Hope in the Promised Return of Jesus and the Inspired Word

Peter, at the end of his life, wrote a letter to fellow believers (the same group as in 1 Peter) who were under pressure from false teaching. That should cause us to ask, what were these false teachers claiming?

We know from the letter’s content that at a minimum they were asking questions like:

1. Can you trust the Bible? Really? I mean other people read the OT and come to different conclusions. Why should anyone believe the NT properly explains how the story concludes?
2. Is Jesus really returning? He is taking forever! The world moves on like it always has. Even if God created the world, he let it go and has moved on to other things.
3. Is God really going to judge every person? Come on, seriously! What kind of God is that? You are scaring people for nothing.

I don’t think these objections have changed much. Biblical Christianity is under the same basic attacks today. That is why 2 Peter is so important and helpful. Our series title is Growing in Grace and Knowledge.

Pastor Viars explained that Peter starts with the positive. Yes, you can grow in grace and knowledge and you can reject false teachers because through God’s divine power we have everything we need to lead a godly life.

• - Regardless of the time in which we live, the circumstances we face, or the blessings we enjoy, we have everything we need through God’s power to live a godly life.

• Do you believe that? I mean do you really believe that?

• Are you convinced that through his power he has given you magnificent promises, helped you escape the world’s thinking, and given you the strength to grow your character in discernable ways so that you will be useful and fruitful in the knowledge of the Lord?

Amen? I hope you are excited about that. I hope that even last week you attempted to live it out. Peter continues his positive argument in v. 16. Please open your Bibles to 2 Peter 1:16. That is on page _____ of the back section of the Bible under the chair in front of you.

There are certain truths that are essential to the Christian faith. There is no room for negotiation on these. We call them the fundamentals of the faith.

• - When I get asked if I am a fundamentalist, my answer is “depends on what you mean.” Do I think that women can wear pants and still please Jesus, “Yes.” So if fundamentalist = legalist then my answer is no.

• - However, if you are talking about the five classic fundamentals of the faith, then my answer is yes. They are: 1. The inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture; 2. The deity of Jesus Christ; 3. The virgin birth of Christ; 4. The substitutionary, atoning work of Christ on the cross; and 5. The physical resurrection and the personal bodily return of Christ to the earth. [Please have these 5 come in on 1 slide]

You reject one of these elements and you no longer have biblical Christianity. Let’s test it.

• - What happens if you give up #2, the deity of Christ? You no longer have a perfect savior and you are still in your sin! Whatever religion you have left, it is not biblical Christianity.

• - If you give up #5 (Jesus did not rise and is not returning) then what is the point? The church becomes little more than an Elks club. We enjoy life together and then die.

• - If you give up #1, then what is your source of truth? Whose word do you rely on?

Our text today addresses two of these fundamentals of the faith. Our title this morning is Hope in the Promised Return of Jesus and the Inspired Word. Please follow along as I read. This is the Word of the Lord. Read 2 Peter 1:16-21.

I would like us to consider three positive arguments why we can count on the Bible’s testimony.

I. Because it is Eyewitness Testimony

Verse 16 introduces the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…

The “we” of v. 16 is not some sort of rhetorical “we” or Peter thinking of the mouse in his pocket. The “we” is the apostles. The churches to whom he is writing were founded upon the apostles teaching. When they started churches, they explained the second coming of Jesus. That is kind of important.

I believe the Lord intends for us to see “power” and “coming” of v. 16 together. This means that The Bible says that Jesus is returning in power. We have hope in that. It is one of the reasons we are here, why we celebrate communion every month, and why we seek to live faithful.

Peter will address the objection about Christ’s return more fully in chapter 3, but it is clear here that some opposed the return of Jesus – calling it a tale, fable, or myth. It should not surprise us that people oppose Jesus’s return. The apostles taught and recorded in the Bible that when Jesus returns, he will among other things:

1. Destroy his enemies.
2. Take his children home.
3. Reward the faithful.
4. Come in glory, majesty, and power.
5. Make all things right so that what goes in heaven, goes on earth.
6. Come when people are unsuspecting.

If a person does not like the idea of the Lord destroying his enemies, having complete control, and coming when he desires, then he will find reasons to argue it will not happen.

One of the arguments is clear in v. 16: You made it all up! You follow cleverly devised tales! Your belief is to help you feel better about your life. You are weak minded so you invented a story to make yourself feel better.

• - You made up a story about Jesus and his return.

