May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn
to the Gospel of Luke chapter 9 and we'll read verse 34. The
Gospel of Luke chapter 9 and reading
verse 34. While he thus spake, there came
a cloud and overshadowed them. and they feared as they entered
into the cloud. This was a very remarkable occasion. It is wonderful that it has been
recorded in detail for us to meditate upon and to be encouraged
by. Indeed this account is recorded
in Matthew and Mark as well as Luke. And it is interesting and
of course the three disciples that were favoured to observe
this were Peter and James and John. And it is interesting that
John's gospel does not actually refer to this wonderful occasion
but quite clearly Peter James and John did refer it and speak
to the rest of the disciples so there was this record made
and it's wonderful to have such a record we do get a glimpse
from Peter in his epistle and the second epistle he just speaks
about this very briefly and tells us, for we have not followed
cunningly devised fables. We may know now to you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. For he received from God the
Father honour and glory. When there came such a voice
to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son. in whom
I am well pleased and this voice which came from heaven we heard
when we were with him in the holy mount so Peter never forgot
the occasion I'm sure if we have in measure a little glimpse of
such an occasion is something that we would also never forget
And we may perhaps ask, well why was it that there were three
disciples who were favoured to go up the mount with the Lord
Jesus? Well we know in the Old Testament
the truth was that if anything was to be believed and to be
true it had to be before two or three witnesses. So we see
here in this occasion the Lord graciously provided three witnesses
to observe this amazing event. And so we can be very sure that
it was true and it was a glorious occasion. And then we might also ask, well
why? was Moses and Elijah the two
that were brought on this occasion we know of course that Elijah
was taken up to glory in a chariot and the Lord buried Moses but
we also know they represent that Moses represents the law and
Elijah represents the prophets And so we have therefore the
good reasons why those two and why there were the three disciples
who were favoured on this occasion. But then we also see here the
weakness and frailty of poor man. This was a very, very amazing
occasion. And yet we notice that the disciples
were heavy with sleep. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane
again the disciples were heavy with sleep and we would think
perhaps those were two of the most blessed occasions that had
reference to the Saviour Himself and yet on those occasions the
disciples were heavy with sleep. And we see therefore the frailty
of human nature and although it's no real consolation but
it may sometimes be an encouragement to us that when perhaps we have
a real desire for spiritual blessings and spiritual favours that there
are those occasions when we find ourselves sometimes heavy with
sleep we don't seem to be able to do that that we really wanted
to we don't seem to be able to command our states to be in that
right frame and we see then the weakness of our flesh well it
proves to us that We can't glory in our own flesh. And we can't
rely upon our own selves. We are totally dependent upon
the Holy Spirit of God. And so we have this occasion
recorded in these three Gospels. And how wonderful it is to realize
that the Lord took Peter, James and John and went up into a mountain
to pray. My friends, how often we read
of the Saviour praying. What a wonderful example we have
of the Lord Jesus praying to His Father. Went up into a mountain
to pray. And go up to look at the view
He went there to pray to his father. And how needful it is
in our day and age that we are directed to the importance and
the blessedness of prayer. And so the Saviour called his
disciples went up to a mountain and prayed and as he prayed we
are told the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was
white and glistering the other two accounts in Matthew and Mark
do give a slightly different rendering but nonetheless the
picture is generally the same there was this occasion when
the saviour was praying to his father and there was this transfiguration
there was this amazing change his council was altered and his
raiment was white and glistering shortly we get here just a little
glimpse of glory The amazing change which will
take place. The amazing blessing that there
will be. Yes, the wonderful favour here,
white and glistering, was his raiment and his countenance was
altered. We see really, do we not, his
Godhead being shining forth The apostles had a view of God
and man. It's a very real situation. It's
a very blessed consideration. It's a very wonderful proof that
he was not just an ordinary man, although he was. In one sense,
an ordinary man took upon him our flesh. And also he was very
God. there is this view that was given
and there talked with him two men which were Moses and Elias
and again we have this view it wasn't vain conversation what was it? well it was heavenly
conversation And again we have a wonderful example for us today
in our lives. What were they speaking about? They appeared in glory and spoke
of his decease. Which he should accomplish at
Jerusalem. Yes that was to be the end of
his life on this earth. in that human form and it was
fast hastening to a conclusion and it was a most glorious and
a blessed conclusion and surely there was no better thing to
speak about than his decease that he should accomplish at
Jerusalem Again, we have the positive evidence here in the
word of God. There was no doubt about it.
