“Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud. ‘This is my Son whom I love, ‘Listen to him!'” (Mark 9:7)

Who do you listen to? The modern super-connected world hurls a tidal wave of different voices at us day after day, bombarding us with a multitude of news, opinions and stories. How do we choose what to listen to when we are faced with such an enormous selection?

The Transfiguration made the invisible visible

When you first meet someone there is a lot you don’t know about them.

You can quickly see what they look like, but it takes time to really find out what kind of person they are, what they like, whether they are shy or outward going, kind or nasty, what kinds of music they enjoy and so…

We gradually get to know them,

but often there is still a lot about a person that we never really know.

There is a lot about people that remains invisible.

Peter, James and John had been following Jesus for a couple of years.

They were getting to know him and beginning to realise,

that he was quite unlike anyone else.
A really special person.

He spoke and taught with an amazing authority,

he did amazing miracles.

They had even seen him calm storms and raise the dead to life.

They were coming to realise that Jesus was God’s special person,

God’s anointed one, the promised coming king.

They were beginning to see Jesus for who he really was,

but then something happened that revealed even more amazing about Jesus.

There is no record of any other event like it in all the Old Testament or ancient writings. We call it the Transfiguration, and in this moment, they saw something about who Jesus was that they had never seen before.

The transfiguration made the invisible visible.

Jesus took Peter, James and John, his three closest disciples up a mountain.

When this strange event happened.

On this board is an invisible diagram. To help us understand the Transfiguration, we are going to make the invisible visible.

Unveil three aspects of the story by painting over wax covering:

Paint over the Jesus transfigured section.

The word ‘transfigured’ means changed or transformed.

Peter, James and John who had only ever seen Jesus as a man like them, suddenly saw his clothes become dazzling white – whiter than any white they had ever seen before. This was the kind of dazzling white that in the Bible is always associated with God. In the New Testament it is used to describe angels and in one of Daniel’s visions it is used to describe the ancient of days or God.

• Imagine you were there: How would you feel if you suddenly saw someone’s clothes start glowing bright white?

Paint over Moses and Elijah

Then we are told that Moses and Elijah appeared talking with him.

Moses and Elijah were two great men of God from the Old Testament, who had spoken God’s words in powerful ways. In particular they had both gone up to a mountain top to meet with God and listen to his words. Now, here they were on a mountain top, talking not with God, but with Jesus!

• Imagine you were there: How would you feel if you suddenly saw some heroes from the past talking with your friend?

Peter was not sure what to do with this great vision. He offered to build shelters for Jesus, Elijah and Moses, perhaps hoping to keep the vision going or at least to have some control of what was going on. But this experience was only temporary and completely beyond his understanding or comprehension.

Paint over the cloud…

The only response Peter receives is the appearance of  a cloud and a voice from the cloud. This is the voice of God and his message is simple:

“This is my Son! Listen to him!!”

God calls Jesus his Son. Jesus is no ordinary man, he is the most important person who has ever lived – the Son of God.

• Imagine you were there: How would you feel if you heard a voice from the cloud. Would you believe what it said.

For Peter, James and John this was an amazingly awesome moment. They had seen the invisible truth of Jesus’ divinity or God-nature revealed, they had glimpsed in that moment his true glory.

It was a life changing experience, one they would never forget, but Jesus told them not to tell anyone. They still had more to discover about Jesus, to truly understand who he was, they needed to wait until after his death and resurrection.

But why did Jesus give these three a glimpse of his glory at this moment.

We’ll think about that after the next children’s song.

I’m gonna jump up and down…

————————————————————————————————–

So, why did Jesus give this glimpse of glory at this time?

The two people that appear with Jesus give us a clue.

Listen to Him!

Note links with Moses – Card with Moses on and ear on the other side.

The transfiguration event is like when Moses went up Mount Sinai to meet with God. He took Joshua up the mountain with him, as Jesus took Peter, James and John up a mountain. God appeared in a cloud and spoke.

With Moses, God gave the Law for Moses to teach the people for them to follow and obey.

Turn Moses card around.

Now God does not give the Law, he says, ‘Listen to Jesus.’ Why? because He is God’s Son. The Transfiguration, shows that Jesus is God’s most special person, his anointed spokesperson. Even Moses spoke of a prophet who would come after him and be greater than him.

