OPEN: Back in 1884 John Henry Patterson formed the National Cash Register Co. and he led the company to prominence and profitability. He made it successful because he paid attention to details and kept an eye on each dept. in the company.
At one point, it became apparent that the factory was having a high number of burglaries. Patterson was convinced that the security staff was not doing their job. So, one night, he put on a phosphorescent suit and rode up to the plant on a white horse. He jimmied opened the door to the tool room, helped himself to several spare parts and rode off, without being challenged.
The next morning, he replaced the security staff.
APPLY: Now, why did Patterson replace the security staff?
He did that because they weren’t doing their job.
They weren’t paying attention.
Here in Matthew 17, we have God trying to get the attention of Peter, James and John. It’s fairly obvious that this was the reason Jesus bro’t them to this mountain. A lot of times, Jesus would take his men aside for a time of teaching or prayer, but this time, it’s a little different.
No sooner had they reached the pinnacle when Jesus turns around… and his entire appearance has changed. His face shines like the sun, and His garments became as white as the light.
As if that weren’t enough, two men appear beside Jesus. We’re not told how the disciples knew who they were but they suddenly realized these two men were Moses and Elijah.
The apostles are understandably excited.
Notice what Peter says to Jesus in Matthew 17:4, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters— one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
Suddenly a cloud descends on them and surrounds them. Matthew 17:5 tells us a powerful voice speaks from the cloud “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
The excitement of the Disciples turns to trembling and fear and they fall facedown on the ground. Verses 7 & 8 tells us “Jesus came and touched them. ‘Get up’ he said. ’Don’t be afraid.’” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
Now there are three things that I saw in this passage.
1st - God wanted to get Peter, James and John’s attention
Can you imagine how dramatic this experience must have been to them? God designed this encounter to be something they would never forget… and they didn’t.
Long after Jesus had risen from the dead, this scene was still burned in their minds
· John might have been referring to this event - of seeing Jesus’ transfigured - when he wrote to fellow Christians: This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." 1 John 1:5
· And Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:16-18
“…we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.”
God wanted their attention… and He got it.
God has always put a high priority on getting our attention.
In Isaiah 28:23 He tells His people: “Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say.”
In Deuteronomy 7:12 He tells Israel: “If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you…”
Why should we pay attention to God?
Well, Deuteronomy 7:12 says: God has a “covenant of love” He wants to share with us. He wants give us the full measure of His blessings in our lives because He cares for us.
But the only way we’re going to be sure of getting those blessings is by paying attention and following His commands and desires for our lives.
When we do that God declares: “I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
So, the question then becomes, do I want God’s plans for my future… or would I rather do it myself?
ILLUS: A boy and his mother were in a drug store and there was candy on the counter and the owner spotted the boy looking at the candy, when the mother went up to pay the owner said to the boy “you want some of this candy”.
The boy nodded, and the manager said “well go ahead and take some”.
Well the boy just stood there, and again the owner said “go ahead and get a handful of candy”.
The boy still stood there then the owner reached in the jar and pulled out some candy and gave it to the boy and the boy filled his pockets. When they got outside the mother said
“Why didn’t you get a handful of candy the man told you it was O.K..”
The boy said, “Because his hands were bigger than mine”.
The choice we have in this life is: do we want God’s plans for our lives, or do we want our own plans instead? If it comes down to a choice, I’d prefer God’s plans.
God’s hands are bigger
God’s plans are bigger.
The 2nd thing I saw in story of Jesus on the Mountain was this:
It’s possible to focus on the wrong things in life
God wants our attention… but too often we get distracted by other things
As one preacher said, we can suffer from a spiritual form of Attention Deficit Disorder
This spiritual ADD was reflected in Peter’s comment to Jesus: “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters— one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Matthew 17:4
Now, follow me here.
Moses represented the Law
Elijah was a symbol of the Old Testament prophets
And Peter – misunderstanding the message God wanted him to see - wanted to put Jesus on the same level as these great men of old.
But then, the cloud descends… and God makes His intentions clear: “This is my Son… LISTEN to Him”. And when the cloud vanishes… the only thing they see is Jesus.
Peter had been focusing on “good” things.
Moses and Elijah were important men who represented the greatest revelation that God had ever given to man up that point. But as important as Moses and Elijah were… they paled in comparison to Christ.
Moses’ face didn’t shine like the Sun
Elijah’s garments weren’t as white as snow
It was Jesus that shone with light and glory… not them.
My point is this: It’s easy to get distracted by “good things” in this life and neglect the best that God wants for our lives.
ILLUS: Years ago, I was listening to one of the prominent preachers in our brotherhood. He told of how he had been in big demand back in the 60’s in lots of churches. What did he preach about? The threat of Communism.
Now, there was nothing wrong with that topic… and that’s what many of his audiences wanted to hear about. But, as impassioned as he had been about the threat of communism, he later realized that he dwelt on an “important topic” but had failed to preach Jesus as he should have.
A lot of churches fall into that trap.
They’ll have a hobby horse doctrine that consumes almost all of their teaching and in the dust they leave behind people don’t always see Jesus.
ILLUS: I read recently about a mega-church, with several thousand members, where the preacher preached for an entire year on abortion and politics.
Now, I’m as pro-life as the next guy - and I watch the political scene closely - but that was way too much time spent on those topics. And his board realized that too… and they told him they wanted to hear about Jesus.
He’d spent his time preaching about “important” topics… but failed to show people Jesus.
Now, if that happens to preachers and churches, you know full well it can happen to the rest of us.
* How many of you have a job? Would you like to keep your job? So would I. But it’s possible to have your job be so “important” that you allow it to keep you away from church. When that happens, you have a problem.
