Have you been to the mountaintop? Have you seen the glory of the Lord?

We talk about mountaintop experiences. Those outstanding moments of revelation which take us onward and upward in our journey of faith. Moments like that experience Moses had on Mount Sinai when the glory of the Lord descended on the mountain and God revealed the 10 commandments. The kind of experience Elijah had on Mount Horeb, when he met with God, but not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but in the gentle whisper, the still small voice of calm. Moments like this mountaintop experience which came totally unexpectedly to Peter, James and John had on the Mountain of Transfiguration. Before that moment, Jesus resembled any other man. He looked, dressed, like an ordinary man. But on the Mount of Transfiguration, his appearance changed to display his full divine nature. The glory of God radiated forth, his face blazing like the sun and his clothes becoming heavenly white. The curtain was pulled back, revealing reality. The disciples saw Jesus in his heavenly glory.

Those disciples needed that mountaintop experience! Only 7 days earlier at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus was asking them “who do men say that I am?” “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” They replied. But who do YOU say that I am, Jesus asked. And Peter got it right. “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Peter had worked out in His mind who Jesus was!

But then when Jesus began to teach them that the Son of man must be rejected and suffer and be killed – Peter got it SO wrong. Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him – so Jesus had to say to Peter, “Get Thee behind me, Satan!” Peter had only glimpsed a part of who Jesus is. He needed the mountaintop. He needed to see the glory of the Lord.

And the reality is that there is a world of difference between intellectual knowledge about Jesus and having a direct encounter with Jesus! Peter got all the theory right – but he still hadn’t seen Jesus for who He really is! Any experience in which we meet the Living Christ God face to face can be a transfiguration. It may take place on the summit of a mountain, or it may happen as we kneel in prayer in the solitude of our own homes. As the disciples had the long hard climb up the mountain of transfiguration, so we must be prepared to make the long hard climb to meet with God in prayer.

Jeremiah 29:12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Other people meet with God in the midst of a service of worship. Not as often as God would wish, I believe. Because the sad truth is that often when we come to worship, an encounter with God is the last thing we seek or expect! We come to church prepared to offer our songs and our prayers to God and listen to his Word read and preached. But we don’t come expecting God to break in to “our” time of worship and surprise us. Every service could be a mountain of Transfiguration for any one of us! But we don’t expect that – and some people wouldn’t even want it.

The mountaintop experience – where God becomes dramatically real to us, and we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ is our Living Lord and Saviour. It’s entirely appropriate for us to seek such encounters with God! Let’s hear about what Peter James and John experienced on their mountaintop!

2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4

Here the glory of the Lord was revealed. And first and most obviously – they saw Christ revealed in all His HOLINESS!

God is HOLY – Only weeks later the one who had no sin would be made sin for us, so that in Him we could become the righteousness of God. But here we see Jesus Christ in the beauty of His Holiness.

God is Holy. God is pure. God is perfect in righteousness and justice. God is set apart from the wickedness of human beings.

Have you been to the mountaintop? Have you come face to face with the HOLINESS of God? The God whose eyes are too pure to even look on sin. Compared to him, all our righteousness, all our best efforts are just as filthy rags. Have you ever seen the Holiness of God?

WHEN I LOOK INTO YOUR HOLINESS,
When I gaze into Your loveliness,
When all things that surround
Become shadows in the light of You;
When I’ve found the joy of reaching Your heart,
When my will becomes enthralled in Your love,
When all things that surround
Become shadows in the light of You:
I worship You, I worship You,

I glimpsed the holiness of God when I was 16 years old….
“Lord change me!”

Have you been to the mountaintop. Have you come face to face with the HOLINESS of God?

But there was more to this mountaintop experience for Peter, James and John

4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Some people think that the significant thing here is that Elijah and Moses represented the whole of the Jewish religion –the Law and the Prophets – Moses the Lawgiver and Elijah the greatest prophet. I believe those two were there for a different reason. It was because in Jewish understanding both Elijah and Moses were eternal. They never died. They went straight to heaven without ever tasting death. So here Peter James and John glimpsed Christ in his ETERNAL nature.

