I want to ask a question. Is there anybody here who is under the age of 15? Raise your hand. All right. Anybody here ever been under the age of 15? Okay, so I think we're in the right room. This applies to all of us. Let me ask a question. Have you ever been accused of selective hearing? Wives, do not do this to your husbands. I think all of us have. If you have ever been under the age of 15, or you know somebody under the age of 15, or you have children who are under the age of 15, or you've been a husband, you have all been accused of having some selective hearing. I know I have. I remember as a child, I couldn't remember ever hearing my mom telling me to do the dishes or mow the lawn, but I could hear her whispering about what I was going to get at my upcoming birthday. That's selective hearing. And I know that I'm not the only one with this problem. I saw you all raise your hands. Selective hearing, by the way, also known as disobedience, is banned in the kingdom of Christ. Disciples must always be dialed in to the voice of the Lord. We have to be listening to Him. What is He saying? In fact, listening to Jesus is vital to the Christian life. Discipleship demands a non-selective hearing from Jesus. And I want you to know as well that we can also listen to Jesus with our eyeballs. We hear and behold His glory from Genesis to Revelation in this book that we read and have been given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we see who Jesus is throughout all of this. The Scriptures, you have to understand, are more than ink printed on a forest, a dead tree bark. The Bible is living and active. And if you have not done it yet, open it up and listen to Him. Now, the Father's love for the Son calls us to action. He wants us to listen to Jesus. And as we listen, what that means is He wants us to obey Jesus, to submit to Jesus, to follow Jesus. You know, my mother's voice was certainly important and it was worth listening to. In fact, it should be listened to as her son in her home under her care. But Jesus is worth listening to even more, much more. The Father invites us to view Jesus like He does as the beloved Son with whom He is well pleased and also as a voice worth listening to. And we're treated to the worthiness of His voice in these six verses from Luke, chapter nine. So again, let's begin at verse 28 and verse 29, where we see right away, we see Jesus' glory being exposed for all. And 28, 29, about eight days after this conversation, He took along Peter, John and James and went up in the mountain to pray. And as He was praying, the appearance of His face changed and His clothes became dazzling white. By the way, I'm reading out of the CSB version, so it might be a little bit different than what you have on the screen or in your paper. But some of the words there are very descriptive about what we see in Jesus. His clothes became dazzling white. What had just happened earlier, just before this, was that Peter made his famous confession. Jesus asked, who do people say that I am? And Peter said, you are the Christ, you are the Messiah. And now, if Peter's confession of Jesus was at all in doubt, now that Jesus had taken Him up to the top of the mountain, these doubts would be soon put to rest by what took place in this passage. Now, as I said, it's about a week now, approximately eight days, seven days-ish, where Peter had made that confession that Jesus was God's Messiah. And so Jesus, as we see here, decided to take them to an isolated place to pray, and it's there that we see Jesus display His glory. I think as we read this, it's important, very important for us to understand that Jesus is displaying His glory here, not because He needs it, but because we need it. Do you understand that? It's not so that Jesus could display His glory and it made Him feel good. We needed to see His glory displayed. Who do men say that I am? He had asked. What the answer must be is that He's God. If we're to know who He is, we must know that He's worthy of all glory, honor, and all power. So why? Why do we need to know that? Because He's a creator of all things, through whom all things exist. And He's the Redeemer of humanity. And further, we need to know that His authority is above all dominions and powers and names. God has exalted Him and given Him the name above every name to which every knee will bow. And so as deity, as God, He possesses the glory due to God alone. And this event we see in these six verses of Luke 9 confirms Jesus's deity and His worthiness. It would have been a spectacular sight, don't you think? Wouldn't you have liked to just kind of peek in there to see what was going on? For those of you who are married, think back to your wedding day. Do you remember? You're standing at the front of the church. You're waiting for your bride to come down the aisle. You remember that day? Yes, I see some of you looking and smiling and giggling together already. There you are standing there and suddenly she's there. Whoa. Same girl. Same girl that you've been dating. Same girl that you've come to know, but something's changed. You see her radiance. She's been transformed by