January 29, 2023 Transfiguration
Transfiguration of our Lord
2 Peter 1:16-21
January 29, 2023
Theme: We have something more sure and certain to live on—the Word of God.
The Scripture I’m preaching on today is the Epistle, 2 Peter 1:16-21, so you can follow along with me as you want.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Why do you guys listen to me every Sunday morning? There are a hundred of you out there and all of you are more interesting than me and can probably tell better stories and better jokes. But you come every Sunday and give me your attention for 15 to 20 minutes. Why do you do that? And it’s not like I’m just telling you the weather or the news. I’m telling you how to live your life. How to think. Telling you what’s right and wrong. Telling you about things beyond this life. I’m talking about the most important things in life and you listen. Why?
That is our reading this morning. It’s like Peter stopped in his letter and said, “Now why should you guys listen to me at all?” In the first fifteen verses of the letter he was telling them how they should be living. And then we hit our text today, verse 16, and he says, “Now why should you listen to me? Because, I will tell you, none of this is my word. It’s all God’s Word.” Why trust Peter? Because he was eyewitness to Jesus’s glory at the Transfiguration and he heard the voice from heaven. And even more than that, he says, you have something even more sure—the Word of God in the Scriptures and you should pay attention to it.
The truth is that you guys don’t come for me at all. You could certainly find more entertaining people to listen to. But you come to hear this guy, St. Peter, who was eyewitness and earwitness to Jesus and you come to hear what God speaks to you in His holy Word. THAT is what you build your life on! THAT is worth listening to—not just 15 to 20 minutes on Sunday—but all the time. Every day. Yes, that’s right, I’m telling you how to live your life, what’s right and what’s wrong, how to think, about things eternal. But you ought always to be checking that what you’re hearing from me is exactly what you’re hearing from God in His Word. That’s where we stake it all. Not on some pastor’s opinions. We have the sure and certain Word of God and that’s what we live on.
I’m not telling you that God’s Word is a safe bet. A safe gamble. No! I’m not telling you to bet on God’s Word—I’m telling you to BUILD on God’s Word! I’m appalled right now by the rapid rise of sports gambling. I can’t hardly believe that you watch a football or basketball game and you see all these commercials about betting on the game. Gambling didn’t all of a sudden become safe, people. We better wake up. Those commercials are garbage. People are betting their livelihoods and losing. Don’t believe those garbage commercials. You can bet your life on games and lose BIGTIME.
But never will you lose building on God’s Word. Never. His Word is infallible, meaning it will not fall. It cannot fall or fail. Not ever.
Now let’s look at Peter’s argument starting in verse 16 – For we didn’t follow cleverly devised myths or fables when we talked to you about Jesus. Cleverly devised myths. There are plenty of those out there today. Peter and the other apostles weren’t in the upper room secretly hatching out a conspiracy to sell Jesus to the world.
There are plenty of people hatching myths and fables today. YouTube is a hot mess of cleverly devised myths and fables. And sad to say, even TV itself is a garble of myths and fables now as well. You’d do quite well to turn most of it off. Nearly every advertisement to you is a cleverly devised fable. Some beautiful person looking happy telling you if you spend your money here or here then you’ll be as happy and beautiful as they are. Pure fiction.
And there’s a lot of it out there. So many conspiracy theories out there regarding Democrats, Republicans, Biden, Trump. Conspiracy theories about food and medicine. Now maybe a small handful of them are actually true. So what? You can’t build your life on these conspiracy theories. It’s a gamble. Most of the people selling them can’t be trusted. They’re only out to make money and get their face on TV.
And then there’s every false religion so cleverly devised to take little bits of the Christian truth and mix it with fables. Whether it’s Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, with his fables about golden plates in a cave that became the Book of Mormon. Pure fiction. Or Muhammad and his Quran, saying he was the last and greatest prophet the world was waiting on. And Islam’s cleverly devised myth that Muhammad was really a good man of peace. And there’s many more of those cleverly devised fable religions like Scientology, for instance – a mix of religion with science fiction.
We’ve got myths and fables aplenty today—like “Marijuana’s good for us” and “gambling’s good for us” and “we’re better and smarter than every generation before us” and “Big Tech really cares about your privacy”. Pure fiction.
