The Most Sure Word of Prophecy
We left off in the previous study with Peter saying, Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. Second Peter 1:12
Peter has stated his intentions … to always remind us of this list of qualities we all need to maintain in our Christian walk.
But he is feeling the pressure of old age coming on.
Peter is reaching old age and is feeling the need to make provision for these specific guidelines to be accessible after he is gone.
13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,
14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
We have no way of knowing what Peter considered ‘old’. I would venture a guess that Peter, James and John … three of the fisherman disciples that Jesus called to be apostles, were in the same age bracket. John lived to be the oldest of all the apostles and eventually died of old age at about 90. I would imagine 70 would be considered old, and like the Psalmist David said … by reason of strength one might expect to reach 80.
Peter is getting up there. He knows that he will not die a ‘natural’ death. So he is not looking at symptoms, such as having a terminal disease. He is looking to be arrested and put to death. Jesus made this quite clear many years earlier. He said, Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go."
(This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) John 21:18-19
Bible scholars indicate that Peter ended up being crucified, but according to historians, asked to be crucified upside down, as he judged himself unworthy to be crucified like his Lord.
This is on Peter’s mind as he says to them, after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
I am so glad that he obeyed God’s prompting to make these words available to us. Surely Peter did not expect that his words would last a couple of thousand years. He actually thought that Jesus would return before his partner, John died. But God had other plans. Even today, we believe with all our hearts that His coming is drawing near. But the times and the seasons are in His hands. It is our responsibility to faithfully follow Peter’s words until He actually does come.
And the next thing that Peter does is to defend the words of his writings. He says, 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 eyewitnesses of his majesty. 16
Peter is assuring his readers that he was there. He saw it first hand. He is not merely repeating what someone else told him.
And what was it that stood out to Peter? It is all about Jesus and Who He really is. He mentions power and majesty. This brings to my mind Peter’s speech to the household of Cornelius. Let me insert it here from Acts chapter 10.
34 ¶ So Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,
35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all),
37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed:
38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree,
40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear,
41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
44 ¶ While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
As Peter continues to affirm the trustworthiness of his words he adds: 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,"
18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
What single event is Peter referring to here? It is, obviously in his mind, something very spectacular. What could be more spectacular than seeing Jesus alive, after the resurrection? Well, nothing could ever ‘top’ that. But Peter is not talking about that here. He is talking about ‘The Transfiguration’. Let’s refresh our minds and read about it in the Gospel of Matthew.
17:1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.
3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
4 And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."
5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."
What an incredible experience! If these three disciples had any doubts at all about whether Jesus was truly the Son of God … those doubts would now have totally disappeared. The adrenalin rush was huge. Their hearts would have been pounding. They could hardly wait to get down from the mountain and tell the others what it was like. But there is a bit more to this account.
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear."
8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead."
Well, now as Peter writes this, this is long after Jesus was raised from the dead, and he is free to tell us about it. But did you notice a side thought here, clearly they heard the first part, Tell no one. But how about the second part, ‘until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.’? Peter and the others did not really grasp that Jesus was going to die and be raised. Even though Jesus told them several times, they still did not get it. But as far we know, they did keep this secret about the Transfiguration.
Peter has mentioned this ‘secret event’ for a reason. He wants us to know how huge, phenomenal and special it was … so that he could compare it to something … even bigger.
And what would that be? Here it is in verses 19-21.
19 ¶ And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will 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,
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
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.
Notice Peter’s comparative words, more fully confirmed. He is going to mention something that he says carries more weight, that what he is writing is valid.
He talks about something that is like a lamp shining in a dark place. He mentions that this ‘light’ would keep on giving light right up to the time when Jesus Himself is back in our midst … or we are with Him.
And that ‘something’ is ‘prophecy of scripture’. The word prophecy could confuse us a bit, so let me say that the word prophecy does NOT mean predictions regarding the future. The word itself literally means a ‘telling forth’. Very often the word prophecy, when it is used in the New Testament especially, means preaching. But in its most biblical sense it means a ‘telling forth of the words of God.’
So you can see where, especially in the Old Testament, one might come to the conclusion that it means predicting the future. Because usually when the speaker was saying, “Thus saith the Lord…”, it had something to do with what was coming. In most cases the word of the Lord did have something to do with the future. But again, prophecy meant sharing the words of God, whether they had to do with the future or not.
