Well, today's the special Sunday, it's in the Church calendar, there are a number of special days traditionally in the Christian calendar. And this is one of those days, it's called Transfiguration Sunday. And we're about to read what that's about. It's a story in the life, it's an event in the life of Jesus Christ that's, I think, very helpful for us in living the Christian life where Jesus basically showed his disciples his glory. And it has always, it's observed, it's always been observed before the season of Lent. Now Lent, you probably heard that word around, many of you, if you're not that familiar with it, it's an old word that basically means springtime. And for the early Christians, Lent was a way of saying that real springtime, real light, just like we're about to see it bursting around us everywhere. For Christian, we know that real life actually comes in living for Christ. And as we say on Transfiguration Sunday, seeing Him in His glory and living for Him, turning away from sin and turning to live for Him. Lent is a 40-day season, whereas a community, we enter into a season just before Easter to think about our lives, to look at all of our lives, and in a sense, to set aside certain things. And this is purely at your own discretion and insight, but through a discipline and fasting, of cutting back on very good things that are part of your life to make room for self-examination to say, how's my life of discipleship going? Or what really matters to me? And there's some resources that we have here to help you as individuals and as families to make this a holy season, a time to really look at your lives and think about them. And if you're like our family, you're so busy, you really need something like this, if you're going to ever do it to it. And so as a community, we're trying to do it together. There's a couple of things. On your way out, you'll see two large facts. One, there's a paper called on Keep in the Holy Lent. It's written by a friend of mine and it's basically four pages of just historical and biblical notes about some wise of doing this and some howls of doing this. Then I think you'll find interesting. And as well, we did this last year, but a resource for families, hearts renewed, lint in devotions for families. I know for the Sherman's, and I'm assuming if it's that way for us, it's this way for many of you, praying together as a family, getting in the Bible together, praying for one another is something we don't always do with the kind of regularity and joy that we would like. And so lint is a great time to, here's a resource to say, okay, let's try to do that again. And hopefully this will encourage you and help you as a family. Now there's a traditional service to begin the 40 days and that is Ash Wednesday. That's this coming Wednesday. If you've never been part of this, I really encourage you to come or bring a friend. I think it's a very powerful service of just self-examination and quietness. It'll be this Wednesday at 7 p.m. here at in town and it's child care if you've provided, but I encourage you to come, bring your families and be part of this. So hopefully God will use this to renew us all in our faith. Let's turn down to the scriptures. We're going to read from Luke chapter 9. I'd like to lead us in prayer before we read. Let us pray. Father, the rain outside is a gentle reminder that you are providing for us in ways at every moment. You're caring for us as children. We thank you that this is who you are. We know that we can't begin the grass per se just how great that love and care for us is. But we pray that now as we look in your word, we would know the love of the one who speaks to us there. Give us ears to hear what you're saying and to receive it with obedient and faithful hearts. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. About eight days after Jesus said this, we'll talk about this in a few moments. He took Peter, John, and James with him and he went up on a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were very sleepy. But when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He did not know what he was saying. While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them. And they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice from the cloud saying, this is my son whom I have chosen, listened to him. When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and told no one at that time what they had seen. This is the word of the Lord. A few years ago, I had privilege of being able to go to Israel and visit many of the sites associated with Jesus Christ. As a very moving and with educational inspiration, to go to the cave in Bethlehem where almost certainly Christ was born. And sites such as the site of this crucifixion and his resurrection, to go to the Mount of Olives and pray and be there where there are alebtries that were there 2,000 years ago. They are over 2,000 years old. But one of the most ironically, I should say, most moving experiences I had was going to Mount Taber, which is the site traditionally of the Transfiguration. Got there and there were