Sermon Series: Getting to Know Jesus 

Hypocrites Can Have Something to Say 

Mark 9:2-8 

PSBC 6/9/02

In a nutshell: How do you answer the accusation that Christians are all a bunch of hypocrites? It's only through Jesus, and Him alone.

I. Introduction

A. Queen Mary

The Queen Mary was the largest ship to cross the oceans when it was launched in 1936. Through four decades and one World War, that ship served proudly, until she was retired. As you know, she was moved here to the United States, and anchored as a floating hotel in Long Beach. Some of you have stayed on her, there.

What a lot of people don't know, is that during the conversion from a sailing ship to a floating hotel, her three massive smoke-stacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted. But when those huge stacks were placed on the dock, they crumbled into a heap. That's because there was absolutely nothing left of the 3/4-inch steel plate from which the stacks had been formed. All that remained were the more than thirty coats of paint that had been applied over the years. But the steel had rusted away. It was all looks and no substance.

B. Transition

Well, friends that's a good picture of what it is to be a hypocrite-all looks and no substance.

And the accusation of being a bunch of hypocrites is what people outside the church use most often for their excuse for not coming to church. I hear it from many of my motorcycle friends. I'll bet you have heard it from people you've invited to church. That's how Christians are often times portrayed in the media. The church is full of hypocrites.

So, how do you answer that accusation? I once had a man tell me when I was pastoring in Upland, and I was at a City Council meeting, speaking against a strip club coming into our city, "I think that before Christians tell me what I can or cannot do, they should get their own house in order."

We are praying during this 10 day period of our 100 Days of Prayer, Promise and Power, for a 10% increase to take place in our worship service attendance over last year. That's going to mean new people beginning to attend our church, or people who have stopped coming to start coming back. But will they come if we have hypocrites in our church? Could you be the reason we don't reach that goal? Could I be the reason? Will we ever have our houses in order? In our study of the Transfiguration this morning, we're going to find out how to answer this criticism of Christians being hypocrites.

If you have your Bibles, I'm going to ask you to turn in them to Mark 9.

II. The Key Elements in the Transfiguration

The Transfiguration took place a little more than a week after the passage that we looked at last week took place. If you'll remember, Peter and the disciples were walking with Jesus on the road that led to the town of Caesarea Philippi. On the way, Jesus asked the disciples who people were saying He was. After some discussion, Jesus asked them, "Who do you say I am." And Peter blurted out, "You are the Christ-You are the Anointed One." Well, when they reach the town, Jesus left 9 of the disciples there, and took the remaining three with Him, up into the mountains.

There are four key elements involved in the events that happened next. And they all figure into our final answer to people who call us hypocrites.

A. Power

Mark 9:2-3 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.

The first thing I want you to see has to do with the power that was demonstrated in the change that happened. The Greek word that is translated "transfigured" is the word, METAMORPHOO. It literally means "to change".

Suddenly, as Jesus and these three disciples were on top of the mountain, Jesus changed. Now, His personality didn't change. His mind didn't change. His size didn't change. None of those things changed. But what did change was His very existence!

Matthew's account of this same event tells us that "suddenly His face began to shine like the sun." His clothes changed and became so white, that no bleach or laundry detergent on earth could have made them that white. The phrase that Mark uses is "dazzling white." The phrase literally means "white, exceeding anything known to human beings."

Illustration: So, think of the whitest white shirt or blouse you own. Imagine bleaching that shirt or blouse and washing it in Tide. Now, imagine washing it again, but this time, in a powerful degreasing solution of industrial strength chemicals. Then wash it a third time, using All, with bleaching crystals. You've now gotten that shirt or blouse the whitest you can get it. But friends, Jesus' clothes at this point were even whiter than that!

But to top it off, His face radiated a bright light. Matthew writes…

Matthew 17:2b 2b … His face shone like the sun,…

What was going on? What was happening? We can only understand this phenomenon if we understand it to be a miracle. What happened to Jesus was something that was way beyond human capabilities. What happened to Jesus was that He had gone back to His pre-human, pre-earth existence. In other words, Jesus had returned to the glorified state that He was in, before time began and before He was born of a woman. This was the glory that He spoke about in John 17…

John 17:5 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Now, friends, what this first element of the Transfiguration tells us is that Jesus did not have to die. He had no reason to pass through death to reach glory. He could at any time step back across the line from time into eternity without going through death. You and I have to die to get to that destination. Jesus could simply step back into glory at any time He wanted to. And that's what He did, here.

Folks, this is the power of Jesus. This is the sufficiency of the Christ. He was not bound by the conventional things that bind us. He was fully a sinless man, and fully God at the same time! He was able to pass between time and eternity as He wished. If you admire power. If you put your faith in power…let me tell you friends, THIS IS POWER!

