The Trustworthiness of the Apostle's Witness

So we are at 2 Peter, chapter 1, verses 15 through 18. Just started the book a couple weeks ago. Roy kicked it off. So here's our verses for today. And part of my Zoom is covering up the verse. So I'll read from verse 15, 2 Peter chapter 1. And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.

For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Verse 17. For when he received glory and honor, from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased."

18. And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

Let me go back a bit and just look at where we are in 2 Peter. how it relates to First Peter. William Kelly gives a overall arch theme of First Peter. He says that it's the overall theme of First Peter is God's righteous government of his children founded on his grace, which he called unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus.

So he's writing to the saved ones up there in northern Galatia. and giving them God's government, how to husbands, wives, how to live under the government, how to slaves and masters, and how to handle the very pressureful persecution. Persecution is the word I'm looking for. Persecution that they were experiencing and how to focus in on their eternal hope in Christ Jesus. So that's the theme of 1 Peter, which he's writing.

The theme of 2 Peter, William Kelly tells us, is the divine retribution to come. Because think of all these governments and people persecuting the Christians up there. Well, 2 Peter addresses their divine retribution. the retribution that's going to be followed in the future. Specifically, 2 Peter outlines God's published plan for the righteous judgment to fall on false teachers, and we're going to get into that next week, and then into chapter 3, a lot of talk about false teachers and their doctrinal corruption.

They present old heresies as new again, that's in chapter two. Then in chapter three, he addresses the skeptics, and he calls those mockers of the day, who rest their argument on the stability of the world to mock Christ coming again and bringing judgment. So in other words, they say that You know, things have been going on for thousands of years, just as they are, and things aren't that bad.

I don't see the indication that Christ is going to return. So the world goes on, and it's going to be felon, you know, like a thief in the night, as Scripture says. So the final result of 2 Peter is the doom of all the ungodly in the even leading to the dissolution of the heavens and the earth, the melting away of the heavens and the earth in chapter four. So that's just an overall kind of look at where we are. Peter, I call this, he's seeing in Peter, the second Peter, he's seeing the germ of this false teaching coming in very quickly.

He's sounding the warning bell, and if you think back on the movie Titanic, where those guys are up in the perch, and they're joking around, and they're just kind of bored, looking out on the horizon, that April, you know, 14th, 1912, and they're looking, and then suddenly one sees something in the up ahead, right? What does he see? He sees an iceberg. And the look on their faces, I just watched this on YouTube the other day, just the panic, and he sounds that bell, and he rings the phone, iceberg, iceberg.

So that's kind of what I think Peter is doing here, is sounding this warning bell. But not only Peter, Paul sees this impending apostasy basically coming on. He says in 2 Timothy, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn to myths. John sees it too.

The Apostle John's children in this last hour, and just as you heard the Antichrist is coming, Even now, many, many antichrists have appeared. For this we know, this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us, for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out, so it would be shown that they all are not of us.

And that's in 1 John 2, 18-19. And then in 3 John, he calls out this elder, I guess he is, Diostrophes, Diostrophes, Diatrophes maybe it's pronounced, but he basically, in today's jargon, he doxes this guy because he names him, and look what he says, I will call attention to the deeds which he does unjustly. So John sees it and so does Jude, where Jude says in verses three and four of his epistle.

Beloved, I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation. I felt it necessary to write you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once and for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation. ungodly persons who turn the grace of God into licentiousness and desire our only Master Lord Jesus Christ. So he sees it and I have this in mind I thought it would be a better picture but if you have 2nd Peter is right before 1st and 2nd, 3rd John and then immediately following is the book of Jude so they're they're bracketed together in the Bible.

They're all together. And they all address this issue. And then right after June is Revelation. But right after the opening part of Revelation, what does he do? He calls out all the apostasy and the false doctrine and the falling away of the seven churches of the Apocalypse, right?

And those are those on the right-hand side there in the brackets. So it's this bracketed warning bell about these false teachers. And then I have 2 Timothy, which isn't contiguous with these, but addresses the same thing. And notice below the books that I've put in boxes here, I have what they refer to the truth as.

Timothy Paul refers to the truth as the standard of sound words. Peter refers to it as the faith, the same kind of ours. John has a couple words for scripture. His commandments, the testament of God, the truth, the teaching of Christ. And then Jude has this phrase, our common salvation. And he also refers to the volume of inspired written scriptures as the faith which we are to contend earnestly for.

