Peter Allison's sermon, 'Heavenly Glory Comes to Earth,' explores the transfiguration of Jesus as described in Luke 9:28-36. The event reveals Jesus' divine glory to His disciples Peter, James, and John, affirming His identity as the Son of God and the Messiah. This moment is linked to Jesus' prayer life, highlighting His humanity and dependence on the Father. Moses and Elijah appear, representing the Law and the Prophets, emphasizing that Jesus fulfills both. The event underscores the centrality of the cross in Jesus' mission, as the conversation between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah focuses on His impending death. The transfiguration serves as a confirmation of New Testament Scriptures and provides a glimpse of the future glory of Christ's kingdom. Allison encourages believers to embrace the hope of redemption and to live in eager anticipation of Christ's return.

Luke chapter 9, beginning at verse 28. Beginning at verse 28. Hear God's word. Hear God's word. Now it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, that he took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

And as he prayed, the appearance of his face was altered, and his robe became white and glistening. And behold, two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, and when they were fully awake they saw his glory, and the two men who stood with him. And then it happened, as they were parting from him, that Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here, and let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. And while he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were fearful as they entered the cloud.

And a voice came out of the cloud saying, This is my beloved son. Hear him. And when the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet and told no one in those days any of the things that they had seen. May the Lord uphold us according to His Word that we may live and not be ashamed of our hope.

Almighty Father in heaven, may this word that we have heard be mixed with faith in us. May it be a light to us. May it shine this morning into the innermost recesses of our heart. May the sword of your spirit divide asunder the joints in the marrow. I ask that you would sanctify and cleanse my sinful lips, that they might proclaim what is true and holy.

And may you be glorified in our midst this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. Jesus is in His ministry at, we might say, the high point in terms of his popularity, in terms of his favor with the public crowds of Israel. He's been walking through, having initially started down in Judea or gone down to Judea, he's now this second year been up in Galilee, going up farther far north into even the Caesarea and those areas. He has been revealing to his disciples what his work is as a Messiah.

And he had asked Peter, or he asked the disciples, who do the crowds say that I am? And who do you say that I am? And they had, Peter had said that you are the Christ, you are the anointed one, you are the Messiah. That's a very significant confession that he had made. And Jesus said that as the Messiah, He had many things to suffer.

He would be rejected by the elders and the scribes, and would be killed and would rise on the third day. And He called them, His disciples, to take up their cross and follow Him. Taking up their cross meaning to take on the responsibilities of disciples, of messengers, of the Gospel. And it is after these things, it's very specific, it's about eight days. And That's relatively rare, that we would have this time marker connecting events.

Luke says it's about eight days. Mark and Matthew say six days. There's different ways that that could be reckoned. Both are true in the sense that they are meant by those authors. There are different ways of reckoning time inclusively, where you count the day of starting and the day of ending and so that gives you a little different number than if you count exclusively, where you exclude the day on which you start.

So there are some different ways that these two numbers can be reconciled. Luke also says about. It's about. Mark and Matthew say, just say six days, but in any event there is a strong connection. Luke is, Luke, all of the writers tie this, what is it, This transfiguration that we have read, they tie it to these words that Jesus had begun to speak to them about who He was, and what His role, what His calling as Messiah would entail.

It was very, very different, you remember, than what the Israelites were expecting from the Messiah. Very different. In fact, it was so different, you remember, Peter began to rebuke Jesus for saying that he would go and be killed. That wasn't what the Messiah was going to do. Jesus' answer to him was to rebuke him and say, get behind me, Saint.

And so this is a connection. The other thing that I think is worth noting about this transfiguration is that it occurs as Jesus was praying. It occurs as Jesus was praying. This is like other times that Jesus was praying with the disciples. The disciples are tired and they're sleeping.

They're having trouble staying awake. And suddenly There is this glory around them and they wake up. But this all happened as Jesus was praying. It's typical of Luke to mention this. Matthew and Mark don't mention this like Luke does.

Luke mentions this in many places actually. It's his baptism. It mentions that as he was praying, the Father spoke from heaven. It mentions that Jesus was praying and had been praying all night before choosing the 12 apostles. This confession that Peter made happened because the disciples came to him while he was praying.

