Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Man, God is good, huh? There's just something about hearing his faithfulness, seeing, because you sit there and you go, I know that faithfulness I experienced that. There's just something about hearing a brother or sister share that just. Man, it's so good. It's so good. In fact, let's pray a prayer of thanksgiving real quick. Can we do that? Just thank the Lord for Greg. Jesus, we thank you so much for the gift of your gospel. Lord, we thank. Thank you for our brother Greg for just being willing to invite us into his story and to. To hear afresh how you seek and save. Lord, thank you. Thank you for loving our brother and chasing him down, Lord, thank you for giving him freedom, God. And thank you for letting us get to join in that celebration today. To your glory, Lord, we pray these things in your name. Amen.
All right. Good morning, church.
As I already said, we're continuing this series out of Matthew 16 and 17 that we're calling who is Jesus? Where we're asking this question. We're seeking to see how Jesus himself answers this question, who am I? Right? And there's really two simple reasons in this chunk of text why we're talking about this. The first one is this. Jesus himself asks this question, who do people say that I am? And then he zones in on his followers. Who do you say that I am? Jesus seems very concerned with his followers understanding of his identity. And the second reason is this, guys, Jesus's identity is not a neutral truth.
If Jesus is who he claims to be, then this has an effect on you and on me. Like how we answer the question of Jesus's identity has a direct impact on the way we live our life. It is worth asking this question. So we're going to be in Matthew 17 today. If you want to go ahead and turn there. If you don't have a Bible with you, we have house Bibles scattered around the room. Just look underneath the chairs in front of you. By the way, we really believe in the importance of access to God's word here at Emmanuel. And so if you're hanging out with us today and you don't own a physical copy of God's word, I'd strongly encourage you to just take one of the pew Bibles home. Or even better, talk to one of the pastors and we will give you one with slightly larger print because they're very tiny print. I didn't realize that when I bought them, and now we're stuck with them. You know what I'm saying? Anyway. Anyway, that's where we're gonna be today Matthew 17. What we'll see in our text today, guys, is, I think, just a really simple and pointed and beautiful answer to the question, who is Jesus? And it's just this. Jesus is God's son.
Jesus is God's son. And in that answer, we will see that he makes a way for us to commune with God. You see, Jesus is the full divinity of Yahweh, but he is incarnate. Means he's flesh and he's blood like us. And because of this, he builds a bridge between broken and cursed humanity and the perfect holiness of God. And, guys, that is amazing, but it's also, like, abjectly terrifying. We're going to step into that for a second. I want to show you a picture. This is my daughter Millie's cat, Smokey.
Yeah, he's pretty cute. His full name, I was informed. I have to tell you, his full name is actually Smokey Oreo Milkshake, star shooter.
And he is a butterbean of a cat. You can tell he's incredibly spoiled. He's also right. Like, he's actually my buddy. He's Millie's cat, but he pretty much follows me around the house whenever I'm home. I actually. And I. This is a little embarrassing to admit, but, like, I love this cat. This cat is great. He's, like, very dog ish in his cat personality. I love him. We snug on the reg. And by the way, those of you who've been to my house, if you meet this cat, you're gonna agree with me. Like, even if you're allergic to cats, you're gonna have a moment of going, this might be worth it. It might just. I might. I just need to grab his little fuzzy cheeks. He's pretty great.
This in contrast to Smokey. I'm gonna show you a picture of a north american mountain lion.
Yeah, that's a big guy. Now, stick with me here. My cat has broken me, because when I see that picture of the mountain lion, I actually still think it's very cute. Like, I look at it and like, oh, wow, that's great.
