Pay Attention

2 Peter | 2 Peter 1:16-21

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, if you are uh over the age of let's say 30, and if you grew up in the Midwest or northeastern part of the United States, then it is possible that you may remember where you were and what you were doing on August 14th, 2003. I remember that day vividly. I was shopping at the mall with some friends, and we were standing near the dressing rooms in the very back of the store when all of a sudden, in an instant, everything went dark and silent. The lights turned off, the background music stopped playing, and we were suddenly standing in pitch black and total silence. And that is because that hot summer day, nearly 23 years ago, was the day of the Northeast blackout of 2003. At approximately 4.10 p.m. Eastern time, nearly 50 million people were affected by a power outage across more than five different states. It was the largest blackout in U.S. history, and at the exact moment that it happened, I was standing in line to try on some clothes. Now, thankfully, I wasn't already changing clothes, that would have been awkward. But if the lights turn off on you in the middle of a store without any windows, I will tell you it is very dark. I could not even see the person standing next to me. And at first we all just kind of started laughing and we just waited around for a few minutes to see if the lights would turn back on, but eventually it became clear that was not going to happen and that we were gonna have to try to navigate our way out of this store without being able to see anything. And so slowly but surely everyone started making their way back toward the front of the store, and we were bumping into each other and running into clothing racks and tripping over stuff on the floor because even back then, like the light from your cell phone wasn't as strong as it is today. So even trying to use a cell phone didn't really help that much. It was still very dark. But sure enough, after a few minutes of fumbling around in the dark, we all made our way out to the main part of the mall where, because of the windows, there was at least some natural light coming in, and we could see well enough to make our way out of the shopping mall and go home. But for the next two days or so, tens of millions of Americans were just waiting for the lights to turn back on. Now, maybe you don't remember that specific day, maybe you weren't in a location that was particularly affected by it, but regardless, you have probably had the experience of fumbling around in the dark, trying to find your way toward some light so you can see what you're doing. And the passage of scripture that we are looking at this morning, the Apostle Paul takes that same idea and uses it as a rather potent analogy for life in a fallen and sinful and dark world. We're continuing our series in 2 Peter today. And over the past couple of weeks, we have seen that Peter wrote this as his second letter to a group of churches in a region called Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey, and he did so for a very specific reason. He wanted to remind them about the importance of continually growing in their knowledge of Jesus and their understanding of proper doctrine. In fact, at this point in the letter, he has already told them that he knows his time on earth is running short. He is aware that he's probably going to die soon, and he wants to be sure to remind them of some things before that happens. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, we know that Peter was executed for his faith in Jesus during the reign of Emperor Nero in the Roman Empire. Historical accounts tell us that he was crucified upside down, because when he was sentenced to crucifixion, he asked for it to be done upside down because he felt unworthy of being executed in the same way that his Savior was. And so most scholars believe that he probably wrote this letter from a prison, knowing he was going to die soon, awaiting his execution, which means that he intentionally sent out one last letter before he died, so that his readers would not be deceived into embracing errors or lies about their faith. See, in next week's passage, Peter will start to speak more clearly about this, but the specific reason why he felt the need to write this letter is because false teachers had made their way into these churches and were spreading ideas that directly contradicted the teaching of the apostles. They were confusing these first century Christians. Specifically, they were denying the future return of Christ, which is a core doctrine of Christianity, and they were denying the reality of a future judgment day, which is also a core doctrine of Christianity. And so next week will be the first time that Peter directly mentions these false teachers within this letter, but still, in our passage this morning, he is already beginning to build his argument against their errors and lies that were being spread. In particular, he is laying the groundwork today for why these false teachers were completely wrong to deny the fact that Jesus will come again. That's really what he's doing in today's passage. And he lays that groundwork by leaning into two primary arguments. So first, he leans on the testimony of the apostles in verses 16 through 18. And then second, he leans on the trustworthiness of Scripture in verses 19 through 21. So he begins his argument by pointing his readers to a story from the Gospels called the Transfiguration, when he and James and John witnessed something incredible, which Peter considers to have been a miniature preview of the return of Christ. And then he follows that up by pointing his readers to the truth of Scripture, which clearly speaks about the return of Christ and does so as the very word of God given by the Holy Spirit. So the testimony of the apostles and the trustworthiness of Scripture, and Peter couples both of these arguments with a potent analogy about fumbling around in the darkness of a fallen and sinful world while waiting for Jesus to return. So we'll start off with part with Peter's first argument in this passage, the testimony of the apostles, in verses 16 through 18 of 2 Peter chapter 1. He says, For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. Alright, so the first half of verse 16 is really Peter's on-ramp here for his entire argument. Because there he says, We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we told you guys about the power and coming of Jesus Christ. And all throughout the New Testament, when the apostles discussed the