Father, we thank You for this morning. We thank You for, Lord, that truth that often leaves us that our true happiness, our true satisfaction, our true joy and nothing that we can have is alone in knowing Your Son Jesus and knowing that He created us and He loved us and He has spilled His blood for us, Lord. So we just pray You turn our hearts and minds to Christ alone this morning and just speak to us through Your Word. And I just pray that You’d be glorified in all things. I just pray that in Christ’s name. Amen.

Well, good morning. It’s good to be with you. It’s actually still a little warmer. I had to turn the A.C. on this morning. It actually got too hot in here. So it’s nice not to be freezing all the time and start to warm up outside a little bit. But unless you love winter, then sorry, it’s going to get hot soon. We live in Alabama.

We’re going to be in Matthew again, Matthew chapter 17. If you want to turn that with me in your Bibles, Matthew chapter 17, verses 1 through 13.

Matthew chapter 17, verses 1 through 13.

Matthew writes, starting in verse 1, And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John His brother

and led them up a high mountain by themselves and He was transfigured before them. And His face shone like the sun and His clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with Him.

And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, is it good that we are here? If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed 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 on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them saying, Rise and have no fear. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, Tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead. And the disciples asked Him, Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come? He answered, Elijah does come and He will restore all things, but I tell you that Elijah has already come. And they did not recognize Him, but did to Him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man, starting to be raised from the dead, at their hands, then the disciples understood that He was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

So we came off last week of Jesus saying that very serious thing to us. If you want to really follow Jesus,

it’s joy, yes, but it’s suffering. Remember Jesus said, You’ve got to take up your cross and you’ve got to follow Me. And that’s what it means to follow Jesus. It is to follow Him, so often and his sufferings. We come to chapter 17 and the tone momentarily changes.

We get here and Peter, James, and John, they see a great and wonderful, magnificent thing in the moment. And they behold a great and beautiful and wonderful thing. And it’s a privilege for them to see what they see.

But what they see on the mountain, it is the smallest taste of something far better. And I want us to see how Jesus on the mountain still speaks to us when you and I are in our deepest valleys. When you are in our discouragements, friends, we can still look up to Jesus on the mountain and know that He is God and He is in control. And in all of our cross-bearing and caring, Jesus is good and Jesus is in good. So Jesus on the mountain. And on this mountain,

James, John, Peter, His inner circle, they get to see a great thing and they get to hear a wonderful thing. And what they see is the transfiguration. And if you want me to explain to you the transfiguration, I’m the wrong guy. Because there’s really nothing to explain. It’s really this amazing happening. Jesus, you could render the word transformed, His outward appearance, it is transfigured into some glorious heavenly form. Matthew says His skin is like the sun. His clothes are blindingly bright white. It kind of reminds us of the angel who rolls away the stone of Jesus’ tomb. His clothes are white as snow. He looks like lightning, the Scriptures say. Or Daniel trembling in his vision. Or Paul being tempered. Or Paul being severely blinded by the light from heaven when Jesus approaches him. So it’s some superior heavenly state. They’re seeing Christ and it’s more than the disciples can process.

And it’s not just Jesus they see. They see Moses. And they see Elijah. And we’ve talked about them, but who are Moses and Elijah? Well, they’re two prominent, maybe two of the most prominent figures in Jewish culture, Jewish history, in Judaism. It’s Moses. It’s Elijah. Two very, very great prophets from God.

Peter ought to say nothing, but Peter says something. Peter says, Jesus, do you want me to build some tents for you and Moses and Elijah?