So let’s not miss what Peter is saying here. Greater than the fact that he saw that incredible event on the mountain top, is what Peter sees in the written word of God.
He says, more fully confirmed, than what he saw is what holy men of God wrote. He is confirming what we have come to call ‘The inspired Word of God’.
Let's repeat verse 21 from the NKJV. 21 for prophecy (the spoken or written word of God) never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
For some reason the ESV left out the word ‘holy’ in verse 21. I think it is important to include it, like the New King James, and others do. Most likely the word ‘holy’ is missing from other translations because the word was missing in some of the older ancient manuscripts.
But to leave that word in place helps us to transition to what Peter is about to say. He is now going to talk about and warn against some very ‘unholy’ men.
1 ¶ But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
As Peter is thinking back about the ‘holy’ men who recorded God's actual words, words that are more important than our ‘phenomenal’ experiences, he acknowledges that there were some unholy ones too. We need to watch out for them. He told these scattered believers to watch out for them. He said they WILL come.
He talks about what makes them so bad. Even though they may come in secretly, there is something much worse than that. It has to do with divisive teaching centered on who Jesus is. Peter calls them ‘Christ deniers;. even denying the Master who bought them.
Is Jesus a created being, as some religious organizations teach? More than one influential group teaches that Jesus, in the New Testament, was actually Michael the Archangel in the Old Testament. But clearly Michael the archangel is a created being.
Jesus is God. This is taught clearly in the Bible. However, not clearly enough for some people, apparently, or they would not be able to teach otherwise and still have a following of people.
We need to really meditate on passages like John the first chapter.
1:1 ¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
John begins his gospel mentioning ‘The Word’. Then he tells us that the Word created everything that was made. Our bibles are accurate as we read in Genesis, “Let Us make man in our own image.” In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The word God is Elohim, which contains the element of being plural. Even though angels were present, and some of them are even referred to as ‘Elohim’ in scripture, what we have in Genesis is a plural type of God that we call a ‘Trinity’.
The ‘Spirit’ of God moved across the face of the waters. The Father is often spoken of as being the creator. But in John’s gospel it could not be more clear. Jesus, the Word was there. And He is God. And He created everything.
Why is any of this important? Simply this, to provide payment for sin, God had to pay it Himself. He could not have anyone else make the payment.
So Peter warns … people will come to you, playing down, or ignoring completely, the necessity of God Himself paying off our sin debt Himself.
This ‘heresy’, says Peter, is destructive. Without PROPER evangelism being preached in our churches, we will have CONVERTS who believe something, but not what it takes to actually be saved. Someone has said, they have their consciences salved, not their spirits saved. Many of our church attenders and adherents could very likely be headed for hell without knowing it. And it will be the fault of the leadership, because they presented a Jesus that can be believed in without first having godly sorrow for our sin, without first believing that only our God can pay for our sin, and without repenting of our sin based on our trusting that Jesus, God, really died in our place.
Minimizing, or reducing salvation to “Just believe in Jesus, put your faith in Him'' is not complete enough. That is destructive. It explains nothing. People are added who are not saved, but they think they are. That is destructive and tragic.
Why would anyone try to short circuit the gospel? Peter talks about the worst of the worst in the next few verses. And we will read all about it in the next session. But for now let me talk about the motives of real christian leadership who may be guilty of minimizing the gospel.
What might be their motive? First of all, they may themselves be in error. Even though their own salvation experience was complete, if they really don’t see the importance of making it that plain and complete in their preaching… we could call it an honest mistake. But even so, their converts may still be unsaved. It does not make the preacher a ‘false prophet’ as such. But it is still a great concern that the complete gospel is neglected in many of our evangelical churches today.
Another motive might be that, the pressure of knowing that ‘broad is the way that leads to destruction’, they have relooked at the gospel message, and really believe that we have made it too complicated, and they have simplified it to make it easier to present to a greater number of people. It can result in talking people into ‘believing’, marking it down as another one gained for the kingdom of God, and then moving on to do the same over and over again.
The true and complete gospel has been made very clear by Jesus. For one thing, I mentioned the verse about the broad way that leads to destruction … the other half of that, is that the way to Life is narrow and difficult. Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Luke 13:24
The word strive is rendered as make every effort in the New International Version. And I like that version.
