The authority of the letters contained in the Bible is found in their eyewitness testimony...

This week, we are looking at a section of a letter that has been preserved and recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of 2 Peter, where we have seen the Apostle Peter remind us of another timeless truth about Jesus and the message and teachings of Jesus that we are to always have at the forefront of our lives. Yesterday, we began to look at 2 Peter 1:12-15, where we discovered the timeless reminder that we need to be reminded of the authority of the letters contained in the Bible.

 And in 2 Peter 1:12-21, we see Peter reveal three aspects of the authority of the letters contained in the Bible that we need to be reminded of. Yesterday, we discovered that the authority of the letters contained in the Bible is found in their timeless truth. The timeless truth contained in the letters in the Bible was known to the first followers of Jesus.

We discovered that it was the timeless truth contained in the letters in the Bible that caused early followers of Jesus to be firmly committed in their faith. In addition, the timeless truths contained in the letters in the Bible were communicated by those who felt compelled to arouse followers of Jesus to remember the truth. Those who wrote the letters contained in the Bible often recognized that time was short. And those who wrote the letters contained in the Bible were eager to make sure that the message would be available after their death.

Today, we will see Peter reveal for us a second aspect of the authority of the letters contained in the Bible that we need to be reminded of in 2 Peter 1:16-18:

 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. ¹⁷ 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.

Here we see Peter begin to defend the contents of his letter against potential accusations from false teachers who were questioning the truthfulness of his letters. When Peter uses the phrase “for we did not follow cleverly devised tales”, the word follow literally means to accept something as authoritative. In other words, Peter is basically saying “What we accept as authoritative when it comes to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel is not the result of some cleverly created myth and legend that we made up on our own.” Instead, Peter proclaimed that he and other close followers of Jesus were eyewitnesses of His majesty. Peter’s point is that he did not need to make up a cleverly created myth and legend about Jesus because he had firsthand knowledge of the grandeur and greatness of Jesus. 

And to provide proof of his firsthand knowledge of the grandeur and greatness of Jesus, in verses 17-18, Peter pointed the readers of his letter to an event from history that is preserved and recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew. Let’s take a minute and look at this event from history together, beginning in Matthew 17:1-8:

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. ³ And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. ⁴ Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah." ⁵ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" ⁶ When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. ⁷ And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, "Get up, and do not be afraid." ⁸ And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.

And it is here that we see Peter reveal for us the reality that the authority of the letters contained in the Bible is found in their eyewitness testimony. The timeless reality is that the letters contained in the Bible were not the product of a craftily created myth. Instead, the letters contained in the Bible were the product of events in history.

This reality is what separates Christianity from every other religious system. Christianity is distinctly different from every other religious system because Christianity is rooted in events from history.  What we believe about God, or our theology, is inseparably related to an event that occurred in history. As followers of Jesus, we do not follow Jesus because of doctrine or theology; we follow Jesus because of something that happened in history.

We see this in the incredible detail that is in the Bible and its accounts of Jesus death and resurrection. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus occurred in real time, in a real place, with real people. And the early church responded to this historical reality by leveraging their time, their talents, and their treasure into what they had seen and the kingdom mission that they had been given by Jesus.

Friday, we will see Peter reveal for us a third aspect of the authority of the letters contained in the Bible that we need to be reminded of...