sermonette: A Sure Word of Prophecy
Why Peter Had A 'More Sure Word of Prophecy'
Bill Cherry
Given 14-Dec-02; Sermon #588s; 13 minutes
Thank you, Brian and greetings to you all. Please turn to 1, excuse me, II Peter chapter 1 and verse 19. OK, starting there and just reading the first part, we also have a more sure word of prophecy. Now can we in this room read this verse and take, take this to mean us? Do we have a more sure word of prophecy? Can we say that? Can anyone Who considers himself a Christian say, we have a more sure word of prophecy meaning them and the group that they are associated with affiliated with. Well, Peter made this statement, and when he said we, he met a very small select group of people. And they had a unique experience that made a profound effect on them and gave them a unique perspective of prophecy, and it affected them in what they said and what they did. So in this summer that we are going to see why they could claim that they had a more sure word of prophecy. All right, let's look at verse 16, talking about the same we. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of His Majesty. So these, this we, Peter is saying we were our witnesses. And so they saw and they knew what they were saying and they are not giving a secondhand report. Now I want you to notice something else about this verse. It says, um, The second phrase when we made none unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the, the, the fact that they were white eye witnesses tells why they had a more sure word of prophecy. And then the second part tells how they used the more sure word of prophecy, and it was to declare the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I said they had a unique experience and verse 18 and 19 will refer to that experience, so I will read that. And this voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him on the holy mount and um verse 17, I meant to start there, but he said, for we receive, he received from
God the Father, honor and glory, and there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So, Uh, they heard a voice from God when they were on the Holy Mount, and you probably understand that this is referring to the transfiguration which is in Matthew 17. So please turn there. We will see what happened in that experience. Matthew 17. Alright, reading the first verse to identify who the three people were in that were included in the we. It says, um. After 6 days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart. And was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun. And his radiant was white as light. And then then it goes on to tell that
Moses and Elijah appeared with him, and Peter got all excited and he said, Lord, if it's good for you, let's build 3 tabernacles, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for you. And then he was interrupted by the voice of God Himself. So read verse 5. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. He you him. So this was a unique experience. They were the three people that had the experience and the essence of this message was. Listen to my son, the Son of God. And You put yourself in Peter's position. Suppose you were with a good friend and teacher. And you considered him a teacher and all of a sudden he started shining like the sun, and a brilliant light came and he was shining and all you could see was light and Then you heard a voice of God Himself saying, this is my son, listen to him. So I think this message was burned in their brain, listen to my son, and the essence of the message is since Moses and Elijah were there. That they represented the law and the prophets, and that's what people had before the coming of Christ. And so now is the time to focus on the message of Christ and put the law and prophets in the perspective of the life and
teachings of Christ. Now I want to show you how they did that. And as I, as I showed you in verse 16, we will not go back there, but it said, when we declared the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now in this incident, please turn to Acts 3. Uh, it shows how Peter declared the power. And the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it starts off in verse 1. Now Peter and John went up together into the temple in the hour of prayer, being the 9th hour. And then it goes on to tell the story of a man who is lame from birth. I was sitting at the temple and it evidently was his habit because everybody recognized him in this in this chapter as being the man that sat there asking people for money, and this was the way he had a means of uh. Subsiding is asking people for money. And Peter and John came up to him and he looked at them expecting them to give him money. And uh. Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk, and he took him by the hand and the scripture says, strength came into his ankles, and he leaped up, and he was leaping and walking and leaping and walking and praising God and making quite a spectacle. And you know that people, when they saw him, they said, look at this man, what has happened to him? This is the guy that we saw begging for money, begging for money, and, and look at him, his, his legs are straight, he's leaping and walking, he said, I can't even walk like that, but Uh, he was praising God and he said he held on to Peter and John. So it was evident by what was happening that Peter and John had a part to play, and Peter said, stop. He said, do not think this is anything that I did. He said this was done through the power of God through the power of His Son Jesus Christ, whom you crucified and who you killed. So he declared the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will read it as we um look in verse. Let's see, I, I guess we will start at verse 12 and, and read through 16. And when Peter saw it, he answered to the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this or looked so earnestly on us as though by our own power, or
holiness, we made this man to walk. The God of Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Son Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied Him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and just and desired a murder be granted to you and kill the prince of life whom God has raised up from the dead whereof we are witnesses. There he is. We have witnessed Him. We have witnessed His resurrection. And through his name and his name through
faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know, yeah, the faith which is by him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. So he's declaring the power of God through Christ has made this man whole, and he's, he's showing this is, this is how he views prophecy. This is and so I wanna show you that in the next verses. Now he's going to, he's going to declare the coming of Christ. He's in verse 19,
repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come. In the from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which was before preached to you, whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God has spoken of by the mouth of all the holy prophets since
the world began. So he's saying. The message is that Christ is coming and he's coming again. He's resurrected and he's coming, but this is what the prophets have spoken to you about. This is the perspective of prophecy that we need to look at when we read the scriptures. We need to look at what Christ said, Christ's life and his example. Now I will not turn there, but there is another. The verification that the that That this is the time we should be listening to Christ and His message, and that should be the focus, and we should get the prophecy and perspective of Christ's message. And then Hebrews. Chapter 1 and verse 1 and 2, it says, in times past in diverse manners. Our God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, so they were have been spoken to by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. So he's saying the focus now is a message of the Son of God. So This is a message for us. He was written to Hebrew, I mean the Hebrews, and certainly our focus and our understanding of prophecy should be that we understand it from the perspective of being able to look at Christ's life, his teachings, what he said, and, and his own prophecies. So and it's also interesting to note that the
book of Hebrews is followed by um books that were written. With the exception of Jude, which is a small book, and it echoes a part of what II Peter says, was written by these three men, Peter, James, and John. They wrote James, Peter, John, and Revelation. So they had a more sure word of prophecy, and when they you read these verses, we have a more sure word of prophecy. You know it specifically was stated by Peter talking about Peter, James, and John. They had a more sure word of prophecy because they were taught directly by Christ Himself.