The Transfiguration of Jesus
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2014 · 19 January 2014
God is a spirit and as a spirit is invisible. God cannot be confined to a form in fullness of His being, He is everywhere. When God does reveal Himself in the Old Testament, He chooses to reveal Himself as blazing glowing light. We see it in the garden, in the Shekinah presence. We see it in Exodus 33 as Moses sees the light of God's Shekinah glory and it's transferred to his own face.
We see it in Exodus 40 when the tabernacle is symbolic of the dwelling of God among the people of Israel and it says the glory of God came down and filled the tent of the congregation so that the priests couldn't even minister in there. And then when it was time for them to move in the wilderness, the glory would go up into the sky and it was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night and it would lead them through those 40 years in the wilderness.
When they came into the Promised Land and built the temple, 1 Kings 8 says that the glory of God descended on the temple and filled the temple and God was manifesting His being as light. When you come to the gospel, we find Jesus Christ and as God revealed Himself on the mountain, on the face of Moses, in the tabernacle and in the temple as light, so He reveals Himself in Jesus Christ as light veiled by human flesh.
In fact, as we proceed into the book of Revelation we find that when we get to the eternal state, the eternal heaven, the holy city, the new Jerusalem which is the eternal dwelling place of the saints, the Bible says there is no moon and there is no sun and there are no stars to light it because the glory of God is the light and the Lamb is the lamp.
Now as we look at Matthew 17 there are five evidences of the deity of Jesus Christ, five statements of His royal majesty as the promised King who would come in majesty glory. First, the transformation of the Son, the incredible visual revelation of who Jesus really is, God Himself in blazing light that comes from the inside out, that is hidden by His earthly body and is only shown as a preview of His Second Coming at the end of the age.
Secondly, we have the testimony of the saints, Moses and Elijah as representatives of the Old Testament; Moses, who is the giver of the law and Elijah as the guardian of the law. Now Peter knew that this was also the time for the Feast of Tabernacles which commemorates their wandering in the wilderness. And their custom was to build again the same booths which they lived in for 40 years. Maybe Peter wanted his own Feast of booths because this too is a picture of redemption out of bondage and into the promise.
In spite of all that Luke says Peter didn't know what he was saying because, the one thing Peter missed was this was not the end time, this was just a preview of it, right? This was just a glimpse of glory. 1 Peter 1 says, it was hard for them to see the Messiah being glorified and still having to suffer. So Peter was wrong.
The third line of evidence in this passage is the most powerful testimony of all, we could call it the fear of the Father in verse 5, "While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”
Three times, in Matthew 3:17; John 12:28-29 and in Matthew 17:5, God speaks out of heaven and says "This is My Son." Now that is testimony beyond argumentation. And when God gives His testimony, men should listen. So in verse 6 it says, “And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.” They just went flat prostrate on the ground. They were very afraid.
Why are people so afraid in the presence of God? God is infinitely holy and men are totally sinful. Adam and Eve sinned, "And they saw that they were naked.” In other words, there was shame to be seen because they knew they were not only being seen on the outside but they were being seen right through to their sin. And sinners in the presence of an infinitely holy God always feel need to hide. That's just how it is.
What did God say? In Matthew 17:5 He says, "This is My Son." Now God is not talking about some kind of functional relationship, He is talking about essence. This is My Son in the sense that the Son is the same as the Father. This is Me, this emanates from Me. In human terms: this proceeds from My nature, from My essence, from My person, He is as I am.
Notice He says, "This is My beloved Son" to tell us that between the two there is also a love relationship, a relationship of feeling, of commitment, of identification in every way. And then He says "in whom I am well pleased." In other words, everything He is doing is according to the divine plan. He's going to the cross because that's the plan. He's going to suffer because that's the plan. Now confirmation comes from God Himself and then the Father says at the end of verse 5, "Listen to Him."
So, we have seen the transformation of the Son and the testimony of the saints of Scripture and we see the fear of the sovereign Father. Let me give you a fourth proof. Another great element of this picture is the scene itself. Jesus says back in Matthew 16:28, I am going to show you the Son of Man coming in His royal majesty. Now how does He fulfill that?
Look, Christ is the center of this picture. And Christ will be the center of the Second Coming, right? It is the coming of Christ. And when Christ comes, Matthew 24, Matthew 25 and Matthew 26 says He will come in glory and power. And here we see Jesus in glory and in power. So the preview is accurate.
And when He comes, Zechariah 14:4 says, “He will come and His feet will touch the Mount of Olives.” Look when Jesus took them to this preview He took them up to a high mountain. And when Jesus comes in glory, He will come to His people to gather them together, right? So, when Jesus goes up the mountain, He takes Peter, James and John with Him when He is glorified and they are representative of the people to whom Christ returns later.
And when Christ returns, He returns not only to His saints, but also with His saints. Those saints that have already been gathered to Him, they will come with Him as represented by Moses and Elijah. So, you have the saints to whom He comes in Peter, James and John waiting on the earth. You have the saints with whom He comes already glorified in Moses and Elijah. And He is coming in blazing glory to a mount and there is the whole glimpse of the complete Second Coming.
