An Explosion of Light from Another World

Some messages sparkle while quietly bending the truth. We step into the tension with Peter, who faced charges of “clever myths” for proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God and will return to reign. Instead of retreating, he reaches back to the mountain where heaven’s brightness broke through. There, the veil of Christ’s humanity lifted and uncreated light flooded the scene—garments blazing, presence overwhelming—while a voice from the Majestic Glory said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

We unpack why Peter chose the Transfiguration as his anchor point, and how that single moment silences today’s claims that the kingdom is a myth. The mountain offers more than spectacle; it is prophecy fulfilled and promise previewed. Moses and Elijah stand beside Jesus, signaling the Law and the Prophets converging in the Messiah. Their conversation about his “exodus” ties the cross, resurrection, and ascension into one seamless mission. For listeners bombarded by modern “revelations” and charismatic personalities, this episode lays out a clear path: test every message by Scripture’s meaning, not the messenger’s magnetism, and measure every claim against the eyewitness and earwitness record.

We also draw out the hope hidden in the blaze. The Transfiguration does not only reveal who Jesus is; it hints at who we will be. John’s promise that we will be like him becomes tangible as we glimpse future glory—recognizable, immortal, radiant. If you’ve wondered how to spot spiritual counterfeits, how Peter’s testimony strengthens faith, or why the return of Christ remains certain after two millennia, this conversation will sharpen your discernment and lift your eyes. If it stirred your hope, share it with a friend, subscribe for more grounded teaching, and leave a review to help others find the show. What part of the mountain scene changes how you live this week?

Transcript

How Deception Rewrites Jesus

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Ever since Satan whispered in the ear of Eve the first deception, false teaching has been around the planet at some point in some place ever since. Any good deceiver does, he doesn't just outright deny that God has spoken, he just twists what God has said. He reinterprets it. He reinvents it, its original meaning. To this day, the most dangerous and deceptive false teachers don't deny that Jesus existed. They just reinvent him. They just reinterpret what he said. They just use him to defend the movement they're creating. And some go so far as to claim that, well, they're taking over where he left off. They've got another testament, a new testament, some new revelation, because he didn't quite finish the job. Like Alan Miller in Australia today, who leads a movement called the Divine Truth Movement. They reinvent the Lord. In fact, he claims himself to be the reincarnation of Christ, that he is the Messiah. Or Apollo Kibaloi, who founded the kingdom of Jesus Christ in the Philippine Islands, he became a multimillionaire off his followers, became a spiritual advisor to the president and other political leaders in that country. He's not as popular now that he's in jail for money laundering. There's Viseryan in Russia who founded a movement based in Siberia called the Church of the Last Testament. In other words, he had one to add to the old and new. He's combined the scriptures with Buddhism, his own personal revelations. He forbids his followers from eating meat, all sorts of things. He even forbids them from having any use of money. He's now in prison. He's been charged to return in American dollars, five million dollars he's taken from his followers. Evidently, he still had a use for money. Then there's Shoko Asera in Japan who claimed to be the Lamb of God. He amassed a following, but was eventually discredited for having orchestrated terrorist attacks in a subway system. He died seven years ago. Then you have Jose Morana from Puerto Rico, who started a movement called Growing in Grace. Sounds pretty good. He claims to be the Messiah. We claim to be the Messiah. Strangely, he encouraged his followers to tattoo somewhere on their bodies the number 666. He claimed that that was the number of spiritual enlightenment. Evidently, he didn't read the book of Revelation. When he died 12 years ago, his wife took over, claiming to be the incarnation of Michael the archangel. Now, if you think nobody would be deceived by this strange couple, they had two million followers. So from the United States, Australia, the Philippines, Russia, Japan, Puerto Rico, and I'm just going to stop with that. These false teachers don't really come up with their own narrative. They just take the Bible and torture it. They twist it. They're not even creative enough to come up with their own stuff. They just lead people into their own interpretation of it. And our study in 2 Peter chapter 1 revealed so far several warnings. Let me give them to you quickly. First, we need to be warned that it's possible for false teachers specifically to supposedly represent the Lord but not belong to the Lord. Jesus predicted that in the final judgment of unbelieving humanity at the great white throne, the final judgment. He says, And many are going to say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we