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Sermon
The Gospel of Matthew

Behold the Glory of Christ

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March 15, 2026
Matthew 17:1-13
Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

The Person of Christ

Faith

The Glory of God

Transcript

0:00Well, it is so good to be together as we now look at God's word. And a special welcome to those who are watching online. We understand that on a day like this, and so we're glad you're joining us on the live stream as well. I now know why people in Minnesota are so hardy. It's because the weather keeps trying to kill us, and we don't die. Why don't we pray, and then let's begin our time looking at God's Word. Father in heaven, we ask that you would indeed show us C****t. Show us C****t so that we would behold his glory and majesty in all of its fullness, and that every heart would confess that he is Lord. We pray this in your name. Amen.

1:14Occasionally, life brings moments where terror and exhilaration meet. Life brings moments when terror and exhilaration meet. My original illustration was childbirth, but as I was thinking about my drive in this morning, as I see the sign that said, "Blizzard warning in effect," a-and the roads are potentially going to kill me, there's this sense of beauty, exhilaration, look how wonderful this is, and then terror. What if I get stuck in a ditch on the side of the road? There's these moments where terror and exhilaration come together in a singular moment. Childbirth is one of those, where you have new birth, inexpressible joy, and yet it's marked by pain and suffering and much terror, perhaps.

2:13There's tears of pain and tears of joy and tears of relief, and that's just the dad. Not even the mom yet. The, the baby's first cry is like this wave of relief crashing over anxiety and fear. It, it's this picture of terror and exhilaration in a singular moment. And that combination, terror and exhilaration, is what the disciples experience on the top of this mountain with Jesus. If, if you'll recall with me, in chapter sixteen, the disciples have been on this emotional rollercoaster. They've gone up and down, up and down. Just let me kinda guide us along in that. If, if you'll remember, Jesus rebukes the disciples when he was talking about the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees, and he says, "Oh, you of little faith." And so here's the low.

3:04And then Peter confesses, "You are the C****t, the Son of the living God." Here's this glorious, glorious high. And then Jesus turns to him and says, "Get behind me, Satan." It, it's the lowest of lows, perhaps, for Peter. He, he tells them that, "I must suffer and die." A-another low. And then Jesus says, "And you're going to see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." Again, a high and hope. They're feeling this whiplash of going from exhilaration and fear and back again, and our passage continues that rollercoaster this morning. They behold the most amazing and glorious sight of Jesus in all of his glory, and yet they fall on their faces terrified, trembling. So what's going on in our passage? Well, we saw last week at the end of chapter sixteen, Matthew sixteen, twenty-eight, that the transfiguration fulfills that very verse. They see the coming of the Lord, and it's this preview of coming glory, a sneak peek, a trailer, if you will, of Jesus' enthronement as the King.

4:21It's this glimpse of future glory to strengthen their faith in the present, in light of what he's already told them, that, "I'm going to suffer, and I'm going to die, and you will also suffer as well." So this morning, our passage very simply shows us that the transfiguration unveils the glory of C****t to solidify our faith. The transfiguration unveils the glory of C****t in order to solidify our faith. The disciples have just heard that Jesus is going to suffer, and he's going to die. He's going to go to the cross, and yet Jesus gives them this little glimpse of future glory so that they would persevere in the present.

5:11That's kinda how this passage and the flow of this text works. He unveils his true identity as the Messiah, and this is a preview not only of what awaits Jesus, but it's actually a preview of what awaits them. So my aim this morning is that we would very simply see the glory of C****t afresh, just like we sang. That we would see C****t, and as a result of seeing, we would become more like Jesus. We would be more able to endure suffering and trials and difficulties. Why? Because Jesus is indeed the Messiah, and he's the Lord of glory, and we're destined to experience that with him. So we're gonna see this in three parts.

6:00We're gonna s- look at glory unveiled in verses one to three, glory confirmed in verses four to eight, and then glory understood in verses nine to thirteen. So glory unveiled, look with me at verse one. Love for you to follow along in your Bibles. If you're at home, go grab your Bible. We'd love for you to join us.Verse one says, "And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves." So here we get the setting. We might just think it's throwaway, but I think there's all sorts of clues that are telling us what we're supposed to be thinking about to help us interpret this particular moment. That we said after six days is this unusually specific time marker for Matthew, and I think he's trying to show this is the fulfillment of chapter sixteen, verse twenty-eight. It's showing how Jesus teaching about the cross and the transfiguration are back to back.

