We'd like to pray with me for just a moment. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the word that you've given us, how precious it is, and an awesome task it is to teach it, but I ask that you'll fill me with your spirit, and also that you'll send your spirit amongst everybody in the congregation today. Prepare them to receive your message. We ask for these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, some of you know me pretty well, and some of you may not know me at all. So, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm Larry Waltney, and originally I come from a small city in the Midwest called Fort Wayne. It's in Indiana. And among ex-patriots like myself, we like to call Fort Wayne a good town to be from. That's why we like to put it. Now, you may not know much about Fort Wayne, but I'm going to give you some of the low down right now, some of the little points of interest to let you see what a unique community is that I come from. Fort Wayne actually has a great sports tradition that you probably don't know anything about. In May 4th, 1871, the first professional baseball game between two professional teams was played. If you go through the intersection of center and Elm Street and the Nebraska neighborhood that's a residential neighborhood on the west side of Fort Wayne, there's an unassuming little monument right there on the curb. It says it's a site of the very first professional baseball game between Cleveland's four cities and the Fort Wayne Keke Angus, which Fort Wayne won two to nothing. Yes. The first night game involving a professional team was in Fort Wayne in 1883. It was between the Illinois Quincy's and the local boys from the Methodist College. And the professionals, the Quincy's one, nine to two. You may not know this. The NBA was founded in Fort Wayne, Fred Zonner, who owned the Fort Wayne Pistons, brokered the merger of two small basketball leagues, and formed the National Basketball Association from his kitchen table in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And then finally, in 1988, they played the Final Four in Fort Wayne, and probably not the Final Four you're thinking of. This Final Four was the NCAA championship for volleyball. Now this is where I come in. I'm not generally someone who is a spectator of volleyball, but I had connections. A friend of mine by the name of Mike was connected to the local university, which was the host of the tournament. And he said, Larry, I've got a ticket, the best seat in the Colosseum for the Final Four in volleyball. So would you like it, it's free, and being the frugal person that I, I might agree that I would go. And I was glad I went. In fact, Mike had not exaggerated about this being the best seat. It was. It was several rows up, perfect sight lines right down the center net. And so as I stood there drinking my icy coke and watching everybody parade by and watching the players warm up, I was just as happy as a clam. And then people started filing in, the people who are going to be sitting next to me. Now I have to tell you about this, even though I can be fairly outgoing when I need to be like for instance on a stage like this, I'm not usually a chatty person. People sit next to me in an airline, I don't strike up a conversation because I don't want to get something started that I don't know where it's going. But this was funny because if you ever heard somebody's voice who sounds exactly like a famous person, I'm standing there drinking my coke and the guy that standing next to me was hilarious. His voice sounded exactly like Tom Selleck's, I mean it was uncanny and I was just sipping coke and thought how funny this was and finally I thought, you know, I'm just going to start a conversation of this guy, you know, I got a mention to him, I'm sure other people have mentioned to him, maybe he's sick of hearing it, that he sounds like Tom Selleck. So I turned to him and I said, do you know that you sound, and then I found out why he sounds exactly like Tom Selleck. So that's how Tom Selleck and I sat together at the NCAA 1988 Final Four. Now in very good when I tell people this story, they always ask me, will Larry, what did you say to him? And that's a very good question, I mean, this guy I had seen at Magnum P.I. had solved single hand, like 172 cases, you know, what do you say, like nice work, way to go, heck of a job you did last Monday, that was really something. And as I pondered thinking what I was going to say, I, a discretion took over, discretion being the better part of valor and I decided to say nothing. And so I sat there the entire three or four hours that said next to Tom Selleck and didn't say a single word to him. And I don't know if I offended him or not, but all I can tell you is that Tom has not said a word to me since. Now the reason I bring this up is every time I read that passage in the Gospels about the Transfiguration, and in this case from the Gospel of Mark, I can't help but think of that time that I was tongue tied. You recall that passage that Peter, it says, didn't know what to say. And so he suggests building three tents for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, because Peter wasn't clear what he was going to say, but he wanted to prolong the experience. And really who wouldn't to see more than a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see the Transfiguration Christ and the resurrected bodies of Elijah and Moses, who wouldn't want to prolong something like that? And I can't help but wonder when I read that every time, I think if I was tongue tied in the presence of Tom Selleck, what would I have been like in that instance? How would I have reacted then? But I'll go far, so far as to say this, too. I think despite the possibility of embarrassment, despite the possibility of something going wrong, that we all crave an experience like that. In our deepest, darkest moments, when things really seem set against us, when it seems that the whole world is against us, something we think that we could really use is to see Jesus as he is, to see the Transfigured Christ. What we're going to do today, we're going to look at three examples of fiathenies, appearances of God in the Old Testament. We're going to