The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand—The Book of Matthew · Pastor Adam Wood · Matthew 17:1–9 · November 9, 2025

Transcript:
All right, let's get our Bible. We'll go to the book of Matthew chapter 17 this morning. Matthew 17 verse number one is where we will begin. We will also take a peek at Luke chapter nine. So if you'd like to get it a little bit ahead and you can turn to Luke chapter nine because we will flip there just a little bit. I'm going to read the account of the transfiguration. The transfiguration. Matthew 17 verse number one, the Bible says, and after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, that's Elijah, talking with him. Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. And 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 when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. 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. Would you pray with me this morning? Our fathers, we come again to look at your word and to open our hearts to what you have said. Lord, we want to see the Lord Jesus clearly. We want to see him in all of his glory, in his true identity. We want to see him, Lord, as he deserves and should be seen. And Lord, please guide us in our study of your word. Guide me as I try to speak the things that will help and encourage and strengthen your people. And I pray that your people's hearts and minds and ears would be attentive to your word. Lord, we need you. We need you to help us to get a clear and unobstructed view of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only then can we respond in the right way, as Brother and Sister Yarley sang, that we would see the need to bow the knee to you, Lord, to own you as our Lord. And so Lord, guide us in our study of Matthew 17 today in Jesus' name. Amen. So this is the account of the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse one says that the Lord took Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart. And Peter, James, and John are a group of three that are distinct. So that's a quarter of the disciples being 12. That's three of them would be a quarter of the disciples. They were on a number of occasions separated off from the other nine disciples for special purposes. You see them, I won't read every one of these, but in Mark chapter five and verse 37, when Jesus went in to heal the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, he invited only Peter, James, and John into the room and the parents of the child. And that was it. So he wanted to reveal and show something special to these three men in particular. In Mark chapter 13, verse number three, it was Peter, James, and John that specifically asked the Lord Jesus about his second coming. That's the parallel with Matthew chapter 24, but in Mark chapter 13, it was actually Peter, James, and John who were asking the question about when the end of the world would come. In Mark chapter 14, verse 33, it was Peter, James, and John that the Lord took into the Garden of Gethsemane further out than he went with the disciples, the rest of the disciples, in order to pray. So they were nearer to him when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane right before his arrest. And of course you see them here, which is the fourth time. You see Peter, James, and John only are taken up into the mountain to see the Lord Jesus transfigured. So they had information about the Lord Jesus Christ that none of the other disciples had. Here's what's interesting. All of the disciples, maybe with the lone exception of Judas Iscariot, believed that Jesus was the Son of God, believed that Jesus was God manifest in the flesh, and believed that Jesus did and would receive, had and would receive glory. All of them believed it, but only three of them saw it. Only three of them saw it. And so this is one thing you see with these three disciples that you don't see with the others. Now keep in mind that, and we'll see this later in just a little bit, but the book of John was written by one of these men. So John, that's kind of the context of the book of John is John having seen the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ with his eyeballs, wrote the book of John, and he actually mentions it in a few places. We'll see in a minute, but also Peter wrote first and second Peter, obviously, and a lot of people think that Peter was the source of the information for the book of Mark, which is where this is also covered, which I don't have any problem with that as well, because Mark covers most information about Peter than any of the other gospels. But so you have this eyewitness account of this miraculous event. And what's interesting is Luke though, if you'll look at Luke chapter nine, there's a few differences, I say differences. There's more full information given by Luke of the account of the transfiguration than Matthew and Mark give us. And in Luke chapter nine, we're given a little bit more in verse 28, the reason that they went up into the mountain aside from the Lord's transfiguration is given in verse 28 of Luke nine, it says this, and it came to pass that about eight days after these sayings, Jesus took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. Went up into a mountain to pray. So that's the occasion. You know, you see the Lord Jesus praying, spending major periods of prayer, or you see him praying in isolation, often in association with major events. Did you know that? This is one of them. This is during the transfiguration of Christ, he's praying. Of course, you have the Garden of Gethsemane just prior to his arrest, betrayal arrest and crucifixion. But right before the Lord chose his disciples, what is he doing? You find him praying. You also often find him before a major event or right at a major event, the Lord Jesus is goes away from everyone and prays to his father in secret. Mark, just listen to these verses. You can note the references and look at them later if you wish, Mark 1.35. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed. Mark six, verse 46. And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. Luke six, verse 12. And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. Matthew 14, verse 23, which we've already covered says this. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when the evening was come, he was there alone. You see it as a practice of our Lord. You know, it was the Lord Jesus himself. He says, but thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father, which is in secret, which is what he's doing. He's just not in a room. He's going out into the wilderness by himself. You see him doing this repeatedly. And that's only the times that the scriptures record him doing it. There were no doubt many other times because he was known for being one who spent time in prayer. The Lord Jesus was. And he says, pray to thy father, which is in secret. And thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. You see our Lord lived the example of prayer. He didn't just tell us to do it. He lived the example, which is why the disciples came to the Lord Jes...