Even right now, I'm like, I want to scratch his ears. I want to. Now, having said that, if I saw one in real life, no way. That's not happening. Like, I wouldn't. In fact, one time in my early twenties, I swear, I saw a mountain lion, and it basically went like this. I was still in college. I was not yet dating Kim, but I wanted to be dating Kim. And she was working at this summer camp, and it was her day off. She was hanging out in town. And so I called her. And I'm being all cool and we're talking on the phone. And I drove home to my parents that weekend to do my laundry. And we're chatting. And my parents live out, out in Forrestell, kind of out in at that time in the middle of nowhere. And so I parked my truck and I'm sitting there in their driveway. It's late at night, and I'm chatting, I'm being all cool, and I look over and I see this creature sniffing around an empty doghouse. And I. It was like 25ft away from me. And I am incredibly confident that it was a mountain lion. It was very terrifying. Now, here's the thing, guys. Here's the thing. I freaked out. I lost all cool credibility with Kim. I screamed like a girl. I hid in my truck. I don't know if I screamed like a girl, but I was very alarmed, very terrified. I hid in my truck until it left. And here's the thing. I've rethought over this moment a lot. Could it have been a bobcat or a coyote? I mean, maybe, right? Like, I was pretty freaked out. But also, like, those things weigh, like, 30 pounds of. And a mountain lion, like, a male mountain lion in Missouri, weighs, like 170 pounds. That's a big difference. I'm pretty confident it was the big guy, right? But who knows? Because I'm a wimp and I was scared. I may have gotten it wrong. But the point is this. In that moment of being in the presence of a creature that I thought could kill me, there was nothing in my mind about snuggles, cuddles, how scratchable his ears were, right? Like, none of that entered my mind.
I freaked out. And the reason is simple. A mountain lion can kill you, right?
So here's the problem. You look at that creature and you go, cool, check. Majestic. Check. Beautiful, check. But beyond all of that, dangerous, check, right? Like, that's the primary relationship you have with that creature. Unless you're at a zoo, right. If you're in the wild, the primary relationship you have with that creature is danger. Beloved. I think many of us, to wrap this around, I think many of us live our relationship with God in much the same way.
And I mean that we study scripture, we experience life in this world, and we become more and more and more over the course of our life and our faith journey, we become more aware of God's immense and perfect holiness. I mean, isn't that the truth? The longer you study the word, the longer you spend following him. You just. It's like, man. He's more holy than I realized he was. He's more majestic, more righteous, more perfect than I ever thought he was. But at the same time, the same life experiences, the same study of scripture, gives you a growing awareness, awareness that you are, in fact, worse than you thought you were. Right? You become aware of deeper depths of your own sin and idolatry and selfishness. And it seems like the gap in between you and God gets bigger. I mean, it isn't. It was that big the whole time. But your awareness of it, right? It grows. And I think all of this can make approaching God for connection and relationship in a lot of ways, terrifying. I mean, we think of our rebellion, we think of our habitual sins, and it's hard, at least for me, it's hard to imagine God as not being, like, disappointed in the way I live my life, right? Or actively angry at the sins I run back to over and over and over. It's hard to not think of him as just, like, detached, punishing with isolation and disconnection. And I think it's easy for us to end up with a vague anxiety connected to practicing our faith. Not this part. We get together with brothers and sisters and we feel loved, and we sing songs and it feels good, and we go to community groups and we share what's going on in our life. We share meals, and that part is really wonderful. But those moments where you are entirely alone with you and God, I think a lot of us, a lot of us can get to a place where we actually kind of avoid those moments.
And we try and put other experiences and noise into our faith expression so we don't have to be alone with God because it is an anxious thing. We know the gospel. We know Jesus loves us, that he died for us. But in our day to day practice of faith, it can be really difficult to imagine that God actually enjoys our approach. Right?
And by the way, I want to say this. Like, if you're in this room and you're hearing this going, I just don't connect to that at all. That makes no sense to me. If that's not your experience, praise God. But you need to know, like, I'm up here watching the head nods, you are surrounded by brothers and sisters who struggle with exactly this kind of anxiety around faith in connection with God. It's a really normal part of practice of faith, and we need to speak into that. So do me a favor. Let's take a second and pray, and then we're gonna talk about this text and jump into it. Jesus, we need you this morning. Lord, we need you to be our discipler. Holy spirit, we ask that you would be the one who illuminates your text to us today, that you would challenge us, that you would remind us, that you would convict us. But, God, we pray that you would encourage us.
Lord, let us meet with you in a way today that just shines the light of your gospel over the false beliefs about you that we have brought into our practice of faith that help us to hit reset today and to come to you afresh.
Jesus, we need you for this work, so we pray it in your name. Amen.
