Sunday 19th February 2017
Views from the Mountains
Mount of Transfiguration – Matthew 17:1-8
Good morning everyone and thank you for the invitation to come and
preach today.
This is a church that I have enjoyed coming to during the years and know
fairly well, I preached here just under a year ago on Good Friday and
during your last pastoral vacancy. I have known previous members and
ministers including Josh Norris and Geoff Felton, also taking part in
ecumenical services here and during my involvement in Street Pastors.
So I feel very much at home, thank you for having me back.
Introduction
Well I strongly approve of your your sermon series title because I
absolutely love mountains. For me, they speak of the majesty and
existence of God, stirring my worship to Him.
Psalm 19:1; “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim
the work of his hands.”
For me, mountains along with much of creation lead me to worship, this
is why I love programmes such as David Attenborough’s Planet Earth and
particularly enjoyed a holiday to the Rocky Mountains in Canada some
years ago now.
But I have to confess that I do not have too much experience of views
from the mountains, physically speaking anyway. I do have, however,
experience of spiritual mountain top experiences.
 As a child, I remember being led by God to scripture in the midst
of some turbulence at home between my parents.
 As a teenager, being led by God to declare my faith whilst at a
Christian conference
1
 As a younger adult, being gifted with tongues by the Holy Spirit
during worship at another Christian conference
 And as an adult more recently, being caught up in the worship of
God amongst His people
These types of spiritual mountain top experiences are special and it is a
spiritual mountain top experience that we view in Matthew 17.
Yes, the disciples Peter, James and John, were led to a physical mountain
either at Mount Tabor and others say Mount Hermon1 but more
importantly where they experienced the presence and glory of God, as
Jesus (we read in verse 2) was “transfigured before them.”
Disciples experienced the presence and glory of God
What do we mean by the word “transfigured”?
Well according to the Oxford Dictionary, to be transfigured is to be
“transformed into something more beautiful or elevated.”2
We can cope with this because through the prophet Isaiah we read in
Isaiah 53:2 that the Suffering Servant “had no beauty or majesty to
attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”
And so we can imagine that Jesus, was supernaturally transformed3 in
His appearance.
We read more about this transformation in Matthew 17:2, “His face
shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.”
I particularly like the account in Mark 9:2-3 which says, “he was
transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter
than anyone in the world could bleach them.”
But what was this transfiguration all about?
T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, 13.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/transfigure [accessed 17
February 2017]
3 R.H. Mounce, Matthew, 167.
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2
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I agree with one Christian scholar who says two things about the
transfiguration4:
1. It was an experience to encourage the disciples of Jesus following
news of his personal suffering and death, in Matthew 16:21 we
read, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands
of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and
that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
2. But that this transfiguration was the confirmation of His identity
both as Messiah and Son of God, revealing his true glory hidden
by the humility of human appearance. Again, it was only in the
previous chapter, that Jesus asked his disciples questions about
his true identity, ‘Who do you say I am?’ And “this event on the
mount of transfiguration sheds a shaft of light on who Jesus is.”5
Of course His glory was revealed in the resurrection and will be revealed
in His returning, I look forward to that day! But can’t we experience, as
the disciples did, the presence and glory of God today? Can’t we
experience a spiritual mountaintop? Of course we can and I’ve shared
my own experience, I’m sure you could share your own but it seems to
me that the key to this experience of God’s presence and glory for the
disciples, apart from the will of God, was the following of Jesus to a
place of prayer.
Disciples followed Jesus to a place of prayer
We might not see this so clearly in Matthew 17 but in the parallel
passage of Luke 9:28, Jesus “took Peter, John and James with him and
went up onto a mountain to pray.”
It might seem obvious, and it is, but for us to experience the presence
and glory of God we must follow the example of Jesus and seek Him in
the place of prayer.
4
5
K.L. Barker (ed.), The NIV Study Bible, 1621.
M. Green, The Message of Matthew, 184.
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Sometimes, often, God just breaks in. This was my experience when
receiving the gift of tongues. I wasn’t looking for the Spirit’s presence to
come on me specifically but during worship through a friend of mine
playing in the band a long way from me, laid hands and prayed for me
completed unprompted and the presence of God just broke in. It
happens!
But often, if we want to experience the presence and the glory of God
we must follow the example of Jesus and seek Him in the place of
prayer.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and
you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone
who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks,
the door will be opened.”
Notice here, that the onus is on us. ‘Ask’, ‘seek’.
And Jesus places the same emphasis in John 14:12-14, “Very truly I tell
you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and
they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the
Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father
may be glorified in the Son. You may ask for anything in my name, and I
will do it.”
This is massively exciting but again, the responsibility rests with us to ask
and seek.
Many of you will be familiar with the painting by William Holman Hunt
that is called ‘The Light of the World’. It represents the figure of Jesus
preparing to knock on an overgrown and long-unopened door,
illustrating Revelation 3:20 which says, “Here I am! I stand at the door
and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in
and eat with that person, and they with me.”
The door in the painting has no handle, and can therefore be opened
only from the inside, representing what Hunt described as “the
obstinately shut mind.”6 In us or individuals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_the_World_(painting) [accessed 17
February 2017]
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I don’t know if this represents your own relationship with God but if it is,
can I encourage you to open the door. For then Jesus will come in and
the experience of God’s presence and glory will be ours.
James 4:7-8, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Of course the problem is that we are too often distracted by other
people and things, this was the experience even of Peter, James and
John on the mount of transfiguration.
Disciples were distracted
Just three weeks ago I went for a retreat day in the Kent countryside and
whilst driving near Barham and Kingston became so distracted by my
thoughts that I completely missed the bend in a road, driving straight
passed another driver and up a mud track ahead of me.
I was pretty shocked but the poor driver that I crossed, appeared to slow
right down in the road as his or her life had flashed before their eyes.
Not good. I felt awful but isn’t it often the case that we fail to follow
Jesus to the place of prayer and therefore the experience God’s
presence and glory because we get too easily distracted by other people
or things.
Peter, James and John were distracted by the appearance of Moses and
Elijah on the mount of transfiguration and it’s understandable, they are
heros of the faith.
They were excited by the presence of these three giants and as we read
in verse 4, wanted to put up shelters for them and dwell in their
company but Father God rebuked them and said from the cloud, “This is
my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Emphasisng Jesus as the fulfillment of what both Moses and Elijah
looked forward to.7
7
M. Green, The Message of Matthew, 185.
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They are not to distracted by Moses and Elijah but place all their
attention on Jesus, as the forerunners disappear into the background.8
Conclusion
We read in this passage all about a mountain top experience, a spiritual
mountain top experience.
The disciples Peter, James and John experienced the presence and glory
of God as they followed Jesus to a place of prayer and whilst we await
the Lord’s return in glory, we can enjoy His presence here and now.
But we must ask and seek. Put aside those things that distract us. So to
make Jesus our focus.
Are you in that place?
When did you last experience the presence and glory of God?
Do you pursue His presence and glory?
I want to encourage that you start today.
So let’s pray.
8
M. Green, The Message of Matthew, 186.
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