Thank you for directing your internet connection to this sermon audio page for Christ Orthodox Presbyterian Church. You can learn more about ChristOPC by visiting our website at www.christopcatl.org. ChristOPC meets for worship each Sunday at 11 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. If you would open up your Bibles to the book of 2 Peter in chapter 1, verses 16 to through 21. I'll be reading the whole paragraph here. Our sermon is going to focus in on verses 16 through 18 and Peter's eyewitness testimony to the glory and majesty of Christ. Those of you who are in attendance in the evening service know that we've been making our way through second Peter. And so here we have reached this point in that series together. 2 Peter 1, beginning in verse 16. Hear now the holy, inspired, and errant word of our God. For we would 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. For when he received honor and 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. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you 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. 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. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Well, we all know someone, don't we, who is a teller of tall tales. The person where they go on a fishing trip and they might catch a little small perch and somehow that perch becomes a 20 pound bass, that while walking one mile to and from school in flat terrain and mostly nice days, somehow becomes 10 miles uphill both ways in the midst of a perpetual snowstorm. We know these type of people, don't we? And we may come across them or engage with them. We might simply think to ourselves, or there goes so and so again. This sort of tall tale approach to life is not all that far from how many people read the Bible. In fact, recently, I came across a news feed where a number of people were surveyed as to why they departed from the evangelical faith. And a common denominator, and the vast majority of those stories was the way they understood the word of God. A couple of examples from this feed, One, I'm sure you've heard this, I've never seen anyone rise from the dead. So I know that couldn't possibly have happened to Jesus either. Really what happened is that Jesus, if he even existed, it did say that, was in a comatose state. He was just unconscious for a short while and then he woke up. And what really happened is the apostles then invented the story of the resurrection so they could coerce people to join their new religion. It's just a myth, a tall tale. Here's another one. Bread and fish can't miraculously multiply to feed thousands of people. So really what happened behind this tall tale was Jesus one day decided to share his lunch with his apostles. And so they took that and they made it this fantastical story so that you would learn that you need to share as well. And the list went on and on and on. It covered virtually every supernatural event you might think about in the New Testament, and it labeled them all in one way or a fashion, tall tales fabricated by religious leaders so that they could coerce the masses to fall in line with their version of reality. And their argument was that if anything could really be gleaned from the Bible, it's just a few simple moral truths in spite of the mythical nature of all of these stories. And I don't know about you, but I found it very unsurprising that this was in a news article about those who had abandoned the faith. And the reason why is because the way you approach the Bible and what you believe about the Bible has an immediate and direct impact on your faith. What you believe about the Word of God is expressive of what you believe about the God whose Word it is. And so that they saw it as just this myth and these tall tales where they would abstract just this simple principle out of these other supernatural acts is an expression that they don't actually believe in God at all. God would just be a myth, just like these stories are myths as well. while standing in direct contrast to this approach to the Bible or the words of Peter in our passage this morning. You see, the gospel of Jesus Christ that Peter had spent his entire ministry proclaiming and has made up the central message that he calls you to remember is not something he made up. It's not an embellishment. It's not a tall tale. It's not a supernaturalist myth of something otherwise mundane. No. Peter tells us in verses 16 through 18 that this message, this thing that he is calling you to believe comes from the very mouth of God as something he heard on the Mount of Transfiguration back in Matthew 17. He is saying, I am not bringing to you my word. I'm bringing to you God's words. And therefore, you need to listen. This isn't a tall tale. It's not a fictional story with vague moral principles. It's a message of the glory and the majesty of the Son of God who has come into the world and has saved sinners and restored you to Him and gives you the hope of glory as well. Peter wants you to know that the origin of his message is from God Himself. And the content of his message is the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ above all things. Two points as we consider this in verses 16 through 18 this morning. First, the Apostle's testimony, verse 16. And then secondly, the glory of Christ's transfiguration in verses 17 through 