The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
1 John 3:1quoted to explain a worship song about God's love making us children of God
1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
quoted as the basis for choosing to worship through discouragement, turning from sadness to hope in God
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.
5 Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.
6 My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
8 Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.
Jesus telling disciples he must go to Jerusalem, suffer and be killed, and Peter rebuking him
21 From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.
22 Peter took him aside, and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This will never be done to you.”
23 But he turned, and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.”
the transfiguration, with Peter, James and John on the mountain, Moses and Elijah appearing, and the voice from the cloud
1 After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves.
2 He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as the light.
3 Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him.
4 Peter answered, and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you want, let’s make three tents here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”
6 When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were very afraid.
7 Jesus came and touched them and said, “Get up, and don’t be afraid.”
8 Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus alone.
9 As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Don’t tell anyone what you saw, until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”
disciples asking why scribes say Elijah must come first, Jesus saying Elijah already came and they did not recognize him
10 His disciples asked him, saying, “Then why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
11 Jesus answered them, “Elijah indeed comes first, and will restore all things,
12 but I tell you that Elijah has come already, and they didn’t recognize him, but did to him whatever they wanted to. Even so the Son of Man will also suffer by them.”
13 Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptizer.
chief priests challenging Jesus' authority during holy week, Jesus responding with a question about John's baptism
23 When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?”
24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
25 The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?” They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’
26 But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a prophet.”
27 They answered Jesus, and said, “We don’t know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
the word metamorphoo used here for being transformed by the renewing of the mind to know God's will
2 Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
we are being transformed into the same image as Christ from glory to glory by the Spirit
18 But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Paul bending his knees before the Father, praying that believers be strengthened, that Christ dwell in their hearts, and that they know the love of Christ
14 For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man;
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth,
19 and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ray preached on the Transfiguration from Matthew, working through the passage in its context and connecting it to two other New Testament uses of the same Greek word, metamorphoo. The sermon asked what it looks like for ordinary people to be genuinely transformed rather than simply informed, and it moved toward Communion as an act of surrender to that process.
What was said
Ray opened by tracing his own life backward, from his years as a sculptor and welder, to a rummage-sale Nova he restored at fourteen, to a moment in second grade when he kicked another boy until he was spitting blood. He told that story not to dwell on regret but to make a point: even a kid who knew how to act in church, who could give the right answers, was capable of something that ugly. The Christian life requires honestly considering that walk, not sanitizing it.
He then placed the Transfiguration in sequence. Peter had just confessed that Jesus is the Christ, and Jesus had just rebuked him with "get behind me, Satan" for resisting the path to Jerusalem. The cross is not optional, and anyone who wants to follow must deny himself, take up his cross, and lose his life for Christ's sake. That is the immediate backdrop when Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain.
On the mountain, Jesus is transfigured. Ray spent time on the Greek word, metamorphothe, pointing out that it is aorist passive indicative: it happened once, it happened to Jesus, and he did not do it to himself. God was transfiguring him. What the disciples saw on the outside was the inner reality of who Jesus already was. Moses and Elijah appeared, representing the Law and the Prophets, and then faded. Jesus alone remained.
Peter's first instinct was to do something. He offered to build three tabernacles, and God interrupted him mid-sentence: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him." Ray noted that "listen to him" is a quotation from Deuteronomy, where Moses told Israel to listen to the prophet God would raise up. The religious leaders of Jesus' day claimed to follow Moses and the prophets, and yet here God was telling even the inner circle of disciples that listening, really listening, is different from knowing what the text says.
Ray connected the Elijah question the disciples raised on the way down to John the Baptist, and then jumped briefly to Matthew 21, where the chief priests challenged Jesus' authority. Jesus turned the question back on them by asking about John's baptism. They refused to answer because the answer would cost them something. They saw and did not see; they heard and did not understand. Elijah had already come in the person of John, and they had done to him whatever they wanted, just as they would do to the Son of Man.
The sermon then pulled in the other two New Testament uses of metamorphoo. Romans 12 says to be being transformed by the renewing of the mind, and 2 Corinthians 3 says believers are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, by the Lord the Spirit. Both are passives, just like the Transfiguration. The transformation is God's work. What is required from us is humility, getting out of the way and letting him work, which is precisely what Communion pictures.
Ray closed by reading from Ephesians 3, Paul bending his knees before the Father and praying that Christ would dwell in believers' hearts through faith, that they would be rooted and grounded in love, and that they would be filled to all the fullness of God. That prayer, he said, is the point of everything: not that we perform better, but that the living God would show who he is through us.
