Thank you, Jenny, for reading for us. Good morning, everyone. Can I expect to stay my welcome to that of Steve’s. It’s great to be with you this morning. Let’s just pray, shall we, before we begin looking at this passage together. Heavenly Father, we thank you. In this passage, we see the glory of you revealed in Jesus and we pray this morning, as we look at it together, we would see more of his glory and pray that we would be changed by it. Lord, give us hearts open to know more of you. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well, I wonder how good your listening skills are. Apparently. Apparently we. We only remember 17 to. Only 17% to 25% of all the things that we listen to. Is that ringing any bells at all? I don’t want people pointing at each other, no discussions going on. And actually, the experts say the things that stop us from listening and this will make. You might be interested in some of these. I don’t know. Sometimes we don’t really listen because we suddenly feel compelled to give some advice. Yeah, I think I’ve been there. Sometimes that stops us from listening because we suddenly start talking about what we want to talk about. Or sometimes we’re listening and then we want to tell our own story. Yeah, I’ve been there too. I think we suddenly feel the urge to share something that’s happened to us because it kind of chimes with the conversation that stops us listening. Maybe we have an emotional reaction and that actually stops us listening. We might become very angry, perhaps, or maybe a really positive emotional reaction, but it does stop us from listening. Or perhaps, finally, unsurprisingly, we’re feeling bored, we’re distracted in some kind of way. And for that reason, we just don’t listen. My job as a teacher, that happens a lot and I’m always trying to stop that happening. I’ve just realised, actually thinking about it, 17% to 25%, I realised that you lot are only going to remember 17% to 25% of what I’m going to say to you this morning. So I’m going to try and make it good. So try and make it a bit more. Maybe 30, perhaps 40. Who knows? In verse five, this passage that Jenny’s just read to us, it says a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. Listen to him. And that was the disciples’ problem. They hadn’t really listened. I hadn’t really listened to Jesus. They hadn’t really got the right idea about who he was. Or what he had come to do. This event, the transfiguration, I was thinking about this. It’s quite strange, isn’t it? It’s quite a strange event. And perhaps we might be forgiven for wondering, well, what is the point of this event in the Bible? Why is it there? Well, I think to begin to answer that question, we need to look at what happened before, just before this passage, and we need to look forwards beyond to Jesus’ death and beyond that to his resurrection. As Steve’s already said that. We begin a sermon series in Matthew, Jesus the king, in the run up to Easter, following Jesus in his journey to the cross. And if we look at the previous passage, we can see that the cross is very much in the forefront of Jesus’ mind. He’s preparing the disciples. He’s beginning to talk about what’s going to happen to him, how he’s going to suffer and die. He starts talking to them about that. And that’s when we get Peter’s reaction, which I think most of us probably know quite well. You know, Lord, this should never happen to. No, can’t allow this to happen. And Jesus says to Peter, get behind me, Satan. That’s in the bit just before. So that’s the background to this incident, what happened before. Jesus is looking forward, looking forward to his death and beyond to his resurrection. And then in between, we have this event, the transfiguration. And actually, I think it was just what the disciples needed. They needed that reassurance of who Jesus is, that Jesus really is the Messiah. He is the messiah, even if surprisingly, he had suddenly revealed that actually he was on the way to the cross where he would suffer and die. And it reminds us too, doesn’t it? It reminds us too, of who Jesus is and what he had come to do. And I think, too, it has something to say to us about our listening skills, our listening skills when it comes to our relationship with Jesus and our knowledge of Jesus in our lives, our listening skills. So let’s unpack some of those ideas as we begin looking at this passage together. Picture the situation. Let’s try and put ourselves in the position of the disciples as we think about this passage. It was probably early in the morning, and Jesus had dragged the disciples off for an early morning prayer session, and he had dragged them all the way to the top of a mountain for that, probably Mount Hermon. We’re not sure which mountain it was, but a lot of people think of as probably Mount Hermon, which was the highest mountain in the region. But the disciples, well, they don’t want to stop and look at the view. They had to get up early, so they want to catch up on a bit of sleep. But then something really wakes them up. Something wakes them up. You know when something really wakes you up and suddenly you’re wide awake, because the disciples look on in amazement and they see Jesus like they’ve never seen him before. They’ve been walking around with Jesus, spending time with him, but suddenly they see Jesus like they’d never seen him before. He’s