The Transfiguration of Jesus

My name is Tony. For those of you who don’t know me. If you’re new, I’m thrilled that you chose to share your Sunday morning with us. And today I get a chance to speak from a text that is rich, that is beautiful. That is one of my favorite passages in all of the Bible.

It’s found in Mark chapter nine. You can go ahead and begin to turn there. And as we begin, I’d like to just upfront, tell you exactly what we’re going to see. What I’m saying now is what the whole point of the lesson will be. Today, hopefully you will see, and I’m going to catch you in the middle of a sentence.

This is going to be a run on sentence, but you get the point. You’re going to see Jesus encouragement for those struggling with God’s will. You’re going to see today men who are suffering, questioning God’s plan, suffering through the plans of God and wondering if God got it right. And then what you’re going to see is that Jesus speaks into their lives, comes into their lives, encourages them. And the way he encourages them is different than the way we might want Him to encourage us.

He doesn’t encourage them by changing God’s sovereign will. Instead, he gives them courage. He gives them courage by turning their faith into sight, something he does not do in many other places in the Bible. And after we study this text, I’m going to leave you with a full a few things to consider about God’s plan and Jesus, what he does as our friend. It’s going to take quite a long time for us to get to the relevant application, so you’re going to have to stick with me for about 25 minutes of Bible study.

I think we can do that today. And before we get to the Bible study, let me just explain who this lesson is for. This lesson is for everyone, certainly, but it’s specifically targeted for people who just can’t seem to trust that God’s plans are good. It’s for anyone here today trying to understand how God can be good when life is not, or wondering why God would let you go through that. I think Chris London said it great when he was sharing his testimony, he felt like, man, why would God do this to me?

If you felt that, if you’ve ever felt that if you’re talking to somebody who’s dealing with that, who’s dealing with that, who feel like you don’t necessarily deserve the plans of God, it’s my intention that the text we study out today will be an encouragement to you by showing you through Jesus’s amazing actions, his willingness to keep those who are close to him encouraged. And if you’re new to our congregation, it’s important that you know that the people in our church are like a family. For a church of our size, this type of thing is quite rare. We have intimacy across our relationships across our membership. We have genuine friendships.

Like we love each other, we know each other’s names, we know each other’s birthdays and each other’s children. I actually think that most of us genuinely like each other. I mean, maybe that’s not true, but I think we do. In fact, the way I know that is because after service, not very many people are going to run to the door. People are going to hang out and talk and pray.

And I say all that to say that it’s difficult, or I guess the downside of being close to 600 people, and I wouldn’t call it a downside, but the downside is that that’s the only phrase I can think of is that when you love people, you hurt when they hurt. When you love people, you hurt when they hurt. And so it’s hard to be close to a lot of people because a lot of people, at any given moment, someone here is hurting. And so if you love people, you hurt when they hurt.

And if you’re close to someone, your heart breaks. And it’s a small price to pay for real intimacy. And I mention this because we model that type of closeness after Jesus’s relationships with his disciples. And today what we’re going to see is Jesus hurting for his friends and then doing something amazing to show them that he is still with them.

I love this text. Let’s study it out. Mark, chapter nine is where we’re going to be again. You’re turning their new year. New Ministry of Jesus logo. Look at that thing. That thing is dop. Twan, great job on this and all the other graphic design things you do. And let me just set the scene as you approach Mark chapter nine. At the end of Mark chapter eight, something really interesting is happening. Jesus is engaging with his disciples and they asked, he asked, he asked them the question, who do the people say I am? And they say some say Elijah, some say this, some say John the Baptist, some say a prophet.

And then Jesus turns to the disciples and say, well, what about you? Who do you say I am? And Peter speaks on behalf of the rest of the disciples and he says, you are the Messiah, the Christ, the son of the living God. That confession is so important that it’s recorded in, in the three synoptic Gospels and Matthew and Mark and in Luke, and it serves as an apex of Mark’s gospel. It’s also the midpoint of Mark’s gospel.

The way you can think about it is everything up, everything leads to that point and then everything comes down off of that point. To acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Messiah is the Son of God is to make a right judgment. It’s to make the judgment that Jesus is the hope of the world and the only hope for the world. And what type of hope did Paul or rather, did Peter understand him to be? Peter hadn’t necessarily fully developed that idea in his mind yet.