To get a better grip on what the complete gospel looks like, let’s focus on how Jesus explains it in Matthew 13.
I have taken it from the Philips Translation.
18 "Now listen to the parable of the sower.
19 When a man hears the message of the kingdom and does not grasp it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is like the seed sown by the road-side.
20 The seed sown on the stony patches represents the man who hears the message and eagerly accepts it.
21 But it has not taken root in him and does not last long — the moment trouble or persecution arises through the message he gives up his faith at once.
22 The seed sown among the thorns represents the man who hears the message, and then the worries of this life and the illusions of wealth choke it to death and so it produces no ‘crop’ in his life.
23 But the seed sown on good soil is the man who both hears and understands the message. His life shows a good crop, a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
Sowing the seed, obviously, means spreading the gospel. This version calls it the message of the kingdom.
It reveals the condition of the heart of people in four different categories. Three out of the four end up with a very disappointing result. I think we have no problem understanding what Jesus is saying about the first category. Simply that some of our gospel words and testimony have no effect at all. The individuals who ‘accidently’ hear our testimony are so preoccupied with other things, or they are so convinced that there is no God that they don’t even give it a second thought. The Devil has snatched that seed away.
But in the next two categories we see something very crucial. In the first one, the situation has something to do with rocks. Stony ground. In the next one it has to do with the emphasis that a person puts on the affairs of life.
When a simple message like, “Just trust Jesus as your personal Saviour and you will end up going to heaven!” is proclaimed, we can do real damage.
In the case of the ‘stony ground’, the sower did not adequately prepare this person by telling the whole story. Jesus said, when persecution happened, they bailed. They did not expect it. They could honestly say, Nobody told me this could happen. I don’t want this.
And that is the problem. The sower is supposed to prepare them for this. No farmer merely sows seed on ground that he knows is all full of rocks. He works very, very hard to prepare the soil by removing rocks and placing them on the edge of the field.
How do we as sowers, prepare rocky soil to receive seed? We present the whole gospel, not just the easy good part.
This becomes very clear in another of Jesus’ parables.
Here it is; 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:28-33
This is a double parable. In the first part we have someone who simply did not know what it would cost to complete a tower. The tower in the parable represents living out our lives as a Christian to the very end. So the question that a ‘seeker’ should be asking is, If I become a Christian, what is it going to cost me? How will this affect the rest of my life? That is what they should be asking. But really, that is what the sower should be explaining, even if the person does not ask the question.
Some ‘sowers’ have answered the question in a very wrong way. They have said, Christianity doesn’t cost anything! It is God’s free gift!
So the person accepts it … and boom, persecution hits. It begins to cost the individual dearly. They wanted eternal life, not persecution.
The real truth is in verse 33. What is the cost of salvation? Everything that you have. You and your possessions are renounced … given to God. But another side of that is … when the gospel is presented properly the recipient understands that he is dead in sin. His life is forfeit. He has no future in Heaven with God … but then he also realizes that Jesus bought him, and now he, and all that he has belongs to God. This is a process of counting the cost. He is weighing it in his heart.
“My whole life will be changed. This could cost me my friends and even family. People will think that I am crazy. I may not get promotions at work. Some day I might even have to stand against authorities. I could die. Is it worth it? Remind me again … what is heaven like? You mean I will have that relationship with Jesus forever? Yes, it IS worth it. I am committing myself and all I have and ever will have to Jesus. I am His.”
As this person trusts Christ for salvation, there will be no ‘surprises’. He has counted the cost. The ‘rocks’ have been removed from the soil. He has been properly prepared to receive the good seed.
Here is part two of Jesus' parable about counting the cost before committing your life to Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
This is talking about the cost of becoming a Christian, but in a somewhat different sense.
In this story we have two kings. One is much stronger than the other. The ‘weaker’ king represents any ordinary individual who has not yet bowed the knee to Jesus. He is a king. That is, he, up to this point, is in charge of his own life. But it has been brought to his attention that everything is about to change.
In this story we are describing the person who has just been convinced that there really is a God. He is thinking, “This King (Jesus) is stronger than me. And he is coming toward me. If I do nothing .. I am a dead man. If I do nothing, it will cost me my life. What can I do? I will surrender. I will be his captive and everything I have will be his. But at least I will be alive.”