6:57Now, we, we might be aware that Luke's gospel uses eight days. So why the discrepancy? Some would say, "See, the Bible contradicts itself. You, you can't trust it. Luke nine twenty-eight says about eight days." Well, this is what we would expect from a minor variation from independent eyewitnesses. What Luke is doing is he's inc-- counting inclusively. He counts the very first day when probably sixteen twenty-eight was uttered, and then he counts the day when the transfiguration was happening, so he says about eight days, whereas Matthew and Mark say six days because those are the six days in between.

7:33So there's no contradiction here, but it confirms that these are actually independent eyewitness accounts. Now, why did it happen six days later? Wh-why is that even important? It could have just happened a day later. Could have been two weeks later. I, I think that Matthew and Mark are trying to point to something very specific in Israel's history that helps us interpret what's going on. It's kinda like i-if you watch a kinda TV series, a-and at the beginning of that, it might say previously, and then it shows you all these scenes from f-- kinda earlier episodes that kinda bring you up to this point. And I think the gospel writers are doing a little bit of that. It's alluding to the past to help us interpret the present. A-and so Matthew, I think, is alluding to Exodus chapter twenty-four.

8:24I-in Exodus twenty-four, Matthew goes up a very high mountain, Mount Sinai, and who does he bring with him? He brings with him Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, three friends, as well as the seventy elders of Israel. And on that mountain, it says, "The glory of Yahweh dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days." So I think Matthew is intentionally alluding to Exodus twenty-four, where God showed up in all of his glory to Moses. Now, here in this instance, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, the inner circle of his disciples, so that they would serve as witnesses of his glory. They're also, they're also the ones who are gonna be in the Garden of Gethsemane.

9:10And I think this also fits or sort of complies with Deuteronomy nineteen fifteen, which says, "Any testimony must be established by two or three witnesses." So that's the point of these guys with Jesus. Now, look with me at verse two. Picture Jesus on this mountain, three disciples beside him, and then all of a sudden it says, "And Jesus was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light." And the word transfigured here is metamorphoo, where we get the word metamorphosis. It means to be transformed or change in form, and they get this glimpse of Jesus in all of his pre-incarnate glory. We, we, we know Jesus possessed this pre-incarnate glory because in Philippians two six, Jesus says, "He emptied himself," or Paul says, "Jesus emptied himself," which means he clothed himself with humanity, which veiled his glory while he was here on earth. Or Jesus in John seventeen five, he says, "Glorify me with the same glory that I had with you before the incarnation." So in a sense, the veil is pulled back, and we get to see Jesus as he is. And it says, "His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light."

10:41Luke says they were dazzling white. Mark says they were radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. Uh, this is not just a really white shirt. This is the shining of the sun at high noon, but instead of it being light years away, it's right before your face. Imagine how blinding this is. It, it's like getting on a ski hill on a sunny day in a fresh coat of snow, a-and you're just so blinded that you couldn't ski down unless you had goggles. Shines like this divine light bulb with infinite lumens, and it happens right before them, so they're supposed to see this. And so what does this call to mind? Again, it calls to mind the exodus where m-- e-excuse me, where Moses saw the glory of the Lord. He caused his glory to pass by him, and his face shone with the reflected glory of God so that he had to veil himself. But here's the crucial difference. Moses shone with reflected glory. It wasn't his own glory. It, it was the reflection of God's glory. But here, Jesus shines forth from his own inherent glory.

12:02Moses is like the moon that reflects the s-- light of the sun, where Jesus is the very source of light itself. This is supernatural radiance. It's like what we see in the Ancient of Days in Daniel nine, where it says, "His clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool." It's the same language that talks about Jesus in his exalted state in Revelation, Revelation one, Revelation nineteen.So what does this tell us? Not only is Matthew trying to tell us that Jesus is greater than Moses as he hearkens back to Exodus twenty-four, Jesus, Jesus shines forth with his own inherent glory.

12:47He's not reflecting anybody else, but rather he's trying to show us that Jesus is God. His humanity veils his glory for a moment, but for a moment it blazes forth this blinding light to show that this is God Almighty standing there on this mountain in your midst. Now look at verse three. And behold, there appeared to him Moses and Elijah talking with him. Now this raises all sorts of questions. May-maybe you've had these questions. How did they recognize that this was Moses and Elijah, not just two old dudes, right? How did the disciples know it was them? Why these two guys and not some other guys that could have been there?

