Alright good morning. Good morning to all of you. Good to see you again. I want to invite you now to turn with me to the Word of God in Luke’s gospel. Luke’s gospel chapter 9. Luke’s gospel in the New Testament chapter 9. I’m going to read from verse 26 until 36. Luke’s gospel chapter 9, beginning with verse 26. “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”

Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep; and when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him.

Then it happened, as they were parting from Him, that Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were fearful as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” And when the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet, and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.”. Now let us turn to God in prayer.

“Our gracious Father in heaven, we are mindful that we come into the presence of the holy and the righteous God. We are also conscious of the fact that You have been gracious to sinners like us. And especially for those who are redeemed in the Lord Jesus Christ, Father, we have this privilege to have this freedom and the boldness to come into Your presence and to seek Your help and Your grace upon us each day.

And this morning as we come to You, we look up to You again and for Your grace that You will continue to help us in the understanding of Your Word. And above all else, Father, we pray for grace upon our hearts that we may have this singleness of desire and heart to obey Your Word. Father, therefore, do help us. For all these, we ask and pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Now let us have opened the passage that I read to you earlier, the chapter 9 of Luke’s gospel. We are going to look particularly 28 to 36. Now in the first MCO that we experienced about two years ago, now many men were under stress not just because of the virus and they couldn’t go to work and financially were affected, but there were added stress that they never had before. And what was that? Well, many were scolded by their wives. They were sent out on behalf of their wife to buy things at the shopping mall because at the first MCO only one person can go out to buy essential things at the shopping mall or the sundry shop. And it was called scolded often because when they came back, the wife told them: “You bought the wrong things”.

So they were under tremendous stress because of this, and I think some of you may have experienced that. Now we see here that when wives’ instructions are misinterpreted or wrongly understood, you are in serious trouble yeah. Now here this morning, we want to see that if you don’t listen to one person’s, the voice of one person, and you are in deep trouble, very serious trouble, more serious than from your wife. So let us with that in mind look at the passage here. The title I have here this morning is this, listen. Listen to Him. Listen to Him. Now you look at verse 35: “And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!””. Listen to Him.

Now I’m going to ask three questions as we move along to help us to look at this passage. Question one, why? Why listen to Him? Why listen to Christ? Second, what does it mean to listen to Him? And thirdly, what happens if you refuse or you don’t listen to Him? So let us look at the first question. Why? Why bother? Why listen to Christ? Well, the text tells us that He is the chosen One. You look at verse 35 again, it said: “A voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, the chosen One!””. That is in the ESV. In the New King James, we don’t have that.

But Christ is the chosen One, whether these words are here or not. And we know from the Scriptures Christ is the Messiah. Christ is the chosen One. Now, so that is the first reason why you need to listen to Christ because He’s the chosen One. He’s chosen by God Himself, and we shall see a bit more what does that means to be the chosen One when He says this. But here let us look at, there are two persons that are talking to Jesus Christ at this moment, Moses and Elijah. Now Moses is known to be the receiver of the Law. He of course was the author of the first five books as well, the five books in the Old Testament.

Now Moses, a well-known figure in the Jewish society among the Jews, this Moses himself once prophesied that God would raise up another prophet like me. If you turn with me to the book of Acts chapter 7. The book of Acts chapter 7, look at verse 37: “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him- Him you shall hear.’”. Him you shall listen. Now Stephen identifies Jesus Christ as the One whom Moses prophesies, and it is Him that you should listen, that you should hear. Moses himself prophesies that and Jesus Christ is the chosen One.

How about Elijah? Now one of the most important prophets in the Old Testament of course. And when Jesus asked His disciples what do the crowd say that I am, one of them answered or one of the answers was that You are the prophet Elijah. Now, this indicated that Elijah was indeed one of the most important and well-remembered prophets in the Old Testament. And they thought that Jesus Christ was indeed the prophet Elijah. Now we may say that they both (that is Moses and Elijah), they represent the Law and the prophets, the common reference to the Old Testament. The Old Testament prophesies about the coming One, the Messiah, the anointed who would deliver God’s people from their sin and bondage.

And here the Father said Jesus is the chosen One. So the first reason why you and I need to listen to Jesus Christ is that He is the chosen One. Chosen to do what? And that leads us to the second answer. He is the chosen Saviour. If you look at verse 31: “who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”. This chosen One has a very important work to do, to accomplish. And of course, here in the context is referred to the work of redemption. And what were they discussing at this moment between the three of them (Jesus, Moses, and Elijah)? They talked about His decease, His departure, His exodus if you like. They were talking about Christ’s impending death. His exit, His exodus.

