SPEAKER_00: Church, again, a passage like we're looking at this morning, the transfiguration, as it is commonly called.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of those passages as a preacher, you read it, you look at it, and you just think, all right, we've got to get a real professional in here to deal with this.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to mess it up.
SPEAKER_00: This passage, excuse me, of scripture, this passage of scripture teaches us more about who Jesus is and the mission he is on.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of pulls back the curtain for us, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: When you come to this passage, there's a couple dangers.
SPEAKER_00: There's the danger of just saying too much.
SPEAKER_00: You just say a lot of things, and you can cloud what's going on in an unhelpful way.
SPEAKER_00: The other danger is you don't say anything or you say too little and you miss what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: In this text, we again see the glory of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We see his deity, that he is in fact God, and that all of the Bible is pointing to him, to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: All of Scripture is building up to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you think there's this kind of discontinuity between the Old Testament and the New, and the Israelites and the Ten Commandments and all those laws back there, and then the new covenant and what God's doing now, if you think there's discontinuity, it's broken, it's separate.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to tell you that is just simply not the case.
SPEAKER_00: All of Scripture is pointing to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We see this clearly in a text like this.
SPEAKER_00: How amazing is it that Jesus could do this public ministry of healing, healing the sick, casting out thousands and thousands of demons and raising people from the dead, and teach the scripture with this great clarity and power.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, so many people rejected him.
SPEAKER_00: Almost everyone rejected him.
SPEAKER_00: So many of these people who witnessed these things yet cried for him to be crucified.
SPEAKER_00: So many people were seeing but not believing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in order for Jesus to atone for our sins, for him to come and live a perfect life, right?
SPEAKER_00: He had to keep every statute of the law, the old covenant, he had to do that, and then he had to die on the cross, shedding his blood for us.
SPEAKER_00: That's how he atoned for our sins because he was perfect and he was the perfect sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't have to do the healing, he didn't have to go around healing people, he didn't have to raise people from the dead, he did not have to cast demons out of people for him to atone for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, it was prophesied that he would do these things.
SPEAKER_00: But to atone for sin, he didn't have to do those things.
SPEAKER_00: But yet he did.
SPEAKER_00: God was merciful, he shows us his mercy and his kindness, he's compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: Even to a generation, to a people who didn't believe and who rejected.
SPEAKER_00: We believe not because we've seen Jesus, we haven't.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus has revealed his truth to us through the scriptures and through his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We see, in a sense, in part.
SPEAKER_00: But one day, church, we will see Jesus fully.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: For Christians, we will see him fully.
SPEAKER_00: What a blessing this is.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, if you remember in this context in Luke 9, he gathers his disciples around.
SPEAKER_00: And he asks, and they're praying, so there's a prayer meeting going on, and then out of that he asks them a question: Who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_00: It's a really important question.
SPEAKER_00: And they answer the question accordingly.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then he teaches them of the suffering that they must endure, the hardship that they must endure, forsaking all these things and following after Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then about a week later, Jesus takes John, Peter, and James up onto a mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And there those brothers get a glimpse of Jesus in his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is praying, and these brothers have fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_00: And when they wake up, some pretty wild things are going on.
SPEAKER_00: They wake up, and there's Moses, and there's Elijah, and they're talking, and Jesus is illuminated.
SPEAKER_00: He's glowing.
SPEAKER_00: His clothes are glowing.
SPEAKER_00: He's radiating.
SPEAKER_00: All these things are happening.
SPEAKER_00: And then they start kind of waking up and they talk to Jesus, and then Moses and Elijah disappear, and then this cloud comes in, and they hear the voice of God speaking, affirming who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing I want to do this morning is show that all of the Bible points to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: All of the Bible points to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to see, secondly, how that reveals that God intends to dwell with his people.
SPEAKER_00: So first is we're taken up on this mountain, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is a mountain scene, the mountaintop.
SPEAKER_00: You know, as the Old Testament unfolds, if you're familiar with the Old Testament and God's plan of redemption, we see again and again God meeting with his people and revealing himself on the mountains.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of where earth and heaven meet for a moment, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to kind of trace that theme through the Old Testament up to this point.
SPEAKER_00: And when you take something like that and you trace the theme through the Bible, that's called biblical theology.
SPEAKER_00: So we're just taking a theme that we see in Scripture where we're trace it, and what it's going to do is it's going to teach us, it's going to reveal more of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to sit back and just think, how awesome is God that He's been doing this.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 8 with Noah, there's Mount Ariad after the flood, this new beginning for humanity.