her wedding day team. And you're speechless. Your jaw drops, right? And your best man has to push her back up. Do you remember that? I mean, you can't breathe. That was my experience anyways. I was in awe as I saw her come down. Well, I have to tell you, if you get a little bit of that and you've understand just even a taste of that, that event at the top of the mountain was a thousand times by a thousand times more spectacular. It was the same Jesus that they knew, but different. Here we're told that his face had changed and Mark says that even his clothes had changed because of the magnitude of his glory. He's he's transfigured or another word for transfigured, by the way, he's transformed. Back in Exodus, 34, Moses came down from Mount Sinai. You might remember the story if you ever, you know, you have a picture of Charlton Heston, right? Coming down from the mountain, his face all aglow. Well, that actually happened to the real Moses. His face was glowing as he carried the two tablets of the covenant of law in his hands. And as he came back down into the encampment, he is reflecting the glory of God off of his face. The same Moses, but different. Changed, transfigured, transformed. And when the people saw him, do you remember what happened? What how they reacted? They were afraid to go to see him. They were so afraid. That that's a pretty powerful result of the reflection of God's glory. But here's what I want you to know. With Jesus, it's even more so because with Jesus, it isn't simply a reflection. It was his glory being revealed. It was the glory of God himself. For a brief moment, the veil of his humanity was lifted for the men there to see his deity. His deity, by the way, which was always in the depths of his being, this was allowed to shine through. He showed on the outside what he was on the inside. I want you to know that that's actually the very same with us, too. And not that we're a deity. I mean, we'll never be that rather in the in the what in the in the what of what we are on the inside. Can only be hidden so long. Eventually, what we are on the inside is going to be revealed on the outside. And we're going to be known for who we really are. You know, I've thought this in the past, like imagine if we had a big screen up here and and everybody here could see what you are really on the inside. Would you like that? I know I would not. I would leave right now. We wouldn't want that be, you know, but it's a good question to ask ourselves, what is on the inside of us? Would we be confident that people would see Christ displayed in you or would you be ashamed? Are you full of bitterness, anger, adultery, defiance, hate, envy, selfishness? Or are you even beginning to evidence the fruit of the spirit in your life? In your life, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, that's fruit of the spirit. What would be revealed if we had the inside put on display? I think that's a fair question to ask is for for all of us to ponder and think about even through this week. Now, Jesus, unlike Moses, is not simply a reflection of God's glory. He is God's glory who never stopped being God while on earth, only covering his deity in a cloak of humanity. Think about it now. The disciples are given a glimpse of the glory of Jesus that everybody, all of us, including us sitting here today, one day we're going to see that glory. I can't wait personally for that day. The question is, are you going to see his glory as his friend or are you going to see his glory as his enemy? There's only one or the other. There's no middle ground in this one. That's an important question to answer. All right. Moving on, we see two others appear and they have a discussion with Jesus about a plan that began already way back in Genesis chapter three. Jesus discusses his exodus. Look at verse 30. Suddenly, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which was a which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. So what's he talking about here? Now, Luke, by the way, seems to be making a few points abundantly clear here first that Jesus is not Elijah or one of the prophets. This has been the hypothesis that had been put forward recently by the crowds. It's clearly now obviously here, not not true since Elijah is there standing right beside him. So then Jesus couldn't be Elijah reborn. Secondly, the cross of Christ and the glory of Christ are not at odds with one another. Just as Jesus responded to Peter's messianic confession confession with a prediction of his death. So too does this moment center around a conversation about his departure and third, Christ is about to accomplish something absolutely profound. The law and the prophets represented a Moses and Elijah are literally standing right beside him to magnify his glorious exodus. This is a new exodus which will accomplish for his people what neither the first exodus out of Egypt nor the law and the prophets to follow ever could. It's still there's a there's a question. Why not? Why would it be Moses and Elijah and not somebody like David? I think David would have been a good choice. I mean, he was the ancestor of Jesus. He was