He thought that the kingdom was coming and that Jesus would be the king that would reign on this brand new kingdom, that would create goodness throughout the world and certainly would destroy the Roman Empire, who was creating badness throughout the world. He doesn’t quite grasp the whole idea of God’s kingdom and what it’s there to do. But Peter makes a judgment that there is an anticipation of a kingdom coming and that Jesus is going to be its king. What a good judgment he makes. And no sooner did he make that statement than Jesus changes the conversation completely.

In a Mark eight, verse 31, it says, Jesus, on the heels of that confession, Jesus began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, be rejected by the religious leaders, be killed, and after three days rise again. Yes, Peter, I am the Messiah. Yes, Peter, the kingdom is coming. Yes, there will be glory.

Yes, I am the hope for the world, but first there will be suffering. And then he ropes the rest of the disciples in and the crowds, and he goes, the suffering is not just for me, but it’s for everyone. Now, Peter is so offended by this whole idea. How dare you say that you’re going to die? That Peter pulls Jesus aside and rebukes Jesus. No, this will never happen, Jesus. You cannot die. That’s not the plan of God. You cannot die. No, no, no, no. Then Jesus turns to Peter and says, get behind me, Satan.

Your mind is focused on the things of man, not the things of God. Wow. See, Peter loved the idea of Jesus in glory. He loved the idea of Jesus coming kingdom. He loved the idea that that the whole world would be focused on Jesus Christ and the way he could fix the universe with its problems.

But he had no interest in the suffering of the cross. He was committed to the exultation, but not the humiliation of the crucifixion. It’s difficult for him to handle. And if it’s difficult for him to handle the words of Jesus, it will be very difficult for him to handle the actual crucifixion. It will be even more difficult for him to realize that the man that he worships, the man that he believes to be the hope for the world, will have to suffer.

Suffering was coming. Suffering was going to come. And Jesus knew they needed to survive it because they were going to be the people that moved forward the kingdom. You have to survive the suffering. So in order for the kingdom to come, in order for God’s will to be done, in order for God’s will to be brought into fruition, these guys needed to make it through the suffering.

They needed to learn to endure the hardship so that they could be on the other side of it and be the great apostles for the Gospel that they became. And so, consequently, Jesus does something for them that is exceedingly rare in the New Testament. He moves their faith from just an intellectual heartfelt faith. He moves that faith into sight, and he allows them to see the glory of God. Here we go.

This is Mark, chapter nine, verse two. After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up to the high mountain. We’re going to read the whole thing, and then we’ll come back to study that a little bit more. Where they were alone. Then 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, one for Elijah. He did not know what to say, they were so terrified.

Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from heaven. Sorry. Voice came from the cloud. This is my son, whom I’ve loved. Listen to him.

Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of man raised from the dead. They kept this matter to themselves, discussing what raising from the dead meant. This is an amazing and amazing account. If you’re wondering why this is in the Bible, well, the answer is found in the context.

Jesus is trying to anchor these men in confidence of his glory before the suffering comes. Certainly it’s true that the glory was going to come after the suffering, but Jesus wanted these men to know that the glory was in fact going to come. He was trying to assure them of the glory to come. He’s showing them beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is in total and complete control. And the thing that they believed to be outside of the plans of God was actually exactly what God had intended.

Now, these are Jewish men. Peter, James and John are Jews. And so when God appears in the Old Testament, they’re connecting God’s appearance in the Old Testament to Jesus appearance here. And they would have been thinking to themselves, wow, every time God appeared in the Old Testament, he came as some sort of visible light, a cloud, an iridescent fire, the Shakai glory. That whole passage. The appearance of God was this light phenomenon. Right? We see it at the point of the initiation of the priestly service in Leviticus chapter nine, God appears in light. It happens in Exodus chapter 16, in Exodus 24 and Exodus 40 in Numbers 14.

It happens over and over and over and over again. When God appears, he appears in this light phenomenon. Every one of those opportunities was God, or every one of those appearances was God reducing his eternal glory to form a natural visible light so that people would see that he was present. In each of those appearances, the idea was that your faith would move from just God is in heaven to God is here. He changed their faith from just faith to sight. It was a reminder that God is not silent, that he is invisible, but he is also very, very present.

And though they could not see Him, that he is in complete control. And so when Jesus goes to light, when Jesus becomes this dazzling image, these men would have looked at him and gone, oh, this is God. He is in control. Sometimes I don’t know about you, but sometimes you just need to know that someone’s in control. You know what I’m saying?

