Session 4
Matthew 17:1-13
Memory Verse: Matthew 17:5b-6
today's lesson
records the account of Jesus’s transfiguration.
The episode is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels
(Matt. 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36),
each with their own various emphases.
The event fulfilled Jesus’s statement in Caesarea Philippi
that some of His apostles wouldn’t die before seeing the Son of Man’s glory
(Matt. 16:28).
Peter, James, and John-Jesus’s inner circle-
witnessed this majestic event.
During Jesus’s transfiguration
God’s divine voice repeated the words
He had proclaimed at Jesus’s baptism.
Then God added, “Listen to him!” (17:5). After Moses, Elijah, and the cloud disappeared, the three disciples “saw no one except Jesus alone” (17:8).
Decision making can be difficult.
Often, we seek some sign that this is the right direction and the correct decision to make.
Is this the right job to take?
Is this the best house to buy?
Is she the one for me?
How do we know for certain?
If we only had a sign!
Wouldn’t it be great if someone magically appeared
to give you affirmation that what you are doing is correct?
How about a sign in the sky, or a voice out of the blue? (PSG, p. 36)
Why can decisions be hard to make at times.
When was it time when you desperately needed a voice from a cloud
or a message in the sky telling you what to do-
and how you responded when it didn’t come.
Allow a few volunteers to share their stories.
As humans, we approach decisions in a lot of different ways.
Some of us make decisions quickly and confidently.
Others of us put off making decisions until absolutely necessary.
Many of us take our cues from other people,
letting their decisions shape our decisions.
Waiting around for a sign or a voice from heaven
is rarely the best approach,
but in Matthew 17 Peter, James, and John received a special sign
from Jesus that was impossible to ignore.
As we study the disciples’ “mountaintop experience,”
let’s consider how we can see Jesus as the fulfillment of everything