A Glimpse of Glory

Take your Bibles, would you, this morning and open them to our text, Luke chapter 9, verse 27-36 is the passage, Luke 9, 27-36.

! Incredible chapter in the Gospel of Luke. I'm trying to get out of it all that it's worth and probably not even coming close to that.

But let me go ahead and read the passage starting with verse 27. But I tell you the truth, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.

Let me stop there just a minute. And you know that I ended last Sunday's sermon with this passage. And so we introduced that in connection with what Jesus was saying to the crowds, the multitude.

But it is a transition verse of Scripture. It really carries us over on into the next block of Scriptures. And so let me go ahead and read that.

Verse 28. Now it came to pass about eight days after these sayings. That's how you know this is connected to what comes before. After these sayings that he took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

As he prayed, the appearance of his face was altered and his robe became white and glistening. And behold, two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep. And when they were fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

Then it happened as they were parting from him, that is, as Moses and Elijah were parting, that Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here.

Let us make three tabernacles. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were fearful as they entered the cloud, and a voice came out of the cloud saying, This is my beloved Son.

Hear him. When the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone, but they kept quiet and told no one in those days any of these things they had seen.

Incredible passage of Scripture. A famous passage. We usually call it the Mount of Transfiguration, or the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.

And before we look at the text, let me just remind you of a few things that we've discussed, a couple of things we've discussed in weeks past. First of all, in the Gospels, and especially in Luke, specifically in Luke, prayer always seems to precede some significant event.

Do you remember me pointing that out a few weeks ago? We have Jesus praying, and then some major thing happens afterwards. We have several examples of that in the Bible.

And there's an example of that right here. And so in verse 28, what happens at the beginning of this passage? Well, Jesus goes off by himself.

This time he takes with him at least three of his inner circle of disciples. They go up into a mountain, and what do they do there? They pray. Jesus goes there to pray.

So Luke is saying, get ready, because something highly significant is about to take place. It kind of clues you into that. Then I would also remind you of a second thing, and I've mentioned this a number of times since we've been in chapter 9, that throughout this chapter, chapter 9, Luke has been focusing primarily on who Jesus is.

That's been the main focus, the main question. Who is Jesus? Back there in chapter 9, verse 9 rather, Herod asks the question, doesn't he?

He asks the question, who is this of whom I hear such things? So that's the focus. Who is this Jesus? Herod is asking the question, and so Luke tells us that Herod sought to see, from that day on, he sought to see Jesus, to have an audience with him, to talk with him, to see him.

And by the way, did Herod ever get to see Jesus? Yes. He got to see him on the day of Jesus' crucifixion. Do you remember? And Luke, by the way, is the only one who tells us about this.

Herod was in town on that particular day, the day of Jesus' trial. And since Pilate really didn't want to deal with Jesus, you know, and since Herod was in town, and really it was his jurisdiction, he tried to palm Jesus off on Herod.

Remember that part of the story? And so he sent him to Herod, and Luke 23, 8 records it this way, when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad.

Why? Because he wanted to see him. From the very beginning, he wanted to see him. For he had desired for a long time to see him because he had heard many things about him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by him.

All right, so he just really wanted Jesus to put on a show for him, to perform for him. But then the Bible says, Luke says, that Herod questioned Jesus at some length. Had a long conversation with him.

Well, I don't know about a conversation because Jesus never answered any of his questions. But you know that Herod was asking, who are you? That's what he had wanted to, had been wanting to know from the very beginning.

And of course, you know, he was disappointed because the Bible says Jesus answered him nothing. But then in verses 18 through 20, back here in chapter 9, we also have another example of Luke's focus here.

The focus being, who is this Jesus? We have Jesus himself asking that question. And he asks it twice. First of all, he asked it of the crowds.

Now he's asking it of his disciples, but he asked it concerning the crowds. He says, who do the crowds say that I am? So there's the question. Who am I? Who is Jesus? And then second, of course, he asks the question a second time.

This time more pointedly. And he asks his disciples, who do you say that I am? And of course, Peter answers very boldly, very resolutely.

One of the few times that Peter didn't put his foot in his mouth, and he said, you are the Christ of God. Great profession and confession of the identity of Christ.

All right, so through Herod's question of his advisors, I think he's asking his advisors, and then here again through Jesus' question of his disciples, his followers, Luke has been drawing our attention, our focus, to the true identity of the Lord Jesus Christ, this Jesus who was born in Bethlehem and was raised in Nazareth.

Who is he? That's the focus, Luke's focus here in chapter 9. And he's not finished with that, is he? He's not finished. In fact, he reaches the pinnacle of it in our passage for this morning because in our passage this morning, someone else gets involved in this big question, who Jesus is.

