Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord (2 Pe 1:2). Amen.
We are here. Finally. It just took us a bit longer this year. Today is the last Sunday after the Epiphany which was on January 6th. (Doesn’t that seem like a long time ago? We have had winter, spring, and back to winter in that stretch.)
I need to give a bit of explanation. We don’t celebrate Easter on a fixed date like Christmas. It is a moveable holiday. (I won’t bother you with the complicated formula. Then again, it really isn’t that complex. I just don’t know it offhand. That is for others to calculate.) For that reason, the Epiphany season varies in length—4 to 8 Sundays. We went all the way to the 7-week mark.
But we end up at the same place every year on the church calendar. The Transfiguration. It is good for us to be here as we go from the manger of Christmas and head to the cross during Lent. Because of his death on that Roman instrument of torture, we are sure that Jesus is our Savior. Transfiguration helps us with that too—the Son of man shines forth as the Son of God. Be confident before the cross with the witness of the apostle Peter and with the words of the ancient prophets. We read from …
2 Peter 1:16-21
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus, whose glory we gaze at today,
We need to be clear. The preposition “before” can refer to at least two things:
“Before” as in time. Epiphany comes before, or ahead of, Lent.
“Before” as in place. During Lent, we come before, in front of, the cross.
So what is it when we say, “be confident before the cross.” In time? Or in place? Yes. Really it is both. We have a number of weeks before Good Friday and when we stand before the cross on Calvary. That makes us certain.
Be Confident before the Cross
1. With the witness of the apostle Peter (16-18)
2. With the words of the ancient prophets (19-21)
1. With the witness of the apostle Peter (16-18)
The idea of a witness usually takes us to a courtroom where that individual sits in a stand. (We will live with the irony.) A witness has firsthand knowledge of a situation and is to give first-rate testimony to the truth. “What did you see?” And then he says. “What did you hear?” And then he states. After all, he was there. That is what we have in Peter. Be confident before the cross with the witness of the apostle Peter.
The significant event that day was etched deep in his memory like a special memory of yours, maybe the first time you peddled your bike without training wheels or you held your grandchild. Those things stand out and stick out in our minds. Peter never forgot that day. It wasn’t at the scene of an accident or of a crime, but the sight of glory and brilliance. Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a mountain in the north of Galilee. It is not important where it is, but what it means. Those three would be enough to establish the facts of what happened (Dt 19:15).
It was there that Jesus was transfigured before them (Mt 17:1-9). They saw the divine splendor that Jesus had and has as God. It must have been quite a sight. Matthew described it like this: “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light” (Mt 17:2). That is not something that you forget. A sunrise or sunset might be magnificent, but it soon slips from your mind. But not this.
And Peter was not afraid to repeat it. “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pe 1:16). Some might deny that Jesus appeared once and will arrive again—not as a baby, but as a judge, but Peter declared it. This was not what he concocted or created. It was no tall tale like Paul Bunyan chasing Babe, his blue ox, around Minnesota. They supposedly left their footprints all around. And when the rain fell, the water formed 10,000 lakes (actually 11,842). What Peter and his two buddies viewed was not something to tell around campfires or at bedtimes like a cute legend, but to build up faith and trust as an absolute reality. This was not fiction; it was fact. Peter makes that clear: “We were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Pe 1:16).
But there is more. Peter was also an “earwitness” of the honor and glory given to Jesus. He heard the voice of “the Majestic Glory”—the Excellent and Exalted One, the heavenly Father (2 Pe 1:17). He recalls the exact words: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (2 Pe 1:17; Mt 17:5). It is as if the Father points to his Son, “This One here, I am delighted with all that he has done up to this point, preaching and teaching faithfully, living and serving perfectly, and all that he will do in the future, suffering and dying innocently, rising and returning triumphantly. He is near and dear to me.” The Father echoes the approval that he pronounced at Jesus’ baptism. That was at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. This comes at the end as he heads into the homestretch to do battle with Satan and beat sin. All of that “on the sacred mountain” was too great for Peter to ignore (2 Pe 1:18). And so he informs.
And so we stop this Sunday on this hilltop to get a glimpse of Jesus’ glory. He is about to go down from this remote peak and go up to the holy city. He winds to Jerusalem resolutely (Lk 9:51). He knows precisely what awaits him there. He has told his disciples of it. We would do well to take to heart what the Father also commanded: “Listen to him!” (Mt 17:5). They are not to be caught off guard.