ETERNAL God – Only a few weeks later, the immortal eternal God would die on a cross – eternity snuffed out by human sin. But here we see Jesus in the beauty of his eternity

God is outside time and beyond time. God is before created time and after created time. Here is the God who says, I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. Isaiah 46:10. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 2 Peter 3:8

Have you been to the mountaintop? Have you come face to face with the ETERNAL God?

“We are a moment, You are forever
Lord of the Ages, God before time
We are a vapor, You are eternal
Love everlasting, reigning on high”

I remember camping as a teenager in Borrowdale valley in the lake district – miles away from any of the light pollution which surrounds all our cities. I had to get up in the middle of the night and I remember looking up into the night sky, seeing the multitudes of stars, the light from those stars taking centuries and millennia to reach us. I remembered that God is called “the Father of lights”. A few years ago I saw those same stars – even brighter from the heart of Uganda. God – the ETERNAL God.

Douglas Adams – Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – book 2 – Restaurant at the End of the universe – Total perspective vortex – “one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little marker, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says “you are here”.

Have you been to the mountaintop? Have you come face to face with the All mighty, a;; knowing, eternal God? Seen your own existence from the perspective of eternity – we are SO SO insignificant – and yet the eternal God loves us!

How typical – the apostle Peter spoils the moment! Let’s build some shelters so we can stay here forever. “He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.” No wonder they were frightened. An encounter with the living God is always an overwhelming experience! Most people find they CAN’T say ANYTHING at all!

7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
God speaks to us much more than many Christians realise! God speaks through His word the Bible. But God speaks also through the Holy Spirit into the heart of every Christian. God speaks in prophecy, in dreams, in visions, in pictures as well as in words.

Have you been to the mountaintop? Have you heard the voice of God?

Have you been to the mountaintop? Have you heard the voice of God? And what did God say to Peter, James and John?

7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

Too many people think of Jesus Christ as just another man, a good man, a great man, maybe the greatest teacher who ever lived. But Jesus is MUCH MUCH more than that! This is my Son! Pause and consider for a moment. EVERYTHING that God is, Jesus is! Because the Lord Jesus Christ is God the Son, the Word become flesh, Immanuel, God with us!

There is an ancient declaration of Christian faith called the Nicene Creed.
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man;

God became man! Everything that God is – Jesus is. God is indeed Holy. God is indeed Eternal. But much more than that, Almighty God the Creator of heaven and earth is

OMNIPOTENT
God is Almighty God can do ANYTHING He chooses! “Nothing is impossible for God” (Luke 1:37)

OMNISCIENT
TOTAL knowledge, complete understanding, perfect wisdom
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa 55:8-9

All-loving
God is love. 1 John 4:8
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

God is TRANSCENDENT
God exceeds, goes beyond, rises above, excels over , surpasses ANYTHING we can begin to imagine. Like transcendental numbers pi and e – not real, not rational, not irrational

Bow down and worship for this is your God! Just for a moment there on the mountaintop, Peter James and John realised who Jesus really is! Holy Eternal, Almighty, All-knowing, All-loving, transcendent!

Have YOU been to the mountaintop? Have you seen the glory of the Lord? Have you come face to face with Jesus Christ? This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him!

Some parts of the bible teach us about joy. Some parts restore to us the joy of our salvation. Some parts of the Bible teach us about peace. Some parts speak the peace of God into our hearts. Some parts of the Bible teach us about Jesus. Other parts of the Bible bring us to a living encounter with Jesus Christ in all His glory. And this story of the transfiguration is one such passage. It is wonderful to study it and preach about it – but it is even better simply to meditate on the Scripture and let the Holy Spirit speak through it to our hearts to reveal Christ to us and bring us face to face with Christ – the Lord Jesus Christ, holy, eternal, God the Son. So that is what we are going to do right now – in an attitude of meditation.

2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
….. They did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”