Jeffrey Heine: Before we open up God's word together, I wanted to let you know that I I've been wanting this to happen for a while at our church, but for us to have, groups of people who would come and would pray for the service for me, as the services were going on. The problem is we haven't had even a square foot in this church where people can gather together, anywhere, but this past week, I I created it. I I behind this screen, there's a small little storage room, and I just threw out a bunch of stuff, probably some of it valuable. I don't know. But I've created enough space to where if any of you want to come and to pray for the services, one of the services, love for you to come and to do that.
You'll have to pray a little quietly because we could hear you if you prayed out loud. It's not perfect, but it's a start. So if you're interested in that, if you would just email me, I'll I'll tell you how you can get up there. I'm gonna call it the upper room because how can you not. There was only 2 available possible spaces, and one was underneath the baptismal in a creepy dungeon of a basement as I couldn't do that, so I I cleared that out.
And I would love love to have people praying that God would move in our midst for each one of our services. Alright. So Mark chapter 9, as we continue our study in the gospel of Mark. If you've ever been to my house, you know that we have a lot of steps that go up to our front porch. And over the years, especially when my kids were really little, I have 3 daughters, every one of them has fallen down the steps at some point.
And so they've all been, you know bruised, cut open, and my wife and I, we have very different reactions to it. Lauren kinda screams, runs to them. I just kinda watch them go down. The last child that that fell down, my wife looks at me and just goes, don't you even care? I'm like, does it do any good just to scream?
So so each time though, I would bind up their wounds. I would put a band aid on it. And for every child, I would quote from Keanu Reeves and his legendary movie, The Replacements. If you haven't seen that movie, I don't recommend it. But it's a movie about the NFL goes on strike, and so they pull up all these replacement players.
And of course Keanu Reeves is a quarterback that they bring up. And and one of the climactic scenes in it, it's the the last drive and the last game and it's the last play. And Keanu Reeves, he huddles up the team together and he says these immortal words. He says, I know that you want me to say something classy and inspirational, but that just wouldn't be our style. Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever.
And I told girls all those things are true. Pain heals, chicks dig scars, and just so you know, guys dig chicks with scars. So don't be like, I'm like, it's okay if this leaves, you know, a scar here, and glory lasts forever. But we fool ourselves when we think it's kind of the football or any kind of sports glory. I I mean, we often talk about how, you know, some play is is gonna be immortalized, some player immortalized.
They're not. That's that's a glory that pretty quickly fades. The glory that we're gonna look at this morning is a glory that Jesus reveals that lasts for all of eternity. Glory does indeed last forever. We're gonna read the first eight verses of Mark chapter 9.
And Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. And after 6 days, Jesus took with him Peter, and James, and John, And he led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. And his clothes became radiant, intensely white as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah and Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.
And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make 3 tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah, for he did not know what to say, for they were terrified and a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, this is my beloved son, listen to him. And suddenly looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them, but Jesus only. This is the word of the Lord. If you would pray with me.
Father, our prayer this morning is the same as our prayer has been for the last few weeks, and that's that you would open our eyes that we might see Jesus. We recognize that we cannot do this on our on our own. Flesh and blood cannot reveal to us who Jesus is and all his glory. This is a work of you and your spirit. So would you be so kind to do that?
I pray that my words would fall to the ground, blow away, and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the sweet name of Jesus. Amen. So the last few weeks have all been about Jesus opening people's eyes to see him.
First we had Jesus, opening the eyes of a man who was blind. He was physically blind, and the Lord healed him, and that person was able to see Jesus. And next to Jesus, he heals the disciples of their spiritual blindness, and they can finally see him. And you have Peter, you know, confessing for the first time in the gospel that Jesus is the Messiah. So he sees Jesus, but he doesn't quite see Jesus clearly.
Jesus has to tell him, well, I'm not just a messiah. I am the suffering messiah. And so from this point on, Jesus is going to begin teaching them how the Messiah is gonna have to suffer, and how they might have to suffer as they follow him. Peter's confession is the pinnacle of the entire gospel of Mark. Everything leads up to it and everything's now gonna flow from it, and so for the rest of the gospel, you're gonna notice that Jesus is often talking about his death or persecution both for him and for his followers.
