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"Eyewitnesses
of Majesty" February
10, 2002 Rev. Dr. John Ward Let's read the Word of the Lord together.
We're going to be reading from Second Peter, chapter 1, verse 16 through
to 21. You'll find it on page 236
in the New Testament in the pew Bibles. We'll
be looking at a couple of other passages as well.
Here Peter was, in his second epistle, he's writing and bringing comfort
to those who are concerned and confused. Paul's
teaching has now come up in the life of the church that doubts the second coming
of Christ, and Peter wishes to refute that and uses his authority as an
eyewitness of the historic reality of who Christ was and who He is, and the Holy
Spirit, and who He promised to be. That's
what we read here. Let's read the
Word of the Lord together. 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 had been eyewitnesses
of his majesty. For he received
honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the
Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well
pleased." We ourselves heard
this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed.
You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark
place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.
First of all, you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is
a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human
will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God. Well, when sickness occurs, what can you do?
Gary LeTourneau will be back in the office on Tuesday.
He's out of state. I was
hoping to call in pulpit supply, but I had a baptism to do the second service
and you know, it just doesn't work to call somebody up last minute and say,
"By the way, you have a baptism" and then let the family down.
So I'm here and my voice may not sound that well.
I think I actually feel better than my voice right now, so I'll tell you
what. This is what I want you to
do. Would you all just go, "Awwwww"
just once? Thank you--I feel better
now! You never plan for sickness.
It just happens, so here we are. This Sunday in the life of the church calendar, is Transfiguration
Sunday. Believe it or not, Ash
Wednesday is this Wednesday. Easter
comes early this year. It comes at
the end of March--the last Sunday in March--a couple weeks earlier than we're
used to, and because of this, Ash Wednesday is this week.
Traditionally in the life of the church, as we prepare to change the
color of our paraments to purple--we start that beginning next Sunday--in the
life of the church it's common to think of the Sunday before that as
Transfiguration Sunday. That's what Peter is talking about. He's talking about the transfiguration. He talked about the majestic glory, he talked about the voice
of the Lord that he heard, because he's trying to remind these false-teachers,
and specifically to encourage members of churches, that Christ is real, that
Christ is not a myth, that we don't believe in a made-up story, but we believe
in an historic God--the God who created the universe, a God who indeed came in
human form, was born, and walked this earth.
A God who died on a cross. A
God who resurrected after His death. And
one who promised to return. This
God we're talking about is Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the trinity.
We understand God to be one, but we also see that God has revealed
Himself in three ways. He's Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, the functions of creator, and of savior and of sustainer
Holy Spirit. So Peter reminds people that it was based on an historic moment.
I'd like for us now to turn to that point because he's making reference
to that transfiguration. So I'd
like us to turn to Matthew chapter 17, starting at verse 1.
You'll find that on page 18 of the pew Bibles, in the New Testament
section--page 18. This is Matthew's
rendition. Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and
James and his brother John 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 dazzling white. Suddenly
there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if
you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one
for Elijah." While he was
still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a
voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased;
listen to him!" When the
disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be
afraid." And when they looked
up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus
ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has
been raised from the dead." And
the disciples asked him, "Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must
come first?" He replied,
"Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things; but I tell you that
Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him
whatever they pleased. So also the
Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands."
The disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John
the Baptist. Jesus likened the
coming of Elijah to John the Baptist who indeed prepared the way before him.
This is the story that Peter uses to remind people of the reality of who
Christ is. Now, this glorified
Christ is a vision that Peter, and James, and John saw and were told by Jesus
not to mention it until after the death and resurrection.
Why is that? Well, perhaps
they couldn't even understand it themselves.
It was only after the resurrection and after Pentecost when the Holy
Spirit came inside even these disciples that
they could fully understand exactly why Christ had come to save the world
by His death rather than in some certain victory.
Because it was in His death that He saved people because He took the
penalty that all of us deserved. He
took the penalty for our sin and He buried it once and for all.
This glorified Christ in the transfiguration occurs just before Jesus
enters into Jerusalem--just before the Passover and just before He is to be
crucified. In a sense it is a
theophany, it is a vision of God, the glory of God coming and being with Christ,
Christ Himself glorified, and Moses and Elijah, representing the Old Testament
law and the Old Testament prophets, the fullness of who God is, the beginning
and end shown there. And the way
Christ looked and His appearance of glory was not the glory of the resurrection.
