Peter as Pastor - Epiphany - 2 Peter 1 (P 30)

Have you had any epiphany moments in your life?  I would love to be sitting around a room with you sharing them together!  When have you seen God?  When have you heard from Him?  What has sealed your faith journey so that you will not walk away?  Those are epiphany moments!

Peter had one.  From what we have learned about Peter in this study, he has had many more than one. In our passage for today however, he references one of the most dramatic in his own life and walk with Jesus.  Read our passage from Peter first, then go back to the gospel and read the account of the 'moment' itself.

2 Peter 1: 16 - 21

Matthew 17: 1 - 8

What do you learn?  Peter reported what he learned.  In verse 16 we read that Peter learned Jesus was "coming".  Strange language since Jesus was with them.  But Peter saw the "coming of our Lord Jesus Christ".   Those first century Christians believed that Jesus would return - that He was coming.  They expected it.  They watched for it.  And they were beginning to get discouraged because days, weeks, months, years were passing and He had not come.  Peter writes to assure them that Jesus was, indeed, coming.  Because Peter himself had seen it.  He had seen Jesus returned.  He saw him that day on the mountain accompanied by two of Israel's faithful prophets.  Not perfect men, remember, but faithful men - Moses and Elijah.

It was a prophetic message.  One that had been spoken of for centuries.  The Holy Spirit had revealed this truth to prophets - they did not think it up to offer encouragement to a beleaguered people.  The message had come from God.  The prophets spoke what God, through His Holy Spirit directed.  Peter knew the prophetic messages.  And this moment on the mountain confirmed that message.  So Peter tells us that "we would do well to be attentive to this."  Are you?

Over two thousand years have passed since this writing.  Perhaps we need this reminder even more than those early believers.  We grow calloused to the reality.  We no longer watch with expectation for Jesus' return.  But Peter reassures all believers that Jesus, indeed, is coming.  He knows it ... because he saw it.  Do you believe it?  Will He find you faithful when the time is right?  Or do you subconsciously think the way you live today does not really matter?  Will you live today with that reality in the forefront of your mind?  He is coming, my friends.  May He find us faithful.

I love the language Peter chose to communicate exactly what this reality means to our lives here and now.  This belief, this truth, is like a "lamp shining in a dark place."  And our world is indeed a dark place!  As I write, the events in Charleston, S Carolina have recently transpired.  Innocent people, gathered in a church to worship God, gunned down senselessly, insanely.  Darkness.  As I write a group of people from my home church are on their way to Haiti.  They will encounter poverty and human misery that marks the lives of so many people.  They will encounter voodoo and evil. Darkness.
This world is a dark place and in desperate need of a lamp.  Here it is!  This belief - this 'knowing' that Jesus is coming - is like a lamp.  He is coming.  And He will make things right.

What happens when He comes?  It will be like "day dawning ... and the morning star rising in our hearts."

Dawn is coming.  

I believe it.  

I know it.  

Thank you, Peter, for sharing this epiphany with us!