So Matthew 17, to kind of set us up to remember what's going on in this text. Remember, we're stepping into the middle of an ongoing narrative. In chapter 16, Jesus has finally, plainly accepted the title of messiah with his followers. Right? And this marks a distinct shift in Jesus ministry. As soon as he acknowledges that he is, in fact, messiah like, he's not being coy about it. He's like, nope, you got it. You're right. That was from God. I'm the messiah. Let's do this thing. Two things change immediately in his ministry. First, he tells his followers, now, don't tell anyone yet. Like, hold. Yes, you got it right, 100% on the messiah, but put that in your back pocket for a few chapters. But then he begins to tell them that the Jews have collectively misunderstood the ministry of the Messiah. And over these next few chapters, Jesus keeps coming back over and over and over, repeating, saying, messiah is not what you think it is.
I'm not a political or social leader. I'm nothing here. As the Jews thought, to unite Israel, to come together as a people and overthrow Rome and reestablish Israel and Jerusalem as an international powerhouse. Again, that's not what I'm here for. And in fact, quite the opposite. Rather than uniting the religious leaders, the religious leaders will reject me. Rather than overthrowing Rome, Rome will kill me. That's what's coming.
But just wait. I'll raise from the dead three days later. And his followers hear this, and they hear it over and over and over again, and each time, like, it's so deeply drawn into them, who the messiah is and what he'll do. That as they hear this, they just go, that makes no sense. They have no category for this. In fact, in our last text, Jesus teaches this plainly. And Peter, like, stands up and just goes, no, no, Jesus. That's not what we're going to do. That's not how this is going to happen. You've actually got it wrong.
And then Jesus, and it's amazing how fast this switch is because like, in the beginning of 16, Jesus is like congratulating Peter, saying, oh, you're speaking the words of the father. He revealed this to you. And then in the next section, he's like, yeah, you're actually speaking for Satan now. Big switch there, bud. That's not how this is going down. I am in fact going to fail by every earthly measure. I'm gonna be rejected, I'm gonna be killed, I'm gonna raise from the dead. And then he takes it a step further and says, and btw, if you're gonna follow me, you're gonna do the same thing.
My invitation for you to follow me is for you to pick up a cross and follow me again. I've said this several times, but that phrase had no religious connotation. In that moment, the only connotation was human suffering.
Jesus is inviting them to say, you've got the messiah thing wrong. It looks like earthly failure. That's what it looks like. Following Jesus will cost their lives. It will look like failure. And all of that is the setup for our text today. Jesus is radically challenging his followers understanding of his work as messiah, and they're struggling to understand that ministry. So start with me. In chapter 17 of verse one, we read this.
After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and his brother John and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.
He was transfigured in front of them. His face shone like the sun. His clothes became as white as the light. And suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If you want, I'll set up three shelters here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. So this is the story of Jesus transfiguration. This is one of those biblical texts that if you spent time in church, it's relatively well known, but it's not often discussed. And I think we're gonna talk a little bit today about why it's not often discussed, but there's actually a lot going on here. There's a ton of imagery packed into this text that's important for us to understand it first. The most obvious aspect of this text is this. Jesus is reassuring his followers that he is, in fact, Messiah. Right? Like, that's. And that's a big need right now because he's pushing them so hard on something, they just can't wrap their heads around. He's been giving them such difficult teaching that now he takes his three closest followers, his three closest friends. He goes off with just them to encourage them for the coming trials of his work. But look, like, look how it plays out, this experience. I think what we see here is purposefully set up by Jesus for these three men, and it's chopped full of Old Testament allusions. Like, look, Jesus takes them up on a mountain. We have no idea what mountain it is. None of the gospel writers identify it, but we know it's somewhere between Caesarea Philippi and Jerusalem, probably in Galilee, right? Which really, honestly doesn't narrow it down much. But here's the thing. It doesn't matter what mountain it is so much as that it's a mountain. Jesus is taking his three to a high place to meet with God. And it echoes both Moses and Elijah's experience of meeting with God on Mount Sinai. Peter, James and John are getting to meet with God the way the heroes of their faith did before them. And instead, in this kind of subversion of expectation, instead of Jesus the rabbi, Jesus the prophet, meeting with God, Jesus himself is changed in their presence.
