2020-02-16 - Mark 9.1-13 - The Transfiguration
Good morning everyone. It is so nice to be able to spend some time with you all in fellowship with the Lord. Thank you and God bless you for being with us today. The title of our message is The Transfiguration. “Transfigured” is literally the word “metamorphosis,” which speaks of a cataclysmic change.  A great example of this is when a caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly. And I love butterflies  :)

QC Botanical Garden - BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS, 3.1.20 SUNDAY, ​​1 PM - 3 PM

The Butterfly’s lifecycle is quite interesting as it really has four stages of development. First, an egg hatches and a Caterpillar is born. The main purpose of the caterpillar stage is feeding to support the next pupa stage, where it then grows the wings, legs and antennae that make up the butterfly. Finally, during the beautiful butterfly stage they reproduce and lay the eggs that start the process over again. We are going to see today a different kind of metamorphosis, in that of where Jesus Himself Transfigures or Transforms into His Glorious form.

Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 9.1, pew Bibles pg. 895 of God’s Inspired, Infallible and Living Word. But let us first start with Prayer.

Last week if you recall, we saw in scripture Jesus asking His disciples, “Who do the people say that I am?” They answered him, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, one of the prophets.” But then Jesus asked Peter “Who do you say that that I am, Peter answered “You are the Messiah” or the Christ. Well today we are going to see in the next verses, Jesus showing His glory in an amazing way. [SLIDE Transfiguration by Raphael (1520)]
Standing with Jesus in person are Elijah and Moses, two of the greatest profits that ever lived. Peter, John and James are below.

We ended last week with the first verse of chapter 9, and starting this message today, I felt it appropriate to read again that same first verse:
9 Then he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come in power.”
I believe this verse has a lot to do with what is called The Transfiguration that we will witness next in scripture.

Just six days after Jesus said this, He takes only the closest of his inner circle disciple friends up to the mountain top. There we will see, they are privileged to witness the glory of the transfigured Christ.

Verse 2 reads: 2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves to be alone. He was transfigured in front of them, 3 and his clothes became dazzling—extremely white as no launderer on earth could whiten them. 4 Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke also refer to this blessed transfiguration event. Luke’s Gospel has a few more details that I thought it would be helpful to read this morning. Luke 9:29 says: “As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem”.

I imagine that this had to be an amazing and blessed event to witness. In fact both Peter and John later write about what they had experienced first hand.
In 2 Peter 1:16 , Peter wrote, “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain”.

And then John wrote in the first chapter of his Gospel at verse 14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”

And what is the glory that they see? They see the glory of Christ’s sinlessness. Mark chooses his words carefully when he wrote, “his clothes became dazzling—extremely white as no launderer on earth could whiten them”. I would argue that what was dazzling or shining on the outside was only a dim reflection of what was on the inside. Jesus was and is sinless, white as snow. In contrast the profit Isaiah voices the comparison for every other member of the human race in his woeful words, “… all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags…” and that is so true. There’s nothing we have done or can do that can compare with His righteousness. Mark wrote, “His garments became dazzling [or radiant]” In Greek, stilbō is the word used. It means to glitter like flashing facets reflecting back the blazing sun at high noon on a diamond. Luke says it was white and gleaming, like lightning even. Have you ever witnessed such powerful lightning that causes you to blink and look away? This is blazing white, glittering white, like the sun’s white brightness even. Christ and Christ alone has that level of absolute purity. So much so that He is even able to take upon Himself the sins of the world on at the cross at Calvary. Thank you Jesus Christ..

In Mark 9:5 he continues, 5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it’s good for us to be here. Let us set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”— 6 because he did not know what to say, since they were terrified.

Peter, John and James had a case of Holy fear mixed with stunning, exhilarating wonder at the most divine and incomprehensible experience of their lives. They didn’t know how to process what they were witnessing. Jesus, before their eyes is actually talking with Elijah and Moses. Then Peter interrupted their conversation, for he felt woefully inadequate and just wanted to do something for them.

Have you ever been awestruck before? Maybe you meet for the first time the love of your life, or maybe some famous person, and then you find yourself just befumbled or tongue tied all of a sudden in your speech; or you do something totally just stupid that you later regret? If that’s you, don’t feel bad, that’s just what happens sometimes when we get nervous. So embarrassing though isn’t it? That’s kind of what Peter was experiencing that day. Poor Peter is known for doing and saying some pretty embarrassing things while he was with Jesus. But it is that same human-like character that causes me to love Peter as well.

Then our verse 7 says, 7 A cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him!” 8 Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

Again God said, ““This is my beloved Son; listen to him!” or other translations say “Hear Him”.  The fact that you are here today shows that you are willing or desire to “Hear Him”, and to that I say praise the Lord. However, sometimes I just want to shout from the rooftops something like “This is God’s beloved Son, Hear Him!” Sadly, so many people have turned their back from God, and that hurts my heart, and I am sure it hurts God’s heart as well. We need to be praying for those folks.

In these verses, Father God is speaking out loud to Jesus, Elijah and Moses; but also to Peter, John and James. This event also reminds me of when Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan. As written in Matthew 3 16 “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” God spoke to them directly from heaven. God can do anything He wants to do, and I know that He speaks to us in many ways. Some have even been blessed to hear His voice, and to that all I can say is praise the Lord!

And God didn’t just happen to look down at the right moment by accident to then show up and give His blessings. There are many people in this world that think our God is a dispassionate and disconnected God. They think that okay maybe He created the world and us but then He disconnected because maybe He has more important things to do. These verses show instead that God is watching over us brothers and sisters, with Godly parental eyes that are caring and loving, Amen?

But then verse 8 says right after that they all just disappeared, Jesus was then suddenly standing all alone again. It is almost like they showed up to give a final pep-talk to Jesus. For shortly after this, He and He alone will walk the path of suffering to the cross at Calvary for our redemption. Verse 9 continues:

9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept this word to themselves, questioning what “rising from the dead” meant.

Peter, James and John are witness to something that was truly amazing and precious. Then Jesus commands them to “tell no one the things they had seen”. My guess is they probably wouldn’t know what to tell people anyway. Knowing that many would probably pronounce them crazy or persecute them if they did.

Verse 11 says, 11 Then they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”   12 “Elijah does come first and restores all things,” he replied. 
“Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? 13 But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did whatever they pleased to him, just as it is written about him.”

I suggest that based upon the Old Testament, the Jews and the apostles were looking for Elijah to come back. You can tell they clearly recognized now Jesus as being their Messiah. And they are contemplating again everything they had seen and were taught by Jesus. They were attempting to