SPEAKER_00: God made this covenant with Noah.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll often see that covenants, new covenants, and Christophanes, or these kind of revelations where heaven and earth meet, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: This happens on mountains.
SPEAKER_00: Often it does.
SPEAKER_00: And God brings in a new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: We see it in Genesis 8 with Noah.
SPEAKER_00: And then in Genesis 22, Abraham is tested by taking his son Isaac up onto Mount Moriah.
SPEAKER_00: And there's this scene where he's going to sacrifice his son.
SPEAKER_00: But God provides what?
SPEAKER_00: A substitute.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: A substitute, a ram that Abraham would no longer have to sacrifice his son.
SPEAKER_00: For Jesus, there was no substitute.
SPEAKER_00: He was our substitute.
SPEAKER_00: And then in Exodus 3, there's Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb.
SPEAKER_00: And God meets Moses, the burning bush.
SPEAKER_00: And then later he gives him the law.
SPEAKER_00: And this new covenant of Sion is established with God's people.
SPEAKER_00: God's glory, his presence descends in thunder and smoke and fire.
SPEAKER_00: Then in Deuteronomy 34, there's Mount Nebo.
SPEAKER_00: And God shows Moses the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: If you're familiar with the story, Moses leads the people out of captivity in Egypt, does all these amazing miracles, leads them out, crosses the Red Sea into the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: The people rebel, so they wander for decades.
SPEAKER_00: And God provides food and water.
SPEAKER_00: They wander for 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: Moses, because of a sin, doesn't enter the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: God says you can't enter the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you hear that story and this natural kind of rub.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, okay, God.
SPEAKER_00: Like Moses did a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Like he has done his fair share.
SPEAKER_00: Why can't he go into the promised land?
SPEAKER_00: It just feels really, really unfair.
SPEAKER_00: And what I think is helpful about that story is it reveals our humanity.
SPEAKER_00: That we don't understand God's holiness.
SPEAKER_00: That when you violate any part of God's law, you do not deserve any mercy.
SPEAKER_00: You do not deserve any justice, any grace.
SPEAKER_00: But yet God is graceful and merciful.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't take Moses and condemn him to hell, but rather he does let him see the promised land from afar on this mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Moses, who had been on these mountains, communing with God.
SPEAKER_00: Now seeing the promised land in Exodus 3.
SPEAKER_00: Or sorry, Deuteronomy 34.
SPEAKER_00: And then in 1 Kings chapter 18, there's another mount, Mount Carmel.
SPEAKER_00: This is where Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal.
SPEAKER_00: If you're familiar with that story.
SPEAKER_00: And all these things are happening, and they're trying to bring their God down to light this fire, and it doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: And he kind of makes fun of them for it a little bit, which is funny, right?
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah calls down fire from heaven, defeating the prophets of Baal, false teachers.
SPEAKER_00: God reveals himself as the true God, turning Israel's hearts back to him.
SPEAKER_00: Then in 1 Kings 19, Mount Horeb again, Elijah fled there.
SPEAKER_00: And then he encounters God there.
SPEAKER_00: But not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire, but in a gentle whisper.
SPEAKER_00: Small, stale voice.
SPEAKER_00: And then we hear about this in Psalm 48 in Isaiah 2.
SPEAKER_00: There's Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The site of the temple where God's dwelling is built.
SPEAKER_00: His presence resides there in the holies of holies.
SPEAKER_00: This is a God who keeps dwelling and communing with his people, ever inching closer to the coming of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You see the Lord meeting with his people, giving them insight, teaching them who he is.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, He's revealing to him God's character.
SPEAKER_00: The first four commandments are about how we're to follow God, right?
SPEAKER_00: What we're to do, how we're to honor him and respect him and God's character.
SPEAKER_00: And they're put in the form of do's and don'ts, but it reveals his holiness.
SPEAKER_00: The other six commandments that deal with how we're to love our neighbor, how we're to treat one another because of God's holiness.
SPEAKER_00: So in these mountains, God is revealing himself.
SPEAKER_00: These mountain interactions, he's revealing himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's teaching, he's providing, he's protecting, he's encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that no one stays on the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: They don't.
SPEAKER_00: They all come down.
SPEAKER_00: We see that Jesus' face and his body and his clothes are radiating.
SPEAKER_00: Similarly, Moses in Exodus 33 and 34, after encountering the presence of God, he's glowing.
SPEAKER_00: God allows him to see his back as he passes.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses come down, comes down the mountain, and it's just like glowing.
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't like the like, oh, you're pregnant, you're glowing, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is a magnificent glowing.
SPEAKER_00: This is a radiating glowing.
SPEAKER_00: This is it's so like kind of scaring the people.
