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After our teachings on the cross, Jesus leads his disciples up a mountain to reveal his divine glory alongside Moses and Elijah. What does this transfiguration mean for them and for us? Join Reven Way as we explore how Jesus' eternal majesty fuels our faithful living today.

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Morning Church. Chapter 9, verses 2 to 8. Mark chapter 9, verse 2. And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And the loud overshadowed them. Listen to him. And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

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Amen. Good morning, church. And uh this morning we uh we have kind of reached the midway point of the gospel of Mark in our book study, right? And today we are looking at one of the most awe-inspiring moments in the Bible. Right, and I'm I'm sure that um you can think of many moments that are recorded in scripture, right? Uh, one may think about God raining down sulphur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. Um, Moses had several. His two iconic moments were the burning bush and the parting of the Red Sea. Right? Um I I I think of Daniel's three friends who were thrown in the furnace, and lo and behold, they were not burned to a crisp. And even more astounding is that there was this mysterious fourth figure in the furnace with them. Uh, in the New Testament, Jesus, of course, did many incredible things. He walked the water, he calmed the storm, he healed the sick and cast out demons. Right? I'm sure you have other moments in scripture in mind that were awe-inspiring, that may you fill you with a sense of wonder and reverential awe of the Lord. I think that this morning, uh, as we look at the transfiguration of Jesus, we are at a moment where really this stands above all these other events and is second probably to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because it is at this transfiguration of Jesus that we see his glory fully revealed. And not just that, Moses and Elijah make an appearance to point to the fulfillment of God's plan in Christ. God himself even comes in a cloud to speak to the disciples. But before we look into the text, I think it's helpful to have a you know know a little bit about where Jesus and the disciples are at right now. Um, and so the next slide, please. Um in the chapter before this, uh, chapter 8, Jesus asked a very important question, right? He asked the disciples, Who do you say I am? And Peter, always the one to act on impulse and the first to say something. He answered Jesus quite quickly, you are the Christ. And that was right on the money, right? We will say, Well done, Peter, good job. In the next moment, uh, we we read that Jesus started to explain how he, as the Christ, must suffer many things and be killed, and then rise from the dead three uh three days later. And this same Peter, whom just now was the top student in his class, now's forced from grace, right? And he finds it in him, the audacity to take Jesus aside, right? His master, the Christ, right? He had the goal to take Jesus aside to rebuke him. And so Jesus rebuked Peter back and said, Get behind me, Satan. And Jesus goes on to say, it is not just he who will lose his life, but anyone who wants to follow Jesus must likewise be willing to lose his life. And so we're at this moment in scripture, in the gospel of Mark, that things seem to be getting darker and darker. Right? Jesus has foretold his death, and his disciples uh are beginning to see and learn just how difficult uh the path ahead of them will be. Jesus himself will soon face suffering and crucifixion. But as things get darker, Jesus surprises three of his disciples with a preview of his eternal glory to show them that their ultimate hope is in the suffering servant, who is also truly the Christ. And that's the context of today's passage. And now we can look at verse 2 and and begin to see what Jesus was doing with uh Peter, James, and John. In verse 2 of chapter 9, we read, after six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves. Right? This uh this is one of the few instances where Jesus brings along the three closest disciples to allow them to witness something crucial in his earthly ministry. Right? Uh they will also be the one later to see Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. But here Jesus wanted to reveal something to them. And the location, right? We read that Jesus intentionally led them up high on the mountain. The location is not an accident. And I don't think back then people uh took hiking as a hobby, they were not traveling to places just to climb up a mountain for fun, right? Um, Jesus had his intentions in leading them high up in the mountain. In the Old Testament, mountains were frequently the place where people would have a close and transformative encounter with God. Jesus was leading them high up the mountain to meet God, and this was going to be one crazy encounter with God for Peter, James, and John. We continue to read uh in the second part of verse 2 and verse 3 uh that Jesus was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. I I have it on screen uh that relevant verse from the two other gospels, uh Matthew and Luke. Um and the way they describe it is this, right? Matthew, he was transfigured before them, his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. Uh Luke records it this way: the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. Right here we have three different accounts trying to articulate what the disciples saw. And I think they were using many different words and many different ways to describe this thing, and there's still this sense that maybe they can't, they haven't quite nailed down the description. And my thinking is that probably they couldn't, right? Because the transfiguration was this other worldly uh sight that the disciples were beholding, and like they were trying to use human words to articulate something that was divine, right? So Jesus shone like the sun, it was incredible intensely white, no one can bleach it like that, you know. Um it makes me think of um the northern light. Uh once in a while, my wife Beth will uh tell me, you know, it is my life's dream to uh go and see the northern light. And I always tell you, just Google, uh, just see some