Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Four Lessons From The Transfiguration" by Neal Pollard

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"Four Lessons From The Transfiguration" by Neal Pollard · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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Good morning.
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I appreciate Josh's reading. This account is found
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in 3 of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and I want us to
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examine another of the Gospel records on
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this very event.
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Matthew says, and after 6 days Jesus took
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with him Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain
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by themselves. And Jesus was transfigured
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before them, and His face shone like the sun,
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and His clothes were as white as the light.
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And there appeared Moses and Elijah unto them,
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speaking to Him. And when
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Peter saw this, he said to Jesus,
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Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let us build
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3 tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one
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for Elijah. And while he was still speaking, a bright cloud
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overshadowed them, and behold, a voice spoke
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from the cloud, saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am
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well pleased. Listen to him.
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And when they heard this, they fell on their faces,
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and they were very afraid. And Jesus came
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and he touched them and he said, arise and do not be
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afraid. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but
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Jesus only. And as they went down the mountain,
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Jesus said, see to it that you tell no one this
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vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.
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And the disciples answered and said unto him, Why then do the scribes
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say that Elijah must first come? And Jesus said,
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indeed Elijah is coming, and he will restore all things. But I say
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unto you that Elijah has come, and they did not
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recognize him, and they did to him whatever they wished.
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And the disciples understood that he spoke to them of
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John the Baptist. As we read there in Matthew chapter 17,
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verse 1 through verse 13, I want us to set it between the
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2 significant events that are around One
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is the teaching that Jesus did up on Caesarea Philippi,
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Matthew 16:13-28, on the one hand.
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And then after this, immediately after the words that we just saw,
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there is the healing that Jesus does of one that Matthew calls a
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lunatic, a demon-possessed man which his apostles could
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not exorcise. On the one side there in
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Matthew 16, we see Jesus make
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4 incredible prophecies. Number 1, I will
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establish my church. Number 2,
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I will endow you, the apostles, with the authority to go
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out and teach the gospel of the kingdom. Number 3,
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I will endure the cross and I will experience
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the resurrection. And then number 4, I will enable you
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to be my followers, my disciples, and at the
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end of life, if you faithfully do this, you shall receive a reward.
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Now, as a part of that 4th promise that we see there,
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there is a statement that's made, Matthew 16:27,
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where Jesus says that you will see the Son of Man come
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in the glory of his Father on that occasion. Matthew 16:27.
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Glory is a word that Matthew likes to use in his gospel.
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We're going to find it 8 times from the beginning to the end of
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the gospel. And glory is one of those words that was already being
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used for some time by secular Greek writers. And as they
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wrote about this word, it meant brightness. It meant radiance. It meant
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something that stood out. But as so often is the case,
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what you'll find is that the New Testament takes a word already
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in use and will elevate it. And this word came
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to be associated with God and who God is.
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God himself is being in his word a brightness that goes
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beyond anything else that could be compared to it, a brilliant, that stands
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out. In fact, most of the occurrences of
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the word glory in Matthew are in some way applied to God himself in
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some way. It is glory in the nature of God,
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for example, in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 13, at the end of the
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model prayer, when Jesus says, for yours is the kingdom and the power
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and the glory forever. There is this
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idea we have just seen in Matthew 16 and verse 27, where the Son of
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Man is going to come in the glory of God. His Father at
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the second coming. And then in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 28,
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Jesus says that the Son of Man was going to sit on his glorious
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throne in the regeneration. That is referring to the end of
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time again. And then in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 30, we have Jesus
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as he speaks and he says that the Son of Man is going to come
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in his glory in the destruction of Jerusalem in judgment.
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Matthew 24 and verse 30, And then in a parable
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pointing us to the end of time, we have those words,
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when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the
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holy angels with him, then will he sit upon his glorious throne,
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Matthew 25:31. And so with each one
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of these references, we have this picture that is then illustrated
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in Matthew chapter 17. The word glory is not found there, but it's
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in evidence. It's in full view. On the other side of that, we have
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glory implied. As you have the apostles that
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have gone up with Jesus in Matthew 17 coming down, and the other apostles are
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trying to perform this exorcism, this removal of this
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one that is possessed, this boy, and the disciples couldn't do
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it. And Jesus comes along. It's a one-off. It never occurs
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any other time in Scripture. And Jesus demonstrates his ability to do
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what no one else can do. Glory, as it is mentioned,
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as it is illustrated, and as it's implied.
