful sunrise, and I pointed it to my wife, who did get up a little later than I did.

And by the time she saw it, it had gone. See these beautiful sights, whether it's the stars at night, whether it's the setting sun or the rising sun. These are wonderful experiences, but they don't really last, do they? This morning, we've been thinking about something much more beautiful than a sunrise and a sunset. Even greater than the innumerable stars in the night sky, we have been putting our thoughts, yes, our eyes and our souls on God. I've called this message to see and to hear Jesus. That's what I want this morning, as you've come. I want you to see Jesus. You see, I'm not sure what that means.

I trust I can explain. I want you to hear from Jesus, because remember, we believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He's alive. And that Christianity is not just following some rules and regulations, as it were. It's not just coming to church and going through some procedures. We believe that this living Christ, who conquered death, who's alive forevermore, and we who are his followers, we are told we're going to see him face to face.

I can't really imagine what that's going to be like. Now we see him, as Paul would say, through a glass dimly. It's difficult for us sometimes to see the Lord.

We want to. Every day we get up and we want to get our eyes on Jesus, but it's difficult, isn't it? The things around us, the worries, the disappointments, the tragedies, the ups and downs of life, and even the joys of life, and the mountaintop experiences of life, they too can keep our eyes off Jesus, can't they?

Do you find it difficult? I find it difficult sometimes every day to keep my eyes on Jesus, to see him. Every day to hear him, but that's what we want. And in our study of Matthew, we come to Matthew chapter 17. And I want you to open your Bibles there.

A couple of weeks ago, we thought of the claim of Jesus at the closing verses of Matthew 16. Remember Jesus said, if anyone wishes to come after me, anyone here want to follow Jesus? Anyone want to sign up to follow Jesus?

Many of us would say yes. All right, says Jesus, you want to follow me? This is what you must do. You must deny self.

Oh, that's a real downer, isn't it? Who wants to deny self? Deny self, take up your cross and follow me. If you try to find your life, you'll lose it. But, says Jesus, if you lose your life for my sake and for the Gospels, you'll find it. For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? It's so easy, isn't it, to be shaped by our culture and a desire to be cool and a desire for people to think well of us for the culture around us to squeeze us into its mold.

Very easy to pamper ourselves, to make life as comfortable as we can for ourselves, and in that way, we in fact lose our lives. Now, Jesus is going to help us see Him. And Matthew, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, gives us this marvelous passage so that we would see and hear Jesus, to follow Jesus, to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these other things that are going to fall into place. Now, let's read Matthew chapter 17 as we see Jesus.

Are you ready to see and hear Jesus? The heavens declare the glory of God. And as I watched the sun rise this morning for about 10 minutes, it was absolutely spectacular. And you understand something of the glory of God through a sunrise.

But think of this, to truly see the glory of God, it's not just to look at a sunrise, it is to look at God Himself. Matthew chapter 17 verse 1, after six days, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, His brother, and led them up to a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with them. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it's good that we're here.

If you wish, I'll make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He was still speaking. Here's a divine interruption. He was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

Listen to Him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them saying, rise and have no fear. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Matthew's a good writer, isn't he? We want first of all to see the Lord Jesus. Peter, James, and John have this incredible experience of witnessing the transfiguration of Jesus. Now look back at verse 28 of chapter 16. Chapter 16, verse 28, truly I say to you, there are some standing here, notice what he's saying, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.

Now what on earth can that mean? Some say this refers to the resurrection of Jesus, or His ascension, or Pentecost, or the spread of the gospel through these disciples as they extend the kingdom of God. But I think the way that Matthew has laid out his material makes it pretty clear, I think, that verse 28 refers to the transfiguration which in turn is a foretaste, a foreshadowing of the second return of Jesus Christ. And so Peter and James and John, here they are, to use the words of verse 28, they are standing here, and they are about to see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.

Not the full display of it, but a, can we say a sneak preview? A foretaste, a foreshadowing of a greater, most glorious event. When the power and glory and majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ will be evident to all as He returns as King of kings and Lord of lords, Habakkuk says that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Can you imagine this world filled with the glory of God? That's what's going to happen at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the disciples had struggled with this idea that the Messiah would die. We saw that in chapter 16 verse 21.

From that time, that's after Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. After that time, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, the chief priests and scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. So the disciples, a crucified Messiah doesn't make sense. But they had to understand that before the coming of this glorious kingdom of God in His full manifestation of the power and brilliance and majesty of this holy God that we've been singing about, before that's going to happen, the Messiah, God incarnate, is going to die on a cross. But now after explaining to the disciples that He is going to die, that He must suffer, of course He must suffer, there is no other way for your sins to be forgiven. He must suffer, but first, before the coming glory, there must be the cross. And Jesus graciously gives His disciples this foretaste of His coming glory. There is a cross, that is true, Jesus is saying, but there's coming glory. First the cross, and then the glory.

