Sermon for Flinders Park March 2019
In my last message I looked at the goal of human existence, which is to share in the divine nature. That was a complex idea and probably new to everyone. But today we are back to something familiar and less complicated.
NIV 2 Peter 1:12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. 16 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. 17 He received honour 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.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. 19 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. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 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. (2 Pet. 1:12 NIV)
Peter wrote this letter not long before his death; he was expecting to die soon in accordance with what Jesus had told him. As a consequence, he put his knowledge in writing. This was by way of a reminder. “So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have” (v 12). Peter obviously thought it was important to remind the church of these things because he uses three different versions of the word ‘remember’ in verses 12-15: “I will always remind you”, “it is right to refresh your memory”, and “you will always be able to remember”. Why do we need to be reminded of things which we already know?
There is no doubt that as a church full of people who have been Christians for decades we have read the Bible many times and have heard many sermons. Surely we all know a lot of things about the Christian faith. But it is so easy to forget the truth or simply forget to apply the truth. Sometimes it is just the usual problem that out of sight means out of mind. However, we must also reckon with demonic forces actively at work to keep us from hearing and obeying the word of God. Christians are in the minority in this country and we regularly seem strange to others. The media is bombarding us with messages about what we should do and think and buy. The world is trying very hard to squeeze us into its mould (Rom 12:2 – a nod to J.B. Phillips translation). The devil is also at work to steal the word of God away from us (Luke 8:12). This means that we must be reminded of the things of God and the word of God.
Peter assured the church that they were already firmly established in the truth. How could they need anything further? But that is not how life works. I will use the metaphor of a garden. We all know that an established garden cannot be ignored. If you don’t weed the garden, prune the plants, put fertiliser on the plants at the right time of the year, and regularly water it, then the garden begins to look overgrown and sad. It does not stay in a perfect condition. The same is true of the Christian life. We may be firmly established in the truth but we need to constantly work on our spiritual lives. Neglect does not mean that you stay in the same place. More than likely if you neglect to grow then you will go backwards. Churches are no different. An established church will become unfruitful if we don’t continually work on growing in the faith by reminding ourselves of the truth that is found in Jesus. Just as we were exhorted in the earlier verses, we must make every effort to go forwards or we will find ourselves going backwards or falling into error or worse.
“I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.” Peter knew that he would soon depart this world. But while he was alive he worked to remind the church of the things which are important. Life is short and, unlike Peter, we don’t generally know how much time we have left. There is a window of opportunity for impacting the lives of other people. So now is the time for encouraging one another; now is the time for making a difference. The difference that we make will be greatest when it is based on the truth which God has revealed to us in the Bible. Encouragement can take many forms but God’s word must be the basis of that. Even deferring to others in traffic can be based on the truth of God’s generosity to others.
Peter was not content to simply remind the church of his day about the things he knew about Jesus; he made every effort to record these so that when he was no longer alive and present others could still hear these things. Peter recorded two letters and was probably the person whose stories Mark used in writing his Gospel, or at least this was the opinion of many in the early church.
There were at that time a number of heretics that were teaching doctrines opposed to the truth. The church was vulnerable to these heresies. Peter did not want to leave the church without a way of remembering the truth because he knew that they might succumb to these heresies. As a consequence of this problem, Peter went on to assure his readers of the truth of both the New Testament and the Old Testament.
Why can we rely on the New Testament? Peter’s answer to this is in verses 16-18: “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 honour 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.” This is Peter’s eyewitness account of who Jesus is. Peter and two other apostles were on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus when God the Father spoke audibly and declared that Jesus is the Son of God.
Peter is adamant that this is not a cleverly devised story, but what he himself saw and heard. The apostle John says something similar in the first verse of his first epistle. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life” (1 Jn. 1:1 ESV). The New Testament is not a story made up by someone, but a genuine account of what happened in the life of Christ and a commentary on his life and teaching.
Peter was aware that the heretics working in the church attacked both the words of the apostles, which became the writings of the New Testament, but they also contradicted the Old Testament Scriptures. So he assured his readers that the Old Testament writings were also from God. He observes in verses 19-21, “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.”
