Vincent Bujor

El Cajon Seventh-Day Adventist Church

Are You Sure You Believe?

Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you for the wonderful plan of redemption.

Jesus, we thank you for what you have gone through here on this earth, the suffering, the torture, the humiliation, and everything else that you have endured for us.

As we pick up a story today that talks about what you wanted to share with your disciples and a story that encapsulates the plan of redemption, draws closer to you, help us to better understand scripture, better understand your character, and better understand our duty that we have today.

The duty and the privilege of being your disciples.

In Jesus' name we ask for your Holy Spirit now, Amen.

I want you to open your Bibles with me to Mark 9.

We're going to pick up the story in verse 2.

This story that we're covering today is found in 3 Gospels.

It's in Matthew 17 and also in Luke chapter 9.

But we're going to use the account of Mark 9.

And before we get to the actual story that we want to study together this morning, I want you to understand what just happened before the little narrative that we're studying.

And so we're reading together Mark 9, verse 2.

The Bible says, and after 6 days, Jesus taketh with him Peter and James and John and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves, and he was transfigured before them.

Just on Wednesday morning, Charles and I went on a little hike just not too far from here in Santee.

And there was a little area that was also a little steep so we had to climb up that little hill and I was just reminding preparing the sermon reminded of of what it must have been like for Jesus and his disciples to go up that mountain you have to imagine it was evening they spent the whole day preaching teaching healing people and everyone including Jesus well they were tired But Jesus took 3 of his 12 disciples and he said, hey, let's go together and let's go up that mountain.

So they went to the disciples, didn't ask a lot of questions.

They knew that Jesus often spent the night in prayer and they thought, you know, maybe we're just going there.

So they went up that steep hill that little mountain and they they climbed up there and as they were climbing up They were wondering you know why do we do this?

I mean we're all tired we're exhausted, but Jesus kept on going The sun was disappearing in the west and then it got dark.

Jesus came to a point on the mountain where he said to his 3 disciples, hey, you're going to stay here?

And Jesus went a little further away from them.

He started praying, pouring out his heart to the Father.

When the disciples saw that they were joining him in prayer, but after a little while, they got really tired and they fell asleep.

And as Jesus was praying, he saw his disciples, he saw how they felt, they were tired, they were also sad, there were a lot of things going through their minds at that moment, and he started praying for them.

There was a reason why Jesus took up the disciples up on that mountain.

He didn't just do that to have some better fresh air up there.

He didn't do that so that he had some special moment with them.

He did that for their benefit actually because he wanted to teach them something.

Those 3 disciples, Peter, James, and John were the ones or should be the ones later on who would go into the garden of Gethsemane with Jesus and see his anguish and his suffering and they were not prepared for that trial.

They were not prepared for what was about to happen.

You have to understand, this story, you know, takes place Mark chapter 9.

You have to understand that this story is already towards the end or more than the middle of Jesus' ministry.

So Jesus was already at this point talking a lot about his suffering, his death, the cross, and that he would rise up again the third day.

Sounds really logical to us today, but for the disciples it wasn't logical because they didn't understand what was going on.

The Bible says in Mark chapter 9, verse 10, and you can see this, that they didn't know what the rising from the dead should mean.

Jesus told them on that mountain again, hey, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna rise up again on the third day.

They were like, Jesus, why do you want to die?

I thought we're going to establish a powerful kingdom here.

And Luke 9.33 says, Peter didn't know what he said on that mountain either.

You know, something very remarkable happened after Jesus was praying.

He prayed for his disciples and as he was praying, he saw their grief.

He saw that they were not prepared for the trial that was coming.

So Jesus said Father show them something that can strengthen their faith and Jesus prayer was answered Just soon after that the heavens were open.

There were 2 people who appeared on that mountain and talked with Jesus, Moses and Elijah.

You might be wondering why Moses and Elijah?

Why didn't God send some angels to talk with the disciples to strengthen their faith?

Well, Moses and Elijah represented 2 groups of people.

1 that would be there representing those who would die before Jesus comes back and then be resurrected when he comes.

And the second group, that's Elijah, they would not see death and they would be translated when Jesus comes back.

And so Moses and Elijah came and you know, divinity was flashing through Jesus' humanity and they were all talking together.

There was obviously the disciples at this point woke up, right?

And the 2 prophets were talking with Christ.

They were talking about his upcoming trial, his suffering, his death.

And Peter, James, and John, you know, they saw that.

