5. THE CHRIST OF GOD

5. THE CHRIST OF GOD

Luke 9:20, 27 – Who is this? The Christ of God!

Ii was an immediate fulfillment of what was to come.

Luke 9:28-36.

We can apply the study of this phenomenal event to our own relationship with Christ in several ways:

1. Christ seeks to readjust our vision of Him. The more we are willing to receive, the more He is willing to reveal to us.

Christ took Peter, James, and John into some of the inmost places. They somehow were willing to receive a greater revelation.

Matthew 13:11-12, 16-17 – How blessed we are when we have eyes that are willing to see, and ears that are willing to hear, when we want to see Him. When we begin to make it our chief cry to Him “Lord, I want to know the reality of you!” We are direct byproducts of who we believe our Christ has told us to be. He is totally unchanged by our perspective or perception. “Father, daily transfigure your Son, Jesus Christ, before our eyes; and then, give us courage to adjust our eyes to what we see.”

Colossians 2:2-3 – The Greek word is verse two for “understanding” is “epiginostos” which means “to recognize.” It is a recognition of who He is, in a relationship with Him, based on the participation of the part of the lecturer – a security of relationship.

The word “knowledge” in verse three means “present and fragmentary knowledge.”

God is the fullness of all security and mystery. He meets all of our emotional needs as well as our mental needs.

You have the knowledge of full assurance in relationship with who I am, but you also have constant mystery, as I will give you these little fragments of knowledge, one at a time, to open your eyes to my greatness. We will never learn it all while we are here. As much as we seek Him, when we see Him, we will be stunned. God says “Who wants to see? Because, I want you to see my Son, Jesus!”

2. To readjust our vision, Christ may choose to rearrange our surroundings (v. 28).

Somehow, from that new arrangement, whether you like it or not, there is a new perspective of the One who saved you, and He reserves the right to take us up on a high mountain apart. God chooses to pull us out of our element to readjust our vision.

3. No matter how our earthly perception is readjusted, the immortal reality still greatly exceeds any mortal revelation (verses 29-32).

Whatever we see, that revelation, that immortal reality, is far beyond what we will ever see or capture here.

Luke 9:29 – For just that moment, on that mountaintop; Christ the fullness of the Godhead bodily, who had been imprisoned in this body of flesh, suddenly just lowered it as if it were a cloak or a coat; and for that moment, just stood there in His Godness. He stood there in a greater revelation of His glory.

Luke 9:30, 32 – The Greek word for “saw” is “eido” which means “to see and to know.” Somehow they knew who Moses and Elijah were. All three – Moses, Elijah, and Jesus – had divinely intervened departures.

Deuteronomy 34:1, 4-6 – Moses literally died in the presence of God alone – in His arms, so to speak (Exodus 33:18). God buried Moses Himself.

Jude 1:9

Deuteronomy 34:10 – If they had the bones of Moses, they would have done what humanity is so prone to do – they would have worshipped those bones. There would be a shrine set up to the bones of Moses.

Colossians 2:19 – All it takes to get off track; all in the world Satan is after – he will be happy if he cannot get us to worship Christ. He will get religious people to worship anything, just not the Head-Jesus Christ.

4. Our meeting places with Christ are not locations where we build tabernacles and stay (v. 33). The original Greek word for good is kalos, meaning “constitutionally good without necessarily being beneficial; expresses beauty as a harmonious completeness, balance, proportion.”

They had a plan to fulfill that was down in that valley. Christ said, “Don’t you understand, I brought you on this mountain, because of what I am going to do with you in the valley. You cannot build a tabernacle and stay here.”

5. Christ ordinarily reveals Himself to us in private so He can reveal Himself through us in public. Look ahead to verse 37.

God is looking for people willing to come on their knees as a servant, to wash feet. We need to let Him into the inmost places, to do the very private and excruciating work on the heart and mind; so that He can prepare us for what He wants to do through us.

6. When our spiritual vision is being readjusted, our hearing is as vital as our sight (v. 35).

Matthew 113:11-17 – “Speak Lord, for I am listening.”

Luke 9:34-35 – It was a holy “Just shut thee up.” Grasp the moment Peter. Look who is before you. He is talking. Listen to Him.

The feel on their faces because they were men who had been little Hebrew boys, and all their lives they had heard all the stories of God speaking from a cloud; speaking out of glory.

7. Our vision of Christ is under appropriate readjustment as we come to see Jesus alone (v. 36).

Matthew 17:8 – How much Christ desires to transfigure Himself before us, and readjust our vision to a truer reality of who He is; that no one compares! He will not share His glory with another. Jesus alone.

Psalm 62:1-2, 5-6 – All of those “my’s” – somehow or another, God had let enough disappointment come in the life of the psalmist, where he had learned a very hard way, God alone was his Salvation and His Honor. We will not nearly be so shaken.

Romans 8:38-39 – There are two primary reasons why He wants to be God alone:

A. Because He deserves that honor.

B. He is the only thing we cannot lose.

He wants to ring our hearts like a bell, when we look up and see no man, save Jesus only.

8. Consider redefining a “mountaintop experience” based on these events. Any place we see Christ transfigured can turn out to be the greatest mountaintop experience of our lives.

Where was the last place that He was transfigured in your life? What really shook you up and changed you? Life is all about that we would see Jesus, Him who is invisible.