Putting in Mind

Fitchburg Nazarene Church

November 20, 2016

Rev. Charles W. Pendleton, Jr.

(These are the Pastor’s notes. He may have said more which is not noted here. He could have ignored certain portions of these notes in our actual service.)

READ:

2 Peter 1:12-21

12So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.13I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body,14because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.15And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

16For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.17He 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.”b18We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

19We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, 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 of things.21For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Now, I know that I took a long time talking about the first 11 verses of this chapter – it took two sermons to cover those verses.

But here in the very beginning of our passage this morning, Peter refers back twice to things he covered within the first 11 verses.

In Vs 12 he says,

“I will always remind you of these things”

& in Vs15 he says,

“… you will always be able to remember these things.”

What was he referencing back to???

Namely:

Our Faith, and that which springs out of it…

Godliness (which Peter says should be expressed in increasing measures of Christlike characteristics by Christians)…

Goodness

Knowledge

Self-control

Perseverance

Godliness

Mutual affection

Love

Putting in Mind “The Things of Faith”

Peter stated in Vs 13-14 that:

13I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body,14because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

In other words,

Peter feels that even though “according to Vs 12” he knows that they already knew these things – and even though he knew they were firmly established in this truth – Peter still thinks that being reminded of these things is a good thing.

In fact, he intends (according to Vs 15) to make certain that even after his death, that he will have established the means whereby they would continue to be reminded of these things.

I love what John Calvin said about the reminders that Peter was making here in this chapter.

"In matters of such importance reminders can never be superfluous; wherefore they should never be troublesome" (Calvin).

WE NEED ALL THE REMINDERS WE CAN GET, HERE IN THIS MATTER.

Story of:

Married couple reminding each other about things.

She reminds him because (according to her) he is forgetful. She is doing him a favor.

If he reminds her she gets put out because, after all; she doesn’t need reminding. But the truth of the matter is – the heart intent of the husband was just as pure as the wife’s’ – he knows we’re all human, and didn’t want her to miss whatever the “reminder” was about.

In this example – the wife should take John Calvin’s advice.

Feeling the importance of “these things”, Peter thought it right to tell them the same things again and again, therebyto stir them up, i.e., to “putting in mind” these precious things.

It is important to enlarge the circle of human knowledge - to get new thoughts, new facts, new combinations of facts; but it is a thousand times more important to have the complete realization of one or two things that we know.

Even with those who knew and were established Peter laboured, by reiteration, to stir them up - to give them a deeper impression of a few simple gospel truths.

The apostles were not to live always; so God saw to the important things being put down in a permanent form in the New Testament. Peter, now an old man, was to die swiftly; so, as the servant of God, he was to see to the important things being put down in writing, that, as occasion arose, they might be able to call them clearly to mind.

PUTTING IN MINDthe subject of The Second Coming of Christ Jesus.

Peter was convinced of the certainty of the 2ndcoming of Jesus Christ.

And for good reason!

He lays out those reasons here in verses 16 thru 18.

Peter goes back here to The Transfiguration.

You see, this was one of the KEY shared experiences that Peter had with Jesus – AND IT BLEW HIM OUT OF THE WATER!!!!

There are two important points to be noticed here.

In the first place, Peter, writing in the name of the other apostles,declaresthat they were careful in what they admitted into the historical basis of their religion.

They thought that putting forwardcunningly devised fables- stories without foundation in reality, cleverly concocted, so as to impose on the ignorant, and to keep up the influence of the priesthood or the false teachers – was wrong, and they wouldn’t do it.

Contrary to concocting a story; they were careful toexcludeall mythical elements, and to admit only well-established fact.

In the secondplace, Peter and the other apostles made known unto the persons addressed the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter begins here with THE event which he witnessed first-hand, along with James and John. - The Transfiguration!

The next exhibition of power was when Christ rose from the dead; its full exhibition was to be at the coming.

But it is true that in this Epistle there is no direct reference to the weakness and death of Christ; this is to be explained by the circumstances in which Peter wrote.

There are times when we need to pass on from the humiliation, and to allow our minds to be occupied with the exaltation. This was one of those occasions for Peter.

Back to The attesting power of the Transfiguration to the coming.

Peter says in this passage – “I have Eye Witness testimony!

Vs. 16

"… Butwe were eye-witnesses of his majesty."

The three who were admitted as witnesses were Peter and James and John: they were admitted, while others were excluded.

What they saw was not Jesus ordinary earthly form, but that form transfigured - what is here called hismajesty.

