Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the transformative power of recognizing Jesus as the Christ and the necessity of personal transfiguration in the life of a believer. He explains that true transformation involves a daily process of dying to self and reflecting the character of Christ, which is essential for partaking in God's glory. Beach highlights that while many seek power for miracles, the true power lies in the ability to surrender one's will to God. He encourages believers to embrace their calling to experience transfiguration, which is a reflection of Christ's image in their lives. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a deep introspection and commitment to becoming living martyrs for Jesus, mirroring His likeness in every aspect of life.

I have your Bibles to please turn to Matthew, verse number 16, or I'm sorry chapter 16, Matthew chapter 16. We're going to begin reading in verse number 13 of Matthew chapter 16, but before we read that, I'd like to read a scripture in 2 Corinthians. You don't have to turn there because it's only one scripture. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, beginning in verse number 17 and 18. Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Lord. Now before I begin reading in Matthew chapter 16, I want to point out that in verse number 18, we read, but we all with open face, unveiled face, beholding as in a glass, or rather reflecting as a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed. Now that word changed is translated in Matthew chapter 17, verse 2, referring to Jesus on the mount, and it says of Jesus, He was transfigured. So the same word that is used to describe the process of being changed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of the Lord is the same word that's used to describe that event that occurred when Jesus took His disciples onto the Mount of Olives and was transfigured. So therefore, I'm going to read verse number 18, and I'm going to use the word that the translators used in Matthew chapter 17. Listen carefully how it takes on perhaps more of a compelling or challenging word. But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are transfigured into the same image. That word transfigured is a very interesting word. It means a change, not the kind of change that would occur if you put a mask on and cover something, but actually it is the word that is understood when we study the caterpillar being changed into the butterfly. And the butterfly is indeed a whole new creation, a whole new species almost, than its former existence of being a caterpillar. And likewise, beloved, you and I are being transformed. We are experiencing, listen, daily transfiguration. Are you being transfigured? Are you being changed? Do you see the Lord working in your life to where, as you look into your life and as others look into your life, are they seeing more and more and more an image, a likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's what 2 Corinthians chapter 3 talks about. But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a glass, are being transfigured. We should be reflecting in our lives every day more and more and more of the image and likeness and character of Jesus Christ. Now, in Matthew 16, let's begin with verse number 13. We're going to build this morning upon the foundation that God's ultimate end in our life—listen carefully—God's ultimate intention in your life is full and complete transfiguration, full and complete transformation. You are here, not in this auditorium, but you are here as a Christian, if you are a Christian, and God's intention is he wants you to become acquainted with transfiguration. He wants you to become acquainted with the process of spiritual metamorphosis. You are not called to be a Christian and simply exist from day to day to day like the rest of the world with the same goals that the world has, but we are called out of the world, we are delivered out from the kingdom of darkness, and now we are partakers of an incredibly high holy calling. Think about it. Everybody in your heart, not out loud, but in your heart, say, I am called to experience transfiguration. Hallelujah to God! I am called to experience transfiguration. Anything less than the Christian experiencing transfiguration is falling short of God's intention for your life. That's the ultimate end. We'd like to show you in the Word this morning the process through which every single believer must go if they are to know the full transfiguration that God intends for us to experience. Ultimately, it's going to be a transfiguration. Jesus was glorified with the glory of God. That's the end that God has for the church. 1st Peter. Just stay in Matthew. I want to show you these things in the Word. 1st Peter chapter 5. 1st Peter chapter 5. Listen carefully. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory. The God of all grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory. According to the revelation that God gave Peter, the church's destiny is to be a partaker of the glory of God. What an awesome, incredible, heavenly calling. You are destined, if you're a child of God, to partake in the glory of God. But before we can be partakers of that ultimate glory of God, there has to be a process that occurs in our life to prepare us to partake of the glory, because God will not put His glory on sin. God will not put His glory on crookedness. God will only put His glory on the image of His Son. That's why we're being transformed. That's why we're being changed. That's why we're experiencing the disciplined hand of God, the scourging hand of God, the correction hand of God, because God is saying, I have destined you to experience my glory, but you cannot experience it unless you come under my hand of discipline so that I can correct you and change you and deliver you from all the visages of self-will and self-way. This is why we're going through what we go through. Here's where it all begins. Matthew 16, beginning in verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say the Son of Man am? And they said, Some say thou art the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom saith ye that I am? This is the most important question that Jesus Christ ever asked His disciples, and it is the most important question that will ever be asked to you. Who do you say Jesus Christ is? But secondly, and perhaps equally important, what does it mean to you if you indeed acknowledge, as Peter did, as we're about to see, what does it mean to you if you acknowledge the same thing that Peter acknowledged? This morning's message is intended to help us understand the implications, the consequences that will be incurred upon us if we recognize who Jesus really is. If we recognize who He really is, it is more than simply acknowledging Him as Christ. It is more than simply putting a bumper sticker on the bumper of our car saying, I am a Christian, or honk if you love Jesus, or I am the co-pilot and Jesus is the pilot, or my boss is a Jewish carpenter. Now, if you have bumper stickers, that's all right, but we must understand the Spirit of God is speaking to the church in this late hour saying, Whom do you say that Christ is? And Simon answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto you, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto you, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, or a better translation would be, and I will give unto you the keys of the kingdoms of heaven, or the kingdom of the heavens, plural. And whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now, we see that the question was followed by a confession. Peter confessed, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And indeed, that was the proper confession, wasn't it? Indeed, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then Peter was commended by Jesus, signifying that this revelation was not revealed to him by a human being, but rather revealed to him by the Father in heaven. And then Jesus speaks remarkable words to him, indicating that it is by this revelation that Jesus would build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And then he says he'll give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Now, what do keys do? They unlock. Jesus is saying, I'm giving you the key, or the power, to unlock the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you bind shall be as having already been bound in heaven, is the proper translation. And whatever you loose shall be loosed as already having been loosed in heaven. We're touching upon some of the most remarkable words that Jesus ever spoke to the church. We are talking about the revelation of who Jesus is, upon which when a person experiences this revelation is transformed and changed. It is by this revelation that Jesus Christ is building his church. Let me tell you something, the church is not being built by people simply coming to a building and being part of a choir, or singing, or putting their name on a church wall, or saying even I'm a Christian. But the church is built only when men and women see with their spiritual eyes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and they recognize that He is God's Son, the answer and atoning sacrifice for sin. Salvation doesn't come simply because you grew up in a Christian home. It doesn't come simply because you read your Bible, or you associate yourself with a Christian church. Hallelujah! Salvation comes when a man, or a woman, or a boy, or a girl see who He is, my God. Verse 20, Then Charles to his disciples that they should tell no man that He was the Christ. Now, listen carefully. I read in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18 that we are being changed. Then I showed you in Matthew chapter 17 verse 2 that Jesus was transfigured, and that the same Greek word that is used there is used in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Now, before we get to Matthew 17, there are a number of verses that we need to read because these verses follow the confession of Peter. Most everybody wants to focus on the confession of Peter. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and then the subsequent words that Jesus spoke to him. Ah, Peter, you're blessed. Praise God. I'm going to give you keys. I'm going to give you power. Everybody wants power. Everybody wants power to do miracles, power to heal the sick, power to bind devils, power to cast out spirits, power to be a great speaker, power to pray for people when they fall over. Oh, we want power, but I'll tell you something, beloved. God is not in the business of giving out power in order to put on a performance. There is a power that God wants to give us that not many Christians are asking for, and it is the power to die. It is the power to lay down our own will and our own way and our own stubborn desires and our own wishes to lay them down and to become a living martyr for Jesus. We always talk about martyrs. Oh, it must be incredible to be a martyr. Beloved, everybody is called to be a martyr, whether you actually lose your head or not. A living martyr is one who lives but is dead to self, dead to sin, dead to the world, dead to the devil, dead to self-will, dead to my own thing, and alive unto God, alive unto his word, alive unto the things of God, alive unto those things that please God. I want to be a living martyr. How about you? Are you hearing? A living martyr. You know, not many people are holding prayer meetings that God will bring the power down so they can all die. They want the power to do things, but God wants to give us the power to become something. What? Not something in the eyes of men, not something in the eyes of the world, not something in the eyes of the church, but something in his eyes. He wants us to become a mirror that reflects, that mirrors, that reveals the image and glory and likeness of his Son, Jesus Christ. Now watch. Here's a man who had received a revelation about who Jesus is, a man who was given keys that open up the heavens, that has the power to bind and loose. Here's that same man right now. Verse 21, Matthew 16. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things. Bear with me the reading, because this page is so worn on this section that part of the words aren't there anymore. So I'm reading and I'm trying to... well, that word probably fits there. Really, it has just simply gone down. So just bear with me if I use the wrong word. He went to Jerusalem to suffer many... see, I figured that. So I don't have the T-H-I. Many things of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes. B-E-S. Scribes? Okay. And be killed and be raised again. Well, I know that on the third day. Now, listen carefully. Then Peter... now this is the man that said, Thou art the Christ. The man that Peter said, You've got the keys. Now listen to what he's saying now. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee. Now, I like another translation says, Be kind to thyself. Be merciful to thyself. Have pity on yourself, Lord. Pity yourself. Don't subject yourself to such a torturous death of dying and being handed over to the enemies. Don't do that, Jesus. This shall not be unto thee. But he turned Jesus and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not, or you do not understand the things that be of God, but only those that be of men. Now listen carefully. We have a man who had the right confession. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Then he had the words of Jesus spoken to him. You have the keys. So we have a man who had the right confession, and he had power, but he lacked something dreadfully important. And he turned and said unto his disciples, verse 24, If any man will come after me, let him deny, disown, refuse to acknowledge himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profit if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works. Verily, verily, I say unto you, there shall be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain, and was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as light. So the transfiguration event occurred after the words of Jesus rebuking Peter, saying, Get behind me, Satan! You don't understand the things of God, but you only understand the things of men. And then those incredible words, If any man follow me, let him deny himself. I do not believe for a moment that it is coincidental or by accident that the book of Matthew relates those words and then immediately goes to the transfiguration. The reason I do not believe it is because the very transfiguration itself, the Lord Jesus being glorified, the Lord Jesus shining like light, the Lord Jesus sharing in the glory of God, the very experience itself proves and reveals the kind of man that Jesus was on the inside. It proves what kind of person Jesus was. He was the kind of person who was able to understand that he was called to die upon the cross, and that he was not going to look for any other easier way. It was the fact that Jesus came not to do his own will, but the will of the Father, was willing to die for the sake of obeying his God, and was unwilling to try and find any other way. It's that kind of a heart, that kind of an inner spirit that Jesus had that qualified him to be glorified with the glory of God, that enabled God to say, This is my beloved Son in whom I am pleased. And now when Jesus speaks to Peter, listen carefully, he is speaking to Peter, but Peter becomes a picture of the whole church, and Peter becomes a picture of every true disciple, every believer, and surely every believer must come to where they say, You are the Christ. Surely every believer must understand that God gave Christ as the atoning sacrifice. Likewise, every believer can come to understand that through prayer there is the power to bind and to loose. But oh beloved, surely every believer must also come to the place where they understand that just as the words of Jesus were spoken to Peter, even so they must be spoken to us. