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Transfiguration of Our Savior Text: Luke 9:28-36 in the Name of Jesus

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Transfiguration of Our Savior Text: Luke 9:28-36 in the Name of Jesus Transfiguration of our Savior Text: Luke 9:28-36 In the name of Jesus Christ, our lord and Savior, dear friends; If the season of lent and its message of the suffering and death of Christ is to have its full meaning impressed upon our hearts and minds, the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is true Gad, begotten of the Father trom all eternity, must be known. This truth is driven home to us by the account recorded for us in our text for the day. We study the Word of God under the theme:_'7he Transfiguration Of The Savior./I I pray the Holy Spirit will guide us to see this phenomenon as (1) Proof of Jesus' deity: (2) Preparation for us to appreciate his death; and as a (3) Prelude to the glory we are given through faith in him. 1. The transfiguration is one of many miracles of Jesus. Just previous to this, Jesus had driven a legion of demons out of a man who lived in Gadera. All miracles were done to convince people that he is true God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. St John writes, toward the end of his Gospel: (John 20:30-31) "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that by believing, you may have life in his name." It has become very common in our day to downgrade these miracles of the Savior. We are told the ideas of being transfigured, as well as risen and ascended, are ideas which can no longer exist in our technological world. We are told that modern scientifically trained people can no longer accept the miracles as factual accounts of something that really happened and that if the church wants to retain its influence in the world, it will have to stop insisting that 1) lepers were cleansed with a word; 2) That storms were stopped with a command: 3) That thousands of people were fed out of one lunch bucket: 4) That lame people began to walk and blind people began to see just because Jesus said so. Yet, we are told that this does not mean that the church should stop preaching about the miracles of Christ. Rather, we should show the miracles as parables which have important special lessons to teach us and that we should become relevant in our preaching and teaching by pointing out the social significance of the miracle stories which we find in the Bible. 1) Thus, the feeding of the 5000 should teach us to be concerned about poverty programs and should help us to understand that it is the duty of the Christian Church to see to it that the hungry are fed; 2) The healing of the sick by Jesus should teach us to build hospitals and to support Medicare; 3) The stilling of the tempest on the stormy Sea of Galilee should teach people to give serious thought to the study of how to control the weather for the benefit of mankind. This, we are told, is truly relevant preaching that makes the miracles meaningful for modern mankind. While it is that most of the miracles of Jesus were done to help people in their need, yet the account of the transfiguration of the Savior pulls us up short and makes us realize that this cannot be the significance of his miracles. The transfiguration is a great miracle. But by this miracle ... 1) no hungry people were fed, 2) no one was saved from drowning, 3) no sick person was cured, and 4) it just gives us and his disciples a glimpse of his glory and deity. It helped to impress upon them the truth which was proclaimed to them out of the cloud that overshadowed them and out of which they heard a voice which said, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." Since it is difficult to see any social significance in the transfiguration, it has become fashionable in some parts of the church to call these things, myths, things that never happened, but which were invented by the early church in order to glorify Jesus and to make the uneducated people of the 1st century listen to his message. Such people may think that they are modern, but it is obvious that in the days of the apostles there were people who also had such notions. Peter deals with them in his second epistle. In that letter, which he wrote shortly before he died, he spoke of the transfiguration, and said: (2 Peter 1:16-18) "We did notfollow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, 'This is my Son, whom I love; With him I am well pleased.' We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain." Peter tells us here that he, along with James and John, saw these things with their own eyes and heard them with their own ears. Peter is not lying, and since we believe and teach the Bible to be inerrant and truthful in every part, we can know when we hear of our Savior with his face shining as brightly as the sun and with his garments glistening whiter than all the bleach on earth could possibly make them, we can come away with the firm conviction that this is our Lord and our God. Therefore, as mentioned many times from this pulpit; (Hebrews 12:2) "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus came to earth to fulfill and keep the promises and prophecies of the Bible so he could have joy- joy, not only and merely for himself but have the joy of knowing that what he did would also bring you joy and hope and contentment and the certainty of your salvation. Knowing this helps us appreciate Jesus' suffering and death. 2. A few days before the transfiguration the Savior told his disciples for the first time that he would die and a few days after this he told them this again. In our text we are told that when Moses and Elijah appeared to I: him, they spoke to Jesus "about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem." When our text talks about Jesus' departure which he would accomplish in Jerusalem, this is a truly remarkable statement. We do not ordinarily talk about a man accomplishing his own death. If we were talking about an ordinary human being, it would sound like the description of a suicide. When we see Jesus display his glory and deity, see him with his face shining as brightly as the sun, it is clear to us that there is no army which can bring Jesus before Caiphas and Pilate and to Calvary unless he willingly wanted to go to those places; no authority on earth can send him to the cross if he does not want to go there; No power on earth can rob him of his life if he does not want to die. When Peter, James and John saw the Savior in his glory on the mount of transfiguration, that sight did a great deal to prepare them for that day when they would see him kneeling in the garden on the Mount of Olives, sweating drops of blood in agony; when they saw him on Mount Calvary hanging on the cross ... When they finally learned, after his resurrection, to put these two events together, they knew that it was indeed God Himself who had shed those drops of blood; they knew why this suffering and dying could pay for the sins of the world. And as we go from Epiphany to Lent, from the mount of transfiguration to the mount of crucifixion, we can also know that this is the Son of God who died, not because he had to, but because he wanted to due to his great love opf which we hear in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world •••;" we know that this is the Son of God whose bleeding and dying is enough to give us the certainty of heaven because it redeems us from all our sins. We read in 1 Peter 1:18-21; "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed .••, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect ••.Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God." Knowing that Jesus is not merely and only true man but also and especially true God, gives the Lenten Season special meaning. This tells us that as true man Jesus subjected himself to the laws of God and died for the sins of the world. As true God he fulfilled all the law of God for us and then rose again so we can know that our sins have been paid for.
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