View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. This is Pastor Wolfmuller. It is March 2, 2025, the Sunday of the transfiguration of our Lord, the last Sunday in the season of Epiphany, as we are right on the cusp also of Lent. And that's why we have transfiguration. It floats around, but it's always the. At least in the three year lectionary, always the Sunday right before Lent starts. More about that in a little bit. But let's pray you'll notice themes of transfiguration and picking up elements from the Gospel account of the transfiguration. In this beautif collect, O God, in the glorious transfiguration of your beloved son, you confirm the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of Moses and Elijah. In the voice that came from the bright cloud, you wonderfully foreshadowed our adoption by grace, mercifully make us co heirs with the King in his glory and bring us to the fullness of our inheritance in heaven through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Oh man.
[00:01:05] Whew. There's a lot in that prayer. In fact, that prayer is going to grab a bunch of the stuff from the transfiguration and bring it all to its theological application. In fact, you could probably just preach on this particular prayer. So just a couple of things, because one of the things that I notice happens in church is the collect, which is kind of grabbing a bunch of the theological themes from the readings and from the Sunday and kind of making application of them in the particular prayer. It comes first. In some ways it would almost be nice if it came last as a sort of summary of all the things that happened. But it comes first and so you really got to be ready for it. That's one of the advantages of the Sunday Drive to Church podcast. But listen, first, it says you confirm the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of Moses and Elijah. This is a reference to Peter. Is it first Peter chapter two, which is the traditional epistle lesson for one or two Peter two Peter, just like I said, second Peter chapter one, which is the traditional epistle for transfiguration. We have a three year series. We only have it once every three years. But Peter is talking about how he was there on the mount of transfiguration.
[00:02:28] And the result of that is that the prophetic word is confirmed. So here's 2 Peter 1:16. We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the Power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. So Peter's saying, we were there. We saw it. We saw Jesus in his radiance. We saw the glory cloud cover the mountain. We saw Moses and Elijah. He didn't mention that we heard the voice, this is my beloved Son. And what's the conclusion? Verse 19, Peter says, and so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in the dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Now that's an amazing thing. You would think, well, okay, Peter was there and he saw the transfiguration and he's going to make the application. And what's the application? That Jesus is God. Sure enough. That he is the incarnate Son, God in our flesh. True enough. That he is able to save us discussing his Exodus. True enough. But the point that Peter makes in his Epistle is that the prophetic word is confirmed. So when Jesus is there talking with Moses and Elijah and God the Father interrupts with this declaration, this is my beloved Son. The result is the Scriptures are confirmed, especially the Old Testament is confirmed. Jesus is not undoing Moses, the doctrine of Moses and Elijah, the doctrine of the prophets. No, he's confirming the doctrine of Moses and Elijah and the Old Testament and the prophets, so that it says here you confirm the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of Moses and Elijah. That's the first line of the collect. There's a lot. And this is an amazing thing because we just are kind of scratching the surface on. But there's. I just. I wonder sometimes about the amount of depth that's in each phrase that we sing and that we pray on Sunday.
[00:04:47] Amazing. Just amazing. Then the next line of the collection, it says, in the voice that came from the bright cloud, you wonderfully foreshadowed our adoption by grace. This is the voice of God which booms from the glory of the cloud and says, this is my beloved Son. Hear him. Now, what do we want to say about this? This is the second of the three times that we hear the voice of God the Father in the New Testament. In the Gospels, the first is at the baptism of Jesus, where he says something very, very similar.
[00:05:21] You are my beloved Son. In whom I'm well pleased.
[00:05:25] Now two thirds through the ministry of Jesus, towards the end, I suppose we hear the voice again come from the mountain. This is my beloved son. Hear him. Look at how God the Father.
[00:05:39] Wow. So speaks very rarely. And the first two times he speaks, he says almost the exact same thing.
[00:05:48] He's highlighting for us, Jesus. He's giving us Jesus and saying, this man right here in front of you, this is my son. I'm pleased with him. Listen to him. And he's quoting Deuteronomy. Is it Deuteronomy 18:19 or 19:18? I always get those twisted around. Don't worry, I have a Bible I'm going to check. This is one of the very, very few direct Messianic prophecies that.
[00:06:14] Ah, 1819. So one of the very few direct Messianic prophecies that actually comes in the books that Moses wrote.
