Pastor Tim Patoka
Last Sunday of Epiphany: Transfiguration February 23, 2020 Surely Trust in God’s Glorious Son 2 Peter 1:16-21 1) Jesus is God’s Glorious Son 2) We Have God’s Trustworthy Word
We have been in the season of Epiphany for the past two months where we’ve seen Jesus appear in a number of different ways. We’ve seen Jesus as the Savior of the nations, the Anointed one, the Lamb of God, the light that shines away sin’s darkness, and the one who wills our sanctification. We had some staff and choir members of Arizona Lutheran Academy, our high school up in Phoenix, beautify our worship and teach us how we are transformed in Christ. Needless to say, we’ve seen Jesus’ glory in a lot of ways. But not of those compare to how we see Jesus today. As we read from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ transfiguration literally outshined every past appearance when he showed us a glimpse of his heavenly glory. The verses that we’ll be looking at this morning from the Apostle Peter’s second letter were written about thirty years after the Transfiguration account. Yet Jesus’ transfigured glory left a mark on Peter. A mark so glorious that he refers to it when encouraging some second generation Christians to continue holding on to what they already knew in light of some false teaching. Two components of this false teaching were that it attacked Jesus’ divinity and doubted the Bible’s truth. Even though we live almost 2,000 years after these words were first written, we have a lot in common with Peter’s original audience. For we too are familiar with the basic gist of God’s Word and surrounded by all sorts of false teachings which attack Jesus and the Bible. And we too can be encouraged to surely trust in Jesus who is God’s glorious Son as assured to us in God’s trustworthy Word. 1) Jesus is God’s Glorious Son While we don’t know everything about this false teaching, evidently it called Jesus’ divine identity a cunningly devised fable, something that sounds true until you carefully look at it. What exactly their argument was is unknown. But we can find a number of ways that people continue to portray Jesus’ divine identity as a cunningly devised fable. They take the truth that Jesus is true man and then say that the early Christian Church made Jesus larger than he ever was in life so that he’s a legend. They look at Jesus’ masterful teaching, exemplary lifestyle, and
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Pastor Tim Patoka
Last Sunday of Epiphany: Transfiguration February 23, 2020 loving words and then command us to live in such a way because that’s the only way we can get on God’s good side or enter heaven. We ourselves can question if Jesus truly is the Son of God who is able to do all things. Think back to how you felt when that tragedy came upon you or that unexpected bill sent you into a stressful spiral or when that trusted person left you high and dry. Did you wonder where Jesus and his comforting presence was? Or what about the sins we repented of earlier in our service? Do we still feel guilt from them even though they are surely forgiven? Are we already struggling to leave those sins behind us in the past? Might we too wonder if some things about Jesus aren’t a cunningly devised fable? There are indeed lots of voices out that would say so. But we know who Jesus truly is. As we’ve seen this past Epiphany season, Jesus is the real deal. And to drive that point even deeper home, we have the Transfiguration account before us. As Peter wrote in our verses, “we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when the voice came to him from within the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’” (2 Peter 1:16b-17) Jesus is much more than true man. He is also true God and as such has received majesty, honor, and glory from God the Father himself. As the Father said at his Son’s baptism, this Jesus is his only-begotten Son. He has a divine identity. Jesus is not the black sheep of the family, someone you’re ashamed to be related to. In fact, it is the opposite. The Father is proud to acknowledge his Son because he loves him and is well pleased in him. As such, Jesus is God’s glorious Son. As we mark at the end of our worship service with our Farewell To Alleluia, we will soon enter the season of Lent. It is on this Lenten journey that we see why God the Father is well pleased with his Son. Now I won’t get into too many details since we have still have all of Lent ahead of us, but it all comes together at the cross. It is there with Jesus’ perfect self-sacrifice that our sins were paid for and forgiveness made ours. It is there that not only is the Father well pleased, but we who look at the cross with the eyes of faith and walk away in somber joy. For we remember that Jesus is our glorious Savior. When we look at the mount of transfiguration, we see Jesus as he truly is – God’s glorious Son and our glorious Savior. And that matters. Because to say that Jesus is something less is to call God the Father a liar. It scuttles our Christian hope of the forgiveness we now have and the heavenly home we will have. Because Jesus’ divine identity matters so much, we therefore ought to reject every false 2
