Sermon - Transfiguration 2019 - Matthew 17:1-9

“And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” “The disciples fell on their faces and were terrified.” Upon hearing the voice of God their heavenly Father, these people fell down and hid their faces, cowering in terror. That probably seems like an unusual reaction to you, doesn’t it? Why would anyone want to hide from God? Shouldn’t they have been overjoyed that God spoke to them directly? Shouldn’t they have begun dancing with delight and singing God’s praises? Why were they sore afraid when they heard God? 

Well, their reaction to the sound of God’s presence is nothing unusual in the Bible, these aren’t isolated instances. After Adam and Eve fell into sin, they hid from God because they were afraid of Him when they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden. When God spoke to Abraham, the first words God had to say to him were “Fear not!” When the angels appeared to the shepherds after the birth of Christ, the shepherds were filled with great fear. 

In fact, throughout the scriptures, faith in God is regularly equated with proper fear towards God. The Israelites were frequently rebuked by the Lord because they feared their human enemies but had no fear for God. When the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt and promised them the land of Israel, He required one thing alone of them: “to fear the Lord your God.” The psalmist proclaims “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who practice it have a good understanding.” 

Lest you mistakenly think that fear of God is only an Old Testament thing, listen to the early church after Christ’s ascension to heaven from the book of Acts: “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”

But why? Why do faithful Christians like Abraham, Moses, and Peter fear the Lord? Holiness. God’s holiness in particular and our distinct lack of holiness. “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” “The appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.” “He who goes before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God.” “Our God is a consuming fire.” The holiness of God is an all-consuming unapproachable fire, striking reverent fear into the hearts of all the faithful, yet Jesus, the fullness of the Father’s glory, takes away the threat of that fire and brings us to the Father.

Apart from Jesus, God’s holiness is all consuming. Adam recognized this quite clearly, saying that He was afraid of God because he was naked. He saw himself as an exposed sinner, one whose inmost heart is corrupt and filled with sin. The prophet Jeremiah lamented that “the heart is deceitful above all things.” Indeed, John the Baptist spoke of Christ saying: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

We are not like the burning bush Moses witnessed, which was on fire and yet wasn’t consumed by the fire. We are like dry stubble, dried chaff from the wheat, which would go up in a flash of fire when touched by the devouring blaze of God’s holiness. God’s holiness is diametrically opposed to our unholiness. Our hearts our corrupt, our works are corrupt, our minds are corrupt, our bodies are corrupt, the whole thing! God’s holiness should devour us up like an unquenchable fire. That threat of destruction should therefore make any sane person tremble and cower in fear. The Lord told Moses, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” 

Therefore one who fears the Lord is rightly recognizing that their sinfulness, their unrighteousness, and their utter unholiness should be devoured by the Lord who is without sin, perfectly righteous, and unimaginably holy. Only in faith can one rightly confess their sins and believe that God is holier than them.

It is unbelief which fears not God but man. For without faith, your sins mean nothing to you, in fact you even rejoice in them, and consider yourself holy simply by virtue of being you. In our unbelief we consider ourselves holy, ones who cannot be condemned or judged for our sins. So we don’t fear God, we don’t fear His wrath, we don’t fear the consuming fire of His holiness. In our unbelief we imagine God to be a naive outdated grandfather who isn’t hip with the times. He’s nothing to be feared because He’s no holier than I.

For this dear Christians we must repent. Our lack of reverent fear of God is telling of our weak faith. We’re more afraid of what others think about us, more afraid of what our government might do to us, more afraid of the media, more afraid of our culture than we are of God. We would sooner bow to the whims of our culture than bow at the holiness of our Lord. We are more reverent towards the US flag than we are towards the cross of Christ. We would rather place our hand over our heart during the pledge of allegiance than make the sign of the cross at the end of the creed. 

We act as if God is our Best Friend Forever who watches movies with us, plays board games with us, and helps us win at life instead of our almighty creator God who is holy and glorious and rules over all creation by the power of His Word. We would do well with a bit more reverent fear towards God in our lives. For the fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom. 

We fear the Lord not only by bowing down or cowering on the ground, but by keeping His Word. When the Lord speaks, we fear the Lord and honor Him by actually listening to His Word and doing what He commands. We fear the Lord by following in His directions instead of the direction of this insane unholy world. Rather than fearing what others might think of us or do to us because of our Christian beliefs, we should fear the Lord because of our unholy hearts. 

Thus found fearing our God, He raises us up from our repentant knees. Like He said to Moses “I have surely seen the affliction of my people...I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them… I will be with you.” When the three apostles fell on their faces in terror, “Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and have no fear.’” God, “He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light.” 

Yet, He has come down to our earth, He has descended to our level, and He has become as one with our flesh in the incarnation. Jesus is the Lord God almighty, dwelling in unapproachable light, this light of glory was seen radiating from His face on the mount of transfiguration. He is the almighty, all-powerful, all-holy Lord God. He has come to die on cross.

In His death on calvary, Jesus took all of your unholiness, all of your sinful, selfish, self-righteousness and paid for it on the cross. In its place, He traded you His glory and holiness so that you too may have access to the Father’s glory. The only way to the Father is through the Son Jesus Christ because He has made you holy through His blood. “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” 

Jesus makes you holy in His blood dear Christian. Apart from Jesus, God is akin to a raging unquenchable fire and we are like chaff soon to be burned up to nothing. Yet with Christ our true mediator present, He covers us in His holiness so that we can be brought near to the Father. We still don’t see His face, but like all Christians before us, we see God through His masks. 

So here in this place, God does come to you, and you don’t need to cower on the ground. Instead, God comes to you covered in His masks. So while you most certainly should heed God’s Word in holy reverence, stand for the Gospel, kneel for the confession and the prayers, bow at the gloria patri, take a knee when He feeds you, mark yourself with the cross when you hear His name, do as His word commands you. But don’t cower in fear. Don’t curl up on floor and pout. God is present, but He is present in Christ Jesus who comes to cover you with His holiness and bring you into the radiance of His glory in heaven. There in that place you will still look to Christ whose glory is our sun by day and night. His holiness will then not cause you to cower, but instead you will reflect His glory having been clothed in His white gown of holiness.