Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture

Introduction

In 3 days Lent starts.

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and I hope to see all of you at Flowery Branch for the service at 7PM.

For the last 20 years or so giving something up for lent has been quite a fad.

I think ya’ll know how superficial in a lot of cases this is.

Much of what people do in this regard is more cultural now than it is spiritual.

This year I want the church to add something, prayer.

I know we all pray, but I want us to work on improving our prayer lives, making our prayer lives richer and deeper.

We’ll be talking about this some in our Sunday school classes, I am gong to ask you to use a certain devotional guide, and I am going to preach a series on prayer.

We’ll get into it completely next Sunday.

But we will touch on prayer today as well.

Background

Lent ends today with Transfiguration Sunday.

John doesn’t mention this event, but the other 3 do, and Luke’s version in different than Matthew or Mark.

Luke adds some interesting details the other 2 do not have.

As I say, it is not a good question to ask which one is historically correct.

It makes no difference each gospel writer emphasizes or adds details that are important to their story of Jesus.

Gospels are gosples, they are not history books.

So the question to ask is why is Luke, or Mark, or Matthew telling this story in this manner.

What are they trying to communicate to their specific community?

Luke was writing to Theophilus, most likely an important Gentile or Roman who commissioned this gospel.

He is purpose of his gospel is to

Luke 1:1-

Luke is writing to us too, so that we may know the truth about which we have been instructed.

By the way Theophilus means lover of God.

Context

This text follows Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Son of God and then Jesus telling the disciples what his messiah-ship is about for the first time.

He tells them about his coming death and resurrection.

This story is found immediately after that.

After this mornings text the 4 return down the mountain and Jesus heals a demon possessed boy the disciples could not heal.

And after that he foretells his death and resurrection a second time, this time to the crowd as well.

Then in verse

Exegesis

So this transfiguration story comes in the middle of a section where he foretells his death and resurrection twice and then sets his face on Jerusalem.

Jesus takes Peter, John and James up on the mountain with him.

We don’t know what mountain for sure (none of the gospels tell us), but many scholars and ancient tradition has it that it was this mountain, Mount Tabor (explain picture).

Luke gives us 2 details that are important and different than Mark and Matthew.

Luke claims it was 8 days after Peter’s confession of him as the Christ.

The other 2 gospels say it is 6 days.

This is probably symbolic of Jesus resurrection which the 1st century Christians called the 8th day of creation.

Second, Luke has the Transfiguration occur while Jesus is praying.

This is not what happens in Matthew or Mark.

So while praying Jesus face changed, whatever that means, his clothes became dazzling white and Moses and Elijah appear.

it is unclear whether the disciples have actually fallen asleep and awakened to this sight or they were just really sleepy.

But they must have thought they were in a dream like state.

Essentially what has happened is that they are glimpsing into heaven, another dimension in which a door has been opened.

I do not want to psycho analyze Peter, John and James, but what must have been going through their heads!

Now here is an important point and this is only in Luke

The word departure here is exodos.

The greek word we get exodus from.

Only Luke has this detail.

In other words they were discussing his death and resurrection!

The disciples were seeing the glorified bodies of Jesus, Elijah, and Moses, all 3 in a resurrected state.

The symbolism is heavy here.

Luke is saying that Jesus and what he is going to do is fulfillment of the law and prophets.

Only Moses and Elijah went up the mountain to meet God.

Now Jesus has gone up and while in prayer has the mantle passed to a new day for Israel.

Folks this is heavy stuff, really heavy.

I am not goin to try to explain it, it cannot be explained.

It is a mystery so deep we can’t get our minds around it!

have you ever been in awe of something like this?

I have, kinda . . .

and on a mountain top too

There was a group of youth form my old church about to lead a worship service on top of the mountain at camp Glission.

They had gathered up there about thirty minutes before the service to pray.

As they stood in a circle holding hands they asked God to be present in this service.

They asked God to give a sign that he would be present during that service.

At the precise moment that prayer was uttered a whirlwind appeared over them and swept leaves up among them and it left as soon as it appeared.

It was an otherwise calm night.

Are you skeptical?

Do you doubt this was a sign for God?

For those kids that night God offered them exactly what they needed to go into that service with confidence and faith.

They believed it to be a sign from God.

A God we cannot see, using wind we cannot see to provide the evidence of his blessing on that service and what they were doing.

They couldn't see God, they couldn't see the wind, but they saw the evidence of both!

They were so excited and breathless when they told me this story.

is it any wonder that Peter opened his mouth before speaking, that is he needed to engage his brain before putting his mouth in gear.

Just as he says this the cloud appears, this is the same cloud that Moses experienced on Mt Sinai, that same cloud that was said to be in the holy of holies, the same cloud that led the Israelites in the wilderness, this was the shekinah of God! God speaks to them

Luke 9:35

This was the same voice Jesus heard while praying after his Baptism:

Application

One commentator says this is like the gospel in a nutshell.

In one scene we hear echoes of the baptism of Jesus, Jesus’ passion predictions, Jesus’ fulfillment of the Law and prophets, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and his ascension and future coming.

There are many things to talk about here, but i want us to focus on 2 this morning: prayer and following the command to listen.

Prayer

Over and again we see in Luke that Jesus is a person of prayer, especially and important times in his life, Baptism, transfiguration, and Gethsemane.

By his rich prayer life Jesus sustains his ministry in the will of God.

In fact, his identification by God as his chosen both occur immediately after or while praying, that is his baptism and here in the Transfiguration.

In 5:16 Luke mentions the frequency of jesus prayer life and his time taken away to pray.

We see these qualities of Jesus prayer life in Luke

He faces his ministry with prayer

He gets clear of distractions

He prays in private

Serious prayer goes before being effective in our work

Now let’s move to listening or following God’s command to the disciples, which is God’s command to the church.

Listen

It is interesting that the cloud and voice appear while Peter is talking:

Luke 9:33-

We know when they go back down the mountain they go back to the real world.