Sermons

Sunday Service Messages  

                We live in a world paralyzed by confusion over truth.  “Fact-checkers” are typically in disagreement regarding what the facts are.  Just because someone says, “that’s a fact” we don’t know if it is or not.  There are even disagreements among eyewitnesses.  That is why both in biblical times as well as in modern times a fact is usually needed to be confirmed by more than one eyewitness.                                                                                                                                                                                             No wonder the prince of lies is quite content with the development of relativity or “my truth/your truth.”  Truth has always been essential to God.  Truth is rooted in the nature of God.  Based on the incarnation of Christ we see the importance of truth.  In responding to Thomas at a moment in which Thomas is confused, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  Jesus is the author of truth.  Who Jesus is and how we can know the truth is crucial to Jesus’ very identity.                                                                                                                                                                                                 

      It is essential to Peter’s audience both then and now as to who Jesus is.  The way of the evil one was at work then and it is at work now for there are always those within the sheepfold who are wolves.  Peter offers his proof to what he has taught his audience regarding Jesus and how he has come to his place of certainty.  2 Peter 1:16-21

                “Everything started with our own flesh and blood experience with Jesus.  Nothing that we have taught is made up from our own minds.  We have seen the power and glory of the Lord Jesus with our own eyes.  We were on the mountain when He revealed His true identity and we heard Yahweh’s voice declare, ‘This is my beloved Son, whom I love, listen to Him!’                                                In addition, we have the prophetic word from the Old Testament prophets that was confirmed to us in our own experience.  We didn’t just read about it, we experienced it.  I want to challenge you to pay attention to what I am saying as you would to a lamp shining in the dark until the light bulb goes on in your minds and realization arises in your hearts.  Nothing we have been given by God is human-generated or unclear.  The Holy Spirit has always been the transporter of truth whether from God’s Old Testament prophets or from Jesus’ own words.”                                                                                                                                                                                                    

     Here is Peter’s fact check.  In the words of our mentor, “Fundamental is the fact that the apostolic preaching (which he has offered them and us) is responsible for their faith in the first place, and is firmly grounded on historical events (p. 175).”                                                                                    

     The truth of the apostolic teaching about the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is guaranteed by the fact that Peter, Big James, and John were eyewitnesses of a singular manifestation of the majesty of Christ’s divine glory which took place on the mountain that we call the Mount of Transfiguration recorded in each of the gospel accounts of Jesus way, truth, and life.  Let me refresh our memory.  Let me read for you from the compulsive recorder of the events, Matthew: Matthew 17:1-9.                                                                                                                                                   

     The transfiguration scene can refer to honor bestowed by the divine voice on that occasion and to glory received from the Shekinah cloud which enveloped the person of Jesus on the mount.  Let me say something about Shekinah because it ties so much of who God is together….  This dazzling splendor on the mount was forever burned into the apostle’s memory, for not even the resurrection appearances are said in the record to have had such characteristics as honor and glory that showed up at the same moment on that mountain.                          

     With the exception of that encounter between the Trinity and the three disciples during Jesus’ time upon earth, He walked with His divinity veiled and thus offers believers the confident hope that when He returns, He will return with honor and glory.  The glory of divinity has shown up in a cloud, a star, another cloud and one day completely unhidden.                                      

     If we remember Jesus’ baptism, Mark 1:11, the implication from Jesus’ baptism and now the Mount of Transfiguration God the Father is intensifying His expression of intimacy and oneness with the Son.  It was important for Peter to see that not only for his head but also for his heart.  The way of God within the life of the Trinity is the way of intimacy and oneness.  With that image in our minds isn’t it clear to us that God is wooing us into a life of intimacy with Him and oneness in Him that is life on His terms?                                                                                                                          

     From his eyewitness account Peter makes the point, we ourselves (the three of us) heard this voice.  It was there on that mountain that God Himself solemnly affirmed the divinity of Jesus His Son.  There have always been those who question the divinity of Christ so much so that John wrote in his first letter that genuine believers believe the truth about Christ, walk in the light as He was in the light, and that they love fellow-believers. Gnosticism is one of the earliest heresies in which the truth about Christ in the fact that He was both divine and human at the same time was denied.                                                                                                                                                           

