The day-to-day Christian life is not a mountaintop experience. Life is messy and circumstances can cause us to doubt God. When doubt attacks our faith we need to keep pressing into the Lord.
In this episode Brody walks through the transfiguration of Jesus, the chaos that meets them when they get off the mountain, and how we should fight doubt. Listen as we consider 5 facets of God’s revelation that confirm Jesus’ glory.
Let’s submit our doubt to the Lord and let it grow us closer to Christ.
Resources:
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
The day-to-day Christian life is not a mountaintop experience. Life is messy and circumstances can cause us to doubt God. When doubt attacks our faith we need to keep pressing into the Lord.
In this episode Brody walks through the transfiguration of Jesus, the chaos that meets them when they get off the mountain, and how we should fight doubt. Listen as we consider 5 facets of God’s revelation that confirm Jesus’ glory.
Let’s submit our doubt to the Lord and let it grow us closer to Christ.
Resources:
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
Welcome to no Sanity Required Today an update from the Respond Women's Conference, as well as a prayer request that we want to share with our listeners. And then also going to read you some responses, emails, texts that have come in from listeners and share how we've been encouraged by those listeners and, uh, and share how we've been encouraged by those. And then we are going to um, go behind the flannel graph and we're going to. We're going to look at mountaintop experiences and the grit and grind and dirt of living in the Valley, which is where we spend most of our time, and what it looks like to live by faith and wrestle with doubt. That's the main idea Live by faith, wrestle with doubt. And then the last thing we're going to do and this will be very brief, but we're going to talk about the fiasco.
Speaker 1:A lot of our listeners probably know nothing about this, but I know a bunch of you do, because I've gotten texts and emails probably know nothing about this, but I know a bunch of you do because I've gotten texts and emails. But this guy, mark Driscoll, who is a pastor, preacher, kind of a, I don't know how you'd describe him. If you know him, then I don't need to describe him to you, and if you don't, then I'm sure you're going to go look him up. But he's kind of all over the place. A lot of people love him, a lot of people don't like him. I, I don't really have an opinion. There's some things he says and does that are just awesome, and then some things where you're like man, this guy, what is he doing? But he was speaking at a men's conference, I think it's in springfield, missouri, I believe.
Speaker 1:I'm not looking at notes here, but I think, if my memory serves, and anyway, we'll talk about that. It's a blow up Funny thing. We'll talk about that. So we're going to cover several things in this episode. So anyway, so I appreciate you tuning in listening. We had a week off last week but we didn't skimp. We gave you two episodes a week before and so hopefully everyone's looking forward to us being back online. I know that we are looking forward to bringing this episode and so come along, listen along. Welcome to no Sanity Required.
Speaker 2:Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. A podcast about the Bible, culture and stories from around the globe.
Speaker 1:All right, I want to start off by talking just briefly about the Respond Women's Conference that we had at SWO this past weekend. I think we had gosh. I think we ended up with over 600 women, which for us is max capacity, I guess you'd call it. The women's conference is always well attended because we only I think partially because we only do one a year. We do two men's Be Strong events, one in the fall, one in the spring. Right now, we only do one women year. We do two men's be strong events, one in the fall, one in the spring. Right now we only do one women's. And, uh, I don't know. People have asked me if that'll change. I don't think it will. Um, I don't, I don't, I don't ever say something is not, we're not going to change something, cause we might, but, um, that's how it is right now and but I think there were over 600 women here, and it's just crazy, and it's, uh, it's, it's a retreat.
Speaker 1:Well, let me, let me read to you how we like, how our commercial reads. You know how our um promotion reads the respond Women's retreat is for women of all ages. Come with your church, a couple of friends or by yourself to enjoy a weekend here at Snowbird. In today's culture there are many definitions of womanhood, but in Scripture God calls women to godliness. This women's conference is packed with expositional teaching, fellowship with other believers, high adventure, recreation. We hope you can join us this spring in the mountains. Click the link in the description to find out more about our women's respond women's conference. So that's, that's, uh, that's from our website and it's just a, uh, a good opportunity for ladies to get together, study the word of God. We have Brooke loving good, come in, um, she's, she's a favorite. We have Anna Rose Garrett uh, share, and Rose speaks, uh, in the summer on girls day, girls night, um, yeah, so it's, uh, it's, it's an awesome weekend. The only time there's a dude involved is I'll bring the message on Sunday mornings and that that's a. We can have kind of a Sunday morning church worship service and and uh, other than that, everything is is for women, by women, led by women. Uh, uh, an all women band, women led by women, an all-women band, women teachers, speakers, breakout sessions. It's a wonderful event. We just had that and the content from that will be up soon.
