This Will Be On The Test

2 Peter 1:16-21

Transcript

2 Peter 1, starting in verse 16. 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
borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 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. Okay so it is the middle of June. The school year is winding down here
in Williamsville, and if you're a student, at least maybe a high school student
or middle school student, you are at this point preparing for final exams and
for tests. And you've probably heard a phrase like that whenever your student
days were. You've probably heard a phrase like this before from a teacher as he
or she prepares you for the test. They may say something like this, just so you
know, write this down, make sure you know this stuff, because this will be on
the test. And as a student, I always appreciated that and kind of hated it too
at the same time. In one sense it's nice, you get to know, with a little bit of
advanced notice, what you are getting into, what you need to know, what you're
supposed to focus on. You know what you're supposed to pay attention to. But at
the same time, in another sense, I kind of hated being reminded that there was
going to be a test, and that I would actually be accountable for all of this
stuff. And in our message this morning, you could think of it that way. We are
learning what is going to be on the test. We're learning what we have to focus
on, what we need to pay attention to. If you've been tracking with us through 2
Peter, we've already established that the author of the letter, the Apostle
Peter, is aware that he is going to die shortly. 2 Peter 1, verse 14 says, since
I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ
made clear to me. He's become aware of this. He wants to establish the churches
that he's writing to by encouraging them to grow in grace and grow in the
knowledge of God. What is also going on and what we have not explored yet in
this letter is the presence of false teachers. Peter mentions this later on in
chapter 2 and in chapter 3. Chapter 2, verse 1, he says, false prophets also
arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will
secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them,
bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And then later on in chapter 3,
verses 3 and 4, Peter says, knowing this, that first of all, that scoffers will
come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires, they
will say, where is the promise of his coming? So what that's saying is that
there are and will be false teachers who infiltrate these churches. They're
discrediting the apostolic teaching and they're creating skepticism about
whether Jesus will actually ever return. So Peter is now writing to establish
these churches and to deal with these false teachers. He does not want them to
be unstable after his departure. He wants them to keep on growing. And as he's
writing, he makes a case for his own authority as an apostle and a case for the
authority of scripture. Now I want you to think about this. If you were in a
court of law and you were trying to prove your point, what types of evidence
would you want to use to make your point? The first would probably be eyewitness
testimony, eyewitness evidence. And the second would probably be authoritative
documents, evidence in writing. That was true then in the first century. That
would still be true today that eyewitness testimony and authoritative documents
would be the best pieces of evidence that you could have. And that is how
Peter's argument is broken down in this passage. Eyewitness testimony verses 16
through 18, authoritative documents in verses 19 through 21. And here's what
he's arguing for. He's saying no matter what others may say, Jesus is coming
back. And until that day comes, pay attention to the words of scripture. No
matter what others may say, Jesus is coming back. And until that day comes, pay
attention to the words of scripture. So this is broken down into two pieces,
eyewitness testimony and authoritative documents. Let's read verses 16 through
18 one more time, the eyewitness testimony. 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 born 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. So there were
apparently some who were saying that the teaching of the apostles was simply
cleverly devised myths. They were discrediting Peter, and specifically they were
discrediting the apostolic teaching as cleverly devised myths. And what they
were critiquing most specifically was what Peter had said about the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the second coming of Jesus.
We'll talk about more about the second coming as the letter goes along. But the
idea that Jesus will come again has very strong meaning for how we are to live
as Christians. It means that he will return again, and this time as king and as
judge, and that Christians are called to live in light of his return, knowing
that it will happen. It means that we are to look closely as to how we live so
that we are prepared and not asleep when he returns. At the time of this letter,
it was 30, 35 years after Jesus's resurrection. Some of the apostles had died.
