Sermons
EYEWITNESSES OF HIS MAJESTY
Series: The Glory of ChristEYEWITNESSES OF HIS MAJESTY
Pt.9 - “The Glory Of Christ”
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / March 22, 2015
Throughout the ministry of Jesus periodic revelations of His glory took place.
The prologue (opening remarks) of John’s gospel states (Jn.1:14) 7
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
glory asof the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Yet this “beholding of His glory” did not take place all in one fell swoop.
Jesus was God in human form: The very idea of God enfleshed/incarnate) stretches the outer limits of our thinking.
How could this be? How could Christ be fully Divine and fully human at the same time?
Like John did in the opening of his gospel, Paul make’s a similar declaration in Col.1:19 & 2:9-10.
It was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him,
And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross…
In Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him we have been made complete.
The best explanation for this incremental revelation of the glory of Christ is the
presupposition that Jesus had many things to teach His disciples prior to His crucifixion.
Had the glory of Jesus been revealed in its fullness immediately, His death on the cross would have been hastened.
Had Jesus been put to death prematurely, His followers would have been deprived of precious and much-needed
time spent sitting at His feet. As it turned out, the apostles were blessed to spend three years walking with Jesus:
hearing His words … listening to His teachings … and observing His deeds and actions.
When we begin to explore the gospel accounts we discover occasional and repeated revelations of the glory of Jesus.
Various incidents (some quite ordinary in and of themselves) begin to divulge the true identity of Jesus.
They come in a rather piecemeal fashion throughout His ministry.
And it’s worth noting that as Jesus gets closer & closer to the cross, more & more of these revelations of glory take place.
¡ Most of those who heard Jesus recognized early on that He was a rabbi (a teacher par excellent).
At the age of 12, all the Jewish leaders who heard Him “were amazed at His understanding & His answers” (Lk.2:27).
Lk.4:15 notes4 “He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.”
Mk.12:37b notes4 “the common people heard Him gladly.”
Early on Nicodemus (one of the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin/Supreme Court) came to Jesus by night.
Nicodemus began his visit with Jesus by stating (Jn.3:2): “Rabbi, we know that You have
come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs unless God is with him.”
¡ Most quickly discerned that He was a prophet.
Mt.21:11 states4 “the multitudes were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee’.”
¡ But the cumulative effect of these revelations of the glory of Christ was to help his disciples come
to the realization that He was more than just a rabbi … more than just a prophet …
even more than a reincarnated John the Baptizer or Elijah … more than Jeremiah or one of the other leading OT prophets.
Slowly but surely the apostles come to conclude (and rightly so) that Jesus was/is THE CHRIST - - THE ANOINTED ONE.
The come to realize that Jesus was/is THE REDEEMER/DELIVERER … THE SON OF MAN spoken of by the prophet Daniel.
Slowly but surely that come to realize that JESUS was/is THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD (Mt.16:16).
It was one thing to declare that Jesus was The Christ, The Son of Living God.
It was quite another, however, to grasp the manner in which He would bring about redemption or salvation.
Most of the Jews of the first century had a visual image of the Messiah that emphasized His role
as an all-powerful and unstoppable conquering King, sent by God to wipe out the pagan enemies of Israel.
The greatest hurdle the apostles faced in coming to terms with Jesus’ role as the Messiah was how He went about doing it.
They did not comprehend that Jesus would come as their Messiah in the form of a SUFFERING SERVANT.
Somehow Isaiah chapter 53 hadn’t been factored into their concept of THE ANOINTED ONE.
This “blind spot” in their thinking is illustrated in Acts 8:30f, in the story of the conversion of the Ethiopian Treasurer.
He was a devout Jew who had traveled a great distance from Egypt/Ethoipia to Jerusalem to worship God.
He had purchased a scroll of the prophet Isaiah and was reading from chapter 53.
When Philip asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?”,
he responded by humbling admitting, How could I, except unless someone guides me.”
This response to Isaiah’s prophecy was typical of the lop-sided thinking of Jews of the first century.
Now, let’s come to our text for this morning’s sermon.
} Read from Luke 9:28-36 |
Luke notes that this event took place about a week after Peter’s confession (Lk.9:20/The Christ Of God!).
¡ Lk.9:28 says Jesus went to the mountain. Matthew 17:1 and Mark 9:2 specify that this was a high mountain.
Mount Hermon was just a short distance from Caesarea Philippi – 5-10 miles northeast.
