A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 10 February 2013
by Roy Njuabe. The scripture readings that day was Luke 9:28-43.
Let us pray: O Lord, open
our eyes to see your presence, open our ears to hear your voice, open our
hearts to receive your love. Help us to hear and to receive you in Words that
our mouths may proclaim your praise. Amen.
Introduction:
Did
you once have
an experience where you are at an amazing event and someone is preaching on a very interesting
topic and you are so sleepy that you can`t control yourself. You tried to open
your eyes but you can`t. You were really drunk at sleep. But when you wake up
from your slumber, the event was almost at the end and you noticed that the
atmosphere was really excited and people were curious about what they saw or
heard. At that moment you did try to
get a glimpse of what had happened.
You turn around and ask some friends: what happened, what did he talk about?
You did your best to capture a moment which may help you join the crowd.
Bible encounter:
In the gospel of Luke, Jesus took Peter, John and
James and went up to the mountain. As he was praying, amazing things happens; his
face became as bright as flashing of lightning, Moses and Elijah appeared in
glorious splendour, talking with Jesus about his departure. However Peter, John
and James were very asleep. The bible said VERY SLEEPY. When I read
this text, I wonder why these guys were sleepy, was it because they were so
tired after walking all the way to the top of the mountain? Or were they hungry?
With the entire amazing thing happening around them; flashing of lightning,
Jesus’ face shining; these three men Peter, John and
James were VERY SLEEPY. Wow
If I may ask you today: what can make you fall asleep when you are in the
presence of God in fellowship with one another; is it tiredness, or the prayer
is too long, or the sermon is too long and boring, (this sermon is very short
so please don`t fall asleep) or may be
someone is saying something which is irrelevant to you or let’s say you are too busy that your mind is away from
what is happening around you.
At one point you may wake up from your slumber,
you’ve missed all the interesting part of the event or speech. Now, you are
trying your best to get an idea of what had happen; sometimes it is not too late, but sometimes may be too late
when the event is over and the guest speakers are leaving.
Peter, John and James, at the mountain top
experience were very sleepy, they couldn’t capture in
full what was going on, but when they became FULLY awake, they saw His glory
and two men standing with Jesus. But it was almost toward the end of the whole
event, and the guest speakers Moses and Elijah were leaving. In Luke 9: 33 it
says “as the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to Jesus “master, it is good
for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters- one for you, one
for Moses and one for Elijah. (Peter did not know what he was saying).
I love Peter in such situation, he is always very
smart. When he woke up from sleep and saw the last
part of the event, he immediately knew that something amazing had happen and
his mind was like, how can I comprehend what just happened? May be keep the guest speakers to stay for one
more night so that I may spend some time with them knowing what really
happened. Well, as I mention, at times it may be too late, the guest speakers
are leaving.
When we are in the presence of God in fellowship
with one another but not fully present, we may miss out important point and
when the whole event is over and we didn’t fully
comprehend what happen, yet we struggle to draw our conclusion or think of the
best way to save the result, which at times may be different from the view of
those who were listening.
We may have similar struggles with our faith, we
struggle with our faith, we sleep in our faiths, we are trying to see Jesus in
different situation; this Jesus that I knew yesterday, today he is different,
he answered my prayer yesterday but today I had no reply from Him. The disciples may be wondering; this Jesus who came up this
mountain with a normal face, but now his face is shining. We may wonder, why
our heart is so veiled from God`s word, we can’t understand.
However, in our slumber, in our confusion, God’s glory will never be hidden from us.
Peter while in his confused state of mind to build
three tents, God speaks to them “This is my son, my
chosen
one, listen to Him”. The bible emphasized, “When he spoke these words Jesus was ALONE”.
Wow, the disciples may wonder
that the whole event that happened, which they missed from the
start was directed to one man, Jesus Christ.
We may miss the direction in our lives but we can
never miss the voice of God, God will always reveal himself to us. However we
may be stubborn to listen or follow his way. God’s glory can
never be hidden from us.
According to some theologians;
Moses brought us the law
Elijah brought us prophesies
Jesus brought us Grace.
According to this event, the law and prophesies are
gone but Grace stays.
Jesus ALONE at the end of the experience, God said
“This is my son; listen to Him”.
It is not by law, it is not by
prophesies, it is Grace alone that we are set free, set free from our
unbelieves, set free from our slumber, set free from our sinful nature. It is all
by Grace through this one person Jesus Christ.
The grace flows from the mountain top to the
mountain down.
The next day when Jesus and the disciples came down
from the mountain top, the bible said a great crowd met him and a man in the
crowd cried out to the Lord, in verse 38 “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son;
he is my only child, suddenly unclean spirits are troubling him; but your
disciples cannot do the job well to cast out the unclean spirit. Jesus
answered, “you faithless and perverse
generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring the son
here…. Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit healed the boy and gave him back to his
father.
It was by Grace that this boy was healed; that the
unclean spirit could leave this boy. This boy was set free from the unclean
spirit by God`s Grace.
We are set free from all our unclean actions by
God`s grace alone, not by our works.
But remember this, if there is one thing you may
remember from this sermon, remember this, it takes faith to do God’s work. Whether small or big faith, it takes faith
to do God’s work. Some people may view Pastoring as something
too simple, it is not. In pasturing, you need faith. You may encounter very difficult
situations, situations that are beyond your understanding. What you need is
faith, faith in God, knowing that it is God in action, not you. So act boldly.
In 2 Corinthians 3:12, it says “since we have such hope, (hope in Jesus) we act
with great boldness”.
Therefore Paul said “Since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this
ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful things that one
hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by
the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of
everyone in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is
veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing”.
God’s glory can never be hidden,
however it can be hidden from those who veiled their heart. Amen
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, February 10, 2013