transfigured before them. The greek word metamorphothe, I think that’s how you say it is. The word used here is translated transfigured. And that’s where we get the word metamorphosis from our word for transformation from one state, one state into something completely different, metamorphosis. But to understand what’s happening to Jesus here as that kind of transformation, that kind of change into something completely different, is actually quite misleading, because what’s happening here to Jesus is not a change into something new, but rather it’s actually an uncovering of who Jesus really is. It’s an uncovering of who Jesus really is. Peter, James and John witness, if only for a moment, the glory of God revealed in the son, the glory of God revealed in the sun. And then things get a little bit more strange, because not only are they looking on at this, but then they see Moses and Elijah. Suddenly, randomly, Moses and Elijah appear and they’re walking around and talking to Jesus. And that seems a bit strange, doesn’t it, as well. But actually, to Peter, James and John, I think the presence of Moses and Elijah would have been highly significant because they knew only too well that Moses was the great lawgiver. Through Moses, the people of Israel had been given the Ten Commandments. He was the great lawgiver. And Elijah, well, he represented the prophets, so their presence there is actually significant. It brings the two strands of the Old Testament together, and their fulfilment is in Jesus. It’s almost as if they’re pointing at Jesus and saying, he is the one. He is the one. He is the culmination of the Old Testament revelation. In Jesus, everything from the Bible, from the Old Testament revelation is all fulfilled in him. The law and the prophets, it all looks forward to Jesus. And so here they were talking with Jesus and Peter, James and John. Well, they begin to see the significance of this. But I think really we do also see that Peter’s, from Peter’s reaction, they really hadn’t understood. Still, they really hadn’t listened to Jesus back in chapter 16. That was a real high point for Peter because that’s where he confessed to Jesus that Jesus was the messiah, the son of the living God. He comes out with that great answer, top of the class. But then there’s this real low point in the previous chapter we’ve been talking about where he tried to talk Jesus out of going to the cross, and Jesus had rebuked him sternly, as we’ve already seen, where he actually says, peter, you’re the mouthpiece of Satan. But actually, Peter’s comment here also isn’t particularly good either. Shows that he really still doesn’t understand. He hadn’t really been listening. Peter says, let’s put up three shelters, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Basically, I think wanting to preserve the moment, perhaps, but I think the thing to notice is that he doesn’t make any distinction between Jesus, Moses and Elijah, does he? He doesn’t make any distinction. In his mind, it’s three holy men, three prophets, three shelters, and Jesus is given equal waiting. It’s all the same to Peter. Despite seeing the glory of God revealed in Jesus, Peter is still unsure about who Jesus is and what he had come to do. Well, what had he come to do? It’s interesting, actually, because Matthew tells us that Jesus was walking around and talking with Moses and Elijah, but he doesn’t say any more than that. He doesn’t say what they were talking about. Wouldn’t it be good to know what they were talking about? Well, that’s where Luke comes in, because in the parallel passage, Luke does tell us what they were talking about. Luke says they were talking about his departure. They were talking about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment in Jerusalem. The word departure that Luke uses actually means Exodus. Exodus. So Jesus is talking about his exodus. His exodus. This passage is looking forward to another exodus, another exodus. This time it’s Jesus, not Moses, who would lead the people of God out of bondage and captivity into the promised land. Now, of course, that bondage and captivity is not physical captivity like it was for the Israelites coming out of Egypt. In Jesus we have freedom from the bondage of sin and death. Jesus is no less than God’s only son, the chosen one, through whom God would save mankind from the bondage of sin and death. And that would come through his suffering and death on the cross. But as Peter saw jesus’ glory revealed to him in the transfiguration, it must have seemed to fit perfectly with his triumphant view. Of the messiah. He sees Jesus in all his glory, and he just thinks this fits perfectly well with his view of the messiah, who would come in and restore the jewish notion and conquer the Romans and put everything back how it should be, when actually jesus’ glory is all bound up in his suffering. This idea of a suffering messiah was something the disciples, and in particular we see Peter here, had not really considered. And it’s something they didn’t find easy to accept. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. Wonder what ideas we have of Jesus in our minds. We need to listen to him. That’s something we need to do, isn’t it? We need to listen to him. To listen to what he says about who he is and what he had come to do. There are all sorts of voices that bombard us, particularly in this day and age, with modern social media and all that sort of thing. We’re bombarded with ideas and authorities trying to get us to listen to them. I looked it up, actually. Apparently, on average, the average person on their phone receives 93 notifications a day trying to get us to listen. Apparently, if you’re 18 to 24, though, it’s worse that they probably don’t see it. Worse. But it’s 237 for them. 237 trying to get us to listen. If we listen to anyone, we should listen to Jesus, shouldn’t we? We should listen to Jesus. He is the most important person to listen to. Actually, I was thinking about this. When you read this passage, when you hear the voice from heaven, the voice of God from heaven, you would expect God to say, listen to me, wouldn’t you? Listen to me? But he doesn’t. He says, listen to him. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. Everything points to Jesus. Everything points to Jesus. And what does Jesus say? Well, if we look at John, chapter 14, verse six, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. I am the way, the truth, and the know. Maybe you’re sitting here listening to me this morning and you haven’t really made that choice to listen to Jesus properly made that choice to follow him. You’ve heard lots about him, but you haven’t really listened. You haven’t acted on what you’ve heard. If that is the case, can I encourage you to make a decision to really listen to who he is and what he says? Maybe speak to somebody else who, you know, has faith. Speak to me. Speak to Steve. Because he has the words of truth. As that verse says, he has the words of truth. Through him, we can know God, and in him there is life, life in all its fullness, both now and eternally. Or maybe you’ve been a Christian a while and this is perhaps a good reminder to tune in to Jesus again and listen to really listen to him. Listening takes hearing to a whole new level, doesn’t it? When we really listen, it’s understanding and following those words. When we really listen, there is a direct connection between our ears and our hearts, actually, isn’t there? Worship is more than us expressing words of praise like we have done this morning. It’s also listening to what Jesus says to us and what he wants, what he commands, what he promises, and he calls us to follow him, and that will involve sacrifice. We follow Jesus in his way of suffering that we’ve been reading about in this passage or thinking about. But as we follow him and we really listen to him, we will know more of his glory in our lives. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. As we think about this, this morning, I wonder if there is something in particular that the Lord has been saying to you that you know you need to listen to. Maybe there’s something that he’s really been speaking to you about and you know you need to listen and you know you need to act on it. Can I encourage you to reflect on that? And maybe you’re somebody. Actually, all of us, I think, find it hard, don’t we, to really hear the voice of God, to know when he’s speaking. It’s quite hard. I was in the 1980s and 90s. In fact, I thought I should get a picture for this, really, of what I looked like in the United Natives and 90s. You’ll have to ask Jeremy Taylor, because he remembers, and a few other people probably, too, but I really liked a band called after the fire used to go to Greenbelt, and they were a band that played there. And for those of you who know about these sort of things, they were a 1980s style band, real classic 1980s style band, and they played a green belt. They were a christian band and I was a really keen supporter of after the fire. And yeah, they played a green belt, but they were really. Their aim was to try and make it into the mainstream and to be a mainstream band. And they did actually, in the end, get a top ten hit. It was after they split up, which was a bit of a shame. But, yeah, they were really good. But it was only recently that the significance of their name really hit me. We were reading sometime, I can’t remember. It was in one kings, that story of Elijah when he’s told to go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord. For the Lord is about to pass by and it says, there was a powerful wind, but the Lord was not in the wind. There was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And finally there was a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. It was after the fire that Elijah heard the gentle whisper of the Lord’s voice after the fire. What a great name for a band. I just wish I’d thought of that, but it’s really pleased me to realise that they’d obviously work that out and thought that’d be a great name for their band. The father invites us, doesn’t he, as he does the disciples, to listen to Jesus, to listen to what he’s saying to us, to listen to that still, small voice, to really spend time trying to find that still, small voice after the fire. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that in this passage in Jesus we see the glory of God revealed in the Son. And we pray that you’d help us to be open to knowing more of the glory of Jesus in our lives. More of Jesus in our lives. Help us to have ears that are ready to listen to him and hearts that are ready for change, that are willing to change. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.