Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] My name is Craig Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor here at Village church East. It's my privilege to bring God's word to you. This morning. We've been doing a study in two, Peter. We're still in chapter one, which is not surprising, knowing my cadence of how I work through the passages in scripture. But every verse I come through in this first chapter of two, Peter, just seems to be an amazing thing that I have may be read in the past but never actually parked on. And this one in particular, these three, four verses that we're looking at today are some of the most amazing ones I can remember in scripture, mainly because they answer a question that I have dealt with my whole life and maybe you have dealt with as well. And here's the question. How do you know what you believe is true?
[00:00:52] It's kind of a philosophical question. How do you know what you believe is true? How do you know what somebody telling you if they're telling you the truth? I mean, we have how many different modes of information that we can access these days. The Internet is like the world on a string, right? You can jump on the Internet. You could do it right now and check me up on things that I say and then meet me at the door afterwards and say, craig, you were totally off on this one, and that's fine. The World Wide Web is at our fingertips. We hear the truth from media, from Internet, from the television. We hear the truth from our professors at school. We hear the truth all over the place.
[00:01:35] You hear the truth in churches.
[00:01:38] But the question is, how do you know what you're hearing is true?
[00:01:45] It's an interesting question that kind of sets us in our way as we grow older because we kind of park on our baseline measurements of how we decide what we hear is true. A lot of people stick themselves in the same room as other people who believe the same truth they do. And so it only emphasizes the truth whether or not it's the truth or not. It just reinforces what they already believe. My question to you this morning is this. How do you know what you believe is true?
[00:02:19] It is the main goal of the evil one to resurrect. His most famous question said to us from the beginning of time, genesis, chapter three, third chapter of the entire Bible, he comes up with a great one, and he uses it all the time. And he doesn't lie to you. The evil one will come to you and he will just ask this one question, and it unearths the question that I just asked you. How do you know what is true. Do you remember what he asked Adam and Eve in the garden? Well, Eve in particular, when he was talking to Eve, do you remember what he asked you?
[00:03:00] Did God really say, it worked so well that he has hung onto that all throughout time? And my guess is, even in your life, you are bombarded with these simple four words. Did God really say, this is why I love this passage in two. Peter, chapter one. If you're using your bibles, you can turn there now, otherwise it's on the screen. Let's go. Here's what it says. Second Peter, chapter one.
[00:03:32] Peter goes on. We'll discuss how he got here. But I just want to cover this, because this was the verse we left off with last week. For we did not. Peter writes to the church, for we did not. This is the apostle Peter, the disciple of Jesus, Peter.
[00:03:49] For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were. Can you say these words with me? We were what?
[00:04:02] Eyewitnesses of his majesty. Now, what does it mean to be an eyewitness when somebody says, no, no, no, I was there. It's one thing to know something. It's another thing to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I was there. We have questions about all this. I'm telling you, I am an eyewitness. I saw this. This is what Peter is saying.
[00:04:25] Jesus, he's saying, came from heaven, came to us in order to eradicate myths.
[00:04:33] Remember, this is the go to of the devil. This is the go to of the evil one. Did God really say, I want to tell you this. Jesus came to us from heaven to eradicate myths, to do away with the question, did God really say the Bible was good on its own?
[00:04:55] The Jews knew it inside out. The Jews began studying it at five years old. Many religious sects study the Bible. The Bible was good on its own. The challenge is there was always questions as to what the Bible actually says. We live in the same world today. You can go to all kinds of different churches based on their interpretation of what the Bible actually says.
[00:05:23] Stories that led you to a human Messiah. Where in the Bible, word of mouth about who God was came through the Bible. And the Bible is a miraculous book written over thousands of years, never disagreeing with itself, written by numerous different authors. It is an amazing, miraculous book that God has preserved for us. But it's on this level. It starts in one place, it ends in one place, and it's just horizontal.
[00:05:49] Peter says, we were eyewitnesses. Of God's majesty. In other words, he's saying, we saw stuff that validated what's written in the horizontal.
[00:06:01] So you might be studying the horizontal. You might be studying God's word. You might be studying prophecy. Peter says, I just want to tell you, you're studying prophecy. Fantastic. We were there. We saw stuff.
[00:06:14] He then brings up this most unique event that Jesus, after it happened, told Peter, James, and John not to say a word.
