The Glorious King
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The Glorious King
So last week, my daughter and I were assembling a bed frame. My wonderful wife commented that there is bound to be a sermon illustration in there somewhere. And she was right because I am not a handyman. Whatever spiritual gifts Luke Thomas and Tim Beck and Robbie Kropiwnicki have, I don't have those. So we assembled the outer rectangle. It was all good. Screws and holes aligned. The nuts went on easily. It felt sturdy. I'm feeling good. Then came the center support bar, which supports all the slats that go out to each side and help support the mattress. And of course, the holes at the ends of the center bar were off by just a millimeter on each side...metal rods. We can only get the screws in about halfway. We turned the bar 180 degrees. We jostled and angled and pushed and pulled the frame and the bar and everything imaginable, no avail. The screws could only go about halfway in, and without those screws in completely the center bar would not support the weight of the mattress, much less my wonderful daughter on top of it. She could not rest on that new bed with confidence because of fear it might collapse. Brothers and sisters to confidently rest your weary and heavy laden soul on Jesus, you need to know not only that he welcomes you to do so, but that he can bear the weight of your burdens. You need to know his invitation and his humility, but you also need to know his power and his glory. An imperfection in your understanding of Jesus Christ might not seem to matter now, but it does, if you're going to confidently trust him with all your burdens now and with your eternity, Jesus absolutely is the inviting, gentle, and humble Savior we saw last week in Matthew 11. Knowing that he is also eternally and divinely glorious makes it all the more amazing and humbling to us that he would be so. When we rest in him, when we sing about him, when we read of him, when we pray to him as we grow in our love for him, as we worship him, we do all those things better by knowing his glory. Jesus, friend of sinners, is also the second person of the Trinity, God the Son. He is utterly holy, perfect and glorious. Knowing King Jesus's eternal divine glory ought to make us marvel even more at his gentleness and humility. Knowing King Jesus's eternal divine glory ought to make us marvel even more at his gentleness and humility. When we obey Hebrews 12:1-3, by looking to Jesus, by considering him, when we come to him, we look to and consider and come to the Lord Jesus Christ as he revealed to us in the Scripture in God's Word. Any representations of Jesus on screens or art or books or podcasts must align with Scripture. Many depictions are wrong. Or at best imbalanced or incomplete. If you had never met me, and we'd arrange a meeting. Suppose I texted you and said, hey, look in the church lobby after worship. I'm a middle aged guy with glasses, short, light brown hair, wearing a polo and khakis. And that's it. And you went out in the lobby and after talking to 3 or 4 guys that met that description. Oh, Todd Jacobs, he's the 6'10" dude over there. You would rightly fuss at me for leaving out the most recognizable thing about me. We don't want zeal without knowledge, as Paul described unbelieving Jews as having in Romans 10. A Jesus who is all power, wrath, and judgment at his second coming is incomplete, but so is a Jesus who is only gentle and accepting. A relatable, down to earth guy who's really just like us, plus a few miracles. But we also don't want knowledge that puffs up as 1 Corinthians 8:1 says. We don't want to be the Ephesus church in Revelation 2:1-7, having right doctrine, but forgetting the love for Christ we had at first. We are genuinely looking to a person, not just looking at our Bibles. We are word-centered and we are Christ-exalting at HBC. We have both because it's possible to be word-centered but loveless. And it is possible to exalt the Christ that is not the Christ of Scripture, with emotion driven devotion to something that is really an idol. This message is titled The Glorious King. I'm going to read Matthew 16:24-17:8...Matthew 16:24 through 17:8. I'll read from the ESV. This passage will provide context, but I'm really focusing on one verse...Matthew 17:2.