Have you ever been that place where you’re just like, I don’t know who’s in charge here, but if anyone was in charge here, that would make me feel better. Cassandra and I a couple of years ago, I shared this story before, but we flew to Europe. We’re in a plane, and it was an overnight flight. It’s one of those you get in the plane at 10:00 and you arrive at 05:00 in the morning or whatever. It was one of those overnight flights. And I couldn’t sleep on the plane because I started thinking about the phenomena of being on a plane overnight when everyone is sleeping. Because I’m like, I’m looking around and I’m noticing that every person on the plane is just knocked out. And I started thinking, I wonder if the pilot is sleeping.

You know what I’m saying? Because when I thought about it, I’m like, we’re flying over water and that’s not good, that the pilot is sleeping. And then I’m terrible. And then I’m thinking of my brain. Well, these planes, they can basically fly themselves nowadays.

And then I think to myself, I don’t want to fly forever. What if we miss our stop? We have a connecting flight. That would be terrible if we missed all of that. And so, you know those little buttons, the flight attendant buttons?

So I’m like ding. And everyone’s sleeping because I was sleeping. Everyone with us is sleeping. And the flight attendant comes over and I’m like, Where are we? And she’s like, over the water. Like, you can look at your little map thing. And I’m like, can you ask the pilot? I don’t know what I was thinking. I was trying to get her to confirm that the pilot was awake. That was my whole my whole plan. And after about talking to this lady for about 30 seconds, I realized this is very stupid. I said never mind. I’m so sorry. Who am I? I’m in seat 17 B. I don’t know anything. I couldn’t fly the plane if he was sleeping. What was I supposed to do. Anyway, the point is to me that and it’s something I’ve learned in my life, and I think you know this too, that it’s hard to trust when you haven’t heard from somebody in a long time. Right?

And here’s the parallel. It’s easy to distrust God when you feel like he’s absent, when you feel like he’s outside of the control. And I think this is what the disciples must have felt. There is a plan, sure, but the plan seems like messed up. If I could just hear from God Almighty what the plan is, then I can find some assurance.

You’ve been in that spot. God, if you could just tell me why I’m going through this, then I’ll feel better. Lord, if you could just explain it to me. Just send me a news article, have it highlighted before it comes in. Do something miraculous.

Just show me. I want to make sure it’s in the plan. And so Jesus revealing Himself so magnificently and so precisely in this passage is intended to give these men confidence that the plan of Jesus, his death, his resurrection, is actually the plan of God Himself. Yes. The disciples got to the point where they believed that Jesus was the Son of God, but they just were not willing to include that the plan of God included suffering, heartache, sorrow and misery and the death of their best friend. So Jesus gives them this vision to encourage them forever. Look, this vision will change these men forever. It will change them forever. It totally changed these men.

Peter will later write, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. That’s second Peter chapter, chapter one, verse 16, he says, when they brought us onto the holy mountain. In John chapter one, verse 14, John will say, we have seen his glory. We saw it. We saw it. We have confidence because we saw it.

So let’s backtrack, let’s study it out. Let’s look at the passage a little bit more and then I’ll leave you with one relevant thing at the end. You’re still with me, everybody? Yes. Yes. Yes. Bible study time. Bible study time. Here we go.

After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John. Why Peter, James and John? These three men are like his best friends. They are the closest disciples to him. And the Bible tells us that it’s by the witness of three people, the eyewitness of three people, that something can be established as law. So he needed these three men to come up to say, I saw this, so that everyone would go, yes, that actually did happen.

So he takes these guys on this occasion. It’s a perfect timing. These guys have just made their confession. They’re flat faced, they’re difficult, they’re going through heartaches or whatever. Deuteronomy is where that passage says it.

But also in Matthew chapter 18, verse 16, it says that when you’re dealing with someone’s sin, you should have the two or three witnesses there. So this is about confirming what they saw. He brings these three up there. Luke chapter nine. The parallel passage says that Jesus took them up to pray.

They’re in a place called Cesarea Philippi in this north region of Galilee. They’re on a mountain, probably called Mount Herman is very likely where they were. They’re up there. Ostensibly, they’re there because they’re praying with Jesus. They’re thinking about, this is my opportunity to pray with Jesus, because what I’m going through is really, really challenging.

Right, jesus, you’re the Son of God, but I’m going to die. I don’t want you to die. And they’re in misery. Then maybe the most understated statement in all of the Bible. Sorry, go back. Yeah.

It says there, they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. One verb, no adverb, no descriptive sentence here. Luke chapter nine adds something that had happened while he was praying. So Jesus is praying and then BOP, transfigures before them.