Now Jesus realizes that he has just dropped a bombshell on his disciples. Everything that they thought they knew about the Messiah and how he was supposed to bring the kingdom of God to this world, all of that just went right out the window. A lifetime of learning just thrown away. Up is now down. Left is now right.
The kingdom of God is now going to come through Jesus dying on a cross, and we have to carry crosses too? Jesus, here he he decides they need a little encouragement. They need to be galvanized just a little bit more for the path ahead that he has just laid out as before them. And so in this moment, he decides to give them another glimpse. He opens their eyes just a little bit more to see who he is.
They need to see him and his glory. Why should they believe him? He had to realize that they were wrestling. Why why should they listen to what he just had to say? Why should they throw away a lifetime of learning?
Jesus says, this why, this is why. Let me give you a glimpse as to my future, to your future. Let me give you a glimpse into the kingdom of God. And that's what Jesus is talking about here in verse 1, When he says, truly I say to you, there's some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come in power. Jesus here is not talking about his second coming.
Some people they misinterpret that and they think, well, that didn't happen. I mean, all the disciples died before Jesus came, in power in his kingdom. But that's not what Jesus is referring to. He's referring to his transfiguration. Mark makes this connection for us by saying right after Jesus said that statement, 6 days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John of the mountain, And he was transfigured before them.
Now, Mark could not care less about chronological order up to this point. Mark has certainly never told us power. But he does so here because he doesn't want us to miss the connection between what Jesus just said. Some of you are going to see the kingdom of God coming in power. Some of you are going to see the kingdom of God coming in Some of you are gonna see the kingdom of God coming in power.
Some of you is Peter, James, and John, as they head up through the mountain with Jesus. And as they head up to the mountain with Jesus. We read that Jesus, he took those 3 not just up any mountain, but that he took them up a high mountain. This mountain's unnamed, but the traditional site for it is Mount Tabor, which most certainly is not it. Mount Tabor is like a hill.
It's not really a mountain. But right next to Mount Tabor, is the likely candidate is Mount Hermon, and it sits 11,000 feet above the Jordan Valley. 11,000 feet is quite a hike. That would take all day. The disciples, I mean, they would have been exhausted from taking such a hike.
Luke in his gospel lets us know that when they hiked up there, they were so exhausted when they finally reached the top, they immediately fell down and just went to sleep. So you you do have to ask question, why did Jesus decide to take them up this mountain, this really high mountain? Why why not just one of those hills? Why spend an entire day exhausting oneself climbing up there? The reason is this, he's reenacting something.
He's reenacting what Moses did. Back in Exodus 24, Moses also climbed up a high mountain. He also brought with him 3 people, we actually know their names. Anybody wanna guess trivial, you know, bible trivia? I didn't know either.
It's Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu. But we're actually given the names of these three people that Moses took up with him on the mountain. When he was on top of the mountain, he was also surrounded by a cloud. He also heard the voice of God. He even caught a glimpse of God's glory.
And Moses's face was transfigured to where he began to shine. It's impossible to read this story without immediately thinking of Moses. And so what we see here is Jesus is actually acting one of the most famous scenes in all of Israel's history, or perhaps a better way to think of it is not that he's reenacting, he's fulfilling it. He he is what that story was ultimately pointing towards, was him going up the mountain with his disciples and him revealing his glory. Now once Jesus is on top of this mountain with his disciples, we read that something incredible happened to him.
He was transfigured. The word transfigured is the word metamorphose, where we get the word metamorphosis. It's a transformation. Mark says that his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. Luke says his face was altered.
It was altered, and his clothes became dazzling white. Matthew says, his face shone like the sun, and his clothing became white as light. They're they all use different words, but essentially, they're they're all describing the exact same thing. Transfigured before them. He was revealing his glory to them.