many tour buses ahead of us. And the mountain was too steep for the bus to go up. So what they have is there's a group of people there, taxi service, who their full-time career is to drive people to the side of the Transfiguration. And my friends, they drive UFDat Mountain. So I loaded into this taxi with four people and raised to the top of the Mount Taber to see the side of the Transfiguration, climbed out of the cab, ready to blow my cookies, absolutely overwhelmed, sicking from the car right up. And as I came up and stood there, I looked out. And what I saw was nothing. No holy sites, no shrines. I was just on top of a little old mountain in Israel, sick to my stomach. And yet as we gathered as a group and read Luke 9, it wound up being one of the most meaningful and important times for me because I realized that Jesus wasn't there. In fact, there was nothing associated with them there. I was just on a mountain and that was kind of the whole point. He's alive. And the same question that he asked Peter is still a question for me and for you, which is, do you really see Christ in a way that's real? Do you, are you in a relationship with Jesus Christ, where the kind of miracle glory you hear about spiritually, you can say, that's real for me. I really know who he is and I see him and I listen to him and I experience him. It's glory. Now, Peter thought he knew the Christ. I remember I said, we'd say something about what he said before. This is an interesting story because it's contextually linked to another story earlier in chapter 9. And what you read there is this, Jesus gathers just disciples around him and he says, what are the crowds saying about me guys? At which point they say, oh they say you're one heck of a prophet, you're an amazing healer, you're all these things. And Peter is the one who supposedly gets it right because Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Ding, ding, ding, ding supposedly that's the right answer. But the transfiguration story is basically an amazing insight to say, just because you think you know Jesus doesn't mean you know him because clearly this is one of those great places where Peter makes Bible as getting it wrong. As we read, he did not know what he was saying, he did not know what he was doing. They go off on the mountain to pray. And as they're praying, the face of Jesus Christ begins to radiate glory. If you ever saw beauty in the beast, the cartoon, it's one of those great Disney special effects where when beast is transformed, glory starts shooting out of his fingertips. That's one of my favorite things. That's basically what happens. Jesus Christ begins to have glory shooting out of his face in his fingertips. The glory of God just starts feeling out of him and it scared the living day on. It's out of these apostles. Peter, James, and John. And at this point, you should begin to realize the question is being pressed. In the presence of the intense white hot heat of the glory of God, shooting out of the eyeballs of the Lord Jesus Christ, Peter is being asked again, oh, do you know who I am? Do you really know who I am? Now the answer is, first of all, he's the Christ. That Peter is being forced to see him as the Christ. The challenge to us, the Transfiguration Challenge is, do you see Jesus as the Christ? Now the voice of God breaks out. There's this is a voice. It's obviously by context. My son, this is God the Father speaking, and says, this is my son, the chosen one, listen to him. Now when I say he's the Christ, that word Christ Christus means the anointed one. It implies the chosen one. The one who's truly been set apart. That's what verse 35 says. Now you know, there are only two times in the Bible that heaven cracks open to talk about Jesus. And it's interesting that those two thunderings, I'm hoping for some special effects in a moment here, those two thunderings, you get two of the profound pictures, what it means to say that Jesus is the chosen one. The first thunder comes at his baptism. And it's there when Jesus is anointed to begin his work as Messiah, Prophet Priestant King. When he begins that work, the Spirit is poured out, he's baptized and sure enough, Spirit is poured out on him so that he might be empowered to begin his messianic work. When that happens, Jesus is coming to take the place of sinners. And what's so shocking about it is, here you have the chosen one being shown to be fully human and fully identified with the problem. He's really one of us. And the second time you hear thunder, it's the equally important truth. It's when the glory is shooting out of his face and it's very clear that he is the eternal Son of God and divine. Here on the Mount of Transfiguration, the thunder comes again and the voice says again, this is my son. The chosen one. Listen to him. You see, this really helps us understand the question of who is Jesus, Jesus is fully human, but he's also fully God. And it's important that you see both of these. Philippians 2 helps us in this to explain how can he be both. And I don't pretend to be able to unpack eternal mysteries that are beyond