It says that in Luke chapter nine. This is kind of interesting, but it says, you want to guess where the disciples were when Jesus was praying? Sleeping. Sleeping. Sleeping.

Yeah, they’re sleeping. Why can’t they stay awake? Well, Luke chapter 22 tells us that they slept because of their sorrow. I think here you could probably make that same conclusion. They’re sleeping because they’re sorrowful.

They’re going to have to suffer. They don’t want to do that. You know, this sorrow will make you take a nap. You ever been depressed? You’re like, I’m going to sleep.

Because in that moment, you get like, even a briefest escape from your problems, you get a little bit anyway, they’ve been devastated by the cross, and so they’re sleeping. And while they’re sleeping, Jesus transfigures before them. The word is metamorphaho. It’s where we get the word metamorphosis, two Greek words, morphe, meaning body, meta meaning change. His body was changed before them.

And Luke Nine, it says they woke up because it happened. I don’t know if it was a noise, but it was like, whatever. Luke Nine also adds that his face shone like the sun. If the sun was in your living room, you would wake up, right? Like in your bedroom, the sun shines, you wake up.

And so these men are sleeping. The sun comes, and they’re, whoa, what is going on? Jewish men again. They’re Jewish men in the Old Testament. They understood that Jesus is coming like the sun.

Revelation one also says that in John’s vision, that Jesus, when he comes back, his face will be like the sun. So here they’re seeing the glorified Jesus Christ. His clothes became dazzling white. I like the word dazzling here. It’s like the word glittering, glittering white.

It’s like the sun and diamonds together. Whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. Mark is looking for a metaphor to try to explain what it looked like. And the only thing you can think of is they just like think of a bleach. It’s like whiter than that. As white as you could possibly have something.

This is Jesus’s divine nature showing through his physical form. Verse four. And there appeared before them Elijah, Moses, who were talking with Jesus. What were they saying? What were they saying when they were there?

We actually know exactly what they were saying. You asked me why I know what they were saying. Because it’s in the Bible. Luke, chapter nine, verse 31 says exactly what they were saying. They spoke about his departure.

Why about his departure? Because this whole thing is trying to give the disciples confidence that the cross was part of God’s plan which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. The subject. What’s the subject? The cross. His death. They’re talking about his death. That’s the subject matter. I suppose the disciples might have thought they were talking about the the kingdom. I suppose they would have been talking he thought they might have been talking about the future coming of Jesus and how incredible that was going to be. Or maybe 2000 years later, there would be people on Sunday mornings worshiping Jesus all around the world. Maybe they were thinking that Elijah would be talking about the idea of the overthrow of the Roman Empire and the establishment of the messianic throne. But they’re not talking about any of that. They’re standing there, Elijah, Moses, Jesus, talking about his death. And why?

Because that’s what the transfiguration event is intended to communicate. It’s what the point of the whole thing is. What’s i? He has to die. But that isn’t an interruption to God’s good plan. He has to die.

But that’s just part of the plan. It is an interruption. In Acts, chapter two. We later realize how firmly rooted in this idea the apostles were. Peter will say it’s by Jesus’s foreknowledge that he was handed over to be crucified.

They know later on that this was part of God’s good plan, but at this point they don’t believe it’s God’s good plan. So here you have Moses and Elijah talking about the death of Messiah. One writer, one commentator I read says this shows that Jesus is not a walk on in the divine economy. He’s been there since the very beginning. And here Peter and the other apostles are flies on the walls of a cosmically divine conversation.

What must they have been thinking? I mean, how cool would that have been? Wait, I think Moses and Elijah are dead. How are they here? How are they here? How are they here talking? And I don’t know how they’re talking. God wanted them to be there talking, and there they are. They’re before him. And how do they even know it’s Elijah and Moses? Is Jesus like this is Elijah? This is Moses? I don’t know. We don’t really know. But they know it’s Elijah and it’s Moses. And I want to just make a little note here, because I think it’s critically important.

Who is the transfiguration for? Is it for Elijah? Is it for Moses? Is it for Jesus? Is it for God?

No, it’s for those men who are dealing with discouragement. Think about the lengths Jesus took to encourage his friends. Wild, man. This whole event is for their benefit. And if you’re going to have somebody give testimony to the fact that the Messiah needs to die, you probably couldn’t have picked better people than Moses unless it was Elijah.