And we find that in this moment, those 3, they were forever changed. I didn't notice this until this week as I was studying this. But when you read through John and Peter's letters, you'll find the transfiguration had quite an impact on them. As they're writing to a persecuted church who's struggling to believe and to put their hope that Jesus will actually return, they don't talk. They don't talk to these Christians, to these churches about Jesus' resurrection.
They actually talk about his They actually talk about his transfiguration. They're like, we were there. We beheld his glory. He is the King of kings. You could trust him.
He is coming again. And it's actually impossible after studying this to read through the gospel of John and that opening prologue. You can't read through that and not see the transfiguration. When John talks about how we beheld his glory, glory as the only son of the father, or when he says, in him was life, and this life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Yes, John's echoing back to creation, but he most certainly has the transfiguration of Jesus in mind.
But here's the question. When Jesus is transfigured in front of everyone, is he doing this to reveal his glory as the unique son of God? Or is he revealing his perfect humanity as the son of man? Which is he revealing? His his unique glory as a son of God or his perfect humanity as the son of man?
The quick answer to this is that well of course Jesus here is revealing his divinity. That he's the Son of God, and that's true. I mean throughout the old testament, God often appears, as light. He appears as a blazing fire. His glory is described as shining like the sun.
You could go to Daniel and you have the ancient of days described as wearing these brilliant white robes. So yes, I believe that Jesus is giving his disciples just a glimpse of his glory of being the Son of God, but I don't think that's all he is doing. I think he is also revealing the glory of a perfect humanity. You see, back when Moses went up on Mount Sinai, he was up there 40 days, 40 nights. And during this time, we read that God gave him all of these instructions, detailed instructions on how to build a tabernacle.
The very heart of those instructions, right in the middle of it, you'll find a long, long speech in Exodus 28 that God gives Moses about how to make these priestly garments. It will bore you to tears. I mean, unless you're a seamstress or like you're really, really into fashion, it's it's just nearly an impossible read. And and I know all of God's words is I mean, all of it's an inspired word of God, but it doesn't mean it's all exciting or easy to read. And that section reads like an IKEA manual.
But if you work through it, it does have a few gems in it. By that, I mean, it literally it has a few gems in it. God tells Moses that when he's to make these priestly garments, they're to be made of the purest white, and then they're to be adorned with gold and adorned with gems. Many of these gems are only mentioned to other places. In the Garden of Eden, and in the new, the New Jerusalem, and the new heaven and earth.
They're mentioned in the first and the last pages of your bible, but this is what the priests were supposed to wear. The priests clothes were to be made this way because as priests, they were supposed to be this visual representation of a perfect righteous humanity. One that reflects or images the glory of God. So so their clothes were were designed in a way to make them shine. That's what the brilliant white, that's what the jewels, the gold, and they also they also wore almost like a crown on their heads that made their faces shine as well.
They were to represent what Adam and Eve were before the fall. Glorious, perfect humans, radiating God's glory. And I would say this, it's likely that Adam and Eve literally shined. They literally shined. Think of it this way, Moses, when he went up on the mountain and he only caught a glimpse of the backside of God's glory as it passed by, Just catching that little glimpse, Moses was transfigured to where he shown.
If that happened to Moses at a glimpse, how do you think Adam and Eve looked in the garden when they walked with God in the cool of the evening? They likely radiated his glory. I actually believe that one of the reasons that Adam and Eve became aware that they were naked, and that, they were filled with shame, and they tried to cover it up with fig leaves is because they lost their glory when they sinned. And now that that's gone, and they they feel exposed. I say all of this because I want you to notice I want you to notice how Mark describes Jesus's transfiguration here.
He only talks about the clothes. See that he never mentions Jesus's face like the other gospels do. He says Jesus's clothes became radiant, intensely white as no one on earth could bleach them. He's describing Jesus as a high priest. Remember a couple months back when we talked about what the high priest wore when he made his sacrifices?
Normally he would wear his priestly garb for like half of the sacrifices on the day of atonement, but when he entered into the Holy of Holies, he put aside that priestly garb and he only wore one thing, a white tunic. Says as white as they could bleach it. And at that moment And he would, you know, bathe beforehand. He would put that on there, and he would go, and he was supposed to be this brilliant white because at that moment, he was to represent humanity and perfection. He was supposed to be like Adam and Eve, once again worshiping God.