[00:06:26] You've seen this happen. Don't say a word about it. Can you imagine one of the most amazing events of your life and you're not allowed to talk about it? Jesus said, don't talk about it until after I raised from the dead. Now Peter is on his deathbed. He literally, he's not on his deathbed. I mean, he's a healthy individual, but he's chained into roman prison guarded by roman guards, and he's about to be killed for his faith. He knows this. We talked about this last week. He knows it's coming.
[00:06:55] Jesus has told him, and he's going, I don't tell Jesus what to do anymore, right? I've argued with Jesus. I learned my lesson. So I'm going to die. I'm going to die. Jesus said, I'm good with it.
[00:07:05] But now he's a man that's about to die, and he's telling those most precious to him what the last things he wants them to know. And it is no wonder he brings up this event, because it was life changing.
[00:07:22] Here's what it says, verse 17.
[00:07:25] For when he. This is Jesus he's talking about.
[00:07:28] For when he received honor and glory from God the father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Where did this happen? Church.
[00:07:44] What event is Peter talking about?
[00:07:47] The mount of transfiguration. This is one time in Jesus life when he takes three disciples aside. They go up into this mountain, and he is transfigured in front of them. Simply what that means is he peels away. I mean, they ate with this guy, they slept with this guy. They watched him grow up. I mean, he is flesh.
[00:08:06] They've never seen his divine side. Eyeball to eyeball, they've seen it in different ways, but they've never actually eye witnessed it. See? And on the mount of transfiguration, Jesus for one moment, peels away this human part of him and allows his glory to be seen.
[00:08:31] This is what Peter's talking about. This is the event. Peter says to the church, he says, I need you to know this changed my life. And if there's one thing I got to tell you that I think is going to change your life, I got to tell you about this story. And we're about to find out firsthand from an eyewitness what happened on the mount of transfiguration. First of all, let's go back to Luke, chapter nine. Here's what happened. You can find the mount of transfiguration eventually in Matthew 17, mark nine, and Luke nine. Three of the gospels have it. I'm gonna read to you from Luke, chapter nine, verse 29. When Jesus pulled the flesh aside, when he revealed his divinity to these guys, two other guys showed up. Do you remember who they were?
[00:09:15] Moses and Elijah. And Jesus is talking to them like their best buds.
[00:09:20] It had to be the most weird thing. But can I just ask you just a real simple question, and you might already know the answer, even though you may not be familiar with the story. What do you think the disciples were doing when Jesus was praying and eventually had this transformation moment? And Moses, Elijah showed up. Can you guess what the three guys, these three close friends of Jesus were doing as he was praying? What do you think they were doing?
[00:09:51] Sleeping.
[00:09:55] They were tired guys. Actually, we don't know if they were sleeping, but we do know they weren't awake.
[00:10:04] Luke 929. Here's how it goes. And as he was praying, as Jesus was praying, the appearance of his face was altered. His clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking to him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure with which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem church. What were Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus about on the mount of transfiguration?
[00:10:33] His death.
[00:10:36] His death.
[00:10:39] That blows me away, because they didn't know Jesus thousands of years before Jesus showed up. Now, all of a sudden, for Elijah, like 500, 600 years before Jesus, they didn't know.
[00:10:53] Now they show up and they're talking to Jesus about things that are about to happen in Jerusalem when Jesus dies and rises from the dead. And it had to be the most amazing conversation in the world and church. Let me ask you again. What do you think the disciples were doing during this amazing conversation?
[00:11:08] Same thing we do. Same thing you're doing right now while you're in church, right?
[00:11:14] Peter recalls the details. He said, jesus took us with him. He's writing to the church in first Peter or second Peter, and he writes something and says, jesus took James, john and myself. We were heavy with sleep.
[00:11:26] It had been a busy thing. And Jesus, when he prays, man. He just goes on and on and on and on. It just, you know, you just kind of doze off after a while. Church. Can you imagine hearing Jesus pray and dozing off?
[00:11:40] Luke 932. Now, Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep. But when they became, what's the next two words?
[00:11:48] Fully awake, they saw his glory. And the two men who stood with him, like we talked about last week, you remember, they woke up.
[00:12:01] This is an event that's happening. We need to wake up. There's something special happening here. It's time to wake up.
[00:12:09] They needed to wake up to who they were following. They needed to see Jesus in like, this spectacular, divine way that would change their lives forever.
[00:12:21] And then they said, listen, that wasn't just, that wasn't it? It wasn't just. Moses lies in Jesus. Then we heard a voice from heaven, Luke 935.
