Eyewitnesses of His Majesty

2 Peter 1v16-18

26^th January 2024

In verses 12-15 of 2 Peter Chapter 1, Peter wrote of his determination to continue for as long as he lives to remind his brothers and sisters in Christ of the fundamental truths of the Christian faith. He now writes:

2 Peter 1v16
For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

There are some questions that are too important to ignore. Perhaps the most important question of all is this: Is what the New Testament says about Jesus Christ true? If it is true, then we can trust what Peter wrote in Chapter 1 verse 3: "His [Christ's] divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness." If it is true, then people can be forgiven their sins and adopted as God's children. They can receive the Holy Spirit and experience eternal life. If it is not true, then Christianity is a total waste of time. We are still lost in our sins and without hope.

It would be extremely foolish to be aware of the existence of the New Testament, and of the reality of 2,000 years of history of people claiming to have their lives transformed by the power of God that they experienced through believing what it says, and just ignore it. Many do, to their eternal destruction. Some don't, by the grace of God.

To help us believe that the teaching about Jesus in the New Testament is true, Peter says "we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ". We can believe one of three things about this assertion:

Peter was lying;
Peter was mistaken;
Peter was right.

Was Peter lying? As we've observed before, Peter was nearing the end of his life. He would have nothing to gain by lying. He'd seen many fellow believers imprisoned, tortured and killed. He knew there was a great cost for those who believe. Why would he be a cause of such suffering? He could probably have avoided execution if he'd claimed not to believe the New Testament. He wasn't lying.

Was Peter mistaken? Its certainly true that many people have been wrong about religion over the centuries. Many of Peter's contemporaries believed Jupiter, Neptune and the rest were real gods. Even today, some people worship idols of wood, stone and metal. As I observed in the first of our studies of 2 Peter, either Christians are wrong or those who worship a god other than Jesus Christ are wrong. Similarly, either religious people are wrong or atheists are wrong. But Peter has a very good reason to believe he's not mistaken. He says, "we were eyewitnesses of his majesty". Peter was there. What he saw and heard changed his life.

Peter was right! He walked, talked, ate and drank with Jesus for three and a half years. If Jesus had been a fake, Peter would have noticed. If Jesus had been a madman, Peter would have realised. Instead, Peter saw Jesus's love, purity, wisdom and power, and came to know Him so well that he became convinced that Jesus is "the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16v16).

Peter could have chosen any of the incidents in Jesus life to describe his reasons for confidence that Jesus was God incarnate, but he chose to remind his fellow believers of the event we call the Transfiguration:

2 Peter 1v17-18
He [Jesus] received honour 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." We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

This story can be found in Matthew 17v1-9, Mark 9v2-10 and Luke 9v28-36. Jesus took Peter, James and John with him up a high mountain and "There he was transfigured before them" (Matthew 17v2a). Matthew describes Jesus's Transfiguration saying, "His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light" (Matthew 17v2b-3). Briefly, and for just these three men, Jesus allowed His divine glory to be seen. Then, "a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (Matthew 17v5b).

God the father first spoke these words over Jesus at His baptism, as the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove (Matthew 3v16-17). later, on what Peter calls "the sacred mountain", He spoke them from the cloud of His glory. Peter says, "We ourselves heard this voice". He could never forget it. And he could never be in any doubt that Jesus Christ is "our God and Saviour" as he said in Chapter 1 verse 1.

Peter, James and John Peter heard the gracious and wise words of Jesus, they saw the lame walk and the blind see. They saw the lepers healed and the demonised set free. They saw the dead raised to life. They witnessed the Resurrection and the Ascension. But it was the Transfiguration, when the veil of flesh was stripped away and they saw Jesus as He truly is, that Peter considered the best proof that Jesus is God. He and the others were "eyewitnesses of his majesty".

We will never have the wonderful experience of seeing Jesus Christ in the flesh as they did, but we who believe in Him can experience Him in many ways. And we have the trustworthy testimony of eyewitnesses Peter, James, John and others of Christ's love, His power and His divinity.