the greatest king in the history of Israel or maybe even the first Adam since Jesus represents the second get it right this time, Adam. Or why not Abraham again? I think he would have probably been a good choice. I think, but it's good things choices aren't left up to me. Here's why. It's because Moses and and Elijah are the foremost representatives of the law and the prophets. Moses was a great lawgiver who, as I had already mentioned, had his own mountain top experience on Mount Sinai. Elijah, on the other side, was the first and the greatest of the prophets who, incidentally, by the way, had his own mountain top experience at the top of Mount Horeb. And so certainly these two are a great couple of the greatest figures from Israel's history. But note, here's something I think that's important that we need to understand before we go on. As these men are standing here, there's there's a statement being made. Jesus himself, in fact, said verbally that he didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets. I think we need to understand this because sometimes we look at the law in the province and prophets and say, oh, that that law. That's a terrible thing. That was that was a bad part of the history of Israel. Good thing. We don't have to live through a little bit Leviticus or Deuteronomy or all those laws now. But you have to understand something. Jesus actually says that he didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to do something even more striking. He said he came to fulfill them. Matthew five seventeen. He said, don't think I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Here's what Jesus knows that we need to be reminded about, I think, at times. The law and the prophets were good. In that they showed people that they were sinners. Pointed toward the need for a savior. They taught us how to love God and others. See, Jesus didn't come to get rid of the law of Moses, but to be the better Moses. He came to bring us a better exodus from slavery, which is, by the way, the slavery of sin and death. He came to fulfill the law and the prophets and in doing so accomplished what is even more radical. He established himself as the supreme authority, putting God's law within the people rather than on the tablets, writing it on their hearts rather than on stone and inviting with open arms all his people to come. No, him listen to Jeremiah thirty one starts at verse just three verses are starting in verse thirty one. Behold, the days are coming declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband. Declares the Lord for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. So these two men, Elijah and Moses have come to encourage and not just encourage, but to celebrate the lamb of God as he draws closer to Calvary. This is what we're reading here in this in this passage from Luke, Luke, he's writing to theophilus to let him know or to to paint this picture of Jesus on a journey to the cross to fulfill what had already been declared in Genesis to redeem mankind. And the reason that they are encouraging and celebrating with him as he draws closer to Calvary is because it was only Jesus who could accomplish what they had been declaring and pointing to all along throughout the history of Israel. The first Exodus gave a taste of what was to come. The greater Exodus at the cross is where he'll declare at that time it is finished. Once it had all been accomplished. I think it would have been an amazing conversation to listen in on, don't you think? I'm sure they spoke of many things. I'm sure there's lots of things, but the most important thing that we know was that they were talking about Jesus as the culmination of a plan that began back in Genesis three when Adam sinned in the garden, a plan to redeem man from an eternal death, a plan to bring man back into the garden. And so in these next four verses we see Jesus as culmination of his redeeming plan being revealed. Look at verse 32. Peter and those with him were in a deep sleep and when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men were standing with him as the two men were departing from him. Peter said to Jesus, Master, it's good for us to be here. Let's set up three shelters. One for you. One for Moses and one for Elijah, not knowing what he was saying. Well, he was saying this a cloud appeared and overshadowed them. They became afraid as they entered the cloud. Then a voice came from the cloud saying this is my son, the chosen one. Listen to him. By the way, there's no indication that Jesus had actually told him to stay awake and pray later on in the garden. He did, but in this place, he didn't actually say to do that. But I still find it interesting that the disciples almost missed it all. Can you imagine missing it all because you were asleep? Imagine the glory of God being displayed, put on display and you missed it because you had to have a nap. Having said that, Peter, once awake, has one of his famous Peter moments. We can pick on Peter. I mean, he has his Peter moments. He changed later on, by the way, for the good. But here was a Peter moment full display for us to see Peter was before