Pastor Tim Patoka
Last Sunday of Epiphany: Transfiguration February 23, 2020 teaching that says otherwise no matter how cunningly devised or popular it may be. We also ought to guard our hearts from internal threats. To remind ourselves that God’s promises are as true as Jesus’ divine identity, even when it doesn’t seem that way. To realize that we live in a sinful world with a sinful nature and as such we will struggle to live as his children. Yet throughout this all, we have the assurance that Jesus is God’s glorious Son and our glorious Savior. 2) We Have God’s Trustworthy Word And we know this to be true because we have God’s trustworthy Word. The Apostle Peter tells us so with these words, “We also have the completely reliable prophetic word….since we know this above all else: No prophecy of Scripture comes about from someone’s own interpretation. In fact, no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were being carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:19a, 20-21) Another name for the Bible is God’s Word because it has a divine origin. God is its author who used many human hands to write down its words. This was done through God the Holy Spirit who carried the human writers to record what he wanted to be there and nothing else. Thinking back to your confirmation days, we call this the teaching of verbal inspiration. And as we progress in history and science, we only confirm the truth that is already present in God’s Word. It’s for these reasons we too can call the Bible the completely reliable prophetic word as Peter did. But you know that not everyone agrees with this. Rather, we see how people come up with a number of not-so-cunningly devised fables about the Bible’s trustworthiness by starting off with a lie and then forcing it into the Bible. They say that the Bible contains God’s Word, but you have to sift out the human ideas first. Ideas that came about when a copyist got lazy or added in their two cents which they passed off as God’s Word. Ideas that were true for the 1st century, but not anymore. So they need to be removed before we can interpret God’s Word for our modern age. A number go so far as to say that the Bible is entirely man’s word about God. Prophecies were written after the fact or details were made up. That the Bible is no different than any other religion’s holy book and therefore has no universal authority or objective truth. That it only matters to those who follow the Christian faith tradition. As with the lies claiming Jesus to be something less than God’s glorious Son, so we need not entertain these delusional ideas about the Bible. For we know that this book and all it says is worthy of our trust. For one, we are sure that we have what the original human writers wrote. No other ancient document has so 3
Pastor Tim Patoka
Last Sunday of Epiphany: Transfiguration February 23, 2020 many copies in so many different areas of the world so soon after the original autographs were published. Scholars the world over agree that what we have in the Bible is almost entirely what the original human writers wrote. In addition to having the right words, we also trust the Bible because it proves itself to be true. As you read from Genesis to Revelation, you see firsthand how God the Holy Spirit carried the human writers along to keep the underlying focus on Christ. There are specific prophecies about future people, places, and events and references back to obscure prophecies that are too coincidental to be chance. You also have God the Holy Spirit simultaneously working through this Word to deepen our trust in this Word. But if that weren’t enough, we also have God claiming this Word to be his own and warning anyone from adding to or subtracting from it. Because this is God’s Word, we know that what it says is true no matter how impossible it may be or how many people say otherwise. As such, we can say with the Apostle Peter that, “We…have the completely reliable prophetic word.” (2 Peter 1:19a) Or to say it in another way, we have God’s trustworthy Word which assures that Jesus is both God’s glorious Son and our glorious Savior. We have Jesus in a number of ways these past two months during the Epiphany season. Yet of them all, this Sunday’s transfigured appearance is the most glorious. For we see that Jesus is nothing less than God’s glorious Son and our glorious Savior as assured to us in God’s trustworthy Word. And as Peter encouraged his original audience to do so almost 2,000 years ago, so would we “do well to pay attention to [this Word], as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1:19b) We live in a world darkened by sin. The only place we find a light in this depraved darkness is in God’s Word. Pay attention to what it says. Never lose your conviction in who Jesus truly is, God’s glorious Son who gave up his life to be our glorious Savior. Know that this Bible is the place to find God’s truth in a world that’s full of alternative facts and false teachings. And remain in it until we see Jesus one last time ushering in a light-filled eternity with him in heaven as the morning star and dawn surely signal the coming of a new day. Amen.
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