So will we listen to Jesus? Will we treat his words as more important, more valuable, more trustworthy, more authoritative than anyone else’s?

Will we listen to Jesus, when his teaching goes against what most people around us think? If we have glimpsed his glory in the transfiguration, then surely we should.

Will we listen to Jesus, even when it means living or acting in a way that we do not want to, or when it challenges what we already think? If we have glimpsed his glory in the transfiguration, then surely we should.

Will we allow his words to transform our thinking and our lifestyles, because we have seen the invisible truth of who he really is?

Follow Him, come what may!

Note links with Elijah – Card with Elijah on and shield on the other side.

The transfiguration also features Elijah, who also went up a mountain to meet with God. Elijah went to God on the mountain, because he was feeling fed up, like he was the only one that really cared about following God, and because the queen at the time wanted him killed, because she did not like what he was saying.

On the mountain, Elijah experienced and earthquake, strong winds and a fire, but he knew that awesome, though those things were God was not in any of them. Then he heard God’s small voice, which told him he was wrong. There were lots of other people still following God and he told him to go and call one of them to be trained up to replace him. So, Elijah went and called Elisha.

Elijah’s mountain top experience acted as a kind of shield against his fears, his struggles and his despair. It encouraged him to keep going despite the problems. Turn Elijah around to make shield.

Not long before Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain he had told them that he was going to be killed. This must have been very worrying for them and they were going to have to stick with Jesus even though Jesus was going to die on the cross.

For them having a glimpse of the glory of Jesus was to encourage them to follow Jesus, come what may!

It can be hard being a follower of Jesus. Sometimes we may be teased or bullied because of it. But when we have glimpsed the glory of Jesus, when we know who he truly is, then that acts as a kind of shield that helps us to keep going.

So, how do you connect with the glory of God?

Perhaps it is through focussing on him and prayer and praise, with others or by yourself. Maybe it is by spending time alone with God. I hope that joining us in church on Sunday can in some small way draw us to connect with the glory of God.

Whatever it is, it is something we need to want and desire. We have chosen a verse for the year. As we seek to discern God’s way forward, we first of all need a desire to connect with God, to come into his presence, to glimpse his glory. Why? Because it makes us ready to listen to him and to persevere despite the discouragements we face.

Let me finish by reading the verse of the year and leave you to pray quietly in response.

“One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)

“God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24)

This week is the last in our series on Nehemiah and we are thinking about Holy Worship. The work is completed, the community gather, the word is read, praise to God is given, and they commit themselves again to being the people of God. Yet in ch. 13 Nehemiah returns as the people have not maintained the call to live holy and distinct lives, which it could be argued is because they’re not dedicated to Holy Worship.

Over the last five weeks, we’ve been looking at the story of God’s people using the books, Ezra and Nehemiah and exploring how it speaks into our year of discernment. Ezra begins in the context that Jerusalem had been invaded by the Babylonians and the final tribes that had been present in Jerusalem, not already taken into exile, were taken into exile. The king of Persia issues a decree allowing Zerubabel to take people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of God, and we thought about how God will build his house, how his kingdom will come, how his promises came true in the time of Ezra, and how his promises will come true for us, his kingdom will come, his kingdom will grow, God will build his house.

60 years pass and Ezra is sent to Jerusalem, and he reads the law, that’s his calling, a teacher of the law and the reading of the Lord challenges the people and convicted them and so they study and obey God’s word, changing their behaviours to fit. As we do the same, it makes us know God’s promises and plan as we discover, who is, and who we’re supposed to be.

We then moved on about 12 years, and Nehemiah hears about the state of Jerusalem, about his fellow Jews that are there, And he’s stirred up to pray and fast and to mourn, and we thought about fasting and praying and how we’re called to stand in the gap – to think about the needs of our community, and as we are discerning in this year ahead to think about where we can be standing in the gap, where are the needs in our community.

Last week we saw in chapter 5, the problems of hunger and poverty that existed we saw how Nehemiah dealt with that, and it made us think about how we are called to be living examples, living out kingdom values, loving our Neighbour.

This encounter in Nehemiah is an interlude between the work of rebuilding the walls.