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself. The only way to experience the full transfiguration that God intends for us to experience is through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God working in us, enabling us, and empowering us to deny ourselves, to disown ourselves, to say no to our own way, no to our own will, no to our own desires when we know they are contrary to the Word of God. The process that we must go through if we are to be transformed is the process of learning to deny ourself and going to the Word of God, and as we sang this morning, coming to the place daily where we say, Thy will, Thy will, Thy will, Lord. We want your will in our life. When Jesus was transfigured, beloved, it was God saying to Peter, James, and John, and the whole world, you see this man? Only him is worthy of my glory. Listen. Only what he is like, only what he's made up of on the inside, what was Jesus made up of on the inside? Humility, submission, character, a love for righteousness and a hatred for sin, compassion. But are not we, the body of Christ, one spirit with him? Doesn't the Bible say that the two shall become one? And isn't it true that the Bible says that we are being transformed into his image? You see, God intends the church through the power of the Holy Spirit to be transformed from earthly to heavenly, from bearing the qualities of carnal to bearing the qualities of spiritual, from bearing the qualities of earthly to bearing the qualities of heavenly. The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, goodness, kindness, faith, meekness. These are the qualities that Jesus is made of, and now that we're connected to him, we are called to ever, ever, ever mirror, reflect those qualities in our life. But the way to that kind of fullness is death by faith in our union with Christ. If I am in union with Christ, I have been severed and cut from union with by old way, my own will. One annuls the other. If I have died with Christ, then I'm alive with Christ. If I'm in the Spirit, I'm not in the flesh. So when we read of the transfiguration, we're simply seeing that here's a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, fully God but fully man. And as a man, he was fully representing God's picture of what a true man should be like. A true man should be like Jesus. And it's only that kind of a man, that kind of a person, that kind of a character that God will glorify. Let me ask a question this morning to everyone. Has your confession of who Jesus is resulted in you coming to understand that now that you acknowledge him and now that you know he is truly your Savior and truly the Christ, you now must learn to die? That death is an integral part of being transformed and changed. We are being changed. We're being transformed one day at a time. This outward transformation or transfiguration that Jesus experienced in Matthew chapter 17 will happen one day when the Lord appears. But listen carefully, we're closing. But this outward glory and transformation will only be the completion of a process that has been going on on the inside. Now our faces do not shine. Now we are not transfigured outwardly, right? We don't look like Jesus outwardly. There's no glory on us. We look like normal human beings. But let me tell you something, and don't ever forget this, inwardly we ought to be ever, ever, ever looking like Jesus. And if we're not, can we be so presumptuous as to think that we will partake of his glory? You'll never find in the word of God any promise that God will give his glory to any company of people who have not become like Jesus Christ. Never happened. So now don't look for outward glory. Don't look for light. Don't look for an experience like Matthew chapter 17 verse 2, but pray fervently that the transfiguration and the changing on the inside will ever, ever, ever take place so that when people see you, not your outward appearance, but when they see your life, they see your actions, they hear your words, they'll say, hmm, more and more looking like Jesus, acting like Jesus would. And then you can have hope that someday you'll partake of the full transfiguration and your body will be changed and we'll be like him. Shall we bow our hearts and pray? Father, thank you for transfiguration. Thank you for the power that we see in Jesus Christ. But Lord, help us now as his children to realize that the preparation for the outward transfiguration and the sharing of your glory is the inward transformation and transfiguration of daily dying to self and by the power of the Holy Spirit through our actions and our words, revealing the likeness of Jesus Christ. Father, I pray you will reveal through your word and through your spirit everything in our life that we need to yet confess and acknowledge as being worthy of death. And by faith, help us to reckon it as dead. Everything, every attitude, every word, every attitude, every thought. If it's not like Jesus, if it doesn't bring glory to you, deliver us from it, I pray Lord, by your power in Jesus' name. Hallelujah. As we sing this song, it's only 1223. I want to encourage you to find a quiet place. If you have to go, that's fine. But if you don't, just find a quiet place where you're at for a few moments and let the Holy Spirit work on you. Make me like you, Lord Jesus, is our prayer.