Mark’s Gospel says that he didn’t know what to say because he was terrified. And Luke’s account says he didn’t even know what he was saying. The commentator A.B. Bruce says what he was saying was a scheme of stupidity. So he’s just talking because something’s happening. It’s amazing. It’s amazing. And they’re privileged to see it. Very privileged to see this thing. The only three of the twelve got to see. But that’s, I guess, my question for us. Is the Christian life always a mountaintop experience? Is the Christian life always this blissful, extravagant vision, feeling, such nearness to God, or the circumstances of our life, the outcome of our life so equally wonderful all the time? I don’t think so. And I think if we expect our Christian discipleship to be a mountaintop experience all the time, we’re going to be awfully tempted often to forfeit our discipleship. So I want to say to us this morning in this passage, in your discouragement, make a habit of looking up, to Jesus. Look up to Jesus. Because He alone can turn our hearts towards God. Jesus alone can turn our hearts towards God. This isn’t the first mountain that we see Elijah on in Scripture. If you look with me at 1 Kings chapter 19, I’m going to read from there. 1 Kings chapter 19 verse 9, it says, There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, this is God speaking, what are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant. They’ve thrown down your altars. They’ve killed your prophets with the sword. And I, even I only am left and they seek my life to take it. And the Lord said to him, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by and a great strong wind tore the mountains and broke it in pieces, broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, and the Lord was not in the earthquake, the Lord was not in the fire. He does all these things. God comes to Elijah in a whisper. In a very small way that perhaps we wouldn’t imagine God to come. He comes in a way that Elijah doesn’t expect. And again he says to Elijah, what are you doing here, Elijah? What are you doing here?

Elijah is a discouraged prophet. The wicked queen Jezebel has killed so many of the priests of the Lord. She has set up the bales in Israel. And Elijah is on the run. He’s hiding away in a cave at Mount Horeb. This is not how his ministry as a prophet was supposed to go. He was not supposed to be on the run. Elijah faithfully preached truth. He did mighty miracles. But the people of Israel were absolutely committed to worshipping the bales, the false gods of wicked queen Jezebel. They would not repent. And for Elijah, all seems very lost. And the very good thing, the very godly thing that Elijah’s heart desires is not happening. He’s not seeing revival throughout the land. He’s not seeing all of God’s people turn to God. He sees apostasy throughout the land. He sees wickedness on the throne of Israel. And he’s discouraged. He even asked the Lord a few verses previously, would you just please take my life? Would you please just take my life? But you know, God doesn’t seem to think that Elijah should be so discouraged, though in Elijah’s eyes his own problems are so many. They’re so great.

God’s never been a bad God, has He? The Lord had never misguided Elijah before. For that matter, has God ever failed to be in control even before, even during the fall of man in the garden?

The answer has to be no.

I want to say to us this morning, friends, in our spiritual discouragements, the darkest valleys that you and I walk, and they will be many, and they will be of a variety of kind. Do you believe this? That the will of the Father will always be done? That God doesn’t play catch-up? God doesn’t have plain B’s and C’s? God doesn’t react to unbeknownst situations? The Lord is the Lord of the past, of the present, and the future. And you know, discouragement, it’s got a terrible way of robbing us of that precious truth. It has a way of marooning us on an island or shutting us up in a cave. We don’t believe if we let it. We must hold truth into the faith we had when we first believed. Or better yet, hold our faith in the object, the object of our faith when we first believed. Because you know, when you first become a Christian, you place your faith in Jesus, there’s not a mountain you won’t climb, is there? There’s not a battle you won’t fight. My pastor would go up and say, you’re ready to take on hell with a water pistol. Right? So I mean, you’re just, you love God and you’re ready to go for it. But what happens is spiritual discouragement, achievements happen. Spiritual warfare happens and it grates on you and things get harder and things get tough.

And here’s what we forget, friends. Faith, real faith, not, oh, I’ve got faith that such and such is, you know, I’ve got faith in that person. Real faith, God-given faith, it’s born by conviction, not by sight, not what happens. And faith just as much, it’s grown up in it, it’s grown up in adversity. For our faith to be faith, it’s got to be a conviction, something we know is good and I know God’s true, even though it doesn’t seem like it, even though it doesn’t feel like it. And the more it doesn’t seem like it, my faith must grow because this adversity, as much as it’s telling me one thing, my faith says, no, it cannot be.