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Ray talked about growing up in church his whole life and said 'that's the danger for Christians,' describing how he classified other kids as the problem while seeing himself as the good church boy. Where have you caught yourself doing something similar, and what did it take for you to see it honestly?
Ray described his professor Terry Holbert still taking notes at 86, genuinely open to questions he had never considered, because he trusted the Bible to transform him. What would it look like for you to approach Scripture with that same kind of openness right now?
Speaker 2Let's just hear this little word, encouraging word from scripture. It says, give the Lord the glory he deserves. And God, may we do that this morning. We bring our offerings and come into your presence. Thank you, God, that you invite us into your presence, into a relationship with you.
God, may we have a deep and abiding, a close relationship with you. You're inviting us in. God, may we accept that invitation in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
Seasons will change, oh Lord, you may with the kindness I deserve. Oh, how sweet. Oh, how sweet Can I share just a couple verses that that really explain that song too? Here's one from John, first John three one. See what great love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God, sons and daughters adopted into his kingdom.
That's love. And then in John 59, Jesus saying this, as the father has loved me, so I've loved you. Now remain in that love. Abide in it. Stay in it, He's telling us.
Man, you can have a a seat here for a moment. This is worship through giving part of the the service, and I'll invite the ushers to come on forward. We're gonna sing a song called, yes I will, but it's a song about choosing to worship our way through all circumstances. From Psalm 42, he says, why am I discouraged? Why is my heart sad?
But then he turns the corner. Right after that, he says, I'm gonna put my hope in God. I'm gonna make this choice to put my hope in God. I'm gonna praise him again, my savior and God. Before we sing that, Ray, would you pray?
RayGod almighty, there's so many psalms that are like that that start out, how long, oh Lord, must I wrestle with my thoughts? How long will I have sorrow in my heart? And then they turn that corner, but I trust in your unfailing love. My heart rejoices, Lord, that you save from above. It's not something that we can do for ourselves, Lord.
We pray this morning that you would be working through your obedient servants, that you would, Lord, accompany, all that is given, whether it's time, effort, resources, Mexican food. Lord God Almighty, I pray that you would you would take all that is offered in your name and that you would bless it and multiply it, Lord, to do your kingdom's work. Would you connect the dots for us this morning from your word, Lord? Would you connect the dots and make a meaningful difference that we would leave here changed, that we would be resplendent, Lord, with your glory and know that it's your glory, not our own. In Jesus' name, would you take all that we offer in humility and bless it, Lord.
Your will done in your way. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Alright.
It's time for children's church downstairs. That includes the middle school and high school guys and cows too. How are y'all this morning? I heard a fantastic. That's great.
That is great. I have one thing that I forgot during the announcements. In the yesterday in the fellowship hall, it was pandemonium. And the day before, it was pandemonium. I don't know how many of you visited the rummage sale, but they brought in, I mean, a lot of stuff and had a great day all day.
Made 2,022 and $20.22. Made $2,022 for missions at the church, from this church outward, and they're a bunch of volunteers. So Diane and Jim Brown, Mary Kadahl, Linda Eggers, Allen and Diane Galbraith, Diane Geek, Heidi Groesch, Laurie Drekovic, Sandy Landis, Casey McCooey, Blake Morley, Scotty Schnieder, Nick Stear and Diana Vaughan, and Gail Wells, and probably others that I have forgotten. But I just I was blown away by it. I get so anxious about that kind of stuff.
And Friday, I was here. I locked my door, turned off my lights to study and pretended I wasn't here. But Saturday, I wasn't here actually most of the day, but I'm just so thankful for that. Also, the Idaho Rescue Mission came and everything that was left over is going to keep on benefiting. So the ripples in the water out from here are great.
And I just want to say thank you for that. So I usually don't stop and do that very often, but I wanted to this morning. So children's church is happening downstairs. We're going to talk about the transfiguration this morning. That's where we are in the text.
I hope to talk about more than that. It's gonna be a brief review. I'm probably gonna review less than I had planned because there is so much. We have communion today too, but also a little bit of rationale for our current study of the gospels, walking through it, all three at the same time. Today, I'm going to focus on Matthew, although it's included in Mark and Luke, both of the other synoptic gospels have it.