13:33Abraham, maybe Jonah. Well, our text doesn't give us many details, but I think we can kinda speculate a number of things. Maybe we could recogni-- they could have recognized Elijah's clothing, which was very distinctive. It was described as a hairy garment with a leather belt. It was the same as John the Baptist's. It could have been that Moses had his staff and maybe even the veil that he had placed over his head. But it also says Jesus was talking with them, which means he could have just addressed them by name. He could've been like, "What's up, Moses? What's up, Elijah? It's been a while." Why these two Old Testament figures and not others? Well, Moses is the greatest leader in Israel's history. He was the one who spoke with God face to face. He led the people like a prophet.

14:21He spoke for God like a priest. He interceded between God and man, and he led them like a king. And the law came through Moses, and so for many Jews, Moses would have been the greatest figure in all of their history. And Matthew shows us that Jesus far surpasses him. But more than that, Elijah was one of the greatest prophets of Israel. If you remember First Kings eighteen, Mo-- Elijah and the prophets of Baal, they have this showdown. It, it's one of the most dramatic scenes in all of scripture, and he says, "Douse the oxen," right, "with water," and then he calls down fire from heaven. He shows that he's a true prophet of God.

15:09But in the very next chapter, First Kings nineteen, what happens there? God speaks with Elijah verbally, face to face in many ways. A, a great wind came through and a strong storm and an earthquake and a fire, and then the Lord spoke to Elijah in a whisper. So these are two heroes of the faith, two guys who have metaphorically had their faces etched on Mount Rushmore of the Old Testament. And the point here is that we have two Old Testament witnesses who are confirming and authenticating Jesus' identity and mission. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "I have come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets." And here you have two guys who represent the Law and who represent the Prophets, and they're saying, "That's right.

16:00Jesus is that man. He is the one that we have been waiting for." This is an amazing and stunning scene. Now, Luke nine thirty-one tells us that they were speaking of Jesus' departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. That's Luke nine thirty-one. The word departure is exodus, referring to his death on the cross. So in the same way that Exodus delivered Israel from enslavement, Jesus is discussing with Moses and Elijah his exodus, his death that would deliver his people from bondage to sin. So what we get are two of Israel's greatest heroes in history who are authenticating Jesus' mission.

16:51Now let's move to glory confirmed. We see glory unveiled, now we move to glory confirmed. Look at verse four. And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it's good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Now, Peter begins pretty well. He calls him Lord, term of respect. He says, "If you wish," conveying his humility. That's kind of where it ends. The question is why does Peter suggest making tents? Some people speculate maybe Peter thought, well, Moses was up on the mountain forty days and forty nights, and so Jesus is gonna be up here for a while. We need a little bit of shelter.

17:31Other people think this is a little bit of a hat tip to the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. It's where Israel would have celebrated this once a year, where they would have lived in these booths made of sticks and branches and leaves to signify how they came out of Israel, traveled around, and it would be done right at the end of harvest to show God's past provision and then his future provision. I think Peter is just baffled. He doesn't know what to say, and so he just blurts this out. It's what Mark and Luke tell us. It says, "For Peter did not know what to say, for they were terrified." Let me just say something. Verse five and six. Peter was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

18:23Listen to him." When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.So as if this moment wasn't astonishing enough, they see these two Old Testament figures with Jesus. Now the Shekinah glory or the divine presence of God himself overshadows them, just like Exodus twenty-four. It's just like God's presence that filled the temple in Exodus forty or Isaiah six. And the Father speaks, "This is my beloved Son." Same words as from the baptism of Jesus. So we get God the Father confirming Jesus' identity as the C****t, as the Son of God, as the Son of Man from Daniel seven. So everything Jesus has said up to this point, the Father is saying, "This is him. Listen to him."

19:28But the words, listen to him, I think are this echo of what we see in Deuteronomy eighteen fifteen. You can turn there if you want, or you can just listen. If, if you'll remember, Deuteronomy eighteen fifteen, it says, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me," like Moses, "from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen." So even all the way back in the Old Testament, back in Deuteronomy, God the Father had said to Moses, and Moses was to say to the people, "God is going to raise up someone even better than me." Yes, you got the law from Moses, and Moses spoke with God face to face, and he dwelt up on this mountain. But God is bringing someone who is much greater, and it's to him you shall listen.

20:17And I think when Je-- the Father says, "Listen to him," he's hearkening back to this precise moment to say, "Here is Jesus, the mediator of a new and better covenant. Stop talking, stop correcting, stop trying to rebuke Jesus. Just listen. Listen to him." The disciples fall on their faces in terror and in awe, just like what took place in Exodus at Mount Sinai. And they hear God's thundering voice. Verses seven and eight, look with me there. "But Jesus came, and he touched them, saying, 'Rise and have no fear.' When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only." When all is said and done, only Jesus remains. Very often, whenever it talks about Jesus touching someone, it's this picture of healing.

