“The Last Words of St. Peter” Transfiguration
“They didn’t tell anyone what they had seen until long after this happened.” Luke 9:36
“We have seen his majestic splendor with our own eyes.” 2 Peter 1:16
Intro: When Thomas Edison invented the first light bulb, he handed the bulb to his young apprentice who anxiously carried the bulb upstairs. Yes, you might have guessed it; the nervous young boy stumbled and dropped it shattering it on the floor. It took another tedious twenty-four hour day of non-stop work to make another bulb. When completed Edison handed the second bulb to the same assistant. This time the boy carried the bulb more carefully. If at first you don’t succeed, do you give people a second chance?
We all make mistakes. We all have faults and make human errors. We have all seen people stumble and fall down. Where would you be if someone had not given you a second chance? What if someone had not believed in you enough to help you up or let you try again?
God is in the business of giving people a second chance. Probably no one knew this better than Simeon Peter. Whether it was thinking outside the boat and trying to walk on water or Peter who always was the one to speak before he thought. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus just gave Peter the biggest compliment and mission anyone could have. “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the powers of hell will not conquer it.” Only a few minutes later Peter speaks without thinking and this time Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get thee behind me Satan.” Matthew 16:23.
But for all of Peter’s weaknesses and mistakes, Jesus saw potential in him. That potential was good enough encouragement for Peter, that after Jesus’ death, it is Peter who takes up the cross and becomes the Saint who leads the “Christ-like ones” to become the church of believers.
As we look deep into the scriptures for today we see two accounts of men who stood looking into the mystical portal of time. The first is Jesus. He is standing on the mountain, even though he is visited by two men from the past, Moses and Elijah, Jesus is really looking into the near future. He sees the road to Jerusalem and the glorious fulfillment of God’s plan.
The second man to look into the spiritual portal of time is St. Peter. He is in Rome. Peter is looking into his near future. He sees the same death by crucifixion as Jesus. But before he dies he wants to remind the believers and us of the unchanging truths of the glorious gospel.
The disciple Peter knew that his time on earth was limited and drawing near to an end. 2 Peter 1:12-18. These were some of Peters' last words written before his death and Peter wants to make sure that people remember the event of the Transfiguration. Luke 9:29 “And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.” Most sermons end at saying “his face changed, and his clothes were dazzling white.” They stop far short of the deeper meaning of what took place. A close examination of the Greek words that describe Jesus’ appearance such as fashion, countenance, white and glistering are all words that are not likely to describe his physical form looked differently. For example the word “fashion” in the Greek “eidos” means to know, to become aware, to understand fully and then be sure of. So it is more likely that instead of some luminous glow that looked on Jesus’ face instead there was one of resolve and determination. Radiant in Greek: “lampros” is the word for light really just means “it became clear to see.” While words like “white” and “glistering” are not physical but again they mean a look of understanding. Things looked clear.
After he had spoke with Moses and Elijah, Jesus looked ahead in time and saw the road to Jerusalem and predicted his death on the cross, but that did not sway or break his strength of will or his fortitude of purpose. Jesus was not weakened by the mission that was ahead of Him, but he was more determined and sure than ever that he was going to carry out God’s plan of salvation and save the world from its sin. That is the meaning and power behind the Transfiguration.
There will be moments in your life when it seems like something falls away, and we see deeper, below the surface of everyday attention and it becomes real to us that God is calling us to “Make Disciples and Transform the World for Christ Together.”
Friends, that is the change that took place in the disciples after Jesus death. They were frightened and scattered, crushed and overwhelmed, devastated by seeing their Messiah crucified on the cross. They were feeling hopeless. Threatened and persecuted by the rest of the world who wanted to crush and put an end to this group of rebels who challenged the way of thinking of the religious leaders. Jesus changed the status quo. He set the disciples sights on things beyond the walls of the temple in Jerusalem to see the least, the last, the lost that were sitting outside who were setting in the shadows of the walls of the church and Jesus said, invite them in.
As the old hymn written by Alexcenah Thomas says:
Who’ll go and help this Shepherd kind,
Help Him the wand’ring ones to find?
Who’ll bring the lost ones to the fold,
Where they’ll be sheltered from the cold?
Out in the desert hear their cry,
Out on the mountain, wild and high;
Hark! ’tis the Master, speaks to thee,
“Go, find My *sheep where’er they be.”
Bring them in, bring them in,
Bring them in from the fields of sin;
Bring them in, bring them in,
Bring the *wand’ring ones to Jesus.
On the Mount of Transfiguration Peter wants to set up a memorial,” let’s make three shrines” Luke 9:33 to remember Moses and Elijah and Jesus on the mountain. Once again we see Peter with that foot in his mouth. He forgets it’s better to be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.
“But even as he was saying this, a cloud came over them; and terror gripped them as it covered them. Then a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him.” When the voice died away, Jesus was there alone. They didn’t tell anyone what they had seen until long after this happened.” Luke 9:34-36
Peter didn’t tell anyone what he had just seen take place until a long time after it happened. You know how it sometimes takes us a while to let things sink in and understand why something has just happened and how God can use it for his good, especially if that something has frightened us or challenged our normal way of thinking.
But over time the future becomes the past and we can then see how that Jesus’ death was really not a defeat but a victory, the cross was not an end but just the beginning.
