The Mountain of The King - Part 1

Bryan Chapell: God was saying from the beginning of the Scriptures, "I am after a people. People who do not deserve me, people who do not warrant my affection, but I am unrelenting, determined, resolved, irrevocable in my plan to save a people, and I am coming for you."
Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's lesson, Pastor Bryan investigates Matthew 17, as Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain. The miraculous appearance of Moses and Elijah in this passage reveals to those with Jesus and to us how he is the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets. You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, look for Pastor Bryan's book, Unlimited Grace. Dr. Chapell reminds us of the power and mercy of God's grace that motivates and inspires us to serve our Heavenly Father. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the lesson, The Mountain of the King.
Bryan Chapell: The first time that Kathy and I ever visited the Grand Canyon, it was more wonderful than we had ever imagined, in part aided by a severe clear—a January morning of single digits in which the air was so removed of moisture and heat and dirt that you could just see on for what seemed like eternity. In that severe clear, the red of the rimrock was just more intense than we ever imagined in any picture that we had seen of the Grand Canyon to that extent. At one of the vistas in which we overlooked that great gorge that can be as much as 20 miles wide and a mile deep, there was actually a scripture verse put on a plaque that you're able to see as you look out over the vast expanse of the Grand Canyon. These scripture words on the plaque: "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches." And that is not bad. That is not bad at all as you stand looking out over the expanse from the perspective of the rim to think how glorious and awesome and good is the hand of God. A few years later, I had an opportunity, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to see the Grand Canyon from a very different perspective. I was invited with some others to take a raft trip down the 200 miles of the Colorado River that goes through the gorge of the Grand Canyon. In that gorge, there are rapids that I will tell you are wondrous to behold and a little scary to go through. After all, the average river rapid is rated from one to six. Do you know the Grand Canyon rapids are rated from one to ten? And there are six tens in the Grand Canyon. Just so that you've got an idea, the rapids with their waves are so great in a size ten rated rapid that our rafts that were 30 feet long—eight-man rafts—as you are actually clearing the top of a wave with the rut of your raft in a number ten rapid, you have cleared the top of the wave with the rudder of your raft, the nose has not yet hit the bottom of the wave. It is more than 30 feet tall and you are trying to get through it on a raft. Let me tell you something. You may think that you have the rapids mastered when you get to about mile 179 of the Grand Rapids River, but I will tell you, you then have to face Lava Falls Rapids. A rapid created by an ancient lava field of a more ancient volcano, and as you are going through that rapid, not only do you have to go through great waves and great current, but a dogleg about two-thirds of the way through that if you can't power through is going to plaster you against a rock wall. I will tell you, when you are going through that rapid of the Grand Canyon, you may appreciate the God of the rim; what you want is the God of the raft. What God is doing in Matthew 17 is showing you both aspects of his magnificence, his glory, and his care. The rim perspective is verses one through three. After six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother and led them up a high mountain by themselves. He was transfigured before them, and you remember who met with him in the cloud there? Verse three: "And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him." Now, to understand that as the rim view, you need a little history again. Remember where we were last week? Jesus is circling back to Jerusalem from Caesarea Philippi. He is reclaiming the land of his ancient father, David. Now, as the greater David, he is saying all of this land of Israel is mine. And he even goes up to Caesarea Philippi, the town of the greatest wickedness of the ancient world. And Jesus, this Jewish holy man, is willing to go into Caesarea Philippi and say, not only honoring Peter's confession, "Am I the Messiah, the anointed one, the Christ, the son of the living God, but these gates of hell shall not prevail against me." And when Peter himself says those words, Jesus commends him saying, "That confession that I am the God willing to get into the muck and the hell of this world and conquer it at God's command is the confession that Jesus is affirming here, not just in words, but visually." He is going back and he goes up a mountain and, like the ancient days when Moses went up a mountain to receive the Ten Commandments and Elijah went up a mountain to defeat the priests of Baal, now Jesus goes up a mountain to find out what it means to be declared to be the son of God. And who should appear but Moses and Elijah. And their appearance for any Jew is going to be so significant that we must capture it. It is reminding us that this Jesus is the fulfillment of an incredible plan. Moses and Elijah. After his resurrection, Jesus will explain what it all means. Remember, he's on that road to Emmaus after the resurrection. For reasons that we don't quite understand, his disciples don't recognize him, but Luke tells us the conversation. What did Jesus say? Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained what was said in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself. And before that has happened, before the crucifixion itself, Jesus goes up on the mountain and appearing to make clear the journey, the mission, the purpose, there appears with him Moses and Elijah. Moses, the great representation of the law, and Elijah, the great representative of the prophets, to say, "This is what we were all about." Luke will say it in words; Matthew shows it to us in symbol. This is what Jesus is, this is who he is, this is the plan that is being fulfilled from the beginning. We started there in our grace to glory message where Adam and Eve sinned and God said to them, "You're going to need a provision from me. There's going to come one from the seed of the woman who's going to crush the influence of Satan." In that earliest book of Moses, we understand the plan for a redeemer. And then we recognize as we move into the period of the prophets, Elijah comes as the greatest of the prophets, and we learn from him and all that will follow that there is a redeemer who is promised to fulfill the plan that God had said would come from the beginning. And what God is reminding us by image as well as by words is that this is not just random. This Bible is not just a collection of moral tales like Aesop's Fables. It is not a rulebook by which you are going to do something to stay on the right side of God. It's not a magician's magic book where you're going to utter some incantation to get God to perform for you. Rather, from beginning to end, God is saying, "You are not your redeemer, but I will send one, and he is my son, and he will save you from your sin."