preach? Prophesy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in the name of Jesus? Didn't we perform miracles in your name? Jesus will respond to them, I never knew you, Matthew 7, 21 to 23. I think it's interesting. Jesus never says to them, Well, you never really preached in my name. Or you never really cast out a demon in my name. Or you never really did a miracle in my name. No, he essentially tells them, You used my name to build your following that had nothing to do with me. It was all about you. So be warned, it's possible to supposedly represent the Lord but not belong to the Lord. Secondly, be warned that it's possible to quote from Scripture and ignore the meaning of Scripture. So that Scripture is twisted. We have all kinds of errant views today because people get around in a circle and they read a verse and then ask the question well, what does that mean to you? Well, I don't really care what it means to you or me until we find out what it means. So be warned of that. Finally, number three, be warned, you need to evaluate the content of the message, not the charisma of the messenger. Reminding me of the Bereans in Acts 17, where the great apostle Paul preached to them, and they immediately went to the scriptures to see if what he said lined up. If it was true. Now, as we began to uncover false teaching, false teachers, as Peter now shifts his attention. It's interesting to me that Peter is on the defense. He's being accused of propagating myths. He's the false teacher, accused by them. Specifically, these false teachers are accusing him of coming up with this fairy tale that Jesus was the Son of God and that Jesus is going to come back and establish a kingdom one day on earth. So far, Peter denies, flatly denies the accusation. He says in verse 16, we did not follow cleverly devised myths. We didn't make it up. And then following that denial, he repeats the declaration that Jesus is going to return in power. He's coming back in power. It's going to be a mighty coming, you could translate it. Now, with that declaration, Peter now begins his defense. So let's go back to 2 Peter chapter 1 and finish up verse 16 and go further than that, where Peter writes, 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 eyewitnesses of his majesty. This is the only time this word in this form, eyewitness, appears in the entire New Testament. Peter is saying, I am an eyewitness of his majesty, his divine radiance. And that's the first part of his defense. He is an eyewitness of Jesus Christ's divine radiance. Now, when did that eyewitness event occur? Well, if you're older in the faith, you know immediately that Peter is taking you back to a point in time not long before the crucifixion. It's called the Mount of Transfiguration, where Jesus reveals his divine glory. Now the Gospel of Mark gives us the details. For the sake of time, I'll put the passage on the screen, but I'm in chapter 9 and verse 2, where Mark writes, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. The word transfigured is the word metamorphao. We get our word metamorphosis from this. He was transformed uniquely. Now, this isn't like that transformer toy you bought your child, you know, for Christmas, where, you know, that robot turns into a really cool car and then it turns into a speedboat. It's a great toy. But that's not happening here. Jesus is basically pulling back or away the veil of his flesh, his humanity, and he's revealing the glory of his deity. Peter writes, we were eyewitnesses of that majesty, the display of his, you could translate it, splendor, his grandeur. Now Jesus was always fully God, but robed in flesh at the incarnation, fully human. So now here on Mount Hermon, which is about 15 miles away from Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus has been teaching, he takes these three disciples, his inner core, to that mountain, and he allows them to see what we will see one day. His divine nature peaking through, at that point when we see him, his glorified body. Because he retains his humanity, even his scars. Jesus allows here his glory to peek through the surface, so to speak. So they had this unbelievable display of divine light. Now, Mark goes on to write what happened next. The Lord's clothing became radiant, intensely white. I love Mark's little commentary. He adds here, like no one on earth could bleach them. Maybe he had trouble getting his t-shirts white. I don't know. But he says here, his clothing was intensely white. It was unearthly white, which nobody on earth, no dry cleaner on the planet, no amount of bleach in the washing machine, could ever get clothing this white. Now, this is actually about more than really white clothing. When Moses came back from the mountain receiving the law, you remember he saw the glory of God and his face shone like this 100 watt plus light bulb. It was so bright, the writer tells us he had to put a veil over his face because when he'd go out, it'd blind them like shining a flashlight in somebody's eyes. Eventually that light faded. It was reflected glory. But Jesus Christ, his entire body, he's not reflecting light. He is light. He is intrinsic, internal light. And he's showing this brilliant light, then is emitting from his body, which turns everything unearthly white, bright. We've never