Turning Point
Notes
Transcript
Turning Point
Turning Point
There comes a moment in each of the Gospels when Jesus reveals who he really is.
Many have been trying to figure this out.
Many think he is a prophet or a famous prophet who has risen from the dead.
He has taught, he has explained his mission, he has shown and lived out his mission, he has healed, overcome evil spirits, and fed thousands. He even overcame a great storm!
His disciples have healed and driven out evil spirits too.
And yet people are not sure who this is walking among them.
If you ever wonder about how Jesus appeared, I think we can take from these stories that he appears just like any man would.
He seems to think and reason like us.
He eats like us.
He gets tired and sleeps, just like us.
Turning Point
And yet this is this moment, a turning point, when we realize that with Jesus: We are not the same. And others are not the same either.
It can seem that our whole world changes, like we begin to see and understand things that we never saw or understood.
Some of us have been follower of Jesus for so long that we might not think about or really remember what it was like to live apart from Jesus.
Others are quite familiar, as if it is a picture they can recall often.
Some may not know this realization at all.
I think though, we all understand those moments in our life when we turn from something, towards another thing.
Where there is a change in our life, a defining moment.
That is what we are going to see happen in the story today.
Not long after this, nothing is going to be the same!
Luke 9:18-20
One day Jesus left the crowds to pray alone. Only his disciples were with him, and he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other ancient prophets risen from the dead.” Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah sent from God!”
One day Jesus…We just left the text with Jesus feeding more than 5,000 men (plus women, children) and there seems to have some time that has passed. The phrase “One day...” is what indicates that too us.
This question is asked in other Gospels too, and it is located near a similar event that we are going to see. The Gospel writers believe this is an important element to include.
But, the question is interesting. Who do people say I am?
Interesting that Jesus wonders what others think. We do that too, sometimes to our detriment!
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Well, they replied…Here is what we have been hearing. This is packed with some supposition. For the disciples to know, they have to have mingled with the crowds. Since they served 5000 families, they would have mingled with many, many people.
Everywhere he goes there is a crowd!
Makes you wonder what they said about him.
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Then he asked them…Uh oh. It is one thing to talk about what other people think, but now, this man, Jesus, is asking what they think, in person, in an isolated area, face to face.
Jesus wants to know what they think. This is good advice for each of us. We can get quite a bit of information if we are willing to be vulnerable and ask what others think about us. And then listen to what they say, without arguing.
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Peter replied…You are the Anointed One. Messiah is Hebrew for anointed, Christ is Greek for anointed. It is not he last name.
This answer is rooted in all kinds of Hebrew Bible texts.
Peter believes that Jesus is the promised anointed one.
The king that would sit on David’s throne forever.
In the Hebrew Bible, the Messiah is the king that will rule forever, restore Israel to the land, wipe out enemies, etc.
And that is exactly what they want!
And Peter was correct.
Luke 9:21
Jesus warned his disciples not to tell anyone who he was.
Warned is more like strictly charged, was crystal clear, they were not to tell anyone this.
Tell them what? He did not directly confirm or deny this.
But his response indicates he does not want work of who he really is getting out to people.
Wonder why…we will see that in a moment.
But first, we get some insight into his future.
Luke 9:22
“The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things,” he said. “He will be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.”
The Son of Man is a term used often by a couple of prophets. Daniel and Ezekiel. They write of visions of this “Son of Man” sitting on a throne in Heaven. It is the image of a king. Often, Jesus uses this term for himself.
But notice what the Son of Man must experience. The disciples must have been terribly confused at these words, because it is not clear in the Hebrew Bible that the Son of Man had to go through this.
This is the first clue that an elaborate plan is in motion, God is working something, and Jesus is at the center of this plan.
But it makes no earthly sense as to why Jesus, the Son of Man, would have to be torchered, die, and be raised again.
What is that going to accomplish.
And what happens to us if that happens, they might ask themselves.
I am convinced…they have no idea what he is saying. They are not able to reconcile this in their mind.
Jesus goes on to say something very difficult.
Luke 9:23-27
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels. I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Kingdom of God.”
Then he said to the crowd...
Wait, what? Where did the crowd come from? When we started he left the crowds to pray alone.
Then only his disciples were with him.
Now there is a crowd.
You see how there are things that are not written down? How much time has elapsed? Where are they? What are they doing?
We don’t know. And Luke does not judge it important for us to know.
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If any of you wants to be my follower…as a Rabbi he would have disciples.
This is a turning point, and he has turned to the crowd to let them know the time is near to make a decision.
Based on what follows, we know Jesus is three, maybe four weeks from arriving in Jerusalem for the final time.
He is either way up north or on his way north to a location near the grotto of the god Pan. He is on his way to Mt. Hermon.
This message of Jesus does not need much explaining, does it?
He is not speaking in a parable, he is calling people to himself and giving a warning.
(discuss the Kingdom of God)
Now, here is the amazing nerdy stuff that few will tell you about.
