Milestones of the Master

Crucial Events in the Life of Jesus and Why They Matter So Much

Warren W. Wiersbe

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781683591795
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

A satisfying and enriching study of the 12 most important events in the life of Jesus. The author of more than 150 books and a beloved Bible teacher and former pastor, Warren Wiersbe explains the meaning of each event in the ministry of Jesus, and goes one step further to show the personal significance of each momentous event of the most important person who ever lived.

5

The Transfiguration of Jesus

Matthew 17:1–13; Mark 9:2–13; Luke 9:28–36

The Greek word translated “transfigured” gives us the English word “metamorphosis,” which means a change on the outside that comes from the inside. When Jesus began to shine, it was not because the angels in heaven had turned a powerful spotlight on Him. It was because His divine nature was radiating through His body and His raiment. The larva going into the cocoon and coming out a butterfly has experienced metamorphosis. Jesus revealed His divine nature in its glory, an awesome event beheld only by the Father in heaven and five persons on earth: Peter, James, John, Moses, and Elijah. It is our privilege to learn some basic spiritual lessons from what they saw on the high mountain.

Jesus and the Crowds

Frequently in the Gospel records we read that large crowds of people followed Jesus, no matter where He went. Some came to experience His miraculous healing power, others to see those miracles performed, and still others to hear Him teach spiritual truth. Jesus couldn’t ignore the crowds because He came to earth to minister to people and bring them the good news of the kingdom. I used to tell pastors in conferences, “We want crowds, not so we can count people but because people count and we want to serve them.”

Some celebrities in their press interviews have admitted that enthusiastic crowds wear them down and, if they don’t escape from their public now and then, they can’t live at their best. Each morning Jesus would rise early and go to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35). Our Lord occasionally took His disciples with Him, slipped away from the crowds, and found rest and refreshment in solitude. We call this a “retreat,” but even then the crowds found Him (Mark 6:30–44). The remarkable “transfiguration retreat” reported by Matthew, Mark, and Luke took Jesus away from the pressing throngs and gave Him opportunity to glorify the Father and prepare Himself and three of His disciples for His approaching suffering and death.

We live these days in a fast-moving, crowd-controlled world, and if we aren’t careful, we may be captured by the crowd and gradually lose our identity. Philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote, “All the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber” (Pensees #139). If we can’t get along with ourselves, we can never conquer the crowd. In his autobiography Out of My Later Years, Albert Einstein wrote, “I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”5 The American naturalist and poet Henry David Thoreau wrote in the “Economy” chapter of Walden, “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” We can spend so much time with others that we fail to spend adequate time with ourselves and the Lord.

Solitude is not the same as isolation or loneliness. Many people can be in the middle of a noisy crowd and yet feel very lonely. It’s the person with a balanced life, walking with God, who can handle both the crowd and the cloister. In fact, those who find enrichment in solitude have something to share with the crowd. Jesus was not alone on the mountain, for Peter, James, and John were with Him at His request; then Moses and Elijah appeared, and the Father spoke from heaven. The divine promise to God’s people is, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5; Heb. 13:5). As believers, we can overcome the destructive influences of the worldly crowd because we spend time alone with the Lord. The blessed life is a balanced life, and the Lord is the one who keeps everything in control. Those who in the solitary place have found peace in Christ will have no problem finding that same peace in the crowd.

In his essay “The Decline of Heroes,” historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. wrote: “If we are to survive, we must have ideas, vision, courage. These things are rarely produced by committees. Everything that matters in our intellectual and moral life begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself.”6 It takes both society and solitude, the mountaintop and the valley, to make us mature, creative people, and with the Lord’s help, we can handle both. Blessed are the balanced.

Jesus and the Glory

In the ancient Near East, the Gentile nations had temples, priests, and rituals, but only the nation of Israel had God’s glory dwelling in their sanctuary (Rom. 9:4). When Moses dedicated the tabernacle, God’s glory moved in (Exod. 40:34–38), and when Solomon dedicated the temple, the glory filled the house (2 Chron. 7:1–3). The idols of the nations were without life or glory and could do nothing, but the living God of Israel is glorious in everything He is, says, and does!

The tragedy is that, over the centuries, the people of Israel repeatedly sinned against the Lord and even put idols in His temple; and eventually the glory of God departed from the sanctuary. The prophet Ezekiel records how the glory moved from the mercy seat in the holy of holies to above the threshold of the temple, then to the eastern gate, and from there it left the temple completely and went over the Mount of Olives (Ezek. 10:1–19; 11:22–23). The priests could have written “Ichabod” over the temple, “the glory has departed” (1 Sam. 4:19–22). Ezekiel also revealed that the glory would return and dwell in the temple in the future kingdom (43:1–5).

