Click above to watch video.
OR
Click below to play audio and read along.
Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever had an experience which was so outrageous that even days later you felt you were still in a bit of a ‘fog’, unable to really grasp all that happened and perhaps beginning to doubt if the experience had been real?
I wonder if that’s how James, John and Peter were feeling a few days after we left them yesterday on that hillside in Galilee of Israel about 2000 years ago? We find the story in Matthew 17, do you remember? Let’s rejoin this outrageous event for more details!
The disciples Peter and the two brothers James and John were standing eye wide open, speechless as Jesus stood before them glowing as bright as the sun, and two Old Testament era great Jewish prophets, Elijah and Moses also stood before them, talking with Jesus!!!
Yesterday I described for you WHY I thought this was a partial fulfillment of the words Jesus had spoken to the disciples only a few days before: “I tell you; some who are standing here will not taste death before they SEE the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” (Matt. 16:28)
We have no record of what Jesus, Elijah or Moses said in that historic, unexplainable, KINGDOM moment, but suddenly a cloud covered them, and they heard a voice in that cloud proclaim with authority: “This is My Son, whom I love, with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” (Matt. 17:5) Whose voice was this? No doubt, it was God the Father speaking, as He had spoken at Jesus’ baptism. (Matt. 3:16,17)
God was again, here on this hillside, in this miraculous ‘transfiguration’ experience, declaring the true and significant IDENTITY of Jesus Christ. But more, God was declaring that our appropriate response to Jesus is LISTEN to HIM for Jesus speaks God’s life-saving truth. In fact, Jesus Himself declared that HE IS God’s truth: “I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by Me!” (John 14:6) Do you remember Jesus spoke those decisive words to His disciples in the upper Jerusalem room on the night of their Passover meal, only hours before Jesus went to the cross?
Matthew records that the disciples on the hillside that day were terrified by this experience and fell with their faces to the ground. How long they lay there perhaps trembling, we don’t know, but eventually Jesus said to them: “Get up, don’t be afraid.” (Matt. 17:7)
I wonder if they thought “easier said than done”? Slowly they rose up to their feet and when they did, they saw only Jesus, Moses and Elijah were gone, and the cloud had lifted! Stunned again, I suspect there was silence for a long time before anyone could articulate the questions filling their minds. Matthew gives us no record of what was said, and soon Jesus turned to lead them down the mountainside.
Matthew tells us: “As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them: ‘Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” (Matt. 17:9) Now why would Jesus say that? I believe His words came as a relief to those disciples, for how in the world could they possibly explain what they had experienced, in words other people would believe? It was too outrageous, too illogical, too far beyond reasonable.
And as staggering as the experience was, now these three disciples had just heard Jesus, for the second time in only a few days, make the outrageous prediction that He would soon die and be raised from the dead!? I can only imagine the headache these disciples had as they hiked down the mountain!
May I suggest my friends that one of the reasons God brought these three men into this profoundly outrageous experience is the SHOCK VALUE! They would never forget it, even if they could never explain it. I imagine that many times in the years which followed, as Peter, James and John faced great opposition, persecution, even torture and eventual execution, the memory of this hillside transfiguration event bolstered them with great courage and strength as they refused to deny Jesus or all He accomplished in His life, His death and His resurrection!
Acts 12:2 tells us it was only a few years later that this James became the first disciple to be martyred at the hands of King Herod! I firmly believe this hillside memory comforted him greatly as he prepared to die.
It seems clear Peter treasured this hillside memory for in his second letter, written perhaps not long before he was killed, Peter wrote: “We did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, saying ‘This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain.” (2 Peter 1:16-18) Historical records tell us Peter was crucified upside down in Rome but not before he was able to boldly proclaim his allegiance to Jesus Christ, his King!
And finally, John the beloved disciple, the third of those disciples on the hillside that day. God entrusted to John the authorship of 5 books of the New Testament and history tells us John may have lived to be nearly 100 years old. Autobiographically John wrote “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes…and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The Life appeared, we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal Life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ…” (1 John 1:1-3)
Does it begin to make sense to us now, my friends? These three disciples, and the others, needed to be so totally convinced of the Identity and Gospel of Jesus that even under the extreme pressure of Roman persecution and torture, they would not deny Jesus or His Gospel, as they proclaimed Him to all who would hear them after Jesus returned to heaven. You and I today have heard of Jesus and understand His Gospel today in part thanks to these three disciples and the power of their experience on that hillside that day!
Let’s pause right here, my friends, to ponder what happened on that hillside. It’s almost more than our simple minds can comprehend, isn’t it? We live in a very sophisticated, technology driven time in history, but nothing can explain this ‘transfiguration’ of Jesus and the ‘bodily appearance’ of Moses and Elijah, both dead hundreds of years.
So, what do you think God wanted the disciples to understand as eyewitnesses, and what does it mean for us today, 2000 years later? Ponder that and I’ll meet you back here tomorrow what more, and in the meantime let’s worship with this wonderful song…
Today’s Scripture: Matt. 17:1-9.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.