see how the Old Testament characters reacted, where they tongue tied, where they indifferent, how do they react? And then we're going to see Peter's recounting of it in his epistle, the second Peter, and then we're going to come with a to-do list on our own. Yes, it's New Year's, you can't get away without a to-do list, so here we go. Our first example is Abram. Abram in chapter 15 verses 1 through 11, I'll read them to you. It says, after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, your reward shall be very great. Abram had just come out of a battle with the four kings. Now the four kings is not a singing group, but the four kings, it was an alliance of four military forces, warlords, really, who had kidnapped his nephew Lot, and he had gone after Lot with 318 of his chosen men, and they had rescued Lot and collected quite a bit of plunder, which Abram did not keep for himself, by the way. He told the other kings they could keep it, but give the boys, that is, his fighting man, their share of it. And so what God is saying to Abram here is, says, I'm your shield, which means, if you're worried about retribution from the four kings, don't worry, I'm your protection, and you're a great reward. You did the right thing in turning down the plunder because you're going to get more than enough reward for me. But Abram said, oh Lord God, what will you give me for I continue childless, and the air of my house is elisir of Damascus. And Abram said, behold, you've given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, this man shall not be your heir, your very own son shall be your heir, and he brought him outside and said, look for it heaven, the number of the stars if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be, and he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. And he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out from the early Caldeans to give you this land to possess. But he said in this Abram saying, old Lord God, how might I know that I shall possess it? He said to him, bring me a half for three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle dove and a young pigeon. And he brought him all of these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. You'll notice that every time that God makes an appearance in these examples, I'm going to give a question as I ask. And this case is the first question is, how will I know that you will really do what you have promised? Well, there's something a little unusual about this passage to a modern reader. Basically Abram asked for some kind of security, wanting to know if you're going to do these things, you're going to give me this land you promised, and God says, bring me some animals. Now you would think it rather strange if you'd go into the bank and try to procure a mortgage, and the bank officer interviewed you, and then looked over all your financial records and said, well, everything seems in order. Now get me some animals and meet me out back. You'll notice so that Abram wasn't taking it back. I mean, he didn't say, well, what did the animal for? Because this was a common way of sealing a covenant at those times. This is what's known as taking an oath of malediction upon yourself, an oath of self-malediction. In other words, swearing that whatever happens to these total objects or these animals that I'm going to cut in half is going to happen to me if I should ever so much as forego payment on a loan or not living up to the terms of the contract. There are a couple of ways ancient people did this. One method, the contracting partners would each make a little wax figure in, and they put it at the end of a stick, and hold the stick to the fire. And the first party would say, if I should ever not live up to the terms of our covenant, may my ear be melted off, and he'd hold it to the fire and the ear would melt off, and the other guy would take his turn and say, if I should ever forego any aspect of this covenant, then may my nose be melted off, and he'd hold it to the fire. Well, that was one way. The other way was to cut animals in half, basically saying, may I be torn asunder, rent in two, should I ever fail to live up to the terms of the covenant? And so he cuts the animals in half, it says he doesn't cut the birds in half, probably because they're too small, and you notice the animals are all three years old, which means that they're fully grown. And it was important that they'd be that. The path is made, and then there's an interesting verse that follows this account. It says, the sun sets, Abraham falls into a deep sleep, and it says, when the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. Smoking pot, a flaming torch. And to the original readers, the first generation of people who ever read this account in Genesis were the Israelites, out on the wilderness, as depicted in the book of Exodus, and seeing this, seeing the smoke and the fire reminded them of something that they saw every day. That is, when God was leading into the wilderness, a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. So they recognized that this is God himself walking between the pieces of these animals, saying that may I be split in torn asunder, if I don't live up to my covenant with Abraham. Now pause here as an aside, as a little sidebar here. You might think that Abraham was being a little presumptuous when he asked for some kind of security from God, how will I know you're able to do this? That sounds really, well, like I said, presumptuous, but actually this is an act of faith on Abraham's part. It was him expressing faith that God could actually do this, not only give him offspring, but this gigantic territory that he promised him. A complaint or an ask for assurance is not necessarily an indication of a lack of faith. And how did Abraham respond to all of this with faith? We see that he lived to God before God a blameless life, and the verse was truly fulfilled in which it said that he believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness. That was Abraham's response to this theophany. The second example is Moses on the mountain. This is an Exodus chapter 33 verses 2 through 23. Moses said to the Lord, see you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my