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But it's that center event that I want us to draw some lessons
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from this morning. There was a unique way
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in which Matthew 17 and the transfiguration affected
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those 3 apostles. But believe there are some things that we
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can learn as we strive to serve that Jesus, the Jesus that
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we commemorated around the Lord's Supper, physical suffering
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in his body on the cross. The Jesus that we adore and
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we worship, the Jesus whose blood saves and purchases us from our
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sins, the Jesus whom we long to serve and to be reunited
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with someday. I want us to think about 4 things we learn from
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this event that can help us in that pursuit. The first thing
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I think that we learn as we look at these events is that you need
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to build on what you know. This is a more general observation
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of what we see in the text that we have already read. When you
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think about Peter, James, and John,
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they're going with Jesus up on this incredible experience.
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No day like this day. But this wasn't their first
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day with him. These are the individuals, along with
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the others, that Jesus called who had been walking with him for about 3 years,
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and they had heard his teaching. It's masterful. They had seen his
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works. Incredible. But nothing prepared them
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for what they were going to see on this day.
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And I want you to think about the fact that as Jesus is walking with
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them, is mentoring them and trying to get them to grow, they had
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had some great successes. They'd also had some terrible failures.
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You know, the growth curve doesn't work like this, does it? Spiritually speaking,
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we're not just better today than we were yesterday. Hopefully in the long term,
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that's what we're going for. But if we were to chart it, it would be
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more like this. I do some things well. I follow Christ.
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I look more like him, and then I fall back, and I'm struggling once again.
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And the disciples are just like that. They have been sitting
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and listening to Jesus. They've been processing his will, and when
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he gets it right, he acknowledges that, but then he also says,
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well, you need to grow. You know, but the thing I want you to
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keep in mind as you see all that Jesus does, even on this occasion,
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is that Jesus Jesus is so patient with them.
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Keep in mind that he understands our frame. He knows that we're but dust.
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He knows that we've still got a lot to learn. The apostles,
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even after this occasion, are going to have to be taught so much more.
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I think about in Acts chapter 1, after they walked with Jesus and he's about
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to ascend to heaven, after it's all done, his earthly ministry,
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their last question to him is, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom
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to Israel? They still were learning. And I want you to
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notice how Matthew kind of shows us that through the gospel and how so
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often they needed Jesus to teach them a lesson after they've seen something incredible.
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In Matthew chapter 8, for example, in verse 26, there's a storm
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on the Sea of Galilee and they are so afraid.
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And remember, some of these are seasoned fishermen. And Jesus,
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in his reply when they wake him up, is, You men of little
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faith, why are you afraid? Jesus is
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in the boat, but it's more than that. Go back a few verses
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earlier that day in Matthew chapter 8 and verse 16. They were witnesses
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and they saw as Jesus healed many who were demon-possessed
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and all who were ill. Go forward a little bit in time and
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then Peter, one of these 3, is wanting to walk on the
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Sea of Galilee. And as he walks, he takes his eyes off of Jesus and
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he begins to sink. And you remember Jesus' statement in Matthew chapter 14 and verse
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31 is, you of little faith, why did
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you doubt? Now, this is right moments
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after they had been there. And you remember John tells us
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that Andrew finds a little boy with the 5 loaves and the 2 fish,
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and out of that Jesus makes a meal for 5,000
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men. And he is one of the ones who's collecting 12 baskets of leftovers.
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He has just seen that. Matthew 14:19 through 21,
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and he fails so soon thereafter.
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Or just a week before, Caesarea Philippi, Matthew 16:8,
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Jesus tells them to beware of the leaven of the Sadducees and
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the Pharisees, and they begin to talk among themselves, and Jesus says, you of little
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faith, why are you discussing among yourselves that you have no bread?
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And so, all the way through, Jesus is demonstrating
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to them that they still had so much to learn. As long
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as we are in Christ, we're going to continue to
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strive and to grow and to mature,
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and he understands that. I want you to think about what one
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of these men said late in his life after
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he had walked with Jesus so long, and he tells him in that last letter
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that he writes, 2 Peter, that the Lord's told him he's about to have to
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fold this body of clay. He's about to do what he had promised, and he's
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going to no longer be among them. And Peter writes, Grace and peace
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be unto you, and the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
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according as his divine power has given unto us
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everything we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge
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of him who called us by his own glory and virtue, whereby are given unto
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us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these
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you might be made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
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the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside all this, Giving all
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diligence, or devotion, add to your faith virtue, and to
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virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to
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patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
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For if these things be in you and abound, or increase,
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they shall make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge
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of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But he who lacks these things is
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blind and cannot see afar off and has forgotten that he was purged from
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his old sins, Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling
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and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall
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never fall. For so an entrance shall be given unto you into the everlasting kingdom
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of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:2-11.
