Services/Sermon in Longview 04.08.2019

Be the gladness, holy day, O heart, dear, as I cry to thee, and when I hear unto my King. For if my heart died unto thee, my dear and dear, as I cry to thee, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father.

Let us join together this morning in opening prayer and thanksgiving. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this beautiful day of grace. We thank you, dear Father, for all that you have given us here on our earthly journey: our families so dear to us, our homes, livelihoods, and all that we have. Dear Father, you are the giver of all gifts. And this morning we ask you that you would give us your service blessing, that you would give words to your servant and listening ears to the listener.

And we thank you, dear Father, for as you have given us these words through Paul in the Romans: For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. You, dear Father, you know our needs and wants. You know our hearts. Give us that for this day that we need.

And we pray as your Son has taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done as it is on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Amen.

For a text today, this morning, I will read an appointed text for this Sunday, found in St. Matthew 17, verses 1-8. And the words in Jesus' name are as follows:

And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with him.

Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias.

While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.

And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. Amen.

This day, on the church calendar, is known as Transfiguration Sunday. And the theme for this day is the glorified Christ.

In Jesus' earthly life here, we may recognize a number of milestones or events of his earthly life here: of course, his birth, that we celebrate every year at Christmas time; we remember also the baptism, where John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the river Jordan, and God spoke there as well; and this event here, which we'll discuss or talk about, Transfiguration Sunday, where he took disciples up to a high mountain there and became transfigured; and also then his death on the cross and resurrection that we celebrate every year at Easter time.

And maybe we don't discuss this event, this Transfiguration Sunday, but today we'll talk about this event which occurred so long ago.

Jesus was sent here to earth by God. He was promised and sent and died for your sins and mine. And what significance was this transfiguration in his life here?

Before we delve into the text, we'll talk a little bit about evidence or proof. As people, we like to see evidence, proof of existence. We like to see, touch, and feel with our own senses that which we believe in.

As an engineer going to school years ago, and I'm sure those engineers in the room will relate, we learn theories and formulas, endless equations to prove the laws of nature, to understand forces of gravity, magnetism, electricity, mechanics of materials—things that we have all around us here—why they are as they are and why they can be used in the hands of man.

And we, as humans, our understanding even in these areas has increased greatly. But as an engineer, we had to see the basic building blocks of how these natural laws worked in order to fully understand and fully believe what we were being educated in.

Even in my work today, we deal with pieces and parts that fail in our products and need to see the evidence of those parts that fail in order to understand and correct.

And so we as humans like and at times demand evidence to make decisions. This is normal for us to want to see and touch and feel things.

And in our courts, one cannot be convicted of a crime without evidence, testimony, physical proof that an infraction occurred.

And we as people also, in our daily lives, ask for evidence. If somebody tells us, "Eat this food," we may trust them, we may believe them, but we may not take a large bite; we may nibble it first to see what the evidence shows before we eat that food.

As a woman, if you're buying a material, you want to touch it and feel it before you buy it.

And so we are all familiar with this thought or concept of evidence.

In the old days, in biblical times, the Jewish law even demanded, similar to our laws today, that there would be three testimonies before one could be convicted in a court or three witnesses.

Several months ago, there was a news story that broke of a discovery in an archaeological dig in Jerusalem that there, under the ground in Israel, was found a seal with the name Nathan Malek inscribed on a part pulled from the ground just this year, I believe.

And when I saw that, I felt as a human, as a human being, I thought, here is evidence. This gives me additional proof that the words of the Bible are true.

And we can even read on that seal was the name Nathan Malek. We can even read in the Bible, in the Kings, a reference to that very name in the Old Testament in 2nd Kings 23:11. It says, "And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the son at the entering in of the house of the Lord by the chamber of Nathan Malek the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire."

And so when I read that story, I, with my human mind, felt good. But that was proof that some words of the Bible were correct.

But did this understanding increase my faith? Did I doubt less after reading this very article? Did I then believe more strongly that now my faith is strong? No.

God is the giver of all. He also is the giver of our faith. God is the only one who can increase our faith.

Even with this evidence, we as humans continue to doubt, and this is normal for us.

Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Those words in the book of Hebrews have come to my mind many times when we read and understand of man's intense quest to understand the origins of the earth, how it began.

But we, through faith, believe and understand that the world was created through God's word.

And Paul says in the Romans, "For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?"

And so we continue daily in this most precious faith, in this most precious kingdom here on earth, not with the evidence and proof of formulas created by man, but we continue traveling daily in faith with that belief and hope that God has given into our own hearts.

And so we'll go back here to our text, that this event that occurred in the life of Jesus, this Transfiguration Sunday.

And we understand here that Jesus had lived on earth as a man, eating and drinking and sleeping as a man.

And those disciples that he traveled with saw him as a human. I'm sure he also did human errors in terms of tripping or falling as we all do.

Even though he was perfect, he lived here as a human on earth.

And here he was brought up to a high mountain. He took these three disciples with him and went to a high mountain and became transfigured.

And what does this word transfigured mean? It means to change form or to change into what was inside is evident from the outside.

And what change occurred there with Jesus on that mountain? It says, "And was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light."