side. Now this is immediately after the episode with the golden calf, remember that one? God was meeting with Moses and told him that your people go down because your people have corrupted themselves, and Moses goes down and finds out indeed that they are worshipping a golden calf in his absence, and so he tears down the calf, grounds it in the powder, and makes the Israelites drink the water. And God in his response said, from now on, I am going to send my angel before you. I am not going to go before you anymore, because I don't know what I might do. You people are an obstinate, stiff necked people, and I just made breakout and kill you all. So I am just going to send my angel ahead of you. This is what Moses is complaining about. Moses is trying to talk him out of doing that, and says, bring up this people, and I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my side. Now therefore, if I have found favor in your side, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your side, consider true that this nation is your people. And he said, that's God speaking, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. God in his bargaining with Moses says, OK, I'll go with you. The angel will lead the people with what I'll go with you, but that's not good enough. Moses says, he said to him, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your side, I and your people? Is it not in you going with us so that we are distinct? I and your people, from every other people in the face of the earth? In other words, Moses says, if it's not in the Israelites and me included in you going before us, no deal. And then Moses says this, please show me your glory. Now glory, from person to person, as we speak about a person's glory, we're speaking of somebody's reputation, but with God's glory, that's a little bit different. God's glory is his righteousness, and Moses requests, basically, a sign that God is going to do this thing, says, show me your glory, and God said, I will make all my goodness past before you, and will proclaim you my name, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. But he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand in a cleft on the rock, and while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand and I will pass by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. God has to use anthropomorphic terms, it's a fancy word for saying, people like or man like, because God being a spirit has no physical parts. And yet he speaks as if he does, and he speaks in terms in which Moses can understand. And he says, no man can see me and live, but he says, I will put you in a cleft in the rock, and I will put my hand over it. And then when I pass by, I will open it enough, and you will be able to see my back, or literally as it says in Hebrew, my back side. Now what is the least glorious aspect of human person? When you want to insult somebody, what is it that you do? You turn your back on them. That's your least glorious aspect. And God wasn't insulting Moses here. He was giving him a description of saying, you can only see me in the tiniest aspect of the totality of my glory, but I will indulge you this much. And he says one other interesting thing, he says, my goodness will pass before you. Not my awesome power, not my awesome might, not my awesome majesty. He says, my goodness shall pass before you. And why his goodness? Well, it's because everything in their relationship up to that point, both Moses, God, and Israel had been based on his goodness. God had given Abraham a great nation out of his goodness. He had saved the nation in Egypt out of his goodness. He had delivered them from Egypt 400 years later out of his goodness. He had protected them and guided them to the wilderness as a basis of his goodness. He provided food for them on the basis of his goodness. This is just a reminder and saying, you may be unhappy with me that I actually threatened not to go before you, but remember my goodness. And I'm going to show you just how good I am by this revelation. Again, Moses' response is positive, of course. We know the rest of the story. We know that you continue to lead Israel up to the time of his death. And then we come to our third example. This is from 1 Kings 19, verses 9 through 13. This is the case of Elijah. And behold the word of the Lord came to him and he said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? Well, what was Elijah doing? This is just 40 days after Elijah had had the greatest triumph of his personal life. He did one of the great contests of the gods at Mount Carmel against the Bales and the Bale worshipers. God had responded to his offering. The Bales had not. And Elijah had overseen the killing of the priests of Bale. The queen of Israel, Jezebel was not pleased. If you want to get somebody's attention, kill all your, all somebody's religious priests. And she's basically swore that Elijah was not going to live. So Elijah flees. He goes back to Judea, takes a 40-day trip. The 40 days is symbolic of the 40 years in the wilderness. And to this point, after his greatest triumph, Elijah is now burnt out. Have you ever been there before? Have you ever been to the point where you've done this Christian thing long enough is that you want to take a break from it? And this is what Elijah is trying to do. He's trying to resign his commission as profit. Now I have served in three churches in a position of church leadership. And it seems that wherever I've been, I've always served at a time in which it was the most critical period in a church's history. All three times. I don't know if I just bring this with me, but there you go. And it is easy to get to a point where I don't want to do this anymore. I am burned out. I am tired of dealing with these issues. Let someone else do it. Elijah was far beyond that. Elijah was ready to die. In fact, God had to feed him in the wilderness. And God now confronts him and says, what are you doing here? Elijah wants to quit. And Elijah says, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of Host, for the people of Israel who have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your profits with the sword. And even I, only am a left, and they seek my life to