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Breaking News from a Source You Can Trust!
A sermon based on 2 Peter 1:16-21
Sunday, April 11, 2010 -- Easter 2C
Did you hear the breaking news? An 11th commandment has recently been discovered! Seriously. A fragment of stone ten inches long and one and a half inches deep was located in an archaeological dig at Mount Horeb, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. The inscription of the fragment reads, "All these things spoken of thou shall not covet, but be aware that thou mayest covet they neighbors's sister-in-law, they neighbor's friends and thy neighbor's camel."
Where did I get this information, you ask? Well, it wasn't from Biblical Archaeological Review. Nor was it from the Seminary. I actually saw it in the checkout line at the Food Lion. It was right there in the Sun. Along with an article that describes the government's cover-up of alien visits for the last couple of centuries (there's a picture here), one on a miracle pill that will allow anyone to live to 100, and another bout a vacuum that you can strap on your back and has such strong suction you can use it to climb walls just like Spiderman.
Okay, so maybe there isn't really an 11th commandment. The source of the news may not be most reliable. I admit it.
So, how do you know what to believe and what to dismiss as pure fiction? So many hoaxes are presented as fact. Is there any source you can really trust? And how about Easter? How do we know that Jesus really rose from the dead? After all, I wasn't there. I know some of you are a bit older than me, but I still don't think any of you were there either. So how can we be so sure? How do we know it's not another just another hoax like Bigfoot, the Lochness Monster, and Bat Boy?
The truth is, that if you listen to any religion, you are bound to hear about incredible things. The Mormons recount Joseph Smith's miraculous translating of the book of Mormon, Muslims tell of the miracles of Mohammad, and Buddhists inform of the supernatural events in the life of Buddha. Many today would throw Jesus and his resurrection into the same category of being nothing more than a cleverly invented story. After all, these things all happened so long ago. And none of us were there.Where did I get this information, you ask? Well, it wasn't from Biblical Archaeological Review. Nor was it from the Seminary. I actually saw it in the checkout line at the Food Lion. It was right there in the Sun. Along with an article that describes the government's cover-up of alien visits for the last couple of centuries (there's a picture here), one on a miracle pill that will allow anyone to live to 100, and another bout a vacuum that you can strap on your back and has such strong suction you can use it to climb walls just like Spiderman.
Okay, so maybe there isn't really an 11th commandment. The source of the news may not be most reliable. I admit it.
So, how do you know what to believe and what to dismiss as pure fiction? So many hoaxes are presented as fact. Is there any source you can really trust? And how about Easter? How do we know that Jesus really rose from the dead? After all, I wasn't there. I know some of you are a bit older than me, but I still don't think any of you were there either. So how can we be so sure? How do we know it's not another just another hoax like Bigfoot, the Lochness Monster, and Bat Boy?
But Peter wants to make sure that the resurrection of Jesus is distinguished from mythology, fable or urban legend. He wants us to know without a shadow of doubt that this is news we can believe, from a source we can trust. First he says it's news from actual eyewitnesses. This is what he wrote in 2 Peter 1:16-18...
I. It's Eyewitnesses News!
16We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." 18We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
Peter wants us to be sure that he knows what he saw. He saw Jesus glory. He heard the voice of God the Father. At Transfiguration of Jesus, Peter was an eyewitness of his majesty. When he spoke of miracles he saw or of the resurrection of Jesus, he wasn't following cleverly invented stories out of the tabloids. He was recounting what he saw with his own two eyes, what he heard with his own two ears, and what he himself experienced.
Now I want you to think about that for a minute. Can Peter really be trusted? I mean, maybe he made up this cleverly invented story. Maybe he convinced the other disciples to go along with the lie. After all, that's what many so-called scholars and professors would have us believe today. But consider that suggestion for a minute. Why would Peter make it up?
No reason to make such a story up. Certain that he saw it.
Now I want you to think about that for a minute. Can Peter really be trusted? I mean, maybe he made up this cleverly invented story. Maybe he convinced the other disciples to go along with the lie. After all, that's what many so-called scholars and professors would have us believe today. But consider that suggestion for a minute. Why would Peter make it up?
