Transforming with Christ
Luke 9:28-36
We read in the text today about Jesus and three of His closest friends, Peter, James and John having a prayer meeting on the mountaintop.
Jesus took these three up the mountain with him and as he prayed a change came over him his facial expression changed and his clothes turned as white as white could be.
What an experience this must have been for Jesus, three friends.
What an eye opener! They probably had experienced mountaintops before but not like this! I’m sure that not only did Jesus have a transformation that day but I suspect His three friends did as well. There is no way that they could have been in the heavenly presence of our savior and not have transformed or experienced change in their life.
Think about it, anyone who has been in the presence of Jesus in some way, shape, form or fashion has been transformed. When we bow before the savior we are all transformed, not only do we change the look on our faces as Jesus did, we experience a change in attitude and we experience a change in our lives that others see.
We get a smile on our face a spring in our step, we begin to develop a new attitude and it shows and the people we come in contact with us see it, and most of the time want some of it.
Sometimes it’s a slow subtle change and sometimes it’s BAM!!!
Y’all know what I’m talking about, we have all seen people that have been changed people who have been transformed by walking up that mountain with Jesus Christ, and we see ‘em but it’s hard to believe that it’s them. It’s like when you see the schoolyard bully at your 20th class reunion and he has done a 180 and is now the nicest guy in town.
When I started going back to church after a long stint of running from God and walked into church for the first time in several years, let me tell you something, I was shocked by some of the people that I saw! I’m not kidding my jaw dropped when I saw some of the folks sitting in the pew and singing in the choir. I had worked with a few of these people on the Fire Dept. and had not seen or spoken to them in a while.
When I saw them and the initial shock wore off, I could tell they had changed and that they had experienced something in their lives. It was obvious to me that a transformation into a person much different that their old self had happened. I could see it on their faces and in their actions.
One of these guys left the department because of failing his drug test one to many times. Addiction to alcohol and drugs had taken over his life the last time I had seen him, but let me tell you something the man I saw that first day when we walked in that church was changed he had been changed and transformed in a way that could only be done by a walk up the mountain with a man called Jesus. He was smiling and praising God and loving life. He now goes on mission trips spreading the word of Christ sharing the Gospel with people in Honduras and Costa Rica anything he can do to give glory to God and benefit His Kingdom.
Another guy that I saw there was a surprise to me as well. I had been around him when he would open a half gallon bottle of whiskey and throw the top away. Now he also goes to Central America to spread the love of Christ, he hasn’t had a drink in more than 17 years he loves his family and spends more time with them than he ever did. A transformation had taken place a change had come. He went up that mountain with Jesus and came back transformed into someone else a better man a better person with the love of Christ in his heart.
You see that’s what happens when we walk with Christ when we put our trust in Jesus we change we transform. We get opportunities to go to the mountaintop! We all have times in our lives that are mountaintop experiences, our baptisms, our first child, getting married, sometimes we have them at spiritual retreats. All of these things can transform us all of these can change our lives and shape us and mold us into someone better.
You know I tell you about these guys being so far from God and being changed, the truth is I was no different than them. I had my share of problems and issues, but praise God I walked up the mountain with Jesus.
You see I used to have a pretty big problem with my temper and a little problem with my attitude at times. I held a lot of resentment and hate in my heart. Some things had gone on in my childhood and teenage years that I just could not let go of. I just kept holding on to the past and doing that affected my attitude my demeanor and many other aspects of my life. I was driven by money and success because I thought that is what really mattered and that the only three people I could truly depend on in life was me, myself and I.
Living with me wasn’t a cakewalk. This was going on even after I had already made significant changes in my life and had reaffirmed my life to Christ and became a regular churchgoing Christian.
I was working on these issues but the problem was I was working on them in the natural and should have been letting Jesus fix me in a supernatural way.
