You read again Peter’s words regarding the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, from his second letter, chapter one.
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we 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 we ourselves heard come out of heaven, when we were with Him in the holy mount.
And we have the word of prophecy made more sure; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts.
I would like to link with that his words in his first letter, in the first chapter, at verse ten.
Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when It testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them.
Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto you did they minister these things, which have now been announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.
I think there is very little need for me to retrace the course that we followed earlier, because what we have yet to say so largely embraces what we have said.
We concluded our earlier meditation at the point of the issue of the transfiguration. We saw that word used here by Peter, and in other places. It is a word which links the transfiguration with the coming again of the Lord Jesus.
It is greatly translated, “power and presence”—the presence. That word, as you see, is applied to the transfiguration: the presence of the Lord Jesus in majesty, in power, in glory. That same word is used, and in the same way, concerning His coming again.
It is called His parousia, His being present. And we know that that presencing will indeed be in power, majesty, and glory.
If these are the accompaniments of the presence of the Lord Jesus, as they are clearly seen to be again and again—and we shall indicate some of these occasions as we go on—if these be the accompaniments of His presence, then the issue is not only the transfiguration and what it means, and the advent at the end. Surely every occasion of His presence, the presencing of the Lord Jesus, carries with it an impact upon the situation, the place, where He is present.
We might indicate, even if we enlarge later, that there is here on the Mount of Transfiguration an impact.
These three who were there in His presence fell on their faces in great fear. The Lord Jesus had to approach and lay His hand on them and say, “Arise, be not afraid.”
The presence of the Lord Jesus lays waste all our own strength, all our natural wisdom, all our pride, all our impetuosity.
Peter, as another evangelist records it, said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles.” The evangelist says, “Not knowing what he said.” He is, in his own impulsiveness, again obtruding himself into this situation, taking the speech into his lips and the situation into his hands, wanting to organise this, perpetuate it, and make something of it: “I will make three tabernacles”—I, Peter—not knowing what he said.
Truly, perhaps with the best intentions; nevertheless, he had to be rebuked and put in his place. This was a devastating experience for those men in themselves.
From one standpoint, it is a glorious thing to see His majesty. From another standpoint, this is always a fearful thing. That is, the flesh, the natural life, cannot walk into this and take hold of it to make something of it for our pleasure and satisfaction.
There is an impact in it. That is the point. It registers.
We pray, as we are going to seek, as we are going to seek new vision of the exalted Lord, you must be prepared to be brought therein. You will have all your own natural energies wasted, and realise that majesty demands nothing other than that we should be on our faces. That is a good place to be when it is before Him.
It was a tremendous thing when Stephen saw this Lord in majesty and glory. It carried him through the awful ordeal of martyrdom—being broken, shattered, and slain—with all the hatred and malice that was being poured upon him by those who gnashed and ran upon him.
It was a glorious emergence for Stephen to see the Lord in glory, as he did. But it was a tremendously devastating thing for at least one man there.
More than that, we could say that it was devastating for that nation; for in what they were doing, they were only setting their double seal to what they had done to the very Man in the glory.
What I am trying to say is not that such-and-such things characterise a visitation or a vision. But we can never really, really see the Lord and be in the presence of the Lord without knowing it and something happening. It is tremendously effective.
So it was with the Lord glorified. No one will argue as to there being an impact on that occasion. John saw Him when he was in Patmos; he saw this Lord glorified, and he fell to the ground.
So it is like that. And whatever might be the consequences and effects, we would all say, “Let us have it,” rather than this impotent, helpless, weak, ineffective state in which we so often find ourselves.
The issue of the transfiguration—that is, of the glorified Lord seen—is always a tremendous thing in its effect.
Now, here in his letter, Peter is affirming the fact. He is affirming the fact of the transfiguration. He is setting it over against what he calls “cunningly devised fables”—cleverly concocted reports—over against anything merely fictitious, imaginary, and so on. He says, “This was a fact. We were with Him. We saw. We heard.”
And he says that this has been abundantly confirmed: “We have the word of prophecy made more sure.”
Probably he is referring to what he had said in his first letter that we have read. The prophets all pointed on to that suffering and glory which met on the Mount of Transfiguration, as Moses and Elijah spoke to Him about the exodus, the departure, about to be accomplished at Jerusalem.
There, the suffering and the glory met on that mountain. Peter says the prophets were all pointing to them, and seeking and searching diligently to know the time, what manner of time it would be, when they prophesied the suffering and the glory.
So the prophets searched diligently, and then he crowns it all by saying, “Which things angels are desirous of looking into.” He said, “We have got it. We have got it all in fulfilment. We were there on the mount, and we have seen it working out ever since.”