Translate that into gospel language … Jesus is real … he is coming back. If I do nothing, I am going to hell. I will surrender everything to him so that he does not send me to hell. I will be allowed to live.” And, we can add this … I will be allowed to live in the joys of God’s eternal kingdom forever!
So this man, just like the first one, had to count the cost. “If I fight against him, I am dead. If I do nothing, I am dead, If I surrender my life and my possessions, I get to live.”
back to Jesus’ story of the sower. 22 The seed sown among the thorns represents the man who hears the message, and then the worries of this life and the illusions of wealth choke it to death and so it produces no ‘crop’ in his life.
This person was told that there is good news. Trust Jesus as your Saviour and you will have eternal life. Obviously, when he heard that, he said, “Yes! I want that!”
In reality we can see that this is a person who is very wrapped up in having possessions. He is preoccupied with ‘illusions of wealth’. He likes stuff. He wants more stuff. When a possibility of eternal life is presented, (with no mention of counting the cost) he says, “Yes, I want that!” His problem is all about him and his wants. He is not seeing himself as a doomed sinner. He is not seeing any faults whatever about himself. He wants stuff and thinks he deserves stuff. It is all about him. There is no repentance. He was not adequately prepared by the sower. No one told him to first count the cost. This person ‘thinks’ he is a saved born again believer, but in reality he is still unsaved. Responding to a shortened and over simplified form of the Gospel, does not produce a genuine child of God.
Becoming a genuine believer involves going through a very narrow and difficult door.
We have been talking about these verses:
2:1 ¶ But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
False teachers. Some are secretive and know very well what they are doing in our churches. Some are deceived and can not see the harm that they are causing. But any gospel that does not really produce genuine believers is a destructive false gospel. Peter calls it a destructive heresy.
The sad truth is in Peter’s prediction …2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.
Satan is real. He has his ‘informers’ in as many congregations as he possibly can. He rejoices in seeing a distorted and powerless gospel being presented. Of course he rejoices when he sees some churches presenting almost no gospel at all. And I am sure he rejoices when a distorted, abbreviated, powerless gospel is presented by some preachers who do it innocently. He does not care, just as long as a powerful, lifegiving gospel is not presented.
Peter has stated his intentions … to always remind us of this list of qualities we all need to maintain in our Christian walk.
But he is feeling the pressure of old age coming on.
Peter is reaching old age and is feeling the need to make provision for these specific guidelines to be accessible after he is gone.
13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,
14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
We have no way of knowing what Peter considered ‘old’. I would venture a guess that Peter, James and John … three of the fisherman disciples that Jesus called to be apostles, were in the same age bracket. John lived to be the oldest of all the apostles and eventually died of old age at about 90. I would imagine 70 would be considered old, and like the Psalmist David said … by reason of strength one might expect to reach 80.
Peter is getting up there. He knows that he will not die a ‘natural’ death. So he is not looking at symptoms, such as having a terminal disease. He is looking to be arrested and put to death. Jesus made this quite clear many years earlier. He said, Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go."
(This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) John 21:18-19
Bible scholars indicate that Peter ended up being crucified, but according to historians, asked to be crucified upside down, as he judged himself unworthy to be crucified like his Lord.
This is on Peter’s mind as he says to them, after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
I am so glad that he obeyed God’s prompting to make these words available to us. Surely Peter did not expect that his words would last a couple of thousand years. He actually thought that Jesus would return before his partner, John died. But God had other plans. Even today, we believe with all our hearts that His coming is drawing near. But the times and the seasons are in His hands. It is our responsibility to faithfully follow Peter’s words until He actually does come.
And the next thing that Peter does is to defend the words of his writings. He says, 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 eyewitnesses of his majesty. 16
Peter is assuring his readers that he was there. He saw it first hand. He is not merely repeating what someone else told him.
And what was it that stood out to Peter? It is all about Jesus and Who He really is. He mentions power and majesty. This brings to my mind Peter’s speech to the household of Cornelius. Let me insert it here from Acts chapter 10.
34 ¶ So Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,
35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all),
37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed:
38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree,
40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear,
41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
44 ¶ While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
As Peter continues to affirm the trustworthiness of his words he adds: 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,"
18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
What single event is Peter referring to here? It is, obviously in his mind, something very spectacular. What could be more spectacular than seeing Jesus alive, after the resurrection? Well, nothing could ever ‘top’ that. But Peter is not talking about that here. He is talking about ‘The Transfiguration’. Let’s refresh our minds and read about it in the Gospel of Matthew.