pictures online. That's enough ready, but like why would you go? What would you spend so much money to go so far to freeze yourself almost to death to maybe see the lights in the sky? Right? It is not even the guarantee that you'll see the light, right? Um but you know, over time, you know, I have kind of been a bit more convinced that maybe it will be quite quite a sight to behold, because I think um probably differ, I mean, some of you may probably have seen it and you can come and uh scold me later, you can come and educate me, right? Um, but like I'm I'm guessing like it will be something quite different from just being high on the mountain, you go to the beach or you you see something else, right? And because there's this sense that these lights in the sky are just heavenly lights, um, and there's something otherworldly about it, right? That kind of draws people to want to travel all the way there to see the northern lights. And I think this was something that the the disciples were feeling, they were seeing or they were looking at this otherworldly um person that this is the Jesus I know, but he is utterly different out of this world, so out of this world that even his clothes become almost like out of this world, right? No one I know, not my mother, who can can bleach it to be so intensely white. And so, what is clear is that the gospel writers were trying to capture this one thing. Jesus, uh, when he transfigured, meaning when his figure was transformed, he was emanating this light so much that they felt it it was like looking at the sun. Or the way I imagine it might be like you are in a really, really dark room, and then uh especially when your your baby is sleeping, right? And then that's when you you you accidentally flip on the switch and then like light just flood in and then like you kind of get dazzled, right? Um I imagine it to be like that, being so dark, and suddenly the lights on and it's blindingly bright. And we actually see an illusion, uh, and we will see a lot of uh allusions and references to the Old Testament, but we see a similar thing happen in Exodus 34. Right? Uh, you will remember Moses himself went out to the mountain, met God, and he came down with his face shining.

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He had to put a veil over his face so that uh he could talk to the people because the people were afraid, and yet in this instance, there was a big difference between Moses and Jesus. Moses reflected the glory of God, like how the moon would reflect the sun. But Jesus at his transfiguration was not merely reflecting light of someone else, he was emanating his own glory as God. So much so that not only his appearance changed, but somehow his clothes changed and became radiant. And so here there's no shadow of doubt, literally no shadow of doubt that this is the glory of God unveiled. Jesus is God himself. And not only that, we we see in the next verse that um as Jesus transfigured, two very important figures in the Old Testament appears, right? And they are Elijah and Moses, and they are talking with Jesus. And so, why these two figures? Um, it is part of a prophecy in uh Malachi chapter 4. I will quickly read it out to us, but in Malachi chapter 4, verses 4 to 6, we read, Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. And behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. Um, so these two characters were foretold to be to be important in the coming of the Messiah. And a common theory is that Moses and Elijah are here right now because they represent the law and the prophets respectively. And so, what is interesting is that these two representatives of the Old Testament were there talking with Jesus about something. And we are not told exactly what they talked about, right? And presumably we don't need to know. Um, but we have one small detail that is found in Luke's account. So in Luke chapter 9, verses 30 and 31, um, two behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory, and they spoke of Jesus' departure. Right, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Very, very foreboding verse here. Right here, we're talking about Jesus shining in his glory, but then talking about his departure. And of course, departure would have the meaning of his death, right? This glorious Christ will soon face his death at Jerusalem. But the word here in the Greek means more than just death. The word here in the Greek is the word for exodus. And so he beckons to Moses' time again, God's deliverance of his people out of slavery in Egypt. So what we have here is really the the the history, the spiritual history of the law and the prophets are now culminating in Jesus Christ, who will die, who will pass on, but who will bring about a new exodus, delivering everyone who believes in him from sin and death. Right, especially for a Jew, right? Seeing Jesus radiating in glory, seeing his clothes dazzling white, with Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets in attendance. There was the mountaintop experience, if ever there was one. And so, what does uh Peter do, right? Uh, having his foot in his mouth as usual, he blurts out something even before he thought it through. Right? Uh in verse 5 we read Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Umestly, if I were in any kind of group, if I were in a group of disciples, right, I would want to have a Peter in my group, right? Because me, I would just want to keep my thoughts to myself. Uh I am quite afraid of saying something stupid most of the time. I don't like embarrassing myself. So I'll actually appreciate a Peter in my group, right? Uh that's a good thing, right? Let him ask the questions, let him say the things, make the comments, and I will just quietly observe, like, you know, just learn from from from whatever happens when the person opens his mouth, right? Um and but Peter is in this group of disciples, he's really the one that is always like, I mean, yes, acting on impulse, but like I think there is a lot to be learned from his life and and and the the way he is. Um anyway, coming back to the text now. No, Peter did not know what to say, but somehow he felt that there's a need to say something, right? Um, and we don't exactly know why he wanted to build tents, right? Um we we have no explanation, but I think Luke gives us a clue in his