Can I Get a Witness?
Notes
Transcript
About a decade ago Cami and I witnessed a miracle of sorts at the intersection of the southbound I-5 offramp and Highway 16. We were exiting the freeway to get on Highway 16/348th westbound. As we approached the intersection the light was green. But instead of taking the right turn, something – a voice – told me to stop. I stopped, and I’m glad I did. A tractor-trailer rig blew through the light. If it wasn’t for that miracle – that voice – we may not be here today.
Another traffic-related incident was told to me by a friend. She witnessed divine power firsthand while driving on a cold, icy winter day – with her faithful cat. She said her cat loved to ride all curled up in the front passenger seat. As the car approached a stop sign the cat seemed to perk up. My friend stopped at the stop sign, everything seemed clear, and she began to proceed through the intersection. Without warning the cat launched from the front passenger’s seat and jumped in front of my friends’ face. Well, because she had a cat in her face, she stopped the car. Just then a car came flying through the intersection without stopping. If not for the actions of the cat that incident could have ended much differently.
What have you witnessed?
What have you witnessed?
In 2 Peter 1:16-21, Peter first addresses the argument that he and the apostles fabricated everything about Jesus being the risen King of the world and Jesus’ future return. This argument was shared and espoused by Peter’s contemporary skeptics as well as skeptics of today— (2 Peter 1:16-20). Peter countered this claim by simply offering his eyewitness testimony of the powerful moment of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain (Mark 9:1-8), where the apostles saw Jesus exalted as King. As we all know, Jesus’ resurrection means that he is alive as King and will return to rescue our world one day. In fact, Jesus’ future return to bring God’s Kingdom will fulfill what the ancient Scriptures have been pointing to all along. The words of the Old Testament prophets are not fabricated fantasies, but through the human words of the Scriptures and through the human Jesus, God himself has spoken to us.
There are three important components at play that prove, support, and validate the events and people in the Bible.
1. Eyewitness evidence – The events were seen by multiple witnesses.
2. Heard testimony – Events were verbally shared with others.
3. Scriptural evidence – Prophesies and events were foretold in the Old Testament.
For example, years later the transformation of Jesus was still just as vivid in Peter’s mind as the day he saw everything happen. Peter’s eyewitness evidence of the transformation was clearer in his memory than the events that he experienced that current day. After all, who could possibly understand in the whirlwind of events before and after that day until one had the full context.
Peter recalled that very vivid event on the holy mountain. He and the disciples saw the two most revered Old Testament figures appear, as if out of thin air, to meet with his best friend, Jesus. Peter saw his best friend glowing. Jesus’ glowing clothing was one thing—perhaps one could find some strange explanation for that—but Jesus’ face was aglow too. The sight of such great glory made Peter want this event to last forever. Peter thought it would be cool if they could just stay up on the mountain until the end of time. The event was beyond wonderful.[JM1]
As wonderful as the beginning of the event had been, he could look back and remember the feeling of awe and terror, too. A voice spoke from the clouds; he and the other two there with his best friend fell face down, because it was impossible for mere humans to fully process what they were seeing and hearing.
Then Jesus came up to Peter and the disciples. He touched them and told them they didn’t have to be afraid. Jesus also announced that it was time to go down the mountain. There were matters that were left undone; it was time for Jesus to finish what he had come to do.
Peter didn’t fully understand the significance of Jesus words at that time. Days before Peter had made a great confession of faith with which you may be familiar: Matthew 16:16
Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
However, Jesus stated he was going to be killed by the Jewish officials. Peter tried to wave off such a preposterous idea, saying that such a thing would surely never happen. The same Peter with that beautiful confession of who Jesus really was had to be rebuked by Jesus: Matthew 16:23
But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Jesus had been preparing the disciples for what was going to happen. With all that was happening before and after the transfiguration where they saw Jesus in all his glory, they still didn’t fully understand Jesus as they were coming down the mountain.
And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”
It just didn’t make sense to the disciples that day.
A short time later, the same Peter who had wanted to stay on the mountain forever gazing at the glory of Jesus was so overwhelmed with fear at being identified as a disciple that he denied even knowing Jesus three times, just as predicted. Even what he and two others witnessed up on the mountain couldn’t bolster his courage. Had the great glory of that day already faded in Peter’s mind?
Perhaps in those moments it had, but not now. Not as Peter wrote his letter to others who had come to know Jesus because of his preaching and that of other followers of Jesus.
Peter was now at a point where he could put the event on the Mount of Transfiguration into context. He could use his personal experience as an object lesson. This had not been some dream; he hadn’t just been hallucinating. What he reported wasn’t just some story concocted out of whole cloth, the way the rabbis made up stories and fables about Bible figures from the Old Testament.
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.
II. Stories. Fables.
That’s what so many people think the Bible is. Karl Marx called the Bible “The opiate of the masses”. Oh, I know he said that about religion in general, but that’s how many very smart people today think of Christianity. These naysayers call the history God a collection of myths.
· The creation myth
· The myth of the world-wide flood and Noah’s ark
· The plagues in Egypt. The plagues were just naturally occurring events that Moses and others wove into a good story.