There’s no better Law giver than Moses, no greater profit than Elijah. Moses gave the law. Elijah made sure the Law was protected. These are trustworthy eyewitnesses. No one could have been better to bring the apostles to than these men.

And that’s the plan. And Elijah and Moses are communicating. The plan has always been the death of the radiant sun for the sins of the whole world. Well, Peter, of course, has to talk. So in verse five, Peter says to Jesus, and he would learn, but but man, he is sometimes you just got to learn to just like, shut your mouth.

This is Jesus, Moses, and Elijah speaking. Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. And they’re white like the sun. And Peter raises his hand. He’s like, hey, Rabbi. Rabbi. In Luke nine, he calls him Lord, and Matthew calls him Master. He probably says all three lord, Rabbi, Master, I don’t know what I need to call you right now, but Lord, Rabbi, Master, it is good for us to be here. He’s saying, the disciples, it’s good, it’s good. This is a good thing. This is the big six, you know. Jesus, Elijah, Moses, Peter, James, John. We’re we’re we’re at the same we’re at the same level here. Let us set up three shelters. Then he takes a step back.

It’s like, I don’t need a shelter. You need a shelter. You live in the shelter. We’ll live outside the shelter, but let’s stay up on this mountain. I love that he says this.

He didn’t know what to say, they were so terrified. Here’s a suggestion. If you don’t know what to say, don’t say anything. Kind of a basic principle, but this is holy fear mixed with exhilarating wonder at the most incomprehensible experience of his entire life. But here is Peter, Moses, and Elijah, and they’re talking about the cross.

And Peter interrupts the conversation and goes, hey, I have an idea. Let’s just establish your little kingdom up on this mountain. He still doesn’t really get it. He doesn’t get it. He knows Elijah is supposed to come at the end. Malachi, chapter three, tells us that. And so he’s like, Elijah is here. Maybe this is the end. Maybe Jesus encouraged me so much by skipping over all the suffering. He knew I couldn’t handle it, and so he just skipped all the way over it.

That’s what he’s feeling. And also, at the same time, there’s a feast in Jerusalem called the Feast of Tabernacles, and it commemorates the exodus of the of Egypt, exodus out of Egypt when the deliverer Moses is there. And so for Peter, he’s thinking, oh, this is it. Jesus is encouraging me by taking me over the top of the suffering. I’m not going to have to deal with it anymore.

Man, he kind of misses the point. It’s perfect timing for him. But this is not what Jesus intended to do. Jesus is just trying to encourage him so that he could withstand the suffering. So we’ve got Moses and Elijah, we’ve got God, and we’re going to kind of skip towards the end.

But really something interesting here is that Jesus doesn’t respond to Peter. Peter again is out of sorts. He has his theology kind of downpacked. The kingdom needs to come now, but it’s all out of sorts. And so this time the third witnesses, the third witness here is going to be Elijah, it’s going to be Moses, and then it’s going to be God himself speaking.

Then a cloud appeared and covered them and a voice came from heaven sorry, from the cloud. This is my son whom I love. Listen to him. Listen to him. Listen to what listen to what? Listen to what he’s been saying about his death.

Listen to what he’s saying about suffering. I want to say something to us here today. If you engage in any religious conversation that wants you to skip over suffering in this world, you are speaking to a false prophet.

Suffering is promised. Suffering is promised. So if you talk to somebody that says, you know what, don’t worry, just if you engage with Jesus, all your dreams are going to come true and you’re going to blue skies and rainbows and sun beams from heaven and puppy dogs and it’s going to be so wonderful. And that’s what Christianity is about. They are sorely mistaken.

There is glory, but it comes after suffering. Comes after suffering. The transfiguration obviously, is a glimpse of glory, but its main point was to demonstrate that earthly suffering has to be in place for God’s plan to be achieved. And here’s my main point for you. Here’s your kind of relevant takeaway.

I say this so often, but you have to build into your theology about God the idea that God purposes suffering for his goodwill, that God works through suffering, that he is a good God who can make your terrible moments into something great. But he sometimes puts you in a boat and sends you out into the storm. And he does that because it refines your character for a bunch of different reasons. We’re not going to be the narrative writers for God’s arc, but we are going to say that suffering is a part of God’s good plan. You have to have that in your theology.

You have to build in your heart a conviction that suffering isn’t against God’s will, but in some circumstances it’s a part of God’s desig. That for the moment, we will suffer so that forever we can have the glory of Jesus Christ. Here’s an encouragement for you, though, because you’re like, wow, thanks for I’m so glad I came to church to learn that I should suffer. I already know I’m going to suffer. So encouraged by that. But here’s an encouragement for you. Here it is. Jesus went to extraordinary lengths to encourage his friends.

