One of the amazing truths that never, ever stops being a wonder to me is that God entrusts His Word to us. That's just wonderful, but it's so incredible that He would, that every single one of us has been called to be in ministry in some way. It's so easy to think that the ministry is for those few you see on Sunday morning, the visible ones, and think that "I just need to behave myself and be a good girl, and that's all that the Lord is expecting of me," but over and over again in the Scripture, we are made to see the truth that absolutely every single believer has been given gifts, has been given grace, has been given a function and has been put in the body of Christ in just the place that God knows that that function and that gift can be most readily used. The Lord is teaching us this morning, just as we watch Him train the disciples, He's training us, too, to understand about how this ministry can take place. He's going to reveal to us where the power comes from for ministry, and He's going to talk to us in very candid terms about the kind of perspective we have to have in order to indeed follow Him and be a part of the kingdom work. He's going to remind us of the purpose of all that ministry as we see His glory through the eyes of Luke as we contemplate what it is that the Lord has held out for us all. If you will open your Bibles to Luke chapter 9; we are going to do the first half of this chapter.
"And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. And He said to them, 'Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not even have two tunics apiece. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that city. And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.' Departing, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere."
Here are the same guys that were just in the boat, that were just afraid, that were just unbelieving, that were just doubting, that were just failing in their faith. These are the same ones; it's just been a very short time, but Jesus calls them together and says, "It's time that you get to be involved with it." Part of this was so that the message of the kingdom could go more places at once because, even though Jesus is reaching many crowds as He goes around preaching, there are going to be more opportunities when He sends out these twelve. Mark tells us they go out two-by-two so they don't all go in mass to one village but go here and go there and go someplace else.
They are going to widen the hearing of the gospel, the hearing of the message of the kingdom, the hearing of the good news that Jesus came to bring. Not only that, but this is going to be practice for them because one day not very far off, they are going to be the ones that will be the power behind or the impetus of spreading the news after Jesus ascends. It is to these faulty people that the responsibility is given to do the work of the kingdom and to take it to all the world.
Jesus is so good to them. He doesn't just lay this whole crashing responsibility on them at once. We are going to see that little by little they are given more exposure, more and more practice. It's just like if you were a teacher, you had some practice teaching you did in the beginning. This is kind of their practice teaching. They are going out for this in obedience. I'm struck by that. Bless their hearts; they just go. It says they get out there, and they go.
The most important part of the whole instruction is that Jesus gave them power and authority. That's the only way they would have had the nerve to go and do what He sent them to do. Who were they when it came to healing diseases? Now they were the representatives of Jesus with His authority and His power. Power is the ability to do something, and authority is the right to do it. Jesus gave both of those to them. He gave them this spiritual, completely-outside-of-themselves kind of gift that would allow them to heal diseases, that would allow them to do the miracles that Jesus had done, but He also gave them the right to do it. He gave them authority so that they would do it in confidence - not confidence in themselves but in the One who sent them.
He gives them some very specific instructions about simplicity, and He says, "This is going to be a trip in which you make no preparations. You don't take any food with you. You don't take any extra clothing with you. You don't make reservations at an inn. You just go, and you do what I say." When you read the Matthew account and the John account, we also find out that Jesus tells them when they get into a village to inquire who is worthy, who is it in that town who would likely be open to them and welcoming, and that's the person they are to go stay with, and they are to stay there until they leave the town.
He even tells them there may even be some rejection. If there is rejection, this is what you do. You just shake the dust off your sandals. That was the common thing Jews did, especially if they went through Gentile territory because they thought it was defiling. But this was a testimony against any who would reject His word.
This is a real exercise in trusting God. They didn't know what they were going to have to eat. They didn't know if they were going to find somebody that was really happy to have them in their home. They really didn't know what kind of situations were out there, but they would have to do it on the basis of just trusting God to provide that.
