Hearing from the Living God 2 Peter 1:16-21

Is and what we do during this time is we use the acronym ACTS and A stands for adoration and that's not a word you hear every day but adoration means prayers of praise that we offer to God. C are prayers of confession where we confess our sins before the Lord.

T are prayers of thanksgiving where we thank the Lord and then S are prayers of supplication which are when I was involved in a ministry in downtown Minneapolis. This ministry was focused on evangelizing Somali Muslims and some of you maybe know this but there's a very large Somali population that lives in the Twin Cities several hundred thousand in fact in fact in Barron which isn't too far from here there's a large Somali population there as well.

And what we learned is that the Lord has brought the mission field to us instead of us going to them they have come to us and so about 10 -12 years ago I would go down there frequently with a good friend of mine and what we would do is we would strike up conversations with different Somali Muslims and what I found is that striking up spiritual conversations with them was actually quite simple in fact a lot easier than the typical Westerner because Westerners to be honest tend to focus more on shallow things where the Somali Muslims their religion was integral to their everyday life.

I mean even a nominal Muslim would stop and even pray five times a day. So there was interesting being exposed to this culture now. I had several conversations many conversations over a couple year period but I only remember really a few of them and one in particular I remember very well we had a conversation with a man who told us that men wrote the Bible not God and that their holy book the Quran was in fact the book that was written by God and what he said was well you look at the Bible and you see all these names.

You see Isaiah Jeremiah you see Daniel you see John you see Luke humans wrote this book. Right. This isn't a book that was written by God. This is what they would say. What this gentleman didn't understand.

What Muslims don't understand is that the Bible addresses these questions. The Bible acknowledges obviously that the words of Scripture are written by men but it is also clear that these aren't the mere words of men but truly the Word of God.

As I read earlier today second Timothy 316 and 17 says all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work.

The King James Version says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. So what the Bible teaches is that yes men wrote the Bible but these are not the mere words of man. These are the words of God in theology.

This is known as the doctrine of inspiration. God could have chosen to communicate to us in different ways but the way he chose to communicate is through the writing of men. This morning as we continue our sermon series through second Peter the Apostle Peter discusses the topic of how he and two other disciples heard from God and how we can be certain that the words of God that they heard and that we read in the pages of Scripture truly are the Word of God.

So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to second Peter we're going to look at verses 16 through 21 of chapter 1. If you don't have about we do have those red Bibles. And here's the title hearing from the living God.

And I'm gonna begin by reading the text. Second Peter 1 verses 16 through 21 Peter writes. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the 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 will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 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. Here's a big idea what this text what this sermon is calling you to do. Understand that scripture authentically finds its source in God.

Scripture authentically finds its source in God. Three reasons why in this text. Before we jump in let me give you a little recap of where we have been last week. It was the sermon about memories and specifically the most important memories.

The most important things that we can possibly remember is the Word of God. We have all these memories from our life. We remember our wedding day. We remember the birth of our children. We remember sweet memories from our childhood.

We remember vacations. We have all these great memories in our in our minds. We also have some bad memories in our minds. But the most important thing that must fill our minds that we must remember is the Word of God.

And as as we remember the Word of God the Holy Spirit is going to use that in our lives. So that's what we looked at last week in verses 12 through 15 of 2nd Peter 1. But now we get back to our text here in verses 16 through 21 and in verses 16 through 18 we see that the Apostles Peter James and John didn't make up the stories they shared about Christ.

They were surrounded by Greek culture where mythology was well known. You can think of the Greek gods Apollos and Zeus and others. It appears that people even started to say that Jesus and the power he demonstrated and promised to show in the future was also a myth.

Peter references the second coming in this verse when he says we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Later on in this letter in 2nd Peter chapter 3 verses 3 and 4 there were some false teachers who said the second coming was a myth because of the delay.

When's it gonna happen. Time goes on. It can't be true. It would have happened by now if it was true. That's the second Peter 3. This is what the false teacher said in those verses where is the promise of his coming forever.

