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Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in here at Trinity Streetsville. We are a group of ordinary

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people learning to follow Jesus in our day. Hey, do you ever wonder what people mean when

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they say that the Bible is inspired or that the Bible has authority? Well, today we're

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in for a treat. We have a guest speaker, Professor Justin Stratus from Wycliffe College. It is

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here today to talk to us all about the power of the Bible.

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A reading from 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 16 to 21.

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For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we were told you about the coming of

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our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honour

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and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory saying,

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This is my son, whom I love. With him I am very well pleased. We ourselves heard this

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voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

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We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well

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to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the

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morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture

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came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin

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in human will, but prophets through human spoke from God as though they were carried

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along by the Holy Spirit. This is the word of the Lord.

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So yeah, my name is Justin and I'm your guest preacher today. Apologies for that. Rob will

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be back next week. Let's have a word of prayer and then we'll get into it.

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Lord we believe, help thou our unbelief. Amen.

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Okay, so our text this morning comes from 2 Peter, which if you haven't read it, is

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for my money one of the weirdest books in the New Testament. It's very strange. There's

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so many strange aspects to it. I mean there's bits that talk about angels that are going

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to hell. There's stuff about the entire world being destroyed by fire. Not to mention the

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fact that most scholars actually don't think that Peter the apostle wrote this letter.

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So it's a very strange book of scripture, but it's the weirdness of 2 Peter that I think

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actually helps it fit quite well into our sermon series. Because as Rob has been teaching

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us over these past few weeks, the trick is to learn to think about the Bible like grownups.

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And that means frankly grappling with the fact that the Bible is so weird. Not least

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because it was written thousands of years ago in all sorts of cultures that just aren't

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familiar to us today. And therefore it would be immature to just kind of pretend that those

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confusing aspects of the Bible just aren't there. Right? That it's easy to read. That

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you can just pick up the Bible and fully understand everything about ancient Near Eastern and

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Greco-Roman culture immediately. Because at the end of the day, grownups have to face

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reality and grownup readers of the Bible have to face the reality of what the Bible actually

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is. As one of my old Bible professors used to say, when you pick up your Bible, it's

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like you're traveling to another world. But there's another side of the coin. The Bible

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isn't just an ancient text. Mature readers of scripture also want to say that the Bible

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is God's Word. And that means there's more to this book than the times and places it

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happened to come from. In fact, mature Christians believe that the Bible is in some sense alive.

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That it has the power to transform us from the inside out, as Rob explained last week.

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Which is why, in addition to Rob, the book of Hebrews also claims that, quote, the Word

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of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, dividing soul and

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spirit and joints and marrow. To put it another way, Christians believe that the Bible does

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stuff. It can do things. So what is it about the Bible that makes it both an ancient text

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that was written many, many thousands of years ago and also somehow the words of the living

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God? Words that address not just its original readers, but even us sitting here in Mississauga

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in 2024. Now the answer to that question concerns what theologians have traditionally called

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the doctrine of biblical inspiration. Some of you might know that my day job is talking

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about theology and stuff at Wycliffe College. So I like to say words like doctrine a lot.

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So apologies for that. But this is the doctrine of biblical inspiration. It's the idea that

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the Holy Spirit had kind of a hand in the writing of scripture in and with the human

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beings who did the actual writing. And that word, inspiration, comes from the passage

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that we heard about last week from 2 Timothy chapter 3, where the apostle Paul says that

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all scripture is inspired of God, or literally breathed out by God. That's what that word

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means, inspire. So what I want to do this morning is talk a little bit about how this

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morning's passage from 2 Peter 1 fits in with this doctrine of biblical inspiration.

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First by talking a little bit about the context of that passage, and then by thinking through

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some of the implications of it for how we think about the Bible. And I want to focus

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especially on verse 21, which, true to form, is a weird verse. In that verse it says that

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prophets spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So let's turn to

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2 Peter 1. And if you have a Bible or a Bible app, now would be a time to get that in hand.

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There's a couple places in the world where it's not weird to just whip out a Bible, and

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one of them is church. So if you have it, now's the time. Now, as the title suggests,

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this letter claims to have been written by the apostle Peter. And whether or not that's

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true, it's clear that the author wants his readers to do something very specific. He

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wants his readers to remember what the apostle Peter taught them about Jesus. In fact, he

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says three times in verses 12 through 15, I will always remind you of things. It is

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right to refresh your memory. See that after my departure, you remember these things. In

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particular, he wants his readers to remember a very specific thing that Peter taught them.

