Inside Out

Inside Out

Mark 9:2-10

    Just turn on any of the news channels on TV, or pick up a newspaper, and what do you see?  Continuing violence in the Middle East.  Missing or murdered children.  Our economy continues to take its toll as more and more businesses threaten or actually enter into bankruptcy.  Jobs are being lost, and maybe some of you here this morning are beginning to wonder when it will affect you, if it hasn’t already?  Some of you wonder if you will have a job 6 months from now, or how you’ll feed your family and keep a roof over your head.  If you’re a high school student planning on going off to college, you’re trying to make a choice of where to go to school, and wonder if they money will be there for you to go or not.  If you’re an adult child of an aging parent, you worry about those who once took care of you, as you watch their health deteriorate.  You wonder why some relationships in your life are left shattered to pieces, with no hope of ever restoring them.  You have real problems, real issues that you face.    

    So you turn on the radio or television to some religious program where they somehow lead you to believe that this is all somehow some fault of yours.  Some would tell you this morning that the thing you really need to do is to get out there and seek out God’s glory in some sort of emotionally uplifting, mountaintop-type experience, and if you’re not having one of those right now, then you must not be very close to God. That God is distant, and doesn’t care about you. They’ll tell you that you need to get to work, get all your ducks in a row, set up your prayer shelters if you will, so that Jesus can come and dwell in your midst and give you glory in this life. They focus so much on the things of this world, the things the world considers to be glorious, that they refuse to listen to God the Father’s instructions from today's text in Mark... “Listen to Him.”

      This morning we are studying Mark 9 and the story of Jesus and three of His disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration.  In this story, it has been six days since Jesus first revealed to His followers that He must suffer and die on a cross.  His followers are still confused by the meaning of that assertion when three of them accompany Jesus for a special revelation on the mountaintop.  Read with me in this text as we see them learn to   … 

Watch  (vv. 2-4)

Listen  (vv. 5-7)   and…   

Follow  (vv. 8-10)

1. Body
1. Watch  (vv. 2-4)
1. Things Aren't Always What They Seem.  
1. We tend to trivialize the "Good News" and "domesticate" God
2. According to Luke 9:31, they talk about Jesus death, His "Exodus"
3. Wesley says of this event:
1. The indwelling Deity darted out its rays through the veil of the flesh; and that with such transcendent splendor, that he no longer bore the form of a servant. 
2. His face shone with Divine majesty, like the sun in its strength; and all his body was so irradiated by it, that his clothes could not conceal its glory, but became white and glittering as the very light, with which he covered himself as with a garment.
4. The glory of Moses face was reflected glory. It was divine glory manifested to Him. Jesus’ glory was not reflected glory – it belonged to Him as the divine Son of God and it terrified Peter, James and John.
5. This is not simply the "glory" of Jesus but the very presence of God Himself.
6. Remember Jesus "high priestly" prayer of John 17
1. 20 - 23 --  I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 
7. If we're really Biblically astute, we understand that one of the greatest revelations of the New Testament is that Christ made a way for God's presence to reside within each of us.  And that one of the great challenges of Christianity is us dying to ourselves and allowing that "light of hope," that "glimmer of god-in-us" to shine through us to a dark, hopeless dying world.
8. Col. 1:27 -- ... Christ in you, the hope of gloryListen  (vv. 5-7)
1. It's Better To Listen
9. Listen to him.” Strange words considering. What are they to be listening to? Well, what’s Jesus talking about with Moses and Elijah up there on that mountain? Are they talking about ways that Peter, James, and John can live their best lives now in this world? Are they talking about how if Peter, James, and John serve Jesus well enough, then they will be blessed with material wealth, power, and prestige? Are they talking about Jesus setting up a kingdom of worldly power and glory? No. Luke’s Gospel gives us the answer when he says “They spoke about (Jesus) departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:31b) We’re right back to what Jesus had been talking about with His disciples six days earlier. Remember that conversation, Peter? Remember what Jesus said and how you responded to it? Remember why Jesus called you Satan? It’s being confirmed right here. If you listen to Jesus, Peter, you’re hearing Him talk about his upcoming departure, his suffering and death. This HAS to happen, Peter. If you get your way about it, and prevent Jesus from going to the cross, even though you may have the best intentions, you’re going to be a roadblock preventing Jesus’ work the cross and His saving you from your sins. Peter, the real glory isn’t in the things of the world or listening to that voice within yourself, it’s in listening to Jesus, and His Word. And that means Jesus will go to Jerusalem, suffer, and die. But, it’s going to be for your good! Listen to Him!
10. Disciples, both then and now, frequently get it wrong, through fear and ignorance and much else.
11. Peter would put them all three on the same level.
12. The commandment "listen to Him" is present imperative, meaning God commands it.
13. There is many an Elijah or Moses to divide our loyalties; in the end, we must listen to Jesus.
14. When was your last experience of awe?Follow  (vv. 8-10)
1. You can't stay "on the mountaintop."
15. Given the choice between glory on a mountaintop and death on a cross, Jesus comes down from the mountain.
16. He has every right to stay in the heavenly brightness and light, but He chooses to return to the darkness of our sin-filled world.
17. There is something about that action that many of us have trouble understanding.
18. We can understand the majesty of the mountaintop - the "super star" visitors and the glow on the mountain, it's the Divine majesty revealed in betrayal, suffering, death and eventual resurrection that we fail to comprehend... when the powerful becomes powerless.  We have no other model for that type of servant leadership.
2. Conclusion 
1. On May 19, 1953, Sir Edmond Hillary, and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, reached the top of Mount Everest.  They were the first two people ever to literally be on top of the world.  After Hillary had climbed Mount Everest, be became an overnight celebrity.   He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.   His name became a household word.
   He even became a spokesperson for Sears-Robuck and company.
   And his name appeared on sleeping bags, tents, and boot laces.
   And He could have lived off of his "15 minutes of fame," from the success that he had rightfully earned, for the rest of his life.
   But he didn’t!   What did he do?   He went back to Nepal.  Back to those people, the Sherpas, whom he had grown to know and appreciate and respect and love.  And then he began using his fame to bring them help.
   In a speech some years ago, Hillary recounted how an elderly Sherpa from Khumjung village, the hometown of most of the Sherpas on his Everest ascent, had come to him a few years after that famous expedition and said, "Our children lack education. They are not prepared for the future. What we need more than anything is a school in Khumjung."
   So Hillary established the Himalayan Trust, and in 1961 a three-room schoolhouse was built in Khumjung with funds raised by Hillary.
   In its first decade the fund focused on education and health.
   Since then the trust has built 27 schools, two hospitals and 12 medical clinics, plus numerous bridges and airfields, and also reforesting valleys and slopes in the many areas of Nepal.
   Hillary would spent more than half each year traveling the world, raising money for the trust and supervising the various projects undertaken with the funds he’d raised.  And he continued doing this for more than thirty years.
   Mountain top experiences are great, but living, working, helping, loving in the valleys — that is where Christ asks us to be.
2. If people were ever able to see past the "outer layer" of who you are; if the "real you" began to shine out for all the world to see, what would they see?
3. Col. 1:27 -- ... Christ in you, the hope of glory
4. 2 Cor. 4:6 - 7 -- For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.   But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
5. When others watch you, what do they see?
6. When they listen to you, what do they hear?
7. When they follow you, are they going in the right direction?