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God’s glory returned to the people of Israel in the person of the Son of God (Luke 2:8–9). “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory” (John 1:14). Jesus glorified God in His life, teachings, and miracles, and especially in His death and resurrection. But the transfiguration of Jesus on the mount was very special and has significance for us today. When Jesus was born, He was wrapped in strips of cloth called “swaddling clothes,” and when He was buried, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped Him in strips of linen. But on the mount, Jesus radiated His glory in a way His disciples had never seen before. This glory revealed that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.

We must note that Jesus was praying as this remarkable event transpired (Luke 9:29). Our daily times of fellowship with the Lord ought to send us forth radiating the presence of God as we serve others and seek to honor Christ. Whether we like it or not, our faces often reflect our character and attitudes; and how wonderful it would be if we all had shining faces! While Stephen was being stoned to death, he prayed for his executioners, and “his face was as the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15). We can use soap, water, and cosmetics to deal with facial blemishes, but the best “beauty treatment” is a heart full of love, a will yielded to the Spirit, and a mind full of God’s truth. “Prayer changes things” is a familiar saying, but prayer also changes us! If we want the glory of God to transfigure us, we had better spend quality time in prayer.

Jesus was on His way to Calvary, and His transfiguration reminded Him that the suffering He would endure would ultimately lead to glory. It was a revelation of the glory of His coming kingdom (Matt. 16:27–28) when the cross would be replaced by the crown (Heb. 2:9). After His resurrection, Jesus asked the two Emmaus disciples, “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:26). Too many believers think that suffering in the will of God is a strange thing, for, if we are obeying God, He ought to shelter us. When Peter first heard that the Master would die on a cross, his response was, “Far be it from you, Lord”; and Jesus rebuked him (Matt. 16:21–23). Suffering is one of God’s tools for preparing us for glory, not only today but when Jesus returns (1 Peter 4:13).

Those who have trusted Jesus Christ already have His glory in the person of the Holy Spirit within them (John 17:22; 1 Peter 4:14), and that glory is revealed in the way we live and the works we do (Matt. 5:16). It will be revealed when we reach our heavenly home, see Jesus, and rejoice in His presence. Meanwhile, we walk by faith, knowing that the Lord always keeps His promises. Charles Spurgeon said that the promises of God shine the brightest in the furnace of affliction, and he was right. Suffering and glory go together as do God’s grace and our suffering. “The Lord will give grace and glory” (Ps. 84:11).

Jesus and the Heavenly Visitors

Not only was the Master radiant with divine glory, but so were two men who suddenly appeared and conversed with Jesus about “His decease which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). The three disciples knew who these men were because this was another manifestation of heavenly glory, and in heaven we shall know one another even as we are known. Moses represented the law and Elijah the prophets, for in Jesus we see the fulfillment of the law and the prophets (Matt. 5:17). “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Because he disobeyed the Lord, Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land before he died (Num. 20:1–13; Deut. 34:1–4), but there he was on a mountaintop in Israel with the Son of God!

The word translated “decease” is the Greek word exodus, a suitable word for the topic of conversation Jesus was having with Moses and Elijah (Luke 9:30–31). Moses supervised the exodus of Israel out of Egyptian slavery, Elijah led the unfaithful nation out of pagan idolatry and back to the Lord (1 Kings 18). Jesus accomplished the most important exodus of all, for He delivers lost sinners from the power of darkness and takes them into His glorious kingdom (Col. 1:13). In the days of Moses in Egypt, it was the blood of the lamb that protected the Jews from death and enabled them to go free, and it is the blood of God’s Lamb today that sets us free (John 1:29; Eph. 1:7). Jesus became a prisoner that we might be set free, and one day He will take His bride, the church, far above the mountaintops and into the glory of heaven! Elijah did not close his ministry by dying but was carried alive into heaven, just as God’s people who are alive at Christ’s return will be caught up to glory after the dead are raised (2 Kings 2:9–12; 1 Thess. 4:13–18). What a marvelous day that will be, and it will mean glory forever!

It must have been encouraging to the three disciples to see Moses and Elijah sharing the glory as they spoke with Jesus, for neither the two prophets nor the three disciples had perfect records of service. Jesus didn’t bring up any of their mistakes or failures, for God says of His people, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 8:12; 10:17). Moses and Elijah had ministries to perform even after they had gone to heaven, and so shall all of God’s children when we see the Lord (Rev. 22:3).

I don’t expect Moses or Elijah to visit me, but I can visit them! As I read and meditate on the Scriptures, I can be helped and challenged by the servants of God who are now in heaven. Have we ever been disobedient to the Lord? So were they, but God forgave them, restored them, and continued to use them for His glory. Both Moses and Elijah each became so discouraged in their work that they wanted to die! (See Num. 11:1–15 and 1 Kings 19:1–18.) The Lord didn’t reject them; He simply quieted their hearts and assured them their work was not in vain. Many times the Lord has spoken to me as I have read about Abraham, David, Ruth, Jeremiah, and Jesus and the apostles. I don’t live in the past, but the past lives in me as the Holy Spirit reminds me of what I have been taught! (see John 14:26).

Jesus and the Three Disciples

This is the second time Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him on a special ministry. The fir...