Sermon 2-15-26

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on the Gospel Lesson for The Transfiguration of Our Lord, Matthew 7:1-9.

Revealed On The Mountain

Like Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, today is a Festival Sunday that occurs yearly in the cycle of the church year — The Transfiguration of our Lord. So, if you’ve been attending for a while, we’re going to go over material you’ve probably heard before.

The modern observance of the church year begins with the four Sundays of Advent. Then come the twelve days of Christmas beginning December 25th and ending January 5th. The Christmas season is closed off by what is called in some traditions, little Christmas. It’s the annual festival of the Epiphany on January 6th. The Sundays that fall between January 6th and Ash Wednesday are called the Sundays after the Epiphany. In the modern observance, the Sundays after the Epiphany are bookended by two events. First is the Baptism of our Lord. Last is the Transfiguration of our Lord. As we’ll see, both these events have some things in common.

The name Epiphany comes from the Greek — to make something known; to reveal something. Epiphany itself celebrates the coming of the Wise Men from the East who revealed to Jerusalem that the King of the Jews had been born. In the Sundays following the Epiphany, the Gospel lessons always lay out the early part of Jesus’ ministry, as He made Himself known as the Messiah.

The event that began Jesus’ ministry was His baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. When we celebrated the Baptism of our Lord on January 11th we read this in Matthew 3:16-17, “16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”

This was a theophany. Theophany is  from the Greek verb, “phano” which means “to reveal” paired with the Greek noun “Theos” which means God. So, it means a God revelation. In a theophany Almighty God reveals Himself to humanity in His all-powerful supernatural glory, and holds back nothing. Anyone who experiences a theophany knows that Yahweh is real. 

The appearance of Lord Holy Spirit in a physical form and the voice of the Father speaking from heaven were a theophany. Anyone present for Jesus’ baptism would have experienced a supernatural event in which Yahweh revealed Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Importantly, as we’ll see later, everyone present survived the theophany.

If you remember from then, we showed that sinless Jesus underwent the baptism of repentance preached by John the Baptist for the purpose of “numbering Himself with the transgressors” fulfilling what was prophesied of Him 600 years before in Isaiah 53:12. Jesus took on a baptism of repentance so that He could successfully repent before the Father for all of us sinners. This is one reason why Yahweh, the Father,  was well pleased with Yahweh, the Son.

The Transfiguration of our Lord was also a theophany. However, unlike Jesus’ baptism, it was not public. Only three close disciples experienced it: Peter, James and John. And Jesus strictly commanded them to keep secret what they had seen until His resurrection from the dead. And they were puzzled what resurrection might mean.

So, let’s see what went on in the theophany of the Transfiguration. First is the significance of the place. We’re simply told in Matthew Mark and Luke that Jesus went up on a mountain to pray. The mountain is never named. However, if we pay attention to the context, a good candidate can be found.

We know from Matthew 16:13 that just prior to His transfiguration, Jesus took the disciples up to the district of the city named Caesarea Philippi. Today, the city is a ruin. However, in Jesus day, it was a thriving pagan spiritual retreat spa for Romans that was dedicated to the god, Pan. A thousand years earlier, a predecessor city was dedicated to the worship of the false god, Baal. Just next door to Caesarea Philippi was the ancient Israelite city of Dan where the Israelite king, Jereboam, had set up a forbidden idol, a golden calf dedicated to the worship of Yahweh. So, Jesus took His disciples into an area long associated with apostasy from Yahweh and pagan worship.

It was at Caesarea Philippi that Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was. And so we read in Matthew 16:16-17, “16 Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ 17 And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.’”

Peter’s confession was a climatic turning point in Jesus’ ministry. For, we read in Matthew 16:21, “From that time [on] Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Thus, on pagan ground Jesus declared Himself. He was going to challenge the gods, and win.

Caesarea Philippi is in the extreme northern area of Israel. It’s on the Golan heights that Israel took from Syria in the 1967 war. And about a hundred miles north is the highest mountain peak in the entire area, Mount Hermon. A six day hike could easily bring Jesus, Peter, James and John to that mountain. Both Matthew and Mark say that Jesus took these men to a “high” mountain.

Now, Mount Hermon is significant in religious history. There is an apocryphal work known as 1 Enoch that liberal scholars date between 500 and 200B.C. While this book is not considered Scripture, Peter and Jude reference it in their canonical letters.

1 Enoch tells us that in the time leading up to Noah’s flood, two hundred disobedient spiritual creatures of Yahweh’s creating known as the sons of God or the Watchers came down from heaven and established a colony on Mount Hermon. Spiritual beings don’t marry or have children. But these desired to do so. 1 Enoch tells us that they took human women as wives and somehow impregnated them. The resulting children were the giants — the nephilim — mentioned in Genesis chapter 6. We also read in 1 Enoch that the sons of God corrupted humanity through the wives they had taken. 1 Enoch even attributes the human will and skill to make war to the teaching of the sons of God. In Jesus’ time, the corruption of humanity by the disobedient sons of God was considered a terrible tragedy for humanity. For, it was followed by the great flood of Noah.