They didn't understand why this was happening.

They were like, oh wow, this is pretty cool.

Peter, in his amazement, you know, and excitement, and really, He had no clue what was going on said these words not thinking what the what what what he said And So Elijah and Moses talked with Jesus they both knew how it felt like to be alone If you study those stories Elijah and Moses, you know that right?

They both knew what it felt like to not be understood by anyone, what it felt like not to be in solitude, to work for the salvation of men and to experience hatred and persecution.

They were telling Jesus, don't be discouraged.

What an amazing and marvelous thought that God uses 2 people, sinful humans, to encourage the Son of Man in this hour.

And then the voice of the Father was heard, this voice affirming 1 more time, just like at the baptism before, He was affirming, this is my beloved Son in who I am well pleased.

And the mountain was trembling And there was a lot of noise and the disciples were so afraid that they fell to the ground and they hid their faces.

And when the light was gone and the noise was over and the transfiguration had taken place, Jesus went back to his 3 disciples and he touched them and he said, hey, don't be afraid, let's go.

The night was over and they went down the mountain again.

Just imagine with me how it must have been like for those 3 disciples to go down that mountain in the morning.

First of all, you have barely slept that night, and then you saw this crazy, marvelous, amazing revelation of God and 2 prophets, and you were just like, wow, This is something I have never seen in my life before.

They didn't know what to do, what to say.

And when they came down the mountain, They saw a big group of people mingling together.

Now, that atmosphere in that group wasn't that great.

You had the other 9 disciples, you had a father and his son, you had a bunch of scribes and spectators there.

People were arguing, the disciples were perplexed, they were embarrassed, they were discouraged and humiliated, and the scribes were actually humiliating or mocking the disciples.

Let me tell you what happened down in the valley while Jesus was up in the mountain.

There was a father who had brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus, or to his disciples rather, asking for help.

Normally, this shouldn't be a problem at all.

I don't know if you remember this but when Jesus sent out his disciples in Luke chapter 9 just a little bit earlier You know, he gave them a quoting scripture now the authority Over all demons and to cure diseases.

Okay, so just to understand this right the disciples had the power to cast out demons And they actually already did it before this young boy came they had already done it It was it was almost I don't want to say a routine It was surely probably something special, but it was not unusual to do this, okay?

Mark 6, 13 says, "'They cast out many demons and anointed with oil "'many who were sick and healed them.'" But you know, this time it was different.

This time When they had tried to pray and to heal this innocent poor boy, the demon mocked the disciples with a fresh display of his power.

It's like you're an elder at a church and you get a call from someone, hey, can you please go over to that lady?

What God Will Never Do For You

Father in heaven, Lord, we want to thank you for your incredible love for us, and we thank you for your transforming power in our lives.

I'm sure that everyone here at church today can testify to your power, your miracle-working grace, and your love that we have experienced at some point in our lives.

That's why we're here today and we want to thank you, Father, for pouring out that love.

We want to ask that as we go into your Word now that you take all distractions away and that we can focus on on you and that your Holy Spirit speaks to us.

May my words not be my own, but may they be your words.

You know, a couple years ago when my wife and I were still living in Germany, she was going to school there and we had a nice apartment in Bavaria, Germany.

We had a little routine that we would try to work out in the morning and I usually like to go on a run in the morning but you know in Germany it's pretty cold in the winter and this was during the winter time so I chose to not go to outside basically running in nature but actually to go to the gym and basically run on a treadmill, right?

How many of you have tried running on a treadmill before?

I had someone say to me when he saw that picture last night, he's like, oh, I don't like that.

Yeah, so some of us don't, but I tried it out and I tried to work out on On the treadmill and as I went that that morning I went on the treadmill.

I started walking first and then running and We can turn it down a little bit more Thank you And as I was running you have you can imagine those the the treadmills that they are kind of at that gym, they were kind of a little higher than the rest of the gym.

You had all the free weights and all the machines on that side and then you had the treadmills on this side.

So I was going on the treadmill and at first I was walking a little bit, then warming up and then running And I saw the basically almost the entire gym in front of me.

I could look over the gym as I was running.

And I was looking outside, you know when you're on a treadmill, you're running, you don't move, you just run on the spot.

I was looking outside the window, I saw the green grass outside and the snowy hills, and I looked into the people, I looked into the gym and saw the people that were there, and then it dawned on me that there is 1 thing that God would never do for me.