It's also a real exercise in humility, I think, because they were going to have to receive whatever it was that God would provide for them, and that's not always what we think we would do for ourselves. If you've ever gone on a mission trip or you've heard of missionaries, you might have heard some interesting stories. I love to hear my brother tell about the first time he was served iguana stew with an entire iguana floating in it. As a missionary, that was one of the challenges that he had, not to fall over in a faint but to realize that, yes indeed, this was a provision of food for him, and he was going to be grateful for it. This was a brand new thing for these apostles, a brand new area of trust, and a brand new practice of accepting whatever it is that God was going to send them.
As they are doing this, as they are preaching, we know from the other accounts that Jesus is preaching also. There's just more and more and more word of what's happening with these miracles and these great sermons being given. There's confusion, and there's curiosity everywhere about exactly what's going on. This is what we find in verse 7: "Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was happening; and he was greatly perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen again. Herod said, 'I myself had John beheaded; but who is this man about whom I hear such things?' And he kept trying to see Him.
"When the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. Taking them with Him, He withdrew by Himself to a city called Bethsaida." It's time for them to know exactly who Jesus is. There's all this speculation. There's all these opinions. I think Herod probably had a really guilty conscience, and he was thinking, "Oh my goodness, has John come back after what I did to him?" He keeps trying to see Jesus. The people are trying to figure out who He is, but when the apostles come back, they are undoubtedly weary, and they need to have time with Jesus. One of the reasons Jesus takes them away is to give them rest but also to help them to understand in a convicted way exactly who He is. This is what we are going to begin to see.
It's a good effort to try to get away by themselves, but the crowds follow Him. "But the crowds were aware of this and followed Him; and welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing." It is just amazing to me that Jesus has this attitude. He sees that the apostles need rest. I'm sure that He Himself was weary, and He needed rest, and they needed to have time together. They try the best that they can to do this. Again, He's training the disciples. Even though they are interrupted, He's training the disciples that this is a really important principle, that we do need times apart. We need times alone with Jesus. We need times of rest physically. We need times of just allowing ourselves to be revived. He is teaching them that this is OK; it isn't unspiritual to rest. It isn't unspiritual to be still for a while and not doing anything.
Also He's teaching them that God is the one who is in control and that there are sometimes interruptions, that the principle is right that we need rest, but the principle is also true that God is the one who is in control of our agendas. We can trust Him that if He interrupts something that we think we've got all planned nicely where we can rest, and He brings someone and we know that He intends for us to minister to that person or listen to that person or love that person, then we can be confident that, like Jesus, we can welcome them. We don't have to grit our teeth and yell at them to go away. We can accept that God is going to give us that time He knows we need to rest some time, but right now, obviously Jesus knew that this is what His Father wanted Him to do, and so He doesn't only let them stay, He welcomes them, and He begins to minister to them.
When they were all there, they didn't come with good ideas of preparation. There's nothing around them. They are in a desolate place, the Scripture says. The day is ending, and the disciples are only too ready to get rid of them, and so they come and tell Jesus to tell them to go away. They need to go. It's time for supper, and they need to go and see about that and get something to eat because they were someplace they couldn't. Jesus gives them a new challenge, and He says, "You give them something to eat." The Greek is very emphatic here. It's not just kind of an off hand. He's saying, "YOU, you give them something to eat." I'm sure that was shocking.
If you read the other accounts that I encouraged you to in your lesson, you saw that He had some very specific reactions from them. Philip just said, "Impossible! No way! It costs too much money. We don't have that kind of money." He quickly calculated how much it would cost to buy even a little bread for that many people, five thousand plus, and he said, "No, there's no way. There isn't anything we can do." Andrew, on the other hand, found a boy who had five loaves and two fish. He had a good mother. Something I read this week said, "Give thanks to mothers who prepare lunches for their sons." That's true. That's a good thing she had done and a good thing that this child was willing to share what he had. Even though it was laughably inadequate for five thousand people, five loaves and two fish, Andrew brings that. He said, "This is really pitiful, Jesus, but this is all we've got. This is all we've found." They bring that to Jesus, and in this they began to have a part in this tremendous miracle.