We are living in the light and the power of that combination of suffering and glory, glory and suffering. The word of prophecy is confirmed both in the event and in our history ever since the event. It is made more sure.
Probably Peter meant more than that, but he meant that. That is not the whole interpretation, but it is a part. There it is.
What I am trying to underline is this fact: Peter himself is affirming here that the thing had happened. But when Peter adds his word about “more sure,” you notice he carries it beyond the event, that historic event, that occasion on the mount, as something added to this—something added to the, if we may call it, incident, mighty incident.
Something more: it has been made more sure in our case. What do you think? Well, just this. Just this which is so true in the other cases: it was not only something before Peter and James and John; it was something that happened to them and afterwards came into them.
True, there was the event that happened in time at a certain place. But something with it happened in Peter.
This letter of his was written many years afterward, and you notice in the immediate context he is speaking of his departure: “Knowing that I must shortly put off this my tabernacle, even as the Lord hath shown me. I will seek that ye have these things after my departure.”
He is at the end of his life, the end of his ministry. But something happened that had carried him through. Something had remained—not as a memory of an objective experience, but something had happened in him.
Dear friends, this is more than a doctrine, more than a theory, more than even something in the Holy Scriptures. To see the Lord does something in us.
Oh, I would like to spend all the rest of my time on that. Because, you know, we can get the truth about anything and everything—all the truth that is available about the Lord Jesus Himself: His birth, His life, His works, His words, His death, His resurrection—all that there is.
We can have all the truth about the church—the church, and what a lot there is available. Have it all, know it all, nothing fresh to know about it. And any other thing you like to mention in the Scriptures, we can know it all.
And yet the fact can remain that nothing has happened in us as a result.
I ask you, what has all your knowledge of the church meant as a happening in you? Has it done something to put you in a new place, with an entirely new conception, revolutionising your whole life, so that one whole order of things just falls away as empty and another heavenly order comes in?
That is how it ought to be. True spiritual apprehension ought not to be just something in front of us. It ought to be something in us.
It was with Peter, and we can trace this in his life. We shall indicate other things. Take again his great contemporary, Paul.
Here is this fact: on the Damascus road, Jesus appeared unto him in glory, brightness above the brightness of the sun. The tremendous objective something that was before him struck him as from the outside.
But, as you know, years afterward, when he was speaking of it, he said, “It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.” Not only to him; it was something in him.
And the Apostle Paul’s whole life and ministry was based upon, and sprang out of, that double event: to and in. The majesty of the Lord Jesus became an inward thing with him, and therefore a tremendously effective thing.
The answer to the critics who say that Saul of Tarsus was in a frenzy, therefore was overtaken by a terrible hysteria and began to see things and believe that they were real—that is the psychological explanation of the conversion of Paul—the answer, the answer, is his life of endurance and suffering and love, and his death for his testimony.
Men do not go that way, like that, on a dream, on an imagination, on a hysteria. I venture to say that a very small proportion of what Paul had to meet during the thirty years of his ministry would knock hysteria out of most men.
No. Something happened inside. The vision did something in him as well as being something to him.
And so we could go on with the other people, like John, who saw the Lord in His glory. But that is enough. The thing happened to them, but it happened in them.
It was an event, true, but it was also an abiding process right on through their lives. This was the thing which was growing. It was growing—this wonderful greatness of the Lord Jesus.
They did not get it all at once, even in the wonderful events. But through their lives it was growing. It was the one mighty thing that was happening: Jesus, in all the greatness of His glorified Person and position, was dominating the whole horizon, the whole course of their lives.
Now that brings us to the principle of all this, which opens up a very large field, in which we could move for a very long time. The principle is the principle of true spiritual inward vision.
Not visionariness, but inward vision which is specific, which is definite. Visionariness can be very abstract. But what we mean by vision—spiritual vision—is very concrete. It is very specific.
It is a Person Who is in view. And this Person is no abstraction, is nothing unreal or imaginary: the mighty Person, you see, the Lord Jesus.
I hesitate to just go on with words, because, dear friends, they can, after all, be but words.
Let us weigh this whole matter. You and I, the Lord’s people, need something very mighty to carry us through to the end.
In our various places, various situations, various experiences, scattered and pressed, things are becoming very grim, are they not?
I do not want to make anybody feel bad if you do not feel bad about things, but most of us are aware that we are in a most terrific spiritual conflict. And the Christian life is not getting easy.
Forgive me, I say wrong things, but I think many of you understand. It is becoming exceedingly difficult to just hold on, and especially to be triumphant.
That is how it was when Peter wrote his letter.
Now, we do not want a lot of words, a lot of visionariness, to get us through. No, dear friends, our Christian life ought to be based upon something like this: having seen the Lord.