[00:06:23] So when you read Genesis, when he's account, he. When Moses is writing down all these things that the Lord did all the way from, from Creation to, to Joseph and the, and the trek down to Egypt, there's tons of Messianic promises. But then once you get to Exodus, once you get to Moses actually himself, Moses through Deuteronomy, there's very few Messianic promises. Moses doesn't preach like Isaiah, the virgin will conceive, he will bear the sins of many. Or Zechariah, they will look on him whom they pierced. Or Micah out of Bethlehem will be called, or Amos, the lion of the tribe of Judah. All this, Joel, I will pour out my spirit on the last days. Even the Psalms 22 and Psalm 110 sit here at my right hand. So we have all these direct Messianic prophecies. Again in Genesis, the seed promises, your seed will be a blessing to the nations. The scepter won't depart from Shiloh, all this. But there's a kind of a dearth of those promises from Exodus to Deuteronomy. The exception being Deuteronomy 18:18 and 19, even verse 17. So 18:19. The why is an interesting thing. I've thought about it. Some probably could do some more thinking about it, but I think it's because Moses was a man of institutions.
[00:07:50] And through Moses, the Lord was building his people to be a picture of heaven on earth, and therefore a picture of his redeeming work.
[00:08:04] So, so when he calls Moses up to the, to Mount Sinai and he's there in the cloud and the glory, and he gives him a picture of the heavenly throne room and he says, now make a copy of this. And so he comes down and he institutes the tabernacle and the priesthood and the sacrifices and the blood.
[00:08:27] He's painting a picture of the coming work of Jesus so that the people themselves, and especially the tabernacle and the priesthood, become a picture of the coming Messiah. So we remember that the Lord Christ is present in the Old Testament by promise, that's the prophetic promises. By picture, that's all the types, especially with Moses. And by presence. He's there, he's in the burning bush, he's talking to Joshua, he's leading them through the wilderness, etc.
[00:08:57] So Moses is the man of picturing Christ. Now that really makes Deuteronomy 18 stick out, which is what the Lord quotes.
[00:09:07] At the baptism of Jesus and the transfiguration, the Lord said to me, what I have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren and will put my words in his mouth. He shall speak all the words that I command him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him. The prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, who speaks the names of other gods, that prophet shall die.
[00:09:37] So this is the. When God says to the mountain, this is my beloved Son, hear him. He's quoting this text, Deuteronomy 18:18. You shall hear him.
[00:09:50] Hear him. I will put my words into my mouth. Hear him. So that.
[00:09:55] So that the voice from the cloud is underlining the divine sonship of Christ and his unique role as the prophet who was to be raised up and they are to listen to him. Now, the third time, by the way, that we hear the voice of God the Father. So baptism, transfiguration, and then like Holy Tuesday, when Jesus is praying in the temple and the crowd and he says, father, glorify your name. And the voice speaks from heaven and says, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.
[00:10:28] And this was speaking of the death of Jesus. So those are the three times that we hear the voice of the Father. And every time the Father is talking about the Son, which is pretty beautiful. Okay, now the collect, back to the collect.
[00:10:41] The collect says, in the voice that came from the bright cloud, you wonderfully foreshadowed our adoption by grace. Now look at, this is again just mind blowing. So we hear the voice of God the Father talking to Jesus. You are my beloved Son. This is my beloved Son. Hear him and the collect says that that voice is a foreshadowing of our adoption. That the words that God the Father speaks to Jesus the Son, you're my son. He will now also speak to us, not because we're begotten of the Father, but because we're adopted into the Father's family through baptism, we're taken up into that family. That's the doctrine of Galatians, the doctrine of divine adoption. That we're born children of wrath, Ephesians 2. But that the Lord puts his name on us, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And that that putting of the name of God on us is our adoption.
[00:11:42] So that we have the spirit of adoption to cry out abba, Father. That's probably what's behind this prayer. When Jesus says, when you pray, say our Father, because his Father is our Father by the grace of adoption.
[00:11:59] Here's some Galatians verses. This is Galatians 3:26. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And then he goes on to say, this is chapter four, verse four. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you were sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying abba, Father, so you're no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son than an heir of God through Christ.
[00:12:35] So fantastic, so that so that we're adopted into God's family. Behold this verse that we all have engraved on our hearts. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God. And such we are.
[00:12:55] How John teaches us to confess in first John we are the children of God.
[00:13:02] We are adopted into God's family. And this is the this most beautiful. That's first John 3:1. And following this is the beautiful news of the voice from the cloud. So back to the collect. In the voice that came from the bright cloud, you wonderfully foreshadow our adoption by grace.