His face, his clothes, they glow like lightning. And even as Peter, James, and John are trying to, like, take this in, like, while they're still, like, this is nuts, all of a sudden, Moses and Elijah appear and jump into the story. Luke's telling of the story says that these men begin to discuss Jesus's coming suffering, affirming again that what Jesus himself said in chapter 13. Right. Like these heroic prophets, they longed to see the day of Jesus work, the fulfillment of his ministry. They anticipated the death and resurrection that Peter rebuked Jesus for a couple verses ago. And then we get this amazing and I think, incredibly entertaining moment in the story. Mark. Mark's telling. And remember, Mark's telling comes from Peter's recollection of Jesus ministry. Mark includes this detail that Peter is so overcome by the situation that he just kind of talks without thinking. And I gotta admit, I feel like that's Peter covering for himself right now because of what he says. It's so funny. Matthew doesn't give us the editorializing. Instead, he just shows us the stupid thing Peter says and lets us make our own conclusions. Peter. And we missed this a little bit in the way it comes out in English, but Peter basically says to Jesus, here, you know, it's a good thing that we're here. It's a good thing we're here because. Because we could, like, make you guys, some tents, you know what I'm saying? Like, we can, like, we can really just, like, hang here and linger and, like, it's cool. I mean, obviously this is your deal, Jesus. But, like, look, like we're right here and we got nothing going on. So, like, we can, like, we can really set up here. And in a lot of ways, he's probably thinking back to the fact that when Moses went on the mountain to meet with God, he hung out for more than a month, right? And so he says this, but, man, like, reading it now, you're like, that's dumb, Peter. Like, they don't need you to make them a tent out of sticks. It's just not really a thing. But I think it's important because it draws us back to this truth. This scene was not set up to encourage Jesus, right? Like, Jesus didn't have to come up here to be like, moses, elijah, get me hyped, man. I'm really discouraged. These guys aren't into it. No, no, no. Jesus has set up this scene to encourage his followers. It's set up for the benefit of Peter, James, and John. Like, you can imagine Peter's comment, and then Jesus and Moses and Elijah kind of looking at him like, oh, yeah, we are so lucky you guys are here, right? Like, they're there to bless them. There's actually a truth in this first chunk of the text that I think is so important for us today.
And it's simple, but I think it's good. Notice that Peter is able to make this stupid comment. I know that sounds silly, but follow me here. In general, in the Bible, when people encounter the presence of God or even just the spiritual realm, it's a difficult experience. It's overwhelming. It's terrifying. As I was studying this week, it reminded me of this meme that goes around christian circles about when people in the Bible meet angels. I'm going to put it up there real quick.
When people have spiritual experiences in the Bible, when they encounter the reality of that's wings and eyeballs, that's the way they talk about angels in the Old Testament. When they have these encounters, they're terrified.
It's scary. It's overwhelming. It's disconcerting because these men are being exposed to the divine glory of Jesus. A few paragraphs ago, Peter confessed that Jesus was not just Messiah, but son of God. And when he said that, Jesus said, you've got this right, but you don't even really know what you're saying. God has given you this truth, but you don't fully understand it. And now Peter is getting a face full of this truth.
Jesus is divinely radiant. He's convening with the heroes of faith. He is glowing like lightning.
And yet there's something about Jesus that Peter still feels like he can just talk to him and tell him stupid stuff like, let's build some tents, because I love that there's something about Jesus, about the incarnation of Jesus that makes the glory of God approachable.
There's something about the incarnation of Jesus that makes God's glory approachable. Take that truth. Hold it in your back pocket because we're going to come back to it as the text continues. Read on with me in verse five. While he, that's Peter was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell face down and were terrified.
Jesus came up, touched them and said, get up. Don't be afraid. And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus alone. As if Peter's comment needed to be further highlighted as silly. While he's still speaking, Yahweh shows up to the party, and there's this image in the text here that is so powerful and we can easily miss it. I love this bit. The cloud of God's presence is a super common image in the Old Testament in general. In the Old Testament, when God appears and he's not in a human form, there's not an incarnation in general. When God appears, there is fire and there is smoke, and there's almost never smoke alone. If you actually go back and read through the stories, it's almost always fire and smoke. Abram's covenant with Yahweh in Genesis 15. A torch and a smoking incense pot. Moses at the burning bush. Burning bush. Fire and smoke, but no consumption. Israel at the Red Sea. A pillar of smoke. A pillar of fire. Israel at Mount Sinai. Clouds and lightning. Elijah at Mount Sinai. A tornado and a firestorm. Isaiah in the throne room of God. Smoke and fire under the throne. I could actually, like, keep going with, like a dozen more of these, but you get the point, right? Notice in our story, the cloud appears and it is a bright cloud, but you're left with like, well, wait a minute, where's the fire? Where's the lightning? This is what I love about this text.