Now Moses died and we know he died because Jude 1:9 tells us there was a dispute over his body, right? What about Elijah? He never died; he just got in his chariot one day and when the trip was over he was in heaven. In this preview Moses represents the saints that died and Elijah represents the saints that are just taken up to heaven. All the parts are represented. No wonder Peter says, "When I talk about the Second Coming, I'm not giving you some fairy tale. I was an eyewitness of it."
And just as fast as it began, it ended. Look at verses 7-8, “But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid. 8 When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.” This means that the preview is over. But it was just like Jesus said in Matthew 16:28, they saw the Son of Man coming in His royal majesty.
And they were so traumatized that they would never ever forget this event, never. That's why Peter can write in 2 Peter 3:3-4, "that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” They only show how stupid they are, we know He's coming, we have no doubt.
What would be your reaction to seeing that scene? They wanted to tell everyone. But Jesus commands them saying, "Tell what you saw to nobody." Wow, that is difficult. That is like Zechariah's problem when John the Baptist was born and he didn't believe, so the Lord made him dumb so he couldn't tell anybody he was going to have a son.
Well, why does Jesus tell them not to say anything? He said it earlier in Matthew 16:20 don't tell anybody these things. Why? Because the world of that day in that place only wanted a political Messiah to knock off the Romans and their misguided intentions and expectations only would confuse the scene. So Jesus says in verse 9, “don't say anything until the Son of Man is raised again from the dead.”
Why? Because after the resurrection, the people will know that Jesus didn't come to conquer the Romans, Jesus came to conquer death, right? And they will know that this is a spiritual reality, not an earthly one, not a political one, not a material one, not a military one and not an economic one. Jesus is not involved in politics. He is involved in conquering death and sin and hell.
That brings us to the fifth indication that Jesus was the Messiah, Son of God. It is the connection with the forerunner. Verse 10, "And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” They knew what Malachi 4:5- 6 says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 6 And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
Very often the Jews must have questioned them on that, how can this Jesus that you follow be the Messiah when there has yet been no Elijah, right? Now there were some people who really wanted Jesus to be Elijah. And so in Matthew 16 when Jesus said to the disciples, "Who do men say that the Son of Man is?" They answered, "Some say that You are Elijah."
The Jews believed that Elijah would be the great reformer who would bring holiness out of ungodliness and order out of chaos. He would destroy all evil, they taught. And when the Messiah arrived He would just receive it. They saw Elijah as the real restorer, and the Messiah just came to control it. But they keep saying that Elijah ought to come, so where is Elijah?
So, verse 11, "Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things.” But then He says a strange thing in verse 12, "But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished.” Verse 13, "Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.”
You say, "Is John the Baptist really Elijah?" When the prophet said Elijah must come, he didn't mean the actual Elijah. He was speaking of one who would come in the same manner as Elijah, with the same style as Elijah in the same mode of operation as Elijah. And, the problem with the Jews was that they were looking for the literal Elijah.
Do you remember in John 1, the chief priest said to John the Baptist, "Are you Elijah? And he said, I'm not Elijah." And people are confused at this point. That's right. He is not Elijah but he was one who came in the spirit and power of Elijah. If they had received the Messiah, if the Messiah had set up His Kingdom then, John the Baptist would have fulfilled that prophecy. He would have been that Elijah-like prophet to restore all things for the Kingdom.
But when they did to him whatever they desired, which was to cut off his head, they refused him, they didn't allow him to restore. Look at verse 12 at the end, "Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer at their hands." They wiped out the Elijah-like preparer of the Messiah, and they also killed the Messiah and in doing so they rejected the restoration and the Kingdom.
So we believe that in the future, before Jesus comes again for the second time, another great prophet will come in the spirit and power of Elijah to set things right. And he will restore all things and they won't do to him what they did to John the Baptist. And they won't miss who he is. And following him will come the King in royal majesty and glory.
In Matthew 11:13-14 it says the same thing, “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” If they had believed John's message and received him and received Christ, he would have been that Elijah fulfillment. But because they killed him and killed the Messiah, there has yet to come another one like Elijah.
That's why Luke 1:17 says, “He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” He was to be the fulfillment if they had believed. But they didn't. So where the Jews say He can't be the Messiah because there's been no Elijah, Jesus says indeed there was an Elijah and if you would have listened to him and believed him, he would have fulfilled that Elijah prophecy.
So the fifth evidence is that Jesus is truly the regal glorious Christ, the Son of God, the King because there was an Elijah who came before Him. The only reason he couldn't fulfill it was because they killed him along with the Messiah. And when He comes again, He will be proceeded by another person like Elijah in that same mode.
Let us conclude with the last statement of verse 12, "Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer." That's the message of the text, Jesus is saying I have to go and suffer, Matthew 16:21, I have to die. And then He says and so do you, in verse 24. If you're going to follow Me, you're going to deny yourself, you're going to die to your own desires and die to your own sin and you're going to take up a cross.
In other words, you're going to bear a reproach. Some people don't believe Christians ought to be allowed in society. Some people enjoy mocking them and scorning them and in some cases taking their lives. But that's how it is, you're going to have to take up that cross and follow Me. And this is suffering. And some day yes there will be glory.
And so, we are reminded of what the Apostle Paul said to Timothy who was indeed in suffering as well for the reproach of Christ in 2 Timothy 2:12, "If we endure, we shall also reign with Him." That's our great hope, isn't it? Romans 8:18 says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Amen? Let us pray.