Good morning, everyone. It’s good to see you. It’s a bright day. Not a sunny day in November. Just a few days before Thanksgiving. Am I sounding okay? Okay.
So we’re going to continue on today in 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1, we’ll pick up in verse 16. I’ll continue to walk through Peter’s letter. And while you’re turning there, if you also want to mark that and put your finger on Matthew 17, we’re going to read the first eight verses of Matthew 17 as a background passage for what Peter tells us today in his letter.
2 Peter chapter 1, starting in verse 16. For we did not follow except what was written. We did not follow except what was written.
We did not follow except what was written.
We should ask ourselves that question often, especially with all that we see around us in our world today. I think about the election we just went through, and certainly it’s true when it comes to politics. What is true? What does this person really believe? What are they for? What are they against? And we find that truth is often skewed by the one relating the information. And it’s difficult to know what someone truly believes or what they truly stand for. The information we get always needs to be filled.
It’s hard to get just the facts. It’s hard to get just the facts. I think about the old Joe Friday dragnet where he just, you know, he was supposedly said, just the facts, man. So, just the facts. I just want the facts. You give me the facts and let me determine what those facts really mean. But it’s harder and it will become harder to discern what is real because I think of things like AI. You know, you can fabricate voices. You can fabricate images. What is real? What’s not? Someone can fabricate my voice and have me saying something that I’ve never said. So, in an ever-changing world, where is truth found? Where is that truth that truly grounds us in life? And I think today in our passage, Peter is answering questions like this. How can we be sure the gospel is true? How can we be sure that the Bible that conveys it to us is true? How can we be certain that, as Jude put it, that apostles have delivered to us the once for all, the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints? After all, those men lived a really long time ago. How do we know today that we’re truly hearing the facts of their message? How are we sure that they’re really being delivered to us faithfully? So, as Peter writes this letter at the end of his life, or near the end of his life, he gives us some reasons why we should trust the Bible and the Christ that is revealed to us in his pages. And so, first of all, I would say Peter begins by stating the certainty of the truths being delivered. In verse 16, he starts with, for we. And he hasn’t used we thus far in this letter. So, who is the we Peter would be referring to here? And I think he’s truly referring to probably the entire apostolic witness. All the apostles. Peter, James, John, Paul. Those who actually were called by Christ into apostleship. So, I think Peter is saying, as he continues on here, For we did not follow cleverly devised myths, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, Peter is saying, what I’m saying to you is not something that all of us got in a room and tried to dream up a way that we could intentionally deceive people. Because if you think about something that is cleverly devised, that would imply some intent. You’ve intentionally tried to deceive us into believing something that’s not true, some lie.
There is unity and consistency found in the message taught by the apostles. Peter says, what I’m teaching you, what I’m telling you is rooted in truth. It has a basis in God-given fact and not some man-made idea. The gospel of Christ is no myth. Jesus truly came. He truly came in power to save sinners through his perfect life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. And Peter is saying, just as he came the first time, he’s coming again. Later in this letter, he’s going to confront people who were false teachers who were saying, Jesus is not coming again, that’s not true. So, up front here in our passage, he’s kind of laying the ground that says, this is true. He is coming again. And I think that should be an encouragement to us to know that all of our labor and things pertaining to life and godliness is not in vain. It is rooted in certainty. It is rooted in the certainty of our Lord’s first coming and that he’s coming again. It’s not rooted in some cleverly devised myth, but rather in the power of God to save sinners and carry them home. Because this world is not our home anymore. We’re passing through. Hopefully we’re not comfortable in this world. We’re looking forward to a better home, a better place. So our faith is rooted in the fact that Christ stays and that he will take us home to be with him.
So we may say, okay Peter, you said here toward the end of verse 16, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. So what evidence do you have that is true? We weren’t there. How can we be as certain of these truths as you are?
And I think the first reason is because of what he says there. He’s an eyewitness. He’s an eyewitness of his majesty. So we often see on the news, you know, people that are interviewed for their eyewitness accounts of some event. They saw someone go pull somebody out of a burning car or save someone from drowning. Or something we’re all too familiar with. Or they’ve been impacted by tornado or severe weather. I’ve had the experience of giving my statement to the police before for things I witnessed. Maybe you have too. I was driving to work one day, coming down to Old Toronto. And a car in front of me went up the road and flipped upside down. Wow. So I hung around. The police wanted to know what I saw and what I witnessed. And then when Delaney and I were married, we almost got hit by a drunk driver one time. Driving along, I pulled my eyes to kind of see the splash. And we look back and there’s this car over here on the side of the road. And it’s like, wow. We almost got hit. When some event, whether good or bad, happens, we want to hear from those who were actually there and experienced it. What did you see? What did you witness?
