The Transfiguration of Christ

Bro Koay Kheng Hin

Today's message is going to be something we seldom hear about. We are quite familiar about the incarnation or the birth of Christ. God became man. And we are also familiar with the baptism and temptation of Christ. The point of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane is also another one and of course the resurrection, the empty tomb. The resurrection followed by the ascension. Today I'm going to talk about something a little more different, the transfiguration of Christ.

All the worship songs by Bro Jacob ties in with my message today. We are trying to reach out to the folks in Teluk Kumbar and also pastor’s vision to reach out to the drug addicts, a good place to take stock of is that we must always remember the focus of the Christian faith is not primarily the ministry. The focus is the minister. Our Lord Jesus Christ. As we move into ministry we must never forget our first love. Everything we do must spring from the Lord.

Luke 9:28-29 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning."

Matthew 17:2-3 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus."

As he was praying his appearance changed. Luke did not use transfigured but Matthew did. Jesus was praying and he was transfigured.

The first insight is that communion brings the glory of God in your life.

Jesus radiated the glory. As he was praying something happened to him. It's metamorphosis. And in that word we think of the butterfly as a student. The metamorphosis word tells us that what happened to Jesus was not just the outward. Today I wear different from normal because I'm preaching. Normally I'll were a t-shirt but today I wear long sleeve and a tie. Looks more handsome la. Transfiguration is also inward. The glory radiated from him.

When we put our hands on the plough and put our lives into ministry, first and foremost it must come from a communion from our Lord. If not two things will happen. We will become tired and burn out. And second we will not bear spiritual fruits.

Exodus 34:29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord."

His face was radiant with the glory of God and the connection is that he has spoken with the Lord. He was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights.

Here was a description of his face being radiant because he has spent time with the Lord, had communion and spoken to the Lord. Moses was carrying the word of God. He has commune with God and his face was radiant.

A few months back I had a session with the ushers. And I asked them what is the most important asset of an usher. Like for example, a worship leader must be able to sing. To the usher it's their face, their countenance. For the teacher of the word will need to have God’s grace on him to be able to think. To be able to reason. The ushers must smile and the people look at our face. I told them they need to spend time with the Lord so that their face will shine the glory of God. Their countenance will show the glory of God. For the ladies, you can save some money on cosmetics with the glory of God. Or perhaps less make up.

Now that I have a smartphone, I found that a fashion designer Versace I think whose face is shining because he overdid his plastic surgery.

Often the words we say do not fit our actions, and some says the action or body language says more. Like an angry father may say to the son “do you know how much I love you?” Screaming at the child with anger. The child will think if love is like that, better don’t love me.

In communion there is something that the Lord does.

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

In this verse we reflect the Lord’s glory. Radiate comes from the essence of who we are. Moses reflected the glory of God. For us we must understand that we are a little bit better than Moses. Because the Holy Spirit is in us and he works in us so that we can reflect the glory. The reflection is outward. If you commune with God, the reflection will be strong but if you are busy with other things the reflection will be dimmer. It is something we must do daily.

I watched a movie called long ago called The Fly. This man invented teleportation where he enters a pod and transmit himself to a second pod. One day, as he experimented, he went into the pod and a fly happened to fly in there and the genes of the fly infused into him, as he was teleported to the other pod. And soon he became more and more like a fly. Why am I saying this?

We have the capacity to be more like Jesus as we commune with him. In the story, the man became more like a fly and he cannot control it. In our case, it depends on how much we yield to the Lord. As we spend more time communion with him, we are transformed from glory to glory.

If we ask ourselves, Jesus has prayed many times. Why on this particular juncture he is being transfigured. Here we have to read the passage upwards. The transfiguration was connected to Peter’s response.

Luke 9:18-20 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”"

The transfiguration is the precursor to the full glory of God. He authenticated it by being transfigured. It is here that Jesus reveals himself that he is the Christ, the Messiah.

If you look at Luke you'll find the authentication became complete when God the father spoke. Much like what Jesus heard when he was baptised. If you compare the voice of God during the baptism and the transfiguration you'll find that at the baptism the voice was for Jesus. But in this transfiguration it is the three disciples that heard the voice. It was to confirm the messiahship of Jesus to the disciples.

So do you now really really know who is Jesus? It is easy to call Jesus the teacher, the healer, the prophet. In many other faiths what the God can do is more important than whom the God is. In Christianity who he is is far more important than what he can do. I want to elaborate a bit more on this.

Most of us are from Taoist background. If you worship “tua pek kong” and you asked for something and it's not answered, you may move to another “kong”. In Buddhism, the philosophy overshadows the founder. In the case of Buddhism if you follow closely you can become the next Buddha. In Christianity if you take out Jesus you have nothing. Christianity falls on the person of Jesus. Who Jesus is is of paramount importance.

At the transfiguration, the three of them, Peter, James and John recorded this down.

John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

2 Peter 1:16-18

We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain."

For John and Peter this was the defining moment in their lives. The other one was James, died by the sword and Peter was crucified upside down and John was persecuted until his last days on the island of Patmos where he wrote the Book of Revelations.

In the transfiguration, they knew Jesus is indeed God. Whatever experiences you have it is a point of contact. That point of contact must lead you to the point of focus. And that focus is to lead you to the person of Jesus.

There are two things that will grasp and take our attention.

One, we have to be practical. The pressures of life are very real. The circumstances of life are real. On the other end is the Christ of God. If we want to mature we must turn our focus from the circumstances of life to the Christ of God.

There are four Ps in my bible. 

Person Presence Power Peace. 

When you focus upon the Person of Christ you will carry the Presence of God. In the presence the Power of God will manifest and you will have the Peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

Our tendencies are that we focus so much on our circumstances we loose focus on Christ.
When you look to Christ, the providential blessings of God will impact your circumstances.

The transfiguration showed them that Jesus is the Messiah and that changed their whole outlook on life. Let's turn out eyes to Jesus as the author and finisher of our life. Coming back to the ministry when we focus on God, our ministry will bear spiritual fruit or if you do it on your own you will have to slog it out yourself. The ministry is God’s work not your work.

The last question I want to ask is where the answer is not very clear.

What was the content of Jesus‘ prayer?

You will probably search the bible and theologically this is the best answer we have. If you look at 9:28-36pp – Mt 17:1-8; Mk 9:2-8 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray."

Luke 9:22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”"

Jesus was talking about him going to the cross. Also mentioned when Jesus prayed at the garden of Gethsemane. If you tie them all in, the one interpretation is like this.

This was a precursor to the garden prayer. The prayer about the cross and the transfiguration is God the Father’s answer to Jesus. Jesus was facing the cross. You must understand that he asked if it’s possible to pass it away from him. Jesus was looking at the abandonment and it is a deep struggle for the Lord. But in the end, Jesus submitted to the will of God. This was what we believe was in Jesus’ mind.

God the Father’s answer about him going to the cross did not take the cross from him. But what God gave him was victory over the cross. The transfiguration was an inkling of the resurrection. In it is the future glorified body of God. In the suffering on the cross is the glory that would come.

As children of God and Disciples of Christ, we must understand that there is suffering before the glory. Even if none of us has the transfiguration experience, the word of God tells us that we through communion with God the voice of the word will bring the presence of God into our lives.

There are three things we learn.

Our communion with God must drive our commission. God must drive the ministry.
Communion is not primary for the commission. The communion transforms you. In that presence is the peace and power of God.

The focus is not on our need but on God. Focus on God and your need will be met. Jesus is more than just what he can do for you.

And lastly, the Christian Faith is first and foremost a call to sacrifice and in it is the completion in glory.