We literally go through, if that is true, in the operation, the activity, of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. We must have an inward vision of the exalted Lord.
For all endurance, and for all service, that is essential. Life that has to go on without that is just a drag—mere existence, work.
Service without that inward vision has nothing in it to lift us, to carry us on. For everything, it is indispensable: life, work, and endurance.
We must have this inward vision of the Lord in majesty and glory kept fresh, kept clear, constantly revived. With such a vision, all the essentials of effectiveness are supplied.
Now look. First of all, what we need—not only Christians need, but the church as a whole needs, whatever part of it we may be—is a mighty governing sense of purpose. Do we not?
A sense of purpose: there is something for which to live, and something for which to work, and something for which to endure and go on. A real master purpose in our existence, and everything to do with it.
But if you look into this matter, you will find that in the New Testament these men and the church were brought into this master purpose.
We are so familiar with the very words that they have lost their music: “according to His eternal purpose.”
They were governed by this objective, this goal, this something toward which the Lord was moving them, drawing them, constraining them, urging them. And it came again and again when they were cast down, when it seemed that everything was hopeless. It revived in them, revived them, and brought them up again.
A sense—not a mentality, not a theory, not an idea—but what Paul calls “the power that worketh in us, according to the power that worketh in us.” The word “worketh” there, as you know, is energising: power that energises.
What was it? Look again and you will see. It had to do with that great, great end which God had fixed concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus, in universal majesty and glory and fullness.
They had seen something of that in Him. It had become the great purpose which bound their lives and drew them out with a sense that life is not empty, meaningless. There is some great end. We see what it is: it is concerning the Lord Jesus.
We must have that sense of purpose, so we shall not get very far.
Not only was it a purpose, but this inward spiritual vision gave the incentive to life.
Days and years of wearing out, wearing down, weariness and disappointment, and, over many things, disillusionment and heartbreak—how difficult, how difficult, to lose incentive.
Is it worth it? Is it all justified? Are we not spending our strength for nought?
We need incentive. And again, look: it was this apprehension of Christ as having gone that way—weariness and devastation—and triumphantly being glorified and being there in the glory, which gave them the incentive. It imparted an incentive to life, a motive, a power.
Further, in this vision there is that effect of cohesion. A vision is a very cohesive thing. That is, it draws people together, holds them together, makes them a together people going on together. They have one vision.
A great illustration of this is Nehemiah and the people of his time: their one vision. Look at all the variety of people, and variety of gifts and qualifications—every kind of artisan and profession mentioned, every sphere of life.
But they were one people, a solid whole, simply because they had got one vision. One vision—that wall and the rebuilding of the city—dominated everyone’s heart and everyone’s mind, and brought them together in a wonderful unity.
The only way of having unity—there is no other way—is really to see the Lord Jesus and have Him in view as over all, above all, as on the throne. That will bring us together.
And I have said that what we all need is the power to endure. It is just there, as we have seen, Peter introduces the transfiguration and speaks about the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold which perishes—trial of your faith, manifold temptations.
He brings in the vision as the power of enduring, of going through. We are told Moses endured as seeing Him Who is invisible. This is the power.
Now you can see this from the opposite standpoint: see the effects of loss of vision—other vision.
As soon as the Lord’s people lose the vision of the Lord, the Lord Himself, however many other visions they may have, as soon as they lose the vision of the Lord Himself as Lord over all, as on the throne, what happens?
They lose their sense of purpose. They lose their awareness of the real objective in their existence. Is that true? It is true.
They then have to have substitutes for that vision to keep them going. They make other things their objective. Those things will disappoint.
The loss of vision always results in a loss of incentive—real incentive for life. And it is true about this matter of cohesion: lose vision, and the result is always disintegration, division, separation, confusion, and the loss of strength and stability.
It is like that, dear friends. We do not speak this as theory or technique. It is very true. Some of us do know. That is why we speak like this, and are speaking like this just now.
We do know that when a people—a better people—have really been gripped by the vision of the throne, the majesty of the Lord Jesus, the authority of Christ, a wonderful, wonderful sense of purpose comes on that people, and a wonderful incentive, and a wonderful unity. They are of one people.
It is the throne that has done it, and their apprehension of that throne. But when things take the place of the Lord—anything you like to mention—then falling apart begins. Sooner or later, the disintegration sets in: the confusion, the loss of heart, incentive, and progress.
All I am saying is this, dear friends: a real inward seeing of the Lord Jesus as in the place of authority and majesty is the answer to every need of ours, personally and collectively. It was of old. It is now.
Do you notice how this transfiguration was the confirmation and complement of all the teaching?