Now then what’s NOT fiction? The power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s Peter’s exact phrase there. The power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. No fiction here. No fables or myths here. How do we know? Well, because first of all, Peter was an eyewitness of his majesty. Now, I know, some of these other people I was mentioning like Joseph Smith claim to be an eyewitness. Fair enough. But we’ll get to that. Peter says he has something even more sure that his eyewitness and earwitness testimony. So hold on to that for a minute.
But it wasn’t just Peter who saw these things. Peter, James, and John were all on the mountain. Notice Peter’s word “we were eyewitnesses”. It’s not just one lone man’s word. After Jesus ascended into heaven and they needed to replace Judas with another apostle, one of the strict qualifications was that the man needed to have been an eyewitness with them from the beginning. Does that sound like guys who are cleverly devising a myth?
All of them witnessed Jesus’s power in the resurrection. They saw Him with their own eyes, risen from the dead, and they touched His hands and His side where the nails went through and the spear went through. But Peter, James, and John also received a very unique experience at the mountain of Transfiguration. They got a preview of His glorious coming—a preview of what the Last Day will be when we see Jesus coming in all His glory. They saw His face shining like the sun and His clothes white as light.
Furthermore, they were earwitnesses because they heard the very voice of the Father from heaven saying, “This is My Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” So you have many eyewitnesses to the power of Jesus in His resurrection and you have these three—Peter, James, and John—as eyewitnesses His coming in glory. No cleverly devised myths here. You can build your life on their testimony.
But, verse 19, Peter says, “I won’t only leave you with MY WORD, however. We have something more sure.” What?! More sure? What could be more sure than eyewitness and earwitness testimony? The only thing more sure than that is when God Himself is the witness on the stand. And that’s what we have in the prophetic word. The Holy Scriptures, that is. Now Peter is especially thinking of the Old Testament when he says these words, “And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention.” But from our perspective we can apply his words to the entire 66 books of the Bible. All of them are the prophetic Word—the very voice of God Himself speaking.
Look at how Peter defends the Bible in verse 20. “No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation…but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” That word “carried along” is the same word as back in verse 18 about the voice “borne from heaven”. Same word. So what’s the point? When you hear me go over to that lectern and read that Word of God, you are hearing the voice of God being borne from heaven through the speaking of men like St. Peter and others who were borne along by the Holy Spirit. You’re hearing God Himself.
We must insist on this inspiration of the Holy Bible because God Himself insists on it. This is how He Himself describes the Bible—as His very voice speaking through humans. Men spoke God’s words as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. All of it, from Genesis to Joshua to Psalms to Hosea to Malachi to Matthew to John to Paul and Peter and to Revelation, is the very voice of God Himself.
Is this reason to listen? Is this sure and certain enough to build your life on? Is this trustworthy? We have here in this prophetic word something more certain and more sure than anything you will hear anywhere else in this world. This isn’t some man’s interpretation, some man’s opinion.
Now you have to do the work, of course, when you’re listening to a Pastor or to anyone else claiming to speak God’s truth, to make sure that what’s being said is actually what the Bible says. Sadly, there are many charlatans out there who claim to say what the Bible says but are false prophets. Jesus warns us heavily about them and so do Peter and Paul and James and John. But we can test the spirits with the Word of God.
Now Peter gives you a mental picture to think about. He says you’ll do well to pay attention to God’s Word as to a lamp shining in a dark place. The Bible is a lamp shining in a dark place. When you wake up in the middle of the night you turn on a lamp or the flashlight on your phone or whatever the case is. That light shines in the dark place until either the sun will finally come up later in the morning or until you turn on all the lights in the house. So the Bible, God’s Word, is right now a flashlight in this dark world showing us the way things really are. Giving us a sure and certain thing to build our lives on. But pretty soon the full light is going to shine. The sun is going to rise and we’re going to see everything clear as the light of day.
Peter says, “until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” In other words, you WILL see in due time, without any shred of doubt, when Jesus comes in all His power and glory. For now, pay attention to the Word. It’s your lamp, your flashlight, shining in this dark world and showing you the truth.
No betting here. No gambling. No myths or fables or conspiracies. This is the solid truth, sure and certain. As our theme this year of 2023 says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe.” Proverbs 18:10. He has stamped His name onto His holy Word. The Word itself is a strong tower. Sure and certain. Pay attention to it. Run to it. And you will be safe.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.