And he asked them, Who do you say that, who do you think that I am? He may have been praying for them to understand who he was. There are other times that we're told that Jesus was praying for his disciples. So they may have been, he tells us that he prays for them. And so he may have been praying for them and as they came to him and he asked them, then Who do you think I am?

But this praying, prayer life of Jesus, also underscores His humanity, that He is in complete dependence upon the Father. Here he is, Jesus is the perfect man, without sin, perfectly able to obey all of God's commandments in thought, in word, and in deed. And what do we find? We find that He is praying all the time. He prayed without ceasing.

He prayed sometimes all night. If Jesus, this perfect man, needed to pray without ceasing, how much more Do we need to pray for strength and for grace? He walked, Jesus walked in very close fellowship with his father, and he walked communicating with him. He gave up his sleep to pray. He gave up food to pray.

So we see really in this transfiguration, his humanity in his praying, and this coming as he was praying. But we also see that prayer is transformative. It's transformative. This transfiguration comes while he is praying. And if you've read biographies, many times God will give a singular appearance to his saints as they are praying.

Maybe you have had such an occasion, such a transformation, such a visit of God's glory in a time of prayer. If you have, those are very precious. They're not frequent. Prayer is more often a great work. It's something that we have to discipline ourselves to do.

It's much easier to find other things to do. Movies can be one way that we like to fill our time that can easily steal away our prayer time. But prayer is transformative. If you've had such an occasion like this, I know one time many, many years ago before I was even married, there was a Sunday afternoon of prayer, and I was praying about something very specific and very important, and it was one of those very precious times of prayer and I felt moved and when I went into the house later, I was not at home, but My mother was happening to visit where I was staying. A couple people commented, they said, why is your face shining?

I didn't know why it was shining, but I guessed why it might have been. Maybe you've had an experience like that in prayer. The Lord prayer is transformative. And we need to pray. We need to pray more, probably most of us.

We need to pray without ceasing men. Jesus says in Luke 18, men ought always to pray. And so as Jesus is praying, His very countenance, He is transfigured. He's transfigured. His image, His figure is changed into one that's more glorious.

And His divine glory is revealed to His disciples, demonstrating here His divinity, that He is God. Jesus is God. He's teaching His disciples here. This demonstration is for their sake. The ones who would travel the world preaching the gospel, He's giving to them a very clear and definitive statement, demonstration that He is God, He is the Messiah, He is the Christ.

And I think this is why there is a strong connection in terms of time between Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ and this transfiguration. It happens just a few days later that Jesus is declared in this transfiguration to be God. His face was altered. It shone like the sun. His clothes became white as light.

This is a brief glimpse of Christ's divine glory. This is very similar to the description of Christ that we find in Revelation, a face shining as the sun. This is similar in some ways to Moses being shown God's glory. Moses, you see, established the Old Testament church. Yes, God had his people before Moses or before the Israelites exited Egypt, but in the days of the patriarchs, it was essentially one family, one household.

When God came to Abraham with the covenant of grace and commanded him to circumcise his household. It was his household that he was circumcising. Whereas when Joshua was commanded to circumcise Israel, it was a nation, 600, 000 men. And so Moses is in some senses the one who established the Old Testament church. Moses is the one to whom God gave the Ten Commandments and the law, the pentateuch, the law.

And so Moses, as the one who organized the Old Testament church, Moses is given an opportunity to see the glory of God, you remember, in Exodus. But there's also not only a visible representation of God's glory, there is an audible representation. Words are spoken. A loud voice came, overshadowing them. And out of that cloud a voice said, this is My beloved Son, hear Him.

This is much like Jesus' baptism when the voice came out of heaven. This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Jesus is declared here to be the Son of God by God Himself. And God here commands us to hear Jesus as God. And so the other purpose then of this transfiguration in declaring Jesus' divinity is that it authenticates or it confirms the New Testament Scriptures as the Word of God.

John said that God became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. John here was one of the three apostles on this mountain who beheld the glory of God as it was represented in Christ's body and on His face and even on His clothes which are said to shine, become white as light. And Peter, remember, is also here. Peter, James, and John. Peter is here and he gives a fuller account of this transfiguration and he connects it with the confirmation of prophecy.

In 2 Peter 1 he says, For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. Peter saw with his own eyes the majesty of God, the majesty of Jesus Christ, the anointed one. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. Peter is saying he was an eyewitness to the divinity of Jesus Christ, to His glory, to His majesty.