Read Acts. Read about the Apostle Paul. Read about anyone who did anything significant for the Lord in church history and you will find their faith was born in conviction and it was raised on the food of adversity. So if you don’t see adversity in your life and you’re not experiencing trials, I would say something’s wrong. If life is as I plan it to be all the time and there’s no friction, friends, when we want to live for the kingdom of heaven, which is a spiritual reality, and we want to be able to live for the kingdom of heaven, when we want to be spiritually grown, we will experience spiritual friction. We will experience spiritual discouragement. And that’s when faith is asked the question, do you believe that God is good and God is love and God is at work? Well, it doesn’t seem so. Do you believe God is love, though all is bleak and all is dark?

For Elijah and all his faithfulness, he did not in his time, see the fruit he wanted to see. If you had a conference and you invited all the big-name successful pastors, Elijah would not have been invited. That guy, I mean, he could call fire down from heaven and he still couldn’t get the people to show up.

But here we are at a different mountain. We’re on a completely different mountain here in Matthew’s Gospel. And it’s different in this time. Because Elijah’s not discouraged. Elijah’s not wandering. Elijah’s not fearing. Elijah’s here on this mountain in Matthew’s Gospel. He’s staring into the very face of the One who will bring a spiritual revival. And this person he’s looking at is going to bring it in a way that’s far superior to how he ever could have hoped to see a spiritual revival in his time years ago.

In Malachi chapter 4, he writes, Behold, and this is the very last prophet, last book in the Old Testament, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their father. And one thing that Jesus makes so plain to us in the Matthew’s Gospel is that it was John the Baptist. John the Baptist came before Jesus and John the Baptist came in the power, the spirit of Elijah’s ministry. And we looked at John the Baptist a lot. John the Baptist prepared the people’s hearts for Christ and Christ came and Christ lived and Christ died and Christ was resurrected and Jesus sent His resurrected life, His new spirit that overcame death, overcame sin, the Holy Spirit sent the Jesus who was resurrected in you and in me. And that spirit is constantly turning our hearts to God, turning our hearts to God, turning our desires to God, turning us from hate to love, from hell to heaven, from Satan to Jesus. And that spirit’s not going to stop. It was God’s perfect plan to change our hearts and turn us to God and bring us spiritual revivalists in a way that Elijah did not see, in a way that Elijah could not have imagined. And if God gave Elijah what Elijah wanted to see in Elijah’s time, it would have been such a small thing compared to what God had planned to do all along in Jesus. In Jesus.

So let me say this to you. If God called Elijah to be so faithful in his time, though Elijah had a very limited knowledge and understanding of how God was going to do this, he didn’t know Jesus’ name, he didn’t have the New Testament, right? How much more zealous and faithful should you not be in our spiritual discouragements knowing Jesus came and He was the Messiah and He was God’s plan to turn the hearts of God’s people back to Him? And I have the Spirit of Christ in me and I have the book of Revelation and I see that Jesus, you know, He ascended and He’s going to come back again and He’s going to defeat Satan once and forever. How much more should you and I punch through our discouragement because we have the very presence and spirit of Jesus in us?

Jesus accomplished this for us. Jesus is a greater Elijah. Jesus turned God’s people’s heart back to them. And Jesus can work in us. And through us in all things He calls us to knowing this is going to God’s plan. It seems terrible to me. But hey, God knows what He’s doing. God knows what He’s doing. Do you trust that Jesus, if He had the power to conquer sin and death, He’s got the power and the wisdom to keep you in the good way?

The Father thinks so. Because the Father said, this is my beloved Son Jesus with who I am pleased. Listen to Him. And you know that wasn’t the first time that the Father had done that. The Father said those very same words when Jesus was baptized at the beginning of His ministry. It seems like the Father is trying to say something to us here, isn’t He? Jesus is beloved of the Father in a special way. Jesus pleases the Father as only Jesus can. Why? Because Jesus has the very heart of the Father. So it’s Jesus alone who has the know-how and the power to turn our hearts to God. So it’s only Jesus who we should constantly be listening to and learning from and growing up in because He alone can turn our hearts to God and work in and through all that we’re doing for His kingdom and His name’s sake.