So those are the books in sequence about this issue. Okay, so on we go to verse 15 after that introduction there. Verse 15, and I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure, you will be able to call these things to mind. So what are these things? What are these things that are going to be called to mind? He goes back to verses 3 and 4, the first chapter here of 2 Peter, and it's when he says, granting to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence and His precious and magnificent promises.

So he's doing his best to ensure, and the word, one of the commentators said that his language, I will also be diligent at that time after my death. In English he's saying, I'm going to do my best to make sure that after I'm gone, you'll remember these things. So it's kind of an odd way for an apostle to say, I will do my best. That's kind of what he's saying, how it turns out in the Greek.

So he's going to remind them of making his promises, the true knowledge of him, and the faith that he says in the first or second Peter. So his death is near, and he knows it. he knows it by revelation from the Lord himself in John chapter 21 verses 18 and 19 and you remember from last week Bob covered that very eloquently and where where he's on the shore of Galilee and first Jesus Christ restores him to faith and then he says you'll be led away. You won't want to go, but you're going to be led away when you're an old man to where you don't want to go. And that's, so Peter knows exactly what's happening. Why do they forget about, why do they have to be reminded of all these wonderful things?

We talked about this last week with Bob, and I didn't chime in, but I'll chime in now because I guess I have the floor. Yeah. I think just because it's a gracious thing. People, we forget things. It's human nature to just forget and you hear it and then you kind of file it away and you go about your life. And yeah, you think of it, if you could just dwell on the truth and dwell in scripture every day, all day, that would be wonderful. But the fact is, life gets in the way, and all of a sudden you're at a crisis. So yeah, it's natural to be reminded. And a lot of it, Paul says that he's going to remind his hearers of the scriptures and the things of God. So everyone does, and it's very gracious. They're just saying you're going to forget.

When he says, my departure, that's the Greek word exodus. So that's just like the book of Exodus. It's you're exiting. You're leaving something. And I thought that was kind of a cool thing that the Greek word for departure is exodus. He's exiting the earth. He's about to do that. It's probably the same word as Brexit, you know, the British Exodus. You're looking at anything like that that has that connotation of Exodus.

Second Peter is Peter's last will and testament, basically, to his believers that he's writing to. He really knows he's going to be taken soon. So does Paul. Paul in 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy is, I think, very much resembles, even the language, look at this, a last will. If you were to write your last will in the Testament, it's going to sound like this. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering. And the time of my departure, there's a saying, word has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.

And that's 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. So you can see the very parallel, these two books are parallel in that they're basically the last will of the Testament. Verse 16, we get to verse 16, and he says, for we did not follow you, brethren, by scales, but we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But, there's a contrast, but we were eyewitness, eyewitnesses of his majesty. So here in verse 16, Peter is arguing his case about who he is and about the authority of Scripture.

The word follow, for we did not follow cleverly, divided his tales, that's the Greek. I don't have the Greek word there, but it's a means to, and I think this is from, it means to follow up to a conclusion, or to pursue a line of thought to its termination, is that Greek word.

So to follow the course to the, like a mouse, I guess, or a rat in a maze trying to get to the cheese, right? Follow the course, and then you get to the cheese, that's the termination of the course. So they did not follow a course like that to, you know, to snow people, to mislead them. There's no grand plan from the apostles to do this.

The cleverly devised tales is, cleverly devised is sophizo. It's a term in Greek that, in a good sense, it means to make wise or to teach. And then it has a bad connotation. Bad connotation is, it means to invent things, to cunningly devise, and that's how it's translated in verse 16, or to play the sophist. And in the English, sophistry means to employ fallacious arguments. So he's just telling him that they're doing none of that. This is the truth they're giving him.

In heavenly, in heathen, not heavenly, but in heathen mythology, there was a narrative of God, the gods descending on the earth in this bright display, luminous display, that would resemble Christ in this transfiguration. And false teachers could say that, hey, we've had the story for thousands of years of the gods being luminous and descending to the earth. So they could accuse Peter of just following the fables of the day with a Christ bent into it, right? It's not the gods, it's Christ.