So how was Peter an eyewitness? And I think Peter was an eyewitness in two ways. First, he was an eyewitness of the earthly life of our Lord. He was personally witness. He was personally called to discipleship by Jesus. He walked those dusty roads with him. He saw him get hungry. He saw him get tired. He knew what he looked like. He knew what he sounded like. He actually knew what Jesus’ voice sounded like. He saw firsthand the Lord’s ministry as he walked with him. All of his teaching. All those parables. He got the inside story in some of those. Because he actually walked with Jesus.
Peter had the privilege of knowing what John meant. In the first part of John 1.14. Where John tells us, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Peter actually saw that. He actually saw the word flesh dwelling among us. He was an eyewitness of Christ’s humanity. But Peter was not just an eyewitness of Jesus’ physical presence in the world. He also experienced that second part of John 1.14. And we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth. Peter and John saw both of those aspects of Jesus’ life. They were eyewitnesses. So when was Peter an eyewitness of Christ’s glory and majesty? Well certainly it would be. He saw his deity and his power in the miracles. He saw the lame walk. He saw the blind see. He saw his own mother-in-law delivered from a fever when she was near death. He saw Jesus calm a storm. He saw Jesus walk on water. He saw all those things in his life. But Peter has in mind here a specific event. A specific event that he’s referring to here in this passage. And that is what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration. And that’s where we’ll turn to Matthew 17 and look at verses 1 through 8.
Matthew records. And after six days Jesus stood with him Peter and James and John his brother. And led them up a mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun. And his clothes became white as light. And behold there appeared to him Moses and Elijah talking with him. 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. One for Moses. One for Elijah. He was still speaking when behold a bright cloud overshadowed him. And a voice from the cloud said this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them saying rise and have no fear. And when they lifted up their eyes they saw no one but Jesus only. So Matthew records for us here what happened. They saw Jesus. His face shone. His clothes shone bright. He saw Moses and Elijah. And Peter was speaking to say something. And then he turned around. He was interrupted by God himself. He was interrupted by the Father who says this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. So as we turn back to 2 Peter.
What did we see Peter emphasize from Matthew’s account?
The focus is not on himself. It’s not on what he said. Or experienced. But rather on Jesus and what the Father said about him. Jesus received honoring glory from the Father. Who said here what he also said at Jesus’ baptism. This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Jesus was well pleased. I’m sorry. The Father was well pleased with Jesus at his baptism. He still was well pleased with him now at the transfiguration.
Eyewitnesses aren’t always reliable are they? They forget details. They misremember something. Sometimes they just flat out lie. They see things from one perspective. They don’t somehow have the full picture.
Peter said I was there on the holy mountain. And I saw and heard everything. But believe the testimony of the Father if you don’t believe me. The testimony of what? The majestic glory. Who Peter calls in here the Father. The majestic glory. The testimony of what the majestic glory had to say about Jesus is the most important point here.
And he highlights that in verses 17 and 18. I didn’t read those. For when he had received honoring 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 again. Peter’s focus is not on his experience. Only. Even though he was an eyewitness of those things. His focus here is on what the Father said about the Son.
1 John 5 9-12. If we receive the testimony of men. The testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God. Has the testimony. In himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar. Because he does not believe in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony. That God gave us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. The testimony of men only takes us so far. So far. Right? It’s the testimony of God. That truly gives us eternal life. This is the gospel in a nutshell. True life is only found in the Son. And true life is eternal life. Those of us who believe this testimony about Jesus. Do so because we have heard this truth proclaimed. And the Holy Spirit has enabled us to believe it. So I think it’s good to share our testimony. We should be eager. Out here in the parking lot. To share what the Lord has done for us. We should always be willing to do that. But our testimony is not the gospel. And ultimately people must hear the gospel. Where it’s the testimony of our triune God. That brings people to saving faith in Christ.
So Peter has first refuted the claim that his preaching was founded in mad made myths. And he stated his own experience. And described that it was direct revelation from God. Now I was thinking of this. As Peter says he was an eyewitness of his majesty. The transfiguration is a foreshadowing of the day. When all will be an eyewitness of his majesty.
So then Peter goes on in verse 19. To give us the second reason why we should believe that he’s given us the truth. And that is the reliability of the scriptures.
