Did you hear what God said about Jesus in today’s reading, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” That’s right , Listen to Him… Listen to Jesus. When was the last time you listened to Him?
Well most of you have been hearing Jesus speak this morning and you hear him at least every Sunday. We hear in the Bible readings, in our singing, prayers, even in your conversations with other people, in the sermons and in fact we hear Him throughout worship.
But listening involves more than just hearing noises. Let me illustrate this. How many times have you had your mind focused on something and your spouse speaks to you and you hear the jaws flapping but you don’t hear the words. I might hear my husband’s voice but I am not actually listening to him. I heard the noise….but not what he said. Ever experienced that??
One thing I have learned over the years is that listening is essential, for a good marriage. Likewise, it is essential for our relationship with Jesus. And when we listen to Jesus, he has some wonderful, and some exciting things to tell us.
Now let’s listen to him, from Matthew 28:20 Jesus says, “And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age”
from John 10:9 I am the gate whoever enters through me will be saved
And in John 6:35, I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me, will never hunger, whoever believes in me will never thirst
John 8:12, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
Aren’t these wonderful words! There are heaps more where they came from… So how about listening to Jesus? Pick up a bible and start listening to Jesus by reading, say, Matthew or by following Daily devotions.
But why does God say Listen to Him? Well for a start He is truly the Son of God. God wants Peter, James and John to know this and he wants you to be sure of this.
So, in today’s Gospel reading he gives us four images that say no matter what happens. No matter how successful, how ordinary or even how hard up you are. Jesus is always truly the Son of God, God’s chosen one and He will always be God.
Today I want us to take a look at the four images.
Image one: The mountain top Jesus says, “come on Peter, James and John come up on this mountain and pray with me”
Mountains are not just wonderful places, away from the hustle and bustle of the world. They are also good places to pray to talk and to listen to God. Have you noticed that frequently when Jesus prepares for a difficult time he spends time in prayer?
But the mountain is important. In the Old Testament we discover that God had a habit of appearing to people on mountains. Where did Moses meet God?? On a mountain. Where did Elijah hide? In a cave on a mountain. So, for people who knew the Old Testament when strange things happened on a mountain, it was most likely God at work.
Image two: Jesus began to look different. As Jesus was praying to God his clothes began to change, they became extremely bright. The word translated as transfigure is “Matamorpho” which is where we get the English word metamorphosis. The idea is of something drastically changed like a butterfly that changed from a worm into a new creature.
Something very similar happened to Moses when he saw the Lord on the mountain, except that Moses face glowed.
Image three: the appearance of Old Testament prophets who had a history of pointing to a Messiah.
The appearance of Moses and Elijah, here was no mistake. We all know that they are major characters in the Old Testament, but here is the interesting part: both have met God on a mountain, both represent the Law and Prophets, and both pointed to the Messiah. However, this is not the most important part of their ministry. They were both good listeners of the Lord. Then they lived this out through what they did and spoke.
Image four: The Lord appeared in a cloud. The Lord appearing in a cloud, was something the Lord had a track record doing. In Exodus 34:5 we read Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD
But so what you might be saying, don’t we know that already??? I learned that in Sunday school.
Here is where the rubber hits the proverbial rubber hits the road. We know that Jesus is the true Son of God, But do we really know that in our hearts? Do we always remember it? Of course, when things are going well, and when life is great it is easy for us to say that God is present in our lives. It may be easy to listen to God during those times. For many when life is good, it is easy to listen to Jesus. In many cases when life is good, God comes through loud and clear. But it’s easy to listen to any leader, when things are going well.
Think about it for a moment. How many leaders get fired when things are going well…Does a football coach get fired when he has a great winning streak? Does the CEO of a company get voted out when everything is going well?
It is easy listening to leaders when things are going well, isn’t it? Likewise, when life is pretty good…it isn’t too hard listening to Jesus or at least to act like your listening to Jesus. That is until he tells us, “if you want to be my disciple…you must deny yourself…” Jesus told his disciples exactly this just prior to taking them to the top of the mountain.