And I would strongly recommend that you listen to what he has to say. So, let's look at this marvelous passage that has Jesus front and center, of course, even though there's some other pretty amazing personalities that come into play here in the passage.

And I'm not just talking about Moses and Elijah, but God the Father himself. But Jesus is front and center. He's the focus. And this passage records this incredible event, the transfiguration, and it also reveals to us amazing truths about Jesus.

Amazing truths. There are three of them, really, I think. I think we can identify three amazing truths here about Jesus. His splendor, that would be first, His supremacy, and then third, His sovereignty.

Those three things. And I want to put it this way. First notice, the splendorous person of Jesus. The splendorous person of Jesus.

Now, to get at this, let's start again with verse 27. In verse 27, Jesus made a promise, didn't He? He made a promise to a select few.

Now, He doesn't mention how many, but we're about to find out how many. But He mentions, He makes His promise to a select few of His disciples. He said there in verse 27, there are some standing right here.

Now, the crowd was standing there, telling how many there were, a great number, I would think. and His disciples, and specifically His apostles, and Jesus says, standing right here, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.

That's a promise. A promise. Matthew and Mark add these words, not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. In His kingdom.

Now, what did He mean by that? Well, there's a little bit of debate about that, actually. Is He talking about His second coming?

See the kingdom of God. See Him coming in His kingdom. Is He talking about the second coming? Well, I don't see how He could be talking about that. I mean, you know, all the people standing there that day, including the apostles, have been dead now for over 2,000 years, and Jesus, even in our day, has not yet come the second time in all of His glory.

I don't think He's talking about that. There are those who would debate that and they see some other nuance in the verses that may lead to that reality, but that's not the clear meaning of the text.

Was He talking about His resurrection? Quite a few who would vote for that. His crucifixion and ultimate resurrection and His appearances to the apostles, up to 500 of them at one time, His disciples.

Is He referring to that? I don't think so because all that was a part of His first coming. And really, those things were attached to His going. His going.

Remember, Jesus said in John 14, 2 to His disciples, He said, I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you to Myself. I don't really think He's talking about the events of His death and resurrection and appearances and His ascension and that particular time in redemptive history.

So what is He talking about? Well, there are two things about this text I think that are key to understanding what Jesus is referring to. The meaning, first of all, the meaning of the word kingdom.

Not just its bare meaning but its usage here in the verse. And then, also, what happens next? So the meaning of the term kingdom and then what happens next in Luke's narrative.

First of all, the meaning of the word kingdom. The Greek word is basileia. Basileia and it, strictly speaking, does not refer to the actual an actual physical kingdom necessarily but rather to the authority to rule said kingdom.

Basileia, the authority to rule. And the word is often used to mean a king's royal majesty. It's often used to refer to a king's regal splendor, the regal splendor of the king.

Of the kingdom. That is a usage, a very popular or typical usage of the word basileia. And so, therefore, its object or its focus is on the person.

The person. The regal splendor of the person, if you will. In this instance, that would be Jesus. Jesus. And so, the word basileia in this passage refers, I believe, to the manifestation of the kings or Jesus' kingly splendor.

spirit. And no one had yet seen that. No one had yet seen that. Why? Not because it wasn't true, because it wasn't already a reality in the person of Jesus, but because it was veiled.

Veiled by the incarnation. God, the son of man, rather, Jesus, the son of man, taking on human flesh. And so, he was always glorious.

And the second person of the Godhead. But he didn't manifest it. It was veiled by his incarnation.

Now, one day, we shall all see Jesus in all of his regal splendor and royal splendor and glory. We will all see that. But Jesus promised here in verse 27 that a certain group in the crowd there that day, that they would see him in this way before they die.

died. Did they? Yes, they did. Eight days later. Eight days later. Or if you look at Matthew and Mark, it's six days, but they're talking about full days, and Luke, I believe, is talking about the day he said it and the day it happened, and so eight full days.

They got to see it. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this promise of Jesus that's in Luke chapter 20, verse 27, and all three that carry this narration, all three record the transfiguration taking place within days of the promise.

And so the transfiguration was the manifestation of Jesus' royal splendor where the veil of his flesh, in a sense, or the veil was drawn back for the disciples, the three chosen ones to be there that day, for them to see the splendor, the royal, regal splendor of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 28, now it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, again I believe Luke is connecting the promise in verse 27 to the event that takes place after.