future return of Jesus, they use this Greek word parousia, which is translated as coming. And Peter uses that word again here. He mentions the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he is specifically referring to the second coming of Jesus in the future. And he is doing so because the false teachers had apparently been telling these first century Christians that this whole idea of the parocia, that this whole idea of the future return of Jesus, was nothing but a cleverly devised myth. They claimed that it was nothing but just a creative story that Jesus' followers had made up and told to one another. In his commentary on 2 Peter, Matthew Harmon points out the fact that religious ideas in the Greco-Roman world were typically rooted in clever mythology, which made it easy for these false teachers to make the claim that the doctrine of Christ's second coming was just another one of those cleverly devised myths, just like all of the other mythological ideas that were running around at the time. And so Peter is directly attacking that claim head on, and he's saying, we apostles were not following some kind of creative mythology when we told you that Jesus would come again in power and glory. Rather, we were eyewitnesses of something that served as a mini preview of that future event. We were with Jesus on the mountain, and when he received honor and glory from the Father, and there was this voice that boomed from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. The event he is referring to here is known as the transfiguration. It is described in three out of our four Gospel accounts. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell this story, and it's one of the most amazing things that Peter ever got to witness with his own eyes. And here's Matthew's retelling of it from chapter 17 of his gospel account. He writes this. And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He was still speaking, when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, Rise and have no fear. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only, and as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, Tell no one of this vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead. So Jesus took his three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John, on this excursion up on this high mountain. And when they reach their destination, suddenly the appearance of Jesus radically changed, which is what transfigured means. It means to change or to be transformed. And specifically, the change that took place is that his face began to shine like a beam of light from the sun. So think about attempting to look directly into the sun with your naked eye, and how difficult it is to look right at the sun. The power of that light is what was coming out of Jesus' face. And his clothes became radiant like bright white light. And Moses and Elijah appear next to him and they're speaking with him. And then this huge cloud hovers over them with this booming voice from heaven. This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. And this whole thing is so intense and majestic and overwhelming that Peter and James and John fall to the ground and bury their faces in the dirt in fear. Until Jesus walks over and touches them and says, Don't be afraid. Stand up. And when they did so, the whole event had come to an end. And if you're familiar with the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, then you're probably somewhat familiar with this event, the transfiguration. But the question is, why does Peter point his readers to this event as an argument for the future return of Jesus? How exactly is the transfiguration a mini preview of his second coming? Well, if you slow down a little bit and consider the various components, it actually makes perfect sense why Peter would do this. Because first of all, if we back up just one verse before the transfiguration, the very last verse of Matthew 16, Jesus says this to his disciples. That statement at the end of Matthew 16 has confused some people, but Jesus was not telling his disciples that some of them were going to live long enough to see his second coming. They all died 2,000 years ago. Rather, he was telling them, some of them standing there were going to get a glimpse of what it will be like when Jesus ushers in his eternal kingdom. They will get a glimpse of that before they die. And then immediately after he says that, Matthew pivots to tell the story of Peter and James and John witnessing the transfiguration. So that's the first clue that this event is kind of a mini preview of sorts of the future return of Christ, because it becomes, it comes immediately after that comment that Jesus made to his disciples. But in addition to that, we also have to think about the various components of what took place that day. So the fact that Jesus' appearance changed and he became bright, radiant with bright light was meant to be just a small preview of his majesty and splendor that will be revealed when he returns in power and glory at the end of the age. The fact that Moses and Elijah appeared beside him was meant to be a small preview of the fact that all of God's people will get to partake in his glory with him when he returns. The bright cloud above them with the Father's voice symbolized a reunification of heaven and earth when Jesus will come on the clouds of heaven. And Jesus touching them when they were hiding their faces in the dirt and telling them, Stand up, don't be afraid, pointed to the fact that on judgment day, those who are united to Christ by grace through faith will be able to stand in the presence of God with nothing to fear. So all of these components of the transfiguration kind of served as just a mini preview, a tiny foretaste of the future return of Jesus, which is why Peter chooses to lean on this event as an argument for the parocia, for the second coming. He is saying this was not some creative mythology. It wasn't some fanciful folklore. I was there on the mountain. I saw with my own eyes the splendor and majesty of Jesus when a glimpse of his glory was revealed to us. I heard the voice with my own ears from heaven speaking honor and power over the Son of God. I saw Moses and Elijah, who have been dead for a very long time, standing with Jesus, partaking in his glory with him. I wasn't alone either. James and John were there. They saw and heard what I saw and heard. So trust me, Jesus is coming back in power and glory and majesty and splendor. But see, Peter is no dummy. He recognizes the fact that there were only three eyewitnesses that day. There are other things where there were tons of eyewitnesses. Hundreds of eyewitnesses saw the resurrected Jesus after the crucifixion, but there were only three eyewitnesses of the transfiguration. And he understands that, which is why he doesn't only lean on the argument of the testimony of the apostles, even though that's important, but he also leans on the trustworthiness of Scripture, which very clearly speaks about the return of Christ and does so as the word of God from the Holy Spirit. And so he continues in verses 19 through 21 and writes this. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Alright, so notice the flow of Peter's logic here. He's saying, I was there on the mountain with Jesus, I saw things with my eyes, I heard things with my ears, but I recognized you weren't there, you didn't see what I saw, you didn't hear what I heard, but it doesn't matter. It does not matter that you were not there because you can completely rely on the trustworthiness of Scripture. In fact, he says something interesting here. He says, We have the prophetic word, which at that time would have been the Old Testament scriptures. So we have the prophetic word of the scriptures more fully confirmed, he says. Which is an interesting phrase. And commentators are actually split into two different camps about what this statement from Peter might mean. So the first camp thinks that more fully confirmed means that scripture is actually a more reliable witness than Peter's personal experience on the mountain that day. In other words, they think he's saying, it doesn't matter that you weren't there with me, because you have something even better than that to go off of. You have scripture, which is an even more reliable witness than the testimony of James, John, and I. So that's one possibility. He he might be saying that scripture is even better than what he witnessed. But the second camp thinks that more fully confirmed means that the prophetic word of Scripture has been further proven to be true because of what the apostles witnessed. In other words, they think he's saying, It does not matter that you weren't there with me, because what happened that day was just yet another example of the prophetic scriptures about the Messiah being fulfilled once again in Jesus. So as long as you have scripture, then you have something that was constantly proven to be true over and over and over again by the things that Jesus did and said. So it's another possibility. Peter might be saying that scripture was just further proven to be true because of what the apostles witnessed. Maybe that's what he means. Honestly, I'm not sure which camp I think is right, but the truth is, regardless of where you land, it actually doesn't really change the practical application of his argument because either way, he still goes on to say, pay attention to scripture as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, which means whether the first camp or the second camp is right, nevertheless, he's still saying, it doesn't matter that you weren't there with me, you can trust Scripture. In fact, you should be sure to give it your full attention, the same way you would tend to a light if it was your only source of light while you were in a completely dark place. And the reason that he says to do so, I'm sorry, he says to do so, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. These two terms are meaningful in biblical theology, the day and the morning star. The day, or oftentimes called the day of the Lord, is a theme that gets developed throughout Scripture from the Old Testament into the new. Prophets like Isaiah and Amos associate the day of the Lord with judgment, when God will finally and fully punish the sin of the world. Prophets like Joel and Zachariah associate it more so with salvation, when God will finally and fully rescue his people. And then the New Testament writers bring all of this together in Jesus, looking forward to his return. And then Paul says things like this in 2 Timothy chapter 4 There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day, and not me only, but also all who have loved his appearing or coming. Also the morning star is another term in biblical theology. In Numbers chapter 24, there's this prophecy that says, A star shall come out of Jacob. And then at the very end of the Bible in Revelation 22, 16, Jesus says, I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. So when Peter says, pay attention to scripture, it's like a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. He is telling his readers, give your full attention to scripture while you live life in a dark and sinful world, and wait for the day when all of the sin of the world will finally and fully be dealt with, and everyone who trusts in Christ will finally and fully be rescued, and the faith that we possess in our hearts will finally be met with sight as Jesus, the bright morning star, returns in power and glory, and the dawn of his kingdom begins. Peter is emphasizing the fact that Scripture very clearly speaks about the return of Christ. And lest these false teachers try to also claim that just the Bible itself, the scriptures themselves, were just cleverly devised myths, as they claimed about the doctrine of the second coming, he makes sure to remind them also of this that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, he says, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, which is to say that no part of the Bible was concocted simply by the minds of men. Nothing in Scripture is merely human thought operating on its own power. Rather, human beings wrote down the very words of God as they were carried along, Peter says, by the Holy Spirit. The Greek word that appears there also shows up in Acts 27, when Paul is sailing toward Rome during a storm, and it says this, when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven or carried along. So as mariners play their part, right, by tending the ship and raising the sails, and the wind plays its part by carrying the ship along to its destination. Peter is saying, in a similar sense, the biblical authors played their part by putting pen to parchment and recording history and poetry and prophecy and letters and More, and the Holy Spirit played God's part by carrying them along in the process to their proper destination. This is where we get the doctrine of inspiration or the doctrine of inerrancy as well. As Christians, we believe the Bible is without error in everything that it teaches because the Spirit of God supernaturally inspired human authors