Faith. Faith’s hard to have. You know? It’s very hard to have. Can your faith apprehend the steadfastness and the reliability and the goodness of God? God to you in all things. The Father says, Heed Christ. Can you believe that word? If you heed Christ, Christ will see you through. Christ will turn your heart. Christ will keep you in the way. And Christ will work through all that He calls you to. Peter said a lot of dumb things, didn’t he? He’s always known for that. Six foot in his mouth. Ha ha, it’s Peter. He said some good things though sometimes. And in John 6, verse 68, he says a really good thing.

When so many disciples are leaving, leaving Jesus, because Jesus says hard things, Jesus says to His disciples, do y’all want to leave Me too? And what does Peter say? He says, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.

See? Jesus. Think about all the stuff Peter went through. Think of all the times that Peter, Peter inflicted discouragement on himself. You know, how faithful was Jesus to keep him? How faithful was Jesus to turn his heart back? How faithful was Jesus to continually use him and use him and even, you know, preach the gospel through him at Pentecost and there see the church birthed?

I read a silly kind of anecdote, but I think it proves a point. It goes like this. The devil decided to have a garage sale and on the day of the sale all the tools were placed before the public and each was marked with a sale price and there were a lot of tools hatred, envy, jealousy, deceit, lust, lying, pride, and so on but set apart from all of the other tools was a harmless looking tool. It was quite worn more than all the other tools yet it was priced very high. One customer asked, what is the name of this tool? That is discouragement, Satan replied. Why have you priced it so high? Because it is more useful to me than the others. I can pry open and get inside a man’s heart with that, even when I cannot get near him with the other tools. It is badly worn because I use it on almost everyone since so few people know that it belongs to me.

How true that is. How true that is. Friends, let’s look up to the mountain where Christ is and see it’s not about us. What we’re doing or accomplishing for God it’s about what God has done and is doing through Christ and because it’s all about what God’s doing in and through Christ and what He certainly will bring to fulfillment I can in all discouragement keep going and say, hey, you know what? It’s not about me. It’s not about me. God’s not up there like, man, I really want to cheer for Chad. I hope he does this just right and if he doesn’t get it right, things are going to be a mess. No, God has us and He’s keeping us and He’s working in us and He’s working through us so we don’t need to be discouraged. We don’t need to be discouraged. In our discouragement, let’s quickly look up and see Jesus who is the greater Elijah.

I don’t think that’s at odds with effort. I think you say, great, let me sit back in my spiritual lazy boy and just let Jesus do everything. No, I don’t think so because the Father said, listen. Which really means, it means heed. It means you’re listening to the point where you’re taking action to do what you’re told. So there’s effort, I think, and really embracing grace like God wants us to expend ourselves. J.I. Packer says we should be Bible beavers. He said John Bunyan was a Bible beaver. He said for all the PhDs you could get, no one was like John Bunyan because he just got in the Bible and he worked hard and he studied it and he just gnawed on it and knew it and he absorbed the Bible. So I think you and I very much so when we come to church on Sundays and we do Bible study and we get in discipling relationships and we pray and all that, all the things that can be just religious activities, understand those aren’t means to themselves. Like, check the box. I went to church today. Check the box. I met with coffee and we talked about life. Check the box. I did this stuff. The stuff is a means to an end and the end is knowing Jesus. What a waste of time if we’ve come just to say, oh, we’ve had a religious service this morning. The end of the thing must always be, ah, I’ve seen Christ more. Ah, I heed Christ more. Ah, I’m growing up more in Christ. So, be a beaver. It’s a weird thing to hear a pastor say. Be a beaver of the Bible and know Christ and let’s know Christ together and let’s grow in the Gospel and be equipped for ministry and grow up for that salvation all the more.