21:17Here he heals them of their terror and fear, and the moment concludes with C****t alone. Uh, I think that's a fitting image of what Matthew wants us to see. Uh, when everything else goes away, the law and prophets fade away, the Father pulls back, it's just Jesus. So what happened? We get three witnesses who've seen Jesus in his glorified state. We get two Old Testament witnesses representing the law and prophets who cosign on Jesus' identity and mission. And if that wasn't enough, we get God the Father who audibly proclaims his delight in the Son and calls his people to listen to him. And what it does is it confirms everything Jesus has said up to this point, his death, his resurrection, that he's the Son of Man, that he's the C****t, and he's the very Son of God. Now, let's move to verses nine to thirteen, glory understood.

22:25After this astonishing sight, we get verse nine, "And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, 'Tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.'" So again, Jesus tells his disciples, "Don't tell anyone," just like he did in chapter sixteen, verse twenty. Why does he do that? This always baffled me when I was a kid. Well, Jesus doesn't want them to speak yet about the things they don't fully understand. In other words, you guys still don't get it, so if you go blabbing about this, you're gonna screw it all up. Jesus will say that they are of little faith in chapter seventeen, verse twenty. And then when he repeats his death prediction in chapter seventeen, verse twenty-three, they're gonna be distressed.

23:08And then in Matthew eighteen, they're gonna fight over who's the greatest in the kingdom. And then in Matthew nineteen, the disciples are gonna rebuke the children from coming to Jesus. And then in Matthew twenty, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the ones who saw this, along with their mom, are gonna come to Jesus and say, "Can, can we sit on your right hand, and can we sit on your left?" Like, we, we'd like the prime real estate in the kingdom with you, Jesus. They, they think it's about getting power and authority and accolades, and Jesus is trying to tell them, "No, no, no, no. The pathway to follow me is death and dying, suffering, going to the cross," and they don't get it. So they don't understand what is going on, and so Jesus doesn't want them to talk about it yet.

23:51He's also guarding against premature coronation. In John chapter six, verse fifteen, Jesus said this, "Perceiving that the crowds were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus again withdrew." A-and I think that same picture, if the disciples turned around, told all the disciples, and the disciples told everybody else, "Guess what we saw?" Everyone would be like, "Okay, let's make him king." And Jesus knows the crown does not come before the cross. Glory comes after suffering. The question, well, do the disciples get it later? They do. The disciples do get it later. Second Peter chapter one, verses sixteen to eighteen.

24:35If, if you have your Bible, I'd encourage you to turn there. It, it's really this amazing verse. Second PeterChapter one, verses sixteen to eighteen, and it says this. This is Peter writing later in his life. Peter, who was up on this mountain, who saw this sight, he says, "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus C****t." See that phrase, the coming of our Lord Jesus C****t. Exactly what we saw in chapter sixteen, verse twenty-eight. "But rather, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. We saw it with our own eyes." Verse seventeen. "For when he received, when Jesus received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,' we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain." So Peter himself says, "We were there. And so we're not telling you about these cleverly designed myths where we didn't know what was going on. We were there when we saw the Lord, when we saw Jesus receive glory, and honor in the coming of the Lord Jesus C****t." A-and that language where he received glory, honor and glory from God the Father, that sounds a lot like Daniel seven, doesn't it?

26:08So Peter sees this preview of the coming of the Lord, and after the resurrection, he tells everybody what has happened. He's an eyewitness of these realities. Look with me at ten to thirteen. "And the disciples asked him, 'Then why do the scribes say that Elijah, that first Elijah must come?' And he answered, 'Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.' Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist." Let me try to move through this last section a little bit more briefly.

26:53What, what's going on here is that the disciples are familiar with the scribes' interpretation of Malachi chapter four, verses five and six. And it anticipates that Elijah is going to come. He's gonna turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the children to their fathers, and everyone understood this as before the Messiah comes, the great and awful day of the Lord, before the Messiah enters the scene, we're gonna see Elijah come. And they expected Elijah would show up in the flesh because Elijah didn't die in the Old Testament. He was taken up in a fiery chariot. And so they're thinking, "We'll know when the Messiah comes because Elijah's gonna show up," and they've come to interpret it as he's gonna restore all things.