He should accomplish at Jerusalem. They say you had to accomplish
it. Otherwise the plan of salvation would have failed. And then just we think of the
evidence that these three disciples were given. And yes, What unbelief
there was when the occasion arose when the Lord was taken captive
and the disciples all forsook him and fled. Again we see the
weakness of human nature and perhaps the forgetfulness of
our human nature. We sometimes forget the great
and glorious truths contained in the Word of God. The great
and glorious truths concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. and therefore
we look at the outward things which are occurring and we seem
to lose that God-given faith and therefore we perhaps are
no better than disciples. Well here we have this view here
then, our appearing glory in spite of its decease which he
should accomplish at Jerusalem. It was a wonderful time, was
it not? We're not told how long it lasted
for but we know it lasted long enough for them to have this
conversation and how relevant it was that it should be Moses
and that it should be Elijah because in both those people's
lives there had been as it were that prophecy and we know that
the law Moses represented had to be fulfilled and we know it
was fulfilled when the Saviour accomplished that which his father
gave him to do when he gave his life as that wonderful sacrifice
upon that cross at Calvary and also we know There were so many
prophecies in the Old Testament which directed the people of
God to that wonderful occasion when the Messiah would come and
when the Messiah would indeed die for his people's sins to
atone for them. So therefore how important and
relevant it was that there should be this glorious conversation
at this time, as it were in a heavenly situation, the Saviour, Moses
and Elijah. Well, they appeared and they
spoke of this wonderful occasion. I'll come on in a moment to go
further about that. Peter and they that were with
him were heavy with sleep and when they were awake they saw
his glory and the two men that stood with him. It would almost
seem from this account therefore that they didn't actually observe
the change that took place in the Lord Jesus and therefore
the Saviour must have informed them of that which actually occurred. But nonetheless we know it occurred
and they did see his glory. And what glory it was. Now I
believe the glory at this stage was a glory sufficient to confirm
to these disciples the wonder of it and the truth of it. I believe it was not the fullness
of the glory because the fullness of the glory that human nature
would not be able to look upon we know that because of the occasion
and life of Moses and he was not allowed or not able to look
upon the glory of the majesty of almighty God and so we can
see here I believe in some measure His glory was veiled, but there
was sufficient glory for these three disciples to be able to
observe and to realize the wonder and the truth of it. And it gives
us a little truth and a little encouragement to know then that
there is a blessed eternal state that all of his people one day
inherit in that glorious place of heaven and we have here then
a little insight into it as we do of course in some of those
chapters in Revelation but this in a more particular way because
the Saviour here is exalted and the Saviour will be exalted in
glory and it will be the Saviour that we will truly desire to
worship and so we see then these disciples when they were awake
they saw his glory and the two men that stood with him came
to pass as they departed from him Peter said unto Jesus, Master
it is good for us to be here let us make three tabernacles
one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias not knowing
what he said you see he was really outside himself it was a view
a wonderful vision a wonderful revelation that he was not anticipating
and therefore we see him in this condition. Speaking really things
without knowledge. And then we come down to this
verse which we read tonight. While he thus spake there came
a cloud and overshadowed them and they feared as they entered
into the cloud. But we'll leave that for a moment
and just move on and read and there came a voice out of the
cloud. Now then, here you see was the
greatness of God in the cloud. They weren't able to see the
actual voice itself, they heard it. And what a glorious statement
it was. there were those confirmations
so clearly from almighty God with reference to his son and
here was one of them this is my beloved son hear him what
gracious words they were what important words they were how
relative they were to these disciples this Beloved Son, the Father
speaking from glory from that cloud this is my Beloved Son
hear Him and as we read in that epistle of Peter he never forgot
this voice we heard this voice we heard and again I believe
in measure today Because people do sometimes hear the voice of
God speaking to their hearts. And it's not something which
they forget, it may not be an actual voice which they hear
physically with their ears, but it will be a voice which speaks
to their heart. And the instruction here is,
this is my beloved son, hear him, hear him. we are to hear the words that
Jesus has spoken there are many words we are blessed with aren't
we in the word of God that Jesus has spoken and the gracious word
is hear him that's the one we are to listen to hear him know
that you and I might be blessed to hear him when the voice has
passed Jesus was found alone and they kept it close and told
no man in those days any of those things which they had seen just
for a moment I want to just return to the Gospel of Matthew where
this account is recorded in the 17th chapter and in the 17th
chapter we read And when the disciples heard
