I. Introduction
II. Context of 2 Peter 1:16-21
A. Peter begins the letter by encouraging his readers to develop a life spiritual excellence that reflects God’s glory.
- The exhortation is based on Peter’s assertion that the power of Jesus has given Christians everything that has to do with life and godliness.
- Life: how to live holy and useful lives to the glory of God.
- Godliness: moving towards God in our thoughts, actions, and relationship with Him
- Reading the list we find that Jesus does not call us to a life focused on happiness or prosperity, but in having faith, integrity, virtue, endurance, self0contro, kindness, and selfless love.
B. Peter then establishes that this call is based on the reality of the glorified Christ and the validity of God’s revealed word.
III. The Messenger
A. Peter argues that the message about the power and coming of Jesus was not a well-crafted tale but a historical account of a real person.
- “We did not follow cleverly devised myths”
- Peter’s first letter was written to believers spread throughout the world who may or may not have lived in Judea or Galilee during the time of Christ; likely they did not.
- The Greeks had many fantastic tales of demi-gods, children produced by relations between Greek deities and humans, who had superhuman abilities.
Achilles was supposedly the son of the goddess Thetis and Peleus, king of Myrmidons.
Helen of Troy’s beauty was the product of relations between the Greek God Zeus and Leda, the queen of Sparta
Hercules, renowned for his tales of strength, was supposedly the son of Zeus and the woman Alcmene.
These gods and demi-gods were caught up in political strife, plotting, pettiness, and were often at war with one another. They were not examples of high morals or selflessness.
These tales, crafted over centuries were complex and attempted to explain many things about life, but no one had ever seen any of the gods or demi-gods.
- Peter and the other apostles and many early believers could testify to the reality of Jesus.
- “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty”
- Peter was one of the first apostles (Mark 1:16-17; Luke 5:1-22, and John 1:33-42) and one of the closest to Jesus who witnessed most of the miracles.
- Specifically, Peter references the glorification of Jesus in the transfiguration, 17-18.
Transfiguration – when something completely changes in form and appearance
Peter is referencing an event recorded in Matt 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9.
Read Matthew 17:1-9
Consider what Peter, James, and John experienced:
They saw Jesus physically changed, glowing in the brightness of glory.
They saw Moses and Elijah, who they only knew because of what they read in the scriptures, standing before Jesus. The Old Law, personified by Moses the lawgiver and Elijah the greatest of the prophets, approving of Jesus and His work.
They actually heard the voice of God the Father from heaven and His approving testimony of His Son Jesus.
Peter testifies that they saw the majesty of Jesus for themselves and they were sharing with all men the message of Jesus.
- Eyewitness testimony is a powerful thing; our justice system prizes validated eyewitness testimony highly.
Consider the strength of the eyewitness testimony of the apostles.
Most conspiracies fail when someone confesses the truth, usually when they are about to be killed or suffer greatly for trying to protect a lie.
According to early Christian testimonies all of the apostles but John were killed for preaching the reality of Jesus and His message.
Peter himself anticipated his violent death was coming soon, according to verses 13-14, according to the prophetic promise of Jesus recorded in John 21:18-19.
They and the early believers died for their faith because they knew the reality of Jesus Christ, His miraculous powers, and His resurrection.
But as great as their testimony and the demonstration that they were trustworthy, Peter pointed to another testimony upon which they could build their faith and life.
IV. The confirmed message
A. “We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed”
- There are generally two ways prophecy is confirmed:
- In the immediate circumstance of the prophecy, the messengers sometimes performed miracles to demonstrate that their message was from God.
In Exodus 6-12, the message of Moses is accompanied by powerful miracles that are a testimony to the Israelites that God has sent Him and to Pharaoh that Moses is bringing the message of the all-powerful God.
Elijah and Elisha’s prophecies are accompanied by great miraculous signs.
In Matthew 10:1, the apostles are given miraculous powers to accompany their message.
- The greatest testimony is when the thing that is prophesied comes to pass.
Deuteronomy 18:18-22 – test of the prophet
In the Old Testament, false prophets brought false hope to people and encouraged their wickedness, but their promises of God’s care were not fulfilled.
The Old Testament prophecies of Jesus and the church were fulfilled as prophesied.
Many were very detailed, not generic statements that modern day deceivers try to pass as prophecy. And some were out of His control as a man.
The place of his birth, the small city of Bethlehem, prophesied in Micah 5:2.
That he would be crucified as a criminal and soldiers would cast lots for His garments, recorded in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22:16-18.
Prophecies of the church and Jesus such as Isaiah 2:1-5.
I especially like the Isaiah prophecies of Jesus, which are many and detailed, because skeptics used to argue that the Old Testament prophecies were changed to fit the life of Jesus.
However, the famous Isaiah Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls is dated to at least 100 years before Christ was born.
First, that scroll could not have been changed to match the fulfilled events.
Secondly, though it is 1,000 years separated from what was previously the oldest known copy of Isaiah, the two texts are consistent with one another reflecting the care that scribes had over thousands of years in preserving the word of God accurately.
- Because of the trustworthiness of the word, Peter urges them to pay attention to the word as one would focus on the light shining from a lamp in a dark place.
- God’s word is the only beacon of holiness and truth in a dark, confusing, and deceitful world.
- We cannot treat God’s word casually, but must give it our attention and live its message.
B. The message is the word God gave directly to men
- The reason the prophecies are confirmed and we can trust the word is that God gave it to us.
- Peter first states that no Scripture came from man’s intelligence.
- People often err interpreting this passage to say that no one can interpret the message of God or understand it. That contradicts what he has said before and will continue to say in this letter, specifically that God’s word is our guide to navigate around false teaching.
False prophets, by being informed of current events, political alliances, and the mood of the people, could come up with what they thought God might do and pretend to be a prophet.
However, the true prophets often spoke of things that didn’t seem possible at the time, such as predicting the Babylonian invasion when Babylon was still a second rate power.
- Peter is saying that no prophecy in scripture was a revelation of the mind of a man but was the mind of God revealed through men.
In verse 21, Peter literally says that the word is God-breathed. Just as God breathed life into dust and Adam came to life, God breathed His word into life through inspiring men like Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many others to reveal His message.
Likewise, Jesus taught the apostles His word, the message of the Father, and gave them the Holy Spirit to help them remember and understand it after He returned to the Father in heaven after His resurrection, John 16:5-15.
V. We, like Peter’s readers, can confidently build our lives on the word of Jesus and the apostles because we have the testimony of reliable eyewitnesses and a word that has been proven true time and again.
A. We must beware of the threat of false prophets and teachers who warp God’s word
- 2 Peter 2:1-3: They exploit men with false words and their lives of greed and sensuality contradict the life of holiness taught by Jesus.
- Peter further describes their arrogant and ignorant teachings and unholy lives in verses 4-15
- Ultimately, they turn people back to the filth of the world, v.18-20.