my comprehension. But Philippians 2 says he took upon himself our nature. That is, he was eternal God. God, the one God lives in a community of love that is the Trinity. A eternal God is love. Eternal love, eternal being, and of and from one another. And yet that glorious person, Jesus Christ, took up once and for all, locally human flesh, and he glorified. He took up our nature. Now, what does that mean? If you meet Jesus on the street 2,000 years ago, well, it means that he's fully human. That is, he's weak, but he restrains his divine capacities. And the Transfiguration shows him restraining his divine capacities. Jesus is capable of knowing things. No one but God could know. You see that in his life. He's capable of doing things that only God could do. Not only miracles, but forgiving people since. And yet he restrains his capacities. He chooses not to know certain things. He chooses to hunger. He chooses to be weak. He chooses these things. He restricts his divine capacities without setting aside his deity. And here, if you will, he takes the disciples up and takes his divinity out for a spin. He basically raps up his engines and says, just in case, just in case you don't get it, behold the glory of God. And it's not the glory of another. It's his glory. Jesus is the window by which and the only window when we say the Christ, he's truly the only window by which you can see God. You can't look at the sun. It'll do damage to your eyeballs. You have to have a filter. The humanity of Christ is the filter through which we can see God. God. By which we can encounter God. You know, in Exodus 33, there's a wonderful story of Moses wanting to see God and God says, you can't handle it. It'll just, my glory will destroy you in your flesh. No one can see God and live. And so he simply shows whatever this means. He shows God, you know, the back, the back of God, the back of the invisible glorious one. And when Moses comes down, the glory so fills his own face just from a glimpse of a, of a quarter that the people say, put a bag over your head, you know, veil your head. We can't even look at you. The glory of God is so intense, the holy, quite hot glory of God is more than the people can take. So interesting, you do see Moses here and that's a reminder that this, this is the glory of God that they're beholding in the face of Christ. Now, it's the only way we can see it. Philip, there's a wonderful story in the gospel of John where Philip gets all excited about the coming new age and he says, oh, when are you going to show us the Father? And Jesus says Philip, whoever has seen me, has seen the Father. That is, it's the love, holiness, glory of God, lived out in a human life so that you can actually see comprehend and take it in. What the love of God is really like. He's a true window. Now, to put that in, let me put it in a poetic phrase, Charles Wesley put it this way, the mystery of the incarnation, our God contracted to a span in comprehensibility made man. That's what the transfiguration shows you. Our God contracted to a span in comprehensibility made man. Now, any great artist knows, you really want to show something in perspective. What do you do? You put other figures in there and by putting the other figures at different distances, it throws things into relief and throws them into perspective. And that's what happens in this glory story because in the transfiguration story where Jesus shows us glory, there are other characters and the two characters you see are Moses and Elijah. I have already mentioned in Exodus 33, Moses and 34, Moses reflects the glory of God. But Moses was also the leader who led Israel to the, was led them right up to the Promised Land. And so he represents the great leading, the great hope of Israel to come into a Promised Land. And thousands of years later, at this time when the Jews are oppressed by the Romans, his figure is a promise of God's ultimate hope to bring his reign to the earth and to really bring about the new age, to make things right, to bring them aside, to bring the new kingdom. And not only as Moses there, also the one who led them through the great Passover, but Elijah is there. Now Elijah has the same echoes for the Jewish people of the Promised New Age. If you read the prophet Malachi, he talks about the prophet Elijah coming back again. And today, if you're part of a sador, if you have a sador, you know there's always an empty chair for Elijah that's tied to those Messianic prophecies that when Elijah comes back, this is the issuing in of the last days and the new kingdom that is to come. Well here comes Moses and Elijah to talk to Jesus Christ. And you know Peter is, I mean, you know every Jewish cell in his body is just overloading with hope because it's basically what he's thinking is, it's here. It's here. Look, I'm being, I'm being, and I've got front, you know, I've got, you know, orchestra seats. I'm right here. I'm sorry, I didn't mean he's a music analogy. I'm right here in the bullpen. I'm right here. I've got, you know, I'm in the front seats of the new age. And this is where you