Matthew 16:24. "Then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He was still speaking when, 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. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, rise and have no fear. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only." God's word for God's people. Please join me in prayer. Heavenly father, thank you for all that Your Word tells us of your mighty Son, Jesus, including this passage. May we love it and love Him as He is, as he has always been and as he always will be. Lord, use your perfect word and your perfect spirit to work through my imperfect words and the imperfect ears of the hearers to bring about your will in our lives today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
So the king's glory revealed then. There are lots of interesting things in this passage. The relation of Old Testament manifestations, manifestations of God's glory, and the Shekinah cloud that we see here. Why Moses and Elijah? How did they even know it was them? Is this connected to Moses's reflected facial glory after meeting with God in Exodus 34, and in 2 Corinthians three? The Tabernacle as the Old Testament place of God's glory, and Peter's not so random comment about wanting to build tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. But today I'm only going to focus on the central truth of this passage the brilliant revelation of the great glory of Jesus Christ. Even as Peter and James and John grapple with the sight of Moses and Elijah, two of the very top Old Testament heavyweights, God the Father speaks from the bright cloud. This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. Verse two gives us only a brief description of Jesus. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. Mark and Luke in their account add a few extra insights. For example, Luke 9:29 says the appearance of his face was altered E his clothing became dazzling white. Mark 9:3 says his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. So here is the glorious Jesus flanked by Elijah and Moses. Moses, the mediator of the Old Covenant on one side, and on the other Elijah the prophet, who exemplified his zeal for God's glory and who didn't die but was taken up in a whirlwind to heaven. But God says, now listen to Jesus. Exodus 34 says Moses's face shown with a reflected glory after he had met God. And a cloth could conceal it. But Jesus shines with his own glory right through his clothes. Elijah was taken up to heaven. Jesus is the Lord of heaven. Yet even then, even here, with his great glory shown, we see his tenderness rise. Have no fear. This moment is a high water mark of the glory of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. When we read the Biblical accounts of the life of Jesus, he seems, well, earthy, mostly. His humanity is easy to grasp...for sure a unique human by his teaching, his claims and his miracles. For sure, much of his activity is spiritual. Jesus heals the sick. He feeds the thousands. He casts out demons. He walks on water. He even raises the dead. But it's still easy to get the sense that he is a human, spectacularly powerful, blessed and anointed. But he walks around a lot. He eats and sleeps and he looks like a normal man. So for the sake of his inner circle, Peter, James and John, and for all Bible readers and hearers since including us in this room, Jesus gives a glimpse into the deeper reality of who he really is. John MacArthur said of this very event in Matthew 17 that, "it is the greatest testimony to Jesus Christ, I think, of any passage in the Bible. If you really want to know who Jesus is, here it is" end quote. Wow. So what does this passage say about Jesus? The description is concise for such an important moment. But could the glory of Jesus Christ be more fully described with words? How would you describe the brilliance of the sun...that's s-u-n...in the noon sky? You can't even directly look at it for a few seconds without permanent eye damage. Now, there was a total solar eclipse in parts of the United States two months ago. And when the position of the moon precisely covered the sun in what's called totality. It was only then that you could briefly look at the sun. How would you expect the apostles to describe Jesus's appearance here? They didn't have eclipse glasses in their robe pockets. This was a visible revelation of the eternal glory of Jesus Christ, a brief unveiling of his true divine nature and glory, which had been intentionally eclipsed by his human flesh, so to speak. This is an appearance of the Old Testament Shekinah glory of God the Father that Jesus eternally had with him before the world existed, as he stated in John 17:5. This wasn't a brief bestowal of temporary glory upon Jesus, just to make a point. It was a showing forth of what he has always had. 1 Corinthians 2:8 and James 2:1 called Jesus the Lord of glory. And here that glory was revealed visibly. So what is glory when you hear the word glory? Loaded word. One Bible dictionary defines it as the singular splendor of God and its consequences for mankind. I think that captures what Peter, James, and John saw that day...a revelation of Jesus's own divine glory, his singular splendor. And it also showed what it means for those who saw it then and for us. So what did it mean to Peter, James and John and to those who later foretold. MacArthur is again helpful here. Quote. "They had learned that Jesus was a suffering Savior, and now they needed to see a glimpse of him as a glorious king. His followers would share his sorrows, and they needed to know that they could share his glory as well. They knew that as a suffering Savior, he called