Speaker 1:I want to move into some texts and emails. I've gotten One by Sharon. Sharon lives in California. She lives, uh, on the West coast. She's in an area where I know that, um, it's gotta be tough to um, to to be a witness for the Lord and for the gospel. And she had emailed earlier, uh, several months ago, about, um, the episode we did on on reading through the Bible and how, um, you know, for some of us it's it's better to slow down and not read through it in a year, maybe take two years, three years, four years, whatever but that we're reading the scripture, meditating on it, um, but anyway, uh, she, she sends this email. No rush in replying.
Speaker 1:You mentioned on NSR a few months back that Little uses a daily Bible reading app. By chance. Is this the Bible recap? Just curious. I started it, the Bible recap, in January and it's been extremely helpful to me. Being in God's Word daily truly is transforming. Thanks again for all of the wonderful content that Snowbird puts out. Your ministry is a blessing to so many, far beyond the students who physically step foot in camp. Thank you, sharon. That's very encouraging, super encouraging. So Sharon's using the Bible recap app. There's a resource from one of our listeners. The app she's asking about is that little uses, little uses.
Speaker 1:It's called the you version, I think, and uh, and I I listened to it a lot with little like if we're traveling, which is pretty normal, like last week we traveled, and so in the morning she little always listens to it in the morning. Last week we were traveling and she'll play it for the family to listen to while we're driving and it's like. I love it because they read a section of the old Testament and then give a little commentary on it. It's a British couple, older British couple. They do an incredible job and they have funny accents and her name's Pippa and he and he's in to hear him talk about Pippa and then when he prays, this guy I don't know his name, but when he prays he'll say Lord, lord, we remember. It's really funny, but it's really good. It's very practical and I love it. I love listening to their insights and thoughts and just simple and practical you version.
Speaker 1:They read through a section of the Old Testament give commentary. Section of the old Testament, give commentary. Section of the new Testament. Give commentary. And then Pippa, his wife, will, will add to what he's covered in the, in the episode or whatever. And it's a, it's a daily program. I don't know, um, I don't know that it goes through the Bible in a year. I think it's more than that. But, um, anyway, it's wonderful. So there, that hopefully answers Sharon's question and is helpful for others. Um, let's see.
Speaker 1:Uh, a pastor friend named Jonathan in Virginia sent me a picture of a whiteboard that says take a day off, get mauled by a lion, and he and he writes my 15 year old saw this on the SWO Insta story the other day, so we talked about what it means. And now she put it on her on our weight room whiteboard. I love that, um. And then he, and then he followed up. That was a few weeks ago. Then he followed up, um, with a screenshot of the Kentucky headhunters Dumas Walker track from Spotify. It looks like he says well, I hadn't thought about these guys in about 30 years. And, uh, he said I'm stoked for the next two NSRs, don't be a Dumas today.
Speaker 1:So, uh, if you listened to the last two episodes, I talked about, uh, the Kentucky headhunters song, dumas Walker, and we were looking. We were in those episodes. We were looking at a guy named Demas, but, uh, I appreciate that from Jonathanathan, it's really funny, uh, and I had so many comments from people about dumas walker and the kentucky headhunters, so I'm glad I was able to take some of you down memory lane and introduce some of you to real country music, good country music, and uh, that, that, uh, that kentucky headhunters album, the one that had doom, let's all go down to doomless walker it's just called doomless walker. I think um it, that uh album was awesome. There's a bunch of good songs on that album and those dudes you guys see all those guys.
Speaker 1:Look the drummer's my favorite. He's got the bald on top, fuzzy hair, bozo, kind of the clown hair around the sides of his head, what, what I would look like if I grew my hair out and uh, and I think usually he's shirtless and he's just this pasty, skinny white dude and it is funny. Um, all right, so let's turn our attention. Did I cover everything I wanted to cover? Oh, one more thing. I said we talk about the mark driscoll fiasco. So there's this. Uh, I've just had a lot of people ask me about it more just light-hearted um. One of our listeners and a close friend of mine, duncan edge, was the first person that told me about it. He sent me a clip.
Speaker 1:But I guess there was a men's conference called the stronger, or strong together or stronger men be like, something like be strong um, and I guess it's really big and there's, you know, look to me in the video like a couple thousand guys probably there and and uh, and they. It's a real big production. Like last year there was a clip of they had a monster truck in the arena driving over a big pile of dirt, you know, know, and fireworks going off, you know, like sparks and pyrotechnics and getting the guys, you know, yelling and hooting. And not my thing, not the way we do it at SWO, but at ours we did do an onstage lumberjack competition. So who am I to judge? I'm not hating on somebody for for doing some antics and theatrics and we do games and different contests and things like that at our camps and conferences. So I'm not here to judge, um, but I do think you can go over the top and you got to be careful with that. We've done that. We've made that mistake.
Speaker 1:But this, this outfit, the stronger men's conference, they had this guy come on stage and he, like, swallowed a sword. He's one of the you know, like the circus guys that swallow swords. He's a sword swallower. So he's what? Which? That's impressive. Let's just pause and give credit where credit's due.