We’re told in 1 Enoch that other angels were outraged over what the disobedient Watchers had done and reported the situation to Yahweh. Therefore, the angels were given authority to capture, punish and throw the disobedient sons of God into a dungeon under the earth. This event is referenced by both Peter and Jude. Here’s Jude 6, “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. . . .” Here’s 1Peter 3:19-20, “19. . . he [the resurrected Jesus] went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah. . . .” Here’s 2Peter 2:4, “. . . God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. . . .”

Since Jesus’ Transfiguration occurred shortly before He went to the cross, it’s clear that by being transfigured on the very mountain from which rebellion had spread throughout humanity, Jesus was Yahweh Almighty taking back the holy ground of Mount Hermon. Jesus was letting the disobedient principalities and powers know that a war was now on. For, from the mountain Jesus would be heading to Jerusalem for the final showdown on the hill of Calvary. In addition, as we read in 1 Peter 3, the first place Jesus went in His resurrected body was to the spiritual dungeons where the Watchers were imprisoned, He confirmed to them that He had obediently died for the sins of humanity and had triumphed over what the Watchers had done. The Watchers were condemned and would remain in prison forever for their disobedience.

Next, we examine the men who appeared with Jesus. So here’s a little riddle. Of all the Old Testament saints, why did Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus at His transfiguration?

First, those two men are the only ones we hear of in the Old Testament that climbed high up on the slopes of Mount Sinai, the Mountain of God. Second, these are the only two men who had the privilege of a close-up audience with Yahweh on that mountain. As we’ll see, they had a meeting with the pre-incarnate Jesus on Mount Sinai.

In our first lesson today, we read about the meal the seventy elders of Israel ate with Yahweh. Exodus 24:1-2, “1 Then he said to Moses, ‘Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, [these were the priests] and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. 2 Moses alone shall come near to the LORD, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.’” In other words, Mount Sinai with Yahweh present was no tourist attraction — even for Moses. For Yahweh told Moses in Exodus 33:20, “. . . “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’”

Yet, we read this morning in Exodus 24:9-11, “9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.”

Throughout the Old Testament there are people to whom Yahweh appears and to whom He talks and they don’t die. And usually these people have interaction with someone called the Angel of the LORD. For instance, in Exodus chapter three, where Yahweh talks to Moses from the burning bush, we read in Exodus 3:2, “. . . the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.” So, Yahweh and the Angel of Yahweh were present in the bush. And it’s from passages like this that the Israelite teachers prior to Jesus came to the understanding that there are two powers in heaven. There is Yahweh and the Angel of Yahweh. Yet, it says in Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD [Yahweh] our God, the LORD [Yahweh] is one.” Yahweh is one. But notice how Yahweh’s name is repeated twice in Deuteronomy 6:4. This didn’t escape the attention of the ancient Israelite teachers. Yahweh is one. Yet, there is Yahweh and the Angel of Yahweh. This is the mystery of Yahweh’s Trinitarian nature.

Who is this Angel of Yahweh? From the New Testament, we understand that it was the pre-incarnate Jesus, God the Son. For, Jesus said in John 6:46, “‘not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.’” Jesus is He who came from God. And again Jesus said in John 14:9, “. . . ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.’” So, notice. In the New Testament many saw Jesus — the Angel of Yahweh — and none died from the experience, with the possible exception of Judas Iscariot. But, Jesus was insistent that no one has ever seen the Father, except Him. Period.

Therefore, when Moses and the other people of the Old Testament didn’t die when they conversed with Yahweh, even face to face, they had to be speaking with Jesus, the Angel of Yahweh. Therefore, we can infer that the seventy elders and the priests who partially climbed Mount Sinai and ate in Yahweh’s presence were in the presence of Jesus, and not the Father.

At the burning bush Moses only heard the voice of the Father but did not see Him. What Moses did see was the divine glory of the Son in the bush. It was the same with Elijah. On Sinai, the majesty of Yahweh passed by Elijah in the earthquake, wind and fire. But when Yahweh spoke to Elijah, Elijah only heard Yahweh’s voice. He did not see Yahweh. Therefore, it was most appropriate that these two men who experienced Father and Son when they were alive should appear with Jesus as saints waiting for the resurrection from the dead.

Jesus’ transfiguration also confirms this. As Peter testified in his epistle, 2 Peter 1:17-18, “17 For when he [Jesus] received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.” Notice. Like all others before them, the apostles heard Yahweh, the Father’s, voice, but did not see Him. However, they saw Jesus before them in the true majesty of His divinity. Just like in the burning bush episode with Moses, both Yahweh, Father and Son, were present to the apostles.