Since the father's fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation to prove the validity of God's plan for history that that they are real including the glorious end of history when Christ returns.

Peter points to a very memorable eyewitness account that he and two other disciples experienced. He mentions the event known as the transfiguration event where Peter James and John this inner circle of Jesus disciples remember there was 12 disciples and then within the 12 there's an inner circle inner circle.

Peter and the two sons of Zebedee James and John. They were known as the sons of thunder. And these three are on this mountain with him and they are blown away by what they saw. I think about how mundane life is sometimes what these men experienced on that mountain we would tremble to experience we would fall on our face to the ground to experience.

But these men experienced it. And what Peter is doing here is he's saying we were on that mountain with him. You can think of those events in your life that were memorable. You know like I said most of life is pretty ordinary.

Every once in a while there's an event in your life that you can recall vividly because it was so memorable. And that's what Peter James and John experienced on that mountain. In verses 16 through 18 he says once again here we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we may known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. And then he says what happened. He says that there was a voice from heaven that said this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. This event is described in the Gospels in Mark chapter 9 verses 2 through 8 Mark writes.

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them and his clothes became radiant intensely white as no one on earth could bleach them.

And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus rabbi it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.

For he did not know what to say. So he said something silly for they were terrified and a cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. And suddenly looking around they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.

This was no ordinary day. What they experienced on that mountain. He was so white that you couldn't bleach it. That white he was radiant. And this voice comes from heaven. This is my son with whom I am well pleased.

And this was quite the remarkable event. It's important to take note that Peter points out the physical senses here. And there's five senses not six right. There's five senses sight taste touch smell and hearing.

And and what he says here. First obvious that they saw him in the second half of verse teens. Second verse 16 here so they saw him. This is the sense of sight. Secondly in verse 17 Peter says that they heard the voice from heaven so they saw him and they heard this voice.

Peter tells his readers that the senses that he James and John that that what they experienced here is reliable. There's no refuting this. This is a reliable eyewitness testimony. They are to be believed.

This actually happened. It wasn't a myth like some even in Peter's days that it was. How often do we hear this in our day. We have resurrection Sunday coming up in two Sundays. You hear people say all the time that Jesus didn't really rise from the dead.

And we're gonna look at that in detail in in two Sundays they start denying the truth of the Bible right from the beginning. God didn't really create the heavens and the earth. I remember the famous atheist Richard Dawkins saying evolution is a fact but everything is backwards.

The creation is a fact while evolution is a myth the Bible rejects evolution and science rejects evolution. But people believe in evolution because they don't want to believe in God. They want to live a sinful selfish life without facing the consequences of living such a life.

If there is a God then you can't do what you want when you want in your life. There's a judgment coming. But much of the world doesn't want to believe this. So the myth of evolution becomes convenient to believe even when the facts say otherwise.

What Peter is telling his readers is that he really did see the glory of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter James and John who were the three men who were in the inner circle among Jesus disciples.

These men were on the mountain when they saw Moses and Elijah these two great Old Testament prophets. And what they saw here was a side of Jesus that they hadn't seen before. Now they had seen him do some miracles but they had never seen anything quite like this where he suddenly changes before them.

It's so interesting to if you look at Isaiah 53 it says that he wasn't even that attractive guy like when Jesus walked into a room he wouldn't stand out. That was his appearance while he was on the earth.

But once he started to talk then it was like oh this guy is something different. But now they see him transfigured before them. And it's quite remarkable what they saw. And that's an understatement. They saw his glory firsthand as they saw him transfigured on that mountain now.

No Peter what's interesting here is that he he would be a writer of scripture. Of course we're looking at his letter right now when he wrote first Peter as well. And and James what. Now this James here who's on this mountain was not a writer of scripture.

The book of James was actually written by Jesus brother James. But Peter his writing would be on the same level as the Old Testament. Okay. So we have Moses and Elijah who are on this mountain. Both Moses and Elijah are prophets in the Old Testament.

They speak on behalf of God. And in Moses case he writes the first five books of the Bible Genesis through Deuteronomy. And Peter is on this mountain. And Peter is one of these people. He's going to be a writer of scripture.