Guest (Male): You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. Would you say that you're burdened by some chains of addiction, some patterns of sin, or habits of apathy? Would you like to be set free from that and enjoy joy, peace, and true satisfaction? Well, the good news, it's possible. Pastor Bryan says so in his powerful book titled Unlimited Grace. Based on Pastor Bryan's decades of teaching the good news of Christ and his amazing grace, this book, Unlimited Grace, will take you on a personal journey to discover how grace not only frees you from the guilt and shame of a sinful life, but also provides the daily fuel you need for joy, which is your strength as a Christian. Request your copy of Unlimited Grace when you go online to unlimitedgrace.com. The web address again is unlimitedgrace.com. And now more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.
Bryan Chapell: This Bible is not just a collection of moral tales like Aesop's Fables. It is not a rulebook by which you are going to do something to stay on the right side of God. It's not a magician's magic book where you're going to utter some incantation to get God to perform for you. Rather, from beginning to end, God is saying, "You are not your redeemer, but I will send one, and he is my son, and he will save you from your sin." It was the message from the very earliest pages. As Adam and Eve sinned and were afraid in the garden, God said to them, "We can't have that, so I'm going to send from the woman a seed who is going to crush the influence of Satan." Then there was a covenant made with Noah as God is expressing to Noah, "Though there be a flood of evil and sin in this not only characterizes what has preceded you but your own family, I will overcome it not by your will, but there will be a redeemer." Then there's an old man named Abraham, and God promises blessings to the nations through Abraham but says, "It's not going to be by your cleverness, not by your strength, not by your resolve. I will provide a redeemer." Later, when the children of Abraham are put into slavery in Egypt and they are being held by Pharaoh, God says through Moses to those people, "Your release, not just from Pharaoh but from your selfish wandering in the wilderness, will be through the path established by God because you need a redeemer." And when the judges come along and say to the people, "You don't need the law of God, just do what's right in your own eyes," the havoc that comes upon their families and the people of God is shown for its futility even in the life of Samson as God is saying, "Your strength and your cleverness are not going to rescue you; you need a redeemer." And then when David comes to take the place of those judges as the anointed king of Israel, he loves God in his youth, but despite the promise of God to bring a redeemer from his line, in selfishness and arrogance, he commits immorality and murder and sin and pride. God says even to David, "You need a redeemer." And then all the prophets follow, saying, "He's coming. He's coming. Let me tell you the details. What he will be like, what will be his city, what will be his town, what will be his nature, what will be his death, what will be his ultimate victory." And the prophets one after another begin to unfold the plan. It was an incredible plan as God was saying from the beginning of the Scriptures, "I am after a people. People who do not deserve me, people who do not warrant my affection, but I am unrelenting, determined, resolved, irrevocable in my plan to save a people, and I am coming for you." It was the message from the beginning, and even as the message is being shown to us here in the Transfiguration, it comes not just as an incredible plan, but with an amazing grace. Who appears on the mountain with Jesus? Moses and Elijah. When was the last time we saw Moses? It was just after he had struck the rock in a way that claimed he was God. Moses, in fatigue and anger at the end of his ministry—the very one who had given the law to honor God—dishonors God and claims the status and stature of God for himself, and God says to Moses, "If you're going to claim to be God, you can't take these people into the Promised Land." And he is banished from taking them into the Promised Land. Do you remember our last sight of Moses? It was walking off into the mountains alone and disgraced, and no one knew where he was buried. And Elijah, when was the last time we saw Elijah? Oh, he went up on Mount Carmel and called down fire from heaven to defeat the priests of Baal, a cruel fertility god for the pagans of the Promised Land. And Elijah, in great faith, sees the power of God come down upon Mount Carmel. And then Elijah comes down the mountain, and Queen Jezebel says to him, "You killed my priests! I'll get you, my petty little prophet." And he runs off into the desert in cowardice to hide. And yet despite that, God appears to him, and God does not speak to him in an earthquake, and God does not speak to him in fire, and God does not speak to him in a tornado, but in a still, small voice, intimate and caring, and says, "There's one more king for you to anoint before you go, but when you've done that, it's time to pass the mantle to Elisha. So pass the baton and I'll take you home." In Moses and