Scriptures Reveal the Christ

Scriptures Reveal the Christ

Transfiguration Sunday T Mat 17:1-9 & 2 Pet 1:16-21

INI

By nature, all human beings have original sin. Which means, we’re prone to wonder away from God. We’re prone to ignore the holy things of God in search of the things we want. We’d rather hear the things WE want to hear rather than the things God actually SAYS. When searching for the voice of God, sinful human beings don’t always go to the right source to find the voice of God. There was a group in the Reformation era who struggled with this. They’re called the “enthusiasts”. But this doesn’t mean that they were just very enthusiastic about faith and Jesus. Rather, it’s a catch all term that describes those who place internal emotion and the personal motion of God in their life above or as a replacement to the Word of God and the means of Grace. The enthusiasts believed that there is a more sure and certain revelation of God to an individual apart from the Word of God, than with it. Of course, such revelations of God would be nice. Knowing what God wants would be easy! No more reading cryptic Scriptures we don’t understand! But how should one distinguish between a personal experience because a sinful human wants to hear it, and what God actually wants and wills for Christians?

Peter had a pretty incredible personal experience. You heard it in the Gospel. Jesus took Peter, James, and John on to the top of a mountain alone. But then, something miraculous happened. Jesus changed form. He transfigured His appearance! His face shone like the sun! His clothes became as white as light! The way it’s described, it’s like there’s a divine energy emanating from Jesus!  To confirm the divine quality of Peter’s experience, Moses and Elijah – the dead saints of the past – are right there talking with Jesus! In Luke’s account, they’re all discussing how Jesus is going to die at the hands of sinners, but then gain victory over death through His resurrection. Peter describes his subjective experience as majestic. For Peter saw Jesus enter heaven for just a moment. He got a glimpse of what heaven does to physical bodies. Certainly, He’s never seen anything quite like it, and was graced by God to experience it.

We might think that our experiences with God are less than Peter’s experience at the Transfiguration. All we have is a preacher, bread, wine, water. But it would be pretty neat though, wouldn’t it? To see the Transfiguration like Peter did? Maybe you’d find an experience like this useful or beneficial. Perhaps there’s a part of you that wants an experience like this because it would change the way you acted about your Christian life now. Maybe it would help sort out some doubts you have about God. Maybe if you had THIS sort of experience, you would change the amount of effort you put into your Christian living. Because you’ve actually SEEN the goal, the prize of faith – that God is bringing you a glorified body in heaven which cannot fade or decay. Your future is consumed with the majestic, as you receive glorification from our risen Lamb, whose glory is a cross. His glory is His own suffering and slaughter, so that you might be saved, and have a heavenly Transfiguration like Him, where the decay of our earthly bodies is transformed by the glory of the Son.

Wishing for an experience such as Transfiguration in order to personally experience is enthusiasm, for it searches for God in inner, subjective experiences, and not the external, sure Word of God. Peter warns us in the epistle lesson against such enthusiasm. First, in verses 16 through 18, Peter establishes His eyewitness testimony to the person and work of Christ. He recounts the Transfiguration He witnessed to establish Himself to His audience, that He is indeed a messenger of God. Though to be sure, Peter isn’t one who has followed myths devised from human sources. He hasn’t searched within Himself, His experiences, knowledge, or any other human to find the Gospel He preaches, as many wolves in sheep’s clothing do now. Peter could have appealed to the Transfiguration of Christ and said, “listen to me because of my subjective experiences.” Rather, Peter told his audience that they had something more sure than His witnessing Jesus Transfiguration. They had something that grounded them in God’s certainty: the Word of God.

Peter wrote “And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, (that is, the word of God – the Bible’s which you all have at home is a more sure thing from God than the Transfiguration) to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place (Peter gives us the exhortation to actually pay attention to it! Study it, breath it, live your lives oriented around it), 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 Spirit.” Here, Peter gives us a bit of advice on how to read the Bible. We don’t read it to find something out about ME.  We don’t read the Bible “me-first” because then we fall back on enthusiasm. Our sinful nature wants God to reveal His will through our subjective experiences and emotions. But rather, we should read the Bible apart from OUR interpretations, lest we confuse our will and emotions with the true Word of God. We should let the voice of God speak. Always.

Francis Pieper once wrote about the Bible, “He who considers Scripture to be the very Word of God, as Scripture itself demands, does not think of a remote action as to space and time, but as he reads his Bible, is aware that GOD HIMSELF IS SPEAKING TO HIM, that through the Word of the Law He is convincing him of his sin and just condemnation and that through the Word of the Gospel He is assuring him of the forgiveness of his sins and salvation and inviting him to believe this Word of the Gospel.”

So, we engage with Scripture, for through it, God talks. Guided by the Holy Spirit, we do this communally in things such as Bible Study and Sunday School. This activity that we do together each Sunday is more sure than the Transfiguration. For when guided by the Spirit, Christ is revealed through the written Word.

True faith approaches the Scriptures like Samuel, whom God calls to and says “Speak Lord, for I am listening.” Or, true faith acts like Peter and says, “it is good for us to be here.” It is good to engage in the Scriptures by whom God speaks. For through it, Peter says in 2 Peter 1:5-10 right before the epistle lesson, that faith leads to virtuous living. Virtuous living leads to knowledge. Knowledge leads to self-control. Self-control leads to steadfastness. Steadfastness leads to godliness. Godliness leads to brotherly affection. Brotherly affection leads to love.

Often times, we’d like to think that virtuous living, knowledge, self-control, and steadfastness is a matter of the mind or individual will-power. If we just manufacture within ourselves the self-control and willpower, we can increase in knowledge, steadfastness, and godliness. Or we’d like to think that we don’t need knowledge or self-control or godliness in order to show our brothers and sisters in Christ affection or love.  Again, this is enthusiasm, because it neglects the usefulness and power of God’s external Word.

But these issues Peter speaks of aren’t matters of the mind, but matters of the heart. To achieve such things, our hearts must be oriented towards Christ, as He is revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. Without the Christ who comes through His Word and promises, our Christian lives aren’t strengthened. If we work independently of the Spirit which moves in and through the written word, we are doomed to fail. But through it, we are equipped to “confirm our calling and election” as Peter says. If we practice these things, we will never fall away from the faith. Because in the Scriptures, and in these things, the Holy Spirit comes and works the salvation brought by the revealed Christ.

We are prone to wander into the cleverly devised myths of the world. Because we have original sin and seek God outside of how He reveals Himself to us. But we have something even more sure than myths and subjective experiences. We have the Scriptures through which the Father talks about His Son, and through the Holy Spirit, God is revealed to us. Christ is revealed in the written and spoken Gospel. In this Word, we are trained to practice the fruits of faith.

In this broken world, it’s imperative to be oriented towards God’s voice. Not just for ourselves, but for others.

When you go on an airplane, they typically take you through safety instructions. In the event of loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will fall from the ceiling, and what’s their instruction? Put the mask on yourself before helping another.

The same is true spiritually – put the oxygen mask on yourself first. Breathe the scriptures. Practice them. Increase in virtues and godliness. And then, you’ll be well equipped through the work of the Holy Spirit to put the mask on your neighbor in need.

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston