I invite you to turn with me in your copy of the Word of God. First of all, to Isaiah chapter 11. If you're using one of our church Bibles, the reading is at 575. In the church Bible, Isaiah 11, and then we'll turn to Luke 9. Now listen to what scripture says, Isaiah 11, the first 10 verses. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat. The calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, the little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze. Their young shall lie down together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra. The weaned child shall put his hand on an adder's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In that day, the root of Jesse who shall stand as a signal for the peoples of him shall the nations inquire and his resting place shall be glorious. And now let's turn over to Luke's gospel chapter nine. Again, if you're using one of our church Bibles, this reading is at page eight hundred and sixty seven, eight, six, seven, the church Bible. Chapter nine of Luke, we're looking at verse twenty eight through thirty six. Now about eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure. which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud saying, This is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him. And when they voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone and they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen. This is the word of the Lord. Love, let's pray together. Our gracious Lord and our God, before you we bow ourselves. We ask you to help us now. Pray that the words of these sinful lips and the meditation of all our hearts may, in fact, be pleasing in your sight. You, Lord, are our strength and our redeemer. Therefore, we look to you always. Assure us by your presence, bless us by your word. May we hear, Lord, not the words of a mere man, but you yourself speaking to us. These things we pray for Jesus' sake. Amen. So Easter is coming. And because Easter is coming, it is last Sunday of this month, we are looking at six questions about who Jesus is, who the real Jesus is. Six questions about Jesus. And in fact, this morning we come to the Transfiguration, the event that we call the Transfiguration. It's an important event. In some church traditions, it's a festival, it's a holiday, a holy day if you like, the transfiguration. It's important in Matthew, in Mark, and in Luke. In the narrative of the ministry of our Lord Jesus, that ministry, it reaches a pivotal moment. And immediately after that pivot is reached, The transfiguration happens, like the divine Amen to that moment. A question has been absorbing, right? They've been wrestling with, for chapter after chapter after chapter, the disciples in particular, event after event after event. It's been making them ask, you know, they ask you like this, what manner of man is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. And so the question that they've been absorbed is, this is a man. But who is he that he can speak like this, that he can do these things? He doesn't just speak with authority. He really has authority. We've been seeing it, haven't we? The last two events that we've looked at together, they've been making them ask that question and surely us as well. We saw Jesus heal a paralyzed man. Before he healed him, he said, son, your sins are forgiven. And the leader said, you can't forgive sins because sin is against God. You're not God, are you? And Jesus responds immediately, so that you know I have authority to forgive sins. I say to you, rise, get up and take your bed. The incident we looked at last week about faith, having faith. A woman who has been sick for 12 years and a little girl who has died. And Jesus is saying to all around, and all that are hearing, He's saying to them, you have faith in God. Now in exactly the same way, have faith in me. And if you have faith in me, you will live. you will really live. So all of these events, we just picked two, but we could have picked a bunch of others. All these events are making the disciples, pushing the disciples to keep asking, who is Jesus? And then they reach the pivotal moment, right? Who do people say that I am? Well, some guys are saying you're Elijah, some guys are saying you're John the Baptist, some people are saying this, some people are saying that. Who do you say that I am? The disciples immediately answer, you're the Christ. You're the Christ of God. You're the Son of God. Right? And no sooner does that pivotal moment come, that confession, that identity. That's your identity, Jesus. No sooner does that come that the transfiguration happens. Right? So the transfiguration is the climactic point about who is Jesus. Who is He? But the transfiguration isn't just like that. It's also like a hinge. It brings the two parts and hinges them because it also makes us, we have this question, who is Jesus? But now it pushes you to start thinking about another question because Luke, especially from now on, the question is concerned with, why did he come? This is amazing. God has become a man. God is among us. He speaks with authority. He does the things that God only can do. But why? Why has he come to us? Why did God become a man? Now, both of those things are here before us in this this event, the transfiguration. What is his identity? And what is his purpose? So briefly this morning, two things. Who is he? And why did he come? First, who is Jesus? What does the Transfiguration tell us about who Jesus is? Now, there's a lot going on here in the Transfiguration that is an echo of another Bible event. And if you know your Bible, you will know exactly what is being echoed here. Because think about it, this is on a mountain. Moses is there. There's a glory cloud. There's the voice of God. And the glory itself is there. And you notice this little phrase, dazzling white in verse 29. The original is that his clothing became like lightning. A flash of lightning. That's what Luke says here. Dazzling bright. So there you go, look at that. You've got a mountain, you've got Moses, you've got a cloud, you've got a voice of God, you've got glory and lightning in two. So what is it? Well of course it's Sinai and the exodus. And it's being laid before us for a purpose. Why? Well, you remember what the glory cloud was? The glory cloud, it was a pillar of fire at night and a bright cloud by day. But it protected Israel from their enemies, but it also symbolized, it showed forth the presence of Almighty God himself. It protected them because it was God present. It showed them his majesty. showed them His power and His transcendence. What about the mountain? Well, in Sinai and in Sinai in the Exodus, the mountain, there was, the mountain smoked, there was thunder and lightning and the voice of God. Again, the picture is of the judge, majestic and powerful. So the question is, why is it here? That was then. Jesus is different, isn't he? Is it exactly the same? Moses and Jesus here together? Well, what is it that he's doing here? Well, remember something particular about the story of the Exodus and Moses, the book of Exodus, the events of the Exodus. God said that Moses spoke with him like nobody else did. God spoke to Moses face to face. And because Moses was so close to God, what happened to Moses when he went up and he came back down again? It says, the text says, his face shone. He came down with a face that was shining so that people covered themselves when he came down. He was reflecting the glory of God that he'd seen on the mountain. But the glory shining in Moses' face was reflected glory. Do you see that? It's like the moon. Children, you see the moon at night, right? And it looks like it's shining all by itself. But what we know it isn't, is it? The moon is reflecting the glory of the sun to us. And Moses was like that. Moses shone his face. It must have been amazing. I don't know what it looked like, but it must have been amazing. But he was like the moon. Reflecting the glory of God. But here now, the glory is present, but not reflected glory. Because here on the mountain, the glory of God is present, but not reflected by Jesus. Rather, here the glory, Jesus is the source of the glory. The glory is coming from him. It says he was praying and the appearance of his face was altered and his clothing became dazzling white. appeared in glory. So from his clothes and his face, his whole self, and Luke says it was like a flash of lightning. But not like a flash and it was gone. The glory stayed. It kept on shining. So the Exodus and Moses, we say about it, that that glory was partial, it was provisional, it was remarkable, it was helpful, it was representative glory. But the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, it's saying that He is the glory. He is the glory of God. We say that in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2, that He's the effulgence of God's glory. John chapter 1 talks about him, we beheld his glory, the glory of the one and only of God. We beheld his glory and grace and truth. So what's the point? Well, all the way up to this point, who is this? What matter of man is this? And now God speaks. And God tells you what he thinks of this one. He said, you see Jesus, you see God. So what does that mean? What does it mean that the glory of God is with our Lord Jesus? Well, at least two things. First this, that Jesus is not a prophet among a long line of prophets. That Jesus is not another guru. Rather, He is the God that the prophets spoke about. He's the God that the prophets were trying to get near to. Jesus isn't trying to get near to God. He is God. So He isn't another teacher. He isn't another prophet. Not another guru. Not one in a row of many others. See, that's what Peter's problem was. He said, Lord, this is really good to be here. It's great to hang out for a while. Why don't we make three tents? There'll be one for you, Prophet Moses, one for you, Prophet Elijah, and one for you, Prophet Jesus. I'm doing you a favor, Jesus. I'm raising you all the way to the level of Moses and Elijah. But no sooner has he said that, Then the cloud disappears and there's just one person stood there and the voice from heaven said, this is my son. Listen to him. Listen to my son, my chosen one, my anointed one. Listen to him. So that's the first thing, transfiguration. He's not one among many, he is the one. Not reflected glory, but true glory coming from him. But secondly, the only real Jesus, the only real Jesus is the supernatural Jesus. The only real Jesus is the Jesus of the transfiguration, the Jesus of the glory cloud. What do I mean? There is no real Jesus without the supernatural. You can't have a de-supernaturalized Jesus. Many have done that. 100 