Today’s Scripture

Psalm 2:6-12   Exodus 24:8-18           2 Peter 1:16-21           Matthew 17:1-9

 

2 Peter 1:20-21 

            Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.  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.”

 

            We have been watching the presidential campaigns for some months now.  As we watch these candidates, how important the words they speak are.  Each candidate has very moving and inspiring speeches.  Even those who pull out of the running have inspirational presentations.  How important words are!  How powerful words can be!

 

            That is why we are gathered together today, the power of words.  We are here to hear God’s word.  Each week different verses of Scripture we read bring the messages and emotions to the people.  Each week the different hymns bring us comfort, encouragement, tears and joy as they carry the messages in God’s word to us and through us to others.  Each week the liturgies we follow carry God’s word into our lives as we sing and speak back to him the words in Scripture he has given us to know, believe, and hold dear in our hearts and minds and lives.  We confess our faith in creeds that state the apostles’ teachings in God’s word.  We join hearts and voices together in the Lord’s Prayer, words Jesus has given us to call upon our heavenly father at any and all times.    Baptism and the Lord’s Supper would be meaningless rituals and would hold no power in them if the water and the bread and wine were not joined with God’s command and word.  With God’s command and word they bring us God’s grace, the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting.

 

            On different occasions God spoke directly and in many and various ways to his people as we read in Hebrews.   The Bible Study groups studying “Heroes of the Faith” see how God spoke to Samuel, not just that one night in the temple, but throughout his life as priest and prophet to God’s people.  When the Israelites were in the wilderness Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abiyu and seventy elders went up on the mount and saw the God of Israel.  They ate and drank with God.  There was no doubt among them who God is.  Moses then stayed 40 days and nights as God gave him his words for the people to follow.  God’s word came as a covenant, his promise in his word, to his people.

 

            Three times we hear God speak in the Gospels.  The first is at Jesus’ baptism.  The second when Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify your name,” God answered, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again!”  [John 12:28].  The third time is at the transfiguration.  God states again that Jesus is his son and he is pleased with him.  Today at the transfiguration he adds, “Listen to him.”  Jesus’ words have our Heavenly Father’s authority and power.

 

            A he writes this letter, Peter is older and is near the end of his life.  Both of his letters express his deep concern that his hearers study the Word and adhere closely to it.  In this second letter he warns about false prophets who will attempt to mislead Christians.  There are false prophets attempting the same thing today which is why God speaks to us through Peter as he does.  Peter is writing to us today as we see and hear the various myths and misrepresentations of God’s word.  They debunk Scripture as a myth, much like the false religions throughout time.  The accounts God gives us to have faith in his love to us are changed to fit the imaginations and understandings of men. Instead, from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21 is God’s plan of salvation for his people.  Many people refuse to believe that God’s word is nothing but the message of his wondrous love through the almighty things he has done, still does, and will do at the end of created time.

 

            Peter recalls the day that he and the other disciples were with Jesus.  The way he writes this indicates that the account of the transfiguration was well known, but being spoken against.  The disciples also witnessed first-hand the miracles and teaching.  They were not alone as thousands witnessed these same miracles and teachings.  Four and five thousand at a time were fed miraculously.  The soldiers who witnessed the resurrection verified what they saw and what the temple leaders did to suppress their witness.  Over five hundred saw the risen Lord at one time as recorded by Paul in 1 Corinthians. 

 

            Throughout John 14, 15 and 16 Jesus repeated again and again that He would send the Holy Spirit who would remind them of everything Jesus said and would lead them into all truth.  Luke records in chapter 24 how Jesus opened the minds of the disciples after the resurrection so they would understand why Jesus had to suffer and die, and to understand the prophecies of all of this in Moses, the Psalms and the prophets.  That is Peter’s statement that the words of the prophets are made more certain in Jesus.

 

            Today we hear God champion his son on the mount. Peter and James and John witnessed Jesus in heavenly glory with Moses and Elijah.  Peter reminds us that none of this nor anything else in Scripture was ever made up by men, but “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit [v. 21].  Paul writes to Timothy that all of Scripture is “God breathed,” [2 Timothy 3:16].  We know that God inspired each writer to write only the words God gave him.  Therefore we know these two concepts about Scripture; verbal inspiration and inerrancy.  Each single word in the original manuscripts is God’s word alone.  There are no errors in those original manuscripts.  Throughout time and all of the various translations and copying, mistakes are made by sinful men.  But the truth of God’s love and his plan for salvation for all people through Jesus Christ has been maintained by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

            God’s word is the source of all power.  He created by his word.  He gives us his commands through his word.  He instructs us of his undying love to us in his word.  Jesus Christ is his word made flesh to save us.  It is through hearing this word that we have faith and are saved.  We are here to teach this word to all nations until Christ comes again [Matthew 28].  And by the grace of God, his word of his love to us, his plan of salvation to us, has maintained and will until Christ comes again as Jesus promised, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” [Matthew 24:14].

 

            Word power – in Jesus’ undying  love.  Amen.