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00:00:02 today's scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 17 verse 1-13 after six days Jesus Took with him Peter James and John the brothers of James and let them up a high mountain by them themselves there he was transfigured before them his face Shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus Peter said to Jesus Lord it is good for us to be here if you wish I will put up three shelters one for you one for Moses and
00:00:48 one for Elijah while he was still speaking a bright Cloud covered them and a voice from the cloud said this is my son whom I love with him I am well pleased listen to him when the disciples heard this they fell face down to the ground terrified but Jesus came and touched them get up he said don't be afraid when they looked up they saw no one except Jesus as they were coming down the mountain Jesus instructed them don't tell anyone what you have seen until the son of man has been raised from the
00:01:38 dead then the disciple asked him why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first Jesus replied to be sure Elijah comes and will restore all things but I tell you Elijah has already come and they did not recognize him but have done to him everything they wished in the same way the son of man is going to suffer at their hands then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist this is the word of God morning church morning it's good to see everybody here um in the midst of a
00:02:34 pandemic you are still Brave and you're coming here to Worship the Lord together is nothing like praising the Lord together as a family uh irregardless of whatever is going around so today our topic would be the Transfiguration this is something that we've all heard about before we know about but we're going to delve into what is the significance of the Transfiguration but before we do that let's have a word of of prayer father Lord we we praise you that despite this terrible pandemic we have an opportunity this day to be here to be
00:03:11 present to be with each other to raise our hands together to lift our voice together to lift our hearts together that your name be glorified your name be praised and as we lift your word this morning we pray that this word will be an offering that brings glory to you and that Glory transforms us as we meditate on it as we apply in our lives we ask for Jesus sake amen I don't know whether you remember but there is in quite a number of churches a Transfiguration Sunday or Feast certainly when I started studying the
00:03:52 matter I suddenly realized the Baptist don't even celebrate this the Catholics celebrate it the Orthodox Churches celebrate it um but we we don't we seem to have lost um the significance of this and perhaps it's been overshadowed by the resurrection uh and so therefore this basically slips back into the pages of history as it were but this morning we want to look at the Transfiguration and as usual there will be three points all right I only can count up to three so therefore it's always three points
00:04:24 number one the Transfiguration is important because it gives a glimpse into the eternal glory and it's designed to strengthen the faith of the disciples and our faith as we look at it number two it reveals to us that the cross is inseparable from the crown we Tred to put the two apart but here Jesus is try quite clearly telling us it's Inseparable and number three it also informs us of our own transformation into the true nature what is Glory what is glory and so therefore there are three particular points from this
00:04:59 particular passage so let's look at the wider Transfiguration it is a glimpse in eternal glory to strengthen Faith after 6 days Jesus Took uh his with him Peter and James and John the brother and led them up a high mountain by them themselves so here's a high mountain he brings them up uh and the background for this Transfiguration passages passage is found in all the synoptic gospels which means it is important if it's repeated in all the synoptic gospels except John and you can find it in Mark 9 Luke 9 as
00:05:33 well as Matthew uh 17 so therefore from these three passages I'm going to be gleaning little bits and uh pieces of the uh situation there now if you look in the larger context as you can see um there's baptism where the father appears and say this is my beloved Son and the same thing that happens uh right at the Transfiguration and the important thing here is Peter's confession Peter's confession comes just before the Transfiguration It's a larger context and it begins the Final Phase of Jesus ministry because right after
00:06:10 Transfiguration right after Peter's declaration that Jesus is the Christ he turns his face to Jerusalem and he doesn't look back this is the Final Phase and then there's crucifixion resurrection and Ascension now if you look at it Peter's declaration is followed by a devastating blow to the National hope imagine your 12 of you and you're following Jesus and you're waiting for the Messiah to come you're waiting for him to throw out the Romans remove their their the boot from your throat and gain freedom and that's the
00:06:49 entire National hope and Jesus has to tell him you know I'm going to die and get resurrected but all they hear is I'm going to die right but then there's a ray of hope so here you got Peter's confession Jesus death and resurrection and not only that I'm going to die he tells the disciples to say you're going to die too that is great news isn't it you're waiting for all this for for 17 chapters and this is what he's going to tell me challenge to take up the cross and you're looking at Jesus and of course