SPEAKER_00: It's scaring them.
SPEAKER_00: So what's Moses have to do?
SPEAKER_00: He veils his face.
SPEAKER_00: He wears a veil.
SPEAKER_00: So every time he goes up and comes down the mountain, he's got to veil his face, or else everyone's terrified.
SPEAKER_00: And what that's not even the that's that's a that's a he's he's mirroring, just like the moon radiates light from the sun.
SPEAKER_00: Moses wasn't the origin of the glow.
SPEAKER_00: He was kind of reflecting the glow.
SPEAKER_00: And yet people were terrified.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is glowing.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus was radiating the glory.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, not mirroring it as Moses was.
SPEAKER_00: It was his own glory on display, his own light that was being shown about them.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is glowing and his clothes are glowing.
SPEAKER_00: It's a really important thing to note.
SPEAKER_00: We'll come back to that in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Another thing that we see that's going on in this mountain are this as Peter's like, hey, let's let's put up some tents.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is really good.
SPEAKER_00: Let's put up some tents and we'll have some booths and we'll dwell here.
SPEAKER_00: Which seems like a normal response.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, the text says Peter doesn't know what he's saying, right?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't because he's seeing the glorified Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's not taking into account what Jesus has told him just recently that he's going to go and be crucified.
SPEAKER_00: But this is a reaction.
SPEAKER_00: Let's build tents, let's build booths, let's dwell here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's that?
SPEAKER_00: What's that sound like from the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it sounds like the feast of booths, the feast of tabernacles.
SPEAKER_00: After coming out of Egypt and wandering through the desert, they begin to have this annual festival, this celebration to remember what God had done.
SPEAKER_00: That out of the wilderness, God, in the wilderness, God protected them and provided for them.
SPEAKER_00: So that's a normal, natural response, I think.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stay here.
SPEAKER_00: Where God is glorified and will be protected and cared for.
SPEAKER_00: God's always providing for his people.
SPEAKER_00: And as God was providing for the Israelites coming out of captivity and in the wilderness, he provided for them.
SPEAKER_00: He provided food for them.
SPEAKER_00: He provided water.
SPEAKER_00: He protected them.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus in a short while will not be protected, but rather crucified for his people.
SPEAKER_00: And then we have this cloud, right?
SPEAKER_00: Which is going back to the Old Testament, Exodus 13.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: How is God's presence manifested?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a cloud by day to guide the Israelites, and by night a cloud of fire, a pillar of fire.
SPEAKER_00: This presence, God's glory and presence revealed here on this mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Again.
SPEAKER_00: This theme of God coming in this way.
SPEAKER_00: And then this there's Moses and there's Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: And it would have been an odd situation.
SPEAKER_00: I think.
SPEAKER_00: You wake up from a nap, you're praying, and there's Moses and Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: And what the text doesn't tell us is how do the disciples know who these guys are?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They didn't exactly have, like, you know, be real back then, the snap pictures, and then look at them later, like, yeah, I saw that.
SPEAKER_00: I saw Moses on a Snapchat.
SPEAKER_00: That's Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And they just didn't have that technology, as you know.
SPEAKER_00: How did they know, though?
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, it was revealed to them at some way through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This was Moses, and this was Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: And what were they doing, Moses and Elijah doing there?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a lot of different thoughts on this, but most commentators, and I think I agree with this, would say that Moses is there to encourage, but he represents something as well.
SPEAKER_00: He represents the law.
SPEAKER_00: Moses gave the law, he represents the law.
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah is there to encourage, but he represents the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: So all the law and all the prophets now kind of being represented, and Christ is the fulfillment of them.
SPEAKER_00: They all were about Christ.
SPEAKER_00: All the law was revealing that we needed a savior.
SPEAKER_00: It's pointing to God's holiness and the need for a savior.
SPEAKER_00: Because no one else could keep the law.
SPEAKER_00: And all the prophets were saying, listen, follow God and put your hope in him, because there is yet one to come.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man, the Messiah, Emmanuel, who will come.
SPEAKER_00: So here they are speaking about the crucifixion of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That soon his departure will come, his crucifixion in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: If Moses, you know, he's leading the people out of captivity and through the wilderness and to the edge of the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And it was doing all this.
SPEAKER_00: And it was all leading up to this.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that when you're kind of going in your Bible reading plan.
SPEAKER_00: If you follow an annual plan, the new year's going to start again.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're on track, you'll start in the Old Testament, and some of it just kind of feels hard, like a slog.