seen anything like it. This is the light that blinds Paul. This is the Shekinah, glorious light of God's presence. You can't manufacture this. This is divine radiance. It reminded me of some time ago I needed to replace a light bulb. One of the few things I'm qualified to do. It was one of several light bulbs hanging in a long line over a bathroom counter. Six of them. One had burned out. So I went off to Lowe's Hardware Store to buy a light bulb. I got to the aisle and discovered there are more white light bulbs than the sands of the sea. You know, do I want neutral white or do I want natural light? Do I want basic white or do I want bright white? Do I want relaxing white? Do I want soothing white? Do I want cool white? Do I want soft white? All those. All I want is a light bulb. Just give me a light bulb. And I got one, went home, and it was orange when I turned it on. Back I went. Mark is trying to tell us here that this light doesn't exist on earth. As it were. You can't manufacture this. In fact, Luke in his gospel says it was dazzling white. Unique. I think it's interesting that Peter doesn't defend the deity of Christ from these false teachers by referring to a miracle. He was an eyewitness to Jesus healing the lepers and giving the blind sight and walking on water, turning water into wine, raising the dead. The miracles of Jesus showed Peter what Jesus could do. This is showing Peter who Jesus is. This is an explosion of light from another world. It's unearthly. This is an explosion of light from the divine radiant king. John the Apostle was one of the three, was on that mountaintop with Peter and James, his brother. John writes in John chapter 1, verse 16, we have seen his glory. He's referring to this moment. Same word. We were eyewitnesses of that astonishing display of dazzling light. You know, it's as if Peter is hinting here, you know, you false teachers, all you ever saw was a poor, itinerant preacher from Galilee. Don't be fooled by the garb of his humanity. Jesus is eternally pre-existent, the uncreated, second person of the triune, God the Son, the embodiment of divine, dazzling, radiant light. False religion, like Mormonism today, says that Jesus was an exalted man who achieved that deity, that divinity by living a righteous life. That's not what the Bible says. In fact, when Jesus is praying to his father in John's gospel back in chapter 17, Jesus is praying about his soon return back to heaven. Listen to what he says to his father as he's praying. John 17, verse 5. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed. He is pre-existent. He is eternal. At a moment in time, he robed himself with flesh. It was necessary for God can't die, but a man can. So the God man saves us. Jesus is saying, I can't wait to return to my place and position of glory that I left when I took on the dust of humanity. So whenever you read, beloved, in the scriptures about Jesus being exalted, keep in mind that Jesus is being exalted back to the position he had. Peter says, I was there. And I saw it. Now that's not all. You'll notice he says next that he heard something too. That's important. It's possible to see something and think, wait, wait, did I see that? You know, people have these dash cams now. And sometimes when I'm at my computer, I hit the plus sign and up pops the latest news, and I made the mistake of clicking on that dash cam review of people who are recording accidents. And it's interesting how many people lie. So, no, no, no, look, I saw it. But what if all you did was see it? You didn't have a recording. Peter didn't have a camera up there. It's important that he heard something in addition. This is a powerful two-fold witness. I saw and I heard. In fact, even today in the courts, they call it an ear witness. Hearing something's important. It might be hearing an argument outside. It might be hearing a door slam early in the morning nearby. It might be hearing a gunshot nearby. It might be hearing that accused arsonist saying to a friend, I'm going to burn that place to the ground. Oh, I heard that. That's admissible. Evidence. Peter says, Let me tell you what I saw now. Verse 17, let me tell you what I heard. I heard the voice of the majestic glory. A name for God the Father. It's used in Deuteronomy chapter 33 for God. Peter's making a play on words. He's saying that the glory which Jesus revealed is the same glory as God the Father, the majestic glory. So Father and Son are of equal essence. They are equally divine, they are equally glorious. Peter is an eyewitness to Jesus Christ's divine radiance. Now, secondly, Peter is an ear witness to God the Father's divine revelation. Here's what he heard, verse 17. This is my beloved son, with whom I'm well pleased. You remember hearing that? It is baptism. It was heard when Greeks came to see Jesus as well. Three times now, this expression has been given to us in the New Testament. This is my beloved son, with whom I am. In the Greek language, that's something called a timeless heorist. You don't have to know that for the final example. What that means is it refers to an eternal timelessness. So what he's saying is, I have always been pleased with him. In other words, there was never a time when I wasn't pleased with him. I was pleased with him in eternity past. I'll be pleased with him in eternity