00:07:22 Peter rebukes Jesus and gets rebuked in the end and it is this devastating blow that actually resonates in the ears and the minds of disciple they can't believe what they hear all they hear is Jesus is going to die all they see is are we're going to Lost wasted three years of investment with this chap wandering all over this country nothing to show for it and now a payday is what we are going to die to imagine that devastating blow and then there's a prophetic ray of light Jesus says truly I said to you in
00:07:58 Matthew 16:28 there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom whoa which means his Kingdom's coming we're dying but we're going to be alive long enough to see his kingdom coming so this Pro this prophecy is a ray of light now uh the Transfiguration is a response to prayer if you look in Luke chapter 9 it says he took with him Peter John and went up on the mountain to pray and as he was praying the appearance of his face was Etc so here Transfiguration
00:08:33 appears happens as a response to prayer actually nothing actually important happens in Jesus life without prayer you notice when the other time that he went to pray Garden of Gethsemane right before the cross right before the Transfiguration is always a response to prayer so he went up to a high mountain and if you look into the geography of Israel there are three possible places where he might have gone one is the tradition Mount tabore which is not very very high it's about 2,000 ft high and then you've
00:09:05 got Mount Maron halfway up there but the most likely candidate geographical candidate for this particular event is Mount Hermon the reason why we it's a very high mountain it's 9,000 ft rather than 2,000 ft that's high all right number two it's right next to ceser Philippi where Jesus was here John preached to a a couple of weeks ago this is where there was a temple this is where Jesus uh declares you know that uh the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against you so here we actually have Cesar Philippi at the background and
00:09:41 you've got Mount Hermon okay and mountains are important because you look in the Bible mountains are where things happen Mount Ararat no Covenant Mount Moriah abrahamic Covenant Mount Horeb uh Mosaic Covenant and God speaks to Elijah so mountains have always been associated with prayer and in fact if you see in our own country we actually have the bario Revival coming in four waves 73 75 79 84 and each one of them actually was triggered by people coming to pray in The Prayer Mountain now the Transfiguration is a glimpse of the
00:10:22 Kingdom's Glory it's a fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus in Matthew 16 so after 6 days he took the two chaps up the the three chaps up there and he was transfigured before them his face Shone like the sun and his clothes were became White as light and behold there appeared them Moses Elijah talking to him the word here transfigured is actually the Greek word metamorph all right which is the same one we use in science we learn about butterflies coming from caterpillars and turning into beautiful
00:10:53 uh butterflies is a transformation in fact popular culture if you look at uh um the JK Rowling she used it for uh Transfiguration class where Harry Potter was learned the spells to transform one object a dog to a monkey as it were all right um but if you look very carefully this is what happens his his face Shone like the sun his clothes became White as light okay his face was altered his clothing became dazzling white and Mark n says his clothes became radiant intensely white as no one on earth could bleach them Mark probably
00:11:36 had a very bad lrat so he describes you know is better than any lrat could do all right uh and it's basically light and if you recall light has a particular significance in the Bible it is in the life of Israel when they were brought out from slavery Egypt that God's glory displayed as light a pillar of light of fire at night and the shakina glory cloud in the daytime so they're familiar because light equals the glory of God is a visual expression of the power the magnificence the worth the loveliness
00:12:14 and the Grandeur of all of God's Perfections Moses encountered it when he asked God to show him his glory burning bush Chapter 3 of Exodus Exodus 34 where God showed him this backside as it were Exodus 24 on the top of the mountain God's glory always Shone as light Ezekiel had the starting of his mission was started off with a vision of God and if you look at the Ezekiel passage like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud the day of rain so was the appearance of the brightness all around
00:12:51 such was the appearance of the lightness of the glory of the Lord so glory of the Lord is associated with this visual expression and in the last few days before his crucifixion Jesus in John chapter 5 said in his high Priestly prayer and now God glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed so if that's the case what's happened of metamor or or or Transfiguration is actually not a transformation it's actually like an eclipse the end of the eclipse where