There is only one miracle that is described in all four gospels, apart from the resurrection, all four of the gospels have that, but there's only one miracle that Jesus did on earth that's described in all four, and it's this one. This one made a huge impact on the church. You can go and look at ancient motifs that are in mosaics or in paintings, and you see the loaves and the fishes over and over and over again. It's even gone into the common language of people who are not religious. You talk about the dividing of the loaves and the fishes, and maybe they've heard about it because it's amazing. It really is startling in its grandeur because there's such a little tiny bit here, and it's made to satisfy so many people.
I want to pay special attention to this, too. I want to listen, and I want to see, and I want to learn what it is that Jesus is teaching His disciples because if He had just been compassionate and cared that the people were hungry, He could have just thought or snapped His fingers and everybody could have had a box lunch appear on their lap, but this was much more than that. He was much more interested in satisfying much more than their momentary hunger. He had something in mind to train first of all His apostles, but every believer since then, too, as they've read this, to train us about how this works, that Jesus really does want us to be a part of His great miracles, that Jesus really does have power that He intends to share through those who trust Him and who believe in Him.
They come and give this little, tiny bit, and He says, "Tell the people to sit down in groups of fifty." They don't have any idea of what Jesus is going to do, but they are obedient, bless their hearts. They go out, and they get everybody organized. They sit them down and count them, get them there. Then Jesus does a very common thing for Him. He prays. In verse 16, "Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them, and broke them, and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the people." Just make yourself think about this. Here are five thousand plus people, and here are five loaves and two fish, and here are twelve disciples who are wondering what kind of embarrassment might be ahead of them, and yet they are obedient. Here's the Lord who has prayed probably just a normal Jewish prayer of thanksgiving, "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God," is the way they always began, and then thanking Him for this provision and for what He was going to do. Then He would break off little pieces, and He would hand them to one disciple, and he would take them. He would break off a few more and give them to another. As they went to the first row, I imagine they are just wondering what is going to happen. Imagine their astonishment when the basket comes back and there's still some on there. When it finishes, they go back to Jesus, and He gives them some more. They take it to the next row and the next group and the next and the next. It took a long time for twelve apostles to feed five thousand people, just to give it to them.
Imagine what was happening to their hearts during that time. Imagine the kind of faith that was growing inside of them as they did this over and over again. What a wonderful lesson for them, that they didn't have to provide for the people. They didn't have to be the ones to come up with some kind of plan. All they had to do was make themselves available to the Prince of Heaven, and He was the one who would give whatever was needed, not only adequately but to satisfy, and then in abundance because they eat until they are satisfied, and then they take up twelve baskets that are leftover.
It is so wonderful to me to realize that this is a principle that is still true today. I am not responsible for the power of ministry. I'm only responsible for making myself available. He is the one. It is the job of Jesus to bring power into any kingdom work, and He is faithful to do it.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Dallas Symphony. They were playing a piece that is one of my most favorite pieces of music. It is called the Organ Symphony by Saint-Saëns. I love that huge, wonderful organ at the Myerson. I got to sit really, really close. I saw that the woman who plays that is about the size of Susan Turner. She is a teeny, tiny little person, and those enormous pipes, she could fit in them. They are so big. And if you've ever heard this music, the very last movement, there is a point where the organ has been playing lovely but kind of softly, and all of a sudden there comes this enormous crash of music. The man sitting in front of me literally jumped out of his seat. I knew it was coming, and so I was ready for it. It is magnificent, and that great instrument of music made the most beautiful sound. It absolutely filled the hall. How did that little, tiny woman make that noise? She didn't do it herself. There's something inside the organ, this wonderful compressed air, that she was merely just the fingers that got to release the power, and the wonderful music was made.