SPEAKER_00: And you're just like, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: All of it, all of those things are pointing to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: To Moses and all those things, all the law that he gave and instructions he gave and his leadership, pointing to this, to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Elijah as a representative of the prophets, and as a prophet, all the teaching they did, all the calling of the people of Israel to repent, to forsake their wicked ways, all the pleading they did with the wicked kings of Israel, standing for truth, declaring the hope that was to come.
SPEAKER_00: It was all leading to this Christ, the Son of God, coming as the Savior of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And then you have God the Father speaking.
SPEAKER_00: The words from God the Father sound very familiar to what we read in Luke 2 at Jesus' baptism.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 2, 21.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, and 22.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You are my beloved Son, with whom with you I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: God the Father speaking.
SPEAKER_00: What a moment that we get a glimpse of this.
SPEAKER_00: And what's he doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's affirming Jesus' deity.
SPEAKER_00: That he isn't just someone who's trying to keep the law.
SPEAKER_00: That he is the Messiah, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: God himself has come.
SPEAKER_00: So listen to him.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to him.
SPEAKER_00: We see this all throughout the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: God's people rejected the law, rejecting the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Again and again and again this happens.
SPEAKER_00: And it'll happen more.
SPEAKER_00: And they will reject Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And they will crucify the lawmaker.
SPEAKER_00: The lawgiver.
SPEAKER_00: And the law keeper.
SPEAKER_00: And they will crucify the one who fulfilled all of the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Not just now are they crucifying or killing the prophets and rebelling against the law.
SPEAKER_00: They're crucifying the lawgiver and the one who fulfilled all the prophecies.
SPEAKER_00: It's all pointing to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus is about.
SPEAKER_00: He's come that we might dwell.
SPEAKER_00: All of this, all these events in the Old Testament, all the backstory, all the work put in, the thousands of years and all these things, the sacrifices and the festivals, and again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God is revealing himself to his creation.
SPEAKER_00: And God desires to dwell with his creation again.
SPEAKER_00: God is revealing himself and pointing to the fact that he desires to dwell with his creation.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_00: When sin entered the world, when it came in, it separated God from his creation.
SPEAKER_00: It's a pretty powerful thing.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is a very powerful thing.
SPEAKER_00: God is holy and righteous and good in all that he does.
SPEAKER_00: Mankind, unholy, sinful.
SPEAKER_00: From Adam all the way down, mankind is unholy because of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And we're stuck in our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And we can't get out of our sin on our own.
SPEAKER_00: We need a rescuer, a savior, someone to come and deliver us.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is that savior.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And the mission of Jesus is to restore that broken relationship from Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_00: That God is holy up here, and we're stuck down here, separated from him in our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And he does this not by softening God's holiness or his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't do this by saying, okay, God the Father, like I know these people have made mistakes, but they're in their heart, they're good people.
SPEAKER_00: Like they mean well.
SPEAKER_00: Give them a second chance.
SPEAKER_00: That's not possible.
SPEAKER_00: And let's praise the Lord, that's not what even happened.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to pay the price for our sin by dying on the cross for us.
SPEAKER_00: He was our substitute.
SPEAKER_00: Why was this necessary?
SPEAKER_00: Was God obligated to do this?
SPEAKER_00: Did God the Father have to send God the Son to come and die for your sins and my sin?
SPEAKER_00: No, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: He was under no obligation to do this.
SPEAKER_00: None whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00: However, this is the very thing that he does.
SPEAKER_00: He desires to dwell with his creation, to dwell with us.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Lord does.
SPEAKER_00: He desires to dwell.
SPEAKER_00: So he's crucified, buried for three days, and he is resurrected, conquering death.
SPEAKER_00: So he paid the price for our sin in his crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: And then he defeats the consequences of sin in his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And then God adopts us into his family.
SPEAKER_00: Under no obligation to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Lovingly, mercifully, he does this.
SPEAKER_00: When we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: For we were with him on the holy mountain.
SPEAKER_00: What's Peter saying?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, listen, all that stuff, it's true.
SPEAKER_00: Everything we've been teaching you, the whole testament, the scriptures, it's all true.
SPEAKER_00: And it all points to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The power and the majesty that he has come.
SPEAKER_00: John and his gospel, chapter 1, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: And the word, Jesus, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_00: We have seen his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_00: God desires to dwell with his creation.
SPEAKER_00: He desires to dwell with me and with you.
SPEAKER_00: Moses, a servant of God who led Israel, interceded for her, was not able to go into the promised land due to his own sin.
SPEAKER_00: On this mountain at different times, Mount Horeb, both Moses and Elijah longed to see the face of God.
SPEAKER_00: They longed to see God in his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And here together, in this transfiguration scene on this mountain, these men saw Jesus in his glorified state.
