Title: The Glory of God in the Face of Christ

Scripture: Matthew 17:1-13; II Cor. 4:4-6


The physical experience of the disciples on the mountain, when they saw Jesus glory unveiled, should be the normal *spiritual* experience of Jesus' followers. But for many (most?) of us such experience of the glorious presence of God is foreign. Why?

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Welcome to Spring -- and welcome back to those of you who have been on Spring Break. I hope that you found some sunshine. We have been rather short of it here. It seems like a rather long time since we have seen any sun, and my memory of it is growing dim.

Now imagine with me for a minute, a country which is perpetually overcast. Where you never see the sun. I'm not talking about Oregon -- just someplace like it.

So you are living in this place where you never see the sun. It is perpetually overcast. And it has been this way so long that there are even some people who refuse to believe that the sun exists. You are not one of them of course. In fact you have a very orthodox belief in the sun. You have read textbooks about it -- you know that if you could see the sun it would look like a yellow ball of fire in the sky. You know, in theory, what it would feel like if you could feel its warmth. You know that life could not go on without it. And you see the benefits of the sun all around -- plants and trees, etc. And you know that these things could not exist without the energy of the sun. You have seen the effects of the sun, you believe in the sun -- you have just never experienced the sun for yourself. You have reports from long ago of people who have actually seen the sun -- and you love to read them. And even now there are rumors of people around who claim that they have first hand experience of the Sun -- off in some mythical land called Florida. But this is all foreign to you. It's not that you lack knowledge or belief -- you know all about the sun, but you have just never experienced the splash of sun on water, the dance of sunlight and leaves in a forest, the gentle touch of spring sunshine on your face. How tragic!

How familiar! This is how many of us Christians live our lives spiritually. The benefits of God's presence are all around us. We know those benefits in theory. We know the textbook truths -- God is eternal, sovereign, omniscient, omni-present -- and we get a certain amount of comfort from knowing these things. But we live our lives under overcast skies, never really experiencing the the full sunshine of God's presence. So we live our lives in the gloom, perhaps looking forward to the future -- to heaven when we are promised that we will experience the presence of God unhindered -- that we will see him face to face. And I don't want to discount that wonderful hope. But what about the present. Must we live in the dusky half-light under overcast skies until that time?

I have often felt this way. I imagine many of you have. If you have, my prayer is that our time in the scripture today will be like a break in the clouds -- that you will come away longing -- hungering not just for knowledge of God but for real experience of Him.

Matthew 17: 1-9

This must have been an astonishing experience for Peter, James and John. Awesome in the true sense of the word. They follow Jesus up this mountain -- unsuspecting. But when they get to the top, this man who a few minutes earlier had seemed quite ordinary and approachable suddenly changes into a being so glorious they can hardly bear to look at him. His face was like the sun. His clothes glow. Light streams out of him. It was like there was a nuclear reaction inside him -- the energy of the sun itself -- so strong that his body could no longer hide it.

What was going on? Jesus did not become something new and different on the mountain. What the disciples saw was the unveiling of his true divine nature. Like tearing off a mask, God, for a few moments, tore away the veil of flesh that covered the Glory of God within him and allowed the disciples to see him AS HE REALLY WAS.

Jesus disciples never forgot this experience of Jesus -- when they looked back they could never again think of Jesus without remembering the glory they had seen. Peter and John both wrote about it.

2 Peter 1:16 -18
. . . we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the father when the voice came to him from Majestic Glory saying, "This is my Son, who I love; with him I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

John's whole gospel is a celebration of the glorious divine nature of Jesus -- beginning with the first chapter -- where he says, "We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only of the father" (John 1:14)

Other NT writers explain what was going on:
Heb. 1:3
He is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word.

And supremely in Paul's letter to the Colossians
Col. 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation . . . 19. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven . . . 2:9 In Christ all the fullnes of Deity lives in bodily form

How could they forget such an intense experience -- the memory of it must have burned itself into their minds -- like someone in our imaginary sunless country seeing the sun for the first time. They had seen the glory of God himself unveiled in the man who had been their teacher, their companion, their friend. It must have been

And it was wonderful. I am not at all surprised by Peter's reaction. "Lord, It's good for us to be here" he says. Somehow our translation doesn't capture the full enthusiasm that is clearly behind these words. "Lord, this is wonderful!" "Master, This is a great moment." This is tremendous! What an awesome experience!"