B. Visitors

But let me show you a second thing in this account of the Transfiguration. It has to do with two visitors who appeared on this mountain with Jesus and the disciples...

Mark 9:4 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Can you imagine that? Moses and Elijah were standing there talking with Jesus. And isn't it interesting that the disciples had no difficulty at all recognizing instantly who these men were? Jesus didn't say, "Peter, James, John…I'd like to introduce you to my friends, Moses and Elijah." No, they knew instantly who they were.

Friends, that gives you an idea of what heaven will be like. No names tags-no introductions will be necessary. We will know everyone. So, if you're not good with names, don't worry. You'll recognize every person, by name, once you get to heaven.

Now, the question comes up, "Why Moses and Elijah?" Frankly, there has been a lot of discussion about that over the years by Bible scholars and theologians. But based on my understanding of scripture, this is why I believe God chose Moses and Elijah to meet with Jesus.

1. First, it's what these two men represented. Moses represented the Law and Elijah represented the Prophets-the two great divisions of the Old Testament. And Jesus came to fulfill the writings of both those parts of the Hebrew scriptures.

2. But there's a second reason that I also think is true. These two men represented the two ways by which people enter eternity and the glory of God. Moses entered the conventional way. He died. His body is still lying in some unmarked grave where God buried him. But Elijah was one of two men whom the Bible tells us, was caught up to glory without passing through death.

2 Kings 2:11 11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.

Using that line of reasoning, one of the significant teachings of the New Testament is illustrated here. Believers in Jesus, normally enter the glory of heaven by passing through death-just like Moses did. But Paul tells us that the generation of Christians who are living on the day of the Lord's return shall not taste death.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

So, there are the two ways that believers enter the glory of God's presence-both represented by Moses and Elijah.

Luke tells us in his account of the Transfiguration, that they talked about how Jesus would leave this earth by way of the cross and the resurrection. That must have been an incredible conversation. Just imagine it…

…Moses talked about how Jesus was the fulfillment of all those sacrifices which the law demanded-all those lambs and calves, and doves, and bulls, and goats-they were all killed, and sacrificed as a picture of what Jesus would do. …Elijah probably spoke about the longing in the people…the hungering after a leader, a conqueror, and a Savior. He must had talked about the predictions of the prophets about the One who was coming, who would bear our transgressions, enter into our heartaches, and free us from our selfishness and pride. Wow! What a conversation that must have been!

C. Peter's proposal

But there's something else I want you to see. It has to do with Peter's outlandish proposal…

Mark 9:5-6 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.)

Someone once said, "There are two kinds of people in this world-those that have something to say, and those that have to say something." Peter was the latter.

He was frightened and flustered at seeing the change in Jesus and the two visitors who appeared out of nowhere. But instead of just listening to the conversation and taking in this incredible sight, he felt he had to say something. He came up with a very human idea. He said, "Let's make some shelters-let's put up some tents."

What he was really saying was that he wanted to mark the place-he wanted to raise up a monument to the moment. This could become the world headquarters of this new movement called the Kingdom of God. Let's build our buildings here, and from here we'll take over the world.

And the silence that followed must have seemed deafening. No, not a good idea Peter. Next time, just keep your mouth shut and watch. Peter's reaction and the deafening silence point up the weakness of human reasoning in the midst of the glory of God. We can't touch the awesomeness of God with our minds.

D. The Shekinah

And that leads us to the fourth important thing that happened during this Transfiguration.

Mark 9:7 7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!"

The fourth important thing has to do with the Shekinah. That's what this cloud that appeared was called in Hebrew. In the Old Testament, during the time of Moses, God appeared in the form of a cloud and hovered over the Tabernacle. This signified the presence of God with the Israelites.

But out of this manifestation of the Shekinah, God spoke. This is one of only three times when God spoke audibly to people during Jesus' ministry. -the first was when he spoke at Jesus' baptism. - the third time was when God spoke to the crowd just after the Triumphal Entry. That's recorded in John 12, if you're interested. -But here at this second time, God spoke directly to the disciples to correct their human thinking. "Stop thinking about planning and organizing and building monuments-this is MY SON-the Son of God-Listen to Him!" In other words, the Power of Almighty God is behind Jesus. Jesus and Almighty God are One and the same.

So, the Transfiguration tells us some important things about Jesus. -He is all sufficient; -He has the authority of all of Scripture behind Him, because in Him is found Scripture's fulfillment; -Man's wisdom pales in His presence; -and the Ultimate power of the universe-Almighty God-is one and the same with Him.