There's 1 thing that God would never do for you.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 136.

Psalm 136 and we're going to read together verse 1.

I would like for you to read the second part of the verse and I read the first part.

The Bible says, Oh give thanks to the Lord for his, he is good and then what do you say?

Oh give thanks unto the Lord of gods Give thanks to the Lord of lords To him alone who does great wonders To Him that by wisdom made the heavens.

To Him that stretched out the earth above the waters.

You see, at the beginning of this psalm it becomes very clear that the writer wants to communicate He's sharing how God created the universe, this world and he says 1 thing is clear, God's mercy endures how long?

That is the theme of the psalm In fact that is the red line that goes through the psalm and as you're gonna find out in just a moment that psalm is not only focusing on creation but it goes through history and the psalmist always says 1 thing, for God's mercy endures forever.

By the way that word mercy is a beautiful Hebrew word.

The root Hebrew word for that is the word hasad.

It means God's love, his loving kindness, his faithfulness, his grace.

And if you read the book of Psalms and you read the Old Testament, you see that over and over again this word appears.

Anytime you read in scripture, the loving kindness of God, God's love, it's that Hebrew word and it's, well most of the time at least, it's referring to Hazad, the loyalty, the faithfulness of God.

Now I encourage you to stay with your Bibles in Psalm 136 and we're going to go through that together as I'm sharing How the story began.

You see when God created this wonderful planet, He didn't put an expiration date on it.

He didn't say, I'm going to create this beautiful planet and then, you know, after a couple thousands of years it'll expire.

When God created this planet, he made sure that all nature obeys his word every day and every night.

I mean, imagine, you know, we don't even think about this.

We go to bed at night And we don't even realize or think about the fact that the sun would rise up again the next morning isn't that right?

You know I'm not really sure we are counting On it we know that every morning the sun is rising in the east and going down in the west and all nature, all the laws of nature, they all obey the Creator and His will.

This is not only true for the sun, It's true for every animal, it's true for every plant, and the rocks, and this world, and all the laws of physics that humans have figured out over the centuries, they all are still true every single day, every single hour and moment.

Have you ever thought about this idea, this concept of God pushing the exit button?

I've, I've, you know, it's been so much work trying to keep up, you know, with all these laws of nature to make sure everything works smoothly all the time.

Maybe stopping to be faithful and loving.

You know, I thought about this idea and it dawned on me that there were very, very many moments in earth's history where God could have done that.

Where He could have said, you know what, I'm done, I'm not going to be faithful anymore, I'll stop it, I'll just draw away, I'm just going to leave this planet alone, I'm full of it.

When Adam and Eve were put in this beautiful garden and they had all the evidence That they needed to trust God.

I mean you have to imagine this God was with them He was talking to them there were angels talking to them They probably had many manifestations of God's glory and his presence every day They had a beautiful garden with trees and enough food to eat.

He was nourishing them every day He had He was showing his love.

They were in constant communion with him.

They had so much evidence that he loved them, that he cared for them, and that his word was true.

And yet for some strange reason, there comes 1 serpent 1 day and and just brings in a new concept a new idea it's sly it's it's a perception it's a deception it's really really subtle and instead of relying on the faithfulness of God and his word Adam and Eve choose to disobey and trust the serpent.

Imagine this, it's like you grow up with your parents but then you decide 1 day a stranger comes to you he says something really catchy and nice and you decide to go with that stranger and trust him and not trust your parents anymore.

Oh I'm sure God could have said, you know what?

You've made your bed, you're going to lie in it.

I'm gonna ask you a lot of questions this morning.

In fact, with that first, these words of consequence, there came also the words of promise the Bible says I will put enmity between you talking to the devil to Satan and the woman and between your seed and her seed and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

There already right there in blue is the first promise that Satan's head will be crushed 1 day.

There's a Redeemer coming, there is a Deliverer coming and he will make sure that Satan will not gain the victory.

Even if the Pews Are Empty

Oh Father Lord, we surely thank you for everything that you have done in our lives.

And we also thank you for the trials, the sufferings, and the persecution in our lives, reminding us that we are following in your footsteps and experiencing your sweet presence in those trials like nowhere else.

Father, as we turn to your word this morning, free us from all distractions, make it very clear.

Help us to understand what you want us to learn this morning.

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power.

Avoid such men as these, for among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women, weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Just as Jans and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men will also oppose the truth.

Men of depraved mind rejected in regard to the faith, but they will not make further progress, for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jan's and Jambres' folly was also.