Speaker 1:Guy shoved a sword down his throat, um, then he climbed up this pole and then he got to the top of the pole and it's tall, it's probably 40, I bet it's 40 feet tall, for sure 30 feet climbs the top of the pole this is on stage, by the way, at this men's conference, if you haven't seen it and then he turns, flips around and and all the while he's got a sword sticking out of his mouth, but it's all the way down in his you know chest and belly and then he slides down the pole, upside down. It is very impressive, very Like he's not holding on with his hands, he's upside down with his legs wrapped around his pole and he slides and he stops with the, with the hilt of that sword just inches from the floor. He spins around, stands up, pulls sword out Very impressive. But come to find out. And the dude does it shirtless. Come to find out, the dude does it shirtless. So that was weird, that was very weird. And he's a little petite but muscular like a little guy, but very lean and muscular, very fit. Looks like a little fitness guru kind of guy.
Speaker 1:And then apparently his other job besides sword swallowing is he's a male stripper. So you know, you're at a men's conference, they got a guy swallowing a sword. All right, I'm tracking, I'm good, wait a minute, he's a stripper and there's a pole in the middle of the floor and so it just got weird. Is this guy a pole dancer? Is he a sword swallower? Is he a circus act? Is he Swallowers he a circus act? Is he? Well, I'll tell you, in my opinion, because people have texted and asked, the whole daggum thing was a circus act because after he got done doing his little, his little stunt, this guy, mark Driscoll, who's a pastor, um, who's super controversial guy, um, he comes out on stage.
Speaker 1:I think it was like maybe later that day or the next day. It wasn't like right after the guy did the circus act, it was like later. But he comes out and he goes on this rant and he's, he's fussing and hemming and hawing about the fact that we just had a stripper on where the men's conference. We just had a stripper come out. So you're kind of like, yeah, I'm tracking with this guy, that's good, that's good.
Speaker 1:Then he starts talking like real weird Old Testament analogies. He's like the spirit of Jezebel is here. I'm like I don't think spirit of Jezebel is here. She's. I mean, I don't know, I don't know what, I, what. I'm sure there's more context to that from some of his other teaching. Maybe he says the pole represents an. It's like an Asherah pole, which, if you know what an Asherah pole is, it's a foul. It's thought to have been like a phallic idol for worship with these pagan deities by these pagan cultures in the old Testament. So what he's saying is this is a sexual worship moment. That's demonic and pagan and it's plugged into this Christian men's conference. So I don't know, maybe he's right, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But he just then the pastor of the thing starts yelling at this guy. This guest preacher has come out onto the stage and he's talking about the stripper circus act they just had. Then he's saying that was bad. And then the pastor stands up and kicks him off the stage and he's talking about the stripper circus act they just had. Then he's saying that was bad. And then the pastor stands up and kicks him off the stage. He leaves the stage, he says I'm sorry you're, you know whatever, you're the boss. And he leaves. And then he comes back out and that's not what he says. He says something to that effect though, like okay, if you say so, I'll leave, and uh, and I think he says I received that, I will receive that, like I received that rebuke. Then he leaves. Then later the pastor. And then the pastor comes up on stage and tells why he just kicked this guy off stage and why he was out of line. Then later this guy, mark Driscoll, and this pastor whoever get his name they come out on stage and they sit and they make up and they make nice with each other and for 30 minutes they talk about how great each other are.
Speaker 1:The whole thing was just weird. So I've had a lot of people say what do you think of this? I don't know, I don't have an opinion that's worth sharing. I just think it was goofy. That's all Just goofy, and I feel bad for the dudes that were there. I looked it up and the cost of the event was similar to the cost of a Snowbird men's event. You got to pay the bills. It was, I don't know, $150, $200, $160, something like that and I don't know. You got a few thousand guys there paying that kind of money.
Speaker 1:Just preach the word, man. Just get out there and preach the word. We don't need no circus act and we don't need no circus act. And then if there is a circus act and you're the guy that that that's been called upon to preach, after it, maybe you address it. But I think maybe just preach the word you know and maybe, if you do address it, you say you know what? Guys, that was a little bit weird. Let's just focus on Jesus and let's get into the word and focus on the word. So anyway, I don't have a whole lot of opinion, but a lot of people I mean tons of people asking. So it was weird. Here's, here's what I think about it.
Speaker 1:Don't go to the stronger men's conference. Come to be strong at SWO. We do one in September, one in March. There you go, got it All right. Let's turn for the rest of our time too. I want to. I want to just walk through um, a passage in scripture Um, and you'll find this in several places. You'll find it in Luke 9 and Mark 9. Now in Mark 9. Let me make sure my texts are right. That's.