it they fell on their face and were so afraid to see the effect
this word had. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye him. See it's just slightly
different to these words that we have here but where We read,
this is my beloved son. But here we read, and this is
my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. When the disciples heard it,
they fell on their face and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and
touched them and said, Arise and be not afraid. And they lifted
up their eyes and saw no man. saved Jesus only no man saved
Jesus only Jesus hadn't left them Jesus had been with them
all the time and when the cloud lifted they saw no man but Jesus
only what a blessing it is for us today if there are those times
when by faith we see Jesus only Now I want you to come down to
this, the 9th verse. And as they came down from the
mountain, Jesus charged them saying, tell the vision to no
man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. So we have
here on this occasion the wonder of that discussion between the
Lord and Moses and Elijah in regard to his death which was
so so important confirming scripture, confirming the fulfillment of
it and now the Lord speaks to these disciples and speaks to
them and says television to no man until the Son of Man be risen
again from the dead the great blessing isn't it it's a fullness
here the risen Christ In just a short time, on this mountain,
there's this wonderful revelation with regard to the Saviour. What
a fullness there is, because really, it is, our salvation
depends upon the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And here we have it spoken about,
and witnessed by these three people to prove that it is very
true and so today we have a record of this wonderful evidence in
the word of God now may such truths lay hold of us and encourage
us because sometimes there may be those question marks which
may come into our mind and the devil is very active to try and
convince us well these things are just fables of course they
are not true and we know today we face great opposition to the
word of God that so many rise up and mock the truth of God's
word well here we do have a wonderful fulfilment and a flowing together
and a merging together of the great truths of the gospel which
may be encouraging to us and strengthening to our very souls
to know that these things are indeed true. While he thus spake
there came a cloud and overshadowed them and they feared as they
entered into the cloud. Well the cloud came and overshadowed
them. How needful it was. God came
then in that cloud as he had done previously on occasions
in the Old Testament. You remember Sinai? The Lord
came down in the cloud. Remember Tabernacle? The Temple? The Lord came down in a cloud. Yes and that hid his glory in
the fullness of it. But here we see a little of it. And no doubt they saw a little
of it in the day of Moses. They saw a little of it when
Moses came and his face shone in being in the cloud in the
presence of God. Now we know that these things
were true and so here we have the evidence of this cloud the
overshadow of them and here they were then and what do we read
and they feared as they entered into the cloud well my friends
it's good to know the fear of the Lord it's good to realise
that God is very great and very holy and that we are poor unworthy
sinners of the earth and very bad sinners of the earth and
perhaps on this occasion we see here Peter, James and John having
been heavy with sleep they may have felt that they deserved
God's judgements indeed perhaps we feel that we deserve God's
judgements perhaps in our religious life Perhaps we're not what we
should be. We feel we're not what we should
be. We feel we fail so often in our spiritual life. We fail
so often in those things which we should do. Perhaps we understand
what the Apostle Paul said in the Romans when he said, The
good that I do, the good that I would, I do not. And the evil
that I would not, that I do. The Apostle Paul knew the weakness
of his flesh. Now we wouldn't glory in that.
We wouldn't glory in it at all. But it may be a comfort to us
as we realise that we aren't any better and when we feel to
be such a failure to be able to realise the Lord has graciously
given us such testimonies and examples in the Word of God so
that we don't give up. But here we have then this statement,
and they feared as they entered into the cloud. They'd seen a
remarkable situation. They'd seen the Lord. They'd
seen glory. They'd seen Elijah. And they'd
seen Moses. And now the cloud came down and
ascended on them. They didn't know what was going
to occur. And they feared. They feared. It's good, you know, to have
a fear of God, a right fear of God. God is often treated, in the
day and age in which we live, in a very light way. He's treated really as an ordinary
person. there seems to be a great lack
of a knowledge of how great the Lord is it would be a wonderful
blessing if we and many today had a little view of like Isaiah
did when he saw the Lord high and lifted up yes he didn't have
any misunderstanding of the greatness of God And it would be good if
we have, in measure anyway, an understanding of the greatness
of God. Because I'm sure such an understanding must influence
you and me in our lives, day by day, hour by hour, moment
by moment. and so we read and they feared
as they entered into the cloud well there may be perhaps clouds
which come down upon us in our lives and we fear what the end
will be we may fear what's going to happen the cloud seems to
have descended and of course when the cloud descends Like
it did here, there wasn't any view really. No, when a cloud
comes down, if you've walked in clouds, in dense clouds, you
can't see very much at all. And so there may be those times