That's what God wants to do with us. All we have to be is just fingers. We just have to say, "OK, I'm willing. Little, puny, tiny me with no such power to make such a great and wonderful piece of music, yes, I'll be the one if You want to do it through me to make this great beauty come forward." That's what the Lord wants to do. Are you willing for Him to do that? Do you imagine because you messed up so badly once before that Jesus doesn't want you to do anything at all? Not at all! Think about this, how much the disciples had been faltering so recently, but they were the ones that got to be a part of these two wonderful miracles, the miracle of going out and preaching and ministering to the people miraculously and the miracle of having something to give to those who were in need. What is it that God has given you to do? Are you trusting Him to give you the power? Are you just making yourself available to Him and waiting expectantly for the beautiful music that's going to come out of you? That's all that He's asking of us. That is good news. That is such good news to me.
We are going to go on, then, and look as He talks with the disciples. When He finally does have them alone, the apostles, when He gets the twelve alone, He talks to them about the kind of perspective they've got to have in order to be a part of this kingdom ministry. In verse 18: "And it happened that while He was praying alone." Again, "when He's praying," this is very common. "The disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, 'Who do the people say that I am?'" He's wanting to know what they are thinking about this, about the identity. He's aware of all the speculation and all the stories. They tell Him, "Oh, some think You are Elijah, some think You are John the Baptist, and some think You are a prophet." And then the most important question for them is in verse 20: "And He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?'" It didn't really matter what the speculation of the crowds might be, but it did matter what they thought. They needed to have much more than just an opinion. They needed to have certainty and conviction. If they were to be the ones to minister in the name of Jesus, they needed to understand the fullness of the power of that name, and so He asks this question of them.
Peter, who really does speak for the others, says, "You are the Christ of God. You are the Messiah." That's what "Christ" means. "You are the One we've been reading about all our lives. You are the One we've been waiting for." Did Peter understand everything that implied? Not at all. Nobody did. In the Matthew account, I believe, Jesus says, "This is not what you came up with yourself, Peter. God revealed this to you." And God is going to keep on revealing the impact of that, the reality of that, step by step by step as Peter grows in his understanding as do the other apostles, but he answered right. "You are the Messiah. You are the One that we've been expecting. You are the One we've been waiting for."
It is the right question to contemplate. It is the question everyone has to answer sooner or later. You cannot be neutral about Jesus. You've got to decide who He is. Who is this, then? This is the only acceptable answer because if He's not this, He's a liar. Everything He said was untrue. So, He can't be just a nice, pleasant teacher. He's either the Christ of God, or He's somebody we don't need to have anything to do with. Peter does answer well.
He begins to tell them things they don't want to hear because I think in their minds was so much of the expectation among the main portion of the Jews -- that when Messiah came, everything's going to be fabulous, that He was going to kick out those Romans, and He was going to establish His kingdom, and every Jew was going to have land and prosperity, and everybody was going to be happy ever after. He begins to tell them that their understanding about who He is and what that means. He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone because it wasn't time yet. There was enough of a desire to overthrow Rome already among the Jews that, if they just heard anything more about this from the apostles, they would have taken it as kind of a warcry to go and start some sort of insurrection. It wasn't time for the people at large to know who He was, but it was definitely time for the apostles to know thoroughly.
He says in verse 22, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day." All of this is part of the Messiah story. It isn't just king. That's certainly true, and that's coming in total fullness, but now the Messiah story was suffering, and it was rejection, and it was death. He begins to tell them for the first time. We are going to have three similar statements in Luke. The second one comes in this chapter that we will deal with next week because He's preparing them that this is what it means, that there's a cross for Him.
It must have been very shocking to them to learn that their own leaders, the scribes and the elders, would be the ones to put to death their Master. I think they couldn't really comprehend it. There is so much about this they didn't get. Part of it was because they were immature. Part of it was because it was actually hidden. That's what's said next time, that some of it is hidden from them. They weren't ready to take it all in, but it was important that they were beginning to hear the words.