I'm going concentrate effort a little bit on Matthew this morning. The reason that we're doing it is to be walking in their sandals. Does this make sense? So my professor I'm gonna do a little mister Rogers this morning. My professor of gospels in seminary was Terry Holbert.
He's an 86 year old man when I started seminary. He passed right after I got here. That guy had spent like seventeen years as a missionary in Africa, and he came home. He's an old man, like I said. That was when I started seminary.
So that was a while back. And this guy, when he got home, he said Chuck gave him a car. Chuck was Charles Ryrie. The Ryrie study Bible. Isn't that something?
Chuck gave him a car when he got home because he needed a car when he got home from Africa. And so as he was coming home and he's studying, He's been to The Holy Land. I don't know how long. He lived in Israel for a while, and he's very passionate about the geography of the land and about the timing of events. And he talked about it like he was there.
Now he's an old man. He's not that old. He acted like he was there. So he would say, actually when he started teaching, he said, we would helicopter over the area. And then when the computer age started, this man started keeping double spaced notes.
In his double spaced notes, he would always add while he was teaching. If somebody had a question that he needed to investigate, he'd write it down in his notes. Isn't that great? At 86, still just fresh on learning the Bible because he wanted it to transform him. He trusted it to transform him.
If he had not considered something and some first year freshman seminary student asked a question, he'd go, I've never seen that in any of the commentaries, and I've never thought of it that way before. But that's valid and good. And I'd think, wow, that's wonderful. So considering their walk and considering our walk. Right?
Does that make sense? So I have a blank slate up here at some point, right there. My own life, I could start at any point, was hoping to get pictures up there, but this picture is the first one that I found that was the furthest back. This is what I cared about the most when I was 14 years old. If I'm honest, I spent more time on that than I did on anything else.
And when I got it, it didn't look like that. I started when I was 14, and I sanded it myself, and I painted it myself, and I did a lot of stuff myself. I turned every bolt and screw on the thing. I replaced the engine in it, built a couple engines for it over the years, and I spent a lot of time doing that. But if I were to go back beyond that, that was 14.
So I had been baptized at 11, I think, along with a whole bunch of other people in the church. The day that I got baptized, there's just a long line of us. We were going down into the water, you know, one after another. But if I go back beyond that, there were things that led me down that aisle, and they were my own sin, my own struggle. Now y'all know me as pastor Ray, and I'm generally affable, I think.
But I have been in church my whole life. Since nine months before I was born, I was there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. I was proud of being there because that's the danger for Christians. And there were things that happened in my life. I hesitate, and I'm hesitate to mention them because I don't want for you to think of these things about me.
But, you know, behind the bleachers in the second grade and playing tackle man with the ball, if somebody was able to tackle me, I didn't like that guy. I was angry with that guy. And if I thought somebody was a bully, I'd classify it in my head because I'm a good church boy. It's not me that's the problem. It's him that's the problem.
If we're antagonizing one another, and I'm a good Christian, and I don't know his background quite honestly, Billy Joe or Derek, either one of them. I got in a fight with both of them. And I was the biggest kid in the class. And I always say, because I was the biggest, everybody picked on me. That don't make any sense.
I likely was the antagonist in some of these things. And I kicked a little boy. I mean, was a little boy too. Don't get me wrong. I'm not carrying this deal.
Jesus has forgiven it, but I'm using it for illustrative purposes. I kicked that little boy until he was spitting up blood. Yeah. I know. That is so horrible.
It's like a gangster movie. And I was in the second grade. And I was a good little church kid. And I knew how to answer, and I knew how to act, and I didn't tell anybody. But honestly, hadn't told many people about it still until now.
But our way, considering our walk, is required. It's required. It's not that we should live in the past and go, oh, how I regret. You know, tomorrow is gone. The only thing we can do is get that forgiven.
And once it's forgiven, God's thrown it in the sea of forgiveness, and he remembers it no more. But as a fallen human being, we can't forget it and remember it no more. But if we remember it, may it be to transform us towards what God's marvelous light. Right? That he pulls us out of our own preconceived notions that are so easy to sit in and confirm.
So there we go. Past the Nova. Still missed that thing. This is when I was in college actually. This is a monument to the steam engine.
And a professor of mine had received a good size advance before having to turn in a sculpture to Heritage Park downtown Columbus, Georgia. All of these sculptures were there. He and another student, friend of mine who had already graduated, had gotten a commission to make all these different things. So all the stainless steel stuff was my professor and all the bronze stuff was most of the bronze stuff was that other student. And when I was in college, was a sculpture major and I did that.