18. Well first, the Apostle's testimony here in verse 16. It's helpful to remember that in the previous paragraph of his letter, Peter had three times told his audience that the chief goal in his ministry was for them to remember Christ, his work, and who they are in him. He intended, Peter said in verse 12, to always remind you of these things. His work is to stir you up by way of reminder, verse 13, so that you may recall these things, verse 15. And the things he wanted you to recall was really the content of all of verses 3 through 11 about the promises of God in Christ that are yours in him and the life that you are called to live. Well, in those verses, if he gets to the core of his ministry now in verses 16 through 21, he's moving forward in his argument. from the central core of his apostolic ministry to remember Christ and his work and who you are in Christ, to now transition to engage with the false teachers in the church in chapters two and three. And as he begins to transition from the core positive role of his ministry in teaching Christ and calling you to remember Christ, to considering the ministry of wolves in shepherd's clothing, the first thing he wants you to reckon with is the origin of his message versus the origin of their message. See, the false teachers, Peter says in chapter two, verse three, In their greed exploits you with false words. You see the origin, see the contents of the false teacher's message. It's false. It's not true. They're lies. And it comes from their own greed. And they use these false words to try to exploit the people of God. But not so Peter's ministry. Not so Peter's words. He does not come with a ministry of his own personal prestige. He does not come with false words of his own invention. His teaching comes from God and his ministry is geared to the glory of Christ. And so Peter begins to explore the origin and content of his message in verse 16 when he says, for we, notice the we there, the apostles together, 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 Notice what Peter is saying here. First, he tells you what his message is not. He says his message, and really the message of all the apostles, were not cleverly devised myths. They're not told tales. They're not fables with no basis in reality. It's not these things that may be a good story with some moral values, but no anchor in reality, no historical reference points. Peter discounts that notion on the very front end, doesn't he? That's not my message, he says. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, it's not a tall tale. It's not a myth with no basis in historical reality, because the actual work of God in history is to save his people, and that's what Peter is bearing witness to, isn't it? Remember what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 4, 7, have nothing to do with irreverent and silly myths. You see what Peter's saying? He's saying I have nothing to do with irreverent and silly myths. You can't describe my ministry that way. You can't describe my words that way. They're not mythical in nature. I'm not here for a fable. I'm not giving you tall tales. This ministry, Peter's ministry, is something fundamentally different. You see that Peter's message is not mythical, that it is true, that is a testimony to actual true historical events, is absolutely vital for the Christian faith and for the gospel message. You see, for those that treat the Bible as a sort of Myth that maybe it teaches some abstract moral truth, but as accidental to historical reality or or may or not may or may not be historical. It doesn't matter to them. They actually miss the very core of the Christian faith. See, the very core of the Christian faith is this. is that God works in history to save sinners. That as God works in history to save sinners, He restores a people to Himself, renews their hearts so that they would glorify and make much of Him forever. The Christian faith is of necessity, an historical faith. Because it acknowledges that we were all born into sin and fallen as to our natures. And because we are dead in our sins and trespasses, what do we need? We don't need vague moral principles, do we? We need a Savior. We need a Redeemer. We need someone who would come into history to accomplish and apply our salvation. We need someone to come and to bear the curse of sin that we have merited, to live the perfect life that we need, such we can actually be saved. You see, if all that Peter is telling us is a myth with no basis in historical reality, there is no reason to talk about salvation at all. If there is no work of God in history to save sinners, then there is no sense that we can talk about an actual move from guilt to righteousness, from death to life in Christ. We have no hope if Christ has not come. See, the work of the Messiah was not to give us vague moral principles apart from his historical work to save. It was to actually come and save sinners. And Peter is saying, he's done it. It's not mythical. It's historical. The Son of God has come into the world. His message is not mythical, he says, but also, nor is it cleverly devised. The apostles didn't invent it in some sort of special act of apostolic sophistry. The Apostles didn't sit there on Sunday morning and think of a way that they might coerce the masses into giving them their money or something of that nature. The Apostles weren't