When he speaks of the “prophetic message” and the “prophecy of Scripture”, he is referring to either Old Testament prophecy or the entire Old Testament. The Jewish understanding was that all inspired Scripture was prophecy. The apostle believed that his eyewitness experience on the Mount of Transfiguration was the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies. This was not a surprise because the Old Testament prophets / writers did not make up things to write down. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Since the Old Testament prophets did not make up stories and the apostles did not make up stories, the Bible that we have been given is a reliable, authoritative book. We can read it with confidence and believe that God speaks through it. This is the difference between the Bible and other religious books. I can’t speak about every religion since I am relatively ignorant about many of them. However, I can contrast the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
Briefly, Joseph Smith claimed that in 1823 he had a vision and was told that some golden tablets, written by the prophet Mormon, were buried on a hill in New York State. Four years later he allegedly dug them up and translated the tablets using magic glasses called Urim and Thummim. Once the translation was finished the golden plates disappeared and have never been seen since. Smith claimed that they were written in “reformed Egyptian”, which he was able to read. The book of Mormon tells the story of the tribe of Nephi, who came from the Middle East to the Americas about 2000 BC. Jesus appeared to them a short while after his resurrection.
There are a number of differences between the Bible and the Book of Mormon that make the Bible a reliable and authoritative book, and the Book of Mormon neither of those things. The Bible contains eyewitness accounts of events in the life of Jesus. Archaeology has uncovered much that confirms the likelihood of what is recorded in its pages and nothing which would contradict it. If you want to look at the manuscripts on which we base our translations into English, these can be found in several museums around the world, including Israel and the United States. They are available online for anyone to look at. Contrast this with the Book of Mormon. The original manuscripts that Joseph Smith supposedly translated into English disappeared from sight and cannot be found. There is not one shred of archaeological evidence that confirms anything in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is not an eyewitness account of anything, but a story made up by a man with a very dodgy reputation among all his contemporaries, except those who helped him found the Mormon Church.
Peter made the points in this epistle so that the Christians would rely on the Scripture instead of accepting the words of the heretics, who did make up stories and were not reliable or authoritative. This is no doubt his main purpose in writing these things. He goes on to speak about particular heresies in the chapters to come. However, there are several further consequences of this reliability and authority that I would like to point out.
First, the Bible is still valuable for arguing against heresy. Heresy is not just a thing which appeared in the early church and has gone away. It continually rears its head in the church. The false views in the world are easy to spot, but the heresy within the church is the really difficult problem. However, the Bible is both useful and necessary for guarding and reasserting the truth.
Secondly, it is worth committing ourselves to studying the Bible. People commit to all sorts of activities and all kinds of study, some of which are not particularly helpful. But studying the Bible is fruitful because it is true and reliable. Bible study is never a waste of time.
Thirdly, the Scripture trumps our own opinions. I know that we are all fond of our own opinions but sometimes these are wrong. They are certainly not authoritative. The words of the apostle have priority over any views that we hold dear. So the fact that the Bible contains eyewitness testimony to the words of Jesus and his actions means that sometimes it is necessary to repent of your own opinion and believe the word of God instead.
Fourthly, because the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, we must not give up on certain parts of the Bible. There are certainly passages which are difficult to understand. Janet pointed out one recently – “the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church” (1 Cor 14:34-35 ESV). No doubt it is difficult to see how this should be understood. But because it is part of the Bible and because the writers of the Bible “spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit,” it is worth putting in the effort to grasp how this fits with what the rest of the Bible says. The Holy Spirit who inspired it is also there to help us to understand it.
I doubt that anyone here would take issue with saying that the Bible is God’s word. However, as this passage is given to us to remind us of these things, let “make every effort” to go forward in the Christian faith instead of standing still. Have we fallen for any wrong teaching? Have we become lazy in spending time in the Bible? Have we elevated our personal opinions over what God has to say? Or have we given up on certain parts of the Bible because they are hard to understand or accept? Is there a need for repentance in any of these areas? I can’t answer these questions for anyone but myself. However, they are questions that we do need to ask ourselves.
Let us pray.