And I spent twenty hours a day working on that because he received a big advance and had a deadline, was out of money and out of time when it came time to turn this stuff in. So we made a lot of stuff what's called Heritage Park in Columbus, Georgia. It's pretty cool. It was a fun project to work on with my professor. That's a monument to the steam engine.
That's Doctor. Pemberton who invented Coca Cola in Columbus, Georgia. And monument to the iron worker up top and to the mill worker down below and to the farmer sharecropper over here on the right. And I got to weld all those things together. And with my own life, like what I would have done probably, I would have liked to have done would have been be an artist.
Make weld a steel sculpture and founder bronze stuff. That's enjoyable for me and I really loved it. Did the ship's captain the wheel up there in the front of that is cast bronze and I got to do that. And I did so much work on this one, he actually let me sign it because of that. So I'm saying all this is like before I was a pastor, I was a missionary.
Before I was a missionary, I was a safety consultant. Before I was that. But my heart has been progressively given over to God more and more for a long time. He did not immediately He did immediately save me. I believe that.
But he did not immediately transform my life to be completely sold out and concerned more about what he would do than what I would do. Oh, this is one. This was way before the Blue Lives, Black Lives, all the different colored flags. I did this sculpture when I was in college. It was just because I don't know, I hadn't seen it in long time.
I went home last time I took a picture of it and there it is. It's a black and white American flag and then these overalls are red, white and blue. That's Tanya and me. Our first date thirty years ago. Tanya did make a huge difference in my life because I couldn't see myself however I wanted to anymore.
Does that make sense? I I think part of the reason why it says, the elders should be a husband and one wife is because they need to be married guys that have somebody to tell them the truth. Does that make sense? I don't think it's as much about divorce or polygamy as it is about somebody that sees themselves more soberly. I'm more thankful for the gift of my wife than any other human thing.
Alright. Now we can start. Here we go. That's what it looks like. If you were going do all three today, I'm just going to concentrate on Matthew.
Starts right here. Last week, we actually covered this. From that time, this is right after right after Peter's confession, you are the Christ, son of the living God. Yes. Simon Bar Jonah, blessed are you.
Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you. This is not just a human thing. This is God's thing. And God has shown this to you, and it can make a tremendous amount of difference. And then immediately, he's saying to Peter, get behind me, Satan, because you're thinking about man's way and not God's way.
So what I have been describing heretofore in this little time is man's way, it's not necessarily bad, but it's not God's way. And you shouldn't confuse the two. At that time, Jesus began to point out to his disciples it was necessary for him, necessary, had to happen, must do, to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and the scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised up on the third day. And yet, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, God forbid it, Lord. You this shall never happen to you.
But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me. Can you imagine being a stumbling block to Christ? I mean but that's what he was. He was saying, you are tempting me to go off of God's path by what you're saying.
You're tempting me towards pride and not towards humility. For you're not sit setting your mind on God's purposes. But, men, we covered that last week. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wants to come after me, and this is still very, very true. If anyone wants to come after me, he must same thing.
He must go to Jerusalem and die and suffer. If anyone is to come after Christ, he must deny himself. Whatever it is that you and your will want and desire more than anything else. He says you must deny that. Take up your cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake. It's important. It's not just, asceticism where you do the things that are uncomfortable because you think that it earns favor with God. No. It is whatever God is leading you into, and he has given those of you who have believed the Holy Spirit.
And when he stirs and says, go, and you go, even though you don't know the next step beyond that, you are doing something in the Lord's name and for his kingdom, and it will not be in vain. If you lose your life for the sake of Christ, you will find it. I love being here. I love doing this. It is the most draining thing I have ever done, but I love it.
For what good will it do if a person gains the whole world? What if I were the most famous artist ever, but I had denied Christ in that? What would it profit me? Nothing. Or what would a person give in exchange for his soul?
For the son of man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels and he will repay every person according to his deeds. Selfishness is the human condition. We have a default method and it is looking out for number one. Maybe for me, my four, and no more, our family. You know, maybe.
Truly, I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. This is a weird one. I'll say it was his disciples who were standing there, and they did see the crucifixion. John did. They did see the buildup to the crucifixion.
They did see the aftermath, the resurrection. So they did see him coming. Six days later. Six days later, Jesus takes with him Peter and James and his brother John. So the sons of thunder, sons of Zebedee.
