INI February 14, 2010

Sermon preached by Pastor Stephen Kurtzahn at Cross of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church (WELS), 9931 Foley Blvd. NW, Coon Rapids, MN 55433. Please share this with someone else when you have finished. Thank you!

Bible Text- 2 Corinthians 3:12-18

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

“We were eyewitnesses of his majesty…We ourselves heard [the] voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain” (2 Peter 1:16-18). In his second epistle, the apostle Peter shared his experience on the Mount of Transfiguration in order to prove to his readers that he and the other apostles were not making things up when they shared the gospel of Jesus. “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:16).

With their very own eyes, Peter, James and John witnessed the divine glory of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. With their very own ears, they heard the voice of the heavenly Father. But we don’t have to feel we missed out on this wonderful vision, where Jesus stood in his heavenly glory and spoke with Moses and Elijah about his visible departure from this earth. We don’t need to feel shortchanged, because we have something that is even more sure and certain than what we can experience with our senses. We have the Word of God. Peter put it this way (2 Peter 1:19 ESV): “We have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.”

So as we commemorate Jesus’ transfiguration today, we also witness THE GLORY OF THE LORD

1. THE GLORY OF THE LORD is proclaimed without a veil.

After God led the Israelites out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses, he took them to Mount Sinai. On top of this mountain, the Lord gave Moses his Ten Commandments, engraved on two tablets of stone. While Moses was up there communicating with God, the Israelites constructed an idol, a golden calf. When Moses came down and witnessed what was happening, he became very angry. He threw the tablets on the ground so they shattered. After the Israelites were reprimanded for their sin, Moses returned to the top of the mountain. When he came back with two new tablets of stone, we’re told in Exodus chapter 34 (29, 30), our first lesson today: “Moses…was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.”

Whenever Moses talked with God, his face would shine. He would talk to God and then he would talk to the people. After he told the Israelites what the Lord had to say, he would put a veil over his face while the shine would gradually disappear. This is what Paul relates to us in our sermon text from 2 Corinthians: Moses…put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away.

So why would Moses do this? Why would he speak the Word of the Lord to the people with his face glowing, and then cover it up afterward? The Israelites needed to recognize their leader as the spokesman for the all-glorious God. You would think that when the Israelites saw Moses' face glowing as he spoke God's Word to them that they would pay special attention. You would think they would pay really close attention with believing hearts! Unfortunately they didn’t, and we’ll hear more about that in a moment.

Just prior to our text, Paul wrote that the New Testament ministry of the gospel was far greater than the Old Testament ministry of Moses and the law. The law—the Ten Commandments—condemns us in our sins, because it’s impossible for us to keep them perfectly as God demands. But the gospel—the good news of Jesus—gives us forgiveness and eternal life that Christ earned for all on the cross. The gospel covers over our sin and guilt with the robes of Christ’s righteousness. “If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!” (2 Cor. 3:9).

So Paul and his coworkers had hope. This was not just mere wishful thinking about the future and their relationship with God. They had a sure confidence based on the promises of God in the gospel, and they knew God doesn’t lie. Because they had such hope, Paul and his helpers didn’t hold anything back when they shared God’s Word.

We also need to remember that the Word of God we have is the Lord’s ultimate revelation of himself to lost humanity. There’s nothing beyond the Holy Scriptures that would tell us anything new or different about God. We have the same Word Paul proclaimed. We don’t need to hold anything back, either. There’s no reason to couch our words or tone down or hide what God has to say, because we’re talking about life and death—eternal life in heaven with Christ or eternal death in hell.

2. THE GLORY OF THE LORD is seen with believing hearts.

When it came to the ancient Israelites at the time of Moses, Paul tells us their minds were made dull. A more accurate translation would be: "their minds were made hard" or "calloused." The apostle states a sad historical fact with these words. In no way was their unbelief due to how God's Word was brought to the Israelites by Moses. Their hardened minds were the result of their own sinful stubborn unbelief.

