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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
It has been slow, but steady. It has not been abrupt. And the changes that have come almost seem to be enlightened changes, or forward-thinking changes. And not bad. In fact, encouragement to embrace these changes comes from the desire to not be backward or to not be closed-minded.
So, what is this of which I speak? These things that have been slow and steady and not abrupt? These things that have come and almost have seemed to be enlightened, to embrace them. This nation and this world’s disdain for the church is that which I speak. Many of the world’s governments haven’t been so slow and steady. They’ve been much more abrupt and blatant in accomplishing the persecution of those who share our faith.
In the countries of Iran and Iraq, many people die every year because there are governments and peoples who do not allow the free practice of the Christian faith in that land. And it’s not just those lands. Afghanistan, Pakistan… The country formerly known as Burma, now known as Myanmar, Algeria, Nigeria, and several other places which are too many to name, but the point, I hope, is clear.
There is in this world and in this nation a disdain for the church. She, the church, is seen by this world and this nation as being closed-minded, backward, unenlightened, nothing beneficial to offer the world and the nation in which we reside. As if what we proclaim and of what we are a part of is really troubling and causing problems in the world and even in this nation. It’s much more subliminal in this nation.
Next January, it’ll be 40 years to commemorate the horrible thing that happened, where for the last 40 years, the rights of Americans have been withheld, and others have the right over them to do with them as they wish. Even the cessation of their earthly life is not going to be encumbered by our government. That of which I speak is the murder of unborn American citizens. Unborn American citizens for whom many men and women have died in conflict for their freedom as American citizens.
Many American citizens for whom you and I continually pay our taxes to support their education and all the other things that are a part of our nation’s government system. And also the concept of universal health care, forcing even religious churches to provide something that we are against. And that is the ending of a child’s life.
But as we look at these things and as we reflect upon these things that have been creeping slowly like kudzu here in the South, do not get discouraged. Do not get discouraged. Remain faithful. Stand up in love. But stand up. Speak up. But do so kindly and gently. Your job is not to convert anyone. Your job is to be a witness, to testify to those things that you have seen and heard, and encourage one another in this hope in which you and I will die in.
Peter, James, and John were singled out by our Lord to witness a very glorious thing on the Mount of Transfiguration. And they had no idea what lay ahead of them. See, Peter, James, and John, going up on that mountain, had no idea that they were on the very precipice of their Lord being rejected by the nation and the world. They had no idea that they would be upon the, as the world would see it, the losing side of this religion.
They had no idea that they themselves would be martyred for a faith that the entire Roman Empire believed. It says He gave it to these apostles for their encouragement because these very men would be the foundation upon which you and I are built—the church. Their testimony of what Christ came to do, did, and what is in store for us, was what these men proclaimed, even as they died in the hands of people who thought they were doing a great service to the empire—to remove them and rid the empire of such problems and scourges of the empire.
They did not realize that the glory that awaits, the glory that they were witnessing, the glory that you and I are witnessing, hearing this morning, that this glory that awaits you and me, is glory that does not come except through the way of the cross. Only through the way of the cross does such glory come. It does not come without the cross. Christ did not reveal this glory on the Mount of Transfiguration and say, “game over, it’s done, everything is good and right and meet and salutary in the world and with God.”
It was a little glimpse before He then underwent everything that made Him and we look like the scourge of the world—utter rejection. Utter ridiculousness of following such a rejected and mocked Savior and a crazy hope that has no merit, worth, or proof: the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
Our loving Lord on that Mount of Transfiguration gave them a little glimpse of the hope that is theirs in Christ and in Him. He unveiled the glory of the only begotten, from the foundation of the world, full of grace and truth, revealed His heavenly glory to them in all of its splendor. And their response? Great fear and trembling.
They listened to the conversation between two other great prophets. Upon their preaching, those two great prophets, Elijah and Moses, and upon their own preaching as apostles, is our church grounded upon faith. And they listened, Peter, James, and John, to this conversation between these two holy men and God in the flesh.
And what they heard? What they heard was about the rejection of Christ, the mocking and scourging of Christ, the death of Christ being seen as a reward to the world and a gift to all mankind in a very twisted manner. And they also heard of the resurrection of Christ. You’re in my hope as well.
Peter thinks he has captured the moment and he biffs it again. “Lord, let’s do this. Let’s build a stable or a shelter for you and Moses and Elijah, and let’s just stay here. Do we really have to go the way of the cross? Do we really have to suffer all these things about which you, Moses, and Elijah speak? Do we have to be rejected? Do we have to be the scourge of this nation and this world? Do we have to be rejected? Do we really have to be so different than the rest of this world? Do we have to stick out like a sore thumb? Do we have to be counted among those who are troublers and problems in this world? Can’t we just have peace?”
That’s what Peter was, in essence, asking, though they were not his words. Because he wanted to stay there in the midst of that glory and bask in it. You and I want that. You and I don’t want the flack and the hassle of being biblically based and built upon the foundations of these apostles and these prophets. We don’t want to take what Christ had to take. We just want to kind of get through life.
And Jesus reminds these blessed apostles, as He reminds you and me. Glory is yours. This glory of which you witnessed, Peter, James, and John. This glory of which Peter, James, and John wrote in their words to us in the New Testament. Amen. This glory of which we have heard proclaimed to us awaits you and me, but it does not come except by the way of the cross.
So Peter, James, and John had to descend the mountain, had to come off that great experience and that little revelation and go back to the reality of their life, the way of the cross. And the Lord who had His glory revealed was the way of the cross. Had to be rejected. Had to be cursed by the world. Had to die for those who rejected and cursed them. And had to rise again for the same.
But when Peter asks this question in this morning’s text, Jesus doesn’t answer him. Notice that. Jesus doesn’t explain anything. The voice of the Father speaks: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.” The Father ends the discussion, affirms the Son and His mission to be rejected, to die and rise again, and affirms something very interesting. “Listen to Him.”
Be hearing of Him, our Lord has said. God the Father could have performed a miracle on that mountain to have impressed Peter, James, and John that He was in control of things. Jesus could have done more to have impressed them, to have shown them that He is Lord of all things. None of that was done. Merely a message: “Listen to Him.”
And that’s what you and I have been given to bolster and encourage each other. Be listeners of Him. In the Old Testament reading, Elisha was kind of following around Elijah like a good old faithful puppy. And every time Elisha was reminded, “Did you not know that Elisha is going to be taken from you today?” And Elisha’s response was, “I know and I’m going to stand firm for him.”
No, it was, “Oh, I don’t want to hear it. Please be quiet.” Each time, did you hear the text? Isn’t that like you and me? Lord, we know that the way of the cross is the way to glory, but we don’t like to hear about it because it’s upsetting. It shatters our own expectations and desires for this life.
But you look around at the babies in the arms of their mothers and fathers sitting here today. Faithfulness is what’s going to ensure that they have something to hope in in a world that’s going to be far worse than the one in which we live. The proclamation of these truths of which you and I are going to die in are what’s going to ensure the next generation of hope in the midst of even a more warped world in which they will live after we have been called to glory.
When the Father says, “Listen to Him,” or “Be hearing of Him,” He’s saying, the proof of your and my faith is in His words, where He has washed us, where He has fed our hungry and thirsty hearts, and where He has sustained us along this pilgrimage to our home in glory. Listen to Him. Listen to Him. And encourage one another to listen to Him.
We have purpose in this world. We have meaning in this world. We are lights in this world of darkness. We are salt in this world of blandness. And let’s just get along this. And let’s not cause problem this. And let’s just not allow truth to reign. All of their discouragement as apostles and all of your or my discouragement as believers in this world were swallowed up in that cross. It’s gone.
We have nothing to fear. We have hope. And that hope is what sustains us in the midst of all that we see going on in the world today that says, “Man, are we on the wrong side of things? Are we on the losing side of things? Is this really going to have a good ending in the end?” And you and I can say to our children and grandchildren and those yet unborn, “Yes, it is right. Yes, it is salutary. Yes, it is by God that we are a part of this thing called the church.”
And we will stand up and be counted in love at each opportunity that we are given. And we will also come seeking mercy for all the times when we have failed to stand up and be counted, for His mercy reigns in His kingdom, not His law and wrath. That was poured out on the cross, that we might have glory to come, and that we might be boldened to carry our own cross in this day and age, and that we might have something of substance to give to our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren that they can bear the heat of the day when it’s the heat of the day for them.
This is what we are about. And we will be faithful in telling the next generation of such glory revealed to the apostles, Peter, James, and John, of such glory that’s been revealed to us, which the rest of the world scoffs at and laughs, but of which we will die in, in this hope.
In the name of the transfigured Lord, who gave His apostles and you this little glimpse as we carry our crosses, Jesus Himself. Amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.