Speaker 1:Matthew 9 that's not right, mark 9, we have a. We have the story of the transfiguration of Jesus and if you're familiar with the transfiguration of Jesus, you know it is an incredible story, it's a wonderful story. It's a story about Jesus taking three of his disciples up on the mountain and revealing himself to them in a very special and unique way. Mark 9 and Luke 9 both talk about it and cover it. But I want to look at that, some some thoughts from that. And then, um, the main point of the following text, which I preached last night at red Oak church, had the opportunity to preach at red Oak church last night on um, mark nine, the healing of the demon possessed boy, beginning in Mark 9, verse 14, which is a story immediately following the transfiguration. So, as we go behind the flannel graph, I'm going to read most of this just to stay on task, because we're over 15 minutes into this episode and I want to be mindful of your time and your commute. But I want to give you some thoughts. The transfiguration, and I'm reading now.
Speaker 1:We live in the best time in history. I always remember growing up and the old folks would talk about two things. They would talk about the quote good old days in quote and they would talk about this with much fondness. And then they would talk about how difficult life was in the depression era or during the war which was referenced World War II. Admittedly, it is easy to look back at periods of history and romanticize what life would have been like back then. Pause.
Speaker 1:Here I have a friend named Garnet Park. Garnet Park is 90 or 91 years old. Garnet's son, keith, and his daughter-in-law, betty, are avid NSR listeners. So shout out to those guys, love them dearly. They live in Kentucky. Garnett is in his 90s now. Garnett's father was around 60 when Garnett was born. If you do the math, go back 90 years and then go back 60 years. Beyond that, we're going back 150 years. So it is 2000 and, and right now it's 2024. Okay, you subtract one 50 from that and what you get is 1874.
Speaker 1:So I know a dude, I know a man who's coherent, and, and, and, and, and can still communicate and tell stories. But about 10 years ago Garnett came and stayed in my driveway in his camper, came for a visit. We sat several evenings in a row on the couch and I just got him to tell stories. So here's a guy 90 years old whose dad was born in the 1860s or 70s, 1870s I believe and he tells firsthand stories. He tells first person stories of his dad talking about life in the 1880s. So I can sit down and talk to a man who's telling me stories about life in the 1880s and it's a it's. It's a firsthand, secondhand account. Pretty cool, and I'm always intrigued by how difficult, in one sense, life was back then, but how awesome in another sense it was, because of simplicity.
Speaker 1:Admittedly, it's easy to look back at periods of history and romanticize what life would have been like back then. I do this. Or we look back at an earlier period of our own lives and imagine that it was better then than it actually was. Do you do this? I do, but the reality is we live in the most exciting time in history.
Speaker 1:The glory of the Lord has been revealed in Christ Jesus, in his earthly ministry, and this is the greatest blessing in history. For thousands of years, people waited for the mysteries of the Savior to be revealed. Thousands of years people waited for the mysteries of the Savior to be revealed, from the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, to Noah, to Abraham and God's promises, down through Moses, the judges, the kings and all the prophets in between, we see God show glimpses of his own glory. He uses prophets like Elijah, ezekiel, isaiah and Daniel to reveal much of himself and his plan for history. He often appeared in some specific form, for instance with Moses he appeared as fire or smoke. These scenes are intense, from the burning bush encounter to the given of the tablets of stone containing the law. The scenes are extremely intense, often completely changing Moses's literal, physical appearance. Additionally, when God fills the tabernacle in the wilderness with his glory, the scene is pretty spectacular. Then, when King Solomon completes the building of the temple in Israel, god comes in and fills the temple with his glory and it is an overwhelming scene to see through the word and through my imagination. Now, some 3,000 years later, the word and through my imagination. Now, some 3000 years later, isaiah has visions into the heavenly throne room and he shares that experience. It's very powerful, particularly in Isaiah six.
Speaker 1:So throughout history we see glimpses of God's glory and specific and revealing ways, but not in full disclosure. Then, when the shepherds hear the proclamation of the cross child's arrival, the angels of God surrounding them, they feel the sky and they sing glory to God in the highest and on earth Familiar with that. The glory of God came in fullest revelation with the coming of Jesus into the world. Then, through the ministry of Jesus, beginning at his baptism, we, through the ministry of Jesus, beginning at his baptism, we see the revelation of his glory continually being revealed in more and more clarity. God is making it clear that Jesus is his only begotten son, sent into the world to fulfill all of his promises to mankind, specifically through the prophets of old and the covenants he made with humanity through men like Abraham and Moses. But now, in this text that we're going to look at, in Luke nine and Mark nine, we see the fullest revelation yet of who Jesus, the God man, really is. God will literally speak from heaven in this text and confirm him.