So through the years, until the time of the apostle Paul himself, the hearts of most of the Jewish people remained hard. It was as if a veil had been laid over them. For to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.  With their hearts hardened, these people never comprehended the true meaning of the Old Testament. It was as if the same veil, which Moses put over his face, was now over the hearts of the Israelites. This veil prevented them from seeing Christ. However, if they had believed Jesus was their Savior— the Son of the living God who had come to save the world from its sin and guilt—the veil would not only be lifted up, but it would be totally taken away, so that everything would be plain.

Our society doesn’t use veils today like it used to. I remember as a child my mom always wore a hat to church on Sunday morning with a little veil attached to it. It used to be that brides would wear veils with their wedding dresses, but even that has gone out of style for the most part. We have all seen Muslim women in the community with the veils that cover their faces. Maybe you’ve seen pictures of women from Afghanistan. Taliban women wear a veil so thick you can’t see any of their face at all. In fact, their whole body is covered head to toe with what’s called a “burka”. I’ve even seen women wearing burkas here in the Twin Cities.

People really don’t wear veils much anymore in our country—unless they are Muslim. Yet for many today it seems as if a veil is over their eyes when it comes to the Bible. Some people read the Bible and they think it’s simply a book of rules and regulations that have to be fulfilled in order to be saved. Others read God's Word with the impression it’s simply a guidebook for moral living. Others consider it as just a history book. Still others read the Bible with the opinion it’s filled with nothing but fables and fairy tales.

But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Paul’s talking here about conversion. When a person is turned to Christ by the Holy Spirit working through the gospel, the Spirit creates trust which clings to Jesus as our only Savior. It is then and only then that the veil is taken away. Only a believer can see our Lord Jesus Christ throughout the Bible. It’s just as Jesus said: “These are the Scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39).

3. THE GLORY OF THE LORD is reflected in Christ-like lives.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

The Lord in this verse refers to Jesus. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit. Paul is not saying the second and third persons of the Trinity are the same. He’s telling us they are both God and they are both involved in saving sinful human beings like us from eternal destruction. The Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit are two separate and distinct persons, but they are both God. This is one of the mysteries of the Trinity we will not fully understand until we reach heaven. The Lord works through his Spirit, and the Spirit points our attention to Christ. And wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, wherever he dwells in human hearts through the Word of God, there is freedom.

As Americans, we should be very familiar with words such as freedom and “liberty”. In 1775, Patrick Henry of Virginia declared at a political convention, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death." We also hear it said often that our service men and women in the armed forces fight for our freedom.

But the liberty and freedom Christ has earned for us all is far greater than anything this world could ever offer. When we are free in Christ, we have been rescued from the prison of hell, and we no longer have to worry about suffering its eternal punishments. We are free from the heavy weight of our guilt that would crush us to the ground, because Christ has carried it all away to the cross as the Lamb of God. We are free from the filthy stains of sin, since Jesus has washed us in his blood. We are free to serve our God the way he wants. We are free from the veil of hardness. We are free to proclaim the gospel with boldness.

On Friday when the sky was clear and the sun was shining, everything was bright. As I was driving down the street, the sun reflected off the windshield of another car and blinded me for a moment. That’s the kind of brightness Moses had after he spoke with God and addressed the people. After he covered his face, this glory and brightness would eventually fade away. That’s also the kind of brightness the disciples experienced on the Mount of Transfiguration.

We also behold the glory of the Lord in the good news of our Savior that reveals to us the person of Jesus Christ. The apostle John, who was also on the mountain, wrote: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," (John 1:14 NKJV). The glory of the gospel does not fade away, but it strengthens and increases the new man of faith in our hearts until we reach heaven. This spiritual growth within us is all worked by the Holy Spirit. We reflect Christ’s glory—just like the sunlight bounced off that car window—as we endeavor to live our lives in agreement with his will, as it’s expressed to us in the Bible. As we grow in our Christian lives of sanctification, God’s glory also grows and increases, until that day we give him undivided, eternal glory in heaven.

“We were eyewitnesses of his majesty,” Peter wrote as he reminisced about Christ’s transfiguration. “We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.” But you and I don’t need to stand on a mountain to see Christ’s glory or to hear God’s voice. We witness THE GLORY OF THE LORD proclaimed without a veil, as it’s seen with believing hearts and reflected in Christ-like lives.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.