Verse 19. And we have the prophetic word. More fully confirmed. To which you would 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. Peter says we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed. Which might make you go. Okay what do you really mean Peter? And there’s some different ideas of what Peter really means here. And after looking at it I think Peter means this. He’s saying that the transfiguration is evidence that the prophetic word is true. And in that sense it’s more fully confirmed. There were many prophecies in the Old Testament about the coming Messiah. And they were all fulfilled. Every single one of them. And Jesus said that’s why he came to earth in Matthew 5.17. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. So Jesus fulfilled every prophecy about him.
In the Old Testament when God spoke through the prophets. What he said on that day. Of course he’s not constrained by time. But what he said on that day was going to come to pass. It’s certain that his words would be fulfilled. Because God cannot lie. What he has said in the Old Testament either has been done because we’ve seen it fulfilled. Or it will be done at some point in the future. We look at books like the Revelation to see things that are yet unfulfilled. But we can have confidence that those things will happen. Because we’ve already seen prophecies fulfilled along the way in the scriptures.
But we like Peter see all those truths born out over the course of time. Think about this. When God told Abram he was going to make him a great nation. Abram didn’t see that fulfilled in his lifetime. But we who have the complete scriptures we see the fulfillment of that. It happened just as God said. God is not constrained by time. But we are. He sees the end from the beginning. But we do not. So in that sense Peter took his experience on the mountain. And more specifically the father’s declaration about the son. As confirmation that the prophetic word was absolutely true. Jesus would come again. Peter’s not saying his eyewitness account alone confirms the truthfulness of the word. But certainly the father’s proclamation of his son does.
So in that sense I think the transformation made the prophetic word more fully confirmed. Because it validated prophecy. And you see those steps along the way being fulfilled. You see time marching towards the completion of that. Peter goes on to say you would do well to pay attention. To which you would do well to pay attention.
Pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place. You would do well to pay attention. We tell our kids that sometimes. Maybe we tell our spouse that sometimes. Right? Because we are all out to not pay attention. And you would say hey pay attention. And that may work well with your kids. Don’t try that with your spouse. I’m sure that won’t end well. But we are all guilty of not paying attention. We are easily distracted in life. So Peter is saying hey wake up. Pay attention. This is important. And essentially he’s saying take great care in the word that has been delivered to you. Awaken from whatever slumber you’ve been in. Return to heeding the truth of scripture by obeying it. I think this is what he’s meant in his letter up to this point. He’s talked about making every effort. Being diligent and practicing it. We show ourselves and those around us what we truly believe. By the way we live our life. So the question I ask this is does your life, does my life reflect that I’m paying attention. That I’m paying attention to God’s word. And if it does then it’s going to be manifested in the making every effort. And the diligence and the practice. And the heart’s work as Pastor Chatz put it. Quoting John Flavel. Heart work is hard work. We need to be about the heart’s work. Then Peter says to a lamp shining in a dark place. This is a common illustration found in scripture. Light versus darkness. And we take light for granted. We walk in a room. Flip on a switch. Lights come on. The darkness goes away. We’re surprised when it doesn’t work. Not when it works. We’re surprised when it doesn’t work. And we have flashlights on our cars. We have them on our phones. We always have access to light. But it wasn’t that way. In Peter’s day. They had to have fuel for whatever their light source was. Whether it was oil for a lamp. Or something to burn in a fire. You had to plan ahead to make sure your light would be able to burn.
In a similar way I think we find scripture to be our source of light in a dark place. Our rule to shroud it in darkness of unbelief. And disdain for anything godly. We see that played out all too well. So I think Peter is saying pay attention to God’s word. Which in the words of Psalm 119.105. The word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. So scripture provides that light. When you’re out on a dark path. You’re out. You’re trying to find your way. That flashlight shows you where to go and not to go. That’s what scripture is. It’s a light. It’s the light we need for our path. For today. And tomorrow. And next week. And next year. And beyond.
But we must. Be in the word. For that word to shine in us and through us. So we need to spend a lot of time in that. Meditate. Memorize. Those are important things.
Peter says pay attention for how long? Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Day dawning and morning star rising in your hearts are two references to the second coming of the Lord. The day dawning is the day of the Lord that speaks to the day of final judgment and salvation. The day when those who oppose God will be punished. And those who love him will be delivered in that final step of salvation and glorification. And who is the morning star here? Well, that’s Jesus. And Jesus calls himself that in Revelation 22, 16. Where he said, I, Jesus, have sent my angels to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. On that day of the Lord, the morning star, Jesus, will rise in the hearts of his sheep. His sheep hear his voice and they follow him. The sheep will be the true believers. And so the light of his full presence when we’re finally with him.