00:13:29 where the moon moves out of the way and the True Glory of the sun shines through and if you look at the nature of Jesus Christ in his Incarnation he took upon himself human flesh and when that flesh is just moved aside a little bit of light Peaks through and you can see his True Glory as it were and this is Peter's testimony Peter and John were there with James and they testified in in 2 Peter 1:16-17 he says but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty for when he received honor and Glory from God the
00:14:06 Father John says and the word became fleshed and it tabernacled or dwelt amongst us and we have seen his glory this is a testimony from the both of them and here you actually have Jesus standing transfigured and as the author of Hebrews says he's the radiance of the glory of God exact imprint of his nature here's the visual expression of the power magnificence Beauty loveliness and grandure of many of God's Perfections this is the light as it were and if you look up in the sky today you you're not
00:14:41 going to be a Mount Hermon but what you can see up in the heavens Psalm 19:1 says the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above Proclaim his handywork every time you look up in the sky and better better telescopes that we actually build they put a new one up there a million miles from Earth the more you can see of the glory of God every single one of these trillion of stars powered by nuclear fusion and actually we try to replicate this glory for ourselves actually the story of mankind
00:15:17 is replicating the glory of God Eve in the Garden of Eden wasn't happy with the glory of God she wanted her own Glory so that she could be like God a little star shining with own Fusion couple of weeks ago we had a tremendous breakthrough uh we've actually got this UK based jet lab and what they're doing is to try to replicate the power of the stars and what they did was actually create energy through nuclear fusion putting two isotopes of hydrogen together dyum trium when you smash them together you produce a lot of energy and
00:15:52 what they do is that they produced 11 megawatt of power and the last time they did that was 20 years ago and produce four megawatt here we have 11 megawatts of power that could actually boil 60 kettles of water you know for how long 5 Seconds that's our attempt at nuclear fusion and they're planning to get this energy for the next 50 years 5,000 over um scientists with 28 countries that is human version of God's glory we're not satisfied with his glory we want our our own version of glory and if you actually
00:16:31 look that's what a lot of us are actually striving for our own Glory isn't it um if you look at this uh darling of the Beijing Olympics you all know her name is it anybody know her name her name is eing een gu eing fantastic star you know I mean Gan will be thinking now that's a perfect one for my daughter-in-law why because she's the one who won the most gold Oly uh uh medals two Golds and one silver in the history of the Olympic Games in the winter not only that she is a top scorer her her SAT score was 5
00:17:12 1,582 shy of perfect score she plays the piano right fluent in Mandarin perfect Mandarin perfect English she's an athlete what more could you want in fact not only that she's so beautiful that she actually became a model for Tiffany and if Tiffany doesn't make you a model for nothing right so not only that she's also an activist she's um she she actually campaigns for gender equality female representation in athletic competitions black lives n anti-asian pandemic response she's all that but human glory is somewhat
00:17:52 limited she won't say anything about the millions of weager people who have been persecuted in the country she now represents she won't tell you whether she's a citizen of America or citizen of China you can't be both in the Olympic Games and she keeps quiet about that see our glory is flawed and yet and and not only that in the Quest for Glory it is devastating if you look at one Island goo you can see a 100 ISU W Abes there was another Chinese athlete called Jang I think her name was she's also doing skating
00:18:30 she was so hyped she went and left the United States and and joined the the Chinese team and she fell down and within hours 200 comments on Twitter or Facebook whatever they got and they all not good human glory is double-edged it is flawed I remember that beautiful show I watched this a young uh young man wizard of O 1939 Judy Garland and you got a story here is a classic story of the human quest for Glory isn't it we we have the lion the the Scarecrow and the Tin Man and and dor dor is transported from
00:19:13 Oklahoma to this magical land of Oz and all she wants is to get home maybe probably in time of Christmas uh the lion is a scary cat so therefore he wants Courage the Tin Man doesn't have emotion so he wants a heart the Scarecrow wants a brain all right and so all of them embark on this journey which is emblematic of the Journey of life isn't it they follow the red yellow brick road to find a place to find the wizard of God's who will basically fulfill all their dreams and here we have Judy garet singing the song someway someday
00:19:55 I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me where troubles melt like L lemon drops high above the chimney tops that's where you'll find me that's a cry a song of human aspiration of the kind of Glory that will overwhelm all our troubles and when they get to see the wizard of O the the dog Toto actually accidentally pulls the curtain aside and all you see is a old man who cannot fulfill their desires for Glory or all their dreams you see brothers and sisters that is the picture