And He's going to give them this taste, this sneak preview of the coming glory of the Lord. The text says here in verse 1 that it was a high mountain. We don't know what mountain that is. Traditionally it's been Mount Tabor, which is not particularly a high mountain.

There's Mount Hermon, present-day Syria, there's Mount Moron, there's other high mountains. We don't know. The point is, He goes up to a high mountain and there He is transfigured. Transfigured, that's a strange word, isn't it? It's a translation of the Greek word metamorphosis.

You know what a metamorphosis is, as a little caterpillar, metamorphosis into a butterfly, a change into another form. Here there is, in the transfiguration, a temporary, notice that, it's a temporary manifestation of the glory and majesty of God Himself. Now when Jesus was unearthed in His incarnation, was His glory always manifested to everyone? Was it?

No, it wasn't. If we saw the Lord Jesus, He didn't have a halo over His head. He didn't have a bright light shining on Him. In fact, Isaiah says, regarding the Messiah, Isaiah 53 verse 2, He had no form or majesty that we should look on Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. There was nothing in the physical features of our Lord Jesus Christ and His humanity that as you looked at Him, you thought, there is God. To those who would eyes to see, to those who had ears to hear, as He begins to teach, as He begins to touch the little children, as He begins to touch the leper, as He performs His various miracles, there is a manifestation of the glory of the Lord.

But that glory is normally veiled. But now, in the transfiguration, it's being revealed. The splendor, the light, the brilliance of His deity.

Remember, Jesus is God. Luke says that the appearance of His face changed. Matthew writes here, verse 2, that His face shone like the sun.

Difficult to understand it, isn't it? These three disciples are seeing something of the glory and majesty of Jesus. His clothes become white as light. Think of white light. His face shining like the sun.

His clothes like bright light. Luke records in Luke 9, he says, they saw His glory. Years later, Peter writes in his second epistle, chapter 1, he says, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

What's he referring to? Peter is referring to this occasion on the Mount of Transfiguration. There they saw, they had this wonderful privilege, these three disciples of seeing something of the glory and majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this transfiguration is a confirmation that yes, Jesus is going to be killed. He is going to suffer on a cross.

That is true. But He will be victorious over death, and one day, He's going to return in glory. You want evidence of that, disciples? Here is the transfiguration. Look at me.

Look at what's happening. A taste of the coming glory of the Lord. If you're familiar with your Bible, you know that when the tabernacle was completed in Exodus 40, and when the temple was completed in 2 Kings, in 1 Kings, rather, chapter 8, on both occasions it says that the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. The glory of the Lord filled the temple. That there is the sign that Moses and Solomon had done exactly as they had been instructed, and they build the very house of God. And when it's completed, the glory of the Lord is revealed. God is there.

It's a visible sign of God's presence. And here on the mountain, God is declaring the uniqueness of His Son. Notice, only Jesus is transfigured.

Moses and Elijah were great figures, some of the outstanding men of God in the Old Testament, but it is only Jesus who is transfigured. Moses on the mountain had said to God, show me your glory. And he just saw back of the glory of God.

And even that, you remember as he came down the mountain, his face was shining because he had been talking with God. But now, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of His deity is not just being reflected as it was in Moses, it is being manifested. Jesus does not merely reflect the glory of God. Yes, He is the image of the invisible God, but He is God, and it is only God who can truly manifest His own glory.

The writer of Hebrews says, regarding our Savior, that He is the radiance of the glory of God. Now, you see, that's very interesting, John, but what's that to do with me? Well, I want you to see the Lord Jesus. You say, well, I'm not on the mountain of transfiguration, I know that. But this is given to us for our instruction, that we want to see something, not in His fullness.

Here we are, moral people with all of the distractions of our life, trying to follow Jesus, and we're so easily knocked off course, aren't we? And we're to be still and know who God is. We are to be still and see the Savior. This is why we're studying Matthew's Gospel, so that you would see Jesus. And as you see Jesus, there is this supernatural transformation, that we are becoming more like Him. And we see Jesus then as we study the Word of God. We're going to see Jesus in a moment as we break bread in the very ordinance of communion. We see Jesus in the fellowship of His people. How wonderful it is to see you without all your masks on.

Now, there are some people, I was told I looked better with my mask on. There's always encouragers in church, aren't there? I mean, that may be true, but it's off. But seriously, as we see one another, and as we interact with one another as the people of God, isn't it wonderful when you see something of Jesus in that brother or sister, in that act of kindness, in that act of encouragement, in their patience, in their love, in their care, in their desire for truth, that we see something of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we get away from this book, if we get away from the corporate gatherings of these people, if we neglect the ordinances of the church, what happens? We drift and drift and drift, and we find ourselves, don't we, becoming more like the ungodly world than our Savior.

You ever find yourself in that situation? You wake up and you realize that in my life, there has been spiritual drift. In John 20, when the disciples see the risen Christ, it says, John says, the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. What's going to make us joyful?