these great, innovative religious minds who just create a religion out of nothing. No. The source of their message was not themselves. They didn't make it up. They didn't cleverly devise it. Paul says in Galatians 1.11-12, I would have you know, brothers, But the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. See what Paul is saying? You see what Peter is saying here? The message of the apostles does not originate with the apostles. Their work is to make known the Word and revelation of God Himself, to testify to the truth of Jesus' work and the redemption that He has won and which they bore eyewitness testimony to. Their work is to reveal from God the significance of the work of Christ for the people of Christ. See, if the apostolic message isn't made up, it's not cleverly devised, and it's not mythical, it's not a myth, then what is it and where did they get it? And Peter doesn't leave it to your imagination, does he? Where he continues to say that we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as they were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. Do you see the content of his message? we have made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The content of the apostolic message is Christ himself, to proclaim Christ to his people, to let you know that your Savior has come. And even more than that, to let you know the hope that he is coming again. In fact, I believe that the language here of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ applies primarily to Christ's second coming. Two reasons why I think this is the case. The first is that virtually every time that the word coming is used in reference to Jesus in the New Testament applies to his second coming. In fact, Peter uses it that way twice in chapter three. He uses it that way in chapter 3, verse 4, where the false teachers scoff at the promise of his coming, where they say, where is it? Right, where is the promise of his coming? And he uses it again in chapter 3, verse 12, where he says, we are believers. What we do is we wait for the coming of the day of God. See if that is the coming from the rest of second Peter than I imagine it's how we're supposed to understand this one here. But another reason, a second reason why I think this is the case is because it describes this coming of Christ as powerful. In fact, the phrase could be simply translated. We made known to you the powerful coming of Jesus Christ and Christ's first coming was in humility. Wasn't it? Where he came in humility, born of the flesh, born under the law and suffering the curse of the law, where his power was made perfect in his weakness and humility. But the second coming in glory is where Christ's power is fully made known and fully made manifest before all. And the reason why I think Peter goes here when he's talking about the central content of the apostolic message. Is because Peter from this point on in his letter has a central message of hope for the Christian. He wants you the Christian to know. that your Savior who has come and who has accomplished your redemption as He came in humility will come and He will bring you into the kingdom of His eternal power and glory. Peter doesn't want you to lose hope even in the context of all the false words and all the false witnesses of chapters 2 and 3. He wants you to keep the hope of glory first and foremost in your minds. And that doesn't obscure that Christ came in humility. In fact, it assumes it, doesn't it? Because the only way that Christ would come in the power and glory and ushering in the eternal kingdom of heaven is that he first comes in humility. Peter makes this case very clear in 1 Peter 2, verses 18 through 25, where the way to resurrection, glory, and power for Christ is first to go the way of the cross. The gospel that Peter is a testimony to, that he testifies to here, is a gospel that moves from humiliation, even unto death, to exaltation and the coming of Christ in glory. And as Peter has made known to you the humiliation and the suffering in his first letter, he wants you to know the glory and majesty of Christ's second coming in his second. And he wants you to gaze with the eyes of faith toward the reality that Christ will come in power, that all things will be made new, that you, the Christian, can have every hope and confidence to live a life of suffering, to walk through as a sojourner and pilgrim, to endure a day of hardship and pain because Christ will return in glory. But if His coming is not true, if we don't have that hope, And I think he would say something like Paul would say about the resurrection that we would be above all most to be pitied. You know what the false teachers continuously teach in chapters two and three. They continuously teach. and they continuously work in a way that is going to strike at that hope of Christ's coming and glory. They do this by mocking, Peter says in chapter 3, verses 3-4, where they press, where is the promise of His coming? They do that even now, don't they? Especially after many had declared that Christ would come on X date and He didn't come. People mock. They ridicule the faith. Where is He now? It's been almost 2,000 years, where is he? When is he coming, Christian? They also do it in a much more subtle way in chapter two, where they do it by taking your gaze off of your heavenly inheritance and focusing exclusively on your life