Tag Archives: transfigured

LUKE’S GOSPEL…THE REAL JESUS – 22

January 15, 2026Bible StudyElijah, Moses, transfiguredLuella Campbell

“About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem…While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭9‬:‭28‬-‭31‬, ‭34‬-‭36‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I wonder what impact this unveiling of the real Jesus had on Peter, James, and John. What were the flashbacks that surfaced in their memories in their quiet moments? Flashbacks happen to people who have had sudden, dramatic experiences that stain their memories and intrude uninvited…often really bad things that cause serious emotional distress.

Unlike traumatic experiences that are unforgettably painful, Jesus’ transfiguration must have been both exciting and puzzling. What was the three men’s initial reaction. Fear! They were so scared that they couldn’t look at Him! What! Not overwhelmed with His majesty, beauty, grandeur? Not thrilled with His power and authority? Just plain terrified!

Matthew reports that the voice of the Father frightened them.

“While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭17‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Mark reported that the vision of Jesus terrified them…Peter blurted out the first thing that came into his head…good old Peter!

“Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭9‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It seems that the whole episode was so terrifying that the disciples were completely unnerved. Get this! This was no “near death experience,” where they were in the heavenly realm where there were new experience and understanding of heavenly realities.

This was heaven breaking into earth…

To be continued…

MARK’S GOSPEL…TRANSFIGURATION – 21

September 12, 2025Bible Studyhigh mountain, transfiguredLuella Campbell

Mark 9:2-5,7-8 NIV

“After six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.”

This must have been a shocking experience for the disciples, unexpected, unanticipated, and completely outside of their frame of reference. O yes, their life with Jesus was anything but ordinary. Every day was an adventure, never a dull moment, but this! This is was utterly different.

Since Jesus was the Son of God, sent by the Father from the other realm, it was inevitable that at sometime during His earthly life, eternity would break into time, even if for a few moments. The closeness of Father and Son demanded a manifestation and reassurance of the Father’s presence at some moment in their separation.

The first time the Father broke into the earthly scene, His voice, heard by some nearby, affirmed His blessing on His Son after His baptism, before Jesus stepped into His public ministry. What was the purpose? We can only guess that this affirmation was the foundation on which Jesus built His security. Armed with the Father’s presence and support…always, He stepped out into an alien and hostile world.

On this occasion, on the mountain, the voice of the Father boomed in the ears of the three disciples. Terrified, they crumpled to the ground, hid their faces in the dust, and dared not open their eyes to see the unearthly glory of their earthly Master.

They had never seen Jesus like this. All their impressions and convictions about Him shrivelled to nothing. What’s more, He was in the company of the two greatest of their religious ancestors, representatives of their great heritage, Moses and Elijah, and they were both alive!

What could they say? Motor-mouth Peter, as usual, said it for them! “Let’s freeze this moment in time! A memorial…that’s what we need!” How typical! Of what value would a memorial be to them? What they needed was not some structure to remind them of this event, but the conviction in their hearts, confirmed by this vivid revelation, that Jesus was the Son of God, upon which to secure their faith, because that faith in Him would be tested to the limit in the days and years to come. Without the conviction of His identity and with it His authority, their faith would be hollow.

They were to learn that Moses and Elijah, though real and alive in glory, were not the source of their confidence. They were only cogs in God’s great wheel of history, pointing to the one who would come, as God promised. Jesus was the one who must take centre stage.

These three disciples, representing Jesus’ band of closest associates, had to move on beyond everything they knew about God and the covenant relationship they had with Him. All the rules and rituals they knew were types and shadows, pictures of the real thing that could never produce what God wanted most…sons and daughters who would be like Jesus and would live together in harmony as His divine family.

So, the Father Himself, real and present in this other-worldly scene, interrupted Peter’s foolishness with a powerful affirmation of His Son and a clear directive of His will…

‭‭

“This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

Never again could Peter, James, and John forget who Jesus was, or His place as supreme over every person and detail of the Old Covenant. They must begin again, not rejecting but building on what they knew and believed, to a new and fresh understanding of God’s dealings with them as His covenant nation.

As confusing as it is was to them at that moment, they were in a season of transition. What was a mystery to them then would become crystal clear after the event…the cross, the resurrection, Pentecost…high drama that would reset the history of their own people and of the world.

So it is with us now! In the confusion of unfolding revelation in our own experience, we need patience… to wait until Jesus has finished what He started…and faith to give Him credit for His good intentions. Love undergirds all His ways with us. He is still working on the clay. The past will explain itself as we move on. Life is lived forwards but understood backwards.

Like Peter in later years, with clarified understand, we will testify as he did…

“For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.”

‭‭2 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…and, with Peter, we will build unshakeable faith in Him for who He is.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – JUST GIVE THEM TIME!