And that is no coincidence, is it, because Christ the chosen One is to do certain work as he says here the work that He will accomplish. And the work of course He will do is to die for the sake of sinners. Our exit from sin is linked to Christ’s exit if you like. Without Christ’s exit, there is no salvation for sinners like us. Just as Israel’s exit or exodus from Egypt’s bondage requires the death or the blood of the Passover Lamb so that the angel of death will not kill Israel’s firstborn (you remember the story). The Israelites were asked to smear or spread the blood of the Passover lamb on the door, and that is how they will spared from being killed by the angel of death.

Our exit- our exit from sin also requires the blood of the Passover Lamb. And here we have the true Passover Lamb. Those Passover lambs in the Old Testament, they were shadows. They were types, but Jesus Christ is the chosen One. He is the Lamb appointed by the Father to die for the sake of His people. So you see, our exit is linked to Christ, exit or His exodus so the sinners in Christ will not be condemned because we are sinners. So you see without the Passover Lamb and His blood, there is no exit for sinners (exit in the terms of being free from the bondage of sin). And that is why we need to listen to this chosen One because He is chosen to be the Saviour for sinners.

And there is no escape for sinners from darkness and the bondage of sin if we don’t listen to this chosen One, the Saviour. If you don’t avail yourself to the blood of the Passover Lamb, to the blood of Christ, there is no exit for you, no freedom from the bondage of sin. And this means that God’s judgement will be upon you if you do not listen to this chosen One because He is the Saviour, the chosen One to be your Saviour. And therefore, the subject of their discussion was on the exit or His exit should not surprise us because God and the Father have sent Him to do this very work, the work that He will accomplish at Jerusalem as mentioned in verse 31.

Now the third reason that we should listen. The first reason, He’s the chosen One. Second reason, He is the Saviour. The third reason is that He is the Son of God. He is the Son of God. You look at verse 35: “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”. Listen to Him. He’s My Son, God the Father said. Now let’s just take note that there seems to be a particular emphasis here. God the Father seems to stress to these three particular disciples of Christ and say that this is My Son. This is not one of the angels. This is not one of the created man. This is not one of the redeemed in heaven but My Son. Listen to Him.

That is the point. That is the emphasis here. This is My Son and no other person. And that to these disciples, they straight away they knew the implication. That means Jesus is the Son, is God Himself. Jesus is God. He is the Son of God. Now so far the Lord has shown Himself to be more than a man if you read the gospel. He preached with unique authority, not like the Pharisees or the Scribes. He has power to heal the many who were ill, cast out demons from those who were demon-possessed. He has authority to calm the storm, the strong wind at His command. All you need to do is go ahead and read up perhaps Luke’s gospel chapter 1.

Chapter 1 until this chapter, and these are the things that you can see and read for yourself that Jesus has shown Himself to be more than just a mere man. And He has even forgiven the sins of a prostitute in Simon’s house, the Pharisees. These are the acts and the deeds of Jesus Christ that He has shown to the Jews and to the disciples that He is indeed more than just a mere man but the Son of God, God Himself. And here in this mountain, there is one more thing He showed them that He is indeed more than man. In this mountain here, He manifested His glory as we’ve read in these few verses here. Suddenly there is this brightness around Him.

You know when Jesus Christ came since His birth it was as it were hidden away. His glory was hidden away as a divine person. But here in this rare occasion on this mountain, His appearance was transformed. Suddenly it’s like there’s a change. He becomes very glorious. His face was altered, His clothing became dazzling white in verse 29 in Matthew, he said: “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as light.”. There is a sudden transformation if you like about Jesus Christ. This was the glory. This was the glory that He had before He came down to this earth. When He came, He emptied Himself of everything. His glory was hidden as it were, and we could only see Him as a man. He was empty of his glory and privileges.

You know when the people on the street look at Him and the disciples before this incident when they look at Him, what could they see? There was nothing special about Jesus Christ, just like an ordinary man in their lives. Nothing attractive about Him. Isaiah talked about He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, no beauty that we should desire Him. That is how the Scriptures describe Jesus Christ- very ordinary. Nonetheless, God the Father said this is My beloved- My Son, the Son of God. God Himself lived among men, sinful men, and yet He lived among us. He came not to be served (the Scripture said) but to serve, even to give His life for the sake of sinners.

Again Isaiah chapter 53 the prophet says: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.”. The Scriptures talk about the chosen One, the suffering servant will come to suffer. But this suffering servant as talked about by the prophet Isaiah is actually the chosen One, the Son of God. My beloved Son, God the Father said. This is My Son, My chosen One. Listen to Him. So we have looked at the first question, why. Why should we listen to Jesus Christ? Well because He is the chosen One. He is the Saviour. He is the Son of God.

