COME
UP THE MOUNTAIN
February
23, 2020
Rev.
Bernt P. Tweit
Epistle Lesson; 2 Peter 1:16-21
Gospel Lesson; Matthew 17:1-9
Sermon Text; Exodus 24:12
Exodus 24: 15-18
The portion of God's Word we look at for today is
taken from selected verses of Exodus, chapter 24. This is God's Word.
The Lord said to Moses, “Come
up to me on the mountain. Wait there,
and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commands that I have
written so that you can teach them.”
Moses went up onto the
mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.
The Glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered the
mountain for six days. On the seventh
day the Lord called to Moses out of the middle of the cloud. The appearance of the Glory of the Lord
looked like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the
people of Israel. Moses entered into the
middle of the cloud and climbed up the mountain. Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty
nights.
These are Your Words. Heavenly Father, lead us in the way of
truth. Your Word is truth.
Amen
Today is a Sunday of
transition. I say that today, because we
are ending one season of The Church Year, and we are getting ready to enter
another season of The Church Year. The season of The Church Year we are ending
today is The Epiphany Season. The word 'epiphany'
just means 'to reveal' or 'to make known'.
We particularly look at Jesus revealing Himself to us as true God. The Epiphany Season began on January 12th
this year. On January 12th
the focus of our services was the baptism of Jesus. At the baptism of Jesus, we heard God the
Father speak, when he spoke these words about Jesus.
“This is my beloved Son.
With Him I am well pleased.”
You just heard those words
again today, didn't you? Today, on this
Sunday, as Jesus was up on the Mountain of Transfiguration, we heard those same
words from God, the Father, about His Son.
“This is my Son,
whom I love;
with Him I am well pleased.
Listen to Him.”
Now, going forward from
today, Jesus would be coming down off of this Mountain of Transfiguration. He would resolutely set Himself out to go to
another mountain in Jerusalem. That is
Mount Calvary, where Jesus would lay down His life on the cross to pay for the
sins of the world.
And so, we leave The Epiphany
Season behind us today. On Wednesday we
begin a new season. On February 26th
we begin the Season of Lent, with our Ash Wednesday worship service.
Well, how does this day get
its name? It is known as Transfiguration
Sunday. It gets its name from our Gospel
Lesson for today. We heard that one,
simple, short, little sentence that Jesus was “transfigured in front of
them”. The word we translate as 'transfigured'
in English is really the Greek word, 'metamorphosis'. You hear that word 'metamorphosis',
and certainly we talk about that in our grade school years, particularly when
we talk about the stages of a Monarch Butterfly - how it goes from an egg to
the lava, or the caterpillar, and then in to the cocoon or chrysalis. Then, it comes out as a full grown, adult
Monarch Butterfly. It is talking about
the change that takes place with those stages of a butterfly. That Greek word is to remind us that on this
Transfiguration Sunday Peter, James, and John got a glimpse of who Jesus really
was. He was more than just a Man. He was transformed, or transfigured, or
metamorphized right before their very eyes.
He is God.
Today, as we look at our Old
Testament Lesson, it is Moses who is going up on the mountain. That is a little bit of a precursor, or a
little bit of a reminder of Jesus' transfiguration.
I want to set the stage by
looking at a few of the chapters before Exodus, chapter twenty four.
Exodus, chapter nineteen
tells us God wanted to make a covenant with His people. Pastor Bartels eluded to this a little bit
last week. The word 'covenant' is
not one we talk about very often in our language. We maybe use the word 'contract' a
little bit more. It is an agreement
between two parties. So, God was
beginning to establish this covenant between Himself, and the people.
Then comes Exodus, chapter
twenty. That is the well known chapter
in scripture in which God gives The Ten Commandments, or He gives the Decalogue
to Moses. The Ten Commandments are The
Moral Law. The Ten Commandments tell us
what to do, and what not to do.
Now, we get to the chapter
our text is in for today, Exodus, chapter twenty four. Here is where God is going to ratify the
covenant with His people. The word 'ratify'
just means 'to make it official'.
