How Can You See the Glory of Jesus Today?

Last Sunday after Epiphany, The Transfiguration of Our Lord, 2/4/24 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 How Can You See the Glory of Jesus Today? I. Not on your own II. Only through the gospel What’s your definition of “glory”? I Googled it and found this: “A high renown or honor won by notable achievements. A magnificence or great beauty.” That’s somewhat helpful, but still slightly nebulous. What I mean is that it’s rather subjective. For instance, if you’re an avid fan of pro wrestling, you might see glory where some of us—maybe most of us—don’t and can’t. Likewise, our definitions of musical, dramatical, academic, and athletic glory might all differ, and perhaps widely. So, what does glory look like? Perhaps you have rarely, if ever, pondered that question and the answer doesn’t really matter to you. But you’re here in worship today celebrating the Transfiguration of our Lord, one of the most, if not THE most glorious event in the life of Jesus here on earth. And, if you ponder that event, it makes you wonder just what that glory involved. We have some descriptions of it in the accounts of Jesus’ Transfiguration. We just heard and read Mark’s. But it still leaves us wondering just what that glory was. What did seeing the glory of the Son of God look like? And, if you were Peter, James, or John—the three disciples who witnessed it—imagine what it was like to come down from that mountain and not being able to share what you had seen until after Jesus had risen from the dead. Recall that there was some serious disciple-rivalry going on that reared its ugly head at the most unfortunate times. Imagine how difficult it was for these three men, when confronted with the one-upmanship of another disciple, not to shout back, “O yeah? Well, I was on the Mount of Transfiguration, and I saw Jesus in all his glory as the Son of God.” My point is this: seeing Jesus in all his glory was a real feather in the caps of these three disciples. If you had been one of the other nine disciples, wouldn’t you have wanted to see it for yourself? Of course you would! And we still do today. As modern followers of Jesus, which of us wouldn’t want a Mount of Transfiguration experience like this one? We all would and more times than just once in our lives. In fact, when we need it most, when we’re not so sure about how Jesus feels about us, we’d love the chance to see his glory. But how? How can you see the glory of Jesus today? The easy answer is, “You can’t until you get to heaven.” But the Apostle Paul would argue with that answer. And he does so here in these words of our text from 2 Corinthians 4. Did you catch what his answer was? Maybe not. So, let’s ask our question again, “How can you see the glory of Jesus today?” May the Holy Spirit lead us to see the glorious answer through his word this morning. I. If there are two children in the room and one tells the other, “I have something special, but you can’t see it” what’s likely to happen? The other child isn’t going to rest until he or she gets to see what the other child is hiding. It will nearly drive them nuts, and that’s exactly what the other child wants—just to aggravate the other, to have the upper hand in what might be a very small matter. While the Bible states clearly that no one can see God and live because he is holy and we are sinful, we want the experience of seeing his glory. We want to see the representation of his goodness, love, mercy, grace, omnipotence, the fact that he is above all things, that evil cannot touch him. Who wouldn’t want to see that glory? But listen to what Paul tells us, “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” It doesn’t sound as if Paul is referring to us—the people worshipping here this morning or listening to this sermon virtually. He refers to the god of this age blinding the minds of unbelievers. The god of this age is none other than Satan. And we know that he has blinded the minds of unbelievers. We’re sad about that, but we get it. Non-Christians can’t see that glory on their own and no one can. But that’s not what our world thinks. The people of this world have convinced themselves that they don’t need to see the glory of Jesus. They have their own visions of glory. They see glory in what they can become and be by themselves. They probably wouldn’t say it this way, but they make themselves into their own god. Their god is what they want him to be and who they think he is. They reserve for themselves the right to determine what spiritual truth is, if there is any such thing. Or, they gouge out their spiritual eyes completely and claim that god doesn’t exist. In such people, the god of this age has succeeded in reaching his goal of inflicting spiritual blindness. They cannot see “light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” How pitiful! How damning! But again, thanks be to God! That’s not who we are! So, what does this mean for us? Is the Lord speaking to any of us in these words of Paul? It might not seem like it, until you take to heart this shocking truth about yourself—you came into this world as a sinner, steeped in the darkness of unbelief. You couldn’t see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. And no one can reverse that spiritual blindness on their own. And perhaps even worse, once you have seen that glory, is there a chance that unbelief could once again set in and make us spiritually blind again? It certainly could! I’m sure you know of cases where it has. And it fills you with concern and grief. II. So, back again to our initial question. How can you see the glory of Jesus today? How can you make sure you see it every day of your life here on earth until you see it fully in the presence of God in heaven? First, admit and be daily aware that you didn’t see the glory of Jesus on your own. You did nothing to see it. You can’t see it on your own. The glory of Jesus is not something you deserve to see. It’s not your right as a human being. It doesn’t happen when you rest on your own spiritual laurels. That’s a delusion of the worst kind. Your spiritual laurels don’t exist! They have nothing to do with seeing the glory of Jesus. In fact, they keep you from seeing it. Instead, as you know, seeing the glory of Jesus depends solely on the gospel. The gospel of Jesus is the solution to being blind to the glory of Jesus. That gospel is none other than the historical fact that the Son of God came to this earth in human flesh and blood to be your Savior from sin. To be that Savior, he had to live a holy life under God’s law for you as your Substitute. And he completed that work of being your Savior when he offered himself as the sacrifice for your sins on Calvary’s cross. The Holy Spirit uses that good news about Jesus as your Savior to bring you to faith in Jesus and reveal his glory to you. He is the one who called you to faith in Jesus. You didn’t decide to work faith in your own heart. You can’t! That’s something only the Holy Spirit can do. It’s a miracle every time he does it. And with that faith in Jesus, he enlightens you. He leads you to see who Jesus is and all the blessings Jesus won for you. He convinces you that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, and not just some earthly prophet. He leads you to see that Jesus’ death on the cross won for you three great blessings—the blessings you need more than anything else: forgiveness for all your sins, a new life as a child of God, and eternal life in heaven. Amazing! That’s the glory of the Son of God! That’s seeing the glory of Jesus. Paul says it like this, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” Notice that Paul did not state that God will make his light shine in our hearts; he stated God made his light shine in our hearts. Past tense. It’s already happened. It happened when the Holy Spirit used the gospel of Jesus to bring you to faith in Jesus. Each day of your Christian life you see the glory that Jesus reveals to you—he is your own Savior from sin. There is no greater vision than that! And that’s enough for now. That’s plenty as we sit comfortably here in worship. We’re good with the glory of Jesus we’re seeing. But is that always enough for you? Have you ever been plagued by doubt regarding your relationship with Jesus? Have you ever wished he would miraculously give you some sign from heaven, telling you what you think you need to know? Have you ever resorted to thinking that if only Jesus would appear in his glory once in a while now, more people—such as the people you’re praying for—would take him and his word seriously? Have you ever thought that more people might consider become Christian if it was a little more glorious being one? In other words, you’d be willing to climb a mountain to see the glory of Jesus and to lead others in doing the same, wouldn’t you? So would I! But we don’t need to. Instead, his glory is so easily and readily available to view. It’s right here in his word which declares who Jesus is and what he did to be your Savior. It’s in your baptism, where he made you his own dear child and put his name on you to claim you. It’s in the Lord’s Supper where Jesus gives you his very body and blood with the bread and the wine as a seal and assurance of your forgiveness and eternal life with him in heaven. Is there anything more glorious than that? Not now. Not here on earth. But fuller glory awaits you in heaven. And that’s what your all-glorious Savior has in store for you. See the glory of Jesus now and look forward to beholding it forever! Amen.