It is Christ.
Christ is ablaze with the light of God. So as the father approaches the party, the light and the smoke come together, and Yahweh is present. With three fishermen from Galilee.
And what does he say?
What does the father say in this moment? He repeats what he said at Jesus baptism.
This is my son. I'm pleased with him.
It's such a powerful statement about Jesus and his coming work. Jesus is divine. He and the Father are one. He is the sun, as the cloud is the father, and they are goddesse. The Father is pleased with Jesus. Just as the religious leaders rejected Jesus for things like healing on the Sabbath and not washing his hands correctly, the Father is pleased with Jesus.
It reinforces again that this coming passion of Christ, that his work to accomplish is not a fluke.
It is certainly not a rejection from God. It is God's own plan for himself.
And when the three hear the voice of the father, what is their response?
This is where we get into a little more familiar ground of how these stories go. Terror, right?
They fall on their faces. This is Isaiah in the throne room all over again. Do you remember that story, Isaiah six? Like, he's caught up in this vision. He's brought into the very throne room of God, and he, he sees God in his glory on the throne. He sees the smoke and the fire. He sees the seraphim, which is a term that literally means burning ones, angels lit ablaze by their proximity to the glory of God. And Isaiah's response in that story is abject terror. I should not be here. I'm not supposed to be here. I will die if I'm here. This is bad. Isaiah is acutely aware of his own sin and his people's sin. And he's terrified that the perfect holy glory of God will consume him in his brokenness. Just so you know, that's the normal response to the glory of God.
For sinful, broken humans to be in the presence of God is like realizing you're standing in the presence of a mountain lion, but multiplied by like a couple trillion, right?
It is to realize you are in a place that is not just dangerous, but that you have zero chance of surviving on your own because of sin. The normal response to being close to God is terror.
That's nuts. I mean, God related to Moses as a friend, the text tells us.
But God still told him, if you look upon my face, you shall die.
We are ruined by sin.
And even though we have been made for relationship with God, we cannot approach him. We cannot survive being in his presence.
This is why when God chose to dwell among the Israelites, he was veiled.
Just remember this. The tabernacle and eventually the temple. All Israelites could enter the outer courts. And they could worship if they offered sacrifices. But only consecrated priests could enter the holy place to offer sacrifices. And only one high priest can enter the holy of holies and stand in the very presence of the mercy seat of God. And he could only do that once a year, and he had to be consecrated and set aside for it. And they still tied bells and ropes to him so they could hear him doing the work just in case they messed up the consecration and he dropped dead in the presence of God. They wouldn't have to leave a dead body there for a year. That's nuts.
It's almost like the preacher of proverbs knew what he was about when he said, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
You'll often hear folks say that the biblical fear of the Lord is really about this idea of kind of reverence and respect.
And I guess that is true in a sense. But here's the thing, guys, that doesn't make sense of what we actually see in the biblical narratives.
In the biblical narratives, when humans are exposed to God's real glory, the stories seem to all look like real fear, not just wow. I feel reverent for this experience. And, guys, that makes sense.
To be in the presence of the king of reality, to be in the presence of God is to be in the presence of a being incomparably more than you, a being over whom you have no authority and no control and no power.
Being scared of that is simply to acknowledge reality, right? To not be scared of that would be foolishness.
But remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of wisdom. Why is that?
Because God made us for relationship with him. He made us for intimacy with him. It has to move beyond fear, right? In order to obtain the actual design he has for us, it has to move upon fear. But how can that possibly happen when we're stuck in our sin, in our flesh?
Enter Jesus.
I said this earlier, guys, but this is, I think, one of the primary things we see in our text. Jesus incarnation, his flesh and bloodness is a comfort to us.
See, Jesus makes the holy God approachable. He comforts us by his very nature because he's like us.