And so, he says, as a result of this, as a result of Him being an eyewitness to the majesty and the glory of Jesus Christ on that mountain, and to hearing the voice from heaven say, this is My well-beloved Son. Hear Him. He says, and so, and so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. No prophecy of Scripture originates privately. For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

This transfiguration, Peter says, confirms the prophetic word. It authenticates the New Testament Scriptures as the Word of God and puts the heavenly seal of the Father upon Christ in a dramatic way that He is the Son of God. And Peter and John witnessed this. Now James also witnesses this. We don't have anything written by him because he was the first martyr of the Christian faith.

James was stoned early on, before Paul was saved. Well, he was yet a Pharisee. He was present there when he was stoned. So James as the very first martyr of the New Testament age is also given this glimpse. I shouldn't say he's the first martyr, I guess Stephen was slightly before that.

He was very soon after that. And this is just as I said, just like Moses saw the glory of God in Exodus 33. I'm just going to read that passage because it does draw out what the glory of God was in Exodus 33. In Exodus 33, verse 17, the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken for you have found grace in my sight And I know you by name Moses had asked the Lord to go with them his presence And God said I will do that because you found grace in my sight And so Moses is encouraged then to ask and he said please show me your glory and the Lord said I will make My goodness pass before you God's glory is Demand is said here to be shown in his goodness I will make my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of Jehovah before you and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on Whom I will have compassion But he said you cannot see my face for no man shall see me and live and the Lord said here is the place by me and you shall stand in the rock and it will be While my glory passes by That I will put you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you with my hand while I pass by and then I will Take my hand away my hand and you shall see my back, but my face will not be seen." So God showed his glory to Moses as well, and his glory is seen in his goodness.

We see in the next chapter 34 that the Lord descended in a cloud, just as in the Mount of Transfiguration, and stood there with Him. Just like Jesus stood there on the mount with Moses and Elijah. And he proclaimed the name of the Lord and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. And Moses makes haste and bows down his head toward the earth, and he worshiped." See God's glory was revealed in a similar way to Moses, who was the originator of the Old Testament Church, the organizer of the Old Testament Church, the one to whom God gave the Old Testament, the first written scriptures of the Old Testament. And that glory was exemplified in His character.

His character is mercy, long-suffering, tender, forgiving, but also just. Now in this transfiguration we also see that Christ fulfills the law and the prophets. Moses and Elijah represent the law and the prophets. Moses is the law giver and Elijah the prophet. It's obvious Moses is the law giver, he represents the law.

He's called the law giver many many times in scripture. Luke himself calls Moses the law giver at least two times. But Elijah is the prophet. Why Elijah? Why is he representing the Old Testament prophets here on this Mount of Transfiguration?

He is you could say the arch-typical prophet. John the Baptist was called Elijah. Elijah would come and proclaim the way for the Messiah. Elijah is also the only prophet who doesn't die and is translated into heaven. You remember the chariots of fire come down and Elisha asks to see Elijah's departure and Elisha gets to see it.

And he sees this chariot descend and take Elijah up into heaven. So Elijah is unique in that sense among all the prophets. And so Moses and Elijah here are standing on this mountain. We don't know what mountain it is. There's a couple of choices, but it doesn't matter for our purposes this morning.

These two men are representing the Law and the Prophets. Now, Why is that significant? Why is this representation of the law and the prophets in this transfiguration, which is there to authenticate and confirm Christ, is Christ's divinity, and to confirm the Scriptures? Well, Christ is our lawgiver, but he's not only our lawgiver, he's also our perfect lawkeeper. And we can praise the Lord that he is our perfect lawkeeper, because It's His righteousness by which we are saved and declared righteous in the sight of God, not our own.

And Christ didn't come to destroy the law, He came to fulfill it. Matthew 5, 17, Jesus says in that sermon on the mount, think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Christ came to fulfill the law.

You can look up that Greek word in the dictionary there. The word means to bring to a desired end, to carry into effect a promise, a purpose, a desire, a hope, a duty, a prophecy, a law, a request, and so on. And so, in the matter of a law, to bring into the desired effect means to perform the law or to execute the law. To fulfill the law then means to obey the law. Jesus came to obey the law, and that's, He came to keep the law.