years ago, perhaps a little bit longer, religious leaders got together and started to say to each other, like, we're in trouble, guys, right? Because modern man can't put up with the supernatural. And so for Christianity to have credibility and to survive in this world, we've got to, and here's the fancy word, we've got to demythologize the New Testament. And so you have Christianity without the supernatural. So you have a Bible. Well, it's an ancient book full of stories. Some are good. Some are not so good. Or you have Jesus. He's a great teacher and he has a really, really strong God consciousness. You have a resurrection. Well, isn't it nice that you can have a new start every single day? we could go on. But here, this says to us, it makes us ask, who is he? And you find that it is in his birth and in his life and in his death and in his resurrection and in his present life right now. Every single part from beginning, the middle and the end, it's supernatural, right? The supernatural Jesus, because he's God. God become man. And God says, this is my son, my chosen one, listen to him. Are you listening to him? Now, it is, for most of us in this room, this is things that we've heard before. But you know how different it is that God has become a man? So that when Jesus says to us, you know, take up your cross and follow me. Right, this is our maker talking to us. How we listen to him and live in light of his words changes everything. Raises the stakes, so to speak. But, But it's something else. The Old Testament is full of the hope held before His people that God is coming to His people. That God is coming, Himself coming. You see that in Isaiah 40. You see that in all of the prophets. And so the question comes, how is He gonna come? Well, He comes in the Lord Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth. But why is He coming? Well again, we see that. Do you see that in this text when Moses and Elijah are talking? Verse 30, And behold, two men were talking with him, that is with Jesus, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. That's an unusual thing to talk about, isn't it? Departure. In Greek, there are different words for I'm leaving now, or I'm exiting the building, or I'm departing from here right now. This passage doesn't use any of those words. It uses a very interesting word that Luke has chosen. Some of you have a little footnote in your Bible. The word he uses here, it's this, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus. That's the words. The exodus that he's going to accomplish at Jerusalem. So here's Moses and Elijah, and they're speaking to Jesus, and the subject of their conversation is the departure of our Lord Jesus, the exodus of our Lord Jesus. Now, let's remind ourselves, what is the exodus? Well, the context is the wrath of God, isn't it? The 10 plagues. The 10 plagues on Egypt are a display of the wrath of God against sin and the enemies of God. But does that mean that the Israelites, they aren't sinful? That they don't need to have their sin dealt with? Well, remember what the 10th plague was, the final 10th plague. was the firstborn would perish. Unless you did something, one thing, you took a little lamb, And you killed that lamb. You got yourself dressed, ready to leave. You put the blood of the lamb on the sides of the door and across the top of the door. And that lamb, the blood of the lamb was the means by which Israel, all those that trusted in the Lord Jesus and actually did that, was the means by which they were saved. And so that led to the wrath, the Passover and the Exodus that led to the deliverance from slavery, from the oppression of their enemies through the water into God's very presence. So how does all that apply to what Jesus is doing? Well, there's the wrath. The wrath of God coming down. Not because of his sin, but because of our sin. Our sin was put on him and he receives our wrath, what we deserve. But the Passover lamb was his blood shed on our behalf. He pays the penalty for our crimes, our sins. So that again, in the Lamb, we find deliverance. Now, the exodus isn't from oppression and political slavery, but a true, real exodus, deliverance from our sins and from the reign of death. So, here's the thing, Jesus, Jesus is here not with the prophets, not one prophet along a line of prophets. He's far greater than all of them. He becomes a man so that he would bring about the real exodus by his death and by his resurrection in Jerusalem. And you see from the transfiguration onwards, you read it repeatedly in Luke. He'd set his face to go to Jerusalem. There's nothing stopping him from going towards Jerusalem. Why? Well, because your name was graven on his heart. Because your name was graven on his hands. He was going to Jerusalem as your high priest to deliver himself over. for our sins. So Jesus is the perfect savior. He sees us condemned to death. He sees that we need our wounds binding up. He saves our lives and he frees us from slavery to sin by laying down his life to redeem us. He pays it all. So who is Jesus to you? Jesus asked, who do you say that I am? Is Jesus a fine man? Is he a good man? Or is he more than that? Far more than that, my Lord and my God. Jesus comes not just to heal us in our brokenness, but to give his life as a ransom. to heal us from slavery to sin and bring us back to God. Let's pray together.