And he's gonna be on the same level as these men as he writes first and second Peter and not just him but also the other writers of the New Testament they're gonna be on the same level as these Old Testament prophets.

And in fact in second Peter chapter 3 verses 15 and 16 Peter says that Paul's writings are on the same level as the Old Testament. And of course by implication so are Peter's writings and all the New Testament writers.

Two of the three men on this Mount of Transfiguration would write New Testament books. And that is John and Peter. Their writings like Paul were also scripture. The entire experience they had with Jesus the Holy Spirit would bring to remembrance later on.

This is such an interesting verse in John chapter 14 verses 25 and 26. These things I have spoken to you these are the words of Jesus. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the helper the Holy Spirit with whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

And that's exactly what happened. The Holy Spirit brings to remembrance to Peter and John and all the witnesses of the glory of Christ. And then they write down what we call the New Testament what they witnessed with their eyes and heard with their ears they wrote.

This is how we got the New Testament. So here's our first point understand that scripture authentically finds its source in God. And the first reason why is that the Apostles witnessed the glory of Christ.

These two witness the glory of Christ on this mountain and think about what we're gonna look at in two Sundays the glory of Christ after his resurrection. Here's the second reason why we are to understand that scripture authentically finds its source in God.

And that is this. The Old and New Testaments are further validated by the transfiguration event. Okay let's look at verse 19. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

In verse 19 following the transfiguration account Peter points to the prophetic word. We know that when he says prophetic word he is referring to scripture because it is mentioned in verse 20. Verse 20 says prophecy of scripture.

Okay so that's this. That's the Bible. In verse 19 Peter says that we have something more sure. There's a debate among some Bible interpreters as to the meaning of what Peter is saying here when he writes we have something more sure the prophetic word.

Some say that the prophetic word the scriptures are more sure than the eyewitness testimony of those in the first century including the Apostles. In other words they didn't have the Bible. We have the Bible.

So we have something more sure because it's written down for us even though they're eyewitnesses. We have something more sure because it's written down. The other view that some Bible interpreters hold to is that the Apostles experience on that moment with Moses and Elijah make something already sure the Old Testament scriptures even more certain.

The the prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New come together in one place with the Messiah and Savior of both standing with them. If you think about this moment who are the two greatest prophets in the Old Testament.

I think this account tells us who they are. It's Moses and Elijah. There's a reason these two men are on this mountain. And then we look at who are the two most influential men in the New Testament. You can make the argument.

It's Peter and John and they're on this mountain. So we have two guys from the Old Testament. Are you arguably the most important. Two guys from the New Testament. Arguably the most important. And what's happening here.

Who is in the middle of them. The God man Jesus. So he is what. What is already certain which is the Old Testament scriptures becomes even more certain because the God man Jesus is there to affirm their prophecies from the Old Testament.

Think about how remarkable that is the event of the transfiguration. Further value date validates the scriptures. And this is the view that I hold to. It makes something that is already certain even more certain.

Peter is telling his readers that because of his experience on that mountain they need to pay attention to his words and all the words of the Apostles just as they are to pay careful attention to the Old Testament prophets.

Because the words of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament Apostles are the words of God. When we look at the testimony of scripture who is the main character in the Bible. Well it's God. Right.

Father son and Holy Spirit. But but in human form it's the second person of the Trinity. It's Jesus Christ. And everything the Old Testament prophets wrote about in some way points to him. And then what's the New Testament.

The New Testament is explaining the ministry of Christ. So it's interesting that he's he is this connection between old and new. He is the center he is the main character. They stood with the God man on them.

Owen and they are his messengers. Now Peter says at the end of verse 19 that their words are to be a paid that they are to be paid attention to till the very end. When he writes you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Okay. What's the lamp. The lamp is their words the words of the Old Testament prophets the words of the New Testament Apostles. It's a lamp shining in a dark place. So what's the dark place. Well it's the world we live in this world is dark.