gospel, right? As Moses and Elijah were parting from Jesus, that's the way Luke records it. As they were leaving Jesus, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three times and so on. He may have likely wanted for them to stay a while more, to prolong this sin, to prolong this otherworldly experience of being in God's glory. It is good that we are here. So let us set a camp. Let us just be here, just stay a while longer. And actually, reflecting back on the background or the context of what was going on, I think we will all think like Peter. Right? And it's not that crazy for him to want to stay there a while longer. We they just heard Jesus saying, I'm gonna die. You have to carry your cross and follow me. So you are supposed to be willing to die as well, right? For Peter hearing and the rest of the disciples hearing all this uh news, this is such a nice reprief that they were basking in the glory of Jesus. So of course, Peter would want to stay there to prolong the experience. But as Peter was you know uh suggesting that they build tents in verse 7, a cloud overshadowed them. A voice came out of the cloud. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. Uh again, reminiscence of Old Testament, right? The the God's presence coming as a cloud, resting on a mountain, striking fear in the people of God. And before Peter could do or say anything else, God appears in the cloud and affirms what he said at Jesus' baptism. This is my beloved son, and he gives a command listen to him. And just like that, in verse it, suddenly looking around, they no longer saw anyone with him but Jesus only. It's such an abrupt end to this experience. It is so sudden that they looked around just to be sure things really went back to normal. Right? There was no sense that oh, they were slowly departing away, uh you know, the clouds just kind of fade, fed back up, fade, fade away. Uh the Jesus started to kind of calm down, the lights start to dim a bit. There was none of that. Suddenly, they looked around and they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus. Right. I'm sure it was a bit disorienting for the disciples. Right. And yet, because of this transfiguration, it confirmed in their hearts, right, that Jesus is something more than just uh the teacher, right? And they knew that this was all not just their imagination, right? It was the the transfiguration was a lot to taking, the but they and they probably didn't fully understand the the the whole transfiguration experience, but it left an indelible mark on the disciples. So that so that in verse uh chap 2 Peter chapter 2, verses 16 to 18, Peter will write, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were witnesses of his majesty. For when he 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. And that's Peter recording his experience. Um John seemed to have made an allusion as well in the opening chapter of his gospel when he said in verse 14 of John chapter 1, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And so, as we think about this episode, this transfiguration of Jesus, right? What we can say that it is for the sake of the disciples that Jesus transfigured, he intentionally led them up to the mountain to meet God, and he transfigured in front of them to show them his glory as God. Right? Jesus was revealing his identity and giving them the preview of his glory, which they will see at the second coming of Jesus. So, what Jesus has been saying is hard to hear and is difficult to accept, but they now know that the law and the prophets all point to this Jesus Christ, who is the glorious Lord, whom they are to listen to above all the other voices. Right? In Jesus is the fulfillment of God's plan for a new Exodus. And so, as difficult as it may be, they must listen to Him, to obey and follow Him. And this particular sin, right, the transfiguration of Jesus continues to give us encouragement today, even in even living in the 21st. Sanctuary. One important message for us today, I think, is that suffering is not inherently incompatible with his glory. Right? I say that again. Suffering is not inherently incompatible with his glory. The fact that Jesus, in his most glorified and exalted form, is speaking with Moses and Elijah about his death and his suffering, should clue us in on this, right? Because this is the central paradox of the cross. As Christ was crucified, he was also glorified. And just in the Gospel of John alone, we kind of see glimpses of that, right? Where John in John 3, Moses, Jesus says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. In John 8, he says, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, that I do nothing of my own authority but speak as the Father taught me. Again in chapter 12, when I am lifted up from the earth, uh I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. If you think about it, it is almost mad that we hang a cross, an instrument of torture and humiliating death. Right? This thing, the cross, is an instrument of death, and a humiliating and excruciating one at that. But we're hanging up because it symbolizes what Jesus accomplished for us and what he had to suffer for our sake. And this horrid, torturous act of lifting Jesus up on the cross was also when Jesus was lifted up in exaltation. And it is a symbol of our faith today because we believe that the way of the cross is also the way for all of us Christians today, to whom Jesus is still saying, if anyone will come after me, let him deny himself. And take out his cross and follow me. And so Paul writes in Romans chapter 8, verses 16 and 17, right? The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. To share in Jesus' glory is to also share in his suffering. So far from being incompatible, that is precisely the way and the paradox of the cross. And so this is the revelation and the transfiguration, right? Suffering and humiliation is what leads to the glorification of Christ. And it gives us encouragement today. It confirms Jesus' promise to us today that those who follow and suffer him will not have suffered in vain. And so the challenge here, friends, and the challenge for the disciples back then and the challenge for us today is to live for him and not just die for him. And I think we've largely become comfortable with saying, I have no fear in death. Because I know my soul is in God's hands.