He is approachable. He's a dude who you can hang out with and share a meal with. Look at our text.
The father speaks, and the three disciples fall on their face in terror. And what happens next? Look at the text. Jesus came up, touched them and said, get up. Don't be afraid.
Jesus does what Jesus does. He puts flesh and blood to God. He touches them, he speaks to them, he comforts them. He loves them. And when they look up, the vision is over.
Jesus is himself again. They were given a moment to look behind the veil and see Jesus as he really and truly is. And then it was back to what they knew. What a gracious and comforting God. Read on with me. Verse nine. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, hey, don't tell anyone about this vision until the Son of man is raised from the dead. So the disciples asked him, why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? Elijah is coming and will restore everything. He replied, but I tell you, Elijah has already come. And they didn't recognize him. On the contrary, they did whatever they pleased to him. And in the same way, the son of man is going to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them about John the Baptist. This is the word of the Lord for us today.
As they make their way down the mountain, we can see that the three kind of, like, they try and move their minds back into reality, right? Like, they just start talking shop about theology with Jesus. And Jesus just steps into that with them. Like, first he warns them, hey, don't talk about this until after my work is complete. He knows what's coming, and he wants this experience to be a comfort and encouragement for these three men and also for the church. But he doesn't want it to become a distraction that messes up his plans to die at the hands of the religious and roman authorities. And so you see, even in their theology chat on the way down, the three are still having trouble reconciling what they've been taught their whole lives about Messiah and what they've experienced and heard in Jesus claims. So they bring up one of these most common things they've heard their whole life, that Elijah would return before the Messiah. And without spending too much time here because it's a little bit in the weeds, Jesus basically tells them that this came to pass in the ministry of John the Baptist, that he ministered in the spirit of Elijah, and look how it went for him. He was rejected and killed by the religious and roman authorities. Jesus points to this as further evidence that his own coming suffering is the plan. Jesus incarnation in the death that comes from his incarnation was God's plan for redemption all along. It's what the prophets pointed to. And that's where our text lands out today as we move to the end of this. I think it's interesting that the only real, like, command or application we see in this text is spoken by God to the three disciples. Like, one of the things I love about this text is that it's mostly just Jesus on display. It's mostly show, not a lot of tell. It displays Jesus divinity, and it does so really plainly and really consistently. It's pretty clear. But to the original audience. Right? Like, would have even been more in your face because of all the imagery going on here. It's mostly a display text, but God does give a direct command to the three disciples. Do you remember this? It's right at the end of his affirmation of Jesus, he says, listen to him.
Did you catch that?
I think this is so vital for us today. Like, on the one hand, we can all use this encouragement to actually obey Jesus. Right? John 14 says pretty clearly, if you love me, you'll obey my commands. I think all of us as followers of Christ need to be challenged to take this seriously, to grow in our knowledge and obedience to Jesus commands so we can grow in christlikeness and holiness. I also think even more specifically to this text that we just read that we've been reading, this command makes a ton of sense. Jesus has been giving them this new, this difficult teaching about his gospel work. He's going to suffer and die and lose by every worldly measure, and so are they. By his resurrection, he'll show that he has ultimate victory. He's been telling them to expect this not just for him, but for themselves, to lose to the world, but to gain a heaven. Like, that's a hard teaching, the teaching they've been struggling with. And so God tells the three, just as he tells us, like, listen to Jesus.
The promise of the gospel is cross now, crown later. Take that seriously. Don't be surprised when your yes to Jesus costs you something in this world, right? But honestly, guys, I think there's another aspect to this command that might be even more simple and more important for us this morning.
Because when God says, listen to him, look at the very next thing Jesus says to the three disciples after God's command, they listen to him. Jesus walks up and he says, get up and don't be afraid.
Jesus first words to his friends and his followers after they encounter the God of the universe and are commanded to listen to him are words of comfort and encouragement.
Beloved, let us not move past that truth too quickly.
Jesus first words he speaks after the Father has said listen to him are to comfort them and encourage them.
I think many of us are far too anxious, guilty, and scared to be excited at the prospect of meeting with God, much less living in real, consistent, deep relationship with him.
But beloved, listen to Jesus.
Listen to him because he does something amazing for you.