future. And everything in between. There will never be a time at any time when I am not going to be pleased with him. And that's great news because that's you too. You are the beloved. You are loved by God being in Christ. He will never not love you. He will never change his mind. He'll never say to you, you know, it's been a billion years with you, and I'm getting on my nerves. Poof. How do you know that's not gonna happen? Because he said so. Nothing will ever separate you from the love of God. Neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, nor Powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will ever separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You're in Him, you are beloved, and that is forever. Forever. Now, back to this statement. Again, the context here is this accusation, and we'll get through this in the letter, where they're accusing Peter of claiming that Jesus is coming back again and he's going to establish the kingdom. So what the Father is saying here when he says, This is my beloved son, with whom I'm well pleased, he's actually combining several passages from the Old Testament. He's not just pulling this, you know, willy-nilly out of the air. Psalm chapter 2 tells us the Son is going to come and rule the nations with a rod of iron. That's a messianic psalm. I hear music as I talk about that now. It's glorious. 2 Samuel 7, where God establishes a covenant with King David, and he says in verse 13, I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever, and I will be to him a father, and he will be to me a son. When God says here in 1 Peter that he is well pleased, that's pulling it out of Isaiah 42, where he says, of the Messiah, the suffering servant, behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one whom I love, in whom I am delighted. I put my spirit on him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He's not going to grow weary or be discouraged until he brings justice to earth. This is all amazing prophecy fulfilled in Christ. Peter isn't just listening to a nice little conversation between God the Father and God the Son. It is a nice conversation. Peter's listening in on Jesus being identified as the descendant of David, the soon coming king of a literal throne and a literal kingdom? Can't say it any clearer than that. Now, here's a question. Why would Peter defend the gospel on the basis of the transfiguration in this letter? And not the resurrection. Doesn't the resurrection settle the score? Well, no doubt. Without the resurrection, Christianity wouldn't exist. No other religious leader, founder of a religion, has risen from the dead. The founder of every world religion, their bones are in the grave. The Buddha's bones are in the grave. The bones of Confucius are in the grave. The bones of Joseph Smith are in the grave. The bones of Shakov of Japan are in the grave. The bones of Jose Miranda of the Philippines are in the grave. No matter what his wife says, he pretends to be an archangel. Jesus arose from the dead. There are no bones in a grave. He's seen by more than 500 witnesses at different times for several weeks before he has sentenced. And he has sentenced visibly. They're all standing there watching him. And it's interesting to me. Get the irony. These false teachers aren't arguing about his resurrection because they know they've suppressed the evidence. All the religious leaders had to do is show the body. Here it is. Christianity's done, finished. They can't do it. So we're just going to forget about all that. And we're going to dig our heels in and say, well, he's not coming back. There's no kingdom. They're saying that today. I mean, it's been 2,000 years. Where is he? Where's his kingdom? So what they're simply doing is saying, Peter, you're making this myth up of a coming kingdom, and that's why the Mount of Transfiguration shuts them down. Let me give you very quickly four reasons. Number one, it validates the fulfillment of Jesus' life and ministry. Mark records, by the way, more details in chapter 9. The Lord's 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. So all of a sudden, Peter, James, and John and Jesus aren't the only ones on the mountain. All of a sudden you got Moses. Whoa. He's been gone for 1,500 years. Elijah. He was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot 900 years earlier. Here they are. Luke's gospel tells us that they were talking to Jesus about his exodus, his exit. They're talking to him about his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his ascension, his departure. They're discussing this with him. You ever wondered why it's Moses and Elijah? I did. I mean, you pay me to sit around and think up this kind of stuff. So I'm just wondering, why not? You know, I thought about it. Wouldn't it have been really fantastic if it had been Adam and Eve? Wouldn't that have been cool? They're the first sinners, they ruin everything. And Jesus says, I'm going to restore everything. That'd be great. I believe it's Moses and Elijah that we're not told. They're chosen because they relate to all that Christ came to fulfill. Moses represents the law. Elijah represents the prophets. In them is the embodiment of the Old Testament, and Jesus fulfilled it. So it's a vindication. Secondly, it fulfills the Lord's promise to his disciples. In