Now the second question, what does it mean? What does it mean to listen to Christ? Now I want you to turn with me to chapter 6 of the same gospel. Chapter 6, look at verses 46 to 49. Let me just read through. As I read through, you just follow through quietly. Verse 46 in chapter 6: “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.

And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”. It is a very simple story or parable given by the Lord Jesus Christ. Here He talked about two persons listening to the master-builder. The master-builder of course is Jesus Himself. Now two of them listened and both went away eventually to build a house, but one collapsed; one was strong, remained.

You know to most of us you move into a new house you get very excited. You try to decorate here and there or do your renovation. You just move in and stay. But sometimes, it can be a great headache to the engineer. To build a house, you can’t afford to be careless. You need to look into hundreds of details so that when you put up that dream house of yours it wouldn’t collapse. Somebody else has done all the hard work and the thinking for you. The engineer think about the superstructures, the slabs, the floors if you like, the beams, the columns, the roof. He needs to think about all this.

And for a simple storey house that you move in, at least the engineers spend something like ten to twenty hours of design work needed. And depends on the complications of the house, he will spend time like this to do the calculations and make sure that the building had a strong structure so that it can take up all the load that you move in- your piano or your wardrobes, whatever that you may put into your master bedroom so that it doesn’t collapse. You don’t have to worry about all these; the engineer has done all the hard work for you.

And then the foundation. The engineer has to look into the type of soil that you build. Or the developer builds the house there, what kind of soil is at that site? Where do you intend to build? Where you intend to have that house, the developer tends to build those rows of houses there. Is there underground water at that site? And what kind of foundation is suitable to that kind of soil? You don’t have to worry about all these. You move in and look at your house, wow so nice. But somebody else worries about that. They have spent their time and calculation, investigation and to make sure that there is a strong foundation for that house.

You see without a proper and strong foundation, the building will just collapse no matter how strong will be your superstructures, your column, your beams, your slabs, doors are all strong. But if the foundation is weak, the whole house just collapsed. And here is the point that Jesus said to us. There are two persons who listened to Him. He’s the master-builder. And He told them how to build a house. But He says one listened and do exactly what He says. And when the test came, when the storm came and the flood came, He said that house stood there, remained strong. But the other one He said: “But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation”.

Who on earth would build a house without a foundation? That is foolish, isn’t it we say? Common sense tells us you need to form a strong foundation for your house. But nonetheless, this guy built his house, beautiful house or bungalow and without the foundation. In other words, he just simply built his house there without taking care or look into the kind of foundation that is needed. He just oh that it looks good. I just built my house there. And then when the thunderstorm came and the flood came, the house just collapsed. What is Jesus saying here? He’s saying if you listened to Him, it means you obey Him as well.

Don’t just listen and then walk away and just oh, I just need to listen to ten percent of what Jesus says, good enough or maybe fifty percent, good enough. Better than those who obey ten percent, we say. But the point here Jesus is stressing to us is that you listen. You listen carefully to all that He says and then obey what He says. You know when the prime minister issued his instruction during the first MCO, all the citizens must take heed. If you don’t, you get fined. If you don’t listen to the proper instructions- keeping your distance, put on your face mask, and so on and so on, there are serious consequences when you don’t listen to authorities.

When God issues His laws, He expects all men and women, boys and girls to listen and to obey. There are consequences if we do not listen and obey the Lord Jesus Christ because He’s the Son of God. He is God. Now in the Old Testament, Moses, before the Jews entered the Promised Land, Moses warned the Jews in Deuteronomy chapter 28. You see before the Jews entered the Promised Land, Moses reminded them of the importance to listen to God’s command and they must be careful to obey the commands of God Yahweh. And this is the exact words in the Scriptures, the words uttered by Moses.

He said: “And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; and you shall only go up, and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them.”. He said if you obey and being careful to do that, and then the Lord will bless you. You will be the head and not the tail. You will go up and not coming down. And then in verse 58, he said: “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, then the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions—afflictions severe and lasting—and sicknesses grievous and lasting.”.

Moses couldn’t stress enough, emphasise enough, repeat enough to them and say that you need to obey and obey all that the Lord has commanded you. Obey all that the Lord has commanded you. He said you are to be careful to do all the words of the law. And then in the New Testament in Mark chapter 12, we have the parable of the wicked vinedressers and talents. Most of us are familiar. And there we were told a man or owner own a vineyard and he leaves it to the vinedressers. In due time at the harvest the owner sent his servants to collect some fruits from the tenants, but they beat up the owner’s servant and send them back empty. And then the owners sent another servant, and again the tenant treated the servant badly.

