Ordinary Men Need An Extraordinary God
ORDINARY MEN NEED
AN EXTRAORDINARY GOD
Ordinary Men Need An Extraordinary God
You and I, we are ordinary people
by His mercy and through His grace
called and born again into the wonders
of His Kingdom glorious . . .
. . . and there are days He leads us through valleys deep,
and there are days He leads us
by streams of still waters refreshing
as he strengthens and prepares us . . .
. . . for days when he leads up to the top of steep
mountains where He shows us His
glory and transfigures our hearts for
service back down in the valley . . .
. . . and deep in our hearts and in our minds we know
He will never forsake nor
will He leave us as He implores all
to come into His bright Kingdom.
Peter, James and John were ordinary men in need of a Savior. They were fishermen. They needed a deeper purpose. They were simple men. They needed a teacher. They were earthy men. They needed the way to Heaven. In a word, they needed Jesus.
Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James and John.
Jesus came to them in the midst of their lives as fishermen. He called them and promised them he would make them fishers of men. They left their nets, but not all of their earthly ways. Jesus constantly challenged them with His actions, His thinking, and His teaching.
Jesus had extraordinary plans for each of them as they followed Him. Over and over again He amazed them with His words, His compassion, His healing, and His power. Over and over again He focused their hearts and minds on loving and so, serving God, and then on loving other people. Over and over again He demonstrated how He loved and obeyed God the Father, and how He loved every other person. Over and over again He demonstrated His power, giving sight to the blind, feeding the five thousand, and walking on the water.
And yet these ordinary men individually and collectively struggled between belief and unbelief, between enthusiastic feelings of faith and desperate pangs of doubt. Each of these one-time fisherman ultimately had to choose, complete surrender to Jesus as their peoples’ long awaited Messiah, or rejecting Him and all He offered, to return to their lives of fishing the uncertain waters of the Sea of Galilee.
James and John
and their mother
pled with Jesus
for special places
in His Kingdom.
So, as Jesus marched deliberately toward Jerusalem and the cross, He knew Peter, James and John much better than they knew themselves. James and John and their mother asked for thrones next to Jesus in His Kingdom. When challenged by Jesus about the cost involved in taking such seats, James and John readily insisted they would readily accept any challenge. They had no idea about the future challenges they would face, but Jesus did. Peter dared to confront Jesus when He tried to explain His coming sacrificial death and glorious resurrection. Jesus gave Peter a strong rebuke, because, without understanding, he was parroting the enemy’s own conniving pitch to Jesus, Peter’s own confessed Messiah.
Why did Jesus take these three sincere but imperfect followers up on the Mount of Transfiguration? This is exactly what they needed, for He knew what they would be called to do, what they would be called to suffer in their future lives even after they suffered the shock of His arrest, His crucifixion, His burial, and His resurrection.
Jesus Transfigured
With Moses and Elijah
They needed this shocking encounter with His true glory so that they would find their faith strong in the face of life-and-death situations to come. Peter, James, and John would need deep and essential faith to be His Apostles to begin the process of taking the Good News of the Salvation of Jesus to the world.
According to Matthew, Chapter 17, this is how the Transfiguration happened:
1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.
3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.”
8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”
Peter, James, and John needed to experience the Presence of the Power of God in their Master Jesus. This is how God accomplished His Purpose in the Transfiguration of their Master, Jesus:
Peter, James and John
were terrified.
- Jesus was transfigured before them. His face shown as bright as the sun. His clothes glowed like light itself.
- Moses (representing the Law) and Elijah (representing the Prophets) appeared with Jesus.
- They were talking with Jesus.
- Not surprisingly, Peter was overwhelmed; and so he suggested they erect three tents, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
- God intervened in the form of a bright cloud, in effect, to say, “Here is My purpose.”
- “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
- Peter, James, and John fell on their faces in terror.
- Notice what Jesus said: “Get up. Don’t be afraid.”