Then he took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray, and then verse 29, as he prayed, what happened? The appearance of his face was altered, was changed, dramatically changed, and his robe became white and glistening, and then in verse 32, he just says very definitely, they saw his glory, they saw the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we call this the transfiguration, don't we? The transfiguration, this is the mount of transfiguration, and we know this event by that term, though we may not understand what the term means, we know this event by that term transfiguration, and we get that not from Luke, but we get it from Matthew and Mark in their account of this same event.

For example, Matthew 17, 2 says, Jesus was transfigured before them. Transfigured, that's transfiguration, transfigured is from a Greek word from which we get our word metamorphosis.

And so just the bare meaning would be that he was changed, changed right before their eyes. A metamorphosis took place in his visible appearance, his face, and his clothing.

I want you to listen to Matthew's description. I like Matthew's description. He says, his face shone like the sun. Now what would that be like? Can you?

I mean, we can't even look straight at the sun. We're not supposed to. We've always been told that since we were little ones, you know. And it's not a good idea to look directly in the sun. But his face shone like the sun.

And then he goes on and says, his clothes became as white as light. That's pretty white. Listen to Mark's description. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white.

like snow. And then he adds this, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. That's kind of interesting, isn't it? You know, I guess you could bleach out your white clothes and get them as white as white can be.

And he said, not even that can compare to this. And Luke, of course, he just says, in comparison to Matthew and Mark's description, Luke's is kind of mundane a little bit.

He says, his face was altered and his robe became white and glistening. Now, we have three accounts there. Now, none of these three were there.

They're getting their description from the eyewitnesses, Peter, James, or John. Peter and John, by the way, they refer to give some reference to this experience in their writings.

James never did. So they're getting it from these eyewitnesses, but their descriptions vary. I mean, there's quite a variance. And I think the reason is because this is something that defies explanation, defies description.

I mean, there are no words in the human language and no, you know, kind of examples from human life. everyday human life that could begin to adequately describe what this must have looked like.

It defied description and it defied explanation. So what happened here really? Well, the best we can say is that Jesus, his true nature, came out.

It came out on the outside. Jesus' divine glory was manifested before Peter, James, and John. I say his glory was.

There wasn't a complete unveiling of God the Son there. They could not look at God and live. But his glory was manifested and his divine glory was radiating from his face and his royal splendor as God the Son.

His royal splendor was outshining through his clothing. As one commentator put it, as with the Shekinah manifestation of the Old Testament, God here portrayed himself in human eye, to human eyes, in a form of light so dazzling and overwhelming that it could barely be withstood.

it. John, of course, was there. And John, I think, gives us what it was like. He said in 1 John, or excuse me, John 1 14, and we beheld his glory.

The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. That's John's description of that day. Now, this was just a foretaste, of course, of the day when Jesus will return, when he will come the second time.

And by the way, John was also privy to see a glimpse of that in his vision in Revelation 1 13. He said, And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest, with a golden band.

His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters.

He had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance, listen to this, was like the sun shining in its strength.

Full sun shining. His countenance. And how did John respond, by the way, to that? He said, When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, do not be afraid.

I am the first and the last. I am he who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. The splendorous person of Jesus, that's the first thing we see here.

And I don't know what more we could say about it. It defies description. And the only way we can explain it is that the true nature, the glory of his true nature, was allowed to be unveiled just a bit for the three disciples to see.

Splendorous person of Jesus. Second, notice the supreme person of Jesus. His supremacy, his superiority is revealed here in this passage in very profound ways.

In fact, in three ways. Three elements of the text reveal the superior person of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, it is implied through the prophet's conversation with Jesus.

They had a conversation with him. It says there in verses 30 and 31, And behold, two men talked with him who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory, that is in the splendor of their glorified bodies, and spoke, this is what they had a conversation with Jesus, and they spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

So Jesus met with Moses and Elijah, Elijah, and what did they talk about? What did they talk about? Suppose you could have a meeting with Moses.

What would you talk about? Would you talk about your incredible life or his? What would you talk about?

Suppose you could have a personal conversation with Elijah the prophet. Imagine that. Have a conversation with the real, true Elijah. What would you talk about?

Would you talk about your great accomplishments in life, or would you talk about his? I mean, the answer is obvious. Well, Jesus had a conversation with Moses and Elijah, and what did they talk about?

Did they talk about the great deeds of Moses in life? How he became the prince of Egypt? And how he boldly stood before Pharaoh and demanded that he let Israel go?

Or how he turned all the waters of Egypt into blood? And how he did all the other plagues? Or how he was used by God to part the Red Sea?

Or about receiving the law, the Ten Commandments, from God there on the top of Mount Sinai? Or how he was allowed to see the glory of God? You know, as God hid him in the cleft of the rock and passed by and allowed Moses to see the hindmost parts of his glory?