17:1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.
3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
4 And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."
5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."
What an incredible experience! If these three disciples had any doubts at all about whether Jesus was truly the Son of God … those doubts would now have totally disappeared. The adrenalin rush was huge. Their hearts would have been pounding. They could hardly wait to get down from the mountain and tell the others what it was like. But there is a bit more to this account.
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear."
8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead."
Well, now as Peter writes this, this is long after Jesus was raised from the dead, and he is free to tell us about it. But did you notice a side thought here, clearly they heard the first part, Tell no one. But how about the second part, ‘until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.’? Peter and the others did not really grasp that Jesus was going to die and be raised. Even though Jesus told them several times, they still did not get it. But as far we know, they did keep this secret about the Transfiguration.
Peter has mentioned this ‘secret event’ for a reason. He wants us to know how huge, phenomenal and special it was … so that he could compare it to something … even bigger.
And what would that be? Here it is in verses 19-21.
19 ¶ And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will 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,
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
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.
Notice Peter’s comparative words, more fully confirmed. He is going to mention something that he says carries more weight, that what he is writing is valid.
He talks about something that is like a lamp shining in a dark place. He mentions that this ‘light’ would keep on giving light right up to the time when Jesus Himself is back in our midst … or we are with Him.
And that ‘something’ is ‘prophecy of scripture’. The word prophecy could confuse us a bit, so let me say that the word prophecy does NOT mean predictions regarding the future. The word itself literally means a ‘telling forth’. Very often the word prophecy, when it is used in the New Testament especially, means preaching. But in its most biblical sense it means a ‘telling forth of the words of God.’
So you can see where, especially in the Old Testament, one might come to the conclusion that it means predicting the future. Because usually when the speaker was saying, “Thus saith the Lord…”, it had something to do with what was coming. In most cases the word of the Lord did have something to do with the future. But again, prophecy meant sharing the words of God, whether they had to do with the future or not.
So let’s not miss what Peter is saying here. Greater than the fact that he saw that incredible event on the mountain top, is what Peter sees in the written word of God.
He says, more fully confirmed, than what he saw is what holy men of God wrote. He is confirming what we have come to call ‘The inspired Word of God’.
Let's repeat verse 21 from the NKJV. 21 for prophecy (the spoken or written word of God) never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
For some reason the ESV left out the word ‘holy’ in verse 21. I think it is important to include it, like the New King James, and others do. Most likely the word ‘holy’ is missing from other translations because the word was missing in some of the older ancient manuscripts.
But to leave that word in place helps us to transition to what Peter is about to say. He is now going to talk about and warn against some very ‘unholy’ men.
1 ¶ But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
As Peter is thinking back about the ‘holy’ men who recorded God's actual words, words that are more important than our ‘phenomenal’ experiences, he acknowledges that there were some unholy ones too. We need to watch out for them. He told these scattered believers to watch out for them. He said they WILL come.
He talks about what makes them so bad. Even though they may come in secretly, there is something much worse than that. It has to do with divisive teaching centered on who Jesus is. Peter calls them ‘Christ deniers;. even denying the Master who bought them.
Is Jesus a created being, as some religious organizations teach? More than one influential group teaches that Jesus, in the New Testament, was actually Michael the Archangel in the Old Testament. But clearly Michael the archangel is a created being.
Jesus is God. This is taught clearly in the Bible. However, not clearly enough for some people, apparently, or they would not be able to teach otherwise and still have a following of people.
We need to really meditate on passages like John the first chapter.
1:1 ¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
John begins his gospel mentioning ‘The Word’. Then he tells us that the Word created everything that was made. Our bibles are accurate as we read in Genesis, “Let Us make man in our own image.” In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The word God is Elohim, which contains the element of being plural. Even though angels were present, and some of them are even referred to as ‘Elohim’ in scripture, what we have in Genesis is a plural type of God that we call a ‘Trinity’.
The ‘Spirit’ of God moved across the face of the waters. The Father is often spoken of as being the creator. But in John’s gospel it could not be more clear. Jesus, the Word was there. And He is God. And He created everything.