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We have no problem at all saying where our destiny is in the future. So if I die today, I die. That's okay. In fact, some of us look forward to passing on from this world so that we can be with Jesus in glory. And in some sense, that is not the difficult part. The difficult part, as Jesus, I think, puts it, especially in the Gospel of Luke, in uh chapter 9, verse 23, is to take up our cross daily and follow Him. While we may not fear death, we may very well fear a life in Jesus. Especially if it means a life of suffering, sacrifice, and servitude. Especially if it means a life of self-denial, of loss and humility for the sake of Christ. To be leased here on earth so that we may be exalted in glory in Christ. To say as we uh sing from time to time, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my silver and my gold, not a might, would I withhold. Take my will and make it thine. It shall be no longer mine. I think that is the difficult part. For the disciples, that was certainly the difficult part of having to go back down to live their lives as disciples, to live and work out their ministry and their calling. And it is for us the same, it is difficult to live a life in Christ. But that is our glory in Jesus. And so it is really in our living that the way of the cross and the love of Jesus becomes evident in the world. And that is why we must descend from the mountaintop experience to the mundane. Right? We must descend as the disciples had to descend, as it ended abruptly for them, and then reality hits them back, and now they have to go down from the mountain. So we must do the same. Descend from the mountaintop to the mundane. We are very much like Peter, I'm sure. We go for church camps, we have worship nights, we go for conferences, uh, we come for church service and we meet Jesus. We have an encounter with him. And we don't want to come back now. Uh it is good here, we tell ourselves. It is good here. I don't want to go back to Singapore. I just want to be with my my church family. We just be together with our family here, just worshiping the Lord, learning from him, growing together. It is good here.

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I don't want it to stop. I don't want to go back to my mundane life. So oddly, I mean, you could read today's passage as God ripping something away from the disciples, right? When he so abruptly stopped the experience of transfiguration. God just suddenly put an end to it and ripped something away from the disciples. But I think it is God's way and it's Jesus' way to say that we are not meant to stay on the mountaintop in glory, so to speak, right? That our life and our ministry, our calling is not located somewhere high up on the mountain away from everyone else, but it is down below where everyone is. And so the point of the mountaintop experience was not for the disciples and not for us to just simply want to dwell in that experience, but to be transformed by our encounter with God, to be given the power and the courage to go back to live for God, to carry the cross in our daily, mundane lives as we as we seek to live in the calling that Christ has given to each of us. And that's the way we think about the Sunday worship service. We come for worship on Sunday, we meet God here, but then we go out to live and work to the praise of his glory. Right? We are sent out after this. So that what is crucial is not simply that we came to meet Jesus, but that we live, having that spiritual strength and grace then to live for Jesus from Monday to Saturday until we come back again. And so we who have met Jesus and who have ourselves witnessed Jesus' glory are likewise called to carry his glory into the mundane. And this is what I think Paul was uh was uh kind of speaking of when he wrote in uh 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 17, uh 7 to 11. Right? But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies, in our physical bodies, in our living. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. And so the voice of God in the cloud now becomes the the key for all of us today as well. Listen to Jesus, we are given a glimpse of God's glory to then live with the death and suffering of Jesus in our bodies so that his glory, his life may be made known to the rest of the world. So listen to him as we make our descent later on when we leave the the sanctuary, as we make our descent down to the mundane from all these big events and church camps. Listen to him so that we may continue to live a life that is faithful to his calling. And so I pray for all of us as individuals and as the church here that we may do what the Father commanded, right? Listen to Jesus, in whom is the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets. Listen to the word of God who has revealed his majesty and his glory, who has given his unbreakable promise that all our suffering for his sake will not be in vain. Who has deposited in us this treasure of his gospel that we may prove his word to be true in our daily living?