them to self-denial, cross-bearing, and loyal obedience at any price, even their life. So, they are exposed to the majesty of Second Coming glory. That they might know that humiliation now means glory then. The marvelous, miraculous preview of Final Glory is to remind them that it is going to come to pass, and to fill their hearts with assurance and hope in the midst of great despair." End quote. It was here on that mountain that Peter, James and John saw definitively that Jesus was merely veiled in flesh more than just a man or a great prophet. Peter had just made the good confession in Matthew 16 that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Then heard Jesus promise that he's coming back with his angels in the glory of His Father, and some of them would see it before they die. And then Peter got to see what Jesus meant. It was this moment on John's mind when he wrote in John 1:14, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Peter wrote about this moment years later. 2 Peter 1:16-19. 2 Peter 1:16-19 says, "for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain." Is there any mistake what he's talking about here? "And we had 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." Here's a loose interpretation. We didn't make this stuff up about Jesus's divine power and glory. We saw it and heard it. And until he comes back and you see it for yourselves, you can totally trust the prophetic words about him that his glory confirms. Or, as one paraphrased Bible says, we saw the preview. When Peter wanted to choose the pinnacle experience with Jesus of all he saw and heard, to compare to the prophetic word more fully confirmed, and to say that we could trust God's words as a true revelation of Christ until Christ Himself comes back. He chose this moment not any of his miracles, not even his death, his resurrection, or his ascension, not Pentecost. He chose this moment. That's how spectacular it was. It is this glorious Christ that Isaiah saw in his vision of the heavenly throne room in Isaiah 6, about which John 12:41 says, Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of them. It is this glorious Christ that Daniel saw in his vision in Daniel 10:6, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. It is this same glorious Christ that Hebrews 1 introduces to us..."Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power." It is this glorious Christ that John would see again decades later, as he writes in Revelation 1:13-16, "one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe, and with a golden sash around his chest, the hairs of his head were white like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp two edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength." That's the glory of King Jesus revealed then and recorded for us to know today. So what can we expect to see one day? We can expect to see the king's glory radiant forever. This very same Jesus Christ. In John 17:20-24, Jesus prayed that all believers to come, including us, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Can we agree that if Jesus prayed for something, it's going to happen? That's a good bet, right? First, John 3:2 says that we will see Jesus as he is. In the Bible's very last chapter, Revelation 22:3-5 says, "No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light. And they will reign forever and ever." That's the end. That's where creation and history are all headed. That's your eternal destiny. If you've trusted in Christ to see and worship and reign with the great shining glory of Jesus Christ, does that thrill you? Yes. Does that encourage you to persevere through whatever you're going through? Yes. Amen. Believer. It's going to all be worth it. Thank you Vicky. This same Jesus unveiled, stunningly glorious is the very same gentle Jesus we heard about last week. Revelation also says near the end in 21:4 that he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away. This eternally glorious Jesus is the same one born humbly in Bethlehem. The same one who was rejected, beaten, humiliated and crucified. The same one who bore our sins on the cross as he died. Who calls us to come to him in faith for forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. Knowing and loving the fullness of Jesus's glory does not negate any of that. It makes it more awesome. Knowing King Jesus's eternal divine glory ought to make us marvel even more at that humility and gentleness. One pastor theologian writes, "The glory of Christ has always been and always will be the kind of glory that combines diverse and even paradoxical excellences. His glory is not monochromatic. It dazzles. It is dazzlingly diverse. He mingles and will always mingle majesty and meekness, reverence for God and equality with God, obedience and dominion, lordship and servanthood, transcendence and intimacy, Justice and mercy. He will always be at home in the robes of a king and the towel of a slave. He will always have the glory of being self-sufficient and all supplying." End quote. When you consider this humility of Jesus Christ do you also think about the righteous, mighty, glorious Savior and how he stooped low, low, low to be born as a human? To live and suffer and die for you. He had no sin of his own. The sins for which he died were ours. What a glorious savior. Our eternity will be spent enjoying and worshiping Jesus Christ our King in his fully unveiled perfect glory, his brilliant light, his shining holiness, his inextinguishable power. No more eclipse needed. What Peter, John, and James saw on that mountain will be ours more fully forever to enjoy and worship. That's Christ's glory, radiant forever.