According to the graphic account of Mark 9:3,

"3His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.”

This remarkable manifestation, which was out of the ordinary course in Christ's earthly life, which was not for the common gaze, testified to the coming, inasmuch as it was to be regarded as the glorifying of Christ beforehand.

It was Christ seen as he was to be after his ascension.

It was Christ as he was afterwards seen by the prisoner of Patmos in his actually glorified condition.

Then there was Peter’s Ear-testimony.

What was heard we read in 2 Peter 1:17

"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.”

The hearing – Vs 18

"We ourselves(Peter, James, & John) heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.”

This helps to emphasize the reality of the voice.

There was no possibility of deception; the voice was heard borne in upon them, borne in from heaven.

There was presentthe condition of three witnesses, by which it is established as a fact.

This also helps toconnectthe thought distinctly with the Transfiguration. The voice was heard when they, the three, were with him in the holy mount - the mount rendered holy(in their hearts & minds) by the association.

3. Putting in Mind - the power of the prophetic Word to the coming.

Vs’s 19-21

We know that Peter has in his mind, the 2nd coming of the Lord Jesus because of the preceding passage which we covered last week.

Vs10b – 11

“For if you do these things(there it is again), you will never stumble,11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Peter states that even though he and James & John are able to attest to the glory & majesty of Jesus – that there is thegreater attesting power of the prophetic Word.

"And we have the Word of prophecy made more sure."

By "the prophetic Word" we are to understand the Bible, with special reference to what it has to say about the future in its connection with Christ.

It must be recognized that a comparison is being instituted.

The comparison is not between the voice from heaven and the prophetic Word, but rather between the Transfiguration (with the accompaniment of the voice) and the prophetic Wordin their attesting power to the second coming.

The fact was significant; but there is greater satisfaction in having definite statements as to Christ's coming.

It is theoldprophetic Word that Peter seems to have in his mind; but we may regard it as clarified and filled up by New Testament statements.

From these statements we can have some conception of what the scene of the 2nd coming will look like.

The Lord descends from his heavenly throne in majesty.

The moment that the Lord descends, the archangel marshals his innumerable host, giving the shout of command with the living voice.

Having marshaled his hosts to move in harmony with the descending Lord, he at a subsequent stage gives another shout of command, this time not with the living voice, but with the trump of God.

At the trumpet-call the dead arise.

The Christian dead, raised with reconstituted bodies, join the Christian living, whose bodies are transformed, making one company, and, caught up in the enveloping, upbearing clouds, they meet their descending Lord with the marshaled army of angels in the air.

The Lord descends to earth; before him are gathered all nations, and, as Judge, he separates them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats.

The wicked receive their desert; the righteous ascend in the triumphant retinue to heaven, to be forever with the Lord.

On account of its certainty we are to take heed to it.

We do well to take heed to what the Bible says about the issues of life as connected with the coming of Christ.

The prophetic Word is here compared to a lamp on account of the clear light it sheds.

It is true of the Bible as a whole that it is as a lamp.

The dark place in which it (The Bible) shines is the world.

How dark would the world be but for the light it casts upon God and upon the future!

When Vs 19 states,

“until the day dawns…”

is to be regarded as Christ's coming.

Then the Bible, in its earthly form, will have served its purpose;it will give place to the great Teacher himself.

That coming is not to be joyful for all people; to some it will only be the time of exposure, the time of discomfiture and of final consignment to darkness.

But it is to come with a blessed certainty in theheartsof Christ's people.

It is the beginning of a long bright day to them in the presence of their Lord.

"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost."

The statement, declared to be of prime importance, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation, was long obscure.

Roman Catholic theologians took advantage of the obscurity to assert that its meaning is that Scripture can only be interpreted by the Church, and not by private Christians.

We now clearly understand its meaning to be that the prophetdid not proceed on his own private interpretation of things.

For, it is added, no prophecy ever came by the will of man,i.e.originated in mere human determination.

Vs 21

“Men indeed spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

(And not always holy men, as in the case of Balaam); there was thus the exercise of the human mind to a certain extent, there was the human form in what they spoke, there were even individual characteristics brought out; but the higher causal account of it was that they spoke from God, and because they were borne along unresistingly by the Holy Ghost – the Word of the Lord was ushered into the hearing of men, and preserved.

There was therefore – which is the point here – a secured certainty, infallibility in what they spoke.

We do well, then, to take heed to what they say to us, "Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Rev. 2:7)

Closing Prayer

Sermon stimulated from Commentary notes by U.R. Thomas.