take it away. And he said, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by in a great and strong wind toward the mountains and broken pieces of the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake of fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire of the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, and he went out and stood at the entrance of the cave, and behold, there came a voice to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? Ask the same question again. Now Elijah's account is somewhat of a counterpoint to Moses. I mentioned the 40-day trip he took. Did I tell you where he went? Did you day? He went to Mount Horibid. The very same mountain that Moses was on when he had his visitation from God. And he lived in the cave, possibly the very same cleft that Moses had. But in this case, Elijah wants to resign. Moses threatened to resign. Elijah really wants to resign. He's done. He says that everybody, they've all turned against you. They pulled on your altars, and now they seek to kill me. I'm the only one left, woe is me. And so God does what you do with burned out people. You give them a new task. And so God told him at that point, I want you to go and annoy three people, Haseyl, Jahu and Elisha, they're going to be new prophets, but I'm not going to let you quit. You see, as burned out as you get on this Christian thing, God isn't going to let you quit. He may give you a new task. He may give you a new assignment. And what's interesting here is Elijah's response to the visitations. First it was wind, then it was earthquake, and then it was fire. All three of those manifestations were present at Mount Sinai at the time of Moses. In other words, again, this is looking back to the visitation that Moses had. But notice that God's presence is not in any of those three manifestations of what we call the technical term is served evil or natural evil. These things that take place, what we call acts of God in nature that can be so damaging and terrifying, but God it says not in it. It doesn't mean that he's not in control of those things. It doesn't mean he doesn't use those things, but the revelation of God is not in some spectacular demonstration of power. It was Dennis F. Kinlaw, the theologian that said, quote, you can have a spiritual experience that is very exciting, and yet is contentless, or you can gain an insight into the character of the eternal that will change you forever. Content versus contentlessness. It wasn't enough that Moses simply see a gigantic manifestation. He had to have a content, a new assignment for God to change his life forever. The theologian and pastor, John MacArthur, likes to recount a story of a charismatic pastor whom Matt and the charismatic pastor used to insist to him that he saw Jesus every morning in the bathroom while he was shaving, while he was shaving Jesus who would come in and watch him shave and talk to him. And John MacArthur said, I have one question, he said, do you stop shaving? Think about it. If the resurrected glorious Jesus Christ appeared in your bathroom in the morning, would you keep on doing what you were doing, and acting as if nothing had changed? And yet we're seeing that Elijah experienced these things, these contentless revelations of the fire, the earthquake, and the wind, and it was only when he heard the still small murmur that some translations say the still small voice, that he came out, wrapped his face to protect it, because at that point he was ready to receive revelation. It was like God was trying to bring him out of the cave by one manifestation after another and he wouldn't come out. I'm quitting, I'm not coming out, but when he hears the still small voice, he comes out. It's because, just because God seems to be silent in your life, doesn't mean he's not active in your life. It doesn't mean he's not working behind the scenes because he is. And God's reassurance to Elijah, giving him a new assignment, was his reassurance to him that he indeed was active. And he says one other thing, he says, I've set aside 7,000 people, I've reserved for myself 7,000 people who have not bought the need to bail in Israel. 7,000 people, the number seven is a perfect number, a perfection, a completion, and 1,000 is an indefinite large number. So in other words, Jesus was saying, I already have a perfect number of people reserved for me 1,000 times over. You are not alone, and neither are you. We do Christianity in community, that's why we have church, that's why we meet on Sundays, that's why we have small groups. You are not alone, God has set aside people to benefit you. So we see in each case there was a question that was faced by the character, the Old Testament character. Our three questions are one, how will I know that you will really do what you have promised? Question two is how shall I know that you are going with me? And question three, how shall I know that you really are watching over me? Now think about those questions, and ask yourself, do they look familiar? Do they sound familiar? Isn't it true that in fact you yourself have asked these very same questions ever since you became a Christian, especially during the darkest times of your life? They're familiar because they're true, because there are experience. So Jesus counters you with His question. In the account of the Transfiguration, in all gospel accounts of the Transfiguration, it is preceded by the account at Cessaria Philippi when Jesus asked the disciples, His question, and His question is who do you say that I am? And that is the scene of Peter's great confession, you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son, of the living God, and so Jesus subsequently was to show them in the Transfiguration just exactly what that meant. And so Peter recounting that experience decades later, in second Peter, chapter one, verses 16 through 19, had this to say, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when we 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. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with Him on the Holy Mountain, and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts. Here's reaction of this years later is interesting, because verse 19 is rather ambiguously worded. One way you could worded is this, that the Transfiguration certified and made certain, more certain scripture, in other words Peter was saying, my experience of the Transfiguration has made the scripture that you have more certain, and quite a few commentators take it that way, but there's another way that can be taken, and a lot of commentators take it this way, and it's the way I'm going to take it here in this sermon, is that he's actually saying the word that you have in scripture is more certain than any outward visible manifestation, spectacular manifestation of Jesus' glory. The scripture that you have right now is of greater utility, more certain, and more useful for you than a mere Transfigured Jesus. Now I think I might be seeing looks of skepticism on some of your faces, because this runs counter to our experience, some of you may be thinking, well, there's no way that's true, I mean I read scripture every day, sometimes I even fall asleep when I'm reading it, but the Transfigured Jesus, no, that would be something, and that would really change my life if I could see something like that. Well, think back again to who Jesus betrayer was. Remember Peter? He was on the mountain, he saw the Transfiguration, and yet it was only a short time later that he declared he didn't know who Jesus was, and he said it three times, after that spectacular revelation that was supposed to change his life forever. The fact is we have no excuse, we have a scripture that's in place and ready for us to change our lives, so I mentioned I have a to-do list for you. Here it is. Now ordinarily, I'm not a New Year's resolution kind of guy, I think if you think of something good to do in July, you should do it in July, and these tips that I'm going to be giving you are not particularly profound, at least the first three aren't, in fact you're not going to be impressed with how profound they are at all, they're the obvious answers, but sometimes those are the best answers. After the past year, I've lost quite a bit of weight, and a lot of people come up to me and they ask me this question, you can probably guess what the question is, what is your secret? I say, well, I exercise a lot, and I don't eat much, and there's always this long silence where they're looking at me, and then they finally say, do you have another secret? You can, I don't like that one, I want the secret where I can eat all the pie I want, or these 15 different steps I can take, I need a 12-step program, I need this, I need that, and in fact you have all the utility that you need right now to start the New Year and do it right, the first one is to pray regularly, that's an obvious step, but how few of us really avail ourselves of that to its fullest extent, prayer is talking with God, and if you want to see God face-to-face, where you got to start is to start speaking with Him face-to-face, praying to God on a regular basis is going to change you, it's not talking to the ceiling, it's going to change your whole outlook on your life, no matter how hopeless it seems to be, step two, read and study scripture, as our confessional statement says, the do and diligent means, something happens to you when you read scripture, now a lot of people read the Bible for entertainment, a lot of people read it for information, you can do it that way, but ultimately the Bible is a spiritual device, it is to change you spiritually, now I know that many of you come from the same faith tradition that I do, where spiritually means not really, and when I say it's spiritually, oh well then I don't really have to take it seriously, then I don't really have to expect anything to change, but in fact it does, it's not merely that you'll know more, it's that you're going to find greater application to scripture every day life, there is no problem that you will ever encounter in every day life that is not addressed in scripture, that's a big bold statement, but after 65 years on this earth, I can tell you it's true, believe it, and if you don't believe it yet, try me, just try it sometime, start saying the scripture and see for yourself if it isn't true. The third step is what you have an opportunity to do today is participate in communion, we stress time and time again that this is not just a memorial service, it is a memorial service, this dude remembers of me, that's what Jesus said, but it's much more than that, you are feeding your spiritual self when you take communion, you are changed spiritually if you take communion worthily, and of course Paul warns us if we take it unworthily, you could be another change not so nice, but examine yourselves before you take the cup today and realize this is a unique, wonderful privilege not to be neglected, something that you can just take or leave, some people look at communion like I look at seeing the star-spangled banner, it's been a while since I've been in a public setting where I have to sing the star-spangled banner, but my patriotism has never been changed, one I owed because I sang the star-spangled banner, I'm just as patriotic before or as after, and a lot of people take communion in that way, this dude remembers to me, well of course I remember, we're doing it right, and they walk out of here absolutely unchanged, but that is not the way it is supposed to work. Communion is supposed to hit you and change you forever, change the direction of your life, and then the fourth step, and this is mine, original to me, live each day as if you'd seen the transfigured Jesus on that holy mountain. What if you'd seen the transfigured Jesus 20 years ago? Would your life be today what it is now? Would you have done anything differently in the past 20 years if you had seen the transfigured Jesus? Well I'd like to think that it would be different, but I don't know, is it? Because if we neglect our scripture, if we neglect our prayer, if we neglect things like meeting together, if we neglect communion, if we neglect these things, we are not going to be changed. We're going to be forever stuck in neutral, revving the engine. So that's my challenge for you today, for the new year. You want to see Jesus 20-20? In 2020? Follow these steps. And who knows? You might just end up tongue tied. Let's pray.