No reason to make such a story up. Certain that he saw it.
What did he have to gain by making up Christ's resurrection? Some fame? Some glory? But what he actually did gain was persecution, torture, and finally crucifixion. And all of that could have prevented if he'd simply admitted, "Okay, okay, I'm kidding. There was no resurrection." It's one thing to make up a fictional story to sell an entertaining paper in the grocery store checkout line. It's quite another to be willing to endure torture and death to back the story you made up. If the story's made up, how do you explain the change of the disciples from hiding behind locked doors to boldly proclaiming, "Do whatever you want to us! We won't keep quiet!" "We must obey God rather than man." (Acts 5:29)
And there's plenty of other evidence to consider: For example, if the disciples made it all up, why include such embarassing details about themselves? Why make up a story where they looked like dim-witted, uncaring, rebuked, and doubting cowards? Falling asleep when asked to watch, running away scared at Jesus' arrest, denying that they knew him, refusing to believe in the resurrection even after it had been witnessed and reported to them, certainly doesn't leave them looking like the heroes? Would you make up a story that made you look like such an idiot?
If they made the story up, why invent such details of Eater as to make the story less credible? For example: Why make up that Joseph of Arimathea, and not the disciples, took the body of Jesus to give it a proper burial? Why have the women -- who weren't even considered reliable testimony in a court of Jewish law in that culture -- be the first to witness his resurrection? Why have one of them be a woman who they admit was once demon possessed? And there's plenty of other evidence to consider: For example, if the disciples made it all up, why include such embarassing details about themselves? Why make up a story where they looked like dim-witted, uncaring, rebuked, and doubting cowards? Falling asleep when asked to watch, running away scared at Jesus' arrest, denying that they knew him, refusing to believe in the resurrection even after it had been witnessed and reported to them, certainly doesn't leave them looking like the heroes? Would you make up a story that made you look like such an idiot?
And if the resurrection were just some cleverly invented fiction, how could the apostle Paul challenge his readers to go check the facts? In 1 Corinthians 15(:6) he writes, "[The resurrected Jesus] appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living," as if to say, "Don't believe me? Go ask any of the hundreds of other people who saw him alive too!" Why make such a bold challenge if you knew you made the story up?
Okay, so perhaps they believed what they saw, but they were hallucinating. But how often are hallucinations shared by 500 people?! You don't say to a friend, "Hey, remember that dream we had last night?" No! Dreams and hallucinations aren't shared by two people, let alone 500! Did Peter and the apostles follow cleverly invented stories when they wrote about Jesus? Of course not! C.S. Lewis, a writer of myths himself, summed it all when he said, "All I am in private life is a literary critic and historian, that's my job. And I'm prepared to say on that basis that if anyone thinks the Gospels are either legends or novels, then that person is simply showing his incompetence as a literary critic."
Jesus resurrection from the dead, is not based on myths and legends. No. It's eyewitness news! It's news you can trust with coverage you can count on. But are Peter and the other eyewitnesses all we can rely on? Do we have to just take their word for it? Are they our best source? Not really. And Peter admits as much. He says there is much better evidence by far. He goes in verses 19-21...
II. With Coverage You Can Count On!
19And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Let's face it. Eyewitnesses aren't always reliable. After all, if the risen Jesus appeared to me, I'd likely go get a CAT scan or a PET scan or whatever scan you get to find out if you're going crazy. But we have something even more reliable than our own eyewitness! "We have the word of the prophets made more certain." It's more certain to us, than it was even to the prophets themselves because we've seen its fulfillment!
Hundreds of years before the events took place, the prophets wrote about Jesus' virgin birth in Bethlehem! They wrote about his ministry around Galilee, about his miracles he would perform, about the Holy Spirit descending on him at his baptism, about his entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, about his betrayal for 30 pieces of silver! They wrote about how he would be hung on a tree, how his hands and his feet would be pierced, how his clothes would be gambled over, about how his side would be pierced so no bone would be broken!
And they prophesied about the resurrection. Go home and read Peter's sermon in Acts 2 where he preaches on Psalm 16, where King David wrote, "You will not let your Holy One see decay." "Of course David wasn't talking about himself," Peter says, "David is dead! He did see decay! But he was talking Jesus! And look how it all came true!"