III. No one except Jesus

A. One answer

And friends, that all leads us to the one answer we can give to people who call us hypocrites. Our answer is found in the last verse of this section…

Mark 9:8 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

There is the answer to people who tell us to get our act together before we talk to them about our faith. There's the answer to people who think Christians are a collective group of hypocrites. There is no answer, except Jesus.

You see, even though all of us should be in a process of being holy and godly, we are all at different points in that spiritual journey. Some of us are farther along than others. But that's by God's design.

You see, the church is a place full of imperfect people. We are a hospital for sinners. We need the help of the more mature in the faith to shepherd and teach the less mature. Paul says that older men should teach the younger ones, and the older women should teach the younger women. The very design of the church is that it should be an ever changing group of maturing Christians bringing along the less mature.

Therefore, we will never be a group of people who have our act together. We will always be in process. There will always be less mature and more mature. The fact is, everyone of us is a sinner, saved by grace, and in need of help to overcome our sinful nature. Not one of us has reached perfection.

B. Weightlifting

When I was competing in weightlifting, my coach always told me that the bench press was the most dangerous lift I could do. He would never let me or any of his students bench press alone. Because there was a very real chance you could get seriously hurt.

Illustration: When I was in the sport, every year we would hear about someone getting killed while bench pressing, because they had no spotter working with them. A spotter's job is to stand over you as you're lifting the weight off your chest, and help you lift it all the way up, if you're too weak to continue. But inevitably, a guy would try to do that lift alone, and when he couldn't lift it, the weight of the bar come down on his neck and choke or crush him to death.

Remembering that helps me remember our sin. There is no human that can lift his or her load of sin, without help. We just are not sufficient. And that's where Jesus comes in. He is our divine spotter. He is strong enough to lift the weight of sin off of each of us.

As the Savior from sin, as the very present help in time of need, as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus is sufficient-I am not and you are not. And if you wait until I am sufficient or you are sufficient, you can wait until the end of time, and it still won't happen.

IV. Conclusion

But the fact remains…even if we are sinners who are incapable of overcoming our sinful condition by ourselves, we still have been entrusted with a message. I was sharing with Pastor Darrin this week, that the single statement that has revolutionized my thinking along these lines in the past 10 years comes from Rick Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Church. It's on the front of your "This Week…"

"Have you ever wondered why God leaves us her on earth with all its pain, sorrow and sin, after we accept Christ? Why doesn't he zap us immediately to heaven and spare us from all this? After all, we can worship, fellowship, pray, sing, hear God's Word, and even have fun in heaven. In fact, there are only two things you can't do in heaven that you can do on earth; sin, and witness to unbelievers. I ask our church members which of these two they think Christ has left us here to do. We each have a mission on earth and part of it includes telling others about Christ." (Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, p. 116.)

So, we have a message, but we're often perceived as hypocrites, so people don't want to listen to our message, which is the whole reason we've been left here on earth. We have a problem. Right? WRONG!

Our best course of action is not to form a holy huddle and just stay safe with each other from the world of non-believers. It's to follow the course of action found in Jesus' teaching of his disciples once he came down from this mount of Transfiguration, and right after He cast a demon out of a young boy.

Right after Jesus showed how powerful He was by casting out the demon, He taught His disciples how to tap into the power of God. Look at verses 28-29

Mark 9:28-29 28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" 29 He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer."

Now, He doesn't mean the kind of prayer that's uttered at the moment of need, because if you take time to read the entire account in this chapter, you'd see that Jesus didn't pray before he cast the demon out.

No, what He means is a lifestyle of prayer-a lifestyle of being in touch with God.

This is where the human Jesus received His power. He was always in touch with the Father. He was always drawing on the Father's power. He always walked in reliance upon God. He referred every event of His existence to the God who dwelled in Him, and He prayed consistently and constantly to the Father in expectation of His working. This is how we change our world-by each one of us maintaining a fresh and vigorous relationship with God-trusting in Him for our every move.

Many of you have gotten a new and fresh taste of this kind of living, through the extended time you've been spending in prayer because of your fasting for 10 days. My encouragement to you is don't lose that. Make that extended time of talking to God and listening to God a regular part of your life.

Friends, the Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of power, authority, truth and goodness. It doesn't need defending. I just needs joining-you join it through getting rid of our self-sufficiency and relying on the power of Jesus Christ through a life of belief and prayer.

The world wants to get us off the real issue-the issue is not how perfect we are. It's not how perfect the leaders of the church are. The real issue is we are all sinners and need saving from the eternal consequences of that sin. The only way that happens is through a relationship with God that is established through belief in the death and resurrection Jesus, the Christ. Only He is sufficient to take care of our individual sin problem.

Plan of salvation.