And that's interesting because Satan is a great deceiver and he's a great imitator. So what he did, way back at probably Babel, was he got all these false religions started, and Babel was just this, the center of all these false religions, and that's where you, the genesis of all these things that look like have the shade of the real thing, Christ, and the death of Christ on the cross, and the virgin birth, but they're all false. So Satan, way back when, already put these false narratives into play, and so that's what's going on.

So Peter's saying that the transfiguration that we witnessed is the basis for the certainty and hope of the future personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in power and glory on planet Earth. That's what that transfiguration is a picture of, for when he really comes.

Parousia, or Parousia, I think it's better pronounced Parousia. Parousia means Christ, it means being alongside. The transfiguration there that he's going to talk in 17 and 18 verses 17 and 18 about is the guarantee of it, it's a receipt of it. So God is showing, Christ is showing that Here I am in all my glory, with brightness and glory.

And this is how the known real kingdom and eternity is going to be. We get to verse 17 now of 2 Peter. And I'm going to, for the rest of the time, just sort of dwell on this glorious moment, this momentous event of the Transfiguration that he addresses. Verse 17 is, for when he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance was made by him by the majestic Lord. This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

And that's from Matthew chapter 17 is where we get this. And I'll just read it quickly. And six days, after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them to a high mountain by themselves. And then he was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light.

And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with them, talking with him. Peter said to Jesus, Lord of this good, for us to be here. If you wish, I will make three tabernacles. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. When he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of heaven said, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.

And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their face, face down on the ground, and were terrified. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, that get up, that do not be afraid. And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

So there you have what verses 17, 18, 2 Peter, all about the narrative. That's where it comes from. And you can see when God talks in Matthew chapter 17, The voice says, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And then he asks us to listen to him because it's a rebuke.

God the Father there is rebuking Peter for attempting to set up three booths or three tabernacles to make for Jesus of Moses and Elijah. Like, that's going to do anything or help. And what that does is that instead of Christ being the focus, he's the one that's glory, he's the one shining as the sun. Moses and Elijah are there, and they're next to him, so it looks like they're glowing too, I'm sure, but it's only Christ that is important in this transfiguration.

And so Peter there gets rebuked to it by God the Father. But notice how he leaves that out in 2 Peter. He leaves out the rebuke, because he knows he was rebuked, and now he's an old man, he's been with the Lord, and now he understands everything. So he leaves the rebuke out of what we were studying today.

Reasons that Peter included this event in his second epistle, the Transfiguration, Some things I came up with just looking at this and kind of just dwelling on this the past couple weeks on and off before I did this was it provides the readers proof positive that Simon Peter is writing the letter. It's really him.

And that's proof to the scholarly doubters in ages to come that would refute that he Because that happened fairly quickly. Scholars said, I don't know if Peter wrote 2 Peter. And if you look at 2 Peter, it's very much parallel to what Jude says, a lot of the parallel language. But that's scripture, and so he's rebutting that. He doesn't. He's not rebutting that. He's not rebutting that specific thing, but he knows about the coming false injustice.

It provides direct testimony from God himself that Peter has all apostolic authority, and that what he has written, 1 Peter, and the previous verses of our book now, 2 Peter, are words of inspired scripture. God chose him to witness this, transfiguration on the mountain. And so this comes directly from God. And what Peter is writing is wholly inspired of scripture. That's what the transfiguration, or his mention of this here in this second book of his, that's what it proves. Also, having the transfiguration narrative in his book contrast Peter's inspired scripture with writings of others following it.

And I've mentioned this before, casting doubt on his second letter. And the fact that Jesus Christ is, in fact, God in the flesh, and he was born a human birth, and lived a human life. And his death was literal. And this is what Peter is, and this is a reveal, again, I'm restating what I've said several times here, but he's combating this in chapters 2 and 3 of 2 Peter.

So this is his little encapsulation of the transfiguration story that he personally witnessed. And finally, that God, that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son, begotten of the Father, And this event, this transfigure, when it happened, this was God ratifying the fact that, ratifying that fact that this is my God and son, my beloved son, well pleased. And so that's what, that's why he includes us in this, these two verses. Why did Moses and Elijah, why were they there?

Anyone want to take a stab? I think what is interesting in looking at this passage is, number one, there are two with the Lord Jesus Christ giving testimony to him from the divine perspective, that is, verifying who he is. And that comes out in the Old Testament pretty clearly that you can't convict a man unless there's at least two, maybe three witnesses.