How could David have known? Maybe he didn't. But the Holy Spirit did! Peter says, "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." Like a ship hoists the sails and lets the wind drive it, so the authors let the Spirit drive them in what they wrote.
And we have as much evidence for the inspiration of the Bible as we do for the validity of the eyewitness accounts! Besides the overwhelming evidence of prophecy and fulfillment, we know that after 2000 years of people trying, no one has ever been able to find an error. There are no irreconcilable problems with the text; not a one that can't be reconciled. On top of that, there's the complete unity of the Bible.
Remember, the Bible isn't one book as many suppose, but is really a compilation of 66 different books. And those 66 different books were written in 3 different languages by over 40 different authors over a period of 1,500 years. (Obviously there could have been no collaboration.) And yet, there is complete agreement in all details of the one, single, unified storyline and theme. Can the Bible be trusted! Absolutely! - Did Jesus rise! You can be certain! You can trust the source!
Hundreds of years before the events took place, the prophets wrote about Jesus' virgin birth in Bethlehem! They wrote about his ministry around Galilee, about his miracles he would perform, about the Holy Spirit descending on him at his baptism, about his entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, about his betrayal for 30 pieces of silver! They wrote about how he would be hung on a tree, how his hands and his feet would be pierced, how his clothes would be gambled over, about how his side would be pierced so no bone would be broken!
And they prophesied about the resurrection. Go home and read Peter's sermon in Acts 2 where he preaches on Psalm 16, where King David wrote, "You will not let your Holy One see decay." "Of course David wasn't talking about himself," Peter says, "David is dead! He did see decay! But he was talking Jesus! And look how it all came true!"
How could David have known? Maybe he didn't. But the Holy Spirit did! Peter says, "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." Like a ship hoists the sails and lets the wind drive it, so the authors let the Spirit drive them in what they wrote.
And we have as much evidence for the inspiration of the Bible as we do for the validity of the eyewitness accounts! Besides the overwhelming evidence of prophecy and fulfillment, we know that after 2000 years of people trying, no one has ever been able to find an error. There are no irreconcilable problems with the text; not a one that can't be reconciled. On top of that, there's the complete unity of the Bible.
Remember, the Bible isn't one book as many suppose, but is really a compilation of 66 different books. And those 66 different books were written in 3 different languages by over 40 different authors over a period of 1,500 years. (Obviously there could have been no collaboration.) And yet, there is complete agreement in all details of the one, single, unified storyline and theme. Can the Bible be trusted! Absolutely! - Did Jesus rise! You can be certain! You can trust the source!
III. It's News We Can Use!
So what's the big deal? So what if bat boy were real? Who really cares? And so what if Easter is real and Jesus really did rise from the dead? How does that help? Easter makes all the difference, friends! Or as one of our local news stations advertises, Easter is really "News you can use!" Right Now! Let's back up a bit in the chapter to see why Peter makes such a big deal out of Easter. He writes:
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness... he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may... escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires... For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ... you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." That's why he says, right before our text: "I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live..."
Easter is crucial because Christ's resurrection assures you that your sins are indeed forgiven. You are forgiven even for your doubt and your unbelief and those times you chalked Jesus up to being nothing more than a myth or a legend and for the times we've acted like Jesus was dead and not alive and present watching your every action, hearing your every word, and knowing your every thought. Just as Peter was forgiven for denying his Savior, so you too, are forgiven for denying him every time you've chosen to sin. Easter assures you that you have forgiveness and peace with God. In short, you have all you need for eternal life!
And that's news we can use! Now we can live as if Jesus were alive because he is! We can escape the corruption caused by evil desires. We can be effective and productive in our Christian lives! We'll never fall, but instead "will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," the same kingdom that Peter is enjoying right now! And of that we can be absolutely certain! For it's news from a source we can trust: From eyewitnesses who saw the risen Savior and from the Scriptures inspired by the Holy Spirit! It's coverage we can count on! And it's news we can use every day of our lives until we go to glory! In Jesus' name, amen.
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