Jesus had not yet returned, and people were arriving on the scene saying, you
guys can all relax and live however you want. The idea of Jesus returning is
just a cleverly devised myth. And look at how Peter responds to this. He gives
his own eyewitness testimony. There are probably some things that you and I are
100% skeptical about. So for example, myself, if someone tries to convince me
something like that there really is a Loch Ness monster. Those people, in my
experience, they are generally excited about things like Reddit threads or
YouTube videos of shadows or what their friend's cousin who took a vacation one
time in Scotland said. And if you are skeptical like I am, you will not find any
of that convincing. But in response to this accusation that he was just devising
clever myths, Peter says, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He's referring
now to his experience on the Mount of Transfiguration with James and John. That
account is recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke in each of those gospels. And
Peter says of his experience, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. We saw
Jesus's majesty live and in person. This experience was so profound that even
though it was now 30 plus years later, you'll note in this passage that Peter is
directly quoting what he heard on the on the mountain when the voice of God
spoke and said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. Since Peter's
referencing it, let's look at this passage for a moment from Mark 9, two through
six. Mark 9, two through six. Jesus took with him Peter, James and John and led
them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them and
his clothes became radiant, intensely white as no one on earth could bleach
them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses. And they were talking with
Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make
three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. For he did not
know what to say, for they were terrified. So false teachers are creating
skepticism that Jesus would ever come back. You can imagine them infiltrating
the church and saying, Peter's an old man. Jesus isn't back yet. What are you so
concerned about? There's not going to be a great and awesome day of the Lord.
Today we will have people that will similarly cast doubt about his coming or who
have no grasp of the majestic nature of what is to come. And as Peter's
opponents talk about cleverly devised myths, Peter's audience would have been
familiar with mythology. If you study Greek mythology today, there are tons of
stories about Zeus or Hercules or Poseidon or Athena that are great. But they
never actually happened. And the point of those myths is not that they happened
in history, but what the stories represent. And I'm aware today as a Christian
preacher, there are many things in the Bible that are hard to swallow. If you
have a skeptical or questioning mind, it could be there's too many to list right
here, but it could be that you could struggle with the idea that there was a
great worldwide flood or that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish or that people
actually crossed over the Red Sea. Or even more fundamentally, you could
struggle with the idea that Jesus was born of a virgin or that he truly died and
rose again. And then some people in their struggle to, let's say, kind of square
those circles have asked does it really matter or does it have to matter? Like
for example, whether manna fell from heaven or not isn't the point that God will
always provide or whether Jesus actually rose from the dead isn't the point that
love will always overcome. Does it have to actually have happened? You will hear
many, many people say make arguments or have discussions like that today. But
Peter is making it very clear to them we are talking about real history. We are
talking about actual things that happened. Christianity, unlike many other world
religions, is based on physical events that happened in real space and time. And
Peter says we do not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the
power and majesty of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were
eyewitnesses of his majesty. So we see now this letter is written by a man who
is going to die to churches who are being unsettled by false teachers. And
people have infiltrated the church and are casting doubt on the idea of Jesus'
second coming because it hasn't happened yet. And Peter is writing to stabilize
these churches to help them keep growing and to know how to live in light of the
reality of Jesus' return. And to the people who would cast doubt on the second
coming of Jesus, Peter would reply, actually I have seen Jesus himself in his
transfigured state and it was terrifying. He was majestic in his holiness. The
majesty of the transfiguration was foreshadowing of what is still to come. And
what Peter saw on the Mount of Transfiguration transformed him even to the point
where he knows Jesus is not an ordinary man. He's already seen him in his
dazzling holiness. His return is not something that we can ignore or take
lightly or think, ah, that'll happen someday whenever, but not really important
for me. He's saying based on eyewitness testimony, when I made known to you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, it was based on what I saw. Now the
skeptical person might again and rightfully so say, that is great, but I was not
there. I wasn't there on the Mount of Transfiguration. I wasn't up there. I
didn't see Moses and Elijah. I didn't see Christ in dazzling whiteness. I've
never seen anything remotely like that. So what do you want? Like I'm just
supposed to take your word for it. That person might even say something like
this. I wish I had a spiritual experience like that, but I've never had that. I
wish that I could say I had a dramatic conversion experience and I heard the
voice of God or I felt him in a way that was unmistakable, but I have never had
that. Some of you have probably heard other people talk about God and thought to
yourself, I wish that I could speak with that type of certainty and assuredness.