     As we will see as the letter goes on from here, Peter is preparing to assail those who were spreading false doctrine regarding Christ starting in the next chapter.  Peter ties together the solidarity between the message of the Old Testament prophets and the teaching of the apostles.  So, the next focus in our present paragraph emphasizes the scriptural evidence of what Peter has taught them.                                                                                                                                                                               

     Peter is not making a comparison with the transfiguration but is expressing complete confidence in the inspired Word of God, the Hebrew Bible.  When he says, “we possess the prophetic Word as altogether something reliable” He is clear as to how God has spoken and spoken regarding Christ in particular.  Pay attention to the inspired Scriptures, for they act as a light or lamp shining in a dark place.  Dark in this usage of the word means; dry, squalid, dismal.  So, the lamp is shining in the dry, squalid, dismal places.  Conditions which are exposed when divine illumination blazes forth as it has in Jesus.  In our conversation today that is why the divine shows up in the Dignity Center or wherever the gospel is being spoken and lived.                                                                                                                                                                                               

     The inspired authority of Scripture is totally sufficient for this present life, until the Parousia, the Greek word for the day of the Lord dawns.  When Jesus returns.  Prophecy’s function for this life is to illumine the darkness of ignorance.  But at the Parousia, when the Lord returns in both glory and honor, prophecy will be superseded as the full light of God’s revelation in Christ floods the hearts of His people.  Paul put it this way in his first letter to the Corinthian Church, “Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will case; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.”    As our mentor says, “A lamp is no longer required once the sun is up.”                                                                

     True prophesy never came about as a result of some individuals’ personal ideas; it never had its origin in the will of man but men who spoke from God.  In fact, if someone said that they spoke from God and didn’t, God took that seriously and they paid a price, a severe price.  Prophecy has never been something to mess with or take lightly.  But it is the Spirit who must interpret and apply His own message in His own way.                                                                                                           

     Again, “if a student of Scripture finds that some personal interpretation as to the text is at variance with that which has generally been accepted down the long centuries by the church, then the student should be prepared to humbly reconsider his or her views.” (p. 180).  That ought not keep us from studying the Scriptures for the Scriptures are a shining light, a light given to be used.  The point is the truth of God’s Word is not a matter of my truth or your truth for it is The Truth!                                                                                                                                                                    

     Peter’s reminder was quite relevant in his day, and it is relevant in our day.  It is on us to realize that in the kingdom of God there is truth and certainty and the truth that we find there makes a difference in how we live.  One of the first passages I learned as a seminary student is found in Hebrews 1: 1-2, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.                                                                   

     Peter, Big James, and John were eyewitnesses to both the humanity and divinity of Jesus, I wasn’t but I believe them.  What I can do is rehearse everyday where I see Him show up in creation, conversations, and circumstances.  There are special times when His presence has great felt meaning for us personally.  It is not only important to remember those times, but to rehearse them so that their significance grows and deepens in our souls.  In my class learning how to give the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises Trevor Hudson made the point that embracing our encounters with Jesus and even embracing the blessings that God gives us is how we deepen our relationship with Him.                                                                                                                                                                    

     It is important for us to keep in mind that the prophets were clear regarding Jesus’ humanity and His divinity.  We ought not be blind to the truth simply because it challenges our self-centered ways.  It was hard for Israel to hear what the truth was, so they often killed the messengers – the prophets.  Yet, the truth regarding the Messiah was always there all along.  God revealed both His will and His way before Jesus appeared.  While we wait for Jesus’ return here's what we can know.  He is here yet remains invisible to the naked eye.  When we learn what He is like and what His way is when He does show up, we can truly recognize His presence, and our eyes are no longer completely naked.                                                                                                      

     Peter’s eyewitness account is both certain and revelatory.  We can know that Jesus is who He said He is and therefore we can prepare ourselves to recognize when the anti-Christ spirit or ideas show up.  It is on us to pay attention to the truth of God and as we recognize the truth that God has revealed to us in the Word, it is on us to arrange the affairs of our lives to reflect living out the truth of Christ.  Our experience of God’s presence is confirmation of the truth.