Right. I don't need to tell you that you know that. And not only is this world dark our hearts are dark as we come into this world. We come into this world deserving of judgment. We are sinners by nature and by choice we are deserving of God's condemnation.

But because of what Christ has done at the cross through his death and through his resurrection we don't have to face that condemnation. We are free in Christ. And and we understand this truth from the word the Word of God.

It's the light shining in a dark place. And so he's saying you must pay attention to this word to this lamp until the day dawns and the morning star rises. Okay the day dawning of course is the start of the day.

The morning star rising is the Sun rising. Right. The Sun rises in the East. Right. We can all agree on that right. No obviously 20 years ago everyone said oh yeah of course the Sun rises in these nowadays people can believe whatever they want.

Right. So I guess we could debate it though. Well but this is a reference the day dawning and the morning star rising. It's a reference to the second coming of Christ. Think about this. We kind of have a relationship with Christ.

It's a long-distance relationship. I remember when I was dating Brianna I lived in mound. She lived in Wyoming Minnesota. Thankfully it wasn't Wyoming the state Wyoming Minnesota. It was about an hour apart and that was a really hard time because we lived about 60 miles apart and we had a major metropolitan area in between us.

So even when we met with each other we'd always run into traffic and and it was difficult. We wanted to be together. But it was a long-distance relationship and and that's kind of what it's like with Christ.

We have the Bible but we don't see him with our eyes. 1st Corinthians 13 says that that one day we will know him in a way we do not know him right now because we can't because he's not in our presence.

He's not physically in our presence. But one day that day is coming. We're not gonna need the Bible anymore when he comes back and we are with him. Think about that. But until that day comes until that day comes we will do well to pay attention to his messengers Moses Elijah Peter John the 40 authors of scripture because what they write is the Word of God.

So here's our this morning star is also going to rise in our hearts. What does this mean. What this means is one day any corruption that's in our heart will be completely wiped away and we will be completely made new.

It started now once you once you receive Christ and you receive the Holy Spirit it starts now and we're supposed to be sanctified as we go through our journey through life. But one day this morning star is gonna completely arise in our hearts.

First John 3 1 2 says when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. That's what this verse is talking about. Inwardly we will be completely transformed in that day. So understand that scripture authentically finds its source in God.

And the second reason why is that the all the New Testaments are further validated by the transfiguration event. And here's the third and final reason why you are to understand that scripture authentically finds its source in God and that is this.

God inspired the writings of scripture and we'll see this in verses 20 and 21. In verse 19 Peter explains how important and reliable the Old Testament words are and the New Testament now. In verse 20 he describes the source of their words.

Verse 20 he writes this knowing that first of all no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. What we see here is that the words of the writers of scripture come from God. In verse 20 Peter explains the scripture was not written by man's own interpretation like Muslims claim as I said in the introduction Muslims like I said they say well John and Peter and Moses and Isaiah see it's the words of man.

As I had those conversations with Somali Muslims they said Allah their God gave the word of God to Muhammad the their supposed prophet. And Muhammad copied everything down that was told to him. And when a Muslim sees the Bible they see the names and they say it's human.

But our text this morning answers that objection. And by the way when you think about Islam it's similar to Mormonism. This strange angel appears. And actually in the case of Muhammad he was terrified.

And if you're visited by a demon you will be terrified. That's what it was. It was probably Satan himself who appeared to Muhammad and he forced him to write down what he was telling him. And Muhammad writes it down by dictation.

Dictation means Muhammad didn't have his own thoughts. He's just copying down everything. That's that he's told to write. But scripture is different. This is very important. The writers of scripture do not write a dictation and we can see this.

They write with their own personalities. You know that is you read people's writings. Like if you read barbs an author if you read barbs writing you'll be able to tell this is barb Trombley. If you if you read my writing not as exciting you'll be able to tell this is Seth Brickley.

You're gonna be able to tell this because we have personalities and our personalities get into our writings. It's interesting. Paul is more maybe a little more intellectual in his writings. And we're going through Galatians right now and you read it you're like what in the world is he saying he's a little more intellectual John very straightforward.