today. See, Peter charges the false teachers in chapter two, verse two, with following their own sensuality. That is, they live only in light of and for their earthly lives. The false teachers tell you live for today because you can't know about tomorrow. But the apostolic witness is to live in light of your heavenly inheritance, to live in light of your heavenly home, and to let that profound hope impact everything in your Christian life today. Because it is that hope of glory, that hope of heaven, that sets you apart from the world and gives you the necessary spiritual power to live the life of righteousness and holiness that Christ himself calls you to live. Peter says that explicitly in chapter three, verses 11 and 12, where he says that since these things, that is, since this world are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? See, Peter's message is the gospel of Christ as he has come and he has won your salvation through his work. But it is also the profound hope of heavenly glory at the day of the powerful coming of your savior. And it is that it is that hope that invigorates you to pursue all the righteousness and holiness that he has called you to. And he has made you remember from verses three through 11. See, Peter wants you to know the hope of heaven that is yours in Christ. Lastly, from verse 16, Peter wants you to know really the origins of his message and that he is an eyewitness testimony to the glory of our Savior. See, he makes known the promises of Christ, which he and the other apostles, he says, were eyewitnesses of his majesty. The apostles are not making up a story about Christ coming in glory because they actually saw the glory and they actually saw the majesty of Christ. You might be asking yourself, I thought this was a message about the second coming and I thought the promise was about the second coming. Are you therefore saying that Peter was a witness to the second coming of Christ? He's not saying that at all. No, he's not saying he was an eyewitness of the second coming. What he is saying is that he is an eyewitness of the glory and majesty of Christ that testifies to that second coming. See, his key message in 2 Peter is the return of Christ in glory. And what he is saying here is that he has witnessed in his life a foretaste of that glory. That he, with James and John, witnessed the glory and majesty of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. And he gets into that, doesn't he? In verses 17 and 18, where Peter carries on to summarize and tersely presents before us what happened in Matthew 17. Where Peter says, when he received, that is, Jesus received, honor and glory from God the Father, and a 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. Do you remember what happened back in Matthew 17? We read it a short while ago. Jesus took Peter, James and John to the summits of a mountain and when they arrived there, Jesus's face was transfigured into a blazing white light as like the sun, and his clothes were made dazzling white, whiter than any bleach could bleach them in this world. And that act, and this mountain reminds us of the face of Moses as he experienced a similar thing when he came down from Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 34, where his face shone with the glory of heaven. And it's significant that the apostles see who? With Jesus on the mountain, but Moses and another prophet, Elijah. That Moses and Elijah and Jesus are together shows the prophetic ministry of God throughout all of the ages as a testimony to the work of Christ. And Peter, James, and John there are a witness to the shining glory of Jesus. Or as Peter himself puts it, when he received honor and glory from God the Father. See, perhaps even more important than this connection back to Moses and Mount Sinai in Exodus 34, It's actually the way the Apostle John describes Jesus in the Book of Revelation. Remember Revelation chapter 1 and verses 12 through 16 as the Apostle is giving us an image of Christ as he is seated on the heavenly throne and when he is to come again, he describes Jesus as clothed in a long white robe that is white like wool with eyes of flaming fire and feet of burnished bronze in his face. His face was like the shining of the sun in full strength. You see, when John considers the shining glory of the exalted sun who is coming again, He actually describes it in the terms of the prefigured glory of Christ from Matthew 17. You see, Peter, James, and John, the apostles, saw during the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, during the time of His humiliation, a foretaste of the glory that was yet to come. And because they saw it, because they saw that glory, they know that he must return in power at the end of the age. They have seen the glory of God, the glory of the one and only. They have witnessed his majesty. And so they know that this kingdom is going to come. And as they witnessed his majesty, they didn't just see it. they heard about it, didn't they? When the majestic glory that is the glory of God himself from his heavenly throne cries out and that Peter, James, and John hear it's where the Lord there says, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Beloved, I would submit to you that this is actually the origins of their apostolic message. They hear a voice crying out from heaven that tells them who Jesus is as the very