[00:12:34] Luke writes about this event. Peter is on the mountain. He hears this. Then a voice came out of the cloud saying, church, would you say this with me? Because it's really key to what we're studying today. Read the whole thing. Here we go. This is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him. If God speaks, don't you think he's going to say something important?
[00:12:57] Like, you should really pay attention.
[00:13:00] Some people I've met in my life, like, they don't talk a lot, but when they do, you want to pay attention. Cause they're really, there's some smartness way down deep, and when they speak, you're going, oh, that's, you should talk more. Right? But they don't.
[00:13:14] Jesus the Father. When the father talks about Jesus, it is very crucial what he says, because God only speaks from heaven. In the gospels, three times, only three.
[00:13:28] Not speaking out of a burning bush, not the old Testament stuff. In the gospels, only three times. And each time God says, God the Father says the same thing. This is my son.
[00:13:47] This is my chosen one. Listen to him.
[00:13:54] God speaks from heaven. Father speaks from heaven three times. Do you want to guess what they were? Do you know what they were? Yep. Jesus. Baptism number one. Number two, mount of transfiguration. And number three, right before Jesus goes through the gates of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, right before the triumphal entry, the only three times. And all three times he says the same thing.
[00:14:21] Peter's writing to the church. And I think what he's doing here is he's saying, listen, we all have the same prophecies to study. We all work on this Old Testament, New Testament level. We're all getting these letters to the churches.
[00:14:33] This is available to all of us, but prophecy comes at us this way, vertically. There's a moment of time when God intersects this with this. And on the mount of transfiguration, that is when the horizontal was intersected by the vertical.
[00:14:56] That is when Moses, Elijah show up. God speaks from heaven, all this intersection, and Jesus himself shows divinity. That's all this stuff, the vertical.
[00:15:10] And every time God intersects in human history, the Father comes. Confirms the validity of Jesus and what he's saying.
[00:15:20] Verse 1318. Sorry, back in two. Peter, we ourselves heard this very voice. Peter says, born from heaven, but we were with him, for we were with him on the holy mountains. Peter is literally saying, I was there. I was an eyewitness. I got to tell you, this is a moment that changed my life. The vertical intersected the horizontal. I've never seen it before, and it changed my life.
[00:15:44] You don't have to trust what people are saying. You just have to know. This is a moment when the vertical intersected the horizontal. And that's how we have truth that is validated. God has validated Jesus.
[00:16:02] God has validated his own template with his own voice.
[00:16:08] Verse 19.
[00:16:11] Here's what he goes on to say. I think this is the key verse for this morning. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. We have this prophetic word more fully confirmed. Do you get it? Do you know why he would say that? Because they knew the Bible. They knew the horizontal. Every jewish boy starts learning it and memorizing it at five years old. These guys knew God's word, but they did not understand who God was until that vertical intersected and they saw Jesus for who he was, and their lives changed.
[00:17:00] That prophetic word, that horizontal word is more fully confirmed. Everything we read about the chosen one, everything we read about. About the Messiah to come, everything we read about the Christ. Messiah promised one. Same word. Old Testament Mashia is the Hebrew, if you care. And then in the New Testament, Christ Christos, that's the word for Christ. Not his last name, but a confirmation of who he is. The Christ Jesus is the Christ. Christ promised one. Mashiach. Same word, Old Testament, New Testament Christos, Old Testament mashiach. All of it says, this is who Jesus was. And Peter says, we have that word more fully confirmed, because on the mount of transfiguration, we were intersected by God himself. He confirmed the truth.
[00:17:46] Listen, anyone can have the Bible. Anyone can read the Bible. Anyone can quote the Bible, and they can pull whatever they want out of it.
[00:17:57] But if your understanding of the word of God doesn't include Jesus in his divinity, you have a misunderstanding of God's word.
[00:18:09] You will never understand the Bible. You will always interpret it improperly.
[00:18:18] We went to the museum of the Bible when we were in Washington, DC. I would highly recommend, it's a very, very good adventure. But we were down to see our oldest daughter. She just got married. Ben, our son in law, took us around, showed us around, and they took us to the museum of the Bible.
[00:18:35] I love museums. I love reading the history of things.
[00:18:40] And as we were going through, I saw this display of all of these different things. And there was this one picture that I wish I had put it up on the screen for you, but I'll describe it to you. It's this one picture that I can't get out of my brain. It was a painting from early 19 hundreds, I think, right around 19 oh, 119 oh two. And it had. It was called the fall into modernity.