Or maybe he would talk about the mystery surrounding how God buried the body of Moses in a secret place and so forth. What did they talk about?

The great deeds of Moses? Or what about Elijah? Did they talk about the miracles of Elijah the prophet? About the widow Zarephath and the jar of flour that never did go empty?

And the jug of oil that never ran out? Or maybe my personal favorite, talk about the Elijah's confrontation with the 450 prophets of Baal there on the top of Mount Carmel?

Or maybe about Elijah not seeing death and the charity of fire coming down and taking Elijah up into heaven? What did they talk about? What did they talk about?

About Moses? About Elijah? No. They talked about one thing. They talked about Jesus specifically about his coming death in Jerusalem.

That's what they talked about. And we'll look more at that conversation a little bit later in the sermon. But the point is this. Moses, listen, Moses was the lawgiver.

I mean, how great is that? Moses was, according to the Bible, the greatest prophet that ever existed in Israel's history. Deuteronomy 34.10, there has not risen in Israel a prophet like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face.

That's who Moses was. Moses also was the great deliverer, right? The great deliverer of God's people out of the bondage, the slavery of Egypt.

And what about Elijah? Elijah was a great prophet and performed many incredible miracles. And he never even died and went on to heaven. And more importantly, Elijah was the great defender of the kingship of Yahweh God in Israel.

The great defender of the theocracy of Israel. That's Elijah. But what are they doing here? They're talking with Jesus and they're talking about what he is going to do.

That's important. They're not talking about their accomplishments, Moses' accomplishments, Elijah's great accomplishments. They're talking about Jesus' accomplishment.

Clearly, Jesus is supreme here. His presence overshadows all of the absolutely amazing things that these prophets were used of God to do.

them. There's not even any mention of it here. Jesus totally overshadows all that are there.

J.C. Ryle said Moses and Elijah were the king's servants, but Jesus was the king's son. Moses and Elijah were like planets, but Jesus is the son, S-U-N.

they were witnesses, but he is the truth. The supremacy, the supreme position of Jesus is implied here through the prophet's conversation with Jesus.

second, it is confirmed through Peter's suggestion to Jesus. Peter's suggestion to Jesus.

I mean, you got to love Peter when you read this. I mean, bless his heart. Bless his heart. Look at what he says in verse 33.

Then it happened as they, that's Moses and Elijah, were parting, they were leaving, that Peter said to Jesus, Master, it's good for us to be here.

And I'd feel the same way, wouldn't you? Good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles here. You know, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.

And then, of course, Luke adds this to the end of the sentence, not knowing what he said. That is, he opened his mouth before thinking. Peter was always doing that.

He opened his mouth to change feet. Just the way Peter was, but... And so, you see, Peter was making a big mistake here. Out of his ignorance, we have to give him that.

Peter was making Moses and Elijah and Jesus co-equals. I mean, that's pretty clear. But they're not equals.

They're not equals by any measurement whatsoever. In fact, they're not even close. Jesus is infinitely greater. But I would go a step further and say that Jesus is not only greater than Moses and Elijah, Jesus is something entirely different.

Unique. cannot be classified with anyone else. Even two great prophets of God. And so, but the point is, Peter's ignorant suggestion places the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ in bold relief to everything else.

How do we know that? Because God the Father interrupts Peter. Interrupts him. I mean, literally he does. He interrupts him and quickly sets him straight.

And so, the supreme position of Jesus is then, third of all, revealed through the Father's interruption on Jesus' behalf.

He interrupts Peter. Look again at verses 34 and 35. While he was saying this, so while Peter is making his bone headed suggestion, while he's talking, I don't know what else he was going to say, but he got interrupted.

While Peter is speaking without thinking, what happens? This cloud, this cloud came and overshadowed them.

perhaps it looked something like this. Look at the video. Now, I don't think it looked like that.

I'll throw that in there. What an incredible thing it may have been. While they are speaking, this cloud comes up.

I don't think he had the faith. The cloud had the face of God. But the voice spoke out of the cloud. You can go ahead and cut that off now, dear brother. What an experience.

You see, in the Old Testament, a cloud was a manifestation of the presence of God protecting the people, guiding the people, meeting, communicating with the people.

And so this cloud comes up and they were fearful, the Bible says, Luke says, they were fearful as they entered the cloud and a voice, this is the most important thing, voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son.

Hear him. Folks, this is a quotation. quotation. This is a quotation of God.

God spoke audibly here. He didn't do that very often in Scripture. Only a few times in the New Testament. He spoke audibly. This is direct, divine revelation concerning the supreme person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is saying, he's not one of my servants like Moses and Elijah. Elijah. He's not one of my angels. He's not one of my prophets.