he changed the guy who seemed to routinely be the ready shoot aim kind of guy, right? Act first, then ask questions later. If you even got to that point, there are people who have something to say. And there are people who have to just say something. Peter was, you know, the first group is worth listening to. Well, Peter was certainly in the second group. And that will often get you into trouble. So not knowing what to say, Peter has to say something. So he recommends they enter into a building program and three tenths, one for Moses, one for Elijah, one for Jesus. Now, in Peter's defense, again, we pick on Peter. Peter wanted to honor Jesus. He wanted to honor Moses. He wanted to honor Elijah. I think that's a good thing. But God interrupted, even though it was well intentioned, he interrupted his, like I said, well intentioned, albeit misguided disciple. He'd missed the point. And so what God wanted to do is he he wanted to clear up all the confusion. So look again at verse 34 while he was saying this, a cloud appeared and overshadowed them. They became afraid as they entered the cloud. Then a voice came from the cloud, saying, this is my son, the chosen one. Listen to him. Now, any time that the cloud of God is mentioned in the word of God, you see that it strikes fear in the hearts of the observer. After all, think about this. This cloud is the shekinah glory of God, which was the visible symbol of power and presence of God. This cloud led the children of Israel in the wilderness, the cloud by day and fire by night. This cloud had covered the tabernacle when it was finished. This cloud had filled the temple of Solomon when it was completed. This cloud was the presence of God that was so holy and so pure that once a year when the high priests would go into the temple in the holy of holies, they would have to tie a rope around his leg or a cord around his leg with bells on it. So that while he's serving his God in the holy of holies, if he made an error in handling the presence of God, he would be struck dead. And you would know that because you would no longer hear the bells ringing on his heel. And I can imagine no other priest would go, I don't want to go in there. Let's pull this guy out. Right? That was the holiness of God, his presence demanded holy handling. This is the holiness of God that Ezekiel watched depart from Israel because of Israel's apostasy. And this is the same holiness cloud of God that Israel had not even seen for 600 years. But now it surrounds them, Peter, James and John. And the disciples, you can imagine after explaining all of this about the cloud, you can understand why they would have been struck with fear. I mean, they should be dead by all accounts because they are unholy men. They are such sinful men and there they are in the very presence of God. And yet God gives them that privilege. So as this cloud descends out of that cloud booms the voice, the very voice of God Almighty declared a supremacy of Jesus over the law and over the prophets. In other words, Jesus is not just another human prophet or some kind of historical human law giver. He's the very, very son of God. In fact, it was the Jesus who gave who gave the prophets and the givers of the law, the very words that they wrote. And it was Jesus that they were right and about when they wrote it. God wanted Peter and that includes the rest of us. He wanted all of us to know that the law and the prophets were not the culmination point of Scripture. They are not the zenith of God's plan. Instead, the presence of Moses and Elijah was to signal the arrival of their long awaited Messiah and the ushering in of the last days. Everything in Israel's history have been pointing to the time when the Messiah would accomplish or fulfill the law and the prophets. In fact, later on, the apostle Paul wrote this in Romans 10. Christ is the culmination of the law. Listen, church, Jesus fulfilled the prophets in his first coming alone when he satisfied hundreds of prophecies concerning himself. And by the way, Jesus fulfilled the law in at least two ways. He fulfilled it as a teacher and he fulfilled it as a doer. He taught people to obey the law. And not only that, he obeyed the law himself in living a perfect life. Jesus fulfilled the moral laws in in a sacrificial death. Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial laws. Jesus did it all. Jesus didn't come just to set up a new earthly kingdom of moral laws and new prophets. Rather, he came, praise the Lord, to finish the job that would fulfill the law and the prophets that would set up the new system. And further to that, God's command. Listen to him. Exalted the words of Christ above those of Moses and Elijah. I like Hebrews 1. Long ago, God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways in these last days, which as you remember, have now ushered in. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his his son. Listen, if nothing else, if you remember only one thing, know this as you go home today. Jesus has the final say. Sadly, though, too often, I think we go to God with our prayers and our requests and our plans of life. Can you bless what I'm planning, God? We treat him more as a cosmic consultant rather than the supreme of all creation. I mean, thanks God for your advice. I'll take it into consideration. Instead of yes, Lord, I will obey church. We are to listen to him. He must be heard above all else, above the noise our world tries to make louder than his. All that white noise out there. The truth is that Jesus never competes for supremacy. Never. He's exclusively supreme. Jesus is always to have the final say because Jesus can have the final say. So do we hear him? Or do we listen more to tradition or legalisms or opinions of others or or even of ourselves or are we influenced by the culture or influenced by peer pressure? Do we hear him? Do we read his word? Do we pray and obey as we discover his truth and his will? God's advice to the disciples is still good advice for you and me today. Hear him. The beautiful truth is, church, that we can listen to him because in the end, he's the culmination of the law and the prophets. He's the culmination of everything God has planned to redeem you and me from our sin and from our rebellion against him. So God speaks and when he speaks immediately, the clouds gone. Moses and Elijah are gone. Cycles are alone with Jesus once again at the top of the mountain. Maybe the stars are shining in the sky, but that's about it. The silent. And in the silence. It's where we recognize Jesus's sufficiency. Look at verse 36 after the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And he kept silent. And then that time told no one what they had seen. Here's a picture I want us to see. After the dust settled. We see Jesus. Let me ask. Is Jesus enough? Or do you want more of something else? On the night of Jesus is a rasp, Philip, another one of the disciples, apostles made a request. He said, Lord, show us the father. That's enough for us. He said this in John 14, by the way. Jesus is answer was that he, Jesus is enough. He said, don't you know me, Philip, even after I've been among you for such a long time, anyone who has seen me has seen the father. See, Philip thought that he needed something else. Maybe somebody else. Maybe you need another sign. Maybe maybe I just need a little bit more revelation. I need to see that cloud again. Can you show me the cloud one more time, Jesus? But Philip had everything he had all that he needed standing right there in front of him. Church. Jesus is enough. That means then that it's not Jesus and my job that will give me purpose. It's not Jesus and my relationships that will give me fulfillment. It's not Jesus and my dreams that give me hope. It's not Jesus and my travel or entertainment or a great meal or or a big house or a nicer car or or a safe country even that provides security. I mean, what happens when my country is no longer safe? What if I lose my job or I crash my car or or or friends abandon me or I fail a class at school? You see, if I need Jesus and those things, then I can never find true peace or security or joy or hope. Yeah, Jesus is the only name that can take away our sin and save us that that there's literally no one and nothing else that we could add to Christ that'll aid ourselves. And that's not what Jesus is. Jesus is enough to provide for us. He accomplished the work on the cross and what he did is enough to save us. Not only that, Jesus is enough to provide for us. Paul wrote in Philippians four to nineteen and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. You see, Jesus has the ability and the desire to supply everything we need. And Jesus is enough to bless us. Paul said that God blessed us in Ephesians one blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, heavenly places. That's big. That's massive. That's cosmic. And notice he didn't say a few spiritual blessings. He said every spiritual blessing. And since you can't add anything to every Jesus is honestly enough for every spiritual blessing and every spiritual need that we have. And Jesus also is enough to equip us. We have the promise that his divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. You can't add anything more. Everything, by the way, that word, everything is all encompassing. Nothing but Jesus is needed to equip us for living a life that pleases God. And further, Jesus is enough to strengthen us. When when Paul prayed three times for the Lord to remove the thorn from his flesh, the response was in Second Corinthians, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. I live there. I live there. You need to if you don't live there, you need to go to that place and live there yourself. Quit trying to be the super Christian. Quit trying to do it. You can't. The Christian life is not difficult. The Christian life is impossible. And so you give it back to the Lord and allow him to equip you, him to empower you, him to extend the grace for you and him to be the strength in your imperfection. Listen, even when we're weak, Jesus, a strength is enough to carry us onward. In fact, our weakness only perfects our power. I have so many weaknesses that I make God look good. And that's how we need to live our lives. Give it up. Allow