[00:19:07] And there were steps leading down, and it showed these men walking down the steps, holding God's word in their hands. And they're walking down the steps, and each step was listed. A different thing.
[00:19:20] On the first step was like something like the doubt of the validity of the scriptures. On the second one was the doubt of Jesus divinity. The third one was the doubt of miracles. The fourth one was the. And it just. You went down and down and down until you got to the last one. And the last one was atheism.
[00:19:42] As you walk down the steps, you begin to doubt more and more of who God is, because everything about who God is rests and is focused around who Jesus is. And I have to tell you, for Peter, that changed his life, because he knew the horizontal. He memorized it. He knew the Bible. But until that vertical moment occurred when the father spoke about who the Son was, it didn't click.
[00:20:12] This is why I think he says, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed in the identity of Jesus Christ.
[00:20:21] We understand the Father better because we know the Son.
[00:20:27] Jesus is the intersection point between prophecy and fulfillment. And you will never understand the words of God without kneeling at the feet of the son of God.
[00:20:36] That's good. I should have wrote that down. You will never understand the words of God until you kneel at the feet of the son of God.
[00:20:45] The early church had impostors constantly claiming to be a messiah or an apostle or a disciple. These letters were coming through from the apostles. And these people would come through and they would say, we're apostles. And they would write a letter and they were trying to confuse the church. And so the early church had to constantly revisit the church. They had to refine what God said about them. They had to stay vigilant, and they had to constantly question what God said. And every challenge they faced in the early times of the church was based on. Is Jesus really who he says he is?
[00:21:22] If we only have the horizontal plane to look at, we can draw any conclusion we want. David Koresh, you remember him. Some of you don't.
[00:21:32] Had a whole cult following based on his understanding of the Bible.
[00:21:40] The solar eclipse. Last week a bunch of people said, this is what the Bible says about the solar eclipse. Jesus is coming back. Unless we're all on the wrong page, he didn't make it.
[00:21:52] Your favorite president. Find his name in the Bible. You can make this book say whatever you want it to say. And people have tried.
[00:22:00] Cults love using the Bible to try and get their hoaxes across to people.
[00:22:07] Anyone can take the words of the past to sell any story they want to sell. But I have to tell you church, in our case, God the Father confirmed the words of this horizontal by identifying vertically who Jesus was.
[00:22:24] Verse 19, 2nd part of this we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which. And here's the words. You would do well to pay attention. Doesn't that sound like a dad?
[00:22:36] Listen, listen. I know what your plans are tonight. You would do well to reconsider.
[00:22:43] You would do well to pay attention. As a lamp shining in a dark place. You live among a people who are lying about what God says constantly. You would do well to pay attention what God says about Jesus.
[00:22:57] You should stay awake. This word, pay attention.
[00:23:00] This word, I looked it up. It's only one word in the Greek. Here's what it actually means. To be in a continuous state of readiness to learn of any future danger, need error and to respond appropriately.
[00:23:15] You would do well to pay attention because we live in a world full of danger, need error and we need to respond appropriately. And you would do well to pay attention as the world grows darker, because they are going to come up with some really cleverly devised myths to lead you astray.
[00:23:41] But Peter is saying, listen, they didn't hear the father speak. We heard the father speak. He intersected the horizontal and he confirmed the identity of Jesus. Look at what he says at the end of the verse. Verse 19. Back to verse 19. You would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. That does not mean until you accept him. That's not what that means. Can't mean that because Peter's writing to people who already know Jesus.
[00:24:12] That has to mean something else. And I think what that means is it's eschatological, which again, means nothing to you. What that means is it's talking about the end time.
[00:24:23] Until the morning star appears, until Jesus comes back, until every eye beholds him, every tongue confesses he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That is what this is talking about. You would do well to pay attention because that day is coming. And I got to tell you this week, after the events of what happened in Israel, I was thinking it might be coming sooner than later.
[00:24:48] On that day, we will echo the voice we heard on the mountain, and we will all declare together that Jesus is Lord, that brings glory to God the Father. And listen, in case this is new information to you, you should stick around for communion, which we do every single Sunday, because this is the message of communion. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death. What does it say, church?
[00:25:11] Until he comes, this whole book, Jesus says, points to me. The father says, the whole book points to Jesus Christ. And let me tell you, you should do well to pay attention to this because do you know one of the last verses of the Bible says this, revelation 20 218. This kind of sends shivers down my spine.