What's going to keep us strong? It is seeing Jesus. To see Jesus is to be transformed. It's to be changed.

It's to be strengthened. Paul sets that out so beautifully in 2 Corinthians 3 as he talks about us looking at Christ and becoming more like Him, being transformed into His image to see Jesus. And when we come to Calvary Church, let me say this. Our goal is not to entertain you. Our goal is not so that you can feel good about yourselves.

It's not some kind of psychological inspiring situation where you feel good about yourself. Did you notice that Peter said, oh, it's good to be here. And God, in a sense, interrupts him and says, Peter, it's not about you. It's about my son.

This is my well-beloved son. You say, well, John, isn't it good that we're here and we enjoy one another's company? Of course it is. That's very important, as I said last week, as we think of the church. But the priority is not for you to feel good. The priority is not for you to be entertained.

A priority is not to engage in some kind of Christian cheerleading. It's not to turn the sanctuary into a nightclub or a rock concert or a political action center. It is not, I repeat, it is not to bring the world into the church. It is to bring heaven into the church.

Do you remember? We've got enough of the world out there, don't we? And when I come with the people of God, the last thing I want is some church trying to see how close they can get to the world.

It's the very opposite. Remember the old song, heaven came down and glory filled my soul. We want to get a taste of heaven. I want, as our worship leaders directed us this morning so powerfully, I want us to behold God.

I want us to see our Lord Jesus Christ. See, Calvary is the house of God. Why was the tabernacle built?

Why was the temple built? God says, let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. How wonderful that the eternal God wants to dwell in our midst. And as we leave today, our goal is not for you to say, well, these musicians were absolutely tremendous.

They are absolutely tremendous. And it's not to say John Monroe is a great preacher, which I'm not. But that's not the focus, is it? Our focus is to say that when we came here, we believed that God was here. To use the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 14, God is really among you. And to leave saying, to some extent this is true, my eyes have seen the glory of the Lord. That when I keep my eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm changed. I see the world. I see my priorities. I see my values changed to bring them in line with the will of God to see Jesus. But not only are we to see Jesus, we're to hear and obey the Lord Jesus. Did you notice that rather than listening to Jesus, Peter spoke? Sound familiar? We were singing, be still, be still. You find it difficult to be still? We're very uncomfortable with silence, aren't we?

We're bombarded with noise and opinions. Here are Moses and Elijah symbolizing the law and the prophets and they're talking with Jesus. You say, what were they talking about? Matthew doesn't really tell us, but Luke does. Luke says that we're talking about the departure of Jesus. The word in Greek is Exodus. Second book of the Bible is Exodus. Why Exodus?

Exodus is the leading out, the leading out of the people. They were talking, could you imagine a conversation between the Lord Jesus and Moses and Elijah and they're talking about His departure. The disciples don't want to hear about the cross, but Moses and Elijah with Jesus are talking about the cross. And the disciples have to understand that central to the mission of Jesus is the cross. These two Old Testament saints are talking with Jesus about the death of the Messiah for the sins of His people.

Moses and Elijah themselves had unique deaths. Moses is the leader from Egypt. He leads the people right to the very border of the promised land. He looks out and he sees Jericho and he looks west and there he can almost see the Mediterranean Sea.

He looks to the north and he looks to the south and he sees this land flowing with milk and honey, but he never gets into the land. The Lord buried him in the land of Mob, but no one knows the place, the Bible says, the place of his burial to this day. God buried him. Where? We don't know.

That's not the point. God buried him. Elijah is one of two men who never died. Elijah, how did he leave this world? Well, he left it with chariots of fire.

That's pretty impressive, isn't it? Imagine watching someone in a parking lot and you see the chariots of fire and the horses going up to heaven. That's how Elijah did. A strange entrance into heaven.

We all would like that. It's a figure, I think, of the rapture, isn't it? Going into the presence of God without death. That was Elijah. So we hear these great men and rather than listening to their conversation, Peter speaks.

Luke says in Luke 9, 33, not knowing what he said. Have you ever been like that? Something wonderful is going around you and instead of listening, you're speaking.

You're talking about yourself. Oh, it's pretty good to be here. Peter, stop, stop, stop. God tells the disciples. He's telling you and me. What does he say?

This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him. Stop talking. Be still and listen to God. See, those following Jesus have to have humble attitudes listening. We have to have humble actions obeying. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

One of the important characteristics of the authentic follower of Jesus Christ is that we listen to his voice. Listen. Listen. Take time out. Switch off the television. Switch off your iPhone.

Oh, really? Yes, switch it off. Go walk. Sit down under a tree. Get out on the porch, whatever it is. Get a quiet place and open your Bible and listen to Jesus.

You ever do that? See, most of us, like Peter, we speak too much and too quickly. We need to improve our listening skills. Are you listening to God? Do you come here today with a desire to hear God? We believe that God speaks to us through this book.