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And then he comes at the end of the letter and he says, wherefore,
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seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in him in
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peace, having no spot and blameless, and account the longsuffering
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of our Lord salvation. As also our dear beloved
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Paul, according to the wisdom that has been given unto him, has written unto
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you, in which are some things hard to be understood, which those
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that are unlearned and unstable twist, as they do the rest of the Scripture,
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to their own destruction. And you, seeing that you know these things before,
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be diligent that you do not fall according to the
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error of the wicked and fall from your own steadfastness,
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but grow in in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
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Christ, to whom be glory now and forever. Amen.
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2 Peter 3:14-18. And here's what I want you to see,
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that there is a difference. There is a difference between the
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one who is growing and adding these graces to
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their life and the one who has forgotten these things and has been blinded to
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these things. And there's a difference in the one who is growing in the
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grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the one who either teaches
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a distorted message or believes a distorted message and falls
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away. And our Lord sees the difference.
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As we think on what's happening here, Peter, James, and John,
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they're given an incredible lesson in an incredible classroom that
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we're going to see more about here in just a few moments. And it's just
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more for them as fodder to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.
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The longer that you serve Jesus, I believe the
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more you'll find that we're never experienced enough, we're never mature enough
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and spiritual enough to say that we've learned everything we needed
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to know, that we have arrived at the place that we want to be,
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that we never will be at the place where we don't have new
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challenges to overcome, where we're never at the spot where everything
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is as it should be. And so as we see these men,
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this inner circle called out for this special ministry,
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That they are called to build on what they know,
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and that was going to continue for the rest of their lives. And it
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is for you and me that way. You know, as I look out here,
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I realize that there are those who have been Christians literally
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for days, some for months, some for years,
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and some for many decades. But all
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of us have that in common, that we're at a place where we need to
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be building on what we've already accumulated, and we're never satisfied.
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We're always wanting to learn more about him and his word,
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and that's what we learn up on the mountain. But then number 2,
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we learn from this that we need to see Jesus as he is.
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I think about these men, and of all the people who
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would have had exposure to Jesus, don't you think that these
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men had an insight into Jesus that others didn't?
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They knew the lines on his face, no doubt, walking so closely with him.
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They knew his voice inflection. They knew his sense of
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humor. They knew his personality.
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The relationship had to be comfortable and familiar, even though
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he was perpetually amazing them. But with all of that,
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there's nothing to prepare them for what they see up
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on the mountain. And Matthew explains it to us that Jesus
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is transfigured before them. A metamorphosis,
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like the caterpillar to a butterfly. Something different is seen,
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and it is described by Matthew as changed. Jesus is
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changed in front of them. What does that change look like?
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Well, it says that his face shined like the sun.
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But in addition to that, his clothes are made as white as the light.
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And Mark comments on this in Mark 9:2, and he says it is brighter
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than any launderer can make white. Make it bright. And so,
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they get a view of Jesus like they haven't seen him before.
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They had been hungry with him.
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They had been tired. They had just seen him fall asleep
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in the boat. They saw the emotions, the ups
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and downs that he experienced like they did, but what they see
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is something different here. This is set off for
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us by Matthew by saying, behold, a marker for an unexpected
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event. It's like you weren't expecting this to come at all.
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It's more amplified by the bright cloud
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that overshadows them. Luke says that it envelops them. Can you
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imagine? You know, God had revealed himself through the cloud
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throughout history. He revealed himself in the cloud in
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the Exodus— in the wilderness rather, in Exodus 13:21.
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He had revealed himself at the tabernacle in Exodus 40:34.
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He had revealed himself like this at the temple in 1 Kings
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8:10-11. It's incredibly different
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from what they had seen day by day.