[00:25:32] I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book, of this book, of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book.
[00:25:54] It's really important that we interpret the horizontal correctly, and the only way we can is by agreeing with God about who Jesus is. Pay attention to the vertical.
[00:26:05] Why does God take this so seriously? Why would he write a verse like this at the end of revelation? I think because the same reason Peter writes in verse verse 20. Listen to this, knowing this. First of all, no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. God takes this seriously because church, he bent over backwards to give us truth, truth in his word and truth from heaven directly revealed to us in this world.
[00:26:38] Peter is compelled to answer that question. How do we know what we believe is true? By answering this way, no prophecy of scripture is correct if it's simply from somebody's own creative ideas. And we live in a world where one of the myths we are told is the Bible was written by human hands. That is true, but not true.
[00:27:03] It is true in that it was written by humans as they were carried about by the Holy Spirit. But make no mistake about it, the Bible is God's word. That's why we call it God's word. It is not man's word. There's lots of books you can find that are man's words.
[00:27:21] But when you read God's word, you are reading his authoritative word.
[00:27:31] All scripture originates from God and it intersects into our worlds.
[00:27:38] God has only one interpretation of the vertical intersection of Jesus in the world, and that is Jesus is God's beloved son.
[00:27:46] I find it interesting. When Jesus walked on this earth and did ministry on this earth, he was constantly saying, I am divinity. He was constantly pointing to himself as God. In fact, that's one of the reasons they killed him at the end of his life, is because he claimed to be God.
[00:28:06] But even though he told them, they still couldn't believe it. And I think this verse explains that. In the gospels, Jesus explains why people are hearing him speak and they can't understand it's actually God speaking. They can't understand it's actually the vertical intersecting the horizontal. They can't get it.
[00:28:26] Here's what he says. John 537. And the father Jesus says, who sent me has himself borne witness about me. This voice that you have heard, this is at his John five. Is that his baptism?
[00:28:43] No, I'm sorry.
[00:28:45] I'm jumping ahead. Sorry. They couldn't believe it. So Jesus is talking about why they couldn't believe that he was actually the father. Verse 37. And the father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen. Now hang on to that just for a second because I'm going to go back to that for a minute.
[00:29:03] And you do not have this word, his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You don't understand the horizontal because you don't acknowledge me the vertical. God says, I am who I say I am. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you will find eternal life.
[00:29:23] But it is they that bear witness about who church me.
[00:29:29] Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I find this so interesting because what Jesus is saying is you have, you say you've heard God's voice because you know the Bible, but you do not recognize his intersection. Sending me to you. In fact, the words you are hearing coming out of my mouth right now are words of God, and you don't hear them. In fact, the form you do not see, but I am the form of God standing in front of you. Literally, they were hearing God's voice. They were seeing God in front of them, and they could not acknowledge it was God.
[00:30:08] They saw the intersection, but they didn't believe it. Colossians two nine says this, for in him, in Jesus, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Philip said, show us the father. It's enough for us. You remember that? Show us the father. Just show us what Peter, James and John said that they saw in the mounted transfiguration. Do that trick one more time and that'll be enough for us.
[00:30:29] And Jesus said to him in John 14 eight, this is as Jesus was saying to him, saying to them he was going to the cross. Here's what he says. Have I been with you so long and you still don't know me? Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the father. How can you say, show us the father? God has confirmed every horizontal prophecy, every promise, every truth in the vertical intersection of the son in this world, and people still miss it. And the scene that comes up in my mind when I study about this is Pilate standing with Jesus, about to send him to death.
[00:31:06] And he looks at Jesus and he doesn't want to kill him because he kind of likes him.
[00:31:11] And his wife told him, don't mess around with this guy or it's going to be trouble for you. And it was Pilate is looking at Jesus.
[00:31:20] And what are the words, three words that he says to Jesus that lay in infamy in our world today. He looks at Jesus and he says, what is truth?
[00:31:36] When he's staring truth in the eyeballs?
[00:31:40] Sad, isn't it?
[00:31:42] Pilate looks at Jesus and he doesn't see the transfiguration. He doesn't see divinity. He only sees a man beaten within an inch of his life, bleeding in front of him. And he's looking at Jesus and he's saying, for goodness sakes, give me a reason not to kill you.
[00:31:59] Jesus starts talking about truth, and he just yells at Jesus, what is truth? And Jesus says, nothing.