Looking back at verse 6 in Matthew 17, it says, when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and they were like, they were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them saying, rise and have no fear. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

You know, it’s one of those things when you’re a kid. It’s the way it is. You’re afraid of the dark, aren’t you? Kids just don’t like the dark. I still don’t like the dark. My wife goes out of town, I turn lights on. I just don’t like the dark.

You think about, you know, if you’re someone that you don’t like to speak in front of people and that feeling of like going out and like, oh, this. Or even think about a soldier getting ready to go into battle and fight. Like all these like intense levels of fear you can experience. This is something that’s altogether different because when they see what they see, but then when they hear what they hear, these grown men literally lose control of their bodies and they drop to the ground. Could you imagine being so afraid you’re like a dead person on the ground and you just can’t move? That’s what’s happened. They’ve seen the glory of heaven in Christ, but then they’ve heard the thunderous voice of the Father coming out of this bright cloud that’s overshadowed them. I mean, I’m imagining the best Hollywood movie couldn’t really recreate the impact of being in the presence of God in such a way. And why wouldn’t they respond that way? I think it’s the only way you can respond when God is so close to mere mortals, when holiness is so close to sinfulness, they cannot withstand it.

This was not Moses’ first time on a mountain in Scripture either. Why don’t you look with me at Exodus chapter 19, verse 11.

God says, And you shall set limits for the people all around, taking care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch it, but he shall be stoned or shot, whether beast or man. He shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. And further down in Exodus 20, 18, it says, Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and they trembled and they stood far off and said to Moses, You speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die.

So the people were invited by God to come to Mount Sinai because God said, I’m going to descend on Mount Sinai. And on Mount Sinai, you’re going to see me and it flashed with lightning and it thundered and there were billows of smoke. And he said, Don’t you people dare think about touching the mountain because God’s so holy and He’s so great. There was this gap there because of their sinfulness. He said, Don’t touch the mountain. And they said, We don’t want to touch the mountain. We don’t want to hear from God. Moses, you talk to God and you just come and tell us what He said. And that’s exactly what happened. Moses would go up the mountain and get God’s message. Moses would go up the mountain and get God’s rules, God’s laws and bring them back down to the people. But Moses could not himself see God. There was a time on the mountain when Moses said to God, Can I please see Your glory? And God said, I’ll show you my backside, but you can’t see my face because if a man sees me, he shall surely die. God told Moses. So you see what Moses was. He was a mediator. He was an in-between. He brought God’s messages. He brought God’s rules. He brought the sacrificial system of how they should sacrifice what animal for all the different types of sins. Still yet, Moses himself could not see and be with God. Nor could Moses bring the people into the very presence of God, lest they all die. God said quite plainly.

But now we’re on, on a different mountain again back in Matthew. And this time, Moses is looking right into the very face of God. And he’s seeing the fullness of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And he’s looking into the face of the One who will do more than deliver God’s rules and messages.

This Jesus will show the people, God, this Jesus is the greatest prophet and the last word to come from God. This Jesus fulfilled all of God’s rules and laws so only this Jesus can show the people, God. And that’s exactly what Jesus did. Just Jesus. Just Jesus carried the sins of the world. Just Jesus was crucified. Just Jesus spilled His blood so that the Hebrew writer can say, Jesus alone is the new and the living way to God again. It was just Jesus. Who’s made the Father known to us. What happened when Jesus died on the cross and said it is finished? The Scriptures tell us the veil between the outer court and the inner, the Holy of Holies where the presence of God rested, that veil was ripped in two. It was ripped in two. Why? Because Jesus did what Moses could never do. Take us in there. Take us in there to see the glory of God again.