Elijah, we see people critical to God's plan who nonetheless experienced great weakness in the face of obstacles that were just part of being human and in this world. So, how is this amazing grace? Because 1,500 years later, after God has said to Moses, "You can't go into the Promised Land," he appears on a mountain in the Promised Land. Elijah, 900 years after God has taken him to heaven because of his cowardice, God has him appear again on the mountain. And what are both of these failures doing? They are affirming the greatness and the goodness of the plan of God, as though God is knowing we down here in the valley may need to have him write large on the rim so that we can see it. And he says, "Remember, 1,500 years ago, I said to Moses, 'You haven't done what you're supposed to do.' 900 years ago, I said to Elijah, 'You haven't done what you were supposed to do.' And both of them are still in my plan, and both of them are still here to bless the world." I can deal with people in their wickedness, their weakness, their hopelessness, and bless them nonetheless. There is an amazing grace that's on display here. Now, if we just stopped right there, what would be your takeaways? If you said, "I know this kind of strange and incredible account of the Transfiguration, what would be my takeaways if I just stopped there?" Moses and Elijah appear to point to Jesus and say, "Here's the one long expected." I think you could just very readily say, "Listen, you are not your redeemer, but God clearly provided one, so you don't have to trust you—not your wisdom, not your performance, not your competence, not your courage. Look at those that God saved. Look at those that God was using. You are not your redeemer, but God is sending one, and he's pointing him out." What would be another takeaway? Maybe it would simply be this: God's got a plan better than your plan. There's large writ, the plan of redemption in this passage, but it's reminding us that the reason we trust God in the small things is because we've learned to see him operate so faithfully in the large expanse of history. We may need that in the hard choices of life. I think of what it means for us to say to one another, "You know, God has a better plan than your plan." The Pew Foundation, who studies American religion, just came out with a report this past week. I'll quote a portion: "For the first time in our history, more Americans have lived with a romantic partner than have married one." The report goes on to say the sad irony is that the more Americans grow to accept cohabitation, the more we learn how detrimental this arrangement is, not only to couples, but to their children. Couples who are, I quote again from the report, testing their relationship prior to marriage, who are implicitly saying, "My love depends on how long you satisfy me," are those who experience, number one, higher levels of depression; number two, abandonment of children; number three, anxiety; number four, depression; number five, relational tension. On the other hand, all studies indicate that couples who commit to love through thick and thin, not conditional on whether you keep satisfying me, are the couples who actually report higher levels of relational satisfaction, responsible money handling, fairness in the distribution of household chores, balance of work and personal life, better communication, more trust, longer relationships, and—wait for it—better sex. If I trust you, if I know you're just not waiting to love me depending on how much I satisfy you, everything in our marriage is better. That understanding is what we take into the reality of saying God may have a better plan, not just on the broad scope, but in the individual aspects of our lives, too. Ultimately, what God is saying, if we have not followed that plan in this chapter, is your sin need not be the final chapter of your life. Yes, God's got a better plan than the one you may be following, but if you're able to confess that, able to acknowledge that, then what has God said by Moses and Elijah? He has said the sin, the weakness, the failing is not the final chapter. We can still say, "God, I still need your help. I still need to acknowledge that what I have done is not right before you, but if you still had a plan for Moses, if you could still use Elijah, do you still have a plan for me? Can you still use me? Will you yet forgive me?" And the great message of the Scriptures from beginning to end is not just you are not your redeemer, but God has made a redeemer, and he has come for people who are sinners and has made a way out of the difficulty of this world by the provision of his son.
Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you've missed anything that you'd like to hear once again, just visit unlimitedgrace.com. And when you do so, you can sign up for Pastor Bryan's daily devotional sent right to your inbox. While you're there, also be sure to request a copy of the book from Dr. Bryan Chapell called Unlimited Grace. We'll send you a copy right away as our way of saying thank you for your most generous financial support. Once again, go to unlimitedgrace.com or you can give by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by his unlimited grace. This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.