Sermon - Transfiguration 2023 - Matthew 17:1-9

The Transfiguration of Christ, Peter Paul Rubens, 1605

“Listening to Jesus.”

1. God speaks from Mt. Sinai and Mt. Calvary

2. God speaks from the scriptures

3. We listen to Jesus only

Why are you a Christian? More specifically, why are you a Lutheran? More specifically yet, why do you belong to this congregation of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod? Membership in a congregation assumes that you share the beliefs of that congregation and the larger church body to which that congregation belongs. So when we belong to a church we should be sure that we believe what that church teaches, and we should be sure that we believe what the pastor teaches.

But this raises some questions: How do we know what we should believe? How do we evaluate whether a church or a pastor is right or wrong? Different church bodies believe different things, so who is correct? God the Father answers this question for us: “behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”” The only way that we know what is right or wrong, which church is teaching the truth and which is teaching lies, is by listening to Jesus. In the Old Testament God speaks from Mt. Sinai, in the New Testament God speaks from Mt. Calvary. Peter explains that the scriptures were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and therefore God speaks from the scriptures today. Ultimately, that means that we listen to Jesus only.

Whether we’re talking about the New Testament or the Old Testament, Jesus is the Word made flesh, and therefore even in the Old Testament when God spoke His people were listening to His Word, THE Word, which had not yet been made flesh. In the Old Testament the Israelites had to answer the same questions which we must answer today: how do we know what to believe? There were all sorts of pagan beliefs and religions in the Old Testament era, and the Israelites often fell into pagan beliefs and practices.

So in order to make it abundantly clear what the Isrealites should and should not believe and do, God spoke to them. God spoke especially and particularly to His people through Moses upon Mt. Sinai. “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.” When God finished speaking with Moses, Moses would speak with the Israelites and tell them what God had told him. By the time of Jesus all of this had been handed down not only orally, but even in writing, and is what we refer to as the Old Testament Bible today.

In the New Testament God the Father no longer spoke through the prophets, but He spoke to us through His Son, Jesus, the Word made flesh. So it’s no coincidence that Jesus did a lot of His teaching from mountains. We see this in the sermon on the mount, we see it today with Jesus in His transfiguration on a high mountain, and ultimately we see it when Jesus is crucified on Mt. Calvary. But even when He’s not on a mountain Jesus is speaking truth to His people, directing people to Himself, so that they know who to believe in without a doubt.

After Jesus’ ascension to heaven, He spoke through His appointed apostles. St. Peter explains: “We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Thus, God continued to speak after Jesus ascended to heaven by speaking through His apostles. The writings of the apostles were written down and we have them today, known as the New Testament Bible. 

Thus, God has spoken to us through Jesus, and His Word has been handed down to us through the Holy Bible. This book is the word of God and reveals to us the glory of Jesus Christ. It shows us the truth. God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and light to our path. We meditate on it day and night, and learn it by heart. God’s Word is the sword of the Spirit, it’s living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and it pierces to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The Bible therefore shows us what is true and what is false. It distinguishes true religion from false religion. It exposes the thoughts of our hearts and shows us our sins and points us to Christ. It’s through the scriptures that we know the truth that God wants us to know and believe. The Bible is the only infallible and inerrant source of knowledge in this life, and against it every belief and religion is judged as being either true or false. 

Like Peter, James, and John, we aren’t to listen to everything and everyone who speaks, but we are to listen to Jesus only. “When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.” We are to do likewise. We must not be swayed by every wind and change of doctrine, rather we must look and listen to Jesus only. The scriptures are our sole source and norm of theology. Nothing else.

So when we’re forming opinions and beliefs, we should be informed and shaped by God’s holy Word, so that our beliefs conform to scripture. Here we need to be careful that when forming our beliefs we start with the Bible, rather than starting with our opinions. Because it can be easy to force our opinions on the Bible, when we really need to be drawing our beliefs from the Bible.

Ultimately this is why there are so many different church bodies who believe such radically different things. All Christians may use the Bible, but we don’t all use the Bible as the sole source for our beliefs. Some Christians believe that our theology comes from the church, rather than from the Bible. Thus, the church is the authority and not God’s Word. This is why some churches change their beliefs over time because they aren’t founded on God’s unchanging Word, but upon the changing opinions of man. 

Some Christians believe that the Bible contains errors or that the Bible is mostly symbolic. This means that it’s up to the individual to determine which parts of the Bible are in error and which parts are true, which parts are symbolic, and which parts are literal. Ultimately, this makes humans the judges of what is right and wrong, and there really is no true source of knowledge beyond one’s own experiences. Instead of following Jesus, you end up following the changing culture around you.

Some Christians believe that God continues to speak to Christians through mystical visions. So these Christians normally believe the Bible, but they also include their spiritual experiences. However, just because you have a spiritual experience doesn’t mean that it was from the Holy Spirit, it may have been from an evil spirit. Thus, instead of following Jesus, you may be led to unwittingly follow the devil.

So rather than looking to the church, or our own knowledge, or some mystical spiritual revelation, we look to Jesus alone who speaks to us through His infallible and inerrant scriptures. When we submit ourselves beneath scripture we will know what is true and what is false, what is good and what is evil. When we put our beliefs and the beliefs of our church to the test against God’s Word, we learn whether we're in the right or not.

So if I were to ask you why you’re a Lutheran, why you’re a member of this church, you should be able to answer: because this church teaches God’s word faithfully and points me to Jesus. When we have arguments or disagreements with other christians, we should cool off and judge the arguments on the basis of scripture. The beauty of this is that then our eyes are always pointed to Christ, because the scriptures are all about Christ. The Father says: “This is My beloved Son; listen to Him.” What does the Son say to us? “Rise, and have no fear.” Why? Because the Son of Man is crucified and raised from the dead to give us everlasting life. So indeed, let us always and only look to Jesus.