God is going to make it official with this covenant, and to give it
formal consent. So, the Lord says to
Moses,
“Come up to me on the mountain.”
I just want to go back to
what it is the people said they were going to do with this covenant. God had established the covenant. He had formulated the covenant. The people stood there in acknowledgment before
God, before His covenant, and they said,
“We will do everything the Lord has said.”
Right before our text, they
even go a step farther than that, and they say, “Not only will we do everything
the Lord has said.” But they also said,
“We will obey.”
But, you and I both know The
Children of Israel would never, ever, ever be able to keep their
side of the covenant. They would never
be able to keep their side of the contract.
Why is that? It is because there
was an impassible barrier between God, and The Children of Israel. There is an impassible barrier between us,
and God as well.
Now, usually here in Wisconsin,
when we use the word 'impassible', we are talking about winter time, and
we are talking about snow, blowing, drifting, and how sometimes the roads are 'impassible'. Sometimes, here in Wisconsin the roads are 'impassible'
so that they take the plows off of the roads.
They put down gates so that people cannot get on to the interstate
system, anymore, because the roads are 'impassible'.
Well, there is an impassible
barrier between ourselves, and God. Here
is what scripture says that impassible barrier is. There is a passage from Isaiah, chapter fifty
nine that says this.
“Our iniquities have separated us from God
and our sins have hidden His face from us.”
Between us and God is this
impassible barrier we cannot get beyond because of our sin. It's a “What hope do we possibly have?”
God has given us The Ten
Commandments. In His Ten Commandments He
tells us what to do, and He tells us what not to do. We look at those Ten Commandments, and we
have to admit to ourselves that we can't obey The Law, as God has established
before us in His covenant.
And so, what answer of hope
do we have? How can that impassible
barrier of our sin be overcome?
I want you to hear a
beautiful passage from the book of Ephesians that talks about how this
impassible barrier has been broken down.
Ephesians chapter two says,
“Jesus has destroyed the barrier,
the dividing wall,
through the cross.”
Jesus came to take down that
impassible barrier. He destroyed it,
through His death on the cross. Now,
right after that passage I just quoted for you, is a much more familiar section
of scripture, and it says what we now have, because Jesus has destroyed the
barrier.
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and
aliens,
but fellow citizens with God's people,
and members of God's household,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
with Jesus Christ, Himself as the chief cornerstone.”
Right before our text for
today, Moses did something before he went up on Mount Sinai to receive The Ten
Commandments. He built an altar, and he
sacrificed an animal. He collected the
blood of that animal and put it in a bowl.
This is what Moses then did. He
took the blood from the bowl, and he began to sprinkle it on the people and he
spoke these words. He said, “This is the
blood of the covenant.”
When I speak those words to
you today that Moses spoke, “This is the blood of the covenant”, does it remind
you of anything?
Moses lived about fifteen
hundred years before Jesus. Here is what
Jesus spoke in His day, and particularly this is what Jesus spoke on Maundy
Thursday evening. Jesus said,
“This is MY blood of the covenant.”
So that we can see these
sentences right by each other:
Here is what Moses said,
“This is the blood of the covenant.”
While Jesus said,
“This is MY blood of the covenant.”
This last week, as I was
preparing this message for us, one of the things I looked at is The
Lutheran Study Bible. It is a
great Bible, with great commentary. At
this part of Exodus, chapter twenty four, there are a couple of paragraphs that
talk about what this means, and the connection it has. I want to share these two paragraphs with
you. It says,
“Jesus' disciples understood
the blood of the old covenant (which is talking about Moses receiving the
covenant from God), but could they possibly comprehend the depth of Jesus'
words on Maundy Thursday evening, when He lifted a cup, and spoke of the blood
of the new covenant? Jesus often
foretold His suffering, and death, yet no words could prepare the disciples for
the evening that followed. Another altar
rose above the earth on Good Friday. It
was wooden and roughly cut. It would
hold The Sacrifice, the One whose blood would redeem all people, for all
eternity. The Father in Heaven observed
Jesus' obedience, and accepted the sacrifice.