00:20:32 of human Glory Isaiah says one day the sun shall be no more your light by day nor brightness shall the moon give you light but the Lord will be your Everlasting Light and your God will you be your glory in Revelations chapter 21 the new heaven new Earth has no son because God provides the glory that's what we're looking at and uh if you look at the Transfiguration the Transfiguration is a confirmation of who Jesus is Moses is there Elijah is there Moses represents and reflects the Divine glory in the law Elijah proclaims the
00:21:16 Divine glory in Prophecy they all point to Jesus Christ if you look carefully when you actually have a law Court you have two to three Witnesses there all right and you actually have three of them there both have seen God's glory which is basically Moses and Elijah Moses saw it at Mount Si Elijah saw the power in Mount Carmel Lo Moses laid the foundation of the law all the sacrifices of the law point to Jesus Christ Elijah represents the prophets and all the prophecies also pointed to Jesus Moses was The Giver of the law
00:22:03 Jesus has been accused of transgressing the law Elijah is the one who is an opponent of idolatry Jesus was accused of idolatry because he made himself out to be God and here you actually have the final confirmation where Jesus is transfigured and Moses and Elijah are pointing directly to him so the context is important because they got this groundbreaking declaration Jesus is the Christ and you got to prophecy the cross asking you to live can carry your own cross then you got to Transfiguration
00:22:36 and then follow by the prophecy cross again very clearly we see the Transfiguration is to tell them that this whatever Jesus is saying is true all right so it is the nature of the Messiah the third witness here in the court of law is God the father he turns up in a big cloud that overwhelm Ms everybody this is my beloved Son with whom I'm well pleased I only one message listen to him the crucial period of time Transfiguration is also the preview of our own Eternal hope Moses at that time had gone for 1,400 years supposed to be
00:23:21 buried in Mount Neo but they can't find his body Elijah had been taken up for at that time almost 800 years and here you actually see both of them alive luminiscent talking to Jesus Christ and so therefore the Transfiguration has to be the preview of our own Eternal hope that there is no permanent death for US 1 John 3 23 says beloved we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is because we shall see is and everyone
00:24:04 who tust hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure that is the overriding inspiration the impetus and encouragement for us to persevere in our faith no matter what the bad news like these disciples have gotten and one day Matthew 13 says the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their father he has ears let him hear did you not hear this just as Jesus was shining brighter than any laundromat can do for you we too will shine like the sun better than Fusion Energy we don't have to create our own Fusion Energy which
00:24:42 only last for 5 seconds we will shine and that is the hope now what else does the Transfiguration tell us the Transfiguration tells us that the cross is inseparable from the crown very important imagine you're there suddenly Jesus is transfigured is shining white and two fellows came up there one is Moses and one is Elijah you recognize that one is holding two tablets one stand and the other one you know he's dressed like a hippie as it were you can recognize him he's got this uh Wild Man kind of look what would you and they're
00:25:24 talking and I tell you what all of us are wondering hey what he talking about about are they talking about Ukraine are they talking about the pandemic what would they be talking about that's so important that these two chaps have turned up with Jesus together I mean the most important thing is what they be talking about right or would you be there and you know taking selfie with them no the message is important the whole idea of the Transfiguration is what they're talking about if you would be a fly in the wall and you know what
00:25:55 Luke tells us behold two men were talking with him Moses and El who appeared in the glory and spoke of his departure which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem oh what an anticlimax in it you thought he was going to speak on some great Grandeur plan to take over the whole nation Israel to kick the Romans out you know what he's talking about his death his resurrection that's the problem as he were speaking and behold a bright cloud overshadow said to them a voice the cloud said this is my beloved Son with
00:26:32 whom I am well pleased listen to him see the third witness comes up Moses Elijah and now it's God the Father himself listen to him all right and this actually takes back takes back to the prophecy in Deuteronomy where Moses was told by God that there will be another Prophet coming the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from amongst you from among your brothers it is to him you shall listen that is the moment they've all been waiting for for 1,400 years these other Prophet that