really begin to understand what's going on here and we say he's of that Christ. Because Peter, the text says it very clearly, does not know what he's talking about. He doesn't know what he's talking about. What he says is, let's build three shelters or three booths. Again, you understand Judaism and the Old Testament. You know that one of the things they did leaving Israel was they had to build little shelters as they're on their way to the desert. And the feast of Sukkot, Sukkot or Sukkot is a remembrance of that every year at Sukkot. You build the shelters, you know, to remember the time when we were tabernacling moving to a promised land. Well that also is associated to the last day is in the final land, the coming of Messiah. And here again, this is what Peter's doing. He thinks it's the last day. We'll build a booth for Moses, a booth for Elijah, and a booth for Jesus. And the text says he did not know what he was saying. And it's in that context that you begin to understand what happens because more special effects kick in. Okay, raising the dead, that's good. But then there's more. The cloud comes. Now, what cloud is this? I think it's unmistakably, this is the glory cloud, the Shakina cloud, that came at the time of the Passover. If you read the story of the Exodus, God's presence comes in a mighty cloud. And that cloud comes and it just swallows them up. And it's, you know, here is really getting overwhelmed at this point. The glory cloud comes and swallows them up. As Peter says, let's build three booths. And what does God the Father say? This is my son. This is my chosen one. Listen to him. And the cloud disappears. Moses and Elijah disappear. And what you're left at the top of the mountain between heaven and earth, the verse says, and Jesus was left standing there alone. What's God telling Peter? Peter, there will be, there is no shelter. There is no booth for Moses. There is no booth for Elijah. Jesus is not one of the many. He and he alone is my chosen one. He and he alone will bring you into the glory cloud of God. Let me tell you something. That wasn't easy to get then. And it's not easy to get now. It's this scandal of particularity. There are no other booths. We live in a culture where people want to believe there are many booths. And the assumption is, you know, there's lots of great teaching out there. There's lots of great inspiration out there. Build a booth. Find the booths that works for you. But respect all the other booths. There are lots of great booths. Build a booth. Make your own booth. Come, we'll build a booth together. The idea is, and that this is loving. There's one God that many paths to this one God. This story is a radical challenge because Peter, in a sense, was thinking this way. And this is a radical challenge. You cannot squeeze Jesus. You want him to do an mystic guru who tells you that there are many paths and there are all one, all one, look inside, you know, your inner child, whatever it is, he will not. You cannot squeeze him into that mold. Read the gospels. Read them. You cannot squeeze him into that mold. This explicitly is Jesus. God, the Father saying, here is the Christ. Here is the path. There is one booths. Now, I want to talk about that in a minute. I know that's hard for some of you to hear. It seems very arrogant, seems very narrow. But let me unpack it a little more because it's not just that he's the way the Christ, the chosen one. But it's that he's the Christ of the cross. Listen very carefully. He's the Christ of the cross because as you look carefully at this story and look at what you read in verse 31, do you see what Moses and Elijah, they come down appearing in glorious splendor talking with Jesus, they spoke about his departure which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem going on here. The Greek word, actually, this is one of those places where it's helpful. In verse 31, the Greek word for departure is the Greek word Exodus. And I think it actually should be just left that way and translated. Moses and Elijah come, the glory comes, and basically, you know, Jesus has it saying him in a long time. What's the gossip? What's everybody talking about? What is heaven buzzing with? Jesus is going to the cross. The Exodus, what is the Passover, Exodus was the Passover story. The Passover came in Egypt. God, the the the lambs were killed, the blood was put on the doorpost and they were not judged for their sins. Rather, they were delivered and taken through the sea. That was just that was a shadow of the Exodus. The Exodus that really takes place for all who will come to Christ of all nations and all sorts, regardless of their background, regardless of what they've done in him to be taken to the Exodus of the cross where Jesus would lay down his life to deal with the sin that separates you and me from God so that we could truly know what deliverance was. Now, do you see what Peter's problem is? Peter's problem is, why can't God just wrap me up in his glory cloud? We're here. You know, here's the glory. Here's Moses and Elijah. I don't see a problem. And that's always