It's like when you start talking to a baby. That baby has no understanding of what you are saying, but you keep on saying the words over and over again, and pretty soon they do understand that you love them. They do understand that you are Mommy. They do understand this is what we do and this is what we don't do.
All of those things, in a way, is what Jesus is doing with them now. He's beginning to prepare them even though there's so much yet that they don't really understand, but He wants them to grasp that there is a cross for Him, but that's not the only cross around. He begins to talk to them about their cross as well. "And He was saying to them all, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.'"
This is amazing news that will also be repeated to them, that this is what is going to be a part of following Him, that this is something He does not want us to be in the dark about. The Lord is so honest with us, and He prepares us for the fact that if we are to be identified with Jesus, there will also be a cross for us -- not in the sense that we can accomplish our salvation. It will be a very different cross in that respect, but it will be an identification with His suffering, with His rejection, and with His death. It is one thing to read about others being rejected and suffering and martyred, and it's another thing entirely to imagine that this is going to be required of us.
It will be different in every life, but do not imagine that this was something that just happened during the time of the Caesars that were so cruel and so bad because there are more Christian martyrs right here today in our world than ever were put to death by any Caesar or any despot down through the centuries. There are more today than ever in our history. This is even in a country like ours where we have freedom, and we do have an easy time of identifying ourselves with Jesus in the sense that nobody's trying to stop us from coming here today or going to church on Sunday or anything like that.
Nevertheless, we too must realize that there is a cross for us, that as the world rejected our Savior, it will also reject us. What form that takes will vary, but I shouldn't be surprised when it comes to me. It doesn't even sound like anything that Jesus would want to reveal to people until they were already signed up, but the truth is, He wants us to understand there is something bigger than us. I say "Hallelujah" to that. I'm so glad this is not all there is. I'm so glad I'm not just left to my own devices or my own wits or just the best that I could come up with to think of a good plan. There is something so much more. At the bottom of it all is that I do not belong to myself. That's what self-denial is.
Paul says in I Corinthians, "You are not your own. You have been bought with a price." I've been purchased by my Lord Jesus with a great price, and therefore my life is not mine. It belongs to Him. Self-denial is not just going without chocolate for a while or not buying that new dress you wanted. It may involve giving up some possessions. It definitely might involve doing something that would be a fasting from something, but that's really only the effect of what is at the heart of it, and that is to understand that I belong to a Master, and I have no right to decide what my life is going to be. Paul says in Romans 12 that we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices in verse 1 and 2 of that chapter. "This is the reasonable thing to do," he says. "This is worship," he says, "that we would offer ourselves, not as a dead sacrifice but one that is willing to live in the way that God decides that we would live." He says that when we do that daily, when we do it continually, when we do it faithfully, we find out a wonderful secret, and that is that the will of God for us as individuals is right, is good. It's perfect. It isn't maybe what we ever dreamed would be ours, but it's what God sees would be just exactly the right thing.
This is what I've got to change about the way I live in this culture that teaches me over and over again that I've got to look out for number one. He says, "The person that loses his life is the one who really finds it." That's incomprehensible to this culture because gaining the whole world and saving my life in the sense of making my life what I want it to be, that's the number one priority here. Over and over and over again the messages of our culture tell us that that's what we're supposed to do, this is just as opposite to that as anything can be, and it doesn't make any sense if you are just coming at it from a human standpoint.
But this is the perspective that we can have from the cross when we know that at this great price, at this great cost, Jesus did give us life. He gave us the way to have relationship with the Father. He opened up heaven for us. The way we find ourselves being a part of this whole glorious ministry is that we see everything in our lives from that perspective. We judge it not by what we want, not by what I am going to do, not by what I want you to do, not by what I'm going to judge as far as what is really worth anything out there, but it is what the Lord is telling me to do, what the Lord is telling me how to judge, what it is that Jesus gives me, what it is that the Father leads me to, this is the way life is going to be led if I'm going to be truly valuable in ministry. This is the way the apostles had to begin to look at their life.