Why is any of this important? Simply this, to provide payment for sin, God had to pay it Himself. He could not have anyone else make the payment.
So Peter warns … people will come to you, playing down, or ignoring completely, the necessity of God Himself paying off our sin debt Himself.
This ‘heresy’, says Peter, is destructive. Without PROPER evangelism being preached in our churches, we will have CONVERTS who believe something, but not what it takes to actually be saved. Someone has said, they have their consciences salved, not their spirits saved. Many of our church attenders and adherents could very likely be headed for hell without knowing it. And it will be the fault of the leadership, because they presented a Jesus that can be believed in without first having godly sorrow for our sin, without first believing that only our God can pay for our sin, and without repenting of our sin based on our trusting that Jesus, God, really died in our place.
Minimizing, or reducing salvation to “Just believe in Jesus, put your faith in Him'' is not complete enough. That is destructive. It explains nothing. People are added who are not saved, but they think they are. That is destructive and tragic.
Why would anyone try to short circuit the gospel? Peter talks about the worst of the worst in the next few verses. And we will read all about it in the next session. But for now let me talk about the motives of real christian leadership who may be guilty of minimizing the gospel.
What might be their motive? First of all, they may themselves be in error. Even though their own salvation experience was complete, if they really don’t see the importance of making it that plain and complete in their preaching… we could call it an honest mistake. But even so, their converts may still be unsaved. It does not make the preacher a ‘false prophet’ as such. But it is still a great concern that the complete gospel is neglected in many of our evangelical churches today.
Another motive might be that, the pressure of knowing that ‘broad is the way that leads to destruction’, they have relooked at the gospel message, and really believe that we have made it too complicated, and they have simplified it to make it easier to present to a greater number of people. It can result in talking people into ‘believing’, marking it down as another one gained for the kingdom of God, and then moving on to do the same over and over again.
The true and complete gospel has been made very clear by Jesus. For one thing, I mentioned the verse about the broad way that leads to destruction … the other half of that, is that the way to Life is narrow and difficult. Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Luke 13:24
The word strive is rendered as make every effort in the New International Version. And I like that version.
To get a better grip on what the complete gospel looks like, let’s focus on how Jesus explains it in Matthew 13.
I have taken it from the Philips Translation.
18 "Now listen to the parable of the sower.
19 When a man hears the message of the kingdom and does not grasp it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is like the seed sown by the road-side.
20 The seed sown on the stony patches represents the man who hears the message and eagerly accepts it.
21 But it has not taken root in him and does not last long — the moment trouble or persecution arises through the message he gives up his faith at once.
22 The seed sown among the thorns represents the man who hears the message, and then the worries of this life and the illusions of wealth choke it to death and so it produces no ‘crop’ in his life.
23 But the seed sown on good soil is the man who both hears and understands the message. His life shows a good crop, a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
Sowing the seed, obviously, means spreading the gospel. This version calls it the message of the kingdom.
It reveals the condition of the heart of people in four different categories. Three out of the four end up with a very disappointing result. I think we have no problem understanding what Jesus is saying about the first category. Simply that some of our gospel words and testimony have no effect at all. The individuals who ‘accidently’ hear our testimony are so preoccupied with other things, or they are so convinced that there is no God that they don’t even give it a second thought. The Devil has snatched that seed away.
But in the next two categories we see something very crucial. In the first one, the situation has something to do with rocks. Stony ground. In the next one it has to do with the emphasis that a person puts on the affairs of life.
When a simple message like, “Just trust Jesus as your personal Saviour and you will end up going to heaven!” is proclaimed, we can do real damage.
In the case of the ‘stony ground’, the sower did not adequately prepare this person by telling the whole story. Jesus said, when persecution happened, they bailed. They did not expect it. They could honestly say, Nobody told me this could happen. I don’t want this.
And that is the problem. The sower is supposed to prepare them for this. No farmer merely sows seed on ground that he knows is all full of rocks. He works very, very hard to prepare the soil by removing rocks and placing them on the edge of the field.
How do we as sowers, prepare rocky soil to receive seed? We present the whole gospel, not just the easy good part.
This becomes very clear in another of Jesus’ parables.