the problem. I think if you find yourself drawn to religious pluralism, that's really the issue, isn't it? Why can't God just wrap us on his glory cloud? You know, and we like to count that in our concern for all the other people. I just think God should wrap his glory cloud around all kinds of people. But you're also projecting into that. I don't see any reason why God can't wrap his glory cloud around me. I mean, I'm not such a bad person, am I? And what's really shocking in this story is that what heaven is buzzing about, what Peter needs to hear, that he's not hearing, is that there is a problem between us and God, between humankind and God, and that problem is our sin. And that this holy righteous being sin must be dealt with. It must be a tone for him. To be wrapped in the glory cloud of God, someone has got to go to the cross. And the only one who can go is Jesus Christ. San Athanasius put it this way. You can no more be saved by a creature than you can be created by a creature. Jesus is not just a human being, he's God. God himself goes and takes your place. He dies to death, you know, he lives the righteous life, you know, and offers my faith in relationship with him, the privilege of being welcomed through him into the life giving, vivifying presence of the holy and righteous God. But only he can go there. First Timothy 2.5 says it this way, there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Who else can go? Who else can go? All right, now, is that arrogant to say that? Now, I don't want to come off as arrogant, and I know many Christians do. I'm sure I have come off to some people in conversation. It's very arrogant when I say something like Jesus in the one way. Let me just say, if you look at yourself critically, it's difficult to not come off as arrogant. If you say anything about ultimate truth. I mean, as soon as you start to say, nobody knows, you sound arrogant. You know, there's a famous Eastern parable that a lot of people in America have picked up on, they really like, and the parable goes like this. This is what the religious of the world like. God is an elephant, the truth of God is an elephant, and the great religions of the world are basically like a blind man around the elephant. One blind man has the leg of the elephant. Another one has this truck, another is touching his side, and the age give us a unique picture of truth into the divine reality. And that is one of the most arrogant things you could ever say about religion. Why? Because everybody in the parables blind except you. You're the only one who can say, and look out and say, oh, look, look at the poor religious of the world, the blind people. They've got a leg, bless them. He's got a trunk. That is the most profoundly and it's disrespectful to those traditions in the things that they actually claim, give them the dignity of the fact that we do, in fact, claim opposite and contradictory things that are fundamental to the nature of reality. Treat that with integrity. But as soon as you say, I can say, welcome, come on in, the water's just fine. We're all trying to make some claims about ultimate reality. But the Christian, I don't think he's not being arrogant, and I don't think it's narrow to say this. I don't think it's arrogant or narrow. By narrowness, I mean, this idea that you're being intolerant and disrespectful to other people. What do you root for respect for other people in? You see, if you say everybody, you know, all the religions are blind and they're doing their best, and it's their nice little paths, pick one, find them on the works of you, build a booth that works for you. If you say that, you're grounding the need of humanity to treat one another with dignity and respect. In the assumption that we really can't know, it's not a very safe ground, is it? Or you root it in finding whatever works for you. That's a very dangerous place as the ground mutual respect in. If you say you can't know, it's not going to take long for people to say, well, if we can't know, I'm going to do whatever I want, and not only individuals, but nations can do that sort of thing. If you say, works whatever for you, guess what? Guess what? Work for Napoleon. Guess what? Work for Hitler. There's plenty of things that work for people. That's not a criterion. Well, whether or not something's turned into the way things are. The Christian, I think, in Jesus Christ, you actually have the profound resources of spiritual reality that say, on the claim of this unique and absolute claim, can we honestly say there's a basis to treat other people with respect and dignity? Let me read you something. This is from one of my heroes, Leslie Nubigan, in his book, Thank and Power. Listen to what he says. The toleration which a Christian is required to exercise is not something which you must exercise in spite of his belief that the gospel is true, but precisely because of this belief. We do not impose our beliefs on others, not because we don't impose our beliefs on others, not because we think they may be right after all, and we may be wrong, but because the Christian...