I think this is what Mark wants us to see and understand. Mark makes the point of telling us Jesus's clothing, it's even wider than anyone on earth completion. It's wider than the high priest, his clothing is radiating light. And what we see here is Jesus is revealing himself as as what the high priest wanted to be, what the high priest were supposed to point to, That perfect, sinless, righteous, human fully reflecting the son of a earth, fully reflecting the father. That's who we see in Jesus here.
So so I do, I think Jesus is revealing his divinity, but I think Jesus is also giving us a glimpse of perfect humanity. You know, the only other time we have in scripture after this, that we see people dressed in white, comes in Revelation chapter 7. And there, John has this grand vision of the kingdom of God, And everyone's appearing before Jesus, and says people are worshiping him, people of every tongue, tribe, and nation. They're all gathered before Jesus, and we read they're all clothed in white robes. The robes are apparently so white, one of the elders asked, how did they get those white robes?
And an angel says, oh, they're white because they have been washed in the blood of the lamb. And so we've been given these white robes. So I think Jesus here is revealing his divinity, but he's also giving us a glimpse of our future. Our future, when we will someday worship Him forever. When He removes those filthy garments of sin and shame, and he puts on us his clothes of righteousness.
I don't know if you noticed, but we actually read about that at the start of the service in Isaiah 61. Now, Isaiah 61, I will rejoice greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exalt to my God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robes of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself as a priest, decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Jesus removes our clothes of shame, and he gives us clothes of glory. One of the privileges I have as, a pastor here is I consistently get to meet with people all the time, and, I get to just tell them about Jesus. I mean, how amazing is my job. And so I've been meeting with a lot of people lately. A lot of you who've Maybe you are struggling with doubt, or some of you are just wanting to know more about Christ.
Some of you are struggling with with a lot of guilt and shame. Had a meeting with someone who is really struggling with guilt and shame this week. And so I I met her for coffee, and she let me know. She just She really She just She struggles with immense immense guilt. Crippling guilt.
And so I'm talking with her, and 15 minutes into talking with her, she says, thank you for meeting me. I know you are so so busy. It just it means the world for me that you would take time out of your busy schedule to come and to meet with me, so so thank you. And she gets up, and she starts She was, what lie? Said, the lie that says you are not worthy.
She was, what lie? Said, the lie that says you are not worthy of my time. That's that's a lie straight from the pit of hell that you're not worthy of my time. Do you have any idea how treasured you are by Jesus? And it was like the dam broke.
Like, do you know how Jesus sees you? You've been you've been talking about this this guilt and the shame, but what Jesus does is he has taken off that guilt and shame, and he has put it on himself, and he has dressed you in his righteousness. And when he sees you, you are beautiful. That's the gospel we believe. I love what John says in 1 John 3, when he paints our future.
I mean, that's a spiritual reality for us, but someday it's gonna be a physical reality. In 1st John 3, John says, when Christ appears, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. When we see Jesus, we become like Jesus. And as the disciples saw Jesus here in his glory, they were seeing their future glory. That's what a glorified redeemed humanity looks like.
After Jesus is transfigured, all of a sudden Elijah and Moses appeared. We don't know how the disciples knew it was Moses and Elijah. Maybe they had name tags introduced themselves. I don't know. We have no idea what they look like even though we've seen thousands of paintings.
But they appeared and they began having a conversation with Jesus. Now we're not entirely sure why Elijah and Moses are here, but I could tell you this. Someday, I'm gonna preach this sermon. I'm gonna preach how it took Jesus bringing Moses up from the grave to finally take him to the promised land. This is when Moses finally gets to the promised land is right here, and it took Jesus raising him up at least temporarily from the grave to get there.
That'll preach. Someday. I have filed it away. Anyway, we're not entirely sure why they're here. There's a lot of speculation.