00:27:10 will come we need to listen to you and the message is very difficult to swallow you see Jesus now outshines Moses outshines Elijah the New Covenant comes to place and the New Covenant is based solely on what Jesus is is he's got his authority now the law says this the prophet says this but Jesus says I say to you everyone who's angry brother will be liable with judgment I say to you everyone who looked at woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery I say to you everyone who divorces his wife you see every time
00:27:49 Jesus comes he takes over the scene you discard or supersede everything that the law says and the faith is entirely on Jesus Christ and then the cloud dissipates and you know who's left behind only Jesus and that is the picture of our faith when the cloud disappeares when the witnesses go away when we sitting in this Hall the only person you should be seeing in your life beholding before your eyes is Jesus and you know what Jesus has to tell them as they were coming down from the mountain Jesus
00:28:26 commanded them tell no one about about the vision that until the son of man is raised from the dead again the same message is coming through and disciples asked him then why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first well he answers Elijah does come and he will restore all things but I tell you Elijah has already come and they didn't recognize him and they did to him whatever they pleased and so the son of man will certainly suffer at their hands and disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the
00:29:04 Baptist so here you actually have parallel Fates he's telling yes Elijah will come before the end but Elijah has come and the fact that Elijah has come in the person of John and John's head is put on the platter is going to be similar to the fate of Jesus on the cross and that's a very hard thing to swallow because in their minds was the glor glory of God that comes together with the coming of the Messiah and here we're telling me the glory of God doesn't come it comes to the Cross Jesus is telling us that the cross
00:29:38 and the crown are inseparable in fact you actually have to see the cross before you see the crown that's a fact it's a fact that's so hard to swallow that you've got to have two witnesses and the third one God himself tell you this is the way it's supposed to be so it's counterintuitive isn't it to every single one of us sitting here especially in today where we've got the propagation of Prosperity Gospel and in in very affluent societies for us to hear that the cross is inseparable from the crown it's a it's a
00:30:11 very counterintuitive message it's very counter for us to embrace the cross we'll embrace the crown yeah but we won't embrace the cross and the same thing if you look at Peter you know what he said Peter said to Jesus lord it's good that we are here if you wish I will make three t0 one for you one for Moses one for Elijah why would he say that because let's finish it off you are here no need to suffer let's build a tent and we will live happily ever after because in his background was the prophecy of Daniel chapter 7 and I saw
00:30:51 in the night visions and behold in the Clouds of the heaven came one like the son of man he came to the ancient days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory in the Kingdom that's the background of an apostle that's the background of every Jewish man that when the son of man comes this would come and whatever the father whatever Jesus says to them now is totally in congruent it blows their mind right after that you can see they they never listen you know you can tell
00:31:20 but they don't listen you know why right after that Matthew 18 which is then replicated in Luke 9 uh 46 they start the argument who is greatest can you imagine they telling you you're going to die and the next thing they're arguing about who's the greatest you think they got the message they didn't get the message in fact we never get the message everywhere in the world you look in the United States where they actually attack the capital building they actually carry the cross the cross becomes a prop it be
00:31:55 provides a tin veneer of Holiness that actually hides a naked grab for power that's what religion has become you you justify our naked grab for the crown and we use the cross as a prop as it were you look later on in Luke chapter 9 just right after Transfiguration disciples went to a Samaritan Village and they thought Wow Fresh from the Transfiguration we're going to witness and they're going to come on bended knee all the call you know what the America the Samaritans did they say go and fly kites we don't want to
00:32:35 listen and then the disciples look who they are James and John hey these two jokers were there with Jesus in the mountain right you know what they said Lord you want us to um basically tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them you think they learn anything people don't want to listen to first US okay Lord send the fire down just like Elijah we want the crown we don't want the cross even to this day we don't want to hear about the cross we only want to hear about the crown why is it that Miracle Services look at thousands
00:33:15 of people go always the crown before the cross prayer meeting nobody goes fact isn't it because we want the hype we want the spiritual gift but the spiritual gifts are miraculous healings you touch you and then you fall down we don't want the other stuff you know what were disciples doing when Jesus praying for the Transfiguration Luke says they were sleeping just before the cross and Gethsemane what were the disciples doing sleeping sleeping we're always sleeping because you know why we're looking for