27:43So we can kinda begin to see the disciples' confusion. But it said all the way back in Luke chapter one, verse seventeen, says, "John the Baptist," this is an angel speaking to Zachariah before John the Baptist is actually born, and he says, "This son of yours, John the Baptist, will come in the spirit and power of Elijah, and he's gonna turn the hearts of Israel back to God, and the people are going to kill him." I-in other words, Jesus is saying, "I, I, un- I know the scribes' interpretation that he's gonna restore all things, but they're wrong. Elijah has already come, and they killed him. And now I, the Messiah, am here." The r-- One of the clues where we know that Jesus is correcting their misinterpretation is found in verse twelve.

28:30Look at verse twelve. He says, "Elijah does come, and he will restore all things." I think when he says that, he's quoting the scribes, but then he says, "But I tell you." That is the exact same phrase he used throughout the Sermon on the Mount that was interpreted or translated, "But I say to you." So he would say, "The scribes said, but I say to you. The scribes said, but I say to you. The scribes said, but I say to you." In other words, the scribes are getting it all wrong. Let me tell you what it actually means and what's actually going on. And so in other words, the scribes think that Elijah is still to come, which is why they don't believe that I am the Messiah. But Elijah's already come.

29:14That was John the Baptist. He wore the exact same clothes, a hairy cloak, a leather belt. It was to show Elijah is here. You didn't listen to him. You killed him. And Jesus says, "Now I am the Messiah standing in the flesh, and the prophecy of Malachi four, five, and six has been fulfilled. And the very same suffering that John experienced is the very same suffering that I, too, will experience. The Messianic forerunner has come and gone and been killed." So the main point of this incredible passage is that trans-- the transfiguration unveils the glory of C****t so that we would see him, and that it would solidify our faith. I, I used to always wonder when I was a kid, I would read this text and I'm like, "I, I don't get it. I, I get the incarnation, like Jesus had to be born.

30:14I get the cross. He had to die. This transfiguration doesn't seem to do much." And the point is, here's this glimpse of glory before the cross so that when the cross comes, and then Jesus is resurrected, the disciples would remember, "Oh, he had promised us that he would be glorified." And we see it both in advance and on the other side of the cross so that we know that he is speaking truth.So this morning, we're supposed to see the glory of C****t. Despite the sobering reality of suffering and the cross that even Jesus' disciples are going to need to bear, this is an invitation to see more of C****t. And so if you're not trusting in Jesus this morning, we wanna invite you to let the Holy Spirit pull back the veil, to take off the blinders so that you would see all that this passage is trying to show us about Jesus. He is the Son of Man who will come in glory, receive honor and power, and then rule and reign. He is the Son of God who has come.

31:34He is the very second person of the triune God. He is the C****t, the Messiah, the one that we've been waiting for. He is the new and better Moses, and we are to listen to him. He is the greater prophet. In the past, God has spoke to us by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. And so this passage invites all who don't know C****t to come and see with the eyes of faith. I wanna draw out three brief applications for us this morning. The first is that we are to endure suffering in light of Christ's glory. Endure suffering in light of Christ's glory. The disciples get this glimpse of glory, and the whole purpose of it is to strengthen their faith, that they're on the right side of eternity, that even though they experience suffering and hardship that is to come, persecution, maligning, even when Jesus goes to the cross, they'll, they'll think back and they're like, "I, I... He said he was gonna rise from the dead.

32:46We, we saw his glory. We saw this glimpse of his second coming." And it's gonna strengthen them to endure. A-and in that same way, we wanna see his glory that would strengthen us to endure. There's this kinda picture of suffering and glory captured in a singular moment. Now, some of you might have saw this in, during the Olympics, during the US Men's Hockey gold medal game that went into overtime. There was this guy who ended up scoring the final goal, right? But earlier in the game, what happened to him? Someone high-sticked him. I see a hand there, you might have known. Someone high-sticked him and knocked out several teeth.

33:32And so you get this picture of him at the end, he's celebrating with all of his friends, winning the gold medal that they haven't done for years, and his mouth is bleeding and he's missing several teeth. It's this picture of suffering and glory captured in one moment. A-and in that same way, the transfiguration is trying to show us that suffering will, with Jesus, will be rewarded in eternity. We will be vindicated. We will be glorified. And so right now, in whatever you're experiencing, don't grow weary in doing good. Don't grow weary in standing firm as a Christian in the midst of a twisted and wicked generation. Don't grow weary in enduring hostility. Don't grow weary in fighting sin.