Most think it's because they represent the law and the prophets, and this is the law and the prophets testifying that Jesus is the Christ. That's probably true. It's also true that both of these men once went up a mountain and met with God, were surrounded by a cloud. As a matter of fact, there's so much similarity between their stories and this story that some of the more recent commentaries, actually they're they're probably way too influenced by Marvel movies, to be honest. But they suggest that all three of these accounts are actually the same event happening in the multiverse.
And so, wow. Trust me. I mean, if if if Jesus had been climbing up Mount Sinai, if that'd been the actual mountain, oh boy, trust me I would have landed there and preached that. That's not what's happening. We're not entirely sure why these 2 are here, but we do know what they were talking about.
Luke tells us. Luke tells us that, they were talking about Jesus's departure. Departure is the Greek word for Exodus. So Moses is talking with Jesus about the Exodus. Moses had his exodus.
Jesus is about to have his exodus. Moses, he led his exodus by by God using him to bring plagues upon Egypt, and then there was the death of all the firstborn children, and then the Israelites were freed from slavery. Well, Jesus is gonna perform his exodus not by raining judgment down on anyone. He would receive judgment, not bring it. And there would only be the death of 1 firstborn, him.
Jesus was the one who was going to die to bring about our deliverance. He was gonna be the high priest who didn't sacrifice a lamb, but who was going to sacrifice himself. Now, when Jesus, Moses, and Elijah are having a conversation together for future reference, if you're there, you probably shouldn't interrupt them. But poor Peter here, we we he can't help himself. I mean, he just he blurts out, rabbi, it's good that we are here.
Let us make 3 tents. 1 for you, 1 for Moses, 1 for Elijah, for he did not know what to say. Understate him. For they were terrified. You ever been around nervous talkers?
Those when they get they just can't stop. If if you've ever been to a rehearsal dinner for a wedding, you've witnessed it. You've witnessed it when somebody gets up there and they give the toast, and right at that point when they should end it and they say one more thing and you realize they don't know how to get out of it. I began to sweat profusely as I, as I am seeing the train wreck there, as they just keep talking and they keep talking. And then they begin saying things like, I don't even know why I'm still talking.
I probably shouldn't say this, and everybody's like, yes, you shouldn't stop. And they they begin talking about, you know, maybe old girlfriends or nights in jail with the groom, and you're just wanting it to end. This is Peter. He's not just nervous. He's terrified.
Jesus is literally shining like the sun. And so he just, he can't stop talking. He just, he just talks is what he does when he's scared or he's nervous. And so he just, he just goes up to him and says, Jesus, hate to interrupt this really important conversation that you're having with Moses and Elijah. Hey, I just wanted to let you know it's really good to be here.
I mean, that's why that's what Peter says. It's just really good to be here. I would have loved to have seen Peter and Eli I mean, Elijah and Moses, like, looking at Peter and then Jesus, like, seriously, this is the best you got now. It's like a boomer looking at a millennial. Like, this is the best.
Peter, he he can't stop. He just he just keeps on going. And he's talks about pitching tents. I mean, wonder what was he talking about? He now he doesn't really know what he's saying.
He's just kinda babbling like an idiot, and I'm thankful that there's Peters in the Bible. I mean, once again, you don't make up stories like this. If you're trying to start a religion, you don't tell a story, make up a story about how one of the founders, the the rocks of your faith is a babbling idiot, but that's exactly what Peter is here. He's like, hey, what what if we were to make some tents? Notice he doesn't say pitch some tents because they don't have any tents with them.
He literally wants to go around and he wants to find sticks and brush and he wants to make some kind of shelter like he's on the show alone or something, but he doesn't know what to say. Now there's a chance that what he's doing here maybe if you wanna give him the benefit of the doubt is that the feast of tents or booths was happening at this time in Jerusalem. And so that's that was one of the most festive joyful celebrations Israel had. It was to celebrate after God had delivered his people from slavery, and he was taking them to the promised land. You know, they had to they had to live outside in the desert, so they had to live in tents while they were on their way to the promised land.