Speaker 1:So I want to read the text, then I want to consider five facets of the revelation of God confirming the glory of Jesus, and then what I want to do is I want to end with a glimpse at the next scene in the story and some practical application for us that I think we can relate to for us, that I think we can relate to. Before we dive into this, before I read this text from Mark 9, actually I'm going to read the Luke 9. I'm going to read the Luke 9 version. Before we read this, let me give a definition of the glory of Jesus. The glory of Jesus refers to the element of his magnificence that reveals he is worthy of all the praise of heaven and earth. He is the ultimate majesty on high, humble and human. Now, I don't know if I wrote this, or I think I. Probably. I don't have this in my notes. I don't have this cited or quoted. Let's see. Do I have my Driscoll?
Speaker 2:I'm not.
Speaker 1:Driscoll. I'm just talking about Driscoll, that's funny. My Grudem book I don't have my Grudem systematic theology book in front of me, I don't have any, but anyway it might be a Wayne Grudem quote. I use his systematic theology book Anyway. I just I don't want to take credit for something that's not. But it doesn't matter, Nobody's trying to get credit for anything here, Neither is Grudem.
Speaker 1:So if it was from him, great. If it was from Piper or somebody else, whatever. But let me read that again. The glory of Jesus refers to the element of his magnificence that reveals he is worthy of all of the praise of heaven and earth. He's the ultimate majesty on high, humble and human. So let's read this Luke, chapter nine, verse 28. I'm reading from the New Living Translation About eight days later, jesus took Peter and this is eight days later, by the way, after Jesus has predicted his death, his looming death, his own death.
Speaker 1:About eight days after he's revealed that to the disciples, jesus took Peter, john and James up on a mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was transformed and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly, two men, moses and Elijah, appeared and began talking with Jesus. They were, they were glorious to see, and they were speaking about his Exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem. Peter and the others had fallen asleep. When they woke up, they saw Jesus as a glory and the two men standing with him. As Moses and Elijah started to leave, peter, not even knowing what he was saying, blurted out Master, it's wonderful for us to be here. Let's make three shelters as memorials one for you, one for moses, one for elijah. But even as he was saying this, the cloud overshadowed them and terror gripped them and the cloud covered them. Then a voice from the cloud said this is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him. When the voice finished, jesus was there alone. They didn't tell anyone at that time what they had seen. That's Luke's account, mark's account, very similar. I don't think there's anything added other than it says his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them. The idea is that they're literally radiating, and so I'll give you these five thoughts, five facets of the revelation. What this is is a revelation of Jesus, whereby he's specifically revealing his glory. Number one consider the radiating brilliance of Christ's appearance.
Speaker 1:The description and word for transfiguration that Mark uses literally means metamorphosed, um. Literally means I think it's what I should have said. There is, it's in the Greek, metamorphosed, it's like the word we get metamorphosis from. But it means it doesn't just mean change, it means brilliant change. So the obvious to me, the obvious, um. Two examples from but it means it doesn't just mean change, it means brilliant change. So the obvious to me. The obvious um, two examples from from nature would be you know, the, the, the worm that becomes a butterfly, the caterpillar that comes out a beautiful colorful butterfly. Or, at this time of year, the leaves are budding here in the mountains and the trees are budding. We've just had cherry blossoms and, you know, dogwoods are come, have come in. You know, you get all these different pops of color and flower, wildflowers start to come in. And so it's not, it's, it's. It's brilliant change.
Speaker 1:It's not just change. It's brilliant change because there's, there is a metamorphosis that takes place in the life of a teenage boy. It's called puberty. He gets acne, his nose and throat, adam's apple, get big, his hands and knees get wobbly and big and overgrown, his feet get long and thick and he looks goofy and his voice changes. And he and he doesn't realize that there needs to be a change in his hygiene, because now he needs to wear deodorant and it's imperative that he brush his teeth. There's a change that takes place, but it is not brilliant, it's anything but. However, this is the idea of brilliant change.
Speaker 1:So what? What we're getting in this word and the radiating brilliance of Christ's experience is the brightness and radiance of Jesus is coming from Jesus, not reflecting off of him. You think of a person who is. I don't know if you've ever had this experience where you see someone who has been you've never seen them dressed up and really presented. You know that maybe they're always in sweats or jeans, a t-shirt, hair in a ponytail or whatever, and then they get dressed up for an event, something formal, and you're like, wow, that's an impressive change. Well, that change didn't happen from the inside out. That was what you put on made that lady look more beautiful and radiant. What you put on the man, put on a fitted, tailored suit and all of a sudden he looks different. But that is not radiating from within him.
Speaker 1:The the what's happening here, um is this radiance is coming from Jesus. It's a revelation of who Jesus really is. That's important. He is the source of the radiance. This is different from, if you remember, in the old Testament.