And he transforms his church into perfect unity. That’s the day we’re looking forward to. That day when Paul tells the Philippians that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ. That’s the day we’re looking forward to. When all things are complete. And Christ has taken everything that’s unholy and unworthy and impure about us and made it perfect.
So we must persevere. We must pay attention in God’s word. Until he returns to take us home. Or we go to be with him. Verse 20. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
So here I think Peter’s giving a warning to those false teachers who didn’t want to believe the prophecy as it was truly intended by the Lord. They were resisting the proper interpretation of prophecy and twisting it or denying it. Especially when it came to the point about Christ’s return. New American Commentary put it this way. Peter’s argument then is that the readers must pay attention to the prophetic word as it is interpreted by the apostles. For the Old Testament prophecies are not a matter of personal interpretation but have been authoritatively interpreted by the apostles. The work of the apostles built on the words of the prophets. The apostles had the proper interpretation. The interpretation of those prophecies that had not been fulfilled because the Holy Spirit had given them the true meaning of those prophecies.
So I think there’s a couple of warnings here for us too. And the first is we’re not free to interpret scripture in any way we please either. We talk about that in big churchy words. We talk about exegesis. Exegesis is the way of studying scripture where the goal is to draw out the inherent meaning of the text based on its original content. So when we’re studying scripture we’re trying to understand what Peter meant. Who he was writing that letter to. What his original purpose was.
The other way of interpreting scripture is called eisegesis. Which involves reading a meaning into the text. And that would be based on our own subjective understanding or our own preconceived beliefs. And I think the warning here is for the false teachers that he’s going to address is because that’s what they were doing. They were reading into the word, to the prophecies, something that wasn’t there. So the warning for us is to stick to exegesis. And we let the scripture speak as God intended. Scripture must be our final authority. And whatever we experience must be brought under that authority. Otherwise we’re isolating our emotions and our experiences and the things that happened to us. Lead us into error because it may lead us away from what scripture is truly teaching us.
Not sure if I said that the right way or not. So the first warning is don’t read into scripture what’s not there. The second warning is don’t let your experience trump scripture. I’m a trash, I said that part. And that’s the risk we have. Peter’s experience wasn’t aligned with the true meaning of the prophecy. But we think about people like maybe Joseph Smith in the Mormon church who had experiences where he supposedly had visions from Jesus and God saying all the churches are doing it wrong and then I guess an angel came later and said here’s the right way. But because that was not backed up in scripture, he was led into error and he’s leading thousands of other people into believing the false gospel and away from the truth of the scripture. So we must be people who are committed to letting scripture speak to say what it says and then bringing our whole life into subjection to it not the other way around. Scripture speaks, we bring our life into subjection to it. We don’t let our life read into scripture and we try to bring scripture into subjection to us.
Verse 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but man spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
In verse 20 he says scripture doesn’t come about from someone’s own interpretation. It doesn’t come from a person, a man, not by the will of any man. It comes from God. God is both the source of prophecy and it’s interpretation.
God is both the source of all of scripture not just prophecy, all of scripture and it’s interpretation.
Scripture interprets scripture. That’s what Thomas Watson tells us. Nothing can cut diamond but diamond. Nothing can interpret scripture but scripture. God gave us the word. He tells us what it means. We do not get to read our own ideas into that. But the fact is, verse 21 tells us, scriptures were written by men and we know men are fallible and men make mistakes and they get things wrong. So how can we trust scripture?
Peter isn’t saying the scriptures are reliable because men wrote what they believed to be true by God.
Prophecy was not produced by the will of any man. Rather, Peter is saying men wrote God’s very words. We see scripture as God’s very words.
Men wrote God’s very words because they were carried along. That is to say, they were propelled or driven by God’s Holy Spirit. Think about a boat. It doesn’t matter if your boat’s big, your boat’s huge. Get that rudder. That rudder can guide the boat where you want it to go around. And I think that’s a little bit of what an image of what we’re seeing here, which is men were carried along by the Holy Spirit directed in the way they should go as they wrote.