[00:13:26] And then the third petition. Mercifully make us coheirs with the King in his glory and bring us to the fullness of our inheritance in heaven.
[00:13:39] So that this prayer sees the transfiguration of Jesus as he's there on the mountain surrounded by the glory with Moses and Elijah and Peter, James and John, and the glory of that moment as a tiny little taste of the glory that is to come and the resurrection and that the king will sit on his throne and that we'll be with him in his kingdom, co heirs of his grace. That's Romans 8 talk that we're co heirs with Christ, which is an amazing thing. I mean that Christ has inherited from the Father all authority in heaven and on earth and that we are co heirs with him, that we're his brothers and sisters, so that we also inherit the Spirit and the kingdom and the name of God, all by grace, it says, not by works, but mercifully grant to us.
[00:14:26] So that this is a foretaste of the glory that is to come. Now, Peter wanted to grab ahold of it just then. Let's make three tabernacles, one for you and Moses and Elijah. He wanted to stay there on the hill. It's good Lord, to be here. But no, the Lord has to come down off the mountain and to the cross and the grave and now to be raised and then he'll bring us to this beautiful point.
[00:14:47] That's all there in the collect.
[00:14:50] How much to.
[00:14:52] That's kind of a lot for that prayer. So let's. 15 minutes.
[00:14:57] Whoa.
[00:14:58] Well, we did cover a lot, but let's try to touch on some of the other texts. Psalm 99 is our Psalm. I don't know why Psalm 99 is our Psalm. I probably could have looked it up, but it's a short little nine verse Psalm, verse eight in the new King James is beautiful. We'll have it in the esv. It's not quite as poetic. You answered them, O Lord our God. You were to them God who forgives. I think it says in the esv, you are to them a forgiving God. But this is a name that God claims for himself. God who forgives, though you took vengeance on their deeds. And then this prayer, exalt the Lord our God. Worship at his holy hill. For the Lord our God is holy. Notice how when we're singing this psalm, notice how it goes back and forth from sermon to prayer, etc. And it especially has to do with the King being exalted. That's the coming Messiah. And it mentions Moses and Aaron and Samuel that are there in verse six. Moses and Aaron were among his priests. Samuel was among those who called upon his name. They called upon the Lord, and he answered them. He spoke to them in the cloudy pillar. And I think that's probably why. If I was to guess why we have this psalm for today, because just as The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and Samuel in the pillar. He also came, and the pillar covered the mountain of transfiguration.
[00:16:27] The Old Testament lesson has the last remaining moments recorded moments of Moses life. It says, the death of Moses and the burial of Moses and the handover of authority from Moses to Joshua. It's Deuteronomy 34, verses 1 to 12.
[00:16:46] It talks about how, remember, Moses couldn't cross over into the promised land because he struck the rock. Remember, there was these two incidences where the people were complaining that they were thirsty. And the first time Moses was commanded to take the staff and strike the rock and the water would come forth. The second time, the Lord commanded Moses to speak to the rock. But instead of speaking to it, he struck it and water came forth.
[00:17:12] And the Lord said, because you disobeyed and struck the rock instead of speaking to it. Now, Moses is not permitted to come into the Promised land. People have reflected on why such severity for that little disobedience. But probably because, remember Moses, we mentioned this already. Moses was there to create the pictures for the people to believe. And so these two events were to be pictures of the church. And Moses kind of wrecked it because the rock that followed them is Christ. 1 Corinthians 10. And the first time Christ appears, he's struck for our sins. And that's indicated by the first time, the first miracle when Moses strikes the rock. The second time the Lord appears, it's not to suffer for sins, but to judge the ungodly. And Moses messes up the picture by striking the rock a second time. That's my best guess as to why the Lord says, okay, you can't go in. But the Lord does want to show him the fulfillment of the promise.
[00:18:13] So he takes him up to the top of the mountain. You can go to the spot now. You can climb. Well, you don't have to climb. You can drive up in a bus to the top of the mountain, and you can see the land stretched out before you, but you can't see everything that the Lord here says you can see even on the clearest of days. And so the Lord must have given Moses supernatural sight to be able to see the whole length of the land there from this mountain that's in Jordan. And then he died. Verse 5. Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor.
[00:18:53] This seems like a small thing, but if you want an interesting thing, to track down some afternoon and you're like, I want to do a Bible study on something obscure but interesting. You can do a concordant study on Beth Peor.