For in the Heavenly Tabernacle an everlasting covenant was made. By the cross we are partakers in Jesus' life,
and possessors of the Heavenly inheritance.”
And so, today, here is what we understand.
We understand we are not at Mount Sinai receiving The Ten Commandments
like Moses did. But, we are 'at another
mountain'. Here is what the book of
Hebrews says about 'that other mountain we are on today'. It says,
“You have not come to a mountain that can be touched
and that is burning with fire.
But, you have come to Mount Zion,
through the Heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living
God.
You have come to Jesus,
the mediator of a new covenant.”
You see, Moses is 'a
picture'. He is a type of 'christ'. He is a picture of Jesus. He was
the mediator between the Children of Israel and God. It is a reminder to us of who Jesus is. Jesus is the mediator between us and God. Jesus stands between us and God. He has broken down that impassible
barrier. He has broken down that dividing
wall, through His death on the cross.
The very last statement of
our text for today said Moses was up on the mountain for forty days and forty
nights. During that time, he was
receiving what the tabernacle should look like, and what worship in the tabernacle
should look like. Moses went up on to
the mountain to be in the presence of God.
Guys, today Jesus comes to
you. He says, “Come up to me, on 'the
mountain'.” That is what we are
doing today. We are coming up to God on
'the mountain'. We are coming in to the
presence of God. And, God is coming to
us through His Word, The Bible. God is
coming to us through the Sacraments of Baptism, and The Lord's Supper. We see that most clearly with The Lord's
Supper, in which Moses said, “This is the blood of the covenant”, and Jesus
saying,
“This is my blood of the covenant.”
Oh, how we wish we could stay
with God on 'the mountain'.
Do you know what the room
that we worship in is called? It is
called, 'a sanctuary'. The
word 'sanctuary' means, 'a place of refuge, or a place of
safety'. Sometimes, we might
wish we could stay in the sanctuary.
Now, Moses was up on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. But, I don't think we would say we would want
to stay here for forty days and forty nights. But, we would love to remain in God's sanctuary.
Do you know what? We need to leave the sanctuary. We need to go 'down from the mountain', just
as Moses did, and just as Jesus did.
Why? It is so that we can take
the message of Jesus to other people. Sometimes that may seem to be a daunting task,
to share Jesus, or invite people to come to worship. I understand that, and I agree with
that. But, I offer another thing we can
maybe do this week. This upcoming
Saturday, February 29th is Leap Day, and it is also an Open House
here at Holy Cross. It is an opportunity
to invite people to come to our Early Learning Center, to our school, and to
our church and sanctuary, to see who we are.
Invite them to the offerings we have here, in our ministries, here at
Holy Cross. We need to 'come down the
mountain' so we can take that message, and share it with other people.
I am going to go back, and
repeat one thing I said today, and then conclude with these two things. The book of Hebrews says this, connecting our
Old Testament Lesson and Gospel Lesson.
“You have not come to a
mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire. But, you have come to Mount Zion, the
heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.
You have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.”
Praise be to God that Jesus
has broken down that impassible barrier of our sins. He did that through His death on the
cross. Now, our response is this,
according to the book of Hebrews.
“Let us be thankful,
and to worship God acceptably with reverence
and awe.”
I close with this. Today is the last day you are going to hear
the word “Alleluia” sung in this room for the next two months. The reason you are not going to hear that is
because we are transitioning from The Epiphany Season to The Lenten
Season. During The Lenten Season, yes,
we focus on the depth of our sin. But,
yes especially, we focus on the depth of God's love for us in sending Jesus to
be our Savior. The Lenten Season is just
a little more somber.
Do you know when the next
time is when we will sing “Alleluias” in this room? It is going to be on Easter Sunday, in which
we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus, and we rejoice in the
promise He has given,
“Because I live,
you also will live.”
Amen