Have you had anyone say this to you? Or at least something similar?

• - Here you are sharing your faith and the work of Christ in your life, but once you move to address their need to repent of sin and trust in the finished work of Jesus …

• - They tell you that it is nice that Christianity works for you, but it is not for them.

That is the nice way of saying, you follow cleverly devised myths.

• - I don’t want believe that God will hold me accountable for anything. I just try to live a full life and then die.

Friends, I do not know the condition of every heart.

• - I suspect that There might be some here who are trying to determine if biblical Christianity, and Christ, is real, legit, and worth following. You are asking tough questions.

• - There are young people growing up with parents who believe in Jesus who are trying to decide whether the Christian faith is for them.

If that is you … then…

• - I am appealing to you to repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus.

• - But I am not asking you to do so blindly. The Christian faith is intelligent, thought provoking, and consistent.

• - The entire message today is an argument for it. To the degree you find yourself wondering the same thing as the false teachers … it is a cleverly devised tale … consider the argument of the text.

For those who have a saving relationship with Jesus, my applications today will focus primarily on the Inspired Word. However, please do not miss the importance of being ready for Jesus’ return.

• - We hope you are living as the Lord requires so that you might enjoy the rewards he brings to the faithful.

Back to our argument. Peter says no way. Not true. We are not following cleverly devised tales because we are eyewitnesses of his majesty. More specifically …

Eyewitnesses of the transfiguration

2 Peter 1:17-18 For when He received honor and glory 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.

Peter takes us back to the transfiguration and says, “Were the false teachers there when Jesus appeared in his glory on the holy mountain?” I don’t think so.

• - We saw his glory with our eyes and we heard with our ears the Father say, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”

The honor and glory at the beginning of v. 17 is the glorious revealing of Jesus along with God’s verbal affirmation.

There is specific eyewitness testimony. Peter says that we (we = Peter, James, and John) saw the father giving honor and glory to Jesus at the transfiguration which is exactly what will happen when Jesus returns a second time.

• - He will have all the glory and honor that is due him.

You might be wondering … Wait a second Rob … how does the eyewitness of the transfiguration connect to the second coming? After all, the transfiguration occurred during Jesus’ earthly ministry and thus would have taken place about 30 years prior to writing 2 Peter.

To put this together, we need to see …

The close connection between the transfiguration and the second coming

If you were asking that question in your mind, then great job engaging with the text. You are asking a fair and important question. To explore this connection, we need to look at the transfiguration passages in the gospels.

Matthew 16:27-17:2 “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds. 28 “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” 1 Six days later Jesus *took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and *led them up on a high mountain by themselves. 2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light…. 5 behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

Mark 9:1-2 And Jesus was saying to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” 2 Six days later, Jesus *took with Him Peter and James and John, and *brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them;

Luke 9:27 “But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

Every account of the transfiguration recorded in the gospels begins with seeing Jesus coming in his kingdom. The transfiguration gave a sneak peak look to Peter, James, and John about what the second coming will look like.

• - Thus, the transfiguration is biblically connected to the second coming.

Peter says, in essence, you know the transfiguration? Yes… that foreshadows how Jesus will powerfully return in his second coming and we saw and heard it!

• - Now that Jesus came the first time to redeem people from every tribe, tongue, and nation he plans to return in power and glory to claim his own and vanquish his enemies.

• - We have been spreading this news and we will continue to do because this is not some cleverly devised myth we invented.

Some do not want to believe that Jesus is returning and God will hold anyone accountable for anything. Consider the phrase “rest in peace.” I believe that saying is built on a philosophy, a worldview for how things work.

• - It says, “we live a full life, die, and enter into eternal rest … which essentially means a state of sleep.”

Friends, do not be deceived. The Bible teaches that either we rest in the presence of our savior for all eternity or we suffer for our rebellion awaiting final judgment. There is no “rest in peace” as our culture typically defines it. Peter says, do you know how I know that Jesus is returning?

• - Because I was there!

• - I saw it with my own eyes, I told you about it, and I wrote it down.

Thus, what you and I are reading in the Bible today is eyewitness testimony of those who were there.

I want to say a few things about memory. I am painfully aware that I struggle to remember everything I have said and done. Is it possible Peter did not remember correctly? To counter that idea, there are certain memories that were so significant that I will never forget them. Can you relate?