Here it is; 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:28-33
This is a double parable. In the first part we have someone who simply did not know what it would cost to complete a tower. The tower in the parable represents living out our lives as a Christian to the very end. So the question that a ‘seeker’ should be asking is, If I become a Christian, what is it going to cost me? How will this affect the rest of my life? That is what they should be asking. But really, that is what the sower should be explaining, even if the person does not ask the question.
Some ‘sowers’ have answered the question in a very wrong way. They have said, Christianity doesn’t cost anything! It is God’s free gift!
So the person accepts it … and boom, persecution hits. It begins to cost the individual dearly. They wanted eternal life, not persecution.
The real truth is in verse 33. What is the cost of salvation? Everything that you have. You and your possessions are renounced … given to God. But another side of that is … when the gospel is presented properly the recipient understands that he is dead in sin. His life is forfeit. He has no future in Heaven with God … but then he also realizes that Jesus bought him, and now he, and all that he has belongs to God. This is a process of counting the cost. He is weighing it in his heart.
“My whole life will be changed. This could cost me my friends and even family. People will think that I am crazy. I may not get promotions at work. Some day I might even have to stand against authorities. I could die. Is it worth it? Remind me again … what is heaven like? You mean I will have that relationship with Jesus forever? Yes, it IS worth it. I am committing myself and all I have and ever will have to Jesus. I am His.”
As this person trusts Christ for salvation, there will be no ‘surprises’. He has counted the cost. The ‘rocks’ have been removed from the soil. He has been properly prepared to receive the good seed.
Here is part two of Jesus' parable about counting the cost before committing your life to Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
This is talking about the cost of becoming a Christian, but in a somewhat different sense.
In this story we have two kings. One is much stronger than the other. The ‘weaker’ king represents any ordinary individual who has not yet bowed the knee to Jesus. He is a king. That is, he, up to this point, is in charge of his own life. But it has been brought to his attention that everything is about to change.
In this story we are describing the person who has just been convinced that there really is a God. He is thinking, “This King (Jesus) is stronger than me. And he is coming toward me. If I do nothing .. I am a dead man. If I do nothing, it will cost me my life. What can I do? I will surrender. I will be his captive and everything I have will be his. But at least I will be alive.”
Translate that into gospel language … Jesus is real … he is coming back. If I do nothing, I am going to hell. I will surrender everything to him so that he does not send me to hell. I will be allowed to live.” And, we can add this … I will be allowed to live in the joys of God’s eternal kingdom forever!
So this man, just like the first one, had to count the cost. “If I fight against him, I am dead. If I do nothing, I am dead, If I surrender my life and my possessions, I get to live.”
back to Jesus’ story of the sower. 22 The seed sown among the thorns represents the man who hears the message, and then the worries of this life and the illusions of wealth choke it to death and so it produces no ‘crop’ in his life.
This person was told that there is good news. Trust Jesus as your Saviour and you will have eternal life. Obviously, when he heard that, he said, “Yes! I want that!”
In reality we can see that this is a person who is very wrapped up in having possessions. He is preoccupied with ‘illusions of wealth’. He likes stuff. He wants more stuff. When a possibility of eternal life is presented, (with no mention of counting the cost) he says, “Yes, I want that!” His problem is all about him and his wants. He is not seeing himself as a doomed sinner. He is not seeing any faults whatever about himself. He wants stuff and thinks he deserves stuff. It is all about him. There is no repentance. He was not adequately prepared by the sower. No one told him to first count the cost. This person ‘thinks’ he is a saved born again believer, but in reality he is still unsaved. Responding to a shortened and over simplified form of the Gospel, does not produce a genuine child of God.
Becoming a genuine believer involves going through a very narrow and difficult door.
We have been talking about these verses:
2:1 ¶ But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
False teachers. Some are secretive and know very well what they are doing in our churches. Some are deceived and can not see the harm that they are causing. But any gospel that does not really produce genuine believers is a destructive false gospel. Peter calls it a destructive heresy.
The sad truth is in Peter’s prediction …2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.
Satan is real. He has his ‘informers’ in as many congregations as he possibly can. He rejoices in seeing a distorted and powerless gospel being presented. Of course he rejoices when he sees some churches presenting almost no gospel at all. And I am sure he rejoices when a distorted, abbreviated, powerless gospel is presented by some preachers who do it innocently. He does not care, just as long as a powerful, lifegiving gospel is not presented.