It's not easy to resist this because it is so thoroughly ingrained in our culture. Gaining the whole world is what is encouraged and admired. It is out there as just the perfect American dream. Get everything you can get instead of looking at anything in the long-term. This is leading more and more and more to the most ash-filled lives. We have CEOs who are going to jail because this greed overtook them, and the grasping, short-term looking kind of evaluation. All they wanted was to get what they could right then with no thought to the long-term of the health of the company or their own reputation or anything else. "Just let me get what I can get right now." This is permeating so much of what's going on.
How am I going to do this? Self-denial, nobody is going to encourage me to do that outside of the Lord Jesus. There are so many things in our world, things that we didn't even think we wanted, but then she got one, and I began to think, "Well, I probably deserve that, too. Everybody has that." There are gadgets that are just ridiculous that we will still fill our rooms with unless we allow the Lord Jesus to speak to us about what it is that this life means. It means that we've got to have a different perspective from this crazy world, and we have got to see it as the direction of our ministry is this perspective from the cross.
There is a famous story that Tolstoy wrote long ago about a peasant who was told that he could have whatever land he could walk around. He had to be back at the starting point by sundown, but every place that he could walk, that would be his. This was so exciting to this man because he had been very poor his whole life, and he had never owned any land. This was just wonderful news to him. He knew exactly what land he wanted. It was just going to be perfect for him. He starts out walking, but then he keeps looking and there's more and he thinks, "I'll go a little bit further, and I'll go a little bit further. Oh, I can have more," until he pushes himself to the point that he cannot make it back before sundown. He falls down, exhausted, in bed.
To me, that's what this life is, what our culture encourages. We're just out there, and we're seeing more and more and more we want to get for me, and we're exhausting ourselves, and we're not going to get back before sundown. We can't keep this stuff, friends. It really isn't going to last. Only what the Lord gives us, only that part of us that is shaped by the cross, only that part of us that is from His hand is really going to last. Is this the perspective you have on your life? Is this the way you are making decisions, in this gridwork, in this gridwork of the cross? That's what He calls us to do. That's what He's trying to tell these disciples.
Then we go to this wonderful little blitz of power because the truth is, it isn't all just the cross. There is glory. There is wonderful glory. "Some eight days after these sayings, He took along Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming. And behold, two men were talking with Him; and they were Moses and Elijah, who, appearing in glory, were speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem."
This is an amazing thing. Again, it happens while Jesus is praying. I don't know whether He has any idea this is going to happen or not, but while He is in communion with the Father, this astonishing thing happens. Matthew says His face began to shine brighter than the sun. His clothes began to gleam. There was a brightness that was just wonderful. And lo and behold, here are Moses and Elijah, and they were talking to Him about His departure, about His exodus (some of the translations will use that word) because this is what was about to happen. He was going to go to Jerusalem, and He was going to die, but in that dying, He was going to release the people from the grip of sin and death. He was going to lead them out of bondage just like Moses had, this great lawgiver who had given all that law that looked forward to Jesus who was now fulfilling it. This great prophet Elijah who called his people to repentance and to lead a different kind of life, here is this fulfillment of what can be when one will repent and come to the Lord.
They are talking together, and do you know what the truth is? They realize, they knew, that Jesus was going to go die for them. They needed Him to die for them as much as I needed Jesus to die for me. They knew obedience. All who lived before the cross, by their belief and their faith in the word of Messiah's coming, they received salvation, but they didn't receive it until Jesus died on the cross and rose again. That's where the deliverance came. Here were Moses and Elijah that God allowed to come and to speak to this One who was their Savior as well as ours.
I'm sure they encouraged Him as He's about to go on His journey to Jerusalem and set His face to receive all that is going to be involved in the cross.