And this happened again and again. In fact, they even killed some of the owner’s servants. At the end, the owner said to himself: Maybe I will send my beloved son and they will respect my son. Unfortunately, the wicked tenant did not respect the son but killed him instead. What was the reaction? What was the reaction of the owner? The Scripture says he was enraged, and he will come to the tenants and kill all of them, the Scripture says. Now that is the picture of God and His relationship with the Jews, the descendants of Abraham. Jesus gave them the warning and said this is what you are like. You are like these wicked vinedressers. I’ve sent my servant, my prophets to you, but you not only not listen but you killed some of them.

At the end I send my beloved son, and what did you do? You killed him. Of course, at that time when Jesus was telling the parable, He wasn’t killed yet. But this is something that will happen for sure. You know God expects the Jews to show Him respect and listen to His servants, the prophets. They didn’t. God was angry. God finally sent His own beloved Son, hopeful that they would listen to His Son, but they didn’t. They killed Him instead. And God will judge them and God will destroy them. How about us today? We may say well, that is the Old Testament. That is how God deals with the Jews.

But how about us? Has God changed and that He expects less from us? You know some people believe God is loving and kind. They can even quote John 3:16- “For God so loved the world”. God loves the world. So why should we worry? God is loving and kind. There’s no way God is going to judge us and send us to hell. No way because the Scripture says God is love. And on top of that, many of us think that well, we are good people. Are we not? We are not that bad. And therefore when we die, God will receive us into His life, into His kingdom. And there we are going to meet our loved one who died before us, and it’s a happy ending for all of us.

God is love, and that is something that we can look forward to. God’s kingdom shall be ours, and there we shall see all our loved ones, happy endings. Well, let us turn to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2, I’m going to read to you verses 1 to 3. It says here in Hebrews: “And therefore we must pay close attention”. We must pay close attention “to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by the angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation”. Here the author of Hebrews is comparing the message delivered by Moses and the message that we are hearing today from the Son of God, the chosen One.

He said in the past- in the past, every transgression and disobedience received a just retribution. The message declared by angels, the law received by Moses that was passed on to Him or declared to Him by the angels. But he says: “Therefore we must pay much close attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away.”. Today we have listened. We have the message. We have the words of the chosen One, the Son of God. If the message passed through the servant of God, Moses was so important and if you don’t listen to Moses and these are these consequences, how much more serious it will be if you do not listen to the words of God Himself, the Son of God?

We must pay much closer attention, the apostle tells us. And God the Father has said this to the three disciples of Christ on the mountain: “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to Him!” God is still giving us the same instruction today. This is My chosen One. Jesus Christ is My Son, listen to Him. Now we must conclude. A few words to the unconverted first. If you are not in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are still not a believer in the Lord, now the Scriptures have a few things to say. In John 3:16 (I would not quote that, I think most of you know that): “God so loved the world and that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”.

God is love, we say. We seem to remember only that particular verse, but I want you to pay attention to the last verse. Verse 36 in John chapter 3, it says here: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”. Yes, God is love, that’s true. But God is also a righteous God. If you do not listen, obey the Son, you shall not see life. And not only that. There will be judgement. The anger of God remains on Him. So if you do not listen to Christ and repent of your sin, God’s anger is upon you. Jesus has come and preached the gospel to us that we should repent of our sin and believe in Him, to have everlasting life. John 3:16.

But if you ignore that, if you don’t listen to that, then verse 36 applies: “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”. There are serious consequences if you disobey or ignore the voice of Christ. If you don’t listen. And to the professing Christians, in Revelation it said blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. The apostle John towards the end of his life he wrote this: “Blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near”.

And therefore if you are hearers and doers of Jesus’ words, the chosen One, you proved yourself to be His disciples and He’s your Lord. You are blessed. And that’s the whole reason why Jesus told that parable about the two men who listened to Him and built their house- one with foundation, one without foundation. The one who built the house on the foundation is the one who listened carefully and obeyed what He says. But the one who listened and goes away without obeying is like the man who built a house without the foundation and it collapsed. If you are not the doer of His word, you are not His disciples and He is not your Lord.

Why do you call me Lord, Jesus said, when you don’t listen to what I say to you? That’s the beginning of the parable. Why do you call me Lord if you don’t listen? Verse 46, let me read to you again: “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?”. There are serious consequences. Today if you don’t listen to the voice of the chosen One, the Son of God the Saviour. But if you listen, you are blessed. You are blessed. That is what the Scripture says. Blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. We’ll close here and I’ll pass the time back to Pastor Kek.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.