[00:32:08] Listen. What is happening on the horizontal plane cannot be fully understood without accepting Jesus as the one sent from God. You'll never understand anything that's happening in human history until you understand and appreciate every time God intersects with this world every vertical intersection.
[00:32:27] The world will look like it's gone mad.
[00:32:30] To know the real truth, you must hear from Jesus.
[00:32:34] Jesus would say it this way. You know the scriptures because you think the truth is there.
[00:32:39] But you don't know me, so you don't know the truth.
[00:32:47] There's more just at stake than knowing the Bible.
[00:32:50] We must interpret the events of history and the scriptures through the prism of Jesus Christ. This is how he finishes. Verse 21. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Even the horizontal that you read has been given to you because God gave it to you vertically.
[00:33:14] It is the truth. Everything about this life and the next is given to us in the Bible and it is a result of the vertical. Understanding of the vertical has intersected the horizontal.
[00:33:28] The Bible is not subject to our interpretation.
[00:33:33] The Bible is subject to the author's interpretation, and that's God.
[00:33:37] And men wrote the words of God through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so that what we read today is absolute truth. Now I could do a whole message on how we know God's word is true. Dead sea scrolls and all that stuff. It's an amazing study.
[00:33:57] But the thing that blows me away is that God's word has been tried to be picked apart.
[00:34:02] People will tell you it's contradicting itself. They'll make all kinds of accusations against God's word. It's the first step you take on the way to atheism. You doubt what God really said. Listen, Satan does not change his ways. He will always go to you and say, did God really say, and I have to tell you, if you are under the assumption that somebody has told you the truth, when they said the Bible has contradictions, the next question I would ask them is, where are they?
[00:34:32] Because I've studied it for many, many, many years and I have not found one.
[00:34:43] All of God's word centers on one thing. Is Jesus who he says he is or not?
[00:34:51] And jesus is under the assumption that the entire Bible is written about him. Did you know that when Jesus rose from the dead, he saw two guys, two guys on the road to Emmaus? They were depressed. It was a bad week. Jesus had died. Nobody knew he had risen from the dead except these crazy women that showed up and told a story that they had seen Jesus. But everybody was having a hard time wrapping their minds around that. And there's no Internet, so you couldn't get that information out. People were walking out of Jerusalem pretty down.
[00:35:26] These two guys were on their way home after the death of Jesus. They thought he was mashiach. They thought he was promised one. They thought he was the chosen one sent from God. They knew the horizontal, and they thought Jesus was him. But then they killed him. How can he be him if he's dead?
[00:35:46] Jesus shows up, and in the world's best prank, he walks with them for miles, having a conversation with them and letting them stay depressed.
[00:35:59] Then. Then he becomes a teacher, and he begins telling them, well, the horizontal, but he told the horizontal through the eyes of the vertical.
[00:36:15] And he explained to them in scripture how everything, everything on this plane always points to Jesus Christ, because they knew the Bible, they knew Messiah was coming. They just didn't understand. He would die. He had to die. And so in Luke 24, here's what it says. World's best prank. And he said to them, o foolish ones and slow of heart to believe, what does he say? All that the prophets have spoken, you should have known this was coming. Verse 26. I can't see. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? So, beginning with. Where did jesus begin this teaching session with these guys? Where did he begin?
[00:36:58] Beginning with Moses.
[00:37:00] Beginning with Moses and the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Jesus is under the impression that the whole Bible talks about him. Now, that's a narcissist, wouldn't you say?
[00:37:18] But with Jesus, it is the truth.
[00:37:23] Jesus does a class for these depressed students, and he teaches them how everything this way was meant to be intersected. This way and everything talked about Jesus Christ.
[00:37:36] We know that our interpretation is accurate, because it is not an interpretation. It is a validation by God himself.
[00:37:46] We know that our interpretation is accurate because it is not an interpretation, but a validation by God himself.
[00:37:56] Bottom line is, those who hear will hear, and those who don't want to hear will never. Because you have got to walk over the person of Jesus Christ in order to understand who God is.
[00:38:12] Like Pilate, they will stare truth in the face, but never receive it, because Jesus is too big a stumbling block. One corinthians 123, we're even told this. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. But to those who are called. That's us. Those followers of Jesus, those who are called, whether they're Jews or Greeks or whatever, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
[00:38:45] Now, that brings me to the. So what?
[00:38:49] What does this matter for our life in 2024.