The disciples, who had been sleeping during the prayer time, suddenly woke up, and they saw this. They saw that it was Moses and Elijah. How do you think they knew who they were? Maybe they had little sticky nametags? But I don't think so. I think this is teaching us that we're going to know everybody when we're in heaven, people who lived before us as well as people who are going to live after us. We're going to know them. That's going to be fun! We're going to be able to walk right up to Moses ourselves and say, "Oh Moses, there's something I've always wanted to ask you..." Whatever you are going to want to know from these saints, we are going to be able to do that.
When Peter sees them, you know Peter, he's got to say something, and he just didn't think one bit before he started talking. He says, "Oh, this is great. This is so good. Let's just stay here." This seemed like a whole lot better deal to Peter than going back down the mountain where all those people were hungry and wanting something from him. He thought this would just be lovely to just stay here. He says, "We're going to build a tabernacle for you and for you and for you." He's just talking foolishness, which is what we do when we don't think and when we don't pay attention.
Here is the correction, which is really something. Suddenly this cloud comes and envelopes Jesus and Moses and Elijah, and more than that, there's a voice. This is what the voice says, "'This is My Son, My Chosen One. Hear Him. Listen to Him.'" Again we've got this emphatic lesson of listening to the words of Christ, listening to what He says. Don't keep talking when you haven't listened to what God is telling you through the Scripture. That's when you've got something worth saying - when you've heard Him. This is what He's trying to tell Peter, and this is what He's trying to tell me. There is glory, and it is wonderful, but that glory comes when I listen to Jesus, when I'm willing to be used in the kingdom, when I'm available and surrendered to the Lord for His ministry. This is why I do it, because I know the glory that's there. We get to glimpse the glory of Christ. Just as Peter saw it in reality, we can see it by faith as we read these accounts. Paul says in II Corinthians 3 that as we behold the glory of the Lord, as we look in His word and are taught by His Spirit, as we behold Him, there is a transfiguration happening to us, a transformation. We are beginning to be changed to look like Him, one glory after another glory after another glory. This makes it all worthwhile.
Hebrews says that Jesus endured the cross for one thing, for the joy that was set before Him, because He wanted to bring many of us into relationship with His Father, and that was a joy to Him. How do we endure our cross? The same way, for the joy of knowing what's out there. We do know the end of the story. This is the brief stuff. This is the temporary stuff. Even when it does involve suffering, even when it does involve rejection, even when there is difficulty to overcome, this is why we do it, because we think on His glory and we rejoice that it is true.
Don't just leave that to the occasional thought of heaven. When you're feeling depressed and discouraged, go get out Revelation and start reading. The wonderful descriptions of what it looks like John tells us. Begin to contemplate what it means to live in the presence of the Father and the Son for eternity, and let that lift your heart. Read some of the Psalms that are full of praise because of the sureness of life ever after with this great King. Think on heaven; it invigorates our ministry. This glory is the stuff that keeps us going. Knowing the glory is there makes us go. It's like a woman will go through hours of labor, and she'll even do it more than once because she knows what it brings - the life of a child. One of the great slogans that came out of the civil rights movement is "Keep your eyes on the prize." I love that because it's so applicable here. There was a reason they put themselves at risk and that was to change a society that needed changing. There's reason to put ourselves at risk, to be willing to be rejected, to be willing to suffer in some way, to be willing to look silly, whatever it is that ministry will take us into because we keep our eyes on the prize.
What is it, what is it, what is it that the Lord is wanting to do through you? He's given you the power. He's given you the authority. He calls you to surrender to it, to let Him decide where it is and what it is that you'll do, and He's whispering all along, "There's glory ahead. There's glory ahead." It's going to be grand!
Oh Father, You are so good, and we do appreciate so much that You're honest with us, and You do tell us of the shadows that are in this life because of sin and because of death that still are at work. But Lord, remind us of our own deliverance, remind us of the glory, and cause us to say, "Yes" to You instead of wasting ourselves in this silly world with all of this passing junk that somehow gets to seem very important. Thank You, Lord. We are so grateful for Your patience and Your trust in us to be a part of the kingdom work. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.