July 30, 2020Bible Studyhigh mountain, Peter James and john, transfiguredLuella Campbell

CHAPTER 9

JUST GIVE THEM TIME!

² After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. ³ His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. ⁴ And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
⁵ Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” ⁶ (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
⁷ Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
⁸ Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. Mark 9:2-8

Why only Peter, James and John? What impact did this event have on these three disciples that affected them for the rest of their lives?

Jesus must have taken them up the mountain because He knew what was about to happen. Was this a part of what He referred to six days before – the kingdom of God coming in power, or was He referring to His death on the cross? John was the only one of these three who encountered this same Jesus in His glory, before he, John, died – on the island of Patmos. He referred to this experience in his gospel (1:14).

Peter also testified to the same experience in his second letter (1:16-18). He writes of this event with a deep sense of awe. After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, all these things came together into a complete whole which finally made sense to him and he could write with deep conviction about his confidence in the identity of Jesus as the Son of God. When we watch and listen to Peter’s reactions, we realise that it was quite okay not to understand until the picture was complete. Although Jesus was exasperated with His disciples at times, He was also gentle with them because He knew that they would finally get it when they had the full revelation.

The fact that they stuck with Him through thick and thin, even when they didn’t understand, when they were offended by Him or even hurt by His rebukes, meant that they were aware of something about Him that held them in spite of their soulish reactions. It was moments like these that validated their loyalty and perseverance.

Luke tells us that Jesus was transfigured while He was praying. Why is this significant? Moses’ face glowed with the glory of God when he spent extended time with God in prayer. Jesus lived His entire life in the awareness of God’s presence. This doesn’t just happen. The glow of God’s glory increases with the consciousness of His nearness.

Unearthly Glory

July 21, 2015Bible StudyElijah, Moses, mountain, transfiguredLuella Campbell

UNEARTHLY GLORY

And He said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.’

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There He was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters – one for you, one fore Moses and one for Elijah.’ (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened).

Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: ‘This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!’ Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone except Jesus (Mark 9: 1-8).

What a terrifying moment for a bunch of drop-outs! “But why terrifying/” you ask. This was way outside of their everyday experience. These were fishermen, tax collectors, blue-collar workers, remember, not religious boffins from the local theological college. They faithfully followed Jesus from pillar to post, trailing after Him from one end of the country to the other, but they were still uneducated men. This time He took them up a mountain, a high one at that, according to Mark. What were they going to do up there?

When Jesus was sure that they were quite alone, no hikers near them to witness what His disciples were about to see, something amazing, radical, other-worldly happened. The visible radiance of His divine being broke through His humanity. For a moment, the veil between heaven and earth disappeared. His disciples saw something beyond their normal vision, something that was there all the time but they were not permitted to see, and it nearly scared them to death.

Their shaky faith in Jesus as the Son of God was given a boost they would never forget. And, on top of that, they glimpsed two of the most prominent and influential men of their history, Moses and Elijah, representatives of the Law and the Prophets. Their minds were in a whirl.

Trust motor-mouth Peter to put his foot in it again! He had to say something but he didn’t know what to say, so he blurted out the first thing that came into his mind. “This is great! Let’s stay here forever. Let’s build shrines for the three of you, one for you, Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” But Peter, haven’t you just recently confessed that Jesus is the Messiah? So where do Moses and Elijah fit in?

At that moment something even more shocking happened. Not only a glorified Jesus in front of their eyes but also a voice from heaven. God actually spoke to them in an audible voice. If they were frightened out of their wits before, how did they feel now? It took the voice of God the Father to speak sense into their addled brains. “Don’t you realise that this is Jesus, my Son, the one I love? Moses and Elijah don’t come into the picture at all any more. Their time is over. They had their say, but now it’s Jesus you must listen to.”

Peter must have burned with shame for blurting out such a stupid idea. More than ever before, these three men were faced with the truth that this Jesus, this rabbi whom they followed, watched, listened to and learned from was actually, really the Son of God! Would they ever forget this holy moment? It was forever indelibly written on their memory. Both Peter and John wrote about it – John in his gospel and Peter in his first letter.

It’s no wonder these men could go out, after the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, with such holy boldness that nothing scared them. They didn’t care if the whole world was against them. They knew the truth. Jesus was the Son of God. They would die for Him if they had to. They had seen Him on the mountain. They had seen Him after the resurrection. Nothing would change their conviction that He was the Son of God. That’s what they proclaimed – not some wishy-washy message about “come to Jesus and He’ll make everything alright for you” or “come to Jesus so that you can go to heaven when you die.” But

Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah (Acts 3: 36).

This is the message that changed the first century world. This is the only message that will change the world today – not the rubbish that is being preached from many of the pulpits today – “God wants you to be rich” or “Come and get your miracle”. Peter, Paul and all the others had only one message – Jesus Christ and Him crucified, risen and glorified.

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Ebenezer Family Church

HE IS RISEN!