[00:19:07] It's the place where BAAL is first mentioned back in numbers. It's the place where Balaam tempts the people away from following God by. By getting them to marry the Moabitesses. And it's after the Balaam refuses to curse the people three times, but then he tempts them away and they worship. They. The people worship BAAL first at Beth Peor. And the Lord brings it up over and over.
[00:19:34] So that mention of Beth Peor is a reminder of their first infidelity after they were called from Mount Sinai. It comes up a lot of times in Numbers, a lot in Deuteronomy, a lot in Joshua even, and I think in Judges and the Psalms. Beth Peor, that's an interesting study. No one knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses is 120 years old when he died. His eyes undimmed, his vigor unabated. So Moses was 40 years in Egypt, 40 years in the wilderness, and 40 years in being Moses. Capital M. Moses the deliverer. He was 80 years old when God called him in the burning bush, sent him back to Egypt to rescue the people. Then he dies 40 years later, 120 years old. And Joshua the son of nun, was full of spirit and wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him.
[00:20:27] But look at this verse 10. There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel, like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. Until Christ, he is the prophet like Moses, raised up from among his brothers. Okay, real quickly, Hebrews 3 is going to make this point is that Jesus is better than Moses. Remember, that's the whole theme of Hebrews. Christ is better than the angels. Christ is better than the tabernacle, Christ is better than the high priest. Christ here is better than Moses. Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.
[00:20:57] Verse 5. Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, and we're his house indeed. If we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope so that Moses was the servant, but Christ is the Son, better than Moses, So that even though Moses and Elijah are there talking with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration, it is Jesus who is the center of attention. And he's the one who's whose appearance is altered. He's dazzling white.
[00:21:33] Eight days after these saying. So here's the gospel again. We're in the three year series. So Matthew, Mark and Luke, where you see, we're hearing these things from Luke. So we get to hear from Luke 9, 28, 36.
[00:21:46] It says eight days after these sayings, Jesus took with him. Peter, John and James went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, we don't want to miss the context. It's the prayer of Jesus, which was regular, but this is going to be unique. The appearance of his face was altered and his clothing became dazzling white. Now I'd like to suggest that this is in some ways the hidden reality of Jesus prayer. That he was always the radiant son of God, that he was always in conversation with the Father and also the prophets and the whole heavenly hosts, that he was always in the glory cloud, that he was always hearing the voice of God. But the miracle is that on this day, the Lord peels back John and Peter and James's vision so that they can see this heavenly reality.
[00:22:37] The appearance of his face is altered like Moses in the tabernacle. His clothing became dazzling white. Behold, two men were talking to him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure. The Greek word there is Exodus, spoke of his Exodus. So Moses knows about Exoduses. He was in charge of the first one. This is Jesus Exodus, which is his departure to Jerusalem and to the cross. That's the Exodus, his sacrifice, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. It says now verse 32, Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep. But when they became fully awake, they saw the glory and the two men who stood with them. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, master, it's good that we're here. HE sings THE hymn Let us make three tents. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. Not knowing what he said, he wants to kind of lock it in. Let's just do this forever, says Peter. It's not to be. Though he didn't know what he was saying 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 the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. In fact, I think it's the picture that we get from Matthew is they fell on their faces at the sound, at the glory and the sound. And then when they lifted up their faces, it says they saw no one but Jesus Alone, Only Jesus.
[00:24:05] Jesus was found alone. They kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen. What a marvel. Now, I think the marvel, when we think about the transfiguration, that it's like all the things of the Old Testament are piled into one story. So if I said, if you were playing some sort of game on a Friday night and you're just supposed to think of all the words related to something, and I said Old Testament, and you'd say Moses, Elijah, mountain, cloud, God the Father, glory, radiance, tabernacle, mountain. It's all. I mean, it's all there. All these elements of the Old Testament are all piled into this one particular event.
[00:24:46] And the glory of Jesus is revealed and the prophetic word is confirmed. It's so beautiful. But here's the amazing thing, is that Jesus, who is always God and man, who always has this radiance and glory, doesn't always show it.
[00:25:03] I think my favorite thing to think about is how Jesus on the cross is not transfigured. If he would have decided to be transfigured before Pilate or before the Sanhedrin. Here's the radiant glory, and they all fall down and worship him and give him the scepter and give him the throne. But no, he hides his glory so that he can be handed over to the cross.