Peter and James and John, inner circle, three out of the 12. And he leads them up on a high mountain by themselves. I could go into the geography. Mount Tabor has a church that has been built on top of it that's called Church of the Transfiguration. We've got a church here called Transfiguration.
It's looking at a high mountain. Makes sense. We don't know which mountain it was. Some some people say it was Mount Hermon. You can see that from Nazareth.
You can see it from Israel, but it's not in Israel. It's possible. It's near Caesarea Philippi, maybe. Taber, Hermon. There's another one called Mount Morel that is probably more likely.
It is in Israel. It's 4,000 something feet. Don't know which one it was. Doesn't matter which one it was. I think they're vague on purpose.
Six days later, Jesus takes with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up onto a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. Oh, what does transfigured mean? I mean, it goes on. The next part of the verse says what Jesus' transfiguration looked like. But the word is this, metamorphothe, metamorphothe for you grammar nerds.
Eris, passive. Passive. Passive is important. Arist, passive indicative. It happened right there this once, and it happened to him.
It was not him doing it himself. Indicative, it happened. No question about it. Third person singular, it was Jesus. Meta morpho, meta meaning after or with, and then morpho, changing form and keeping within our reality.
He showed on his outside what his inside was. Properly. He was transformed after being with or transfigured, so it was happening to him because it's passive. I believe it's a divine passive. God was transfiguring Jesus.
Metamorpho is the root of metamorphosis and metamorphize if you're wondering. There are four uses of this in the New Testament. We see two of them in the synoptic gospels, one's in Matthew and one's in Mark. It's this passage, to transform or to transfigure. Transform is probably the way that we would normally say it.
Because Jesus is Jesus, we say transfigure for him, it's the same word, transform or transfigure. We don't like to think about Jesus, the one who is the same yesterday, forever, today and forever as changing at all. So we don't usually put that on him. Transformation. Four uses in the New Testament.
One's here, one's in Mark. I'll tell you about the other two. One's in Romans 12 and one's in second Corinthians three. I'll get to those in a little while. He was transfigured before them, and in his case, his face shone like the sun.
Who does that sound biblically like? Moses. Moses went up on a high mountain. He was at Sinai, and he was there with God. And even looking away from him from the cleft of the rock, he still was filled so with the glory of God that the people begged him to put something over that face.
Right? He shone. He reflected God's Shekinah glory. So this says Jesus' face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light. That's a And then all of a sudden, behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them.
How did they know it was Moses and Elijah? Did they wear name tags? I don't have any idea. I don't know, but this is what the text says. Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with Jesus.
Isn't that awesome? Moses, the one at the burning bush, the one who God said, take off your sandals because you're standing on holy ground. Right? He's talking with Jesus. That's amazing.
And Elijah. Oh. So this is the law and the prophets. Right? Law and the prophets both represented here.
And Peter responded and said to Jesus, Lord, it's good we're here. Ain't that just like Peter? I'm so glad you've got us with you, Lord. I'm a it's so good that we're here. You couldn't do this job without us, Lord.
You go ahead and talk with Moses and Elijah. Go ahead, Lord. That's good. I'm glad we're here. It's good we're here.
That cracks me up. If you want, I will make three tabernacles here. It's very close. At this time, it's very close. The very next thing we're gonna hit in scripture is the feast of booths.
It's a week long. Feast of Tabernacles or the feast of booths. It's a joyous time. It's celebration time. And seeing what they are seeing, Peter immediately goes into do mode.
I will do this for you, Lord. I will make three tabernacles here. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. Y'all will have the best accommodations right here on this high mountain. It's fun.
It's funny to me that we always tend towards do instead of be. You know, first be, first be, then you do, right? If you want, I'll make three tabernacles here. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. And while he was still speaking, God interrupted him it sounds like.
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and behold, a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Wow. Does that sound like anything else? It does. We've heard this voice before at Jesus' baptism.
Oh, I love baptism. When Brooke was baptized a couple weeks ago, made my week. Fantastic. Before the end of that week, I got a chance to baptize somebody else who had been hurt by church quite hard in his youth. And he said, can we just go do this by ourselves?
Do we have to have people watching? I said, nobody has to watch, man. You're making a step of obedience and faith. You feel that God's called you into being baptized. By all means, we'll do it.
He said, how about in Montana? Okay. We rode up to Montana. We pulled off on the side of the road. We found a big rock that we could kinda get behind in a deeper pool, and I baptized him.