His work on the cross made a way for us to connect with God, his very person, as God incarnate builds a bridge for us to meet with God.
Do you ever wonder why Matthew includes that detail about the curtain tearing in two in the temple when Jesus died on the cross? Guys, the curtain was the veil. It separated sinful Israel from the holy and righteous God. And Jesus death tore the curtain down. It removed the veil. He ushers us into the presence of God, and he does so with comfort and with boldness rather than with terror.
The preacher was right when he said the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. To fear God is to simply acknowledge reality.
It's an acknowledgement of your place in the universe. But John, who was present in this moment, who fell on his face in terror, who heard the words of Yahweh, who knew what it was to fear God, would later in his ministry, write this in the letter of one John, there is no fear in love. Instead, perfect love drives out fear. Because fear involves punishment, beloved, there is no punishment that remains for those of us who are in Christ.
Can we sit in that for a moment?
The fear that comes to you in the presence of the holy and righteous God is the understanding of the reality of his holiness and the effect that has on your sinfulness, the just wrath of God, on rebellion and sin.
But there is no punishment that remains.
Christ has already absorbed every ounce of the wrath and justice of God.
He's already taken the punishment.
And so fear, as fear is driven out by that, that fundamentally changes your relationship to goddesse.
The author of Hebrews. He tells us to approach the throne with confidence.
He's using the exact same image, the image of the temple with the outer courts and the holy place and the most holy place, that place where everyone had to stay outside. And only priests could go this far, and only one priest could go this far. He says, no, no, no.
Jesus has shifted that. The curtain's gone. You walk right into the most holy place. You stand before the mercy seat with the presence of God, that place that lit the seraphim on fire. You walk up to that throne and you do so with boldness and with expectation, with the assumption, the assumption that God will meet your needs and pour out grace on you guys. That is ridiculous.
That is nuts to say that you and me get the privilege of approaching the throne of God, much less approaching the throne of God. With expectation, with boldness, assuming that we will be met with grace and kindness.
That should blow your mind.
The privilege of that is beyond the scope of language to describe.
Ben, if you want to come back up, I'm not going to keep circling around this, because the reality is there's not a way to put good words to how insane and amazing that is.
This privilege to approach the throne of God himself, to stand in his presence, not in terror and fear, but in comfort, in boldness, in expectation of further grace and mercy and love and forgiveness.
This is yours and mine in Christ.
That gift is given to you and to me in Christ. Why?
Because Jesus is God's son.
Because he is God in human flesh. He is Goddesse incarnate.
He makes a way for us to commune with God, and I think we ought to listen to him.
Let's take a few minutes, guys, and take some time in prayer and reflection.
And I want to encourage you guys, we're going to take communion in just a couple minutes.
And I hope that this text, this truth, drives the way you consider communion today.
But I want to encourage you for these next few minutes, we're just going to sit in this for a second. I want to encourage you to do the work, to get some space with just you and Jesus. And I know I say that a lot, but can I really emphasize that today?
I want to encourage you to find a posture where you can be alone with God for a moment, because I think many of us avoid that.
It's comforting to be in the room, to know you're surrounded by people, friends, your church, family.
But I want to encourage you to take a minute to be with you in Christ.
If you need to get in a different chair, if you want to get on your knees or come forward, if you need to grab one of the pastors and just have us pray for you. Pray with you.
I want to encourage you to step outside of your distractions and be with God for moment. Step into that presence and see what awaits you.
See what Christ has for you. See what he says to you today.
And then we'll continue our response with communion. Beloved, do the work you need to do with the Lord this morning.
Sadeena. Sadeena.
Sadeena. Sadeena.
[00:45:26] Speaker B: We're going to continue in our response time by taking communion. So if you have those elements, go ahead and get them ready. If you don't, then raise your hand and somebody will bring those up to you.
What an incredible reminder today of the love and mercy of Jesus.
I find the progression that Jesus takes his disciples through over these couple of chapters to just be so amazing that, you know, Jesus asks them who he is, they give this correct response. He says, yes, that's correct. And then Peter sticks his foot in his mouth and Jesus rebukes him. And then Jesus takes them up on this mountain to really hammer home who he is, to remind them, because he knows he has incredible compassion. He knows what they're about to go through too.