But let's follow the argument that Peter's making. He surely had a spiritual
experience that far outstrips anything any of us in the room could claim. And
yet after giving his eyewitness testimony, he submits even that to the testimony
of scripture. Like an attorney making his case in court, he moves now from the
eyewitness testimony to the authoritative documents. Look at this, verses 19
through 21. The prophetic word speaks to the scripture, in this case, the Old
Testament, which predates anything that happened on the Mount of
Transfiguration. On the mountain, they saw Peter, James and John saw that Jesus
was not only human, he was divine. On the mountain, they heard God's voice give
his approval to his son. This is my beloved son. On the mountain, they saw Moses
and Elijah representing the law and the prophets, and they saw that Jesus was
the fulfillment of both and greater than both. And on the mountain, they saw
Jesus in dazzling holiness, which is in anticipation of his coming, his return.
And at first, it seems that Peter is making this argument to the false teachers
based just on what he saw. But if you weren't there, and obviously none of us
were, and none of the people in these churches were there, well, guess what? We
have the prophetic word more fully confirmed. In other words, what Peter and
James and John saw, as stunning as that was, was the visual confirmation of what
the Old Testament had already foretold. And the readers of this letter, as well
as us, we have that prophetic word. Think about what Peter's saying. He's
recognizing that he's going to leave the world, and probably recognizing that
before long all the actual physical eyewitnesses of Jesus are going to die out
before he returns. And he's saying, I saw him, but what you all need is not your
own personal revelation to replace mine. What you need is to pay attention to
the Word of God, 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.
There's one command in this section of Scripture, and it is just this, pay
attention. In other words, this will be on the test. You need to know this. We
are like the readers of this letter. We are awaiting the return of Christ. It
hasn't happened yet, but it will. We know that it will. Nobody knows the day or
the hour, but it is an uncertain certainty. It's guaranteed to happen at an
uncertain time. And the Word of God is described here as a lamp shining in a
dark place. I think you could just describe our general life on earth like that,
a dark place. Psalm 119, 105 says this, your word is a lamp to my feet and a
light to my path. How are we going to navigate through the darkness of this
world? By paying attention to the Word of God, paying attention. And this text
makes us reflect on our own lives and say, what am I really paying attention to?
Where is my focus? What has my attention? I was on an airplane several times in
the last two weeks. And when you're on the plane, you really have nothing to do.
So everyone, you know this as you've flown recently, everyone is just glued to
their phones. And I was noticing my seat mates around me. I wasn't like
eavesdropping. I was more like eaves watching. And when I looked around,
everyone is just blazing through TikTok and Instagram or Facebook or playing a
video game. And it's young, it's old. It doesn't matter how old everyone is.
None of us can pay attention to anything for more than a second or two. And we
all want entertainment. We all want to know how to dress, how to eat, how to be
more productive, how to have a good morning retreat. There's countless experts
trying to gather our attention and we're getting more and more visual and less
and less able to pay attention. But I want you to hear again these words from
this dying apostle to the church. 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 our hearts. If you
want to grow in love and affection for Jesus, pay attention to the word of God.
Jesus, he is the morning star. That's an Old Testament and New Testament name
for Jesus. And if you want the fog to lift in your heart and your love for
Christ to grow, then pay attention to the word of God. We ought to think, what
has really got my attention? Some of you struggle with this because you're
thinking, I don't really like, I don't really enjoy Bible reading. Seems like a
chore. I don't even like reading in general. And you might rather or wish you
might wish you could get spiritual guidance through more like subjective
impressions or experiences or a song or a conversation than through studying the
Bible. Or some people might say, you might say, I would follow God if he like
spoke to me from the sky or if I heard his voice. But that has never happened
for me. He's never made himself clear to me. This is a whole long book. A lot of
it's confusing. I'm not going to read the whole thing. I'm more of like a I'm
more like a intuitive feelings, gut level person. Why would you elevate personal
experience, however valid that personal experience may be above the word of God?
Sixteen years ago, it was 2010, I was in grad school. And at that time, I was
the assistant baseball coach at a college nearby. And our season had just ended.
