TEXT: Luke 9:28-36

SUBJECT: Luke #36: Transfiguration

Today with God’s blessing, we’ll move on in our study of Luke’s Gospel and look at one of the most awesome events in the history of the world. The pagans had their version of the story—gods coming to earth and blinding men with their heavenly glory. But this story, unlike the others, really happened. One of the men present that night said

Peter saw the events of our story with his own two eyes and heard the Divine voice with his own ears. And he was not alone—James and John were with him, seeing and hearing the same things. For a time the story stayed in house—nobody else knew about it. But after the Lord died for our sins on the cross and defeated death in the resurrection, He told His friends to tell the world what they had seen, what they had heard, and what it all means!

With the help of the Holy Spirit that’s what I intend to do this morning: to tell you what they saw with their eyes and what many others have seen by faith. As I tell the story I want the believing heart to burn within you: this is the One we worship, the One we serve, the One in whose Name we have gathered today!

I want the unbelieving heart to see the One you prefer other things to--to see what a stupid and shabby choice you have made—and to choose again. Long ago, a man with a shining face stood before a people and said,

The man was Moses, of course. He appears in today’s story, too, but you hardly notice how bright his face is anymore. Not because it has dimmed with time, but because he’s standing next to a face even brighter. That man—the Lord Jesus Christ—whose face is even more radiant today is laying down the same challenge: life and death, blessing and cursing, heaven and hell.

Choose life!

I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get on to the story.

Today’s story takes place "about eight days" after the disciples had named their teacher,

Where they were, Luke doesn’t say, but judging by the context, it seems they were somewhere north of the Sea of Galilee, in or around the city of Caesarea Philippi.

All twelve disciples are with the Lord, of course, but one day, He invites three of them to go for a walk with Him. Peter, James, and John are happy to do it. They walk for several miles, it seems, and all of it uphill. When they reach the summit, the Lord lets them rest for a time, while He goes aside to pray.

The word, pray, ought to get your attention: It is Luke’s favorite way of signaling something big is about to happen. And, boy, does it ever!

While the disciples slept and the Lord prayed, an amazing thing happened: two in fact. First of all, the Lord’s appearance dramatically changed.

"His face was altered" Luke says. Matthew adds it "shone like the sun". This was not the first human face to shine brightly. After being with God, the face of Moses was so changed that it scared the devil out of his people! But the faces—though similar in some ways—are fundamentally different. The face of Moses shone because of the glory of God shining on it from the outside. You might call it a Divine sunburn!

But God’s glory didn’t shine upon the Lord Jesus; it shone from within Him. That’s why Paul calls Him,

What does God look like? He doesn’t look like anything because He’s invisible! Yet when He appears in the Old Testament, though no face or body is seen, there is a glory, a flash of blinding light. It’s a light you cannot look at and live, yet also a light you’re drawn to, a light you cannot keep from looking at!

This is what you see at the Transfiguration, a flash of Divinity shining in the human face of the Lord Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrew says the same thing of Him,

This man, of course, did not know the Lord personally. But one who did—speaking for himself and ten others—said,

To be God’s only begotten Son is to share in the Divine nature and glory. Through most of His life, the Lord looked like an ordinary Man, but that night, the Majesty of Heaven broke through.

The Divine Radiance was not limited to His face. It shone through His whole body, so much so that even His clothes became to bright to look at. Luke says

Matthew says it was whiter than any launderer could whiten it. This may stand for the purity of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the effect He has on anything He touches. King Midas turned things into gold—valuable but dead and useless. But the touch of our King makes us clean inside and out. Isaiah had a gutter mouth, learned from the gutter- mouthed people all around him. But one touch from the burning coals of heaven and the dirty mouth became a prophet.

Although the Lord was greatly altered in appearance—the humble carpenter was now more awesome than an archangel—yet He was the same man—and recognizable to the people who knew Him.

Though He’s exalted, it is still He who is exalted—"This same Jesus". The old creeds said He joined two natures in one person. I’m not sure I can explain that, but I know this: everything you can say about God can be said about Christ and everything you can say about man can be said about Christ (except for sin). And here, we get the first glimpse into the Mystery—but not the last. We have all eternity to gaze into that Blessed Face and wonder at the One Christ, who is

The Lord is not alone in His glory. Two old friends have joined Him: Moses and Elijah. The former died 1500 years before and the latter, well never died at all, but left the earth in a fiery chariot about 800 years before the Lord was born. But the men are alive and have come back to earth.

Why? They’ve come back to this world to have a discussion with the Lord Jesus Christ. What they talked about was

To their way of thinking, the death of Christ is the most important thing in the world—our world and theirs! They’re briefed on it. Remember, Peter says, that though the prophets spoke of Christ, they were unclear on the details. And now, after centuries of waiting, they find out what they’ve always wanted to know.

How privileged we are! As a toddler I knew what Moses and Elijah never knew in their lives—and what even "Angels desired to look into". The Lord was right:

I suppose the men were also there to encourage their Master in the work He had to do. Though He was willing to do it—eager even to die—it would not be easy. Old friends would help Him to do it.

When the talk is just about over, Peter, James, and John, wake up from their heavy sleep and are blown away by what they see!