Obviously, it's nothing in comparison to what Jesus is about to go through, but he has compassion. He knows that they're going to struggle, that they're going to struggle to see him go through what he does, that they're going to be rejected, that they're going to betray him, that all of these things they're going to go through. And he needs to give them this reminder, this incredible moment of seeing him in his glory, of feeling his power and his compassion. And he gives them that reminder that they can lean on as they continue on in this struggle and journey that they're going to be going through.
Jesus is that good. Jesus gives us reminders and that's what this is. That's what communion is for us. The little piece of bread and a little bit of juice. This is a reminder of Jesus compassion, a reminder of his mercy, of his love.
What an amazing story.
What an amazing experience.
We get to be a part of that story.
Greg's testimony was just incredible. And it's all of our story.
We were lost.
Jesus was the only way to be respected and he did it for us.
That's what this is a reminder of. The bread is a reminder of his body broken. For us. The juice is a reminder of his blood poured out for us together. It's a reminder that Jesus, the messiah, the king of the universe, was willing to go to extreme lengths for us.
I think it's easy for us as believers to get in these cycles that we even see the disciples in of feeling like our sin kind of is huge and Jesus God's majesty is huge and it causes us to fall on our face in fear and then we just stay there. We feel terrible about ourselves. We feel like our sin is so terrible and we just sit in it and we feel worthless. We feel like we have no value. It's easy, especially for newer christians, to get lost in this sense of worthlessness.
Jesus gives us this reminder that our worth is immense. He was willing to pay this much for us, which means we are worth that much. In his eyes, our identity is found in Christ, not in ourselves.
So today. Take this with me.
Jesus sat down right before he was going to be betrayed and arrested and killed. He sat down with his friends and he shared this meal together. And he passed around the bread and he broke it and he said, this is my body which will be broken for you. Take and eat.
Then after they had eaten, he passed around the cup and he said, this represents my blood which will be poured out for you in the new covenant of grace and mercy. Take and drink.
Jesus, thank you so much for your love, your grace, your kindness, your mercy for us, for grabbing our hands and pulling us up and saying, get up. Do not be afraid.
Jesus, thank you for your love for us. Help us to take this remembrance of you and remember you throughout a week, throughout what we're going through to stand strong in you.
Thank you, Jesus.
[00:50:59] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:51:16] Speaker C: Be thou my vision O Lord of my heart not be all else to me save that thou art thou my best thought by day or by night waking or sleeping thy presence my life be thou my wisdom thou my true worth high ever with thee and thou with me Lord, thou my great father and I thy true son thou in me dwelling and I with thee one riches I e not nor man's empty praise thou might inheritance now and always thou and thou only be first in my heart high king of heaven my treasure thou art high king of heaven after victory won may I reach heaven joys o bright heaven sun heart of my own heart would ever be fall still be my vision o ruler of all part of my own heart would ever befall still be my vision no ruler of all still be my vision o ruler of all remember Jesus brought you out of Egypt remember he has sought you as his people remember he has saved you from your sin remember, remember him.
Remember Jesus brought you through the red sea remember mighty miracles that you see remember you were slaves and now are free remember that he is king to the only God our savior Jesus Christ be glory, honor, power and dominion before all time and now and evermore remember Jesus reigns above the heavens he's coming.
He is coming with his kingdom.
Do not forget he is seated on the throne remember what he has done to the only God our savior Jesus Christ be glory, honor, power and dominion before all time and now and evermore before our time and now and forever more before all time and now and forever more.
[00:57:18] Speaker A: Amen.
Guys, as we get ready to go, I want to give you one reminder and that's this. Whatever it was God was telling you today, don't miss it. Don't step past it. If God has put something heavy on your heart today. Decide right now who you're going to share it with.
Any of our pastors like we are for you guys. We would love to be with you in your spiritual journey. I'd encourage you guys, man, if there's just something going on, it's burdening your heart, grab one of the blue cards in the back, write it down and drop it in the prayer box. Our elders and our prayer team will pray for you, even if it's anonymous, right? If you want to meet with a pastor and talk through what God's telling you, we are here for you. We love you guys. With that, I want to invite you guys. Let us go in the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ that he won for us. We love you guys. We'll see you this week in gospel communities and Lord willing, next week back in the same space.