- They looked up. Moses and Elijah were gone.
- Jesus told Peter, James, and John not to tell anyone about these amazing events until after His resurrection.
“Take, eat
in remembrance of me.”
In the meantime, Jesus spent precious time with Peter, James, and John and His other disciples. He taught them many powerful truths. He prayed for them. He washed their feet. He shared with them the Bread (His Flesh) and the Wine (His Blood.) He pleaded with them to pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. They fell asleep. He was arrested. Peter tried to fight, but Jesus admonished him. They all fled. John did make his way to the trial and then to the Cross, where he comforted Jesus’ mother. Peter made his way to the trial, where he denied Jesus three times, and then fled.After Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection He appeared to His disciple and promised them the coming of the Holy Spirit. Beginning on the Day of Pentecost and continuing throughout their lives, Peter, James and John led the way as the Gospel took root in Jerusalem and spread throughout the world. They served Him faithfully, remarkably, and courageously.
Actually, as one of the leaders of the early church, James became the first martyr when he was arrested by Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem and beheaded. I have to believe that, having seen Jesus, both transfigured and resurrected, James must have given strength in the face of his persecution. He did, indeed, drink the cup of his Master’s suffering.
Peter’s arrest by the same Herod Agrippa followed not long after, and the tyrant’s plan was to win favor with the Jewish leadership by having him beheaded also. However, God sent an angel to rescue Peter, and he continued to take a leading role in the early church for many years. Eventually, we believe he was crucified in Rome by the Emperor Nero, and if church history is correct; he requested and was granted his desire, to be crucified upside-down, insisting he was not worthy to die in same manner as His Lord. Again, surely Peter faced death with the images of His transfigured and resurrected Lord in mind.
John lived a long life, leading and serving the church, spending time in exile on the prison island of Patmos, where he received and recorded the Book of Revelation. No one really knows how he died in the end. There is one remarkable tradition that he was boiled in oil in Ephesus, but did not die. We do know he remained faithful throughout his life. John had the unique privilege of seeing Jesus transfigured, resurrected and glorified in Heaven as the very triumphant Lamb of God.
Jesus, as always, led by our Heavenly Father, chose Peter, James, and John to accompany him up on the mountain to experience His own heavenly magnificence, accompanied by Moses and Elijah, so they would never forget His Holiness, His Power, and His Glory, no matter what they faced in their demanding lives of service to Him, their Savior, their Lord, and their Messiah.
In your life and mine there come mountaintop experiences which overwhelm our hearts and minds with the glory of God and His perfect Will in bringing us salvation trough Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit guiding and comforting us day after day. In my life I remember a beautiful, starry winter evening in Ludowici, Georgia, when God gave me His Call into missions. I also remember a seemingly normal spring day in St. Marys, Georgia, when my seventh grade students knelt with me and prayed, before receiving the phone call from Richmond, Virginia, informing me my appointment as a missionary had been approved. I remember my very first day at Baptist High School in Jos, when I felt God’s confirming Presence as He assured me this was His place for me to serve Him in His Kingdom.
And there are so many more mountaintop encounters with His glory . . . when in Nigeria I received by mail Becky’s acceptance of my proposal for marriage and missionary service together in Nigeria; . . . when our Rachel was born in Jos; . . . when John David was born in Ogbomosho; . . . when we were cleared after my bout with cancer to return to missionary service at Sahel Academy in Niamey, Niger; . . . and I could go on and on and on . . . God has been more than faithful to remind me over and over just who He is, and how He is working to perfect His Kingdom inside my heart and around the world. Praise be to His Holy Name.
Why don’t you take a few moments and list some of those mountain-top transfiguring moments from your life as an encouragement to praise and thank Him for loving and keeping and transforming you for His service?
Revelation 5:13-14
”And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth
and under the earth and in the sea,
and all that is in them, saying,
‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might
forever and ever!’”