These things changed when I went up the mountain with Jesus. It was at a spiritual retreat that I didn’t want to go to or be at when I experienced this change. As a matter of fact I almost turned around a few miles from our destination because of an incident at a fast food restaurant that made me so mad that I couldn’t even eat the food I ordered and I wasn’t very nice to the person who had caused my temper to get out of shape. It’s hard for me to believe that I would get bent out of shape over an order of fries and a hamburger. I was in a place where I needed peace and no-one could give that to me but Jesus.
Well I’m here to tell you that weekend I went to the mountaintop with Jesus I went there and transformed I truly had a mountaintop experience I turned loose of all that resentment and problems that I had been carrying around for most of my life and I had a transformation, I was a changed man. I had a smile on my face, forgiveness in my heart, less stress in my life than ever before. Not only did I know that I had changed other people noticed it to.
See you can’t have a mountaintop experience with Jesus without others being able to see the change. You can’t go up the mountain with Jesus and be transformed without others seeing the results.
Peter wanted to build three temples. He wanted to give equal status to Moses and Elias. Don’t we do that at times? We try and take the credit for our mountaintop experience. We try and say hard work or money got us there that we are self -made. God came down with a cloud and when the disciples looked there was no one there but Jesus. We don’t get there on our own or by anything we do Jesus takes us their.
But that’s what we need to see we can’t go up that mountain alone and expect to change; we can’t do it on our own. To truly be transformed to truly have a transfiguration from the natural to the super natural, to transform from the worldly to the spiritual, to go from the sinful to the righteous, to go from the unforgiving to the forgiving and forgiven we must go there with the King, we must go there with the Risen Savior we must go there with Jesus Christ. We can’t do it by ourselves we must travel with Jesus.
I’m reminded of the story of the preacher who moved to his new Church. This church didn't have a lawn mower so he was looking for someone to either mow the lawn or sell him a used lawnmower. One day he saw a young man going by pushing a lawnmower. So the preacher asked him, "Hey, looking for a job?" The young man said, "Sure." It turned out that he was mowing yards and trying to earn enough money to buy a bicycle. This preacher was kind of young and didn't mind mowing the yard so he told the young man, "Look, I've got a 10 speed bicycle that I never ride any more. What do you say we trade the bicycle for the lawnmower?"
Well, the young man was ecstatic. They swapped and the young man took off on the bicycle. He rode around the block and came back to see the preacher standing in the same place wiping sweat off his brow. The preacher waved the boy over and said, "Hey, I've pulled on the rope a half a dozen times and this lawn mower just won't start."
The young man said, "Preacher, I hate to tell you this but it's a special kind of lawnmower. You have to cuss it to get it to start."
The preacher looked at him and said, "Well, I've been in the ministry so long I don't think I can remember how to cuss."
The young man grinned and said, "Pull on the rope some more and it'll come back to you."
Let me tell you something while we are on that mountain we cant forget the valley. We can’t forget where the Lord has delivered us from. I hate to tell you this but you can’t stay on the mountaintop all the time. We all want to stay there, we all want to be there all the time but we can’t. We want to stay there because we feel so close to the master, we like it on the mountain because we feel closer to Jesus. But friends, let me tell you something Jesus is there in the valley to. Jesus is with you in the valley of pain, Jesus is with you in the valley of suffering, and Jesus is with you in the valley of fear. My friend if you have been on the mountain with Jesus rest assured he is with you in the valleys. He is always with you no matter what is going on in your life the good and the bad. Jesus is there.
Don’t forget the valley. That’s where Jesus nurtures us and feeds us and helps us grow strong in spirit. That’s where we are really the closest to Christ. So when you’re on the Mountaintop don’t forget the valley below, don’t forget the savior who is leading you always.
Our lives are full of valleys and mountaintops, this life is a cross country marathon not a 100yd dash. Our walk with Jesus doesn’t end at the top of the mountain but continues down the other side and into the fertile valleys.
We can’t forget where we come from, and there will be times we can’t see where we are going so we just need to rest assured that in the present, in the here and now, that Jesus is leading us to another mountaintop.