And there's number one. But number two, I was impressed by the following verses saying that we have a more sure testimony than that vision. Yeah, that's an excellent point and I thought of that. Thanks for bringing that up, Roy. That must be the Holy Spirit talking to you. getting back to me, and I'm like, oh, yes, I did not put that in.

And I meditated on that this week, too, is that you have two heavenly witnesses, Moses and Elijah, who were witnesses to Christ's glory, because they're in heaven now with him. So they witnessed that, and then God has three earthly witnesses. It's Peter, James, and John. There's two witnesses out of heavenly and three witnesses out of earthly. And that's a great point. I thought of that, too. I just forgot to put that in. But it's a good thing, yeah.

In the records of Luke, I believe, what do they talk about? What were the ignorance of Elijah and Judah, especially, his bride Al? Yeah, they were. And what the, I'll give it to you now, what they were talking about, they were discussing his impending, right, going up to Jerusalem, and what he must do, and his death on the cross, or his departure. So they were talking about the significance of that the three of them were right they were discussing that and Peter James and John heard that although unfortunately they were I think they were asleep through most of this and they kind of caught the tail end of this transfiguration that shows you when they were human when they're disciples they weren't very they weren't paying attention to much of what was going on.

But what this also represents is Moses, he represents the law, and the law as the prefigurement of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. A lot of the elements of the law are looking forward to his death on the cross. Moses represents the law. Elijah is there to represent the highest order of the prophets in the prophetic word. And all those were related concerning Christ's life and his death on the cross. So you have the law and the prophet, the two main pillars of that. Together, you have the law and the prophets. What did they call the Law and the Prophets? What did Christ call the Law and the Prophets?

That's Scripture. He didn't call it the New Testament. He called it the Law and the Prophets. So again, Peter is establishing that he is presenting the Word of God here and not some cleverly devised tales. So you have, again, Moses and Elijah. Moses had the Law. Elijah had the Prophets. They were confounding there with the Lord Jesus Christ. All were in agreement. Christ was glorified. So you see the unity of scripture, basically. And God's a covenant in His way of doing things. He chose to reveal to us the testimony that underpins God, about who He is. And he didn't just do it by appearing in glory. He did it with two men who were translated, were taken to be...

Moses, we're told, he died on the mountain. Elijah wasn't. I mean, he was taken. And like you said, Moses representing the law, Elijah representing the prophets, a testimony to his deity. Gail and I were watching a presentation of this yesterday. in light of those two with him on the Holy Mount, giving a discussion about his death, burial and resurrection, from Luke. And interesting that what they said was, hey, you guys, why are you looking for the living among the dead? He's not here. Yeah, yeah.

And there were two at that point. And when he rose into glory, there were two. giving testimony to his resurrection. He's going to come back, just like he left with their message. And then there are two that are going to be testifying about God. And it isn't until they die and are resurrected on the, what is it, three and a half days? Anyway, they're resurrected. And all of Israel is, wow. That who we crucify is our Messiah. Yeah. The Lord, through the testimony of these two witnesses. Is it Moses and Elijah in each case? It could be. It could be. That isn't it from the Lord. Yeah. That's not the right thing. James McBroom here has this little statement saying, the presence of Moses and Elijah showed that the material for this display was all wound up with the nation of Israel and that that had refused him and was about to crucify him. Their blindness and enmity, but Israel's blindness and enmity would not rob Christ of his glory.

Here is an and anticipation of the glory of the kingdom that will yet fill heaven and earth. It is a scene of holy splendor, based on redemption, in which heaven and earth unite in his praise. The two heavenly visitors are seen as pillars in the nation, which had been the scene of God's operations. So Israel had been the scene of God's operations, and the two pillars are Moses and Elijah.

The majestic glory is referring to God the Father himself. And that's the only time that he's referred to as that phrase. And in the Greek, the majestic means greatest magnificence. So that's interesting that Peter uses the word, the term majestic glory, for God the Father.

Going back to Matthew chapter 17, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became his whitest light. The best word I found in studying this display of Christ is the word, I practiced it, now I can't say it. I've practiced it all week. Effulgence, effulgence. is the word E-F-F-U-L-G-E-N-C-E. It's a word you never hear, but it's a cool word. It means a shining forth from a luminous body. Brightness taken to the extreme. And you can be dabbled by it, you can be stunned by it, or you can be overcome by the effulgence.