The scriptures are not man-made stories but rather a beautiful tapestry God has woven to reveal himself to us. And the message is consistent. Now think about one of those diagrams you may have seen that attempts to show all the New Testament, Old Testament references and you get these arcs back and forth. And sometimes they’re color-coded. And they make these beautiful pictures. You see all these references of the consistency of scripture. And when something in the Old Testament, as I was talking about earlier, God said it and we see it referenced and maybe fulfilled in the New Testament.
That’s only something God could accomplish by his divine will. If scripture were the work of mere men, I think it’d be a little bit like the telephone game. I don’t know what you’d call it. But have you ever done a telephone game? Maybe you played it as a kid. We did it at a youth camp. But it’s like you sit in a big circle. The first person tells the next person something. And they’re not allowed to repeat it. So it’s like you tell this guy something and the guy goes, Huh? And then he’s got to say what he thought he said to the next person and the next person and the next person. And it goes around to the end. The last person has to say what the first person said. And of course they’re reluctant to say anything because it can’t be what they said because it’s so outlandish. And so the result is often nowhere near to what the first guy said. So if scriptures were truly just cuddly devised myths, as Peter said in verse 16, I think it would be a mess like a game. We wouldn’t know what to believe. There would be no way that we could know that, you know, that you said, you know, the faith has been most well delivered to the saints. We would have no idea.
But the scriptures are nice. They’re not myths. And that is due to the Holy Spirit’s work in carrying men along as they spoke from God. Verse 21.
Exactly how that’s done, that’s a divine mystery. We can try to think about a boat and a rudder and, you know, what that might look like, but we really have no idea.
And I’ll just add that there are, there’s much evidence for why we can trust our Bible. There’s a lot of historical evidence. I would point you to, like, a good systematic theology or to work with someone, Dr. James Lott, who’s studied church history and original languages and is a professor and a pastor. There’s a lot of evidence out there, historical evidence for why we can believe our Bible is true and that we have in our hands God’s very words. Because if we don’t, we’re in trouble, right? So we have to trust that these are God’s very words to us. But in the end, despite all the evidence that might be given to you, I think about, you know, the people who don’t want to believe, you know, the earth is flat. You know, some people still believe the earth is flat. Maybe you’re one of those. I don’t know. Some people believe we haven’t gone to the moon. You know, so you can give all kinds of evidence to someone, but at the end of the day, you have to choose whether you trust the evidence or not. So despite all the evidence that might be presented to us about why the Bible is authoritative, it has clarity, it’s necessary, it has necessity, and it’s sufficient, ultimately, whether or not we believe the Bible and the gospel of Jesus that’s presented in it and it is true is going to be the work of the Spirit. The same Spirit who carried men along as they spoke from God as they were carried along by the Spirit, that same Spirit testifies to us, to our spirit, that these words are true. So evidence is good. We want to believe the evidence. We want to, you know, think about Peter’s experience. You know, that was in line with prophetic, you know, truth. But ultimately, we’re looking to Scripture and we’re trusting the Spirit is telling us that these words are true. And that’s where I’ll end. Well, consider the question I started with. How can I be sure that is true?
And I hope we see from this passage that truth is not found in a personal experience, it’s not found in some personal preference,
or the wisdom of the age, the wisdom of the men of today.
It’s found only in the pages of Scripture. If something is really true, it will align with Scripture. God’s Word is timeless. God said, this is what a man and a woman is. That doesn’t change. No matter how the wisdom of this world wants to change that, right? Scripture is timeless and it speaks in every generation because it was given to us by the God who never changes. It was given to us by the One who is the same yesterday and today and forever. And so while we change, and it seems society changes and things change, God does not change. And therefore, Scripture is our unchanging standard.
Some people want to know, how do I hear the voice of God today? And I would say to you, the only way we know the voice of God is from God’s Word. If we want to hear the voice of God speak in our generation, that’s where we will hear Him. That is where we will hear Him speak today. Peter got to actually hear the voice of God. He got to actually hear the voice of Jesus in his lifetime. But we do not hear God’s audible voice like that today. Rather, we find His truth in one place, and that’s in the Holy, inspired, unerring Scriptures.
That’s where He speaks. The Spirit of God takes the Word of God and weaves His truths into our lives as we submit to His will and die to ourselves daily. That’s what we’re commanded to do, right? Jesus is life. Jesus is eternal life. We give up our life. He gave up His life for us, which we’re going to talk about here in a minute, when the Lord suffered us. Jesus gave His life for us. We’re called to give our life to Him. So from Providence Fellowship, I pray that we will always have a high view of God, a high view of Scriptures, a certainty that He gave them to us, and then we make every effort to love and obey Him. Let’s pray.