Next we look at the apostles themselves. Jesus only invited Peter, James and John. They were the only ones who got to see Jesus transfigured and the conversation He had with the living Moses and Elijah. And by choosing just these three, Jesus, in effect added these three apostles to the company of Moses and Elijah.

The book of Acts tells us in chapter 12 that James the brother of John was martyred early on by Herod Antipas. Peter was nearly martyred in that episode as well. But, an angel sprang him from Herod’s prison the night before. Of the three, then, only Peter and John survived to become pillars of the church. Peter and John are also two of the significant authors of the New Testament. Like Moses, they wrote. And like Moses, what they wrote has been identified as Holy Scripture and preserved. Like Moses and Elijah, they were involved in performing miracles to confirm Yahweh’s Word.

Peter and John were both involved in the healing of the lame man by the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They both testified before the Sanhedrin as a result of that miracle. And both were sent to bring Lord Holy Spirit to Samaria after Philip, the deacon’s, ministry there. Peter and John rank primary among the Apostles. Moses, Elijah, Peter and John were all significant figures in God’s plan to usher in His Kingdom.

Finally, we look at what Jesus revealed about Himself on the mountain. Not only is He a true human being, He is truly God. This is important in our time because of the ancient heresies that we face. The first heresy is called Docetism. This is the idea that Jesus only appeared to be human. He was truly God but not truly human. And since God cannot die, Docetists say that a Jesus doppelgänger was crucified.

The second heresy is Arianism. This is the idea that Jesus was a human being, but not God. Jesus did miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit, not because He is God. Arianism also rejects the doctrine of the Trinity.

Interestingly and tellingly, both these heresies were incorporated into Islam. The Koran tells us that someone who looked like Jesus was crucified in His place. The Koran also proclaims that God has no Son. Jesus was just a man. Whoever put the Koran together used both these opposing heresies to describe Jesus.

From its inception, Islam has attempted to conquer the world. It has especially attacked catholic Christianity. It attempted and failed to conquer Europe militarily more than once in previous centuries. It’s now attempting to do so by immigration. It’s attempting to do the same here by immigration and conversion. For, ultimately Islam is a political movement disguised as a religion.

However, the Islamic founding documents are now being subjected to rigorous historical and logical criticism. The Koran is turning out not to be a collection of revelations given to a man from Mecca in the early 600’s, but material assembled at a later date from various Christian, Jewish and pagan sources with the purpose of opposing catholic Christianity. By the grace of God, the massive contradictions within the Islamic sources are being exposed by scholarship. And it’s having a profound effect around the world. Islam is beginning to lose its grip. For instance, right now the people of Iran are attempting to escape its iron grip. Let’s pray they succeed. 

There’s one more heresy that affects us. It’s called Kenoticism. This is the idea that when Jesus was incarnated by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, He left all His God powers behind in heaven. Kenoticism declares that the Jesus who walked the roads of Galilee two thousand years ago was just a sinless human being, upon whom the Holy Spirit came without measure. Now, if Jesus was just a human being filled with the Spirit, then any Christian sufficiently anointed with Lord Holy Spirit should be able to perform the very same signs, wonders and miracles that Jesus performed. This sounds quite exciting and some huge ministries have been built around this false doctrine.

There’s only one problem. It doesn’t work out that way in reality. That’s because this teaching is built on a heresy. Jesus is Yahweh the Son. When He came incarnate in human flesh, He did not leave His divine powers behind. He cloaked them. When Jesus performed miracles He uncloaked His power a little. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus uncloaked Himself entirely. That’s why the apostles were terrified.

Therefore, the likes of you and I will not be able to perform wonders and miracles as Jesus did. Don’t get me wrong. When it pleases the Lord to perform wonders and miracles even through the likes of you and I, He can and will do so. However, we can not will to do the things Jesus did as Jesus did. That’s why we don’t make a big deal about miracle power here.

However, if and when the Lord wants to display miracle power, He will. And we’ve seen some miracles here. There’s no reason not to ask the Lord to graciously heal and meet other needs. Therefore, we’ll continue to do so. We know that our heavenly Father loves those He has called to Himself in Jesus. And the sign that Jesus performed on the Mount of Transfiguration is just another indication of Yahweh’s love for us. The sinners, Peter, James and John saw God and lived. In Moses and Elijah they saw a foretaste of the righteous glory that awaits all those who have put their trust in Messiah Jesus. The apostles saw just a portion of the love and commitment our God has for us and communicated that great love to us. Thank you, Father, for the forgiveness of sins won by your Son and the path that He has given us to you. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.