And Peter is right -- it was a tremendous experience. You know those sunny Spring mornings that make you feel full to the brim with life! The kind of day that you wish could never end. Multiply that 100 times and you might be close to the wonder that Peter and James and John must have felt in the presence of Christ's glory. They were getting a taste of how life was meant to be lived. We were created to enjoy God. We were meant to live in his presence. Our deepest longings are all for God's presence and his Glory -- these are the only things that can satisfy us. Now Peter, James and John were getting a taste of that satisfaction, that joy that is the secret hunger of every human heart.

So of course Peter wants it to last -- when you have found your hearts desire would you not want to hold fast to it. Why would anyone want such an experience to end? And Peter, wanting to prolong the experience blurts out "Hey! It's really great to be hear. Why don't we build three shelters up here."

Then while he's still talking -- almost in mid-sentence -- he's interrupted. A bright cloud surrounds them all, and out of the cloud comes a voice, "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased! Listen to Him!"

Now this is not exactly a direct reprimand to Peter, but it is sort of like God saying, "Could you please stop babbling and Listen!" And I gather from this not just that God doesn't like senseless babbling -- which he doesn't -- but also that there was something wrong with the intention behind what Peter was saying.

So what could be wrong with wanting to bask in the glory God revealed in the face of Christ? What could possibly be wrong with wanting to be in God's presence when the very end for which we were created is to enjoy God?

Look back at chapter 16 -- verse 21- 23

This was what God wanted Peter to listen to. You see it had not yet sunk in for Peter that there could be no glory without suffering -- that there could be no crown without a cross. On the mountain Peter wanted to bask in glory at no cost. He wanted to enjoy the presence of God without the pain.

And is not this generation of Christians just the same? We want the presence of God without having to face up to the cost. We want to cozy up to God, our great teddy bear which art in heaven. But it doesn't work that way --

If there is any lesson we can learn from the revelation of God in the OT, it is that encountering God is not a warm and fuzzy experience. Ever since sin separated us from God humans have been running away from God with good reason. It is no fun for sinners to be in the presence of God.

[dramatically illustrated in the experience of Israelites at Mount Sinai --Exodus 19:12-22 Exodus 34:29-35]

It is not very restful for sinners to come into the presence of a glorious and Holy God apart from the cross. It is not a Spring break excursion. It's like coming into the presence of a nuclear explosion. You do't bask in glory like this -- you tremble and stay at a safe distance and pray not to be consumed by it.

Picture it like this: Bonfires are great right? Most people like them -- when you go camping on a crisp fall evening its wonderful to have a great blazing fire. We get close to it relish the warmth. You feel a healthy respect, but not fear. Now, how would you feel about the bonfire if you were wrapped in gasoline soaked rags? That is what sin is to us. If we go into the presence of God's glory wrapped in the gasoline soaked rags of our sin, what do you think will happen?
[And whose fault is it? Is God cruel to keep us away from his presence when we are soaked in sin? NO! It is his mercy that keeps us from the blazing heat of his glory.]

The great wonder of God's love is this: that Jesus took the gasoline soaked rags of our sin, wrapped himself up in them, and offered himself to be burned up by the heat of God's holiness and righteousness. And through his suffering he destroyed our sin, and left us sinless and holy -- free to enter God's presence once again without fear.

For those who have believed in Christ, then, there is no barrier right now to our full enjoyment of the glorious presence of God. If we have given over our sin-soaked rags to Jesus, we have nothing to fear in coming to God.

So what is to keep us from fully enjoying the presence of God? The problem is that Even after Jesus has burned up our sin in the blaze of the cross, we keep on picking up new rags -- and clinging to them. And so, rather than enjoying the warmth of God's presence we slink away and huddle around tiny little fires of our own making, trying to satisfy ourselves with cheap imitation gods because the real God will make us throw our rags of sin into the fire of his glory.

If you want to experience the glorious light of God's presence, as Peter James and John did on the mount of transfiguration, stay close to the cross. Don't resist its power by holding on to the rags of sin. Let go of them -- throw them into the blazing glory of the cross.

This is at least in part what Jesus meant in 16:24 ff. "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."



As we come to the communion table, we will hold in our hands -- eat and drink -- elements that symbolize the very presence of God. Please -- don't pick them up if you are still clinging to the rags of sin. It is like holding a live match in your hand and a gasoline soaked rag in the other. Don't do it!