We're going to focus then on eternal glory, and that refers in many ways, or primarily, to Resurrection; or the Glory of Resurrection. Today I'll focus very much on Resurrection: what that looks like; and the First Resurrection. There are many aspects we could teach about it, particularly in relation to the current resurrection life we have, but I want to focus on the coming resurrection, the First Resurrection.
2 Peter 1:16-17 - “We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory, when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And we heard this voice, which came from heaven, when we were with Him on the holy mountain.”
Now this is an amazing scripture. All the scriptures we do today... you will want to go back and look at them, mark them, go through them and study them, make them your own. The first thing in that one is that the three disciples were eyewitnesses. An eyewitness is a spectator. They saw it personally; saw it with their own eyes, they were eyewitnesses. They were spectators, personally present, and they saw it. That's why he said: we didn't make up a big tale. This is not a fable. It's not some fiction. It's not some myth. We saw it. We were there. They're eyewitnesses; and what were they eyewitnesses to? They were eyewitnesses to the power, and coming, of the Lord Jesus Christ - we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
The word majesty - get this - the original word is ‘mega’; mega liotes, l-i-o-t-e-s, meaning: ‘magnificence’. We saw His magnificence. It means visible splendour. We saw His superb-ness. We saw His brilliance. We saw His royal dignity. That's the only word he could use that would describe it: it's mega! It's mega, mega, mega! Very, very big. They encountered the glory of Jesus, the majesty of His second coming, when He comes in resurrection glory.
Interesting, just a side note to think about: only three of the 12 saw it all, which - it's just an aside, but it does point out: not all will participate in this.
They visibly encountered Jesus. They saw Him transformed to become full of glory, and they saw what it was like; they tried to describe that, and they identify in that scripture where they saw it. They saw it on the Mount of Transfiguration. There are three good scriptures on the Mount of Transfiguration - Matthew, Luke and Mark all talk about it.
The second thing then is: Jesus’ resurrection glory was revealed to them; His Resurrection Glory. Firstly, Matthew wrote about it, in Matthew 16:27 - 17:2; then Luke wrote about it, in Luke 9:29; and Mark wrote about it in Mark 9:2-3.
Matthew said: (this is what Jesus said) “For the Son of Man will come, in the glory of His Father, with His angels”. He's saying: He will come in great Glory; and then He will reward each one, according to his works. Then He says: “assuredly I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death, until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. And then after six days He took Peter, James and John his brother, led them to a high mountain by themselves. He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, His clothes became white as light”.
What He's saying is: He prophesied to them, that some of you, some of you won't die before you see the Son of Man coming in glory. Straight after that, He took them up the mountain, and they saw it! What they're seeing is: the coming of the Son of Man; and they're seeing the Resurrection.
Luke wrote it like this: “As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered. His robes became white and glistening”. Then Mark wrote of it, in Mark 9:2-3 and he says: “After six days, He took Peter, James and John, let them up the high mountain apart and was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white like snow, there's no launderer on earth that can whiten them”.
It says Jesus was transfigured. That's the word ‘metamorphu’. It's a Greek word - we get the word ‘metamorphosis’ from it, which means you change from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Think of a caterpillar: earthbound, limitations galore; and then a butterfly: heaven-bound! The word ‘transfigure’ means to totally change your form - from something earthbound, to something heavenly-bound. That's why they use that word - it means a complete change of form. When Jesus was transfigured... yes, they could recognise His body; but it had been completely changed for a moment, by the power of God. That word metamorphosis describes His transformation, a complete transformation. They were just overwhelmed by it.