How should we respond now? I've got three possible ways for believers to respond. But before that, there's another way you might need to respond first. If you have not trusted in Christ. Enjoying and worshiping him in glory is not your future. Do you want it to be? It could be. You are worshiping something or someone else's glory than his...probably your own. Jesus said in John 5:44, how can you believe when you receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? If Jesus's great condescension in coming to save sinners doesn't move you to embrace him as Lord and Savior, then maybe you don't believe in his greatness and glory. You might admire his self-sacrifice or his teaching, but you're missing the whole story. Or maybe you don't grasp the seriousness of your sin when you bring it up against Jesus's perfect glory. You might not be perfect as one of our baptism recipients said last week, you just figured you're in the top 50%. But the Bible says what?...all have sinned and fall short of what?...the glory of God. Romans 3:23. Christ offers you free forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life now and forever. Today he can be to you that gentle and humble Christ. Turn to him in faith now before it's too late. Hebrews 9 27-28 says, and just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time not to deal with sin. But to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Unbelievers, we beg you, don't wait for judgment. Join those of us who are eagerly waiting for him. I invite you to talk to a Christian friend, or in your aisle or an elder down front after the service, if you'd like to.
Now for the believer...three possible ways for us to respond to the marvel of King Jesus's glory and gentleness. Your devotions, your humility and your hope. Your devotions, your humility and your hope. Now for devotions. I want to first give you a glimpse, a glimpse into the devotional life of a Christian nerd. That'd be me. So one afternoon about a month ago, we were on a family beach trip and I went out to the beach by myself one afternoon. By the way, family trips. Really. I encourage you to take a little time by yourself. It's great. It's wonderful to be with your family. I always joke like, hey, you know what the Beatles lasted about eight years. They were always together all the time. The Rolling Stones are never together except on concert or an album, and they're still together like after 60 years. So take a little you time on vacations. It's great. So I go out to the beach by myself. It's early May, it's not very crowded. It's a nice day. I'm out there with a book about Jesus's second coming. Yes. That's what a Christian nerd does for light summer reading. As I looked about, I marveled at God's design...the sun, the wind, the moon, the shape and slope of the ocean floor. All result in the tides that I could see and the waves. The details under it all are fascinating. The properties of light, the properties of heat, even gravity. The molecular structure of water which determines all its behavior that we see. The size and position of the sun and moon. Signs of life abounded from the washed up jellies, which supposedly are living things, not from what I see, but, shells, remnants of living creatures, the shorebirds scuttling along, the pelicans soaring overhead. All this was about me. And I realized all of this came together by God's macro and micro design. But as I marveled a little more, a new thought surfaced. This isn't all a mechanical providence that God set in motion to run on its own. You know why all of it exists and works? Because Jesus Christ upholds it by the word of his power. That's what Hebrews 1:3 says. Now, at that moment, I waited for a dolphin to jump out of the water and do a flip. That would have been the ultimate capstone on that devotion, but it didn't happen. Instead there was a container ship way out off of the shore that kind of broke it up a little bit. Personal devotions are personal. I hope you have regular habits of prayer and Bible intake. I'm not going to give you any specific tips. But, when you are praying or reading or choosing a music playlist, I encourage you to remember the whole glorious Christ who can bear the weight of our burdens. Remember all that scripture says about Jesus. Remember that we can draw near him in confidence as Hebrews 4:14-16 and Hebrews 7:25 tells us. Do remember his mercy and his profound humility. But also do remember his great eternal glory. Our gentle and humble Savior upholds the universe by the word of His power. Yet he has stooped low to love us and says, come to me. And he will one day share that glory with us forever. Remember John 1:1-3. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. Remember Colossians 1:16-17, By him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. How about our humility? Please turn in your Bibles to Philippians 2. A passage that is probably familiar to many of you. I want us to look at it with fresh eyes, illuminated by the glory of Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:3-11...Bible pages flipping. That's called HBC air conditioning. That's how we get fans going in here. "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. But in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Notice that to explain Christ's humility, Paul doesn't start with Jesus's crucifixion and death, although he gets there. It doesn't start with Jesus bearing the crushing weight of God's wrath for our sins. He starts by reminding us that the humiliation of Jesus began when he chose to not cling to his deity. In a refusal to undergo the humiliation of becoming a man. Instead, he took the form of a servant being born in the likeness of man. He became 100% a man and will now be so forever. But he isn't just a man, he became one. He has always been God and will always be. Now, how does this apply to us? We're told to have this mind. It's hard to think of a counseling case that isn't affected by the sin of pride. When Scripture exhorts us to put on Christ's humility. Consider the massive step He took down in the act of incarnation, much less later his death and his suffering. We struggle to even give up our perceived rights to petty things. So remember, first, we deserve God's wrath. Apart from the gift, righteousness freely ours by faith in Christ Jesus. We are totally unworthy of praise, glory, authority, and honor. But the eternally glorious King Jesus Christ is worthy of all that and more. Even at our best, we don't start anywhere close to where he started. Where he was for all eternity before his incarnation. Second, it is extremely unlikely that any of us will suffer physically like Christ did, and it is absolutely certain that all who are in Christ will never suffer spiritually like he did. As he bore God's wrath for sins, not his own. Whatever happens to us. Even the most humbling thing can't compare to Jesus's humiliation. So repent of pride and turn to our humble Savior, Jesus Christ.
Finally our hope. I hope I can turn this last page in my notes. There we go. Remember, we have a great high priest, Jesus Christ. His suffering and humiliation we can never fully know. But he fully knows our suffering. Hebrews 2:17-18 says, therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he Himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. This doesn't make Jesus remote or impersonal. His majesty and glory knowing that should magnify the amazement in our hearts over his personal fellowship with us, his personal care for us. When you see his humility and gentleness through the lens of this great glory he has, you should marvel anew at the beauty of this glorious king. The matchless, eternal second person of the Trinity, God the Son incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ. We age, we get sick. And yes, teenagers, we die. In a bygone era the church talked often about death and considered one of its main priorities preparing its people for that day should the Lord tarry and not return first. We sin and are sinned against, and the world seems to spiral down under the control of Satan. We're doing our best to love this Christ, who we have not yet seen with our eyes. We are not yet glorified. We are not yet free from our own sin. We are forgiven. But sin stained souls and sin cursed bodies who are unable to perfectly see and worship Jesus Christ, try as we might. But here's our hope. We can have great confidence that our Lord Jesus Christ has the power to do what he promised to do. A glorious day is coming when faith will be made sight. You believer, will be free of sin, body and soul. You will be perfected in your sanctification. Theologians rightly call this glorification because 1 John 3:2 says, we will be like Jesus on that day and he is stupendously glorious. You won't need eclipse glasses to look directly at Jesus then, because you will also be glorified. How forward to that day are you looking? When your sinless eyes see Jesus Christ in His great shining glory. When your sinless, ears hear the refrains of saints and angels singing his praises. When your sinless soul and healed body are free of all hindrances to worshiping him. Many of us are carrying heavy weights. I don't make light of any of the serious things that are affecting us, and I know of many. But believer we're not taking those to heaven...cancer, heart disease, dementia, disability, chronic pain, broken families, grief, anxiety. Conflicts that never seem to resolve. Wayward children, debt, your own besetting sin, the disappointments and trials that are common to us all. And then there are the lesser things we chase that hinder our hope in Christ. We and I include me in this, often strive for heaven on earth in various ways health, wealth, man's praise, election results, you name it. One day the glory of Jesus Christ is going to fill your glorified eyes and your minds and your souls and all that stuff is not going to matter. Brothers and sisters, all of your sins and burdens will be gone. None of them are part of your eternal future. Your eternal future will be filled with the perfect glory of our King, Jesus Christ. His brilliant light, his shining holiness, his inextinguishable power fully unveiled. What Peter, John, and James saw on that mountain will be ours forever and ever to eternally enjoy and worship. Amen.
Pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the great and precious promises of your Son coming in glory, that we will be with him in that glory, to enjoy it far better than we can now, free of all sin, free of all burdens, free of all disease. Lord, help us to look forward to that day with great joy. In the mighty and precious name of your Son Jesus. Amen.