The story of Nehemiah continues with ongoing opposition and particularly tobiah the ammonite features quite heavily and played a part in our chapter today that we’ve just read. Tobiah and another official had been quite destructive in the rebuilding and heavily opposed – in chapter 6 we see ongoing opposition, there were death threats against Nehemiah. Letters sent back-and-forth trying to intimidate him. However the wall is completed they get the job done – the exiles return and there’s a whole list of those who came back and then in chapter 8 onwards Ezra again comes and reads the law. With the rebuilding there was in the wall, a pulipt, a podium built on which the law could be read. Ezra once again reads God’s word to those assembled and this leads to worship to confession and oath taking. all the things we have explored over the last few weeks happen here.

This year as we’re thinking about what is next with our journey with God here in Ramsgate. I imagine we’ll go through similar processes of re centering on God asking him what are we here for.

In these chapters building up to our reading today We have the regathered community of the people of God in Jerusalem again with the completed wall, the temple and the community fully intend to keep God centre. The wall includes a place where the word of God is taught.

At the end of chapter 12, after everything’s been put in order, the wall is dedicated. And it’s in this context that we start with chapter 13 where it says in v1 ‘on that day the book of Moses was read, aloud in the hearing of the people’.

What chapter 13 deals with is the fact that there have become problems with their worship, even in the event of everything that had been done. There were ongoing issues.. I think there are three things in todays chapter that Nehemiah disliked about their worship 1) it was polluted 2). It was limited and 3) it had been demoted.

What is worship? Why do we gather? It might help to think also about what things the world worships. The world often worships, money, pleasure, celebrity status, power. These things are invested in and take the focus.

John 4:23, says: ‘yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the father in the spirit, and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the father seeks.’ There is a sense here, that bringing God the glory, prizing him above Everything else is true worship. Worship is realising it is because of Jesus we have the freedom in life that we have.

One commentator defines worship this way: ‘worship is the act of attributing, reverent, honour homage to God. In the new Testament, various words are used to refer to the term worship. One is prone to worship, which means to bow down to God or kings.’

For us as Christians Jesus is the king of Kings and Lord of Lords. How do we bow down to him – give him worship in the whole of our lives. How do we empty ourselves of our entitlement and self interest and worth built on our own successes and realising where our true successes come from.

Nehemiah sees the worship of those in Jerusalem in chapter 13, as not being true worship. Nehemiah has left Jerusalem and he hears of these things that are going on and so returns to take action.

He has heard that their worship has become polluted – tobiah the ammonite has been given a space in the temple courts, likened to a small warehouse. his own possessions and stuff are being stored there. The items for worship and grain for offerings are removed. Tobiah was someone who was completely opposed to the rebuilding of the wall, had plotted and undermined and issued death threats, and yet the high priest who had intermarried into Tobiah’s family allowed the articles of worship to be discarded. The worship had been polluted – it was not being kept holy for worshipping the creator, God, the God, who had fulfilled his promises, and brought his people back once again to Jerusalem..

Is there anything that resonates for us about how our worship might get polluted? I’m not saying it is but it’s got me thinking but how do we keep it focused on our God who is holy

The second issue Nehemiah had with their worship was that it was limited. The levites had not been provided for as had been the instructions in scripture and so they had to go back to their fields and do other works so that they could survive and live, and therefore the worship had been limited because the Levites, who were there to enable the worship of the people of God were unable to be there. What might limit our worship?

Lastly the worship was demoted – other distractions were getting in the way of worship. The people of Judah were treading wine presses, bringing in grain, loading it onto donkeys selling food, not keeping the Sabbath holy.

Difficult isn’t it in this day in age because a lot of things happen now on Sundays. Our culture is has changed and sometimes Sunday is the only day that all family members are off together, or there are exciting opportunities, drama, football dance, and competitions that can happen those days too. How do we keep worship a priority

nehemiah felt strongly about correcting these issues with their worship to maintain Gods reputation amongst the peoples. To fulfill their duty as the people of God

We are on a mission from God – if we begin with worship putting him at the centre of it all what will God do- what will we learn? what will it change in us? Let’s make worship a priority and not allow it to be polluted, limited or demoted.

What is God stirring up in us in this year ahead to fuel the ministry in years to come? How can we maintain our worship of God loving him with our heart soul mind and strength? As we wait expectantly for Jesus’ kingdom come.

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honours him. (Proverbs 14:31). In our series on Ezra-Nehemiah we have reached a point in the narrative (in Nehemiah 5) where the conflict that has come from opposition to the rebuilding of the walls, and the work of rebuilding itself, takes a back seat and a new problem emerges – the problem of hunger and exploitation.