In the days of the early church people didn’t get Sunday’s off to go to church. They often had to worship in the evening because that was the only open time in their day. Acts tells of Paul coming to preach for one such gathering (Acts 20:7ff) and he preached well past mid-night. The people gathered at that time of night to be with Jesus because that was the only time on Sunday they could do so.
If you can’t make it to Sunday morning worship... do you plan on coming Sunday nights? Attending a mid-week Bible study? Having worship in your home where you and your family take of communion together? If you don’t, you’ve got ask yourself the question... is my job more important than my time with Jesus?
* How many of you like to have money to pay your bills? So do I. But it’s possible to regard your finances as so important that you build your life around money – then you have a problem. Paul wrote to Timothy that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Not “Money”, but the “love of money.”
* Do you consider your family as “important? Me too. But if our family distracts us from our responsibility to God, then we have a problem. Jesus said "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” Matthew 10:37
In Mark 8:36 Jesus said “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” You can have all kinds of “important” things in your life but if they crowd out Jesus or if you’re tempted to build little tents like Peter did (Moses/Elijah/ Jesus) one for your job, one for your family, one for your finances… and another one of EQUAL value with Jesus - you’ve got a problem.
God expects to have first place in our lives. Nothing else will do.
(pause…)
So, what I learned from this passage are these things:
First – God wants to get our attention. He has a plan for our lives and He wants to bless us immensely. But in order for that to happen, He’s got to have our undivided attention.
2nd – we tend to suffer from spiritual ADD. We get distracted by “important” things.
The third thing I noticed about this story in Matthew 17 was that God has one central focus:
God said: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Matt. 17:5
It occurred to me – as I was looked this passage over that Peter, James and John had been in church for a long, long time. The Mount of Transfiguration seems to have taken place toward the end of Jesus ministry… and so His disciples have been worshipping with Him for about 3 years now.
Do you realize: it’s possible to go to church all of your life… and still not listen to Jesus?
I’ve seen people who’ve done it!
They’ll have perfect attendance pins.
They’ll be involved in various committees and activities in the congregation.
They’ll teach Sunday School… or be an Elder
But it’s their Church that’s the “Important” thing in their lives. They go thru the routine of going to church and they say all the right things… at church, but the rest of the week they’ll say hateful things about each other or about others.
They love their church but - never seem to be listening to Jesus.
ILLUS: Years ago, in the first congregation I served, I approached the board about going down to Ft. Wayne (about ½ an hour away) and taking part in a pro-life march.
Now, had they said “No, we don’t think that’s what Jesus would want us to do right now” - I’d have understood. But that’s not what they said.
They said “If we do that, someone may come here and burn down our building”
What were they saying? They were saying that the most important thing for them as a church… was the building.
ILLUS: In another church, we had a discipline problem with one of the leading men in our congregation. The man in question was a Mason and two of the Elders there were also Masons. One of those Masonic elders took the other one aside and said “I know what the Bible says about church discipline but we’re part of the Masonic Lodge. We need to deal with this as Masons… not as church leaders.”
What was that man saying? He was saying one of the most “important” things was his lodge.
He was saying that he wanted to listen to his fraternal organization… rather than Jesus.
Now I’m not sure these folks intended to cut Jesus off… but they did anyway because they had stopped “listening” to Jesus.
I want to listen to Jesus. I don’t just want to go thru the routine of going to church and fulfilling my religious obligations. I want to actually pay “attention” to what He wants of us.
But, how do I know what He’s saying?
Well, it’s all right here (Hold up Bible)
Not just the “red letter” sections where Jesus gets quoted in the Gospels (some “believers” have actually deceived themselves into believing that they can limit their commitment to that section) but every single word in this Book.
All these words all belong to Him. That’s why it’s called THE WORD OF GOD!
SO, if you want to “listen” to Jesus here’s where you start… read.
Read the Gospels,
Read some of the New Testament Letters
It doesn’t matter where you start
What matters is that you read it with the intention of LISTENING to Jesus
To find out what He wants you to do in your life. And then OBEY it.
Get involved in Sunday School, mid-week Bible studies, devotions with your loved ones.
None of us are above the need to be involved in this way.
You’d think Jesus would not have needed to go “church”… but He did.
Do you know where He was every Sabbath day? He was either at the synagogue or temple.
And do you remember where He was at age 12? He was at the temple… asking questions.
If it was needful for Jesus to do this, how could we possibly presume that we wouldn’t need it?
CLOSE: When we first started this series, I quoted Andy Stanley who said: “The direction you go, will determine the destination you arrive at.” So, if I want to arrive at pleasing God, I should be very careful about the paths I chose in my life.
Someone has said that “hindsight is 20/20.” If that’s true, what I need to do is visualize myself at the destination I want to be with God… and then look back to where I am now. Then I can see clearly the paths I need to focus on in order to arrive at my goal.
Today we’ve pointed out that the attention I give to Jesus will influence my direction and destination. Andy Stanley says we need to turn our Attention Deficit Disorder into
ATTENTION to God - which will lead us in our
DIRECTION of life - which will lead us to our ultimate
DESTINATION – Heaven
That’s the kind of ADD we need to have in our lives
As Prov. 4:25-27 advises us: “Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.”
Years ago there was a famous tightrope walker named Blondin,. Blondin amused and amazed thousands of people as he made his way over Niagara Falls on a slender rope stretched from shore to shore. He never faltered or failed. But Blondin had a secret.
At the other end of his rope, he had fixed a large silver star on a post. And as he made his way over the rope, he kept his eyes fixed on that star at the other end.
The star was the center of his attention and guided him to the other side.
As Hebrews 12:2 tells us: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