• - I lived in Port Orchard, Washington (near the Naval base in Bremerton) when I was very little (2-3.5 years old). I remember two things about the home I lived in. (1) I owned an 8 track [Please put in a picture]. It was in my room and I went to plug it in and accidently shocked myself. (2) Our back yard had fruit trees and a holly berry bush[Please put in a picture]. My father was concerned that I would think the holly berries were like the other fruit. So we walked the yard and he said of all the trees of the back yard you may freely eat, but if you eat of this holly berry bush you will surely die.

In other words, I cannot always remember exactly what I said 3 weeks ago, but I most certainly remember a few events that happened decades years ago because those events were so significant.

I think Peter is making the argument that he will never forget seeing Jesus revealed in glory.

• - We know that is what it looks like for Jesus to return and therefore we continue to preach that Jesus is coming back.

It is also interesting that 2 Peter 1:17-18 is almost the same as Psalm 2:7. This is a royal Psalm often referring to Jesus. Peter might be saying … I saw the trailer of the real thing based on what Psalm 2 says about Jesus.

Psalm 2:6-7 But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” 7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

For us, all of this is found in the Bible. We are not talking to Peter directly. Instead, we are reading his letter to the churches, trying to understand the connection in the gospels to Peter’s writing, and even understanding it in the light of OT revelation.

We believe the testimony of the Bible is the truth because, first, it comes from eyewitnesses. A second reason to trust in the Bible testimony is …

II. Because it is Prophetic Testimony

2 Peter 1:19-21 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, 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 arises in your hearts. 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

The prophetic word is almost certainly a reference to the OT and probably most specifically those passages that look forward to Messiah in both his suffering and exaltation. But what is Peter doing here?

• - Is he saying that his eyewitness testimony is not good enough or that something else is needed?

Probably not. I think a better answer is that …

The transfiguration proves there is a second coming

Peter and the rest of the apostles were not the only ones reading their Old Testament. The religious leaders did too and possible other interested parties. This is all still true today.

• - You can take a Bible class at Purdue University. It will be taught by a person who treats the Bible as literature.

• - There remains a Jewish community who rejects that Jesus is the Messiah and the NT as part of the Bible.

What Peter is saying is that the transfiguration shows that the apostles understood their OT correctly. There is a right way and a wrong way to read the Bible.

• - Those who read the OT as if it is just a bunch of cute fairy tales do not understand it correctly.

• - Those who believe in a coming future king without the suffering servant element of the Bible are also wrong.

• - What is so delightful about this passage (and I did not have time to show you the suffering surrounding the transfiguration passages in the gospels) is that Peter says, the apostles had it right.

Jesus came the first time to suffer, die, and give his life as a ransom for many. However, he is coming back and we got a glimpse of it.

• - Remember when they went to build an alter to Moses and Elijah? God made it clear, just Jesus.

• - At his coming he will receive full honor and glory. Our interpretation of the OT is correct.

Friends, I understand that sometimes a person will call us arrogant. “Oh, mister smarty pants thinks he has all the right answers.” Why yes, in fact, I do. It is not because we are smart or more intelligent than others. It is because we are following the word given to us.

What does this do for the believer?

We must pay careful attention to it

Peter says in v. 19 that the Word, the Scripture, this prophetic word, serves as a lamp shining in a dark place and we do well to pay careful attention to it.

I am painfully aware that one “boring” application for sermons and other teaching is read your Bible more. We have all heard it countless times. But if we are honest we might also want to acknowledge that we have not heeded it to the degree we should even though…

• - Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

• - How shall a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your world.

I do not want to simply say something you have heard many times … read and study your Bible. Pay attention to the prophetic word in your hand. But, Oh, dear friends, sometimes we think we know more than we do.

• - I had someone tell me recently that they knew all the Christian answers and had heard it all a million times.

• - I thought that was impressive since I have not heard it all a million times. But I started asking a few basic questions.

• - Here was the sad reality, the person had not heard the Christian answer once let alone a million times.

Friends, sometimes we think we know our Bibles better than we do. Here are 5 steps you can take to greatly improve your knowledge of the prophetic word.

1. Read the NT from Matthew to Revelation.
2. Read the entire Bible cover to cover.
3. Write a 25 word summary on every book of the Bible.
4. Write a general outline of every book of the Bible.
5. Take the “Road to Emmaus” Challenge. Luke 24:27 says, “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, Jesus explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”

Depending on what you have done in this past, this plan might take you the next 2 years to accomplish. However, if you do it, then I promise you would be amazed at how much you will know of this prophetic Word … paying attention to the lamp shining in a dark place.