· Maybe Moses himself is just a myth.
Certainly, many things recorded in Scripture are not normal—Some may say supernatural. Many events in the Bible are unbelievable at face value. These events occur the way nature is supposed to behave with God in control over nature. However, worldly people like to rub the anomalies in your face and snicker when you profess to believe it.[JM2]
Like Peter, we tend to go back and forth a lot. We make that same firm confession Peter had days before the transfiguration and profess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the One sent by God to be the Savior of the world. Days or hours later, we insist that Jesus’ ought to behave the way we want him to behave; that he ought to do for us exactly what we want him to do for us in this life. We stress certain things about this Jesus while minimizing the one thing he really came to accomplish.
III. Scripture Supporting Scripture
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.”
It is good for us, for you and me, to be here today, listening again to the good news about what Jesus really came to do.
It is also good for us that Peter, James, and John were up on that mountaintop with Jesus that day to witness his face light up and his clothing shine brightly. It is good for us because Peter, James, and John: 2Pe 1:16
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.
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (v. 17b). These words nearly correspond to the words in Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration. These words are reflected in Psalm 2:6-7, a royal psalm honoring God’s anointed one, the king of Israel. God said to the enemies of the anointed one, Psalm 2:6
“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
Then God said to the anointed one, Psalm 2:7
I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
In other words, God was announcing the establishment of his kingdom to his anointed king—to Israel—and to the world. God’s kingdom at that point was Israel—God’s chosen people
We entered a new era with the coming of Jesus. The anointed one of Psalm 2 was the king of Israel, but as the Messiah or Christ, Jesus became the anointed one—the new king—and the new kingdom became those who followed him, accepting him as king over their lives. Christ’s coronation came with his death and resurrection. His ascension served to confirm his kingship. These excerpts of Psalms support the accounts of the event in Matthew and 2 Peter. Scripture supporting scripture.
When the Father announces, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” he is announcing one of two things – or perhaps both:
1. Jesus is already the king because he is God’s Son.
2. Because Jesus is God’s beloved Son, God is now appointing Jesus as king.
Either way, he intends to convey a connection between sonship and kingship. 2Peter 1:18
we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
Peter once again affirms that he was one of the three (Peter, James, and John) who heard the voice on the holy mountain.
They saw it. Looking back years later, Peter must have thought about his fright that day. “For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when the voice came to him from within the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ We heard this voice, which came out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain”. The fright on that day was real, but when Peter looked back, he could put it all into context. He knew now that the voice from heaven was the Heavenly Father who had sent Jesus to carry out the most important mission in history. Jesus offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for sins. It was because of Jesus that Peter knew he had the sure hope of eternal life.
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,
For example, at Christmas we examine so many prophecies and note how completely they were fulfilled at the coming of Jesus in Bethlehem. The same is true of the fulfillment of prophecy we have seen during:
The season of Epiphany.
May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts! May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!
Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.
As we walk with Jesus toward the cross during the Lenten season Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
We uncover still more prophecies and the fulfillment of those prophesies by Jesus.
Myths and fables are not what we have in the history of God’s saving activity in Jesus. Prophecy and fulfillment are what we can see. We do well to pay attention to it. It is good for us to be here, reflecting on what Peter saw and came to understand. It is good to look back at all the prophecies and the perfect fulfillment of those prophesies in Jesus.
IV.
It is good for us to be here. This whole letter of Peter was written to encourage Christians who were being ridiculed and persecuted
for believing in the coming of Christ. False teachers were a huge problem.
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.
It is good to hear and read Peter’s eyewitness account which he wrote down as he, himself, was carried along by the Holy Spirit to give us these words that were written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing we might have life in his name.
There are many study Bibles with notes that twist Scripture into something it doesn’t say. Martin Luther, writing about these very verses, shared:
“The Holy Spirit Himself must expound Scripture. Otherwise, it must remain un-expounded” (LW 30:166). In other words, we are to let Scripture interpret Scripture. If there is a passage that is unclear to us, look for another passage that explains it more fully.
Pastor John is planning on a read through the entire Bible for all of us in the New Year! He says details are coming.
Pastors or church leaders who explain what Scripture means must use the very words of Scripture to prove their point.
It is good for us to be here. It is good for us to see what Peter saw through his eyes. By faith you are transformed into the same kind of eyewitnesses to Christ’s glory that Peter was.
Peter called God’s Word a lamp shining in a dark place. As an eyewitness of what Jesus has done for all, live as a lamp shining in the dark place of society. As an eyewitness, refresh your memory every day about all the things you have seen and heard by faith, studying yet again the Word of God’s truth. Every day use the eyewitness accounts in God’s Word to remind yourself yet again that Jesus did what he did for you; he brought salvation not just to the world, but for you. Witness to what you have seen and experienced, to what you have heard others say about the power of Jesus, and to what you have read in scripture.
Psalm 34:8 tells us:
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Likewise in 1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Remember, you have been blessed with what you have seen and personally experienced, what you have heard from the witnesses of others, and gleaned from reading the scriptures that are the inspired work of our Heavenly Father.
You are an eyewitness. Be an eyewitness. Amen.