That's just the way John was. And so that's the way he writes. This is the way Paul was. So that's how he writes. It's so interesting that the writers of scripture they maintain their unique personalities as they write it.

But what Peter is writing here is that this isn't from man. This is not man's own interpretation. It's not like oh you know what I want to go write this. I think God would approve of it. So I'm just gonna write it.

That's not how it works. That's not how it works. If this were the case but the Bible would have no value. But let's look at verse 21. No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

What Peter writes is that no true prophecy came from man. But all the prophecies of Scripture all the writings of Scripture come from God. As the men spoke and wrote the Holy Spirit. The third person of the Trinity guided them.

He was directly involved in their work. We can see from Scripture that it was not divine dictation as I mentioned like it like with Muhammad we can say that they wrote on their own but their words were the words of God.

Now in modern evangelicalism there's an attack on this belief. The belief that I am explaining to you is that every word in the Bible from the first word in Genesis to the last word in Revelation is the Word of God.

In theology this is known as verbal plenary inspiration. This means that every word in Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Our text teaches this and so do many others. One of them is second Timothy 316 which I have already quoted twice this morning all Scripture is breathed out by God or as the King says inspired by God.

And there's an important doctrine that flows out of the doctrine of inspiration. And that is the doctrine of inerrancy. The Bible is inerrant. Okay. And then you have some liberals who try to say well yeah on matters of faith it's inerrant.

But when it comes to science and history there's no. The Bible is 100 accurate. Not only in matters of faith but also with science and history. We must affirm that. And if we don't affirm that we've lost already think of all the problems that are gonna come for that once we say that we can't trust every word in the Bible the Bible doesn't say that.

The Bible says that every word is inspired and every word is without error. And so how does this work. So they're writing the scriptures. I like how one of my professors says it they were thinking God's thoughts after him.

Okay let me say that again as they wrote they were thinking God's thoughts after him. Okay this is a supernatural thing they're writing and everything they write is exactly how God wants it to be written as the person maintains his personality as he's writing.

And this is truly remarkable. But when you read the Bible it's different than any other book. There's some there's lots of good books out there but there's no book that carries the authority of the Bible.

There's a glory that radiates from the text that doesn't radiate from any other book. So we can see that this indeed is from God as it was written by the 40 authors of Scripture 31 in the old 9 in the New Testament.

Okay so as we wrap this up here understand that Scripture authentically finds its source in God. In this text we've seen three reasons why. First the Apostles witnessed the glory of Christ. Second the all the New Testaments are further validated by the transfiguration event.

Third God inspired the writings of Scripture. There have been over 100 million books published in the history of the world but there is only one book that God has written and it is this book that we hold in our hands and think about how remarkable this is.

We have the Word of God this light shining in a dark place. And as we are confident that we have the very Word of God we need to pay close attention to what it says as Peter writes here in our text we would do well to pay attention to it as we have already seen this chapter.

This book tells us how to enter into a relationship with God through Christ's finished work at the cross and his glorious resurrection. And it tells us how to live a life pleasing to the Lord. So as we go through our lives we need to pay close attention to the Word what it says and also be amazed at the creator of the universe who is the beginning and the end wrote this book to you and to me.

So let's praise God for Scripture that he inspired and he has given to us so that we can live lives honoring to him. Next Sunday we are going to prepare for resurrection Sunday. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and so we're actually take a two Sunday break from second Peter.

Next Sunday will be in first Corinthians 15 and then in two Sundays will be in John 20. As we look at the resurrection account and I look forward to looking at that with you as always. But at this time let's bow our heads in prayer no father in heaven.

We do thank you for this time. What an opportunity every single week to to sit under the Word of God together to read it to look at what it says and to apply it. This applies to everyone in this room right now in my prayer Lord is that everyone in this room would have utter confidence in the Word of God that it would be our life as we live it out.

Because the one who is life is contained in it Jesus Christ to help us to understand it and to live it. And we give you praise in Jesus name Amen.