Sermon

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February 3, 2008
Transfiguration Sunday
Exodus 24:12,15-18
Pastor Robert Raasch

"Come Closer"

1. A Holy Command that Frightens
2. A Gracious Invitation that Comforts

I’d like to begin by asking a favor.  __________, will you stand up a minute?  Now come closer.  Come closer. Okay.  Thank you very much.  You’ve made my point.  What is the point?  Well, did you notice how hesitant __________ was to come forward?  I mean would you have felt any differently, if you were in his shoes?  I mean, it’s only natural to think, “Uh-oh, what going to happen now?  Am I in trouble?  Why am I being called up to the front?  Am I going to be embarrassed? ”  Of course, if I would have said right off the bat that I wanted him to come up to hang a medal around his neck for being such a great guy, maybe his attitude would have been a little different.  Boy, then he may well have come bounding up the stairs. 

But now, let’s take this example a step further.  Imagine that instead of me standing up here, it was God standing here.  Instead of ________ being asked to come up here, God, in fact, asks you to come up and stand beside him.  Tell me, would you do it?  Would you come walking right up to God?  Or would you run the other way?  You realize, that’s not just a hypothetical situation—at least  it wasn’t for an Old Testament believer named Moses.  In our text for today we hear God say, in effect, “Moses, come closer.”  And yet, those are words that are not only directed to Moses.  They’re also directed to you and me today.  God still says to us today, “Christian, come closer.”  And really, those words can be taken two ways.  On the one hand, it’s I. A Holy Command that Frightens.  On the other hand, it’s a: II. Gracious Invitation that Comforts.  First, it’s a holy command that frightens us.  Certainly, that’s the reaction that a lot of the Israelites had when they heard the voice of the Lord from the Mount Sinai, isn’t it?  Do you remember the scene?  Moses had led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and down the Sinai Peninsula.  There at the base of this rocky outcropping we know as Mount Sinai, the Children of Israel camped for 11 months.  While they were there, God spoke to them from a fiery cloud atop the mountain.  And what was their reaction?  Exodus 20 records it.  “When the people saw the thunder and lightening and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear.  They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen.  But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

Now, why would they say that?  Why would they say, “We don’t want God to talk to us directly?  We don’t want to go near to God.”?  The answer: because God is holy.  And his holiness always exposes man’s unholiness.  And that unholiness in the presence of God strikes terror into our hearts.  Wasn’t that evident in the actions of Adam and Eve after they ate of the forbidden fruit?  When they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden, did they go running up to him and throw their arms around him?  No, they ran away from him.  They tried to hide from him.  Their Creator God said, “Come closer,” and they said, “No way!” 

Haven’t we all experienced similar situations in life?  Whether it was our father saying, “Come here, I want to have a word with you, young man.”  Or whether it’s the voice over the school intercom that says, “Come immediately to the principal’s office.”  Or whether it’s the squad car signaling that you’re the one that has to pull over.  In each case, we get that sinking feeling in our stomachs.  You know, the “uh-oh, I’m in trouble now” feeling. 

Well, if we get that feeling when being called to account in front of one of God’s representatives, how much stronger would that emotion be when being called before God himself?  I mean, what if God Almighty, the Judge of the Universe, were standing here in all his glory—the one who knows everything you’ve ever done, the one who can read your mind like a slide show, the one who hates sin and who by his nature as a just God, must punish every sin you’ve ever committed with eternal death?  If that God were here today, wouldn’t we all be cowering in fear?  Crawling under the pews, hiding behind the pulpit?  And why would we do that?  Because God’s holiness exposes our unholiness.  Scripture says, “With (God) the wicked cannot dwell, the arrogant cannot stand in (his) presence.  (God hates) all who do wrong.”  Recognize, that’s not just talking about other people, the wicked people out there.  We are by nature the wicked, the arrogant, the ones who are constantly doing wrong—and we prove it every day of our lives.  As sinful human beings, we cannot stand in the presence of a just and holy God.  In fact, we’d make it about as long as a toothpick in a bonfire. 