I remember the first time I realized that I had to give up some of the things I KIKED for Jesus, He di not look all too popular to my teenage ears. But later on, I soon learned that giving THINGS up for God that the Lord soon replaced them with far better things that I took far better delight in. I did not realize those things never were mine anyway. I was only hearing the noises that God made not really listening to Him. Now I have learned to trust in the ways of God and I do not miss the things of the world.
There is also another time when we find it difficult to listen to Him, isn’t there? This is when life is tough…when things are hard and when things are not going that well in our lives. Imagine for a moment what it would have been like for the disciples. Here they were following the Messiah, the new king of Israel, God’s chosen one, so naturally they thought that things could only get better, that nothing bad would happen to him, some of them may have even dreamed that they’d get to serve him in a palace.
Listen to how Peter responds to Jesus after Jesus told them he must suffer and be killed. Peter’s response: “Never Lord, this shall never happen to you!”
How often do we think like that? That in following Jesus we think that our life shall be comfortable, without pain, without burden. Maybe we think it should a little less uncomfortable, a little less pain and little less burdensome. But instead Jesus says, Look, following me isn’t going to be easy.
Following Jesus does not mean that life necessarily gets easier. It definitely won’t be comfortable. In some later verses Jesus says, In fact in following me, you are being asked to serve others, to endure persecution, to struggle. I know I would turn my ear s off If I heard the Lord say you are going to be persecuted. “Get me out of here. I did not sign up for that!”
But our struggles have a purpose. Just talk to many successful sports people, or people in the business world and you will find that many of them have not always been successful. Many have had to overcome great obstacles. For all of us the difficulties have a purpose, and we can only know this purpose by listening to Jesus.
When others see us struggling and not giving up, it strengthens our witness for Christ and encourages others to continue with their struggle of life also. We may be tempted to give up, but we have the assurance, IF WE LISTEN, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Those words alone should give somebody some encouragement today.
So in listening to Jesus we discover our struggles are not struggles in vain, struggles without purpose. God has not forgotten us, but He is with us.
I remember talking with a lady who said for years she felt guilty, she felt as if she was doing something wrong. Why, because her life had been full of struggles. As she spoke, she talked about the struggles she had experienced with her family, with friends and with people at work. However recently on rereading the Scriptures she realized that God wasn’t calling her away from these difficulties but in fact he was calling her to live in struggling situations and that she was not struggling by herself. But she was walking beside others and struggling with others at the same time.
In fact that’s exactly what Jesus does to each of us. He calls us to serve. To serve our family, our friends, our enemies, and our communities. And not just in the good times, but also through difficult times. Sometimes we need to be patient with them, giving them more than they deserve. Our struggles in following Jesus are only worthwhile, because Jesus first struggled for us.
From Isaiah we read, “by His wounds we have been healed.” If you want to get a glimpse of how much Jesus went through for you, you can see this most dramatically in the gospels as Jesus approaches the cross.
If you want to visually get an idea of the amount of suffering Jesus endured for you, watch again Mel Gibson’s movie the Passion of the Christ. One pastor pointed out that it had to be even worse than what Mel Gibson portrayed as Jesus was beaten beyond recognition.
Remember Jesus did not suffer for himself. He was already innocent. He suffered for you and for me. There were times, as he suffered that the disciples must have been wondering what on earth was happening? But if they had listened to him, they would have recalled that it was part of the Messiah’s plan. They would have known that the suffering did not mean he was not God, on the mountain they found out he was God.
And for those of you who are thinking that mountain top experiences are not worthwhile, they are they help us to hear Jesus. God often uses mountain top experiences to prepare us for struggles or to help us through the struggles. Like Peter, James and John God used the mountain top experience to tell us that He was his son, the chosen one, so listen to Him!!!
But we don’t stay up there, do we? We come down to experience the struggles. As an evangelist friend likes to remind me, “The best grapes do not grow on the mountaintop, thew grow in the deepest valleys.”
So listen to Jesus, during the Great times and the tough times. Listen to the fantastic news he has for you! And also listen to Him, that this news of eternal life is not just for you, it is for everyone. And remember that Jesus, the son of God is always with you. Where are you? On the mountain? In the valley? Are you listening to God? What is he telling you?