him to have the glory. Jesus is enough. There's nothing no one else to add to Christ. His person and his work are perfect. He's the way. He's the truth. He's the life. He's the only one who can say provide, bless, equip and strength. What else is there? What else is there? What could take our eyes off this prize that we have in Jesus Church? What could trump the riches that we have in Christ when everything else is gone? When the dust settles and all that's left is Jesus, then we have everything. So then that means we listen to him. I'm going to go to verse 35 real quick and then I'll close. This is my son, the chosen one. Listen to him. God the Father speaks audibly, by the way, in the New Testament on only three different occasions. Did you know that in the New Testament, three times only. And each time was to affirm the sonship of Jesus, each time pointing towards Jesus identity and misery and ministry. And if it's only three times God the Father speaks, I think that means something. That means then that we need to take note of what he's saying. So in this passage, when he says, listen to a son, that means we listen to his son and that not only listen to his son, we actively listen to his son with both our ears and all of our heart and our soul and our mind and our strength. So now when Jesus says to his disciples, as he has he had just done already in the preceding chapters in in Luke, that if anybody wants to follow after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Do we listen? Are we taking up our crosses? Do you realize that by taking up our crosses, Jesus is telling us to intentionally move towards death? That might mean physical death. I'll present that day would die some as martyrs, but but even more so, all his followers would have to die to themselves. Die to the desire for self glory, die to the desire for worldly respect and the fear of man, die to the desire of an easy life, die to the desire of earthly wealth and a thousand other deaths. And they, when I say they means we must die to our desire to save our earthly selves. Listen, Jesus isn't coming to tell us to live a stoic life of self sacrifice for a noble cause. He's he is giving us an invitation to joy beyond imagination. The broad road of the world is lined with seductive false promises and appealing to and blinding sinful human heart eyes, and it's leading so many to a horror beyond imagination. But what Jesus is doing is he's calling us to deny ourselves to the world's measly, brief joys in order that we might have overflowing eternal joys. To deny ourselves hell so that we might have heaven. Granted, the Christian life is hard. It's hard because denying our fallen selves is hard. Any death is hard so much. It is designed to be that way, actually, when you think about it, death is an enemy. Our lives, in fact, are our most precious earthly possession. But nothing displays the worth of Jesus more than our willingness to give away our lives in small and large ways for his sake. But also know this. The only thing that Jesus asked us to die to are what will rob us of eternal joy. Know that we're called to deny ourselves the passing pleasures of sin and consider the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the world's treasures. And how do you do that? By looking toward the reward, fixing our eyes on Jesus, by joining him in his great exodus out of the darkness of sin, death, and the enemy. Listen, I don't know you people intimately here. So there may be somebody who has not encountered God. Let me speak to you just for a moment. If you haven't encountered God before in a real personal way, you need to know that Jesus is more than a teacher or moral example. He's divine and is claimed to be the son of God, is authenticated by this supernatural event that we read here. And in fact, the command from heaven, listen to him, is a message that amidst the noise of the world, God calls you to listen to Jesus. He's the one who speaks the truth. He's the one who extends mercy. He's the one who has the words of life. This transfiguration, this transformation gives a preview of Jesus's glorified resurrected state that promises hope and life beyond the grave. Yes, life can feel like a dark valley at times, can't it? Sometimes you might even feel like you're in that dark, deep pit of the soul. But Jesus offers a future filled with glory and light. This life isn't all there is. And Jesus holds the key to that eternal life. The transfiguration of Jesus is an invitation to look past the superficial. Hear the voice of God declaring Jesus as the chosen Savior and trust him as the only hope for an eternal life. So here's my challenge for all of you. This morning, it's this. Make a commitment to actively listen to Jesus. And then when you actively listen, actively respond. I hear you, Father, and I obey. I know that sounds simple. Having said that, it's at the same time a dangerous proposition because there's no way to predict how that might transform your life. Yet the Father cuts through the cloud and he makes himself abundantly clear, this is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him. Let's pray.