I want to say to you, when you are so sure your sins have so separated you from God, can I remind you that Jesus was the once for all satisfaction for your sin by His cross? When you are sure that you are far from God and you cannot get back to God and God does not love you, can I remind you of Jesus who hung on the cross and received all of the anger, all of this approval, all of the wrath of God so that you may be eternally accepted in Jesus so that you can look on God and God can look on you and His Son with love. No longer condemned under the law. No longer is God standing over us as a judge. In Christ, we are set free to see and be with God. John says in John chapter 1, the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father’s side. He has made Him known. Jesus has made the Father known to us.

Charles Spurgeon said, the voice from heaven, it casts down, but the word from Jesus is arise. The Father’s voice on the mountain made them sore afraid, but Jesus says, be not afraid. Glorious God, how much we bless Thee for Your mediator. And that’s Jesus. So let’s join James and Peter and Paul when we feel the wrath of God coming on us. Look up. And just see Jesus there alone. Feel His touch on your shoulder. And He says to you, rise and don’t be afraid.

We go through cereal in my house. Like, you know, it’s limited quantity. You know, like, they’re going to run out of it. I mean, we love cereal. It’s like soul food. I just love cereal. It doesn’t even fill me up. It’s like eating it. But you can’t have cereal without milk. Can you? And every once in a great while, what happens? There’s only so much milk left. And it’s not grocery. It’s not grocery day. And what does everybody have to do? We have to start, like, portioning out the milk. Like, don’t have that much. Like, Darcy, they want something like, you’ve got this much, you’ve got this much. You can’t have any more. It’s water the rest of the day. There’s only this much left. And it’s just going down and it’s going down and it’s going down. And you know, we often treat God’s grace like that. Like, oh man, I’m about to run out. I’m about to use it all up. Man, He’s been really merciful to me, but, surely this time, surely this time, God is ready to turn away from me. Surely.

Friends, that’s something that we struggle with, isn’t it? How good the devil is at discouraging. How good the devil is at telling you, you were cast down and you cannot get back up. But Jesus says, rise. Jesus says, I’m a sufficient Savior for you.

And verse 9, it says, as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, tell no one of the vision until a son of man is raised from the dead. Why not? Because it’s awesome. Jesus, I want to tell everybody, I just saw you glow. Like, you just glowed. I don’t know if that’s even the correct past tense. And you were all white and it was bright and we didn’t even know what to say and we heard the voice of the Father and there was this cloud thing and it was bright and it was amazing. I want to tell everybody about this. Tell everybody. But he says, don’t tell anybody. Why not? Because as amazing as that was, friends, there’s something even greater that’s getting ready to happen. There is a lifting up that’s getting ready to happen that far supersedes this little taste they got of glory. And what it is, friends, it’s Jesus on the cross.

Friends, in your discouragement, look up to Jesus on the cross because by His cross, He will turn your heart to God. And by His cross, He will bring you into the presence of God. And through His suffering, He will bring you into eternal glory. And as we suffer with Him and we live for Him in all trials as He keeps us, we can know we will be brought into a greater glory. Yes, the transfiguration was amazing. But it was the smallest taste of the glory that you and I will know through the cross of Christ. See Jesus on the mountain, yes. But let’s not stop seeing in our hearts every day Jesus on the cross. Because there hanged our Savior. There our salvation was won. And that is a magnificent sight. And to hear Him say, it is finished, that is a majestic voice.

Let’s pray together.

Let’s pray together. Father, we’re so good at coming up with reasons as to why, we don’t measure up. We’re really good with the reasons for why we’ve gone too far.

We’re really good at seeing all of our faults and how we’ve failed You. And Lord, it’s so often true all those things we think. But how slow we are to turn to the cross and see how Jesus has bore all our sin and by His blood He’s made us new and the newness that He has put inside of us, it cannot be lifted. We are forever and unchangingly loved by You and kept by You.

So Jesus, thank You that You were lifted up on the cross.

And so it is up to the cross that we look this morning and say thank You for saving us. Thank You for keeping us. Thank You for sending Your Spirit

to confirm in us and to lead us and to guide us deeper into Your love and to obedience. Amen. Amen.