in our lives when, as it were, the cloud descends. And usually
when a cloud descends, it's dark. Now here, it may have been different. we're not told there was a cloud
that overshadowed them and they feared as they entered into this
cloud well it's right to have a fear of God have a humble and righteous fear
of God and yet you see we sometimes refer to it as a filial fear,
that means as we think of our God as a father looks upon his
child. Yes, and we may perhaps fear
to offend the ones who do that which is wrong. And here we have this view in
this verse and they feared as they entered into the cloud now
they weren't alone they weren't alone the Lord was with them
there will never be a great blessing for us we may fear but if the
Lord is with us we can believe that the end will be good and
when as it were the cloud lifts then we shall see and when the
voice was passed Jesus was found alone yes he was alone with them
what a blessed occasion it was and he spoke to them he knew
what they were thinking, he knew about them and when the voices passed Jesus
was found alone now what a comfort that is in
our lives to know that Jesus is with us and there will be
the time when the cloud will lift and we shall then see Jesus spiritual life is not all a bed
of roses. Spiritual life passes through
many trying scenes, many times of testing, many times of temptation. We are told, what God does tell
us, the days of darkness shall be many. We don't like to think
about that, do we? We don't like to think that the
Days of brilliant sunshine will be very many. Or we can thank
God when the beams of the Saviour do shine into our heart. And
there are those times then to rejoice in, but there are also
times when we do as it were, walk by night. The clouds descended
and we walked by night. And then perhaps we don't see
all our evidence is clear but this is the consolation Jesus
Christ is still the same and what we read is this the darkness
and the light are both the same to him it doesn't matter for the Saviour
but in these times and perhaps times of testing and times of
proving and of course when this occurred on this occasion they
did fear but there was a wonderful outcome not only when the cloud
lifted was Jesus with them but in that cloud they heard the
voice this is my beloved son hear him And so it may be in our path
that we find that we are in a cloud. It doesn't mean in that cloud
you won't hear the voice of the Lord. It doesn't mean the Lord has forsaken
you in that situation. But what it does mean that the
Lord is leading and directing you. It's the Lord that caused
the cloud to come down here. and it was ordained by God and so in our lives it may be
the Lord has ordained the cloud to come down for a blessing it is a blessing
in it and the Lord comes and the Lord
speaks and he spoke so wonderfully didn't he this is my beloved
son hear him we don't need to hear anyone
else do we we may need sometimes to be encouraged to hear the
words of Jesus and perhaps we are not distracted
by so much when we are in the cloud No, we are able perhaps to concentrate
and our ears are ready to hear the word of God. While these
disciples you see, they'd been asleep, they weren't asleep now. No, they were afraid to enter
into the cloud. The cloud had come, they did
enter into it, they couldn't escape it. But the Lord looked
upon them, and the Lord blessed them. He spoke to them so gloriously,
didn't he? This is my beloved son, hear
him. There was no mistaking, was there?
There was no mistaking where the voice came from. Referring
again to what Peter said in that epistle. There was no mistaking. He said, when there came such
a voice, to him from the excellent glory and this voice which came
from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. You know the Apostle Peter goes
on to encourage us today he says this we have also a more sure
word of prophecy where unto ye do well that ye take heed as
unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day
star arise in your hearts God is light and in him is no darkness
at all and so as we may be blessed and favoured to walk in the light
of his countenance as he shines into our hearts we come out of
this cloud and we've been blessed in the cloud and therefore that which we feared turned out to be a blessing turned
out to be a blessing the Lord knows the end from the
beginning we see the beginning And we fear it, we fear the cloud.
The Lord knows the end. And therefore not only is there
a blessing in the cloud, there's a blessing when we come out of
the cloud. Because they saw no man, save Jesus only. And it's lost sight of everything
else. Jesus only. And that's a place of blessing.
And that's a place of favour. that's a place brought about
by the love of God to our souls not something we ever deserve
but a blessing it is when Jesus comes and reveals himself to
us as our Lord and Master and our Saviour and on this occasion
as we think about it what wonderful revelations these three disciples
had told about the demise, the death that Lord Jesus should
enter into when he came to Jerusalem and also how he would rise from
the dead and how they heard the word of God speaking to them
in the midst of that cloud and then how they were alone with
the Saviour What a blessed time it was, wasn't it? Well, may
we ponder these things. There's much to consider. And we know that all things work
together for good to those who love God and those who are called
according to His purpose. sometimes we may be discouraged,
sometimes we may be tempted about the truth of God's word we'll
remember the wonderful record we have here and to know that
it is truth by the evidence of it and to be encouraged by it
and to believe that today we worship the same blessed Lord
Jesus who is the same yesterday and today and forever