One time, Jesus was praying in a quiet place with his disciples nearby. He went to them and asked, “Who do people think I am?”
They answered, “Some are convinced you’re the prophet John who has returned. Others say you are Elijah, or perhaps one of the Jewish prophets brought back from the dead.”
Jesus asked them, “But who do you believe that I am?”
Peter said, “You are the Anointed One, God’s Messiah!”
Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell this to anyone yet, saying, “The Son of Man is destined to experience great suffering and face complete rejection by the Jewish leaders and religious hierarchy. He will be killed and raised back to life on the third day.”
Jesus said to all of his followers, “If you truly desire to be my disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace my ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to my ways. For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for my glory, you will discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep. Even if you gained all the wealth and power of this world, and all the things it could offer you, yet lost your soul in the process, what good is that? So why then are you ashamed of being my disciple? Are you ashamed of the revelation-truth I give to you?
“I, the Son of Man, will one day return in my radiant brightness, with the holy angels and in the splendor and majesty of my Father. On that day I will be ashamed of everyone who has been ashamed of me.
“I promise you this: there are some of you standing here right now who will not die until you have witnessed the presence and the power of God’s kingdom realm.”
Eight days later, Jesus took Peter, Jacob, and John and climbed a high mountain to pray. As he prayed, his face began to glow until a blinding glory streamed from him. A radiant glory illuminated his entire body. His brightness became so intense that it made his clothing blinding white, as multiple flashes of lightning.
All at once, two men appeared in glorious splendor: Moses and Elijah. They spoke with Jesus about his soon departure from this world and the things the Father destined him to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had become very drowsy, but they became fully awake when they saw the glory and splendor of Jesus standing there and the two men with him.
As Moses and Elijah were about to return to heaven, Peter impetuously blurted, “Master, this is amazing to see the three of you together! Why don’t we stay here and set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah?”
While Peter was still speaking, a radiant cloud of glory formed above them and overshadowed them. As the glory cloud enveloped them, they were struck with fear. Then the voice of God thundered from within the cloud, “This is my Son, my Beloved One. Listen carefully to all he has to say.”
When the thunderous voice faded away and the cloud disappeared, Jesus was standing there alone. Peter, Jacob, and John were awestruck. But they didn’t say a word to anyone about what they had seen.
The next day, a massive crowd was waiting at the foot of the mountain to meet them. A man in the crowd shouted desperately, “Please, Teacher, I beg of you, do something about my son, my only son. An evil spirit possesses him and makes him scream out in torment, and hardly ever leaves him alone. It throws him into convulsions and he foams at the mouth. When it finally does leave him, he’s left with horrible bruises. I begged your disciples to drive it out of him, but they didn’t have enough power to do it.”
Jesus responded, “You are an unbelieving people with no faith! You twist your lives with lies that have turned you away from doing the right things. How much longer should I remain here, offering you hope?” Then he said to the man, “Bring your son to me.”
As the boy approached, the demon slammed him to the ground and threw him into violent convulsions. Jesus sternly commanded the demon to come out of the boy, and it left immediately. Jesus healed the boy of his injuries and returned him to his father, saying, “Here is your son.”
Everyone was awestruck and stunned to see such power and the majesty of God flow through Jesus.
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