They knew the Lord well and had seen Him in every possible light—they thought! But never like this: the glory of God was shining in the face of Jesus Christ. They gawked at the glory.

But then, they messed up: they took their eyes off Christ and began looking at Moses and Elijah. You understand this, of course, nobody was bigger than these two men. Well, almost nobody.

While James and John were goggling at the glory, Peter decided to be its soundtrack!

He was right about that: it was good. What a privilege to see the Lord radiant in His Deity!

But Peter wouldn’t leave it there: with admiring the Lord. No, he goes on to offer help—which nobody needs!

You can sympathize with the man: he has a chance to fellowship with and to learn from two giants of the faith! But he was wrong, Luke adding Peter was guilty of…

As soon as Peter makes the offer, God turns it down. He did it, in three ways: first, in a

The cloud that came down the mountain that night was not an ordinary one. It was a cloud charged with divinity. How? We can’t say for sure, but two possibilities occurred to me:

It may have been a cloud of glory—a bright light that led Israel in the wilderness or shone from between the Cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant.

Or, it may have been the opposite of that: a cloud so black that it blotted out all light. God was said to dwell in a "thick cloud". He had to if He were to speak to men; if He didn’t cover Himself that way, no man could survive His glory.

In any event, the lowering cloud terrified Peter, James, and John: they felt its majesty and knew they were not worthy to be there.

If that was scary, they didn’t know the half of it! In the cloud a mighty voice is heard. He doesn’t identify Himself because He doesn’t need to! Some who heard it said it sounded like a thundering waterfall; others said it was more like an ear-splitting trumpet blast. Powerful men blanched at the voice; they’d rather be buried in an avalanche than to hear it again. The word I’m looking for is awesome.

The Voice doesn’t have much to say, but what it says is more important than a million voices speaking for million years:

This not only identifies the Lord Jesus Christ, but more to the point, it explains His relationship to Moses and Elijah (who stand for the Law and Prophets, in other words, the Old Testament).

They spoke truly: not a word in the Hebrew Bible is wrong—not even a jot or tittle—is mistaken or will lead you astray. But it is not Moses or Elijah who has the last word. That belongs to God’s Son,

Of all the great things they ever heard about Christ, this one has got to be right at the top: The Lord Jesus is not only greater than John the Baptist, but of all who came before Him! He never ran an errand for Moses or David or Samuel—it is they who ran errands for Him!

The voice knocks the men on their faces. When they recover enough to look up,

Matthew says

The story ends with the men walking back to town and keeping quiet about what they had seen and heard. Later, they would announce it to the world. But for now, mum’s the word.

That’s the story and the message has been made repeatedly. What we learn from the story is supreme greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Moses and Elijah are larger than life figures, but standing alongside their King, they sink into obscurity. Luke says this, but of course he wasn’t a Jew and had no emotional attachment to the great men of Israel. But Matthew did and he targeted a Jewish readership, yet he says the same thing. Read Matthew 17 and you’ll find—if anything—he puts an even sharper point on it.

Moses and Elijah, David and Daniel, Noah and Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not the Lord’s colleagues, but His servants.

The writer of Hebrews adds to the list, showing that the angels are not equal to the Lord Jesus Christ, neither is the Levitical priesthood, nor Joshua, nor the land of Israel, nor the Sabbath, no anything else: every knee bows to Christ and every tongue confesses,

In light of the glory that once—and now—shines from His face:

We are deeply humbled. Who are we to name that Name? That the Lord would notice us and redeem us from our sins is a mystery the angels haven’t figured out yet!

We see what sin is. If you want to know if your white shirt is dirty, hold it up against a clean white shirt. If you want to know what your sins look like—hold them up to the Lord whose whiteness was whiter than white. No one will get on you much for a semi-off colored joke for giving in to a little envy now and then, to a dash of self-pity once in a while. But hold these things up against the One who flashed the glory of God that night and, you see what sin is: dirty, stinking, gross.

We become reverent. In prayer, we’re addressing the King. In Bible reading, we’re listening to Him. We’ve come to Church to worship the Lord of Glory. Can you think of Him as blindingly glorious and not take His Word and Church seriously?

We become obedient. Our Lord is not a King to disobey or to mock or to ignore. When He speaks His servants snap to attention and feel grateful for the assignment.

We love His people. What is a Christian? Looked at from one angle, he’s a big mess. But does Christ love him? Does He value the messed-up believer? He does and would you hate whom He loves or talk down the one He makes intercession for?

We become Christ centered. Right doctrine and good practice are important, of course. But ultimately a man—and a church—are judged by whether they’re enchanted with the Lord Jesus Christ or not. Ephesus had it all, all but "the one thing needful". Though their doctrine was right and their discipline sound, they had "Left their first love". And that what mattered most. And still does.

Paul was not at the Transfiguration. But years later, He saw the same Face bursting with the same glory. It was so magnificent to him, so splendid, so everything to him, that he would live for Christ and die happily in His service. That’s what seeing Christ in glory does for you.

And, in the Word of God, that’s what you’ve seen today. Now, what are you going to do with it?

God give you the grace to choose wisely. For Christ’s sake. Amen.