17For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
18And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
John 1:14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
These disciples see the glory of the Son of God, But Peter sticks his foot in his mouth. He is witness to one of the most beautiful and glorious events of history and cheapens it by opening his mouth. He should have kept his tongue. If God gives us a glimpse of his glory, the best thing we can do is remain in awe and silence, because we may stick our foot in our mouth. I’ve heard Les Ritchie say that sometimes God drops us a crumb from heaven. When we do, lets just worship God and stand in awe of his majesty and do as it says in Eccl 5:1-2 1Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
2Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
Glorious Sight
Jesus transfigured – Jesus and the three disciples went to the mountain to pray and while in communion with the Father Jesus suddenly took on a glorious, heavenly appearance. Matthew and Mark used the word “transfigured” to describe what took place. It is the word from which we get metamorphosis which describes an outward change from the inside. It parallels Moses’ experience with God on the mountain and his face shone with the glory of God, but for moses it was outward change from the outside glory, but for Jesus is was the outward change from the inner glory.
The appearance of Moses and Elijah – Jesus’ glory was accompanied by the amazing appearance of Moses and Elijah the two most important people in the history of Israel apart from the patraiarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Awakened from their sleep they saw his glory – the disciples almost missed the greatest moment of revelation of Jesus earthly ministry prior to the cross because they were asleep-how much do we miss because we are asleep – Eph 5:14 – 16 14Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
15See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
16Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
-He makes this suggestion with a desire to honor Jesus, Moses, and Elijah and to keep this event from fading. So lets build places of worship. When you think about it, Moses received no burial monument, God took care of his body. Elijah was not buried, but taken to heaven. So there was no monument or shrine to these 2 great men for people to worship, God intended it that way. Peter wanted to make these places of worship with good intentions, but it would have become places of idolatry, because Peter erred in thinking that Jesus was an equal with Moses and Elijah, they were not equals.
– Sometimes it is better to remain silent in the presence of God as an act of worship
Hab 2:20 20But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
Zech 2:13 Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation
Glorious Sound
Cloud overshadowed them – parallels the exodus where a cloud led Israel through the wilderness, it assured the people of God’s presence and prevented the people from witnessing the full glory of God, the cloud enveloped the disciples so they could no longer see the glory but could be reassured that God was present among them.
The voice of God spoke from the cloud – In exodus God spoke from a cloud to reveal his nature and will. Here the disciples hear the voice of God. Remember, this even follows Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ and Jesus’ prediction of his suffering and death on the cross and Peter wanting to prevent that from happening. Here God leaves no question that Jesus is His son, and they need to listen to Him! He is not Moses, or Elijah or one of the prophets as some were saying, He is God’s own son.
-there is no need to build tabernacles and hope Moses and Elijah will return. Their day has passed, their voices are drowned out by the voice of Jesus. Moses, Elijah and Jesus were not equals, only Jesus is the son of God. Commitment to Jesus means listening to Him, and his words carried greater authority that the law and the prophets. Greater than moses and Elijah.
-Elijah and the still small voice 1 Kings 19: 11And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
12And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
13And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
– you have to listen for the still small voice of God in the midst of the noise of the world.
-We must listen for the voice of God – Usually not an audible voice but when you hear the voice of God speak it unmistakable
Glorious Anticipation
-we are guilty of doing just that – Jesus + good works, is an example, Jesus + keeping the OT law. That is a gross misunderstanding and dangerous position to take.
They were instructed, other gospels record, to remain silent. But obviously the time came to tell of this event.
-Can you imagine how hard that must have been. They caught a glimpse of Christ’s glory and had to remain silent! Can’t wait to tell others – how long has it been since you have talked to someone about the greatness of God. About how He is working in your life, about answers to prayer. Just magnifying the name of Jesus. We are not talking about church, Sunday School, the ministries of the church, fellow Christians. I mean how long has it been since you have talked about Christ!
-God inhabits the praise of His people!
-Imagine how they longed to see the glory of Jesus face to face again!