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And that is that Jesus Christ was coming back. That he didn't just sort of float away into

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the ether, you know, like a hot air balloon in the ascension, but Jesus was coming back

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just as he promised he would. Now remember, Peter was there when Jesus Christ ascended

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into heaven after his resurrection. He was there when the angels told the crowd, men

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of Galilee, why do you stand here looking at the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken

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from you into heaven will come back in the same way you've seen him go into heaven. Peter

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was there when that happened. That's why he says in verse 16, we did not follow cleverly

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devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power,

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but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. What Peter's worried about here is the possibility

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that after he dies, people would start to forget that all these things about Jesus actually

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happened. That somehow Jesus's teachings, all that he said and did would transform from

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being an account about real events and turn into some kind of abstract religious sort

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of thing. In fact, even that word that's translated cleverly devised stories in the NIV is based

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on this Greek word mythos. It's the word that we get our English word myth from. So Peter

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saying, if you forget my teachings, you're going to be more and more tempted as time

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passes on to think of Jesus as just kind of like a religious myth rather than a real person

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that we saw, that we talked with, that we hung out with. It's the same sort of thing

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that we do on Remembrance Sunday. It's the idea that if you're not absolutely intentional

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about remembering the past, it starts to get easy to sort of mythologize the past or in

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some cases deny the past altogether. Right? There's people in this world that deny the

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Holocaust. One of the most monumental, horrific events in human history. And they say it never

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happened because the further you get from certain events, the easier it gets to deny

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that they ever even happened unless you make it a point to remember. So Peter is saying,

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look, when you hear stories about Jesus, remember that they're based on the testimonies and

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the memories of actual eyewitnesses, people who were there, who talked with Jesus, who

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spent years with him, who watched him die on the cross, who saw him after he was resurrected

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and who heard him with his voice promise that he would return again. But more than that,

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Peter says, these people actually saw Jesus' glory. As he puts it in verses 17 through

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18, he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the

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majestic glory. What an interesting phrase. Saying, this is my son whom I love with him

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I'm well pleased. And Peter goes on to say, we ourselves heard this voice that came from

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heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. So Peter's very exercised that people

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are going to forget this. Why is he so concerned that his readers would forget all the stuff

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that he taught them about Jesus? Well, there's two reasons. The first one, as he hints in

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verses 12 through 15, is that he's about to die. He's nervous that once he goes, once

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his generation goes, that the stories of Jesus will go with him. And I'm sure many of us

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have experienced this with our elderly relatives. That sort of frantic telling and retelling

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of family stories that comes at the end of one's life. I had that experience, I remember

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when my grandmother died, I got many, many stories over and over, the same thing. I thought,

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oh no, is she sort of getting into senility here? Or maybe she's just concerned that even

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the words she's using to tell these stories get burned into my mind. Right? Peter's like

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that. He wants these people to remember. People get nervous at the end of their lives that

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the family lore will get buried with them. And Peter was no different. So he urges his

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readers, look, one day I'm going to be gone, but don't forget this stuff about Jesus. But

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there's another reason that he's worried. And that's the fact that there were people

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in the church who were actively trying to get people to deny Peter's teachings. In fact,

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pretty much the rest of the letter is Peter warning his followers to be on their guard

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against what he calls false or pseudo prophets and teachers. I mean, pretty much the rest

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of the letters, him kind of ranting about these people. If you want to avoid getting

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tricked by these people, Peter says, you can't forget what I taught you. But why should we

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trust Peter's teachings? What makes Peter's teachings and his message so special? Again,

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two reasons. The first, as we already said, is that Peter and his companions were eye

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witnesses to Jesus. They were Jesus's homies, if you like. They knew him. The false teachers

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did not know Jesus. They were speculating. But the second reason is this. Peter says,

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you should trust me and all the other apostles' teachings about Jesus over and against the

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false teachers because our teachings are authorized by the Old Testament scriptures. In other

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words, not only did they see Jesus with their own eyes, but they also knew who Jesus is

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because they believed what the Old Testament prophets said about him, that Jesus is the

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Messiah and the Son of God. So if you're Peter's readers, you have a choice. Either you're

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going to believe the false teachers who claim that Jesus is never coming back, that we should

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turn Jesus into just another religion and trust them about what that religion is about,

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or you believe Peter and the apostles and the prophets who insist that Jesus is real

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and he is coming back. Ah, but you say, skeptic that you are, maybe the apostles and the prophets

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are just making things up. No, says Peter, we're not making stuff up. We knew him personally

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and we actually saw his glory revealed right over there on that mountain that I'm pointing

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to right now, the imaginary mountain. But maybe the prophets were just making things

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up. No, says Peter in verses 20 and 21, no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophets'

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own interpretation of things for prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but

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prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

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So the implication is this, you go with the apostles and the prophets and you kick the

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false teachers to the curb. That's Peter's argument in this whole letter. But what's

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interesting about this for our sermon series especially is what Peter says about the prophets.

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Now back in the Old Testament, as you know, God used to call certain folks