And just as I was about to dunk him, a boat came by with three guys. One guy's rowing and two guys are fishing. They're right right by. And the guy rowing stopped rowing and gave me a thumbs up. He had a witness whether he wanted one or not.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. I could give you the Baptist line about he came up out of the water. It's full immersion, but I'm not going to. Suddenly the heavens were opened. He saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on him and the voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Wow. John. Peter, James, and John. John is a disciple of John the Baptist who is baptizing Jesus right here. He's heard this voice before too and recognizes it up on that hill.
A voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him. Oh, that's good. Pay attention to what he says. Carl and I have been talking a lot lately about knowing what it says is one thing.
Paying attention to what it says is a whole different thing. That's the difference in it's a big difference. Proclamation of the truth is the truth. But having been transformed by the truth and then giving credit where it's due to God makes a tremendous difference. Listen to him.
This is to quote Moses from Deuteronomy. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen. To him you shall listen. Who were the Sadducees most listening to? Moses.
Who were the Pharisees supposed to be listening to? Moses and the prophets. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell down to the ground and they were terrified. What a heavenly sight.
And this is often the reaction when heaven meets earth. It is people are afraid. And Jesus said to them, he came to them and he touched them, leaned down and said, get up. Don't be afraid. It is the reality.
This is the way things really are. And I know we've been walking around for two and a half years and you've seen me do some pretty miraculous things. But this is the real deal right here. All three of you have seen it. It's not a hallucination.
All three of you saw it. Get up, and don't be afraid of this. He he was showing them his glory. And raising their eyes, they saw no no one except Jesus himself alone. They decreased, and Jesus increased.
And when they were coming down from the mountain, mountaintop oh, experiences. We have mountaintop experiences. We have times where we see Jesus clearer than we have ever seen him. And then when we're coming down from the mountain, we have questions. Well, ask Jesus.
That's what they did. Jesus commanded them though saying, tell this vision to no one until the son of man has risen from the dead. It's not going be helpful right now. It will be helpful. It's helpful for you right now because you have experienced, but everybody else on the team has not experienced this.
I want you to know because you need to know. But you don't have to tell everybody everything that you know all at once every time. Tell the vision to no one until the son of man has risen from the dead. We see it in second Peter, by the way. We see him calling back on this moment.
I hope I get to that before time. And his disciples asked him, when then? Why then? Did the scribe say that Elijah must come first? If you're it, Lord.
We already said that you were it, but this looks like you really are it. Why is it then that the scribe say Elijah must come first? And he answered, Elijah is coming and will store all things. Yeah, I've heard it. I've heard it over and over and over again, Elijah is coming and restore all things.
But I say to you that Elijah already came. Elijah already came and they didn't recognize him. They were looking for him. They're still looking for him, but they didn't recognize him. But they did to him whatever they wanted.
I'm gonna skip ahead in the text. I don't usually do this. Matthew 21 says this, and when he entered the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of people came to him while he was teaching, this is during the holy week right before the passion, and said, by what authority are you doing all these things? And who gave you this authority? We have authority.
Who's given you the authority to contradict us? But Jesus responded and said to him, I'll ask you one question, which if you tell me, I'll also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John the Baptist was from what source? Was it from heaven or was it from men? And they began considering the implications among themselves and saying, if we say from heaven, he will say to us, then why didn't you believe him?
But if we say it was for men, we fear the people for they all regard John as a prophet. And answering Jesus, they said, we don't know. And he said to them, neither am I gonna tell you by what authority I do these things. He didn't have to answer that question. Seeing they did not see, hearing they did not understand, but there were those who did.
Here we go. But I say to you, Elijah already came. They didn't recognize it, but they did to him whatever they they wanted. So also, in this same way, the Son of Man is gonna suffer at their hands. If you know that Jesus, why don't you avoid it?
Because he must go. It is part of Messiah's path. And then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them about John the Baptist. That's the end of the text we're covering today from Matthew. But I wanna talk a little bit more about the why.
We are looking at the gospels and seeing the clearest picture that we have of Jesus Christ without any denominational slant, I hope, I pray, without any other stuff coming into it. I am walking in these days, but I can look back at those days and see timeless truth that has the power to transform my life if I will let it. If I will let it, if I will humble myself before God. Romans 12 is the same word. It's also a passive, meaning it is from God that he would be doing the work.
