As it is - Luke 9:28-36 & 2 Peter 1:16=21
Introduction
Last week in looking at Jacob and then at what Paul and Peter say about life in the Spirit we were looking at it 'As it is' maybe warts and all!
Today we go up a mountain, hiking boots on, and witness the record of an event that was key. It comes a few days after the difficult 'as it is' who do people say I am, who do you say I am - the Messiah - good, you have it but I have a surprise - I am going to suffer, die and rise again all over the space of three days.
Their heads must have been reeling. Jesus knew this and so allowed the close inner three, Peter, John and James to join him in something they had to keep quiet about till the right time - his Transfiguration accompanied by the affirming and commanding voice of His Father!
Later on Peter refers to this directly in one of his letters, John uses it pointedly and strategically in the opening of his gospel, 'We beheld his glory'.
Are their events in your walk with Jesus which you have to mention and talk about? Matters that have left a deep and lasting impression on you and maybe which you hold onto when times are tough.
1. Seeing it as it is - Luke 9:28-36
Jesus in the glory of eternity just for a few moments. Two smile issues:
• his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning
1. They didn't have Daz! As long as I can remember Daz ads have been telling us, 'now even whiter' and that must be over 50 years! I hate to think what whites were like back then to keep getting whiter!
2. How did spluttering Peter, sorry, know, it was Moses and Elijah?
All sorts of ideas but simplest, Jesus gave them both a high five and said, 'Hi Moses, Hi Elijah
- ages since I've seen you'!
It's also a first for Moses, his feet are now placed in the promised land which previously he had only seen from afar, Deuteronomy 34:4
[4] Then the LORD said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.”
Jesus confessed, Matthew 5:17
[17] “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to
abolish them but to fulfil them.
Here is Moses, not only the law deliverer, but a prophet as well, along with Elijah the supreme prophetic figure. They are affirming Jesus, what he has done - no doubt, as well as what was coming in Jerusalem (v 31) which was such a trauma for the 12. This then is clearly for Jesus but also for the benefit of the three and later others (v 36). I think it also
demonstrates his relationship with the law and the prophets which the whole Christ event is
fulfilling
The big confirmation is through the affirming words of the Father, v 35
A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”
Straightforward.
This is a voice to us too and we need to listen therefore, to what Jesus says and respond - Matthew 7:24-25,
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
Do you really know what it can mean when you say you are between a rock and a hard place?
The rock - the words of Jesus that support and guide; the hard place - the certain sovereignty of God over all things! Live between the two!!!
From there let us seek 5o see and know some of the glory of the Lord.
2. Saying it as it is - 2 Peter 1:16-21
Some say, it's all made up / it's been translated so many times it will have changed etc, etc, ad nauseum!
Just for starters, and right where have just been, you would not make the lead speaker, Peter, look like a twit, Luke 9:33
Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one
for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)
You wouldn't make it up, and all the rest, or turn it into that, with all the rest! It wouldn't make sense and what we have makes perfect sense.
Peter's own testimony, in his letter, is this, 2 Peter 1:16
For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you abou t the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
It's not a load of porkies but the truth - we are saying it as it is and as we saw it and heard it
- vv 17-18!
What he goes on to say echoes something Paul says, " Tim 3:16,
All scripture is God breathed.
This is how he says it, 2 Peter 1:20-21
[20] Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. [21] For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
People want to knock this sacred book, kick it into touch, discredit it and the like: it's full of contradictions - no, the opposite. Yes, there are tough bits but the majority sits very comfortably together and tells a complete message which is still working through!
Conclusion
The word of God is pictured as a rock, a light, bread and dozens of other things too.
It is reported that an American professor of literature who was an avid atheist decided, on her own choice, to read the gospels. She had Christian friends she respected but who never preached at her.
She was shattered and stated that the gospels are not fiction, stories or made but eyewitness accounts. She is now a believer!
No other account makes anything like the consistent claims of scripture. Jacob, I saw God and he called the place Peniel, face of God! In the NT God was here with his feet on the ground.
The Holy Spirit has replaced Jesus and we are His dwelling here and now to serve him, show his love and speak of the salvation he accomplished and imparts.
The glory is, or should be, still being seen and shown through us and we should tell it, what we have seen, as it is!