Mark chapter 1 and verse 1, Jesus promised that before the apostles died, some of them would see the kingdom of God. This leads some people to believe that the kingdom of God is just a spiritual thing, and it arrived during the days of the apostles. Well, here you have a fulfillment. This takes place as Peter, James, and John see the royal power of the king, and they get this glimpse of that coming kingdom. That's why we call it the kingdom of light. He's the king of light. John says, in him there is no darkness at all. It's literal. A third revelation from this mountaintop. It proves the Bible's promise of a future kingdom. We've said enough about this for now, but the brilliant light of Christ's deity shining through, and the language of God, the Father, identifying Jesus as the king, the Son, who will rule. Well, it shows that Peter isn't pulling this out of thin air. This is a fulfillment in Jesus of Scripture. One more significant revelation from this explosion of light from another world. Number four, it provides a glimpse into the believer's existence, your existence after death. Our future bodies are represented here. Our identities, our future glory. The Apostle John, he was there on the mountain, and one day he's going to write the staggering news in 1 John 3, verse 2 that when Jesus appears, we will be like him. We will share in the glory of his splendor. We will be shining immortals, like Moses and Elijah are shown in their own glory, sharing Christ's glory, emitting from their own bodies the same brilliant light. This is a preview of what Jesus promised in Matthew 13, 4043. The righteous will shine like the sun, su-in, in the coming kingdom of the Father. This is the same expression describing the face of Jesus shining with the brilliance of the Son on the Mount of Transfiguration. This is to be understood literally. Now don't misunderstand. We don't become divine. We're not little gods, you know, grown up into becoming big gods. We're not going to have, you know, our own planet and spawn other little gods forever. We're simply given a share in the glorious splendor of our king. But notice just what this implies. Elijah and Moses are still Elijah and Moses. You're still gonna be Sam, John, Susan. 1500 years later, he's still Moses. I'm gonna still be Stephen. Stuck with that name forever. It's a good name. My mother's listening. Even their names haven't changed a thousand years later. They haven't been absorbed into some kind of universal consciousness. Just out there, some wisp of something. You know, blending into the universe out there. They're not asleep, they're not in the limbo, they're not bodiless. They're given a temporary body until the final resurrection, just as we will be given one if we die before the rapture. Their personalities are distinct. Elijah and Moses are two different men, though perfected in immortality. They're having a conversation with Jesus about what? The future. So in eternity, things still are yet future. There is intelligent thought, there is conversation, which means there's language, there's speaking, there is verbal communication. What language are they speaking? Well, that's where seminary students love to sit around the table. Hebrew scholars love to say it's Hebrew. Greek scholars love to say it's Greek. I'm hoping it's English. Reveals there is community and conversation and fellowship after death. It reveals anticipation. They're talking about his return, his exodus. So death is not the end of who you are. I mean, you're just getting started. This brief prelude. No matter how long it is, even if it's ninety or a hundred, nothing compared to a hundred billion years, and then it's still just starting. So this explosion of light from another world is your future world, beloved. This is a foretaste of your future and the coming kingdom and on into eternity where you will live forever. No wonder this transfiguration moment, though, for Peter, he never quite got over it. In fact, the last verse he will write, he will refer to the divine radiance of Christ. He never forgot what he heard. He never forgot what he saw on that mountaintop. Maybe that's why we've coined the expression for something wonderful to this day as a mountaintop experience. Peter gives us a glimpse of that day when we'll leave our troubled world, our our faltering steps, our doubt-filled, feeble mind. We're going to be metamorphosized, transformed into brilliant likeness, and finally, finally, finally, we will ourselves become eyewitnesses of his glory. Pray with me. Father, thank you for this freighted conversation. For all that this moment, this event teaches us.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Thank you for just another reassurance that yes, we are trusting you as we've sung.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

We are trusting you as we anticipate one day seeing you, hearing you. Where our faith is done away forever because we now have sight.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

We believe this because of the miracle of faith you've given us in our hearts, as you've opened our eyes to the glorious gospel of your son. Thank you. Thank you that we're able to rehearse it today, to sing about it, to pray about it, to study it, to be filled with joy about all that it promises. Thank you.