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You know, we're in the last phase. We're in the maximum phase of
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Solar Cycle 25. From what I understand,
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I know very little about these sorts of things, but there's an 11-year cycle,
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and in that there's solar magnetic activity, and there's sunspots
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and anomalies that can happen. And last year was
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when it peaked. And I don't have social media, but Kathy shares
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it with me. Everybody's taking their pictures. You remember because
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of that solar magnetic activity,
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unlike in our lifetime at least,
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that you could go out at night and take your camera and you would
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see different hues of pink and red and green and purple,
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what they typically call the Northern Lights.
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Did you see it? Did you go out and were you able to see that?
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And I thought, this far south? But then
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I did some research. Did you know that they saw the Northern Lights in Haiti,
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in Singapore? There were reports of it at
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the equator. You can't get any further south than that, at least in the Northern
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Hemisphere. People who could look up and see what
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was— the sun's always had that kind of energy. It's always
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got that kind of power. But God, through his providence,
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allowed the curtains to be pulled back, and we could see it as it really
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is. And I think about how incredible. And I
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think sometimes these discoveries come because man grows more sophisticated,
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and we have our own technologies. We now have AI and all the incredible
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things that it can do. And then God will show us in some way to
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say, look, you can't do what I can do. And NASA
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has been sending us back the Hubble Telescope,
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incredible pictures that we've been able to derive from that. But NASA's been sending
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back pictures from the James Webb Telescope.
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Unlike anything that's been seen before. This is not an
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adequate representation of a picture of the— at
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that time, this was in 2022, and the pictures keep coming. They're not declassifying
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all of them at the same time, but this is the farthest point in the
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universe that man has ever seen. And somewhere in
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the bottom third of that, there is a cluster galaxy,
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and that cluster galaxy serves as a magnifying glass.
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And those who are able to look in with specialized lens say that there are
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much more distant galaxies back behind it. And as the,
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the, the, the imagery keeps coming in, the glory is compounding.
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It's there. You know, it was there 100 years ago when technology had
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not caught up with what we can now see. That was still
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God's magnitude of his greatness. And now
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we see it. Oh, how good God is to allow us in our
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lifetime to to be able to put our eyes on what people have accepted by
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faith. But here's the thing, Peter,
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James, and John are up on the
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mountain with the one who created
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all of that. And what impact did
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that have on them? Hey, John, did that affect you at all?
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Understated. The Word became flesh and
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dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory,
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glory as of the Father, full of grace and
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truth. John 1:14, hey Peter, did that affect you at
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all? Huh. Yes, we heard the voice out of the majestic
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glory saying, this is my beloved
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Son in whom I'm well pleased. And we
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saw this glory when we heard the voice,
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for we were with him on the holy mountain.
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Now let me ask you, God's glory doesn't change,
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but what does change is us. Hebrews 13:8 says,
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Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever,
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but we change. It's such a beautiful truth that
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as I think even in this room today, there are some whose view of
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Jesus has changed. Jesus went from a myth to
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a man to a great teacher to something profoundly
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more. Hey, Jesus went from not just a man
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but the Son of Man. That Jesus went from
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being something that's important to someone that's important to us,
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like a spouse or a parent or a friend, to being important
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to us. Being able to see
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Jesus as he is provides the dividing line
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in me seeing him as I prefer to see him and how I might want
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to keep him and how he is in truth. And God through his word has
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thrown open the window so we can see it.
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And it is who he is. Yes, he was robed in the
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flesh. It was so beautifully said in the prayer this morning. But in addition to
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that, he is the pre-incarnate word. In the beginning was the word, and the word
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was with God, and the word was God. John 1:1-2. Hebrews 1:1-3
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gives us just an equally bright picture. Now listen, Matthew in this description
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gives us 4 words for our Lord. That first of all,
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he is Jesus, God saves. That second, he is Lord.
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He's master. He's the one in charge. The Father validates him by
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saying, this is my beloved Son. And Jesus,
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his favorite designation for himself is Son of Man. This allows
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him to demonstrate or to point out his humanity and his empathy
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with humanity. But not only that, it's a nod to Daniel
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7:13 where he is seen to be the Messiah whose
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glory was going to come after his suffering, and it allows Jesus
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to define himself on his terms and not on the way other people wanted to
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identify him. And that's where we find ourselves as
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we're traveling with him up on that mountain today, is to see Jesus
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as he is. Yes, lowly in the manger.
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Yes, one who can experience and understand everything we're going
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through, Hebrews 4:15, but the one who is from
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everlasting to everlasting, God the Son,
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who will one day be the one who stands in judgment, but the one
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who has been the one who has died for our sins. But then
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lesson number 3 is we need to let God clarify mistaken
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views of Jesus.
