3.8.2015 3rd Sunday of Lent Mark 9:1-13 Jesus is Transfigured before three disciples
The Transfiguration
The Transfiguration was a worship
experience. Jesus took His inner circle with Him to a mountain to get away from
the busyness and the concerns of the world to be with the Father. Jesus’ three
disciples witnessed the very glory of God found in Jesus’ Transfigured body in
a worship experience.
As Peter, James and John were on the
mountain with Jesus suddenly there appeared to them the two great prophets of
the past; Moses and Elijah. Of all the great men of old, it was Moses and
Elijah who is remembered as God’s chosen prophets. As two great men, to whom
the prophecies were announced, Jesus would simply tell us clearly “Moses and
the prophets they testify to Me” (Luke 24:44)
Beginning with the Law and Moses and the
Psalms Jesus opened His disciples eyes to see that all of the prophecies of old
were fulfilled in Him. When we worship Jesus, we worship Him who has fulfilled
all things. In Him all of God’s promises are “Yes” and “Amen” Worship at its
best is realized when we find fellowship with those who have gone before us in
the prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Real worship happens when we give praise
and adoration to Jesus Christ – Upon seeing these three figures, Christ, Moses,
and Elijah, the disciples were “exceedingly afraid.” They were filled with awe
and wonder. Is there a sense of awe and wonder in our worship experience? Do we
have a sense of entering into the presence of the divine?
This is what
we are to experience when we encounter the divine. Is our worship experience
filled with a sense of the divine with a sense of awe, or is it merely an
experience that we have grown accustomed to, or, even worse, something that
leaves us ambivalent? Worship at its best calls for a sense of awe as we
approach the divine.
The Father speaking from the cloud that
encircled them said, “This is My beloved
Son.” We come to worship to hear the very word of God. As we hear the Words
of Scripture, especially the Gospel we hear the very Words of Jesus. We come to
encounter Christ. We come to hear Jesus’ Words. Jesus tells us “My sheep hear My voice and I know them and
they follow Me and I give them eternal life and no one shall snatch me out of
My hand” (John 10:27) Whose words do we come to hear? We come to hear and
to follow Jesus. Worship at its best calls for us to come and to listen to
Jesus and His Word.
We come not just to a worship service but
in service, we worship God. Worship, at its best calls for us to follow and
obey the Savior. The Father, speaking to the disciples and to you and me this
day says this; “Listen to Him” We
listen and we obey. Christ calls us to discipleship. He calls us to obedience.
Worship at its very best calls us to be new people, new people in Jesus Christ.
He calls us to follow Him as He guides and as He leads.
Almighty God, you know
that I have no power in myself to help myself: Keep me both outwardly in my
body and inwardly in my soul, that I may be defended from all adversities which
may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt
the soul; through Jesus Christ the Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen[2]
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