We’re thinking today about being living examples to our community. Of how to be role models for the good.

Our world has many different types of role models. There are role models that have paved a way for future generations – people like Barack Obama Malala, Mary Curie. There are people like David Attenborough, who invested time and energy and caring for the planet and raising awareness of the stewardship needed. Actors and singers can be role models. Olympians and paralympians. Celebrity are a whole new category of role model from the Kardashians to YouTubers like MrBeast. Who are some of your role models? they can be politicians, siblings, activists, parents, minister of faith. Who has been influential in your life who do you aspire to be? Do we think that actually we can be role models and our role models to other people in the way we think an act and behave?

Using this passage in Nehemiah, we’re thinking about problems in the world of hunger and exploitation. It was a situation Nehemiah was facing. They’ve been building the wall, there was opposition. All of this takes a backseat in the face of this new crisis of hunger and exploitation. The people approach Nehemiah with this serious problem that they’re facing, and we get Nehemiah as a living example of how to tackle this reality of hunger and exploitation. We can look at these big global issues and think what can we possibly do, but here we have an example of what one person was able to do in his corner of the world.

Our opening verse this morning was this from Proverbs: ‘ whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker, but he who is generous to the needy honours him’ if we are generous to the needy to help people in hunger in our little circle influence, then we’re honouring God, and Nehemiah was a living example of this and we can learn from him this morning.

We’re using these books of Ezra and Nehemiah in a series to help us think about this year of discernment. About how we can trust the God will build his kingdom about how through studying Gods word and standing in the gap through prayer we can know more of Gods ways can hear his voice and guidance and today we’re thinking about how we can be living examples of godly behaviour. The people that look out for those that are needy that are suffering from hunger and exploitation.

What can we do to tackle hunger exploitation today in our little bit of the world?

Nehemiah Was able to battle hunger and exploitation because he became aware of the hidden strains in the community. He hears this outcry from them. We read this in the first five verses of chapter 5. There was need for grain some are needing to sell their land, some were even needing to sell relatives. Needs were not being met.

A similar thing happened in the book of ACTS. The Hellenistic Jews were not being cared for in the same way, and this was brought to the attention of the brothers in Jerusalem, and so action was then taken, to make sure that all were being looked after.

What are the strains in our community? Where can we act? Where is the impoverishment where is the need?

Nehemiah saw the situation and was stirred to anger at the injustice. He was controlled and constructive in how he dealt with this situation. He gathered people together and explains that what they were doing, was not right, was not good.

In our Society what are people doing that is not right? where is our anger being stirred up?

Nehemiah wants to redress the wrong that exists – calls them to generosity to enable all to have enough.

Nehemiah has a great pattern of leadership. He sees the strains in society. He seeks to address these wrongs, and does this, because he’s motivated by the love of God, and of his brothers and sisters he dismisses his entitlement. Similar to Paul dismissing his entitlement in one Corinthians, chapter 9. Nehemiah is an example of humility of generosity – he doesn’t laud his power over the people, but shares what he has with his people.

The passage ends with Nehemiah wanting to recognise his generosity.

You might be sitting there thinking well, I’m not a leader, but actually all of us can be leaders – being a leader is to do with influence and we all have influence over certain groups of people within our orbit.

Jesus sums up the law in this way: hear o Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. love the Lord, your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind with all your strength. The second is this love your neighbour as yourself, there is no other commandment greater than these. This is how Jesus is teaching his followers to be living examples in their community

What does this mean for us in our community? we’ve talked about how in this year ahead We’re staying open to what God might be moving us in to. Where is there an outcry in our community? What wrongs can we redress? How can we lead by example?

What are your spheres of influence? what people do you come across day and day out what things do you see around you? That’s good people wear on a mission from God, and as part of that we want to think about what the needs are of our community and how we can be living examples that point people to Jesus. How can we model, loving God and loving our neighbour as our self. we can be people that don’t exploit that don’t take people for granted that generous with what we have as we move into the year of December. What is going to be stirring in us both as individuals and as a whole community. What situations will anger us into action?

Let’s spend some moments reflecting on these questions. In our community Where is there an outcry? What wrongs can we address? And how can we lead by example? Let’s be open to where God is wanting to speak to us and where we can be his living examples.