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I love Luke's account that we read this morning. Can you blame Peter?
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Apparently they were all asleep. And can you imagine waking
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up to what you see here? There's Moses and Elijah
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that they can somehow readily identify. And then here's Jesus who
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they've been walking with for 3 years, but man, he looks different now with this,
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this transformation that God has allowed. And Mark 9:6
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says, and Peter didn't know what to say, but when did that ever stop Peter
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from saying something? And so Peter, in response to that, I think has
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something great to say. I think he has so much right
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here. He's right. It was good for them to be
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there, and it was right for him to want to honor Jesus.
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And he does recognize, man, these are 3 of the greatest individuals
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who have ever lived, the greatest teachers of all time.
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And so he just wants to help. He wants to serve. He wants to step
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up. But the Father has a counterproposal for
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him. Instead of rolling up his sleeves and stepping forward to be the party
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planner, God says, step back and let Jesus
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tell you what he wants. You let him be the one who
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sets the tone. And to make sure that we're clear on that,
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suddenly we see that Elijah and Moses disappear and
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it's just Jesus. And the Father is showing us, this is the final communicator
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of my will. And so you're to listen to him.
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So often as we encounter people, they have a mistaken view of
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Christ, but so often that happens with us. He's not just here to
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bless us. And give us a comfortable life here. He is not one that we
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can form and shape to our will and how we want to serve him on
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our terms. The Father speaks throughout all of that
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and he says, listen to him. Let the
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wicked man forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return
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to the Lord and he will have mercy on him, and to our God and
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he will abundantly pardon him. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
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ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
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so are my thoughts— my ways than your ways and my thoughts than your
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thoughts. God says,
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clear up your mistaken view of my Son and
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listen to him, which is the last lesson I think we learn. Listen to him.
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Now, I want to focus on the part we don't typically look at as we
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get ready to draw this lesson to a close. The last thing
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they hear the Father say, the only thing they hear the Father say is,
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this is my beloved Son. Listen to him. And then they are still on
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this experience coming down the mountain, and Jesus is going
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to talk to them. First thing we see is that Jesus commands them.
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He audibilizes. He says, see to it that you tell no one the vision,
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this vision. It is a vision, but a glorious one,
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until the Son of Man is raised from the dead. Matthew doesn't
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tell us why Jesus says that. Maybe it is because there's this heavenly timetable,
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and Jesus wants to be in control of that. That he wants to control the
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flow of information as to who he is.
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I don't know if they understood it. They don't seem to argue back.
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But aren't we confronted so often with Jesus commanding us something that
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maybe we don't see the rationale to that? Maybe we don't appreciate why it is
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that he says what he says. And yet,
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as the Father would say, this is my beloved Son. Listen to him.
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Here's what we know. He's faithful and he's trustworthy.
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Hebrews 10:23. But then Jesus instructs
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them. Now here in verses 10 through 13, we, we have them
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turning their focus as they understand that this is all in this picture
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that Jesus has been trying to help them to see, that he is going to
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suffer and die. He says it 4 times from Matthew 16:21 through Matthew
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chapter 20 and verse 19. The Son of Man is going to He's going to
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die, and he's going to be raised from the dead. And maybe they can't hear
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the raised from the dead part because it's so traumatic to think of
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their Savior, their teacher who's about to be taken
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away from them. But when he says, don't tell this vision
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until the Son of Man is raised from the dead, they go, well, why do
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the scribes say that Elijah must first come? Jesus is
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then going to explain to them that everything is happening according
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to the heavenly plan.
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Malachi 3:10 says that Elijah must first come before
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the great and terrible day of the Lord. Think about Moses and Elijah
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there for just a moment. It was Moses in Deuteronomy
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18:15 who said that there is going to be a prophet like
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me raised up from among you, from your own countrymen. You are to listen
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to him. Malachi 4:5 says that this Elijah
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was coming. Jesus had already been teaching this in Matthew 11:14,
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and then that he was going to suffer many things. And of course,
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by the time this happens, Jesus would tell us— Matthew would tell us
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that John the Baptist has already been beheaded by Herod,
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Matthew 14:1-12. And so Jesus
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is instructing them, and they get it. They put it together. Verse 13,
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And then he says, the Son of Man is about to suffer at
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their hands. I think the Father says,
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listen to Jesus, and gives them this glorious moment, at least
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in point— in part because of what's about to happen.