And neither are we. Remember that as we read through and review the Passion history on Wednesday afternoons or evenings in worship. Soon we will listen to the shouting in mockery from his enemies and the pounding of nails by the Romans. This is God’s plan. There is glory in it too. This is the manner in which Jesus defeated the devil and destroyed death. All for us. All so that the Father could call us his own, the ones he loves, the ones with whom he is pleased. Jesus will hang on a cross for us. But he will also exit from the grave for us.
Hold on to this incident in the days and weeks ahead. Be confident before the cross with the witness of the apostle Peter. He was there when Jesus’ glory was conveyed and God’s voice was communicated.
2. With the words of the ancient prophets (19-21)
The judge and jury take note of what a witness relates, but a stenographer writes it down using a fancy machine with only a few odd buttons. The statements become a matter of court record. Anyone can go back to it and check through it. That is what we have with the prophets. When the inquiry or attack is there, “Did God really say?” (Ge 3:3), we can search continually and stand boldly. Be confident before the cross with the words of the ancient prophets.
As dependable as Peter is, and he is, we have the added benefit and bonus of the Old Testament—“the word of the prophets” (2 Pe 1:19). Consider the two prophets who were with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Moses. He was there on Mt. Sinai, when the glory of the LORD settled on it (Ex 24:17). (Whenever that appears it indicates Gods’ incredible desire and intense determination to save.) But Moses also wrote about the Prophet who would come, like him, from among their brothers. He would have God’s words in his mouth (Dt 18:15,18). He pointed to Jesus Christ who would go from town to town and village to village pointing to himself as the fulfillment (Lk 4:21).
Elijah. It was during that showdown on Mt. Carmel with the false prophets of Baal that he called the people of Israel to recognize the true God. When the Lord answered with fire, burning up the sacrifice, they cried out: “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!” (1 Ki 18:39). He is the only God and Lord.
Those men and all the others are trustworthy just like a foundation of a carefully constructed building (Eph 2:20). Their prophecies are solid and sturdy as they mention the Messiah. Peter encourages us: “You will do well to pay attention to it” (2 Pe 1:19). And we do like with the prophet Isaiah:
At Christmas, the virgin gives birth to a baby, Immanuel, “God with us” (Is 7:14) And there he is in the stable in Bethlehem (Mt 1:23).
During Epiphany, kings stream into the church as they follow the light (Is 60:1-6). And there the wise men from the east bow down and open up their gifts (Mt 2:1-12.
Throughout Lent, we the servant of the Lord pierced and punished for our sins and iniquities (Is 53:5,6). And there Jesus is at Golgotha (Mt 27:33).
Peter makes an understandable illustration: “as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pe 1:19). Satan, the prince of darkness, would have us believe the gloomy lies that come from him straight out of the blackness of hell—that we are good enough, without need of a Savior, or that we are bad enough, without hope of a Savior.
But we focus on the printed Word—“a lamp to [our] feet and a light for [our] path” (Ps 119:105). There in black and white God’s forgiveness in Jesus beams radiantly as at dawn the night fades quickly. Sin is gone and heaven is ours. Peter compares it to the morning star. When it becomes visible, it signals the start of a new day. Jesus has come once; he will come again. He broke the power of hell. We now eagerly anticipate the time when we will spot Jesus’ full glory on the Last Day when we will live with him forever.
How can we know? We have God’s Word, not man’s word. “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation” (2 Pe 1:20). No one ever sat down with the idea, “Today I am going to write a book of the Bible.” This is how it came about: “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pe 1:21). We call that inspiration—God-breathed (2 Ti 3:16), from first to last. Or as someone cleverly contended, the Bible is “in-spirited.” The Holy Spirit supplied the content, using their own style and circumstance. He is the Source of the material about Christ crucified. Be confident before the cross with the words of the ancient prophets who looked ahead to Jesus as we now look back to him through them.
Every year Epiphany concludes with Transfiguration Sunday even if it didn’t come right away this February. It is intentional and instructive as we study the episode on that mountain. We go over again that Jesus is true God and true man. We have the witness of the apostle Peter and the words of the ancient prophets to remove any doubt. With Ash Wednesday in three days, be confident before the cross in time when we get there and under the cross in place when we get there. “Praise the LORD” (Ps 148:1). Amen.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen (2 Pe 3:18).
February 26, 2017
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