[00:25:25] I think, you know, in the garden, when Jesus says, I could call hosts of angels to deliver me that, you. You have this picture like they're all waiting to spring and rescue Jesus. But he doesn't. He holds it back, just like he holds back his glory. I would have been tempted. I think when the soldiers were holding my arm down to the beam of the cross and had a nail ready to hammer through the flesh of my hand, that this would be a good time to turn on the glory and make the guy drop the hammer and the nail and fall over and worship me. But this is the point. Jesus does not do that.
[00:26:03] He hides his glory so that he can suffer, so that he can bear our sins and be our Savior. So the one who is God in the flesh hides his glory to save us. Now, this radiance, the ancient church fathers would talk about this all the time. This radiant glory of Christ was what Adam and Eve had in the garden. In fact, some of the church fathers, and I think Luther likes this idea, said that the reason why they realized they were naked after the fall was because before the fall, they were radiating with this transfiguration like glory. And then the lights went out and they realized, oh, I don't have any clothes on. And that this is the glory that we're headed towards in the resurrection. That we will. And this is how Daniel says it, we will shine like the stars in the heavens.
[00:26:53] So that this radiance of Christ is not simply the radiance of his divine nature, but it is the glory of God that's given to us also as his children.
[00:27:08] Beautiful. All right. You'll notice all the hymns are.
[00:27:12] Are really transfiguration hymns. O wondrous type O Vision Fair. Our hymn of the day is an old medieval hymn that's about this. Do you know, in the ancient church, Transfiguration Day was August 6th. I don't know why. I think some pope in the 15th century declared August 6th Transfiguration Day. But from what I can tell, it was the Scandinavian lutherans in the 1800s said, no, we need to put this on a Sunday. And they decided it would be the last Sunday in the season of epiphany. So we get the glory before we get the humility. So we remember that Jesus, who's we're going to hear about all his affliction and trouble in the next seven weeks, that. That Jesus who is so troubled is the one who is the Son of God, who is full of the radiance of the divine glory. That's the one that's suffering for us. And I think it's really helpful. The last hymn you'll notice is the Alleluia, Songs of Gladness. It's a hymn about shutting down our alleluias. It's an interesting thing.
[00:28:12] One of the pious customs of Lent is that the alleluias are dropped from all of the liturgies and the hymns. Now, Luther, when you read Luther on this, he thinks it's really silly. And so Luther writes his hymn for the first Sunday in Lent is full of alleluias. God the Father be our stay.
[00:28:36] God the Father be our stay. Oh, let us perish Never cleanse us from our sins we pray and grant his life forever. Keep us from the evil one Uphold our faith most holy Grant us to trust Thee solely with humble hearts and lowly. Let us put God's armor on with all true Christians running our heavenly race and shunning the devil's wiles and cunning. Amen. Amen. This be done so sing we alleluia. I think that Luther did that on purpose because he thought this not singing alleluia during Lent was ridiculous, just kind of a stupid kind of thing. But we don't listen to Luther, apparently, which is fine. We say, no, no, it's a good tradition. We shut down our alleluias. So we sing in the hymn, this last hymn that we'll sing today. It has to do with alleluia. Song of Gladness will not always be our song. On the pilgrim way, we sometimes have to sing woes, but we wait for the great breaking forth of the alleluias on Easter Sunday. And so it is that that's on the way. And I think if we sing God the Father Be Our Stay, we actually have a Lenten adjustment instead of so sing we alleluia, it says, now sing we all Hosanna or something like that. So that we even take Luther's hymn and we shut down his alleluias too, during the time of Lent, which again, is fine. But don't you know, if an alleluia kind of sneaks out in the next seven weeks, don't worry about it. God is always being praised, and we're always.
[00:29:59] We are always living in the hope of the Resurrection. In fact, maybe this is a fun thing to think about for Lent. When we go into the season of Lent, it's not like we pretend that we don't know that Jesus is going to be raised from the dead on Easter. There's no play acting in the Lord's Church, and the liturgy is never play acting, even though we go through these different seasons of feasting and fasting. And Lenten time is that intensive time of fasting and repentance as we consider our own sins and the weight that Jesus bore for us. But we are not pretending like we don't know about the Resurrection. We know that Christ is raised from the dead and that he'll be back for us soon. And so we repent with that also in mind and rejoice always in the gift that he's given. All right, that'll probably. Whoa, 30 minutes. That'll do it. We're going to study the liturgy in Sunday school today, starting a new series. So I'm going to call it the Word and the Blood Divine Service, what it means. So we'll do that for a few weeks and talk through worship and liturgy stuff. So that'll be a lot of fun. Hope you can make it. See you soon. Safe driving. God's Peace be with.