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They see Jesus transformed and changed in front of them,
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shining so brightly, bright as the sun,
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and in just a few weeks, Jesus is going to be arrested.
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He's going to be led away. He's not even going to resist. He's not going
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to fight. And he is going to endure horrible things
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in front of them. They're going to see it. And it's
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going to have to be hard for them to appreciate that the Jesus on
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the mountain is the man that's in front of them. In fact, they're so affected
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by this in a negative way that Matthew 26:56 tells us
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that they're all going to forsake him and flee. Now, John is going to be
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spotted at the foot of the cross, and as he's there, he's going to look
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up at Jesus, and what's he going to see? He is going to see a
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bleeding man with a crown on his head.
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He's going to see him fastened to a tree. He is going to see him
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able to push himself up just to get a breath before he sinks back down,
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and slowly over 6 hours, he dies.
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Is John trying to reconcile what he saw on the mountain with
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what's in front of his eyes? And think about this. Here is Jesus who,
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according to the Gospel writers, 3 different times calls out
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to the Father. He speaks to him. And we do
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have the darkness, and we do have the ripping of the temple
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veil. We do have the earthquake. But what we don't have is
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what Jesus is had said at his baptism and
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what the apostles hear on the Mount of Transfiguration. Do you think if
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there was a single moment in Jesus's life when he wanted
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all to know that he is the Father's Son, would it have
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been in that moment? And yet no
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voice.
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So often the will and the teaching of Jesus doesn't fit our presuppositions,
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our preferences, our purposes.
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Sometimes we don't understand what Jesus says,
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and more often we may understand it, but we don't like it.
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But in all of those moments, the impact of that statement,
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this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased, hear him.
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Cause us to look at the cross while
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not forgetting the mountain where
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he was changed and we saw him as he really is. And it's incredible to
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me, isn't it, that there's a contrast up on that mountain?
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I would have loved to have been able to hear that, I guess. I don't
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know. I think I'd have been just like Peter, James, and John. I would have
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fallen on my face. I would have been afraid. But what would it
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have been? To have heard the voice. What would the voice of
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the Father sound like as he says what he says?
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Here's that magnificence, this omnipotence.
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And then there's Jesus, all God,
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but he comes up and
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he touches them and he reassures them.
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Arise and do not be afraid. Don't you love how Matthew
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loves to do this? He uses this idea of touch throughout
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the Gospel of Matthew. He touches the leper, the unclean one, in Matthew 8:3.
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He touches one of his dearer friends, Peter's mother-in-law,
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in healing her, Matthew 8:15.
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He touched— or actually, the hemorrhaging woman, she takes it on
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herself and she touches him in Matthew 9:20-21.
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And then you have the 2 blind men that Jesus touches in
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Matthew chapter 9 and verse 23. And you have all those sick in Matthew 14
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and verse 36 whom Jesus touches. Then you have 2 more blind men in
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Matthew chapter 20 and verse 34 whom Jesus touches.
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And the compassion and the love and the empathy
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that that shows allows
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us to put it all together.
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And to hear him say,
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come unto me, all you who are weary
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and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,
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for I am meek and lowly in heart,
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and you can find— you will find Rest to
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your souls. Who offers the rest?
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The one who knows everything we're going through, Hebrews 4:15,
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and the one who is pictured for us as he is,
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God who came down.
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And you hear what he says? Come to me and
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I'll give you rest. He wants to,
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and he's able.
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Maybe you need to make that decision to make him what
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he is anyway in your life, Lord.
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God's made him Lord and Christ. If we understand
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that, we're going to be just like the folks on Pentecost, and we're going to
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say, men and brethren, what shall we do? And the answer hasn't
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changed. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ,
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for the forgiveness of sins. That's an opportunity we're going to afford you if
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you want to take advantage of it publicly as Mike is about to lead us
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in a song. If you're ready to make that decision, don't put it off.
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Make him Lord as he is, not on your terms, but as he reveals himself
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in scripture. And maybe as a child of God, you've stumbled, you've fallen away,
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you've forgotten those things, and you need to return to the shepherd
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and the guardian of your souls. Maybe that's a need you have today. We want
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to throw our arms around you and pray with you and for you as a
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child of God. If we can do that, we would love to even right
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now as we stand and sing.