But we already know, we hear this all the time, that God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. He also says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. That is possible. We can do that. So in humility, we're about to approach the table here, and we're about to take an outward sign of an inward act.
Lord, I am surrendering my will to your will. I am denying myself, and I'm taking in this cup and taking on this body. Romans 12 says, don't be conformed to this world, but be being is better translation. Be being transformed. Be being transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Oh, so good. Thank you Lord for giving us propositional truth that we can read. Be being transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. It is possible for us as humans to get out of the way and allow God to work through us. Second Corinthians three eighteen says this, but we all with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord.
We are being transformed into that same image. We have the possibility of access to Christ on his terms. What he has already done, the finished work of Christ, working that into our lives. We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. The transfiguration of Jesus is something that is the one of the weirdest stories in the New Testament.
Honestly, I hit it, I just go, what in the world? But the transformation is helpful to think of it as he was transfigured or he was transformed before them so they would see the inner reality of who he is. And Moses and Elijah are important, but they fade away quickly, and Christ is what remains. Right? So we are being transformed, but we have to humble ourselves.
Ephesians three. I'm gonna close in a minute. Benediction after the after the communion will follow this in Ephesians. But I want you to think about this. There is not that I know of.
There's not another religion. There's not another God that acts in this manner. Ephesians, Paul says, for this reason, I bend my knees before the father. This is the reason that I humble myself before God from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. God is the author.
That he would grant to you, Ephesians, and I'm saying it to you first b. That he would grant to you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner selves. So that what? Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you would have the living God living inside of you and showing who he is through you.
And that you being rooted and grounded in love, that you may be able to comprehend with all of the saints. What is the width and the length and the height and the depth? And to know the love of Christ, which surpasses all knowledge. That enemy lines would fade away. That you would love in the same way that God loves.
That you would begin to understand what that love is like, that the battle lines would disappear. To know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to all the fullness of God Almighty. Amen. Alright. God, help us.
In Jesus' name, we pray that you would help us. I'm gonna ask the ushers to come forward, and God I ask your blessing on this. We're passing the plates. We have a little cracker representative of the body of Christ. This life that you lived out perfectly, Lord, had no sin debt of your own and offered your life as a ransom for anyone who would simply believe.
Through that belief, they are yours. The table is open to everyone, Lord, who has trusted in you. In Jesus' name, we thank you for this representation of the blood. Innocent blood shed voluntarily, innocently, and on our behalf. In Jesus' name, Lord, I pray that you would pass along this message through the way we live our lives and use our words and that others would come to trust in this blood that was freely given.
In Jesus' name, Lord, I ask your blessing as we distribute these elements one at a time this morning. Amen. On the evening that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper and after he had given thanks, he said to his disciples who were there with him, this is my body which is given for you. Take this and eat and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Thank you, Lord, for the precious life that you lived, unbroken in life, but voluntarily giving over your innocent blood on our behalf.
We ask you blessing, Lord, on this celebration of that. Amen. Oh, the precious blood of
Speaker 2Jesus. Just
Raylike he had taken the bread, he also took the cup, offering it to his disciples there and to us here, and tell him, this is the new covenant in my blood. This is God's way, not man's way. Take this and drink and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Amen. I'm going invite the band back up.
I'm also going to invite Steve Landis right here. Back up. And he's going to invite some more people back up. We're gonna keep on going this morning. We might not even have connect hour.
Speaker 3Actually, I'm just gonna take thirty seconds here. Pamela Constant, would you stand up? Pamela has been one of our missionaries here that we have supported. She's in France. She's at a camp and at a church and she's visiting The States briefly.
Just want to put let you guys see her. She has some prayer cards out front. If you speak French, excuse me. Please talk to her and read her in French. And if you don't, greet her anyway and say hello.
And also Anders and Brooke are we are proposing them as missionaries to Africa. They're hoping to leave November 28.
RayNovember 28. And They're ours. Why don't
Speaker 3you guys stand up too and and let them see you? And these are these are three people who have answered, as you said in Matthew, and they and she's got a pretty cool story. They actually both have pretty cool stories that how God has just said, go and they went.
RayAmen. Thank you, Steve. Let's sing. This I believe. This is a credo statement pretty much.
This is what we believe. Would you stand?
Speaker 2Our I believe
RayAmen. And then from Ephesians three twenty, it says this. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us. God makes his dwelling within us. Him who is able to do more abundantly beyond all we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.
Would you do that lord through us? Amen. Amen. Amen.