34:22Why? Because C****t has been glorified, and we will be glorified with him. That is what awaits us. Matthew 13:43 gives us this incredible promise, "The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." That's not talking about just Jesus. That's talking about us. We will shine with the blinding, blazing glory of C****t someday. And so as Revelation 2:10 says, "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." We are to look forward to future glorification and the crown, and let that motivate us with obedience right now. Second application, fall on your face in worship of King Jesus.

35:16Fall on your face in worship of King Jesus. When the disciples see Jesus as he truly is, when his glory wasn't veiled by his humanity, they fell down terrified. And that's, the same is true for us. If we could see Jesus in all of his unmitigated, unveiled glory, we would fall down in fear. And unfortunately, we have far too often, we have this pedestrian view of Jesus, that he's just a nice guy, a good teacher, a mascot, a life coach or counselor. Far too many people take the name of Jesus in vain as an accompaniment to their cuss words rather than fall down in fear of him. I-in fact, there's even a clothing brand, an upscale urban clothing brand called Fear of God, and people walk around with those words where there is no fear of God in their life.

36:24Michael Reeves writes in this book on fear of the Lord, he says, "True fear of God is true love for God defined. It is the right response to God's full-orbed revelation of himself in all of his grace and glory. He is not a truth to be known unaffectedly or a good to be received listlessly. Seen clearly, the dazzling beauty and splendor of God must cause our hearts to quake."Or you could go to Proverbs twenty-eight fourteen. The f-- blessed is the one who fears the Lord always. And, and so this morning I imagine, like me, many of us need to recover a healthy, awestruck, fall-on-our-face reverence for Jesus.

37:22Lucy in Narnia, many of you know this, says to Mr. Beaver, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, "Then he isn't safe?" "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you." And then Peter says, "I'm longing to see him, even if I do feel frightened when it comes to the point." I think that should be like us. W-we should be like Peter. Yes, he's gentle and lowly, and he receives us, and anyone who truly trusts in him, he will not turn away, but we will not come strolling in without our knees knocking. No, no, no.

38:09We will fall down on our face in awe and reverence, and I think we need to recover a healthy fear of the Lord. Third and final application, listen to the voice and teaching of Jesus. Listen to him. It's the very words of the Father to the disciples, and I now think to us. Listen to him. This is my Son. In, in Deuteronomy eighteen, where we kinda talked about that earlier, there's this greater prophet who will speak in the name of Yahweh, and he says, "You'll know that this is the one who's sent by me. Everything he says will come true." Which is exactly what we see happen. Jesus predicts his death four times exactly the way it will happen, and then it comes true.

38:57And in Deuteronomy eighteen it says, "And if all that he says comes true, you need to listen to him. If he is a false prophet and the things that he says don't come true," it says, "you need not be afraid of him." Implication, you should be afraid of the one who speaks words where they all come true. So heed his words this morning. Do we listen to Jesus, or do we listen to podcasts and the news and influencers and politicians and celebrities? Whose voice is most prominent and influential in our lives? Think about that question. Whose voice is most prominent and influential in your life? Maybe it's a friend. Maybe it's someone online. Maybe you're reading his books.

39:51Maybe you're captured by his ideas. Maybe he has a s-- a spin on Christianity that you think is just so compelling. Whose voice is most prominent and influential? Hebrews says, "Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son." So listen to him. Do you read your Bible? Do you ransack God's Word to s-- hear the voice of Jesus? Do you hunger for sermons where preachers are helping you see and hear C****t himself? A-and here's the glorious reality. The transfiguration reveals the infinite and immeasurable glory of C****t. We're to see him afresh and, as a result, worship him afresh. We're to serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling, Psalm two eleven.

40:55And the disciples, they glimpsed Jesus just for a moment, and as soon as they fell down, it disappeared. Jesus went back to normal. There he is standing. And yet there is coming a day when we will be in the presence of our Lord, and we will see him in all of his unmitigated glory, shining forth like the sun. Revelation says we will not need the sun because the light of C****t will be our light. And it will not be for a moment, but it will be for all of our days. We will gaze upon his beauty and presence forever and ever. So let us live in light of that glory. Let's pray. Father, we wanna see more of C****t from your Word. And show us. Pull back the veil. Remove the blinders. Take out of the heart of stone. Put in a heart of flesh so that we would see the beauty and majesty and wonder of Jesus C****t our Lord.

42:08Do that for our joy. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Jump to live

Jump to live

Sermon Text

Matthew 17:1-13

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