Finally things began to make sense. As Peter grew stronger in his faith and drew closer to his own mortality he more clearly understood the Transfiguration of Jesus. The Transfiguration is a call to experience that wonderful and glorious encounter with God that establishes our mission to follow Christ and sets our true identity as believers and children of God.
It is also marked by the mission to make disciples no matter what the cost. With all certainty, absolutely clear, no doubts, no turning back, Peter was determined and resolved that even if it meant his death he would keep reminding people that what happened to Jesus was not merely clever, made up stories but they were the truth. He had seen the power of God in Christ with his own eyes. He had heard the voice of God with his own ears.
I once heard someone say, “Discipleship is not lived out on the mountaintop, but in the valley.” The Mountain is often where God is revealed and his glory is discovered. The Valley is a place where battles are fought and life gets tough.
Immediately after they came down from the mountain, the very next scene is an encounter with a boy with an unclean spirit. Jesus rebukes the evil spirit and heals the boy. The disciples and Peter witnessed that Jesus who is Lord on the mountain and also Lord in the valley. The glory that's revealed on the mountain makes a difference in the valley. Your mountain experience may result in you wanting to make a difference in someone you meet in the valley. Have you experienced this wondrous truth in your own life?
What I mean is this. We can worship week after week on the Mountain. We can enjoy the mountain so much that we want to stay there. But worship is really only a tiny fraction what God wants from us.
The truth is that there is nothing more important than the church making disciples. That is the mission of the church. There are places everywhere to make disciples. There are plenty of empty pews, extra places to park cars. We don’t have to swap members from that church to this church. There are plenty of lost people who need to become disciples.
The Mountain top is often a place where God is revealed and his glory is discovered. The Valley is a place where battles are fought and life gets tough.
It is the second time Jesus predicts his death. The journey from Mount of Transfiguration to the Mount of Calvary is one we are all called to travel. It is the call to salvation. It is that moment where we must choose between living in our past and settling for our failures or making the decision to begin a new life where we receive a second chance and because we receive mercy and grace we show that same compassion to strangers and people who we might not like or even get along with. But we know that Jesus loves them the same way he loves us.
Rev. Cynthia Thomas Hinson shared this funny post on the internet yesterday. She took a photo of a church with its name, "Saint Peter's Church," affixed to an exterior wall. The only thing, the "S" from Saint had fallen off, and the result was, "this aint Peter's Church."
What are we cultivating both inside and outside of the church and the community?
My first year as pastor I had three tiny churches that had not had a baptism in the many years. My first baptism I did was a lady bedridden with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. She desperately wanted to come to church but instead we took the church to her. She was so delighted to have her bed surround by long time friends and members of the church. That same year I held a revival and two young people made a profession of faith. I will never forget it. I was so excited to be baptizing a second and third person into the church. When I walked into the water someone reminded me to take my watch off. Of course I did. The only problem I was so nervous I just stuck the watch in my pocket and of course it was ruined. But it was well worth it to see three new people come to Christ.
Years ago I was called to do a revival at Chandlers and Twin Chapel Circuit. They wanted a seven night revival. The first couple of nights we had two profession of faith. Word spread quickly and after the seventh night of revival there was a total of twelve people baptize. That is the most I have ever baptized at one time.
There are the “can do appointments” and there are the “don’t you dare do appointments.” We can’t say that we are over churched. There are almost always empty pews in every service. We can make a lot of excuses as to why we don’t do more to make disciples. But I don’t think any of our excuses will past the God test.
Don’t get too discouraged God sees the potential in you. Discipleship is an ongoing process. It is accepting Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. There is no doubt that it is important.
One day I was driving home from a meeting in London. I stopped to fill up the car with gas and a man walked up to me and asked if I would give him a ride to Williamsburg. I said yes get in the car and I will take you home. Well his home was another 6 miles out Hwy 26. When he got out of the car he said I knew you would bring me home. I asked how did you know that? He said, “Some faces just say yes, other say no.”
Jesus face and appearance was Transfigured. He was determined to not look back but to obey the will of God.
Peter said, “Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that my days here on earth are numbered and I will soon die. So, I will work hard to make these things clear to you. I want you to remember them long after I am gone. Peter was changed from “They didn’t tell anyone what they had seen until long after this happened.” Luke 9:36
St. Peter spends most of his last days before he was martyred writing letters to the churches encouraging them to never, never, never, give up. To believe and trust and have faith in God is no small thing. 2 Peter 1:15
History records that St. Peter was crucified upside down on the cross, for he did not feel worthy to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus.
I think St. Peter was trying to teach us a valuable lesson. To spend our time living out the radical teaching of Jesus. Show hospitality to all people. Shake hands with someone who you don’t know their name. Even hug someone who you despise and have scorned you. The bible says in Matthew 5:47. It is easy to greet a friend. Even the Pagans do that. We have to change from just loving people we like to showing Christ like love to a total stranger. Even to our enemies and people who persecute us. Why? Because Christ says so.
Closing: Heavenly Father you are always giving your people another chance. You are forgiving and erasing the sins of our past. As you were Transfigured, Transform us, through Jesus on the cross you have made it possible for us to keep coming back until we get it right. Amen.