00:33:51 the crown oh when the Transfiguration Come Peter comes up oh I'll build a tent I'll build a condo I'll build a palace but when it comes to things that really matter we're all sleeping nothing's happening here you see the the the crown is inseparable from the cross and rejection is actually part of the glory you don't understand and this is what Jesus is trying to tell them as it were Eileen goo however beautiful she is one day CNN wrote many took notice when when she knelt down on the snowy floor to console a sobbing rival she can
00:34:34 win three gold medals and yet when someone is crying and it's person is her rival she kneels down and she consoles you know what that's Glory because we live in a world where there's much pain and we cannot ignore pain Glory doesn't ignore the pain I don't know we spent a lot of time nowadays because of pandemic clustered at home I watch Netflix all the time and sometimes you learn something there's this uh great series called The Sweet Magnolias uh that tells of an idealic town in in Midwest American cities uh uh town where there
00:35:11 are three single women one divorced one single and frustrated and one separated and they live in a town where they all three are Christian they go to church every Sunday they close to the pastor uh their children participate in vacation Vacation Bible School when you see a show on Hollywood that talks about Vacation Bible School you to pck up your ears and you want to listen right right that's right is it but they go through their struggles and all through their struggles they've got their love
00:35:42 interest and they'll hop in bed with all their love interest without even blinking in the eye they suddenly say oh something's wrong here right looks like the rest of Hollywood and then they've got it has to be a gay couple in their midst and that gay Rel relationship homosexual relationship is celebrated because it's beautiful it's there's loyalty you know it's very touching and you can actually see what's happening is that you know we're changing the face of God sin becomes a natural part of the background so much
00:36:16 so cast in Middle Middletown America Christian Church Godly women as it were but sin becomes a natural part of the background so much so that we don't even think about it we don't actually feel about it that's one of the most uh prominent Christian theologians in the last 20 in the 20th century was Richard Noba and he writes what we have done is we have got a god without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a cross Christ without a cross that's what we have done the kind
00:36:56 of Christianity that puts the Crown before the cross we have to do that if you look at a place where things went wrong there a picture of a Russian gulab at the end of World War II where Stalin took over and we got the Soviet Union 14 million people were put into gulak where they tortured and they gave Free Labor almost 1.4 to two million people actually died at those camps it was a terrible situation oppression these are the number of guls I think there more gulak than their cities in the Soviet
00:37:36 Union and there was one man Nobel Prize winner Alexander Sal niten who D speak the truth he wrote one book it's called one day in the life of Ivan denisovich he described one day of life in the Gula and that book went viral and that book was because one man D tell the truth that one man's truth started events that triggered the collapse of the Soviet Union and at his Nobel Prize he he wasn't even allowed to collect his Nobel Prize but he wrote the message says one word of Truth Shall outweigh the whole
00:38:23 world and that's true one word of Truth brought down the Soviet Union but then again more importantly he wrote In The Time Magazine he says the lines separating good and evil passes not through States nor between classes nor between political parties either right either but right through the heart through every human heart it's not about which country you belong to it not about what party or what race the line separating good and evil passes through the human heart which is why if you look back
00:39:04 whether it's maong who says power comes from the barrel gun or marjerie Taylor green who carries a gun and you know runs for congress it doesn't pass between the ages it doesn't pass between countries oh muin a couple of days ago says oh country's financial trouble vows to reveal details in Malaysia Kini February 19 and now he's fighting against everybody else and everybody's fighting the line doesn't pass between race or political parties it passes through the human heart it doesn't pass between
00:39:39 Rome and the Jews and that is why the only way to reach the human heart is through the cross the crown doesn't work alone we live in a world torn apart by sin the only way we can bring people together is to touch that line and Jesus went to touch that line let me end with the last point which is Transfiguration is important because it informs us of our own transformation into the true nature of Glory you want to be transfigured you want to be changed you need to get the true picture what glory is you see Moses after communicating