Speaker 1:Moses would go up on the mountain, he would come down and his face would be radiating. It was a reflection of the glory of God. So it had been 600 years since anyone had been eyewitness to the glory of God and that had been when Moses would come off the mountain. 600 years was not Moses, but it had been 600 years since there were eyewitnesses to the radiance of God's glory being put on display before human eyes. But when Moses would come down off the mountain and he would display the radiance of God's glory, it was a reflection where he had been with God. What these men were seeing here was the cloud and the pillar that was in the wilderness. They were seeing the fire in the desert. They were seeing the smoke on the mountain. They were seeing the thunder and the lightning of the law being delivered. They were seeing the filling of the temple. They were seeing the vision that Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6. They were eyewitnesses to the glory of God.
Speaker 1:What did this moment mean for Jesus? Three things. First, it was a foretaste for Jesus of what was awaiting him in glory. The cross was before him and the dark shadow of the cross was looming and he's given a moment in glorious, visible splendor and fellowship with the Father. Second, it was a moment of sweet fellowship with those who understood the loneliness of Jesus. In this moment, I mean just imagine this seeing Jesus experience joy and fellowship with those who understood where he was and what lay before him. And this Jesus has given blessed assurance from heaven that he is not alone. He was not misunderstood. It was a reminder to Jesus that the mystery and majesty of the cross was understood in heaven, though those closest to him on earth couldn't seem to understand it at all. Jesus has just revealed in the previous verses that we didn't read that he's going to die. He's going to go to the cross and die, and they didn't get it. These guys didn't get it.
Speaker 1:But what we've got in this story is a voice from heaven recognizing what's coming for Jesus and affirming that. Third, it was the voice of the Father approving Jesus' work and Jesus' obedience For Jesus. That was enough For you and I. That should be enough. Is it enough for you to know that the voice of the Lord affirms your obedience? He says this is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him. I love that In Mark 9, it says the way it's worded this is my dearly loved son, listen to him. So he's chosen, he's dearly loved. God is speaking with affirmation. Obedience, guys. Obedience to the Lord is an honor and we need to understand we're obedient to the Lord. Not only is an honor, but it brings the blessing of God. And so first we consider the radiant brilliance of Jesus and all that encompassed that. Number two, consider the presence of Moses and Elijah in this story.
Speaker 1:These guys had large roles in Israelite and Jewish history. These guys were patriarchal figureheads from centuries before. Think about what these men represent. They had confronted earthly kings and challenged an entire nation to follow Jesus, to follow Yahweh. In a sense, both of them were messianic figures who foreshadowed Jesus. Moses was a type of Christ. He foreshadowed Jesus in the way that he led the nation of Israel through the Exodus.
Speaker 1:The three men who Jesus was revealing himself to would have grown up with no make-believe superheroes or villains. So these disciples that are witnessing this transfiguration, they didn't grow up talking about Marvel characters. They didn't have. They didn't have Hulk or Spider-Man action figures. They weren't. They didn't argue over DC versus Marvel. You know. They weren't Superman, batman guys. These dudes grew up and their heroes were Moses and Elijah. They didn't grow up with Patrick Mahomes or John Morant. They didn't grow up with sports figures as heroes. There were no make-believe superheroes or villains. There were no athletes on social media. These guys grew up learning the real and true stories of Moses and Elijah and of the other judges and kings and prophets.
Speaker 1:I think this is interesting. This story is the first time Moses has stepped foot into the promised land. The true significance is that these men are eyewitnesses to all of this and that these two men there with Jesus represent the law and the prophets. They represent all those old Testament saints who trusted by faith that a savior would come to save them. They had placed faith looking forward in the coming Messiah. These two men in the story represent all of those saints that had gone before they conversed with Jesus about the fulfillment of all of it. The old saints had died in faith and not having seen the promises fulfilled. And now Jesus' day had come and the promises were fulfilled.
Speaker 1:Number three the use of the word Exodus by Moses. Moses literally uses the word Exodus. He was the messianic Christ figure in the Exodus of the Israelites from bondage and slavery of Egypt. That story was a foreshadowing of the gospel work that Jesus would do. Now Moses is asking about the work Jesus will do to redeem man and ascend back to the Father. So now Moses is using the word Exodus to talk about the true Exodus, and this is an important moment for Peter, james and John to hear this conversation. They'll talk about it later. You know Peter later will talk about in second Peter one, 16, 18. He talks about hey, we were there. We saw the glory of Jesus revealed on the mountain.
Speaker 1:The fourth thing that we got to consider is the voice of God affirming Jesus's role and authority. That's the big idea in this story. God says this is my son, listen to him, obey him. God is affirming the authority of Jesus. Jesus is to be listened to and obeyed. It's good for Peter, it's good for us.
Speaker 1:Peter had the tendency to admonish and lecture and negotiate and instruct Jesus and I think we probably tend to do the same thing sometimes. We don't know better than Jesus knows. We're to simply listen to him and obey him. This is why we're going back to Sharon's email at the beginning, at the top of the episode here, and episodes that we often do about the word of God, the importance of the scripture in our lives day to day, so important so that we know what to obey and what to listen to. And number five, consider the disciples reaction to all of this. Um, it's, it's a little bit comical in the moment and Peter's like oh, we should do something. Let's build tents, master, it's wonderful for us to be here. Let's build tents, master, it's wonderful for us to be here. Let's make three shelters In Mark, rabbi, it's wonderful for us to be here. So, master, rabbi, it's funny and he doesn't know what to do.
