He Was Transfigured Before Them

In one paragraph

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. Ray opened by tracing his own...

Read together

1. 1 John 3:1 quoted to explain a worship song about God's love making us children of God
2. John 15:9 Jesus saying 'as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, remain in that love'
3. Psalm 42 quoted as the basis for choosing to worship through discouragement, turning from sadness to hope in God
4. Matthew 16:16-17 Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, Son of the living God, and Jesus' response
5. Matthew 16:21-23 Jesus telling disciples he must go to Jerusalem, suffer and be killed, and Peter rebuking him
6. Matthew 16:24-27 Jesus calling disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him
7. Matthew 16:28 Jesus saying some standing there would not taste death before seeing the Son of Man coming in his kingdom
8. Matthew 17:1-9 the transfiguration, with Peter, James and John on the mountain, Moses and Elijah appearing, and the voice from the cloud
9. Deuteronomy 18:15 quoted as background to the command 'listen to him' spoken from the cloud at the transfiguration
10. Matthew 17:10-13 disciples asking why scribes say Elijah must come first, Jesus saying Elijah already came and they did not recognize him
11. Matthew 21:23-27 chief priests challenging Jesus' authority during holy week, Jesus responding with a question about John's baptism
12. Romans 12:2 the word metamorphoo used here for being transformed by the renewing of the mind to know God's will
13. 2 Corinthians 3:18 we are being transformed into the same image as Christ from glory to glory by the Spirit
14. Ephesians 3:14-19 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
15. Ephesians 3:20-21 closing benediction, God able to do far more than we ask or think by the power working within us

Talk about it

1. 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?
2. 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?
3. Peter's first response at the Transfiguration was to jump into do mode, offering to build three tabernacles. Ray said we always tend toward do instead of be. Where do you see that tendency in your own faith life?
4. The voice from the cloud said 'Listen to him,' and Ray made a distinction between knowing what Scripture says and actually paying attention to what it says, calling it 'a big difference.' What is the difference in your own experience between those two things?
5. Ray read from Romans 12 and Second Corinthians 3, pointing out that the same word used for Jesus being transfigured is also used for our own transformation, and that in both cases it is passive, something God does. What does it actually look like for you to humble yourself and get out of the way enough to let that happen?