After all we need the Lord’s word to navigate our world and the false teaching of our day …

• - We need it to have courage to face the ongoing opposition to our ideas (Marriage, family)

• - We need it to resist temptations.

• - We need it to live wisely and experience God’s blessings.

We need it until he returns

… until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

Verse 19 reminds us that we will not need our print Bible forever. We need it until the day dawns which equals the day of Jesus’ return. At that time, Jesus, the morning star, arising in our hearts means that we will fully know him. Rather than needing it from the Bible, we get it from our experience with him.

The Bible says in 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

When I reflect on the return of Jesus, it is mind blowing. I have never lived in that world and thus it is difficult to imagine it. I will know the Lord perfectly, there is no need for a communion celebration for we will be with him, and there is no more death, pain, trial, and trouble.

Why can we believe the Bible and especially believe about the return of Jesus? It is based on eyewitness and prophetic testimony. The third and final reason this morning …

III. Because it is the Holy Spirit’s Testimony

2 Peter 1:20-21 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Peter lays down the gauntlet here in one of the most important passages about the Bible. Some authors like to focus on origin … that is to say … that every prophecy comes from God while others like to add the element of understanding (interpretation). That means, Peter is not only emphasizing that OT prophecy came from God, but that the NT apostles understood it correctly. This explains why we put the NT on our OT and stop.

• - Why, for example, do we believe the NT belongs at the end of the OT? Orthodox Jews reject the NT as given by God. We disagree.

• - Why, do we reject the apocrypha even though the Catholic church includes it and reads from it?

• - Why do we reject the myriad of other “gospels” or “letters” written around the first century?

This is a pivotal question. Why do we limit our Bibles to the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are reject all other attempts to remove some or add others?

Because the Bible is not a product of human will

Peter uses these verses to show that his interpretation of OT prophecy – namely that Jesus will return in glory and power which is reinforced by the transfiguration which he saw and heard – is the correct interpretation because it came from God just as the original prophecies themselves were not the product of human will.

What human will want to invent the suffering Messiah?

• - What person in 1500 BC sees the Israelites in Egypt and decides to create a grand scheme to foreshadow a coming Messiah.

• - Who invents the biblical story of Genesis 1-11?

Peter says, none of this is the product of human ingenuity and desire.

Because the Bible is a product of the Holy Spirit moving the authors

We say that the Bible is inspired. We get this from

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

But 2 Peter adds the element of process. How is the Bible inspired by God given the involvement of people? Men were moved by the Holy Spirit.

This is such a delightful passage because it explains how people could be involved in giving us the Bible without messing it up. In so doing, he provides one of the most important passages on why we believe the Bible is true.

• - How do we know that the 27 books of the NT form the proper closure to the 39 books of the Old?

• - The apostles understood it properly because the Spirit was actively working through them to get it right.

2 Peter 1:20-21 is very similar to a passage in the gospels that describes the incarnation. Mary was overshadowed by the Spirit. You see, we had a problem. How can Mary be involved in the birth of Jesus without corrupting him? The Catholic church solved that by saying she was perfect. We solve it by looking at the text and noticing the Holy Spirit’s direct involvement.

Those who wrote the Bible got it right because the Spirit ensured they got it right.

When we think of the Bible as inspired. It means that the product, the words, are the words of God and it means that the Spirit’s work was the process ensuring that it was all accurate.

Because the whole story fits together

Having studied this passage several times I have struggled with why Peter used the second coming as the key theological concept to focus on the inspiration of Scripture. I believe one answer is that the false teachers were discounting it. That is good enough reason.

• - I think there might be more.

• - He is placing the capstone on the Inspired Word.

Peter, through the Holy Spirit, looks at the second coming as the fulfillment of the story line—the culmination.

• - What more important area could you discuss? What better area than to show the ending product?

• - In other words, Peter uses the end to show that the Bible has it all … beginning to the end.

This message is primarily about the Hope available in the Inspired Word of God.

• - I suggested that the passage makes three arguments: Eyewitness testimony, Prophetic testimony, and the Holy Spirit’s testimony.

• - But it also highlights the second coming of Jesus and shows the Inspired Word’s focus on the end. There is hope in Jesus’ return.

May the Lord helps us have great confidence in the Word, a commitment to knowing it so that we might spot false teaching, and that we might be ready for the return of Jesus.

• - After all, the Inspired Word and Jesus’ Return are fundamentals of the faith.