It's usually referred to when you refer to the sun or a megastar Hebrews 1.3 employs this word, effulgence. I can't say it today. I was saying it all week, and I totally lost it.

And he is the radiance of his glory, and the exact representation of his nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purifications of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And that radiance is a powder spot in the Greek, radiance. And that's also this word, effulgence, that has the same concept there. Neat verse, Hebrews 1, 3.

Other manifestations of Christ's effulgence in Scriptures, just a few, is Christ appearing on the road to Damascus to Saul, right? So bright and bright as the sun, it knocked Paul right off his donkey. Christ appearing with the Father to Stephen, you know, when the heaven opened up and Stephen saw them, right before he was stoned. Christ to John in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 1, his face was like the sun shining in strength.

So that's, I like this, I've been meditating on this all week, this effulgence, this luminosity from Jesus Christ here at this event. So the light of Christ and the main purpose of the transfiguration, which was a pre-display of the coming millennial kingdom, is seen.

We're dealing still with this concept of light. And we have John chapter 1, 4 through 10. In him was life, and the life was the light of men, a light that shines in the darkness. The darkness does not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. There was the true light, which cometh into the world and enlightens every man. He was a world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. And look at all those occurrences that John uses of light And here we have a very definitive statement from 1 John 1-5. This message we have heard from him, and announced to you that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

When we have this transfiguration being a guarantor, a prefigurement of the Millennial Kingdom, we can go back to Isaiah chapter 9. that people who walk in great and darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. That's, as in 9.1. Going on to 9.2.

You shall multiply the nation, you shall increase their gladness. Their gladness, they will be glad in your presence, and with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they defy the spoil. And that's this coming kingdom where the Messiah rules. And then we have in verse 6, For unto us a child is born, a son will be given, and the government will rest upon his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Interesting how that narrative begins with and the people will see a great light. And there's also at least two very good movements of the Handel's Messiah in those verses. If you like Handel's, the coming up Handel's Messiah.

I don't know about with the COVID situation, but who knows. So final thoughts. I have this, I just want, with this, God's essence or His eternal attributes, the sum of who He is when you think of His holy, righteous, sovereign, His love. He never changes. He's immutable. A spirit. He's omnipotent. He's omnipresent. He's omniscient.

And there's more that you could add to His perfections. When you think of God and His glory, that's who He is. So sum together that some of those things that I put to the infinite degree, that's that little symbol there. So you add those together, times it by infinity, and that's, you're just describing the essence of God there.

And that somehow produces light. And that's the light that we're talking about this morning. And what he says, he said, I am the light. I'm the light of men. I'm the light that shines in the dark. True light, shining in the darkness, the light of the world, he said. So he makes all these statements, these definitive statements about the light.

So I don't mean this to be a mathematical equation to pin down of who God is, but it's more easy to understand when you think of who God is, to put his essences together, his attributes, and think of those as infinite. and that's who he is, and that produces somehow, produces blinding light. You have it with Moses, and on the mountain, right? He saw that light, he had to look away towards the other direction while the glory of God passed by him. God even turned his back on him, but he showed him who he was.

But there's also the fact that Peter was the apostle to the circumcision, whereas Paul was the apostle of the uncircumcision. As for Peter, his ministry wasn't that to bring Jews to Christ from their condition to show their position, whereas Paul was the apostle of the uncircumcision, to bring the Gentiles from their position to their condition in Christ.

Yeah, I lean towards the thought, many commentators do, I know William Kelly does, that this Peter is addressing Jews. Some commentators say he's addressing Jews only who are up in Galatia. He might have even known some of these Jews down there. These might have been in his church, and then they had to scatter because of the persecution. So yeah, it's said that Peter is the apostle to the Jews, or the circumcision, and Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles, and that's true. Now, you could say that, well, this is written to all believers, and that's true, too. And Peter, who was writing this, his audience might have been Gentiles, too.

But yeah, there's a lot of Jewish elements to this. So that's a good point. That's certainly true. Should we wrap it up here? Yeah, I think so. OK. Great. Well, I'll close with a prayer. Heavenly Father, Thank you for this study that we could meet, and thank you for who and what you are, all your attributes, and that you love us and you care for us, and your love is eternal. We all together here this morning will be together with you eternally someday. Thank you for these things. In Jesus' name, amen.