This was May of 2010. And my boss, the athletic director, really did not like
our head coach. I don't really I think he was neutral about me, but he did not
like our head coach. And he asked me, would you like would you want to be the
head baseball coach? I can remember where we were standing. It was a direct and
memorable encounter. He was offering a job that I really wanted. And I said,
yes. The very next day, my boss took a job at a different school. And that was
the end of that. You know what I should have said? I should have said yes. Can
you put that in writing? We don't need more direct personal experiences. We have
the word of God. It's God's revelation to us. And we would do well to pay
attention to it. The scriptures are God's message to us. And what Peter is
communicating is not his thoughts or his opinions or his interpretations. It's
not cleverly devised myths. He says no prophecy of scripture ever comes comes
from someone's own interpretation. No prophecy was ever produced by the will of
man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. What
that means is that scripture is not humanly devised. No legitimate prophecy
comes from the thoughts and ideas generated by men. Further, the Bible is a book
that is both human and divine, meaning that God inspired various authors at
various times. These authors had different skills, backgrounds, personalities.
They wrote with different styles. They lived in different times in history. But
the words that they wrote were inspired by the Holy Spirit to communicate God's
saving message. The text says that these writers were carried along by the Holy
Spirit. That doesn't mean that they were in some type of trance or that they
were just taking dictation, having some sort of out of body experience. They
were in their right minds when they were writing the words of scripture. They
were inspired by the Holy Spirit, carried along, could be understood. One
commentator put it like this, brought by his power to the goal of his choosing.
Carried along by the Holy Spirit. We have something that is reliable,
trustworthy and authoritative in the word of God. And if we want to pass the
test, if we want to navigate through the darkness of this world and be prepared
for his coming. Let's remember, he is coming back to as king and as judge. We
would do well to pay attention. So let me just wrap up. How do I pay attention?
Let me just conclude with application as far as how we grow in paying attention
to the word of God. The first one is hearing. The first has to do with how we
hear the word of God when it is preached and it's taught. I just came back from
Chicago and sat through a number of sermons. And I was freshly reminded of
something that preachers, I think, can easily forget. And it was, it's not that
easy to sit through a sermon. It's just not that easy. At what other time in
your week, you just sit still and listen to one person talk for half an hour or
more. And sometimes that has to do, sometimes it's not that easy. That has to do
with the sermon itself. And sometimes it has to do with everything else that is
just going on in our hearts and minds. But even though it is challenging, we
have to approach the sermon in particular, but when we hear the word of God
taught in general, with an understanding that God has ordained preaching as his
means, one of his appointed means for the building up of the church. Everyone
that God has placed in your life as an overseer has prayed and worked hard to
proclaim God's word to you. Every preacher will tell you, every preacher will
tell you that there are certain people and faces in his congregation that
function as such an encouragement to him, because no matter how flat he may
think the sermon is in the moment or how badly it might be going, he can look
out at this person or that person and say, she's with me, he's with me. The way
that we receive the word of God is one way that we pay attention. The second way
to pay attention to the word of God is through meditation and through
conversation. We take in so much information that our brains are in this, I
think in this, I'm not making a scientific statement, I'm just saying that our
brains are in a consistent state of overload. It's very easy to listen or read
the word of God and just kind of have it go in one ear and out the next. Some of
you have probably reached a point in your life where you recognize that your
ability to retain information isn't as good as it used to be. That is all the
more reason, if that's how you feel, that is all the more reason to slow down
and to meditate on God's word. That just means to ponder and to consider and to
ruminate and to contemplate, turn it over in your mind. And it's also all the
more reason to make the word of God the subject of conversation, whether that's
in a small group or a Bible study, whether that's an informal conversation with
another Christian, whether that's a conversation Sunday afternoon about what you
just heard. We need to meditate and converse about the word of God if we're
going to pay attention to it. And the third way is just personal study. Not
everyone, I recognize, not everyone is going to be a Bible scholar, but we can
all grow in our love, in our understanding of the scripture, no matter where we
are in life. I hope that each of you have a set time and a set place to read the
Bible every day. And if you're thinking, I should do that, I'd love to talk with
you about how to do that. The Bible, yes, some of the things in the Bible are
complex. The Bible will open up to faithful and prayerful study. And if we want
to pass the test and we want to navigate through the darkness of this world and
be prepared for his coming, we would do well to pay attention to the word of
God. Let's pray.