SPEAKER_00: We too have a hope.
SPEAKER_00: We know that if the Lord doesn't return, our bodies will decay and die.
SPEAKER_00: Life will cease to be for us on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: But we too have a hope that we will see the resurrected Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We will see him in his glory.
SPEAKER_00: But not yet.
SPEAKER_00: We want to dwell there.
SPEAKER_00: We feel close to God.
SPEAKER_00: We feel comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Glory.
SPEAKER_00: Ever had this in your time in your life where you just felt like your sweet time of prayer and communing with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's revealing things are kind of a unique time, and you call this mountaintop experience.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to leave that.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to go.
SPEAKER_00: Why would you want to go?
SPEAKER_00: Here's God in his presence, and he's speaking to me and he's encouraging me.
SPEAKER_00: Why would I want to leave?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would come off the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: He would come down from the mountain and he would go and be crucified on the mount of Gilgatha for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: So that one day we too will have this mountaintop experience that we will not have to leave.
SPEAKER_00: We will not have to come down from, that we will dwell with God forever.
SPEAKER_00: In his glory and with glorified bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Sin no longer creeping in, the lives of the world no longer staining our vision, our affections no longer being mixed, but pure and holy and devoted to God alone.
SPEAKER_00: And that is our hope, church.
SPEAKER_00: Because Christ has come.
SPEAKER_00: Because he has fulfilled all of the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews chapter 1, it says, long ago and at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
SPEAKER_00: He is the radiance of the glory of God in the exact imprint of his nature.
SPEAKER_00: And he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
SPEAKER_00: And after making purication for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
SPEAKER_00: Brother, sister, if you're a Christian, you will see that one day.
SPEAKER_00: You will see the majesty and the glory.
SPEAKER_00: You will see the Son and the glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And you can call it a testing tree.
SPEAKER_00: He chose sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, we too choose sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: But there was another testing tree.
SPEAKER_00: One that the second Adam would go to.
SPEAKER_00: And he would pass that test.
SPEAKER_00: Not because he had to pass that test, but because we have failed our test.
SPEAKER_00: And so at that testing tree, Jesus passes the test for us.
SPEAKER_00: That we would walk in joyful obedience to him.
SPEAKER_00: That we would dwell with God again.
SPEAKER_00: Remember in Luke 19 or Luke 9, when Jesus asks the disciples if they know who he is, he's revealing himself to them.
SPEAKER_00: He's praying.
SPEAKER_00: And then on the mountaintop, he's praying.
SPEAKER_00: And in between those two prayers, what we realize, what we know we're what we fit in, is this this call to suffering and difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're called to suffering and to die and there's no hope that we're going to dwell with God, what's the point?
SPEAKER_00: And if we're called to suffering and we don't know who God is, and he hasn't revealed himself to us, what's the point?
SPEAKER_00: But if God has revealed himself to us throughout all the scriptures and the Holy Spirit, and his word, he's revealed that to us.
SPEAKER_00: And he's revealed the glory that is to come.
SPEAKER_00: What is of waiting for us, the glory that is waiting for us.
SPEAKER_00: Then in between, you and I will suffer.
SPEAKER_00: We will suffer and die.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus suffered and died.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when a serpent said to Eve, surely, this isn't gonna happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: Just spewing lies.
SPEAKER_00: And even the disciples would say to Jesus, a similar lie.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do those things.
SPEAKER_00: We won't let that happen.
SPEAKER_00: They get a very sharp rebuke from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus must suffer, and then glory.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering will come, and we must go through it.
SPEAKER_00: But the end, church, the hope is glory that we will see God for who he is.
SPEAKER_00: He will dwell with us.
SPEAKER_00: And then everything Jesus touches will be transformed.
SPEAKER_00: We made light.
SPEAKER_00: His clothes transformed.
SPEAKER_00: And when the new heavens and the new earth come, glory will be shown.
SPEAKER_00: Everything will burst with this light, this radiating glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: In Romans 8, it speaks of this creation longing for the revelation of the sons of God.
SPEAKER_00: And in that day, it will shine with brightness, because everything that Jesus touches will be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: It will be transformed.
SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus says, Come and follow me, He's not just saying, come and suffer and die.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Come, experience a glimpse of a transformation, suffer, and then this glory will be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Who God is will be revealed to you.
SPEAKER_00: Life will be given, your sins paid for, your joy abundant.
SPEAKER_00: Come and follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is his plea.
SPEAKER_00: Because all of Scripture has been pointing to this.
SPEAKER_00: It's pointing to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that Jesus wants to dwell with us.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_00: And if we follow him, we will see his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Church, let's pray.