That he shone as a divine, holy being, that his face shone as the sun and his clothing was white as the light.

That what was viewed from the outside there by those disciples, what they hadn't seen, they had seen a human before them, but now they saw his divine being, what Jesus truly was, was pure truth of God before them.

And I thought, what would I look like transfigured? I'm sure you, as myself, think what would it look like to look into my heart if it could be shown on the outside?

How often we find ourselves so weak and sinful and doubting and feeling our heart to be as black as coal.

What would it look like?

But we as believers are given that robe by our Lord and Savior who did that work for us.

That even as sinful, as doubting, as failing as we may be, we are covered.

Jesus did that work for us.

Through belief in that gospel, we can believe those sins that we commit, those doubts that we have, those failings forgiven daily.

We can be as Jesus there, pure in the light of God.

And so with him, with Jesus, were three witnesses: Peter, James, and John.

But there appeared also three heavenly witnesses: Moses, Elias or Elijah, and a third who did not appear in visible form but spoke directly from heaven.

And we know that Moses represents the law, that there to witness Jesus' purity on that mountain was Moses, which the law awakens one to sin.

And also Elijah, representing the prophets before Jesus that foretold of his coming for so many years.

And there spoke directly from heaven was God the Father himself who testified that this indeed was his Son, and he spake, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him."

So along with those heavenly witnesses who witnessed this transfiguration of Jesus were also three earthly witnesses: Peter, James, and John.

And we know that God intended for this event to take place, for this event to be a piece of evidence or proof that Jesus was not simply a human walking here on earth but was truly his Son who was sent by him to earth for all man.

And so these three witnesses also did not forget this event.

And we know that John recorded in the book of John later, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

And Peter also testified later of this same event in 2nd Peter 1:16. Peter speaks, "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory."

To find that full quote: "For he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' And the voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount."

And so they later testified of this same event in their writings.

And this was God's intent that we would have this for our own understanding, for our own support of our faith.

In Jesus' time as he walked here on earth, he performed many miracles to show his divine nature.

It was not simply to perform that miracle every day; he performed many miracles here, but it was to show those that he was the one promised and sent by God.

But this was not enough for those Pharisees of that day.

For the Jews had long known that there would be one promised, a Savior who would come and save them.

But they understood this in the form of man.

They understood that he would be a powerful leader in their life, one who on earth would overthrow those who ruled over their lives, one who would perhaps overthrow the Roman rulers above them.

But when Jesus walked humbly among them, they could not accept or recognize that here was this promised Savior.

When he rode into Jerusalem on a foal or a colt of a donkey in such a lowly way, not coming in a chariot pulled by a team of horses, surrounded by strong men, but riding perhaps with his feet dragging on the ground on a foal of a donkey and spoke in such a humble way, they could not.

Even though there in front of their eyes was he who was sent by God, they could not comprehend.

They did not have eyes of faith to see this evidence when it was right there before them.

And they even asked Jesus, they said, "Give us a sign, show us proof that you are he who was promised."

And Jesus replied that there will be no sign given but that sign of the prophet Jonah.

And what did Jesus mean by that statement?

We understand that Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale, lived there in the whale's belly for three days and was spit out alive after three days onto dry land.

And so what in Jesus' life applied to this? That when he was crucified, Jesus was in three days in the bowels of the earth there in torment in hell, suffering for your sake and for mine.

But through the power of God, the forces of sin and hell and death were overcome, and Jesus rose victorious.

He did not show himself to those except those witnesses that were believers.

But we have these testimonies written for us in the Bible today of those events that occurred there in Jesus' life.

But as humans, we often demand and are not comfortable believing without evidence and without proof.

But here in this text today, we see that event in Jesus' life that was witnessed by three heavenly witnesses but also three earthly witnesses of the true nature, the true divine being of who Jesus was.

That his face shone as the sun and he appeared as a bright light.

That purity and truth that was within him was witnessed and evidenced by those there.

As God's children, we also believe today that we are given eyes of faith, and through faith we continue to believe and understand with this gift that God has given us that in his kingdom here we have hope and a sure promise of our heavenly glory.

And so we travel daily in God's kingdom striving together.

And as Jesus said to Peter, one of those witnesses, "That thou art Peter, upon this rock I will build my church."

Was Peter a sinless man? No.

We continue today traveling in God's kingdom struggling even daily, endeavoring yet to continue to keep this flickering candle alive.

And we also endeavor encouraging one another, endeavoring as it says in the Ephesians to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

That we want to take care of those matters that come between us as fellow brothers and sisters.

We want to continue to take care of our own conscience when we fall.

And even this morning, this hour, you as you find yourself can continue in this grace kingdom, and you can uplift your hearts this morning to believe all sins and doubts forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

And even I, coming to this place this morning struggling and trembling before you, would ask, can I yet believe?

I promise to believe together with you.

And this morning we come before the communion table, this communion which is a meal of remembrance for that moment that our Savior rose victorious on your behalf and mine.

So come freely, come to this communion to uplift and strengthen your own weak faith.

Come freely to the Lord's table this morning in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let us join in the benediction:

The Lord bless us and keep us.

The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Amen.