Well, if that’s true, if sinners can’t stand in the presence of God, then how could Moses do what he did here in our text?  How could he go marching up the mountain and into the glory of God?  I mean, was Moses without sin?  Was he somehow better than all the other Israelites?  No, he was just a guilty as the rest of them.  Remember, he was guilty of murdering an Egyptian; he had been slow to answer God’s call; he disobeyed God’s order about calling water from the rock.  So why wasn’t Moses burned by God’s glory?  The answer?  Because God’s call to come closer was not just a holy command that frightens; it was also II. A Gracious Invitation that Comforts.

By allowing Moses to enter his glory without being destroyed, God revealed another one of his divine qualities, namely, his grace and his desire to have sinners come into his presence.  But wait a minute.  Isn’t that a contradiction?  To say that on the one hand, sinners are consumed by the fire of God’s holiness.  But on the other hand, to say that a sinner like Moses was protected from the fire of God’s holiness?  What makes the difference? 

The answer is Jesus Christ.  Think about what Jesus did.  Jesus, the holy Son of God, took upon himself the sins of all people.  In God’s eyes, Jesus, in effect, became the biggest sinner in the world.  And as a sinner, he allowed himself to be punished for all those sins.  He faced the wrath of God on the cross of Calvary.  He cried out in agony, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Jesus was in effect, saying, “I’m in hell here.  I’m being tortured alive!”  And for what purpose?  Jesus was enduring God’s wrath over our sin so that we wouldn’t have to.  In that sense Jesus was like our heat shield.  He defects God’s wrath.  Have you ever seen stories about the heat shields that fire fighters out in California carry with them?  If the wind suddenly shifts and a firefighter gets caught on the wrong side of the fire line, with the flames racing toward him, his only hope may be to pull out his heat shield, hunker under it and then allow that shield to protect him from the flames passing over him.

Isn’t that what Jesus has done for you and me?  He has protected us from the fiery wrath of a just and holy God.  In fact, isn’t that what the Bible says?  Romans 3:25 says, “God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement, literally, he presented him as one who would turn aside God’s wrath.”

My friends, that’s why Moses could step into the presence of God on Mount Sinai.  It’s why you and I can step into the presence of God today.  We can come into the presence of God because Jesus is our heat shield.  Through faith in his Son, God has dressed us in a protective layer of Christ’s holiness.  Already at the time of our baptism, God the Holy Spirit wrapped us in our new birthday suit.  You’ve heard of your birthday suit, right?  It’s what you were wearing when you were born.  Well, when you were reborn, that is, when you were given new spiritual birth through the washing of baptism, you are given a “new birthday” suit.  That suit is Christ.  How does St. Paul put it in Galatians 3:27?  “For all of you who were baptized into Christ were clothed with Christ.”

My friends, isn’t that what allows you and me to come before a just and holy God today?  I mean think about it.  Even though God hasn’t chosen to reveal himself to us in billows of smoke and fire and flashes of lightening, that doesn’t mean he’s not a just and holy God, who will, as John the Baptist put it, “burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 

And yet, because God has covered us with Jesus’ holiness, because he has dressed us in Christ’s righteousness, God can say to you and me, “Come closer.”  He can say to us the same thing he said to his three disciples who sprawled out on the ground when they saw Jesus’ glory up on the Mount of Transfiguration.  He said, “Don’t be afraid.”  Because of Christ’s righteousness, we can bring to God our inmost thoughts and prayers and know that he will hear and answer them as our dear Father in heaven.  Because of Christ’s righteousness, we are now in fellowship with God both here on earth and forever in heaven. 

In fact, didn’t God allow Moses and the elders to enjoy a unique expression of that fellowship?  In the verses immediately before our text, we read, “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel.  But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank” (Exodus 24:9,11).  Wow!  Think about that.  To eat and drink with God.  To enjoy a fellowship meal with God, without fear and trembling.  You realize that you and I have an opportunity to enjoy that same kind of fellowship meal with God even today.  As we partake of Jesus’ body and blood, in, with and under the bread and wine of Holy Communion, God is establishing with us a covenant, assuring us that our sins are forgiven and all’s right between us and God.  What a comfort to know that, dressed in Christ’s righteousness, we can stand in the presence of God. 

In fact, when you consider how many times we’ve tried to run away from God, how many times we’ve totally offended God by our sins, isn’t it amazing that God still invites us to, “Come closer.”  Whenever we face trials in life, whenever we wonder “what is God’s plan this time?”, God’s answer is always the same, “Christian, come closer.  Come closer to me, come closer to my word, come closer to my love.”