00:40:22 with God came out and his and his face was shining why because he had a great time with God and reflected of his face and that's a metaphor of how transformation can actually happen in our own lives there are four places in the New Testament where the word metamor is used two in Jesus Transfiguration Matthew and uh uh and Mark and the other two is our own Transfiguration or transformation in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 3:18 right let me read 2 Corinthians 3:18 and we with unveiled face beholding
00:41:00 the glory of God are being transformed into the same image from one degree of Glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit the second one is Romans 12 do not be transformed to the world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good acceptable and perfect both verses talk about us being transfigured us being transformed into the likeness of God by by our minds and by beholding and embracing who Jesus is in all his
00:41:33 glory I want to put you this picture imagine the start of the journey towards the end and the end of the journey Jesus Christ flanked by two people he always flanked by two people one is flanked by Moses and Elijah two glorious figures that sums up the whole of the Old Testament at the end of his ministry he is flanked by two thieves and Jesus is hanging on the cross and what's happening on one hand the cloud comes and a bright light shines this is my beloved Son listen to him and whom I'm well pleased right
00:42:17 God's really pleased the other one no Cloud you know what you have darkness and Jesus screaming out the father doesn't say anything it's Jesus is screaming out not this slide guys there another slide like this thanks I still got time I lost my train of th so we've got Darkness instead of a bright Cloud you actually got Darkness instead of Father saying my son I'm well pleased is Jesus screaming out say where are you papa why have you forsaken me you see on one hand we see Glory at the other one we see shame but
00:43:14 it's not really the case if you look at Moses you see Moses asked God to show him his glory and and and God said to him I can't really show you my face you I show your face youu die I can show you my backside as I'll just pass by but that's not the whole story you look at what he says and the Lord passed before him that means you see all the glory and all that right and the Lord proclaimed the Lord the Lord a god of mercy and gracious slow to anger abounding steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love
00:43:47 for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who will by no means clear the guilty so the two FS of God's glory isn't it one the light The Shining visible representation of all his Perfection and the other picture of God's glory is his mercy and his Justice if you see one without the other then your picture of glory is incomplete if you refuse to see one and you insist on seeing the other your Christianity will be distorted take a picture of two presidents best example one of them Rich one of them
00:44:35 compared to him very poor one of them has never sought God for forgiveness as he he said that in the article the other one has even confessed that he saw other women other than his wife with a bit of lust in his eyes one of them will build houses for the poor the other one will stop black people from living in his houses which Glory do you want in your life see Glory has two aspects the glory of Jesus Christ fast forward to the end of time and this is a scene Apostle John in the island Patmos and he sees the picture of Jesus you
00:45:23 thought the crown or the cross is just a passing f SE after the cross will forget about it but the startling thing in the middle of Heaven you know what happens and the one of the elders said to me weep no more for the lion the tribe of Judah the root of David has conquered so he can open the Scrolls and the Seven Seals so the lion of Judah Jesus and you know who comes up a lion doesn't come up and between the throne and the four living creatures amongst the elders I saw a lamb standing as though it had been
00:45:58 slain so the picture of the cross the crown are actually in heaven the lamb who was slain is actually standing in heaven it's a permanent fixure we were thought in heaven when you see the Glorious bright light the Perfection we won't see this hideous picture of a lamb that's slain but God understands and we need to understand that the picture of Glory includes both the cross and the crown and Revelation 1211 talks about the Victory and the glory of the Believers you know what the glory of the Believers are they have conquered him
00:46:37 the Devil by the blood of the Lamb that's number one by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death that's how our Victory comes we talk about spiritual warfare you know in spiritual warfare the devil is only scared he's only scared not when you're marching around the neighborhood and prayer walk I don't think he's scared about that he's scared when you buy a proton instead of a BMW and you use that money for the poor he's scared when we turn the other cheek but we walk the extra mile when we look
00:47:14 out for others and we're prepared to sacrifice and prepared to give up what we have that's when the devil is scared the devil is not afraid if you're working out if you are taking political power the devil is afraid when we decide to be weak to the weak I became weak that I may weak win the weak I become all things to all people that by all means I may save some that I do it all for the sake of the Gospel that must share with them in its blessing that's when he's afraid when we decide to be weak the devil is afraid when a
