LISTEN TO MY SON!

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

While He was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” He said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Matthew 17:1-9

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There He was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is My Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!”

Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Mark 9:2-9

About eight days after Jesus said this, He took Peter, John and James with Him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As He was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men standing with Him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to Him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)

While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him.” When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

Luke 9:28-36

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jesus had just told His disciples about His destiny, that He would suffer, die, and then be brought back to life three days later, a prophecy that we saw Peter find hard to accept. Then Jesus told His faithful chosen twelve what it took to be one of His followers, that a person would have to deny themselves, dying to self and picking up their cross to follow their Savior. As we looked at in yesterday’s devotion, this trading in of one’s desires for the will of the Lord was akin to gaining by losing, a philosophy that definitely ran counter to the conventional worldly thinking. Those who obeyed Jesus’ disciple requirements would be rewarded when He returns to judge the world. This assurance was just as much for us today as it was for the twelve some 2,000 years ago.

As Matthew 17 opens, it’s six days after this revelation and we find Jesus with the three disciples who are typically acknowledged as being in His inner circle: Peter, James, and John. Of interest, these were three of the first four disciples that Jesus called to follow Him, Andrew being the fourth. We read where Jesus takes the three disciples to a high mountain where no one else was present. What happened next was nothing short of incredible. Look again at the words from Matthew’s account here:

After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

While He was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” He said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”  Matthew 17:1-9

These amazing happenings on the mountain have been referred to as “The Transfiguration” by Bible scholars. It’s obvious why for Jesus had no more gotten Peter, James, and John on scene that He began to glow so brightly that the scriptures compared Him to the sun and light. Imagine that scene and put yourself in the place of any of the three disciples. How would you have felt? Awestruck is a word that immediately comes to mind for me.

Now, this transfiguring of Jesus would have been enough in its own right, an event that was off the charts on the astonishment scale but as we see in this passage, there was more to come. For right after the transfiguration occurred, Peter, James, and John saw Moses and Elijah carrying on a conversation with Jesus. In Luke’s Gospel, we are told they were talking about Jesus’ coming “departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.”

So now, the three disciples had not only seen Jesus’ face shine like the sun and His clothes emit a dazzling white light but had seen Him having a conversation with two pillars of Jewish religious history, Moses and Elijah, men who had both died. Perhaps, their brief resurrection was a sign of what was to come for Jesus.

Well, as you might expect, this was all too much for Peter and he immediately conjured up a plan in his mind, wanting to commemorate what had just happened by erecting three shelters as memorials, one each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. But he has no more spoken the words that one more thing happened, a thing even more unbelievable than the first two. For the scriptures tell us that a “bright cloud covered” the disciples and a “voice from the cloud” spoke saying:

“This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

Wow!

Here we find God, Jesus’ Father, entering center stage and speaking to Peter, James, and John from the cloud, acknowledging that Jesus was His Son, that He loved His Son, and that He was well pleased with Jesus. It was everything anyone would want to hear from their Dad and so much more. Indeed, Jesus was His Father’s pride and joy, a mirror image of Himself.

This is why God gives the disciples this command:

“Listen to Him!”

There was no need for any of Jesus’ chosen ones to question, challenge, or doubt Him. God was telling them to listen to His Son and what He was trying to teach them for they would never be able to be just like Jesus the Son if they didn’t hear what He said and then either learned from His words or obeyed them fully, especially when He commanded them to do things.

Well, at the sound of the voice of God, we find the disciples responding as anyone should, falling face down on the ground terrified before their Maker and Master. You see, the men knew the scriptures all too well, scriptures which included this warning from God Himself:

He said, "You cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live." Exodus 33:20

So the disciples fell face down in fear, not only in reverence before God but because they knew if they saw Him, they would be dead men. They remained there until they heard the voice of Jesus saying:

“Get up, don’t be afraid.”

And when they looked up, Moses and Elijah and the cloud from which God spoke were all gone. They saw only Jesus. And with that, they came down from the mountain and as they did, Jesus gave them one final order regarding what they had witnessed saying:

“Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

The disciples had seen a resurrected Moses and Elijah. Soon they would see a resurrected Jesus as well and their experience on the mountain top would serve to affirm the miraculous validity of resurrection when the other disciples witnessed it for the first time.

So what are we to take from this today? What is God trying to tell us through this word?

Well, I believe the life application message is simple. For God’s words to Peter, James, and John from the cloud are the same words we need to hear today:

“This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

Or if we want to shorten it a little, we could simply say God is telling us:

“Listen to My Son!”

You see, God sent His Son to walk among sinful human beings although He Himself had no sin in Him. He was the only perfect man to walk the earth, the only man who was one with God, and so anything Jesus tells us to do should be followed without apprehension or hesitation. Jesus always speaks to us for our own good and the advancement of God’s kingdom here on earth. He’s always seeking to refine us and make us more and more like He is.

After all, isn’t that what being a Christian is all about, being like Jesus?

So the call for us today and every day is to listen to God’s Son for His words are the very words that God wills for Him to speak, words for us to follow for guidance, direction, correction, and education. And if we are going to become the people God wants us to be, we have to surrender ourselves to the will and way of Jesus the Son, the One who is the way and the truth and the life, the One who is the only way to God the Father (John 14:6).

In the end translation, there is no one else through which we can be saved except Jesus (Acts 4:11-12).

Amen.  

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com