[00:38:53] Well, church, bottom line is, without the voice of God, interpretation of history will always be skewed.
[00:39:03] It may look right, it may look like it has a version of truth in it, but it will always be skewed.
[00:39:11] The beginning of wisdom is a search for God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And if you don't start with God and who he says he is and what he says about Jesus, if you don't start there, you will never understand, you'll never have true wisdom.
[00:39:30] You might sound bright, and there are a lot of bright people who sound bright.
[00:39:36] There's this one world class atheist who just came out last week. Did you see this? Just came out last week. World class atheist just came out last week and he's bemoaning what's going on in Gaza, with Gaza and Israel.
[00:39:54] And he said, listen, if you don't have some understanding of the Bible, you're never going to understand this life.
[00:40:01] Dawkins, remember this guy.
[00:40:07] History is constantly being interpreted for us, and the evil one will always start with, did God really say, little doubt, a little push, but you have to start with, God said it, and I believe it.
[00:40:23] And he has validated everything that he has said.
[00:40:27] And let me tell you, it does center on Jesus. Here's one of my favorite verses in scripture, second corinthians 120. This is a good context to give you this verse. For all the promises of God, find their yes in him. Do you know who the hymn is? Here? Take a guess.
[00:40:42] Jesus. Just say Jesus. When I say, take a guess. It's almost always right.
[00:40:47] For all the promises of God, find their yes in Jesus. This is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory.
[00:40:57] Every promise, every truth about God is found in the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:41:03] And if you're ever being tempted into buying some weird religion or some weird way of belief, ask one question.
[00:41:12] What does this belief, what does this group tell? Tell me about who Jesus is.
[00:41:18] That's the one question you need to ask.
[00:41:21] Number two, when you've heard God's voice, all other messages are secondary.
[00:41:28] Be careful what interpretation you elevate into a belief, because without including the truth of Jesus being our savior, you'll never be able to interpret the Bible correctly. The Pharisees claim that they were interpreting the Bible absolutely correctly, and then they killed Jesus.
[00:41:46] They had no room for Jesus in their interpretation.
[00:41:50] They were staring at the intersection of God and man. They were fighting with God himself because they couldn't bring themselves to believe who Jesus was and beware. In our world today, the truth is all about personalization.
[00:42:06] That's your truth, and this is my truth.
[00:42:11] See, if that works in a court of law, I'd be really interested because you put your hand on the Bible and you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and you're never asked, would you give us your truth, please?
[00:42:25] Won't work.
[00:42:27] But in our world today, they sell it to us like there are more than one truth. In God's version, there's only one truth, and it has to start with who Jesus is.
[00:42:38] And by the way, you can get your truth through a lot faster if you claim victim status. That's another thing I'm noticing in our world today. If you can claim to be a victim, your truth will be pushed through to the front line.
[00:42:50] Listen, church, you can trust the scriptures.
[00:42:54] Every thought and idea that we have about this life and the next must conform to God and his revealed word number three. Pay attention, church. The evil day has arrived.
[00:43:09] We are in the evil day.
[00:43:13] There was a study that came out just this past month, questions that were asked those who claim to be followers of Jesus. This is from a very good website, Ligonier website, and I wanted to show you some of the questions that they were asked and some of the ways church Christians, followers of Jesus, answered them. Here's the first question.
[00:43:37] The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths, but is not literally true. In 2016, 17% of Americans agreed with that. In 2018, 23%. In 2020, it went down to 15, and in 2022, 26%.
[00:44:01] These are not just general Americans. These are those who claim to follow Jesus Christ.
[00:44:08] That would say the Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths, but is not actually true. Bad, right? Listen to this 1 second question. Religious belief is a matter of personal opinion. It is not about objective truth. That means there's no foundational truth. 2018 32% agreed with that 2020 23% 202-1223 8% agreed with that statement. These are Christians, those who claim to be followers of Jesus. Third question. Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God. 2020 30% agree. 2022 43% of people who claim to be followers of Jesus agree with that statement.
[00:44:58] We are losing the battle. We are in the evil day and we are not equipped to fight.
[00:45:05] You wonder why I parked so long on this this morning is because this is essential.
[00:45:10] I need this church to be fully aware that Jesus was a great teacher and he was God. In fact, that's why he was a great teacher.