Jesus was in this location for a reason…a very specific reason.
Luke 9:28-31
About eight days later Jesus took Peter, John, and James up on a mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly, two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared and began talking with Jesus. They were glorious to see. And they were speaking about his exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem.
Based on what the other Gospels say, we know the mountain.
It was Mt. Hermon.
Highest known temple in the Ancient Near East.
Pagan temples all around this mountain.
At the foot of the mountain are temples dedicated to Greek and Roman gods, including Pan, the horned goat god.
In 1869 Sir Charles Warren went to the summit and documented what he found. There was a stele there (a stone with carved words) that he broke in two and took back to England. It is displayed in the British Museum to this day.
There is an inscription on the stele that reads, “According to the command of the greatest a(nd) Holy God, those who take an oath (proceed) from here.”
Ancient Near East scholars have connected this inscription to an event written about in the Book of Enoch (1 Enoch 6:6). That book, by the way, is considered scripture by the Ethiopian Coptic church, yes, those are Christians. It almost made it into our Bibles too. It was a very important text to the disciples and apostles and writers of the New Testament. They use the Book of Enoch when they composed the New Testament.
The part of Enoch they connect this to is a section that describes Holy Angels of God called watchers, rebelling against God. They come to earth in order to take wives for themselves. And it is the top of this mountain that they arrive and make an oath to one another.
Does anyone recall a moment when we read about the “Sons of God” arriving on earth to take for themselves human wives? Genesis 6 event that leads to the flood.
Enoch describes these angels as teaching humans:
The art of war and metal casting (kill each other better)
The art of makeup and seduction (change the image)
The art of herbs and cutting roots (plants as drugs)
And it also says the offspring of these unions were Geborim, mighty men, who were giants and cannibalistic.
In other words, this was a divine rebellion that taught humans how to kill off the entire human race.
By why? What could be the outcome of that?
If there are no humans, there can be no seed of Eve that crushes the head of the original divine rebel, that serpent in the garden. And if that happens, then God’s plans are thwarted.
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This is where Jesus has arrived, just a few weeks before he is going to be in Jerusalem to die.
And make no mistake, the disciples KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THEY ARE. They know all this history. They know these areas.
This is ground Zero for the divine rebellion, and Jesus is standing on it, being visited by Moses and Elijah, transfigured into his glory.
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Follow the story:
He has just REVEALED who he is to the disciples
He is REVEALING who he is to the UNSEEN realm
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This is the moment that Jesus is saying, in essence, “Here I am, do something about it.”
The goal of the original rebellion was to kill off the seed of Eve that would redeem humans and crush evil.
Jesus is revealing himself as that seed.
Luke 9:32-34
Peter and the others had fallen asleep. When they woke up, they saw Jesus’ glory and the two men standing with him. As Moses and Elijah were starting to leave, Peter, not even knowing what he was saying, blurted out, “Master, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But even as he was saying this, a cloud overshadowed them, and terror gripped them as the cloud covered them.
There is so much I could say about this, but let’s not be too hard on Peter.
He is on a mountain with many temples.
He knows the history, he has heard the stories.
They just came from the Grotto of Pan, where Jesus said he would build his church and the gates of hell will not be able to break through.
If you are there, your natural inclination would be to build a place for God, Jesus, Moses, and Elijah (funny how it is tents) as memorials, or temples, to show up the other gods.
As it turns out, there is another shelter that is coming, the cloud of God.
Luke 9:35-36
Then a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him.” When the voice finished, Jesus was there alone. They didn’t tell anyone at that time what they had seen.
It would seem that Jesus’ warning and instruction to follow him, leave your life behind, and don’t turn back is punctuated with God the Father confirming this.
Do you see the command: LISTEN TO HIM.
In Hebrew the word listen, shema, mean obey. That has a feel that you heard and you did it.
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Crazy stuff huh? The Bible, it is full of surprises.
We want to argue and think about all these nerdy things.
Did divine beings really mate with human women?
Did that really lead to giants on the earth?
Was there a flood to wipe out the giants and humans?
Was it world-wide or local?
Did “god” DNA get into humans and is that why there was a flood?
And on and on and on you will find this online and youtube and podcasts.
Look, you have faith in a man that was born of a virgin and was raised from the dead, so yeah, the core of our beliefs are rooted in the supernatural.
BUT NONE OF THAT IS THE POINT!
The picture being laid out is that Jesus, who has shown power over evil spirits, is taking on the other gods. He is going to correct the divine rebellion too.
You know what the first event is next week?
If you have a bible turned on look at the next story.
Jesus heals a Demon-Possessed Boy. Coincidence?
THE TOPIC TODAY IS
Turning Point
That moment that everything you thought, all you believed, things you considered important, are ALL UNDONE, in a moment.
And you realize WHY you are here.
And that turning point happens when you follow the COMMAND of YHWH.
This is My Son, Listen to Him.
He is here to undo evil and restore Eden.
You and I are part of that plan.
Turning Point
Turning Point