Speaker 1:So he says let's make some tents and we can just stay here forever. That's, that's the epic Like. That is the definition of a mountaintop experience. We see kids come to our summer camps and they cry at the end of the week because they don't want to go home. It's such a mountaintop experience, these guys don't want to go home. That's funny.
Speaker 1:Each of these men who witnessed this saw it fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus. They saw the fulfillment of Jesus' true glory revealed through his resurrection. They were willing to take the gospel to the world and be persecuted for it. This wasn't a lie, or else they'd have all quit. Question for us is do we live under the authority of God's word? Do we reflect on the glory of Christ that has been revealed? We're not trying to figure this out as we go. We know the end of the story. These guys are seeing all this and this is before the cross. We're reading it. Looking back at the cross, we know what happened next and we can read ahead. We're living on the backside of of of the resurrection. This is the greatest period in history that we're living in. This is the good old days. It's the good nowadays. The cross has rotted. That wooden cross that Jesus died on is no longer. It turned to dirt, it rotted. The tomb is empty. Jesus' body is not in that tomb. Jesus is Lord. The throne is established. He is in his rightful place at the right hand of the Father. So we should live our lives for the glory of God.
Speaker 1:Now what happens? And this just want to give a parting thought here. They come down off of the mountain of transfiguration. They returned to the other disciples and they see this big crowd gathering around and what? And there's like arguing and bickering and there's noise and it's it's chaotic. I mean it's just, it's wild. And one of the men in the crowd says Jesus, I brought you my son so you could heal him. He's got an evil spirit. It's like controlling him and possessing him. We'll let him talk. It throws him down violently to the ground. He foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit and they couldn't do it. Jesus says to them you faithless people, how long must I be with you?
Speaker 1:So what happens is Jesus comes down off this mountain of transfiguration, which was 9,000 feet in elevation. This is, these guys are way up on this huge, tall mountain. They have this crazy experience. They come back down and what meets them when they get down is total chaos. You got a boy screeching, screaming, whatever like demons you know controlling him and and and he's like he can't talk. He can't speak, it's rendered in mute and it's and he's seizing and he's on the ground being tossed about violently, with foam coming out of his mouth and his teeth are grinding. It's a horrific, terrifying picture. And bring this boy to Jesus. And Jesus is like what, what? What is going on here? Like Jesus is witnessing this happen and the disciples have not been able the ones that are there, have not been able to set this boy free.
Speaker 1:Jesus is like how long has this been happening? And he said since he was a little boy. So I don't know how old this dude is. Maybe he's a teenager, maybe he's a young man. I guess I could dig in and look at the words. What does it describe and does it give us some insight into his age? But he says these demons are throwing him into fire and throwing him into water and trying to kill him as he seizures and then flops into the water and it's like it's trying to drown him. Would you have mercy on us? And he says, if you can. And I love Jesus' response. Jesus is like what do you mean? If I can? Anything is possible if a person believes. And the father instantly cries out I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief. And then Jesus goes on and he sets the boy free and then afterwards he and he delivers the boy from the, from the spirit. The spirit screams at those, the boy into convulsion and then leaves him. The boy looks dead. Jesus goes over, takes him by the hand and stands him up, helps him to his feet.
Speaker 1:Later the disciples come up to Jesus and they're like okay, why couldn't we cast the evil spirit out? And Jesus said this kind can only be cast out by prayer. So I go to this story to point out a couple things. They come off of this mountaintop experience where they see the radiating glory of God. But when you think about the trajectory of the disciples' lives and existences, the mountaintop transfiguration experience was a one-time thing. Eyewitnessing the resurrection of Jesus was a one-time thing. What their day-to-day life looked like was more the chaos of what they walked into when they came off the mountain.
Speaker 1:People that don't have faith, people that are under the bondage and decay of sin and can't set themselves free. The disciples struggling to get it done. But Jesus is like look, it's just not that complicated, it's simple. Just live by faith, pray, spend time under the authority of God's word and scripture and pray, and then you've got this dad, who I think is important to consider what he says. He's like I believe, but I'm overwhelmed by my unbelief. The idea is, I believe, but I'm racked and wrecked with doubt, and doubt is a destabilizing thing.
Speaker 1:And let me say this the kind of final point I want to make in this episode is doubt is not the opposite of faith. Doubt is not the opposite of belief. Faith and belief synonymous words. What is the opposite of faith? Doubt is not the opposite of belief. Faith and belief synonymous words. What is the opposite of faith? What's the same thing? That's the opposite of belief. What's the opposite of belief? Unbelief. Doubt is not unbelief.
Speaker 1:I'm going to tell you something that I've observed to be very interesting. Unbelievers don't tend to struggle with doubt, doubt. When you begin to seek the Lord and seek the truth. And Jesus said all who are on the side of truth they listen to me If you're genuinely soul searching and seeking the truth, or if you're a believer, a Christ follower, and you're walking with Jesus. St Augustine said doubt will never be far from faith's shoulder.
Speaker 1:Doubt is what attacks your faith and people who live in unbelief. They don't tend to doubt because there's nothing to doubt. They just don't believe. Just think about that, and here's why I want you to think about it, because if you struggle with doubt, I believe that is an evidence and a sign of true faith. Let me say it again If you wrestle with doubt and people tend to wrestle with doubt and then become so discouraged that they throw their hands up and kind of give up, no, no, no, no, no If you're wrestling with doubt, keep wrestling, because it is your faith that doubt is attacking. And so we could in one sense say doubt is an evidence of faith. Now, we should not be controlled by doubt, but the fact that we're doubting it's an evidence of the fact that we believe. If I don't believe, I don't doubt.
Speaker 1:I'll give you an example, simple example Santa Claus I don't believe I have no doubts about Santa Claus. I don't believe I have no doubts about Santa Claus, but I remember when I was about a four or five, probably five year old kid six year, I don't know how old I was, but I remember I was a little boy and I can still remember because my parents did the whole Santa Claus comes and leaves toys and presents and that we did that and so I believed in him. And I remember when I started to doubt and it was this really interesting process in my little five, six, seven, whatever, it was your old mind. Where I'm going. This doesn't make sense, I can't make sense of this and that doubt led me to a place of unbelief. But once I stopped believing I never doubted again. I hope that does that make sense. I've never doubted the existence of Santa Claus again. I just don't believe in it. When I did believe in it, doubt was the thing that attacked. When I pressed into that doubt, what it revealed was oh yeah, I don't believe in this.
Speaker 1:Well, the beauty of this is, if you don't believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, if you don't confess him as Lord, if you don't believe that God raised him from the dead, then you live in that unbelief and that's how you exist and you try to figure life out on your own the best you can, you try to make sense of the chaos exist and you you try to figure life out on your own. The best you can, you try to make sense of the chaos and you try to. But if you believe and you struggle with doubt, what you do is you turn into that belief. You turn into the source of that belief, which is Jesus. You press into him and into his word and he stabilizes you, he strengthens you and he gives you the power to overcome doubt. So doubt becomes evidence of faith.
Speaker 1:I don't believe in the tooth fairy, I don't believe in you know, my family loves the movie, uh, um, not guardians of the galaxy. I always get it confused with that. I think it's just called a rise of the guardians. Maybe this movie called rise of the guardians. It's like all of the characters in the movie are the tooth fairy and St St Nick and, um, the Easter bunnies in there. Who else? The sand man, the Jack Frost, anyway, all these make-believe creatures. You know? Fairytale creatures, not even fairytale creatures, I don't know what you call it, but I don't believe in any of that.
Speaker 1:But I don't doubt it. You know what I've struggled to trust and doubt, and I've doubted that Jesus was going to take care of my finances, that God was going to heal a sick loved one, that the Lord was going to keep my children on course to follow him, that God was going to free somebody I care about from addiction. I've struggled with that. I've struggled with doubt. At times I've doubted the love that God has for me. I've doubted my own worthiness. I've doubted because of my past sin. Like doubt is a reality for the believer.
Speaker 1:And we don't get to live on the mountaintop and pitch a tent and gaze at the glory of Jesus. You got to go to work. You got to go to work. You got to go to school. You got to pick up the kids and go to soccer practice and you know, and and you got to change the oil in the car and vacuum the floor and haul off the trash. You got to pay the bills. You got to. You got to deal with the IRS. I'm in the middle of that mess right now. I've got extensions filed on my taxes because they're trying to rip me Gosh. It's frustrating right.
Speaker 1:Day-to-day life is not the mountaintop experience.
Speaker 1:Day-to-day life is the grind of a world that has fallen and demons that are real, and sickness and sorrow and brokenness, and we got to live in it. And Jesus says the only way you get shed of this is to live by prayer. The only way the demon's going to come out of that boy is through prayer. But Jesus displays and shows that he has the authority to take command of the situation. He frees the boy, he stands him up, he looses him from the chains and spiritual shackles that these demons have on him. He sets him free. So let's move from the mountaintop into the valley, but let's fix our eyes on Jesus, let's power through the doubt, let's let doubt motivate us toward deeper belief and faith that we put in Jesus and we'll live by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight, and that faith is in the son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. God says in the story this is my son, listen to him. And we do well to listen to him. Y'all have an awesome week. See you next Monday.
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