[00:45:24] Peter wants these guys faith in God to outlast him. Remember, he's about to die. He's about to be crucified. He's about to give up his life for his faith. He knows he's going to die. And church, my job, I don't know if I'm going to die tomorrow. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. But my job as a leader is to push you further out on that faith branch, where you make your faith yours, where you can answer these questions with the right, confident answer. And you could tell anybody that's pulling you that Jesus was a great teacher because Jesus was God. It is the first step down on the road to saying God doesn't exist when we disagree with that.
[00:46:11] And remember, Peter, you have everything you need for your faith. Your faith is as strong as mine. First, Peter. Five eight. I'll just leave it up on the board. Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue, knowledge, knowledge with self control, self control with stake, steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, and on and on until he gets to verse eight. For these qualities are yours and increasing, they will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ church. We need to be effective and we need to be fruitful, not ineffective and unfruitful. And the way that we do that is we hold onto our faith. We're bold about our faith. We're courageous in our faith. And by the way, if you want to see God intersect the horizontal with the vertical, you should pray more because prayer is when we ask God to intersect the horizontal. My life stinks. My life's hard. My life needs help. Would you help me? Would you lift me up? Would you undergird me?
[00:47:11] Undergird your faith. Learn of Jesus. Love him more. This will keep your faith from being ineffective and unfruitful. Forsake character formation and you will eventually forsake the truth. Ephesians 613 take up the whole armor of God church that you may be able to withstand in the what church in the. In the evil day. And having done all stand firm church work on your faith. Don't make your faith about your mom or your dad or your spouse or me for goodness sakes, or your elders. Make your faith what you believe.
[00:47:48] Because there will be a day when your leaders are no longer there and you'll be on your own. And in that day when the evil moments occur, when the evil day comes, you need to stand sure that what this says is from God because these vertical intersections are constantly validating who Jesus is and the fact that when I understand him and who he is, I can have a whole new understanding of this life. Church, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Let's pray.
[00:48:25] I'm grateful, Lord, for this passage.
[00:48:31] It's such a blessing to be able to know that God, you intersected our horizontal existence with confirmation about truth and what we preach is true and what we believe is true. So when the day comes that is evil, when the evil one presses down on us, when we are tempted to abandon, when we are tempted to leave our faith behind, when we are tempted, when we are pressured by this life and the pains that this life brings, the emotional distress, the physical distress, when all of that comes crashing down on us. Father, may our faith be like it's built on a rock.
[00:49:20] So when the winds come, the storms blow.
[00:49:24] Our faith is strong because it remains on the rock. And, Father, you have given us Jesus Christ, the rock and the pillar of our faith.
[00:49:35] May that be what we run to constantly, boldly and courageously in this dark world.
[00:49:43] And, Lord, for the many revivals that are taking place all over this world, Father, I give you great thanks. We don't hear about them in the media, but, Father, they are going on like crazy.
[00:49:54] May you do that even in our own lives, as we seek to be a light for you, a lamp shining in a dark place. Help us, Father, to pay attention so that we can be fruitful, so that we can make a difference.
[00:50:10] All for your glory, all for your name, all for the only thing that matters. In Jesus name. Amen.
[00:50:19] We finish with communion. We do this because it's our opportunity to make sure that the gospel is clearly proclaimed in every message.
[00:50:31] Jesus is the intersection of the vertical with the horizontal because he came here on one mission, and that was to die. He was born to die.
[00:50:41] Christmas is about good Friday, and good Friday is about Easter.
[00:50:47] Jesus came and he came to die. And the reason that he came to die is because he was divinity. Mount of transfiguration. He peeled that away. Peter, James, John eyewitnessed it. We didn't get to eyewitness it, but we hear what God says, what Jesus says all the way through his life, and how he thinks the whole Bible is written about him, so that when he went to the cross, like he told those guys on the road to Emmaus, it had to happen so that God could die for man.
[00:51:19] We can't take care of our own sins, so God had to do it for us. And that's why he gave us Jesus Christ. And if you've ever understood John 316, you should now. For God so loved the world that he gave us his only son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
[00:51:40] God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And when you drink this juice and eat this bread at communion, you are remembering what Jesus had to do in order to pay for our sin. Our sin requires death.
[00:51:59] That's why Jesus died.
[00:52:03] He died so that we never will. And in the Bible if you read about christians who die, followers of Jesus who die, it never says that they die. It just says that they sleep. It doesn't mean that they don't die. But what it means is death is a facade because you close your eyes in this life and you open them with your savior in the next.
[00:52:23] This is why we celebrate communion.