He is my son. He is my chosen son, my chosen one. Hear him. This is incredible. I tell you, everyone had better pay attention to what God the Father has to say concerning Jesus Christ, about the true identity of Jesus Christ.

If we might hearken back to what Jesus said to the crowds in the previous passage, Jesus is worth denying yourself for. Jesus is worth dying to yourself for.

Jesus is worth losing everything you have, if need be, because there is no one like him. There is no one like him.

Supreme, superior position of Jesus. The splendorous person of Jesus.

And then finally, this morning, the sovereign power of Jesus is revealed in this passage. The sovereign power of Jesus.

Look again at verses 30 and 31. And behold, two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.

That's the conversation they had. Jesus met with Moses and Elijah there in the top of the mountain, and what did they talk about? They talked about the death of Jesus. They talked about Jesus coming, his coming death in Jerusalem.

But pay close attention to what verse 31 says about this conversation. There are two words that stand out. Now, pay close attention to these two words.

First of all, in the phrase, they spoke of his decease. The word decease. Some version, it's departure.

And that's a good translation. And by the way, this is a normal way of referring to the death of someone, isn't it? Even in our day. We speak of a person who has died, we speak of them as the deceased.

Right? That's pretty normal, pretty typical. And if the person is known to you, close to you, maybe a loved one, sometimes we will refer to the loved one as our dearly departed.

Departed. Deceased. Departed. That's a pretty straightforward, pretty normal way of saying things. At least in English. We need to look a little closer.

Because the word translated deceased, or departure in some versions, comes from the Greek word exodus. Sound familiar?

It should. You don't have to know anything about the Greek language to kind of identify the word Luke used. It is our word exodus. Exodus.

Now let me ask you something. Was there anyone on the top of that mountain that day with which you would typically associate the word exodus?

Exodus? How about Moses? Are you with me? Still thinking about that cloud? Moses.

Clearly. Moses led the exodus of Israel out of the slavery and bondage of Egypt. He accomplished this through the power of God and through the blood of lambs.

In fact, many, many lambs as every Israelite family sacrificed a lamb and splashed its blood beside and over the doorway of their homes and ultimately Moses led Israel out of Egypt under the blood.

And it's all, of course, a type of what Jesus would one day do and for us has done. Jesus led an infinitely greater exodus than Moses. He led it and it took place there in Jerusalem.

Through his death, he accomplished this through his own blood, not the blood of lambs, but his own blood as the lamb of God. And this is what Moses, Elijah, and Jesus talked about.

Okay? The exodus that he's about to accomplish. And that leads to the second word that stands out in the text. Look at it in verse 31 again. They spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Now, that's unusual. That's a very unusual way of putting it. It's obvious they're talking about death, his death, his decease, his departure.

But to use the word accomplish is not normal, a normal way of putting it. It's unusual. You never speak of a person's death in terms of a personal accomplishment.

accomplishment. I mean, death happens to us. We don't go out to accomplish it. Death happens to us. And so that's not usual.

But for Jesus, I mean, Jesus is the exception here. He's the exception. Death did not just happen to Jesus. Jesus was no victim in death.

That's not what the cross is about. It's not about a victim being crucified unjustly upon that cross. Jesus was no victim in that death. Jesus chose to die.

Not just that day, but from eternity past. He chose to die. In fact, he said in John 10, 18, no one takes my life from me. No one does.

I lay it down, he said. And he goes on to say, I have the power. The sovereign power to lay my life down. And I also have that same sovereign power to take it up again, which he, of course, did.

You see, what's being revealed here about Jesus through this conversation between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah? Jesus' death was an accomplishment.

He chose to die. And what did his death mean? What did it accomplish? It accomplished our salvation. Salvation is an accomplishment by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he did it through his sovereign power. Listen, salvation is not your accomplishment. It's not even part your accomplishment.

commitment. Hmm? Okay. He accomplished it. And he had the sovereign power to do so because his death was part of a divine plan.

In eternity past, God's plan was to pardon your sin, my sin, through the blood of his son. That's what the cross was all about. And so like Moses, Jesus led an exodus.

An exodus that will free his people from the bondage of sin. That's what Jesus did in his exodus to deliver us. And he did it with his own blood.

Through his sovereign power. And so this passage puts an end, doesn't it, to all the questions concerning Jesus? How could we have a greater testimony than God the Father?

I mean, he is, his splendor, his supremacy, his sovereignty, to lay down his life as the full payment for your sin and my sin and to take it up again to make that sure.

so that we might also live. That's what it's about through his death. His death at the cross.

He accomplished life. Eternal life for all who will believe in him. Thank you.