00:47:51 Christian woman stands up and she can wear her hair long but she decides to go in a mosque and wear a mask and a Tong she's not weak she's not cow Towing to another Religion she is becoming weak because in her weakness is strength Paul says that I may know him in the power of his resurrection that I may share in his suffering becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection of the Dead you see Paul's able to do that because he understands that true transformation cannot come without
00:48:25 embracing the Crow the the cross we run away from the cross but the reality is there is True Glory in embracing the cross Colossians 1: 12426 says now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I filling up what is lacking in Christ suffering for the sake of the body this is what he's saying what he's saying is that in acts: 18 you are supposed to take the gospel to Jerusalem to Judea Samaria enter the world Jesus Christ suffering took us all the way up to Jerusalem but from Jerusalem to Judea Samaria who's got a
00:49:05 suffer the disciples from Samaria onwards to the rest of the world it's going to be Paul and from us to the end of this country it's got to be us you know during World War II there was a big fight Union regiment versus the Confederates and the Union soldiers were getting bombarded you know why someone came up to say hey brother you know you're raising the flag the flag is perfect Target opportunity isn't it why don't you lower the flag then you get less bombardment you can hide won't lose so many lives but the officer in
00:49:44 charge says no this you know what Americans call their flag the Old Glory they wouldn't lower the glory you know why because they see that as their pride as their and when we lift up the cross that is our glory and when you lift up the cross they will shoot you they will go against you they will malign you but that is our Glory the team can come up now you see joash preached about taking up the cross you can't take up the cross you won't take up the cross unless you see the glory isn't it unless you see the glory you won to
00:50:32 if you only see the visual representation of God's Perfection his his light you know what happened that's exactly what happened on Mount Hermon they saw the light they saw the crowd you know what we do they all ran and hid they were terrified seeing the light doesn't get you to voluntarily take up your cross but seeing the glory in the cross in the person of Jesus Christ tells you that God is love that God is justice as well as God is glorious Mighty and om omnipotent I'm going to end this is a
00:51:14 scene uh slides up have look at the scene first on the top of Mount Hermon where Transfiguration occurred 2,000 years ago aside from the UN Observatory that is there you know what's up there now it's a cross it's a cross and we are now challenged to embrace that cross because that cross that cross is our glory and that's the message of the father and the father says listen to him that is your glory it's not the gold medals it's not all that Glitters it's not Fusion energy it's the energy of the Cross because if
00:51:59 it's just the Brilliance of God that magnificent shining power that won't make you give up your life that will force you to give up your life because you're afraid like the apostles were afraid but when you see him on the cross that touches your heart and that motivates you that empowers you and then you've got the true idea what True Glory is it is both the the light and the suffering together let's listen to him let's end with a word of prayer father Lord we come before you this day and we are a
00:52:38 flawed people we're just as stubborn as Peter James and John and we don't want to embrace the cross we only want the crown father Lord today as a message of the Transfiguration resonates in our hearts we pray that we learn to see there is Glory in service there's glory in sacrifice there's glory in the cross so that we too might be fully transformed into the true nature of Glory for we ask for Jesus sake amen may we Embrace Christ to be our Glory now and forever more may I invite you to stand with me as we respond by
00:53:21 singing this song that Christ will be our treasure [Music] Lord our feet Wonder all the Earth [Music] unsatisfied drinking from a sea of emptiness has left as so we turn our eyes to Christ Our treasure there is none like you PR Precious Jesus there is no like you living water Word of Life you are forever [Music] true Every Blessing Joy abounds you in know way you so we our eyes on Christ Our treasure there is none like you preious [Music] Jesus there is none like you Christ Our treasure Christ Our
00:55:42 treasure there is none like you prous Jesus there there is none like [Music] you Grace for the guilty help for the need Jesus you satisfy our souls strength for the wey Hope For The Grieving Jesus you said satisfy our souls healer of sickness Fountain of goodness Jesus you satisfy our souls faithful provider gracious Redeemer Jesus you satisfy our souls Mighty and power awesome and strer Jesus you sisy our souls author perfector keeper [Music] sustainer Jesus you satisfi [Music] Christ there is none like
00:57:43 you preious Jesus there is like you your voice chur Christ Our treasure ch High star treasure there is none like you [Music] preious Jesus there is none like you