If you look again in Matthew, the record of the transfiguration in Matthew 17—these chapter divisions spoil so much for us. We have to have them, I suppose, for some purpose or other, for reference. But I do suggest to you that you make very little of chapter divisions. The writers never did that. Just go right on.
Now in Matthew 16, everybody knows Matthew 16 and what it contains. What have we? Well, we have the four major things of the Christian faith and the Christian life.
First of all, the Person of the Lord Jesus.
Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?”
And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
He saith unto them, “But who say ye that I am?”
And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus answered and said unto him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father Who is in heaven.”
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
I think that there, it might be said Peter did not know what he was talking about again. It was a tremendous utterance: “Thou art the Messiah. Thou art the Messiah.”
But Christ, the Messiah, means the Anointed One; and He is the Son of the living God—the basic fact of Christianity: the Person of the Lord Jesus.
Do you know, for a man like Peter—a Jew versed and grounded and saturated in the Old Testament and Jewish history—to say that meant far more than we are aware of? There are tremendous things bound up with that word, Messiah.
There were three great conceptions of the Messiah.
The first you have in the first part of the prophecies of Isaiah: the Son of David, the seed and Son of David. You remember Isaiah’s prophecies about the shoot of David. That was the first conception of the coming Messiah: One Who should take over the throne of David, and all that that meant.
In the second half of Isaiah, the Messiah is the suffering Servant of the Lord: King, Redeemer; Redeemer, King. Isaiah 53 stands right at the heart of that conception of the Messiah.
The throne—the redemption. How is it going to work out?
The third conception of the coming Messiah, which you have in the book of Daniel, is very wonderful if you like to look at it. Daniel 7.
I beheld till thrones were placed, and One that was ancient of days did sit: His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire.
A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousands of thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven One like unto a Son of man, and He came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.
And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
That was their coming Messiah: King, Saviour, reigning Lord for ever and ever, and universal sovereignty.
When Peter said, “Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” all that was present in the declaration. Hence Jesus said, “Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you. My Father knows the meaning of the Christhood, the Messiahship, the Sonship.” It is all that.
My dear friends, I have mentioned and included that earlier with a view to trying to enlarge this conception of the greatness of our Lord Jesus. That is all to help toward the vision.
I would that, as we speak of it and read of it, you should see your Lord Jesus is no little defeated Lord at the hand of the great enemy. Only as we have such a confession, a conception, an apprehension of His Person, shall we get through in trial.
That is the first thing. But the second thing is the church. The Person always does lead to the church in divine sequence.
I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Why? Well, for that very reason. It is His church—the church of this One, this One to Whom the kingdom is given, and the throne, and Who shall rule all nations.
The church is the embodiment of the vision of the exalted Lord. That will make it a great church, a powerful church, if that is true.
If this One of the transfiguration, this One of Stephen’s vision, Paul’s vision—if this One, by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, is embodied in the church, by the church—what a church!
Is that the church with which we are familiar? Have we really understood that that is what is meant by the very term church: the embodiment of Himself as Lord over all?
The third, of course, as you see in the sixteenth chapter, is the cross.
From that time began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.
The cross: the third great thing in the Christian faith. His wonderful cross.
I like that thought, that idea, which a certain brother has expressed when he has spoken of reigning and ruling by His cross. No doubt that is right.
Look humanly: so much to the contrary—defeat and failure, loss and despair, weakness and helplessness. And yet that has proved in history to be the most potent force in this universe: the cross of the Lord Jesus.
Saul, before his conversion, looked upon the cross as the very symbol of shame, something despicable. He hated it.
Afterwards, he said, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” From shame to glory.
The transfiguration transfigures the cross. In other words, a vision of the glorified Lord will transfigure our sufferings, will altogether transform our affliction. We see what that cross meant, really, in the mind of God.
The fourth thing is the coming of the Lord. Here it is again in the sixteenth chapter.
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then shall He render unto every man according to his deeds.
The Son of man to come in the glory of His Father: that is the fourth great thing in our faith which constitutes us Christians, the coming again of the Lord.
Now, my point is this: the transfiguration was the crown and confirmation and complement of all those four things.
It was the crown of the Person. Peter had said, “Thou art the Christ.” The Mount of Transfiguration bore good evidence to that fact: he saw Him transfigured.
The Lord had said to him, “I will build My church.” The Mount of Transfiguration gave good hope for that church, if He—that One—was going to build it.
The Lord was speaking about the cross. Now the transfiguration was giving an altogether new and different interpretation to the cross.
If He had spoken of His coming again in the glory of the Father, the Mount of Transfiguration explains that and demonstrates that.
To see the Lord in that way, glorified, is the confirmation of our whole faith, the establishment of our whole position, and the assurance of our final triumph with Him.
The Lord give us a new vision of Himself—His power, His majesty, and His presence.