It's the glory of the second coming.
And that's what Peter needed to tell the people in what he was writing in
Second Peter--what he saw. I want us to understand, as we move now into the next season of the
church--we always think of at least two seasons, one being Advent leading into
Christmas and now the season of Lent leading up to Holy Week.
It's important for us to understand we do not and cannot believe in
something that's merely false, that's merely a myth or a tale.
If that's all we have, then we really ought to not waste our time if
Christ indeed was not God and was not resurrected.
It's important for us to walk into the history of Lent and into the
celebration of Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday. I want to go back to Second Peter now. I want us to understand the reality of what it means to
believe in what's called here in prophecy.
This prophecy that Peter is talking about really is the Word of God for
us today. The interpretation of
God's Holy Word for us. I want to
go back to verse 19. We have the prophetic message more fully
confirmed. You will do well to be
attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and
the morning star arises in your hearts. [That
morning star is a reference to the second coming of Christ.
Verse 20:] First of all, you
must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own
interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women
moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. I like the way one commentator writes about this.
This is what one commentator says: Thus the gospel's good news does not rest on
[missed word] , but on the validity of God's action in history revealed in Jesus
of Nazareth. The transfiguration
itself was a kind of foretaste of the second coming, and as such validated the
apostolic witness in history, just as the prophetic faith had been declared
within the framework of actual events on earth. Peter here also claims that this prophetic word points to the
mission of Christ. We're to pay
attention to this until the morning star arises in our hearts.
[Then continuing on] Private
opinions must be met by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible is the book of the Christian community.
[I like that. It reminds us
we're around the Word of God.] The
Bible is the book of the Christian community and must be interpreted within that
community, the particular sphere where the Holy Spirit operates.
In prophecy, men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God, thus the
apostles, as successors of the prophets, were the special agents of the Holy
Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who
inspired men of old to write, also inspired persons within the Church to
understand the meaning. This is the
protection against false teaching. We hear about different forms of Christian [missed word] quite
often, don't we? And I think that
sometimes we forget that this is an age-old [missed word], that in the beginning
there were those who thought that Christians had to become Jews and be under the
law in order to receive grace, and that was refuted.
Then there were the gnostics, the ones who thought that indeed Jesus was
God, but never really touched the earth, and they had to depend upon knowledge
and philosophy as their god and they tried to work in Christianity with it, and
that didn't work. Here again
Peter's writing to people who do not believe in the second coming, and Peter was
refuting that. We find different interpretations of Scripture all the time.
We always hear about the most exciting ones.
Those are the ones that make the news.
The good news is that you and I can trust in the message of the Word as
being part of the Christian community. In
other words, where the Holy Spirit works is in community.
We're community right now. God
promises not for you and I to figure this out on our own, but God promises the
Christian community where two or more are gathered in Christ's name, there He
promises to be. Whenever we're
gathered as a Christian community, we can depend upon the Holy Spirit to guide
us in interpretation of Scripture. Isn't
that wonderful? I don't know about
you, but so many questions get asked these days that we could get afraid and we
could say, "I'm not sure what opinion I should have."
The good news is we have a promise here that as we're gathered together,
honestly seeking God's Word and God's will, God will speak to us.
God will speak to us, and enlighten our hearts. Let's pray together. Heavenly
Lord, we thank you for your Word. We're reminded of what Peter had to do as he spoke up and
refuted those who refused to believe that Jesus would return because He did not
return immediately. Lord, we stand
as a generation, we hear of ministries that call and tell us the time is right
for your coming now. Every
generation, Lord, we know has believed that the time is right. But Lord we, too, believe that it's possible.
We remember your word. Help
us, Lord God, as we continue in Christian community to have faith and trust that
your Word will become true for us as we seek your guidance.
In Christ's name we pray. And
all God's people said, "Amen." The Rev. Dr. John Ward Associate Pastor for Discipleship Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota [Transcribed from an audiotape of the 9:30 a.m. Worship Service on
February 10, 2002] |
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