2 Peter 1:16-21 A Reliable Message!

2 Peter 1:16-21  For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.  He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.  We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.  Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.  For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter experienced an event that he would never forget.  He saw Jesus’ appearance influenced by something preternatural, a power beyond his understanding.  More than six days later Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone.  As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.  Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.  (Matthew 17:2-3)   God’s intervention that day in the world of the senses by allowing Peter to see Jesus’ face shine like the sun and by allowing him to hear God’s voice never left Peter’s heart and mind.  Peter wanted to memorialize the event by building shelters for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, but God directed him to Jesus only.  As he (Peter) spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.  Listen to him.”  The disciples were terrified and fell face down on the ground.  (Matthew 17:4-6)  We see in this scene the end of the Old Covenant as the governing agent in people’s lives.  God, himself, expressed it by saying, listen to Jesus alone; He is the guiding Word.  A new way of living is dawning, a way hidden in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, discovered by faith.  Jesus, the bright Morning Star of heaven, will transform lives, making them right with God, making everything new, doing away with the old lives that could never please God.  The darkness, blindness, deafness of the old creation will fall away.  No longer will humans be primitive in their understanding of God’s nature, for love, not judgment, will be the basis of the Good News.  Jesus has come to unite even his enemies into God’s redemption plan.  The old, sinful lives full of fleshly desires and wayward acts will be eternally discarded, replaced by the purity of God through faith in Jesus Christ and his works.  The blood of the Lamb will free men from their sins, making them white as snow, with beautiful raiments, holy to God and to all the heavenly hosts.  Good News has come to the world.  Once the world existed in darkness and blindness, away from God’s perfect nature of peace and harmony, but now through his Son, perfect light has come to the world, satisfying God’s demands of holiness on the human character.  Now we will please God through Jesus’ transformational power in our lives, fulfilling the purpose of God from the beginning, making humans in his likeness in every way. 

The prophets in the Old Testament saw this new day dawning with the coming of the Messiah.  Their prophecies did not come from their wishful hearts or longing desires; they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.  Peter tells the people, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.  He wants the people to understand that the prophets spoke of his generation, of the arrival of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and of the new covenant: how to be right with God.  Throughout the ages of the Israelites’ existence, God proclaimed this new covenant of the Messiah on Earth through the prophets’ words.  God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures.  The Good News is about his Son.  In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.  He is Jesus Christ our Lord.  Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.  (Romans 1:1-5)  Peter wants the people who are reading his letter to understand that he is not talking about something that he made up or some new doctrine, originating in the hearts and minds of men.  He wishes them to realize that the prophets of old spoke of this time and that he himself saw and heard Jesus lifted up and highlighted by God.  The Good News has come to Earth in the form of the man Jesus Christ.  As Paul indicates in the above quote, God has given the apostles the privilege and authority to tell all people everywhere what God has done for them.  All men and women can be made right with God by taking Jesus Christ as their Savior.  Through faith in Jesus, their lives can find perfection before the Almighty God of righteousness.  Jesus will be the propitiation for their waywardness; eternal life will be found only in him: This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.  God spoke these words at Jesus’ baptism and again on the mountain.  He speaks them today to every hearer who will answer the call to take up the cross and follow Jesus.  In our lives, we find the Holy Spirit is always speaking if we listen: through that still, small voice, through other believers, and through God’s written Word.  But we must have an ear to hear and believe that He is speaking to us with a message of importance for us.  

When we read the scriptures, we should realize we are not reading cleverly devised stories.  We are receiving the inspired words of God given to us through men and their experiences with God and his leading.  If we see the word as merely a guidepost for our lives, we lessen the reality of the dynamic, living word.  The Bible should not only give direction for how to live our lives, it also should speak to our spirits in a resourceful way, giving us spiritual energy to live for the Lord.  When we read the word, we should know that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit and that the words of life will energize us.  As with the Israelites in the wilderness when they picked up manna daily to survive, we too must pick up the manna of the word every day for our spiritual survival.  As surely as the Spirit placed the manna on the wilderness floor, He has prepared manna for us to eat in the word of God.  God plans for us to pick up, consume, and live out his word daily.  Understand that the power of the word enlivens our lives, sets our feet on higher ground than just the daily grind of life.  In our ordinary living, we must orient ourselves on eternal realities, not temporal.  Jesus spoke of the eternal being more important than our fixation on our everyday lives.  When Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for a drink at the well, He tells her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.  He goes on to say, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  (John 4:10, 13-14)  If you live only for the temporal, if your perspective is only on the daily activities, your spiritual life will become anemic.  Doubts will enter your mind about whether God is real or not.  Anxieties about life will overwhelm your conscious awareness of the purpose of existence.  No Christian will successfully overcome the vicissitudes of life without partaking of the word with excitement and anticipation.  If God’s word becomes dull, and you seek the words of others to excite your spiritual thinking, you are viewing the Bible as merely a book of information and knowledge.  As an intelligent person, you can glean all the information and knowledge contained in the Bible.  But the word of God is living, not merely a book of stories and ideas.  For the word of God is alive and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  (Hebrews 4:12)  The Holy Spirit within us wants to use the Bible to encourage us.  He wants to strengthen, edify, and build us up, making us ready to hit the door of life with excitement, and a desire to spread the Good News.  Paul says the apostles were privileged to tell of Jesus, for their ministry brought glory to his name.  Of course, Peter was an eyewitness of Christ’s glory on the Mount of Transfiguration when God glorified him.  We who are IN CHRIST and in the word are also eyewitnesses of his glory as we see him revealed in us.  We should want to express Jesus to the world through our words and actions.  If we do not, we are still functioning in our flesh, unsure of the realities of God’s word and the glory of his Son.  We definitely must hear the voice of God to be excited about him.  Breakfast friends, if his voice is not alive in you, please activate that voice by reading the scriptures daily.  Ask the Holy Spirit to feed and to excite you by making you alive, filled with his power and love.  If you do hear God’s word, the smoldering embers in your spirit will catch fire, igniting those around you with the glory of God.  God is real, He is alive, and He wants to be alive in you in every way.  TODAY, catch the flame of the WORD!