These are his boys, and he does something amazing just for them, to encourage them. He shows them his glory. I want to encourage you that when you are suffering or when the suffering is too much, when all you want to do is sleep, when the sorrow is so thick you can’t seem to see through the cloud, instead of hoping that God will change your circumstances, maybe you can pray instead that he will show you his glory. That he would show you his presence. He’ll be with you, that he’ll be close to you, that you would wait with expectation, with a sense of expectation, that he wants to encourage you and help you through it.

When it’s hard, like when it’s harder than it’s ever been, pray the prayer, Lord. You helped your friends. I need some encouragement. I need you to be near me. Allow me to feel Your presence.

Allow me to see Your glory so that I can find enough courage to be the man or the woman that you intended for me to be. That’s what he did for his friends. Not guaranteeing it, but maybe he’ll do it for you. The Bible tells me that God is close, is near the broken hearted. That’s a promise.

So when you’re going through heartache, when you’re going through suffering, I hope you can learn to pray instead of God. Change this so I don’t have to feel this anymore. God, be near me so I can have the strength to overcome it.

Let’s close this thing out. When the disciples heard the voice, matthew, chapter 17, verse six, says, they fell at their face and they were terrified. They heard the voice of God speaking on a cloud after seeing the son like the sun. They fall on the floor and they are terrified. And I just love it. The Bible says that Jesus touches them on the shoulder, a tender touch. Get up, he says.

Don’t be afraid. And Mark Nine says, suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone except for Jesus. The only one left is Jesus, and he’s not glorious. He’s not in his glorious form anymore. Instead, from that point on in the rest of the book of Mark and the rest of the ministry of Jesus, he is on the road to the cross.

He’s on the road to the cross. He will be crucified handed over, he will be marred, he will be slain. He will be flogged. They will put on his head a crown of thorns that they will then beat into his scalp. He’s on the way to the cross and they will follow Him there.

That’s the plan. That’s always been the plan. It’s always been the plan. And these men will become messengers of that plan. These men will preach Christ and Him crucified to the ends of the earth.

And they will also teach, like it says in Philippians, that one day they too will appear with a glorious body, that someday they’ll experience the glory of Jesus. But in the meantime, they will suffer for the sake of the cross. They will suffer for the sake of the gospel. They will suffer and then they will be glorified. They had a hard time with the cross, as you can see.

They eventually got the message and it wasn’t easy for them. And I would say the same thing is for us. We’ll have a hard time with the message of suffering. Can you kill this thing? We’ll have a hard time with the message of suffering.

They’ll have a hard time with Him. So will we. But you have to understand that at some point at some point God will turn our suffering into great joy. We beheld his glory, they say. We were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.

And let me just end here as we transition to communion. Aren’t you happy? Aren’t you grateful? Aren’t you thankful that the Lord did not skip over the cross? He went through suffering so that we could have righteousness.

For it was by him. It was Him who had no sin that was made sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God. Let’s pray together for communion. Lord, there are so many of us here today who are, I would imagine, going through stuff that’s just so challenging. Lord, I know there are men and women here who are going through marriage difficulties.

Their situation with their spouse or their boyfriend or girlfriend is just a wreck. They’re living in confusion. I know there are brothers and sisters here who are suffering with their children and they’re not sure what to do. Lord, they see their children wandering in a direction that they don’t want them to go. And they feel like this cannot be a part of a good design, of a good God.

And Lord, I just pray today that you’ll do two things. One Lord that they will be able to speak to you in a way that they find comfort. And that, two, you will give them an appearance of Your presence, something deep down in their hearts, in their minds, in their in their living, that they could just feel that a good God actually loves them and is with them. That you are not some distant God, but you love people and you’re close to people, and especially those who are mourning. You are with them, that you want to encourage them.

God, I pray that they’ll feel that today lord, and I pray for all of us who are maybe going through times where we feel great, God, that right now we’ll be an encouragement for those people. Maybe, Lord, we need to be Your presence in the midst of someone who is suffering. Maybe we need to step alongside and be an encouragement, be the example of Jesus, us, to our friends. God, I pray that we can remember all these things as we take communion. The bit of bread that represents your body broken and the bit of juice that represents your blood poured out.

I pray that we’ll remember the sacrifice you made so that we could have life. We love you, Lord. We thank you. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.