With respect to prophecy, Jesus came to fulfill the prophecy, to do all that was prophesied about Him in the Old Testament. And you remember throughout the Gospel accounts, Matthew especially says that this happens so that it might be fulfilled which was written about Jesus. So Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets. And this is the sense then that Matthew uses that word, fulfill the law and the prophets. The conclusion of that doctrine is that whosoever therefore shall break one of these commandments and shall teach men that you don't have to keep this law.

He shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever shall do and teach the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Jesus is our law keeper. He's greater than Moses. But it's not just the law that the law is valid and should be obeyed. Jesus goes on to say in that passage in Matthew 5, something more astounding. He says that the law would be obeyed.

Before heaven and earth pass away, the law will be fulfilled. The law will be fulfilled. And that's a different word, fulfilled, than was just used in the earlier verse. This word means come to pass. It's used hundreds of times in the New Testament, but in Luke And in Matthew it refers to events that happened.

It means to be performed. When Jesus prayed in the garden for the cup to pass from Him, He prayed, not my will, but your will be done. Your will be obeyed or followed, not my will. He taught a little later in this book, he teaches his disciples to pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so when Jesus says that till heaven and earth pass, not one jot or tittle shall pass in the law till all be fulfilled.

He's promising to answer our prayer that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and it will be so before this earth passes away. That's an astounding promise. But Jesus came as the perfect law keeper. And He came to enable us to keep His law. He came so that His law might be obeyed in all the earth just as it is being done in heaven.

That is a beautiful and astounding promise. That is the purpose for which Christ came. That's why the gospel is called the gospel of the kingdom. This kingdom that he had promised here, he said, truly there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God coming. And this kingdom has come and it still is coming because we know God's law is not obeyed on earth as it is in heaven, but it is more so and continuing to be more so.

If you look over the last 2, 000 years, you can see the amazing progress that the gospel has made in the earth and the astounding changes that has wrought in the very culture of the earth. But We still have a long ways to go, don't we? So Christ here is presented as the greater than a Moses and greater than Elijah. Moses and Elijah were types in that sense of Christ. Moses, it is said in Deuteronomy 18, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren, Him you shall hear." Isn't that what the voice from heaven says?

This is my well-beloved Son, hear Him. This is the fulfillment of Moses, of the prophecy and Deuteronomy of Christ. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, Moses said, from your midst. Him you shall hear. This is speaking of Christ.

In Hebrews, Moses is compared with Christ, and Christ is shown to be greater than Moses. Moses was as a servant. Jesus is the Son over all the house. He's the Lord. So Moses and Elijah are here on this mountain because Christ has come in fulfillment of Moses' prophecy.

And Christ is that greater, Moses and Elijah. Christ's transfiguration also declares the glory of Christ's kingdom. It gives us just a glimpse of the glory of His kingdom. Jesus refers several times to His coming again in glory and in His fathers and in His holy angels. We are looking forward to the consummation of this kingdom.

The kingdom has come. It came in power when God raised Christ from the dead, declaring Him with power to be the Son of God. It came legally as Christ ascended into heaven, and in Revelation he is pictured as having taken his scepter and it has begun to rain. And Paul says in Corinthians, he will rain until he has put all enemies under his feet. And so his kingdom is coming.

It has come and it is continuing to grow. It's a progressive organic. But there is a glory. We are given a glimpse of the future glory of that kingdom. Matthew 25, 31 says, When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all His holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory." That's our hope.

And this transfiguration is a glimpse of that future glory. Now Moses and Elijah may also represent the way in which this consummation will be experienced. Remember Moses died and was buried. God buried him. But Elijah was not buried.

He was carried bodily into heaven. Paul says, and that's like it will be for the church in that day. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, near the end of the chapter, and in Thessalonians 4, the same thing. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep.

When Christ comes again, not everybody will be dead. There will be Christians living on the earth we shall not all sleep But we Shall all be changed in a moment in the Twinkling of the eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we will be changed Changed and given a glory glorious body See some like Moses would die and they will be raised. And some like Elijah will be alive when he returns and these are said to never sleep. Never sleep. That's a figure of the separation of the body and soul.