to record the words of God. Which means that even in this letter we're going through, nothing that Peter wrote came from the mind of Peter alone. It came from the mind of Peter through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so that he could reach the proper destination of writing a letter without error. Now I understand that for some people what I just said sounds crazy. It sounds crazy that God would speak to people and have them write things down. It sounds crazy because the truth is, any wacko could write something down on a piece of paper and claim that they heard directly from God. In fact, that's happened many times throughout human history. Many people have claimed to receive divine knowledge, divine revelation, and wrote something down and told people to read it and follow it. And sadly, many vulnerable people have been duped by those people. So, in part, that's partially why this sounds crazy. But see, that's exactly one of the things that actually makes the Bible unique. Because when you open up this book and you start reading, you're not reading a book by one wacko person who claims to have heard directly from God. When you open the Bible, you are entering into a world of 66 different books, written by roughly 40 different authors over a period of 1,500 years on three different continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe, in three different languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. And someone might say, cool, what's the significance of that? To which I would say, in the ancient world, before there was mass transportation or mass printing or email or social media, the fact that you can bring all of these different books together from all of these different human authors over 1,500 years with enormous gaps in geography and language, and somehow it all fits together in perfect harmony and tells one perfectly united story from start to finish. That fact alone tells me there is something divine about this book. I mean, my wife can't even send me to the grocery store without me forgetting what she sent me there for. And we're talking about like a span of 15 minutes between two people and two miles. But at least I could call her, right? I could text her and figure it out. But if somebody expects me to believe that 40 different wackos without cell phones from the ancient world, who believed they were writing the word of God but were separated by land and sea and language in 15 centuries, somehow magically pulled off the greatest unified masterpiece ever written that tells a meticulously crafted story. I'm sorry, that sounds crazy to me. I think it makes much more sense to conclude that the reason these 40 different authors, who were separated by all these different barriers and obstacles, were able to tell a perfectly unified story is because all 40 of them were inspired by the same divine author. Scripture is completely trustworthy. And because of that, Peter's main message in our passage this morning is actually very straightforward and very simple. The word of the Lord is our guiding light until the day of the Lord. The word of the Lord is our guiding light until the day of the Lord. See, the same God who created the world also gave us his carefully crafted word so that we could know him and know how to properly live in his world that he created. And the reason Peter says that we should pay attention to Scripture, like a light shining in a dark place, is because attempting to live in God's world without paying attention to God's word is like fumbling around in the dark. It's like trying to make your way out of a clothing store in pitch black without being able to see anything and bumping into people and bumping into clothing racks, like what happened to me all those years ago. See, in the beginning, God's creation was good, but our sin ravaged this world and it is now a place of spiritual darkness, which means ever since Genesis chapter 3, all of mankind has been fumbling around in the dark. He was traversing inside this huge cave by himself when a rock shifted and pinned against his leg, trapping him deep underground in a narrow passageway. And although he didn't survive, rescue teams were able to find him and recover his body by using small lanterns as sources of light. And they had to crawl through tight tunnels and feel their way along rocks inch by inch because beyond that small circle of light from their lantern, there was nothing but complete and total darkness. And at the risk of stating the obvious, that rescue team had no shot of finding him without those lanterns. But not only that, there is no way they would have even attempted this mission without turning the lights on and tending to them. But for some reason, those of us who are followers of Jesus choose to go through stretches of the Christian life where we choose to just fumble around in the dark rather than turning on our lantern. See, we already know that life in a fallen world is very hard. Life in a fallen world is very difficult. There will be challenges and pain. And we know that God has given us his word, and we might even know things like Psalm 19 that says, Your word is the lamp to my feet and light to my path. As Christians, we know things like this, and yet oftentimes we still choose to navigate this dark world in the dark, instead of just turning on the light that God has provided for us. Instead of paying attention to Scripture like a lamp that is shining in a dark place. And see, when we do actually pay attention to it, when we do tend to it and nurture it and treasure it as light in a dark place, not only do we see more clearly how to live in the world that God made, but even more than that, we see more clearly the person who died and rose again so that we could live forever in the world that God will remake. We see more clearly Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who took on flesh to bear our sin, and who one day will come again in power and glory and majesty, and will fully and finally deal with the sin of the world, and will fully and finally rescue his people from the world. And if we repent and believe in him, then we get to partake in his glory with him and stand in the presence of God with nothing to fear while Jesus ushers us into his eternal kingdom.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

So Peter's message from these verses is very, very simple. Turn your light on. Treasure it. Pay attention to it.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Because the word of the Lord is our guiding light until the day of the Lord.