Series on what does it look like to bring change to a society. Starting with us and leading into a whole nation.
Shared part two last week, now we are going to part one personally changed
- Jesus Transfigured.
Luke 9: 28 – 36 Imagine the command, don’t talk about what you have just seen.
Transfigured = Changed from one state to another.,
Why did he go on the mountain to pray?
- Knew he was going to die. (bible clear on the fact that he was going to be betrayed and killed, but the knowledge of how that was going to happen was probably hidden from him until this time.)
- Luke 9: 31 Moses and Elijah were there to talk to Jesus about His exodus from this world which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem.
- Society was rejecting His call to repent.
- John and Jesus both preached a message that the kingdom of God was near and they had to repent to enter it.
- Impending doom hung over the nation. Rome was going to destroy it in 40 years.
- Don’t know if he knew 40 years or not, but in Matthew 24 he gives clear detail of what is going to happen when Jerusalem falls.
- Climbed a mountain to seek further guidance and revelation about the path ahead.
- He did not climb to be transfigured.
Key Point: As he sought God, he whole being was changed and he was caught up in the presence of God.
2. God of the stories.
The Church today has great reverence for the Jesus who walked on Earth — the Galilean, the son of Mary, the teacher and miracle worker. We never grow weary of hearing and telling of the greatness of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
We love to remind ourselves of how this Jesus chased demons and stood strong against all temptations. He opened blind eyes, unstopped deaf ears, caused paralytics to leap, restored withered arms, healed lepers. He turned water into wine, fed multitudes with just a few loaves and fishes, and on more than one occasion He raised the dead.
Yet, at some point in history, Christians began to limit the present power of our great, miracle-working Savior. The Church developed a theology that made Christ God of the spiritual but not of the natural. We often don’t know Him as Lord over our everyday affairs, as God of our home, our children and marriage, our job and bills.
EXAMPLE: have someone tell others about my favorite sports teams. (Brewers and Twins) talk about keeping Counsel and Molitor as managers after last year really paid off. (face of the organization in Mauer and Braun are kind go declining but a lot of young talent coming up)
Without passion and involvement it is just facts that don’t really mean a lot to us. No wonder we are not transfigured out of our daily circumstances into the presence of God
3. Knowing God
The apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus: “That you may know . . . what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (Ephesians 1:18–19). Paul was saying, “May God reveal to you not just the past greatness of Christ but His present greatness.”
Paul is telling us we need a revelation of the power of the resurrected Jesus, seated at the right hand of God, with all power given to Him in heaven and on earth. “[God] put all things under His feet” (Ephesians 1:22).
As I read this passage, my heart was stirred with a powerful truth: “Jesus has never been more powerful than He is right now.” Moreover, according to Paul, Christ is “far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:21).
4. Transfigured Self
- Garments radiant and exceedingly white.
- Sin as Scarlet now white as snow as no laundry soap could get them
- Hide sin in our hearts God will hide his face from us.
- Face shown like the sun.
- Matthew 13: 43 the righteous will shine like the sun.
- This is a faith walk.
- Jonah last week, this is not my eternal state in the belly of this whale.
- EXAMPLE Family praying for a lost meth addicted child. Dream of Christ over them but they couldn’t see the child. What Christ is doing in the lives of others, we will not always be able to see.
- Joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. Hebrews 12: 2 Burn into our spirits that this is my destiny.
- Pray like Jesus did on the mountain, until this becomes a reality in our lives.