They will never undergo that separation of body and soul. We don't have to worry about... In other words, there's no advantage or disadvantage. Those who die will be raised, and those who don't will also, likewise, be changed. But also Christ's transfiguration here declares the centrality of the cross to the gospel, to the purpose for which Christ came.

What are they talking about? Here you have Moses and Elijah coming down in glory, Christ being transfigured, such that His face is shining like the sun, His clothes are bright white, and they are talking. And what are they talking about? They are talking about Christ's death. That is the topic of their conversation at this very significant moment.

They speak of this very significant event, this most significant event. Two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his, your Bible may say, deceased, but it's departure, It's Exodus. That word is Exodus. Peter uses the same word when he speaks about his death, which was soon to come in his letter. He talks about his departure.

That's the word that is used here to describe Christ's death, because death is a departure. It's a departure. It's not the cessation of our existence. It's not the cessation of our consciousness. Jesus told the thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise.

Yes, he was going to die. Yes, but that was seen as a departure. He would no longer be here among us. And So Jesus' death here is spoken of, is referred to as a departure. And he says to the disciples something similar.

He says, I'm going away, and then I'm going to come back. I'm going away, you won't be able to find me, and then I'm going to come back, and then I'm going to go away. He's speaking about his death and then his resurrection, his ascension. See, as a result of Christ's death, he will be a much greater deliverer than Moses was. It is the cross, The cross is central to Christ's incarnation.

Christ, as he told, had just told his disciples, Christ's purpose in coming to earth is to die. That's why He came. He came so that He could die. He came to live a perfect life, to live as a human, with all the limitations and weaknesses of a human nature. Getting hungry, getting tired, all the temptations that you and I face, that we like to use to excuse our failures.

Jesus faced all those same temptations with the same body, just like we have. He had to eat, he had to sleep. People could be cruel to him. He suffered pain. He knew what it was.

This cross is central to Christ's incarnation. It's central to God's plan of salvation. That's what the whole Bible has been pointing to. Even from the promise in the Garden of Eden that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent, but the serpent would bruise his heel. To the sacrificial system which all pointed to Christ's death that we call the ceremonial law or the law of Moses.

To the apostles who said, I determined to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified. Or Paul who said, for I delivered to you first of all, first of all, most importantly, that which I received. And what is that? That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. The cross was central to Christ's life on earth, to His incarnation.

And it must be central to our life as well. And in this transfiguration we also see the weaknesses of human. We see the disciples sleeping. How many times have you fallen asleep or found your mind wandered off while you're praying? Well, it's common demand that even the disciples are sleeping, having fallen asleep.

Peter wants this foretaste of this glory to continue. And so he has this great idea that let's all make three tents, one for Christ, one for Moses, one for Elijah, as if that could continue. And it's sort of a silly statement, and in the Bible, Luke says he didn't know what he was saying. He didn't know what he was saying. That's kind of what you say when somebody says something really foolish.

They didn't really know what he was saying. That's what's said of Peter. Peter may have been equating Moses and Elijah with Christ, but Christ is presented here as greater than Moses and Elijah. He is the fulfillment of what these two men prophesied. And so If you are weak, if you fall asleep in prayer, if you say stupid things sometimes out of context, then you are in good company.

Christ chose weak men knowing their weaknesses, knowing their limitations. We have this promise in the Scriptures that we will be like Christ. He is bringing many sons to glory and He will bring us as well to glory. And so this is then a glimpse, a glimpse of that glory, that it is real, that it has been seen and witnessed as John says, He dwelt among us, word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld that glory. Brothers and sisters, this is our hope.

This is our hope. And as we walk through this life, which in some ways is a veil of tears, we have this hope. The redemption of our bodies. It's a hope because it isn't seen yet. It's not seen yet.

You don't hope for things that you already have. You don't hope for the things that you see. But When you hope for what you don't see, you eagerly wait for it. And so this is the hope of our redemption, that we too will be brought into glory by Jesus Christ. Are you eagerly waiting for that?

Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for this glimpse of your glory, this amazing proclamation of your divinity, that you are the Son of God, you are the Messiah. We ask, Lord, that you would strengthen our hope, a hope that is not a mere conjecture, not a mere wish, but a certainty. So we pray, Lord, that we might eagerly await Your coming in glory. And until then, we ask for your grace to occupy, to labor, to take up our cross and to follow you. In Jesus name we ask, Amen.