It consisted of three large peaks, two rising to over 9,300 feet above sea level.
By comparison, Mount Mitchell, the highest mountain in the U.S. east of the Mississippi, stands at c. 6,700’.
In 2Pet.1:18 Peter refers to it as “a holy mountain”.
¡ Jesus went to the mountain to pray.
This was a pattern of behavior - - Lk.5:16 notes4 “He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”
Lk.6:12 states4 “…Jesus went off to the mountain to pray and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.”
¡ Jesus took with Him Peter, James & John.
These three apostles constituted what we might call “Jesus’ inner circle”.
These three are seen with Jesus on various occasions.
cf. Mk.1:29 (healing of Peter’s mother-in-law) … Mk.5:37 (healing of Jairus’ daughter) …
Mk.13:3 (Olivet discourse) … Mk.14:33 (praying in garden of Gethsemane)
¡ Vs.29 / While praying, Jesus was transfigured.
The Greek word for “transfigured” is the word from which we get, “metamorphosis”.
His face became different. Mt.17:2 states4 “His face shone like the sun.”
His clothing became white and gleaming.
Mk.9:3 specifies that His garments “became radiant & exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
This reminds us of Moses on mount Sinai.
The reference in Lk.9:37 (“the next day”) may indicate that this event took place at night, making it even more dramatic.
This transfiguration is may have been a preview of His coming resurrection.
? One interpreter explains it “as Jesus’ deity shining through a humanity which could not contain it.”
¡ Vs.30 / Behold, Moses and Elijah were talking with Jesus.
“they were appearing in glory” (afterlife or this glorious occasion).
Moses represented The Law and Elijah represented The Prophets (i.e., the entire Old Covenant).
¡ Vs.31 / “They were speaking of His exodus which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem”.
Many translation render this “his DEATH”, but the actual word is EXODUS.
Israel’s celebration of the exodus from Egypt was but a foreshadowing of the real exodus (freedom from sin).
The real exodus came with the full establishment of the NT/New Covenant with the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.
Lk.21:22 / “these are the days of vengeance, in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled”.
¡ Vs.33 Peter makes an offer to build three tabernacles.
Peter, James & John had apparently fallen asleep and had awakened just in time to see His glory & Moses & Elijah.
Peter offers to build three temporary “booths”: one for Jesus, Moses & Elijah.
The feast of tabernacles was a Jewish festival featuring dwelling in temporary booths commemorating 40-yrs in wilderness.
“It is good for us to be HERE” - - we can celebrate the feast of tabernacles right here on the mountain.
Peter’s thinking was most likely this: It’s better to be here on the mountain with Jesus,
Moses & Elijah than to venture down and go to Jerusalem where Jesus will be crucified.
Peter was struggling to accept Jesus’ crucifixion.
Remember, Mt.16:21-23 - - where Peter rebuked Jesus, saying, “God forbid it, Lord!”
As vs.33b notes, here again Peter did not realize what he was saying.
¡ Vss.34-36 / the clouds rolled in and God Almighty spoke
They were envelope in the Shekinah / cloud of glory.
Vs.35 / Like at Jesus’ baptism, a voice thundered from heaven, “This is My Beloved Son, My Chosen One…”
With the declaration came a command 4 “Listen to HIM” (literally, “keep on listening to HIM”).
Mt.16:7 notes4 “Jesus came and touched them and said, ‘Arise, and do not be afraid.”
¡ And when the voice was silent, “Jesus was found alone!” – i.e., gone were Moses & Elijah
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This is a story that is profound in its meaning.
It is a story of a meta-morphosis (a major change) that was soon to come for the people of God.
It highlights the transfiguration of Jesus which really represents the changing of the covenantal worlds.
Peter makes this precise connection in 2Pet.1:16 4 “we made know to you the power & coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
But it also reminds us that this change could only be accomplished by Jesus’ exodus.
Under the Old Covenant (under the leadership of Moses and Elijah), sacrifices were offered to atone for sins.
Heb.10:3-4 states rather emphatically, “but in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.
FOR IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND GOATS TO TAKE AWAY SINS.”
Perhaps the best way to understand the sacrificial system of the OT is to think of a credit card.
All it did was to delay the day of reckoning - - eventually full payment would have to be made.
Heb.9:26b states
revealed
“now once at the consummation of the ages (Christ) has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
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Lk.9:51 states4 “(Jesus) resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem.”
It was there that He must “suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed” (Mt.16:21).
