“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention has to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Holding Firm Through God’s Proof

1. Proof in Seeing
2. Proof in Truth and Spirit
3. Proof in Prophetic Fulfilment

As a recap, we’ve covered a list of faith supplementing qualities, virtues or fruits that grow in the believer and serve as confirmation of one’s calling (faith supplemented with virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love). We covered the importance of not becoming forgetful, but repeating and focusing on these attributes. Peter addresses the fact that, imprisoned and with short time left in the flesh he would continue to stir up and remind his fellow believers of these things, so that they may be recalled at any time after his passing.

Point 1 – Proof in Seeing

At the start of today’s passage there’s a new subheading in my bible, “Christ’s Glory and the Prophetic Word.” Peter doesn’t change the subject, it seems to me that he just steers the ship more directly toward the purpose for all of this by offering validation for the truth and glory of Jesus. Verse 16 seems to convey, “we’re not trying to deceive or fool you here, we saw this, we lived it. There is no smoke, no mirrors here, only Truth.” With the goal of pointing to Christ’s glory and validating His legitimacy Peter had a wealth of personal examples to pull from. He witnessed miracles upon miracles alongside the other apostles, loaves and fishes, healing of leprosy, the banishment of demons, any of these would have made his point. He was one of the few to see the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter firsthand, and he was called out onto the water and (before a brief crisis of faith, which I can deeply sympathize with), walked on the waves to Jesus. However, it’s not lost on me that the example he gives is the transfiguration and the significance of this. Another miracle that he was one of the few to bear witness to, he sees Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah, sees God’s glory manifested physically in Jesus, his face shining (I’m assuming similarly to how Moses’s did after spending time speaking directly with God), and his clothes glowing with unearthly radiance. He also witnessed here, along with this transformation of Jesus and seeing him conversing with two of the most significant historical figures of their faith, God manifested in the cloud. Like He did during the Exodus, or when among His people in the tent of meeting, God physically manifested Himself in their presence – but Peter doesn’t address this either. There are so many things he could have gone into here, but what was important, what was validating to our mission, what his personal proof was, was that he witnessed God’s voice from heaven speak and bestow honor and glory onto Jesus, fully endorsing the life and work of His “beloved son.” There’s a reminder here for me. We serve the Living God. He is amazing and unknowable, incomprehensibly vast in His love and wrath, mercy, and execution of judgement. He is worthy of all praise and fully deserving of awe. But here’s a reminder to not get lost in the grandness that is so far beyond our comprehension and remember the message prepared for us – Jesus is God and through Him in His perfect death and resurrection we are offered salvation.

The world won’t take a personal account as proof of anything, but reading Peter’s reference to his personal experience immediately made me think of Romans 1: 18-20 (18 and 19 more for context, but 20 in particular).

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

God’s existence and His glory are there for any with eyes to see. While the personal testimony of anyone merits referencing against biblical Truth to confirm its legitimacy, it can’t be discounted or cast as irrelevant simply because it’s personal or firsthand.

Point 2 – Proof in Truth and Spirit

So what could be confirmation beyond witnessing the transfiguration? We’re pointed to the prophetic word, “to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.” This immediately made me think to the parable of the lamp under a basket in Matthew 5:15-16

“Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

And Mark 4:21-22

“And he said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’”

Similar to Romans 1:20 speaking to God’s proof through creation and the miraculous, natural world He built around us, this points us toward validation of the Spirit, its pervasive truth. No one seeks knowledge or understanding in the dark. The prophetic word is as “a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts…” There is full enlightenment coming. There is true comprehension and proper, eternal worship ahead, but in the darkness of the world we are given, to look to and meditate on the prophetic word.

Point 3 – Proof in Prophetic Fulfilment

I see this next section of text as further validation of the mission and message of the Gospel, but also a caution. We have been given a lamp shining into dark places, we have been filled with a Spirit of truth and light to shine before others – but before we become too enamored with the vessel and forget that it is the light being produced that matters, remember: “… knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Like in the verse cited before from Matthew 5, “…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” We can’t lose sight in doing the work of the Father through the Spirit that it’s not about us. This beautiful, prophetic word didn’t come from man, so we can’t get hung up on  ourselves as messengers but must remember the message. 

And concerning the validation given by the prophetic word as it relates directly toward Peter’s letter, it seemed appropriate to me to cite examples of fulfilled prophecy, seeing this passage as going from personal proof to spiritual proof to historical proof. I first thought about googling, “fulfilled biblical prophecy” and I assume it would have spit out pages and pages of cross referenced verses, but then I realized it felt proper to pull from what I already know – what God has shown me through my time in his word. As a disclaimer, I did have to look up where most of these verses referenced to. As an example, I remembered that Jesus’s time in Egypt as a child (cited as prophetic fulfilment in Matthew 2:15), was fulfilment of prophecy concerning Christ, but I didn’t know where in the Old Testament this prophecy took place.

Matthew 1 and the genealogy of Jesus, paralleling to Genesis 49:9-10, “Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”

And 2 Samuel 7:12-13, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

Matthew 2:15 (mentioned above) and Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

Matthew 21:4-5 and Luke 19:28-40 and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem fulfilling Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

John 19:36-37, “For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ’Not one of his bones will be broken.’ And again another Scripture says, ‘They will look on him whom they have pierced.’” to fulfill Exodus 12:46, “It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.”

And Numbers 9:12, “They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any of its bones; according to all the statute for the Passover they shall keep it.” Concerning the Passover lamb.

A short aside here, I was struck during a bible study I did recently where Passover and the parallels of the sacrificial lamb and Jesus were discussed, that the instructions are very specific: The lamb is to be fully consumed in a single event and whatever is left burned in the morning. Jesus’s sacrifice wasn’t partial, it wasn’t broken up into phases. There was nothing saved for later. He shouldered the burden and conquered death and sin all at once.

Picking up where I left off with John 19:

Zecheriah 12:10, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”

And finally the prophecy from Daniel 7:13-14, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.” And Jesus claiming and fulfilling the title of Son of Man throughout the Gospels.

These may not be the most cohesive passages to cite side by side, but they all point to the same thing: Jesus is God, the fulfilment of God’s promised covenant and his proof is abundant

Pastor Chris’s sermon on this section of text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAn9NsOMKqY