And so God set up this festival called the feast of tents to remember that. It's a week long celebration. Kids would literally make shelters, sleep in them for a week, and then they would eat tons of food during the day. It was it was the best feast, best celebration. Maybe maybe Peter was thinking about that.
We we don't know. I think he's just just letting things out. But if so, he's definitely missed a very important point of what Jesus has been saying all along. He's not about to establish his kingdom. They're not about to enter the promised land.
Suffering, death come before glory. Peter, you're celebrating the wrong feast here. There's still a day of atonement to come. Right after Peter finishes babbling, we read that a cloud overshadows them. In the midst of the clouds, there's a voice that says, this is my beloved son.
Listen to him. There is so much packed to that little statement. This is the second time that God the Father has spoken out loud words of affirmation about his son. First was at Jesus's baptism when he said, this is this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And now he says almost the same thing.
This is my beloved son or this is my son whom I love. But he doesn't say in whom I am well pleased. Instead he says, listen to him. Listen to him. Listen to Jesus.
You want a good takeaway from this text? It's listen to Jesus. Joseph Ray, he's preaching at the 4 o'clock service today. We got together to talk through this text, and we both mentioned that, you know, it's really easy to do it like a 2, 3 hour lecture on the transfiguration. What it means, everything that's happening there, we we both could do that, but we both said we really struggle in applying this.
How do you apply what happens to Jesus here to our lives? What is our day to day application of Jesus being transfigured like this? I mean, I guess I could get up here and say, hey, you guys need to see Jesus as more glorious, because he's a lot more glorious than you think. But me just telling you, you need to see Jesus as more glorious, you need to I went, that doesn't do anything. You you can't make yourself see Jesus as more glorious.
And let's be honest, in this lifetime, you are not going to see Jesus like this. Not one of you. This was a very unique gift of sight that Jesus gave to just 3 people. He didn't even give it to all of his disciples, just to 3 people. So so we're not gonna get this unique gift of seeing Jesus and all of his glory this way.
So how do we apply? What's our takeaway? Listen to Jesus. What we see here is Jesus is not an ordinary human. He's the son of God.
He's the son of man. He's the Christ who will someday come in glory. He's not the type of Jesus that you go to as a life coach, and he asks, you know, to kind of help you along. He's not the kind of Jesus that you you go to and you accept as your Lord and savior, and they go on living your life however you want to live it. He's not the type of Jesus in which you hear his clear commands in scripture, and yet you decide which ones you want to obey and which ones you want to ignore.
This is a Jesus you listen to no matter the cost you listen to, no matter what the other voices in your life or what your culture is saying, you listen to. So this week, listen. I encourage you just get up early, open your bible, read, pray, listen. Because for us, that is how we behold him. We behold Jesus through his word, through his spirit.
We get to see him more clearly, and whomever we behold, we become like. Whatever you are going to spend time beholding this week, you will become like. If it's nothing but, you know, repeated Netflix show after Netflix show, if it's nothing but all the the articles you're reading on your phone, or all the text or videos or whatever it is, if that's the only thing you keep putting before you, you're gonna become like those things. We become like whatever we behold. Take time to behold Jesus.
Listen to him. In particular here the disciples, they were to listen to Jesus when he said, I'm going to the cross. I'm gonna die that you might have life. And I hope the disciples, they listen to Jesus when the night that he was betrayed, he did the high priestly prayer. I love that phrase that the high Once again he is acting as the priest, the perfect human, and he prays this prayer.
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory, that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. That's exactly what we read. He gave a few of his disciples that glimpse of the glory of the beloved Son of God, And that is our hope as well. Someday we will see him and we will be transformed to be just like him. Pray with me, church.
Jesus, thank you for not just being the Christ, but for for being the suffering Christ, Christ who bore our judgment, bore our sins on the cross. Thank you for being risen to life. And now in your name we have forgiveness and new life. Thank you for praying for us that we would see your glory someday. Because when we see you your glory, we will become like you.
I pray that this would galvanize us, strengthen us, to to pick up our cross and to follow you no matter the cost. This week would we listen to you Jesus. We pray this in your name. Amen.