Now, Timothy, you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and Lystra.

What persecution I endured and out of them all, the Lord rescued me.

Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." That's an interesting chapter, right?

And he starts his paragraph, his chapter here with the words, realize this, we have to understand something.

He goes on with a list of a lot of things that people are like in the last days.

Paul tells us that we are living in the last days, and this is what's going to happen in the last days.

Isn't that interesting that he says people have a form of godliness, a form of religion, a form of spirituality, but they have denied the power.

And then he talks about how this evil enters into the homes of our society, And he talks about how men are doing this, how they are corrupting families, they're rejecting the truth, they're led on by various impulses and not able to control their emotions.

And that's how households break down and society collapses because people cannot control themselves anymore.

And then he makes this comparison, and I don't know if you know who Jans and Jambres are, those are 2 names mentioned in this paragraph.

He talks about Jans and Jambres opposing Moses.

This is when Aaron and Moses went into Pharaoh and they performed this powerful miracle where the rod, Aaron's rod, became a serpent.

And then suddenly these false magicians, these sorcerers, these Egyptian people, they came up and they were counterfeiting the miracle and their rods also became like serpents.

They didn't produce life but it was an illusion.

But he says, Paul says that just like their fault, their fault became obvious to all, The same way it will happen today Impressing the masses with counterfeiting miracles, but at the end of the day you know what happened Moses and Aaron's serpent was eating up the other fake serpents that these Egyptian magicians produced.

And then Paul addresses Timothy directly and he talks about his experiences at these 3 cities.

You can read about those in Acts chapter 13 and 14.

What happened in Antioch, in Lystra, Iconium?

In Antioch, Paul got kicked out of the city for preaching the truth.

In Iconium, a plot was formed against Paul and they wanted to stone him.

And you know what happened at the other city?

Paul was being stoned alive and then he obviously was crushed underneath the stones.

They thought that he was dead and so they carried him out of the city and left him there in the dirt.

And then, in a miraculous way, God preserved Paul's life.

So he came back, he got his consciousness back, and he just went his way.

And so Paul relates these experiences, he talks about these experiences, and then he says after this he makes this powerful and simple statement.

He says, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

When I was in fifth grade, I had a Korean friend, his name was Joey, he was a good friend of mine.

I had in fact a lot of Korean friends because in Frankfurt there where I went to school or nearby there, there are a lot of banks.

And so a lot of people from Asia came, you know, their families came there for a couple years.

The dads would work there and then the families would go to school there.

And so I had my Asian friends there that were going to school with me.

And I remember this conversation that we had, fifth grade, okay, I was actually, I was 9 years old, he was 10 years old.

And we were talking about having faith in God because that was something that, You know, growing up in secular Europe, most people don't even believe that there is a God.

And so we said, no, we believe there is a God, you know, and then we talked about the benefits of being a believer in God.

You know, basically there are no disadvantages.

Like we said, this was our conversation that we were having, right?

We were saying, you know, basically when you believe in God, you can only win because if he exists, you go to heaven, and if he doesn't exist, you didn't lose anything.

That's how we concluded the conversation.

But Paul said, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Let's analyze that sentence a little bit.

Paul doesn't say, oh, all the elders will suffer persecution.

When you become a pastor, You will suffer persecution.

You know, when you are a spiritual leader, then you suffer persecution.

Or when you are born in the medieval time period, right, when the church is oppressing us, that's when you suffer persecution.

I thought, oh, you know what, if you've been in the church for 20 years if you've been a become a spiritual giant if if you have the masters in theology then you probably suffer persecution but he says all who desire in other words if you're just getting started if you just want to become a Christian and you're right at the beginning, you will suffer persecution.

And then he says, you will, not you shall, not you might, not you could, you will suffer persecution.

In other words, if we don't experience persecution in our lives, If the devil is not attacking us, we are not real Christians.

Now by this point in the presentation, you should already have a question in your mind.

If you've been following along here, you should maybe already feel the discrepancy here in the room here, because you might be wondering, reading this, wait a minute, if Paul says all who desire to live godly shall suffer persecution, how come that right now we are not being persecuted?

Why am I preaching on a 10 acre property here and not in prison?

Why do we have more than 200 mega churches in California, more than in any other state, and by the way, a mega church is defined by more than 2, 000 people coming every week to church, more than 200 of those in California.

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Presenter

Vincent Bujor

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