Son of God, very God of very God, begotten and not made, who has come into the world to save sinners. And they hear of what he has done and he has earned the blessing and honor of God with whom he is well pleased. And they take that word and they proclaim it now to the church of Jesus Christ. See, they didn't just see the glory of Christ, they heard the word of God. And now the apostles take that word and proclaim the word of the beloved son with whom God is well pleased before all the church of Christ in this age. And what's really important about Matthew 17 is recognizing its context in the gospel of Matthew. See immediately prior to Matthew 17 is Matthew 16. I know that's very profound, but we need to remember what happens in Matthew 16. What happens in Matthew 16 is Peter himself makes the confession that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah who is coming into the world, and then he reveals to him to them the way of glory. And it's the cross and it's after Jesus makes known that he must die on the cross and suffer many things in this life that then they see the foretaste of his glory. And we need to remember that even in Matthew 17, verse 13, what did Jesus Himself say? As His face was just shining with the glory of heaven itself, where He received honor and glory from His Father in heaven, did He not say that the Son of Man must suffer many things? See, as they saw the glory prefigured, they also saw the suffering. They heard the message of the Messiah that he has come into the world to bear the suffering that was due us for our sin. They heard that this was the beloved son. They heard that God is pleased with him. And yet the reality is that the one whom God was pleased with would die to save us. that the Son of God, who was perfectly righteous in his life, would go as the atoning sacrifice for his people, such that through his blood, as he is the perfect sacrifice, his blood would open up the way to heavenly glory for you. As the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 9, verses 11 through 14, which again we read a short bit ago. Beloved, do you see the origins and do you hear the contents of Peter's message? The origin of his message is from God himself, the voice born from heaven telling him who Christ is and what he has come to do. And the contents of his message is the glory and majesty of the Son. How different this is from the false teachers in the rest of his book. Do you remember what they come to do? I mentioned it a short while ago. They come even denying the Master the very opposite of what Peter does here. And they follow their own sensuality by bringing false words to sway you in their greed, he says. You see, these false teachers and the origins of their tall tales is themselves where they seek to exploit the people of God for their own personal gain. Peter's message couldn't be more different. The apostles' message couldn't be more different. The Word of God couldn't be more different. The message of the church couldn't be more different because it's not a word of exploitation. It is the word for your good. It is not a word that is given for the apostles or even ministers to make much of themselves, but to give glory to Christ and to reveal the promises and hopes of Christ to all of Christ's people. It's a message that makes much of God. And so is the wonder of his love for his people. This message, this word from God himself is for your good. It gives you profound hope even in times of suffering and alienation. And so what therefore should you do? Well, you should listen to it. I actually find it quite remarkable that Peter omits something from what happened on the mountain of transfiguration. Remember what God said there? He said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. What's the final clause? Listen to him. Now, it's interesting that Peter omits it here, but I think the reason why is because the apostolic ministry, Peter's ministry, is actually to take the word of Christ to the people of Christ. And so he's actually charging you to listen to him. To listen to their message that they have witnessed the glory of the one and only. To listen to it, to believe upon it, and to, as Paul says in Colossians 3, to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Because it is by listening to this message from the throne of God in heaven, giving through the apostles in his word, that you are strengthened and encouraged to live this life today. Listen to it. Listen to it and believe upon it. For this message is the message of Christ who has come in humiliation and who will come in glory and who will bring you, the Christian, into his eternal kingdom. This is what Peter, James, and John were all about. This was what they were eyewitnesses of. And this is what the church of Christ today is to bear witness to the majesty and glory of Christ the one who has come to save us and who will come to bring us into that kingdom where we will find joy and we will worship him forevermore. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that you have sent your son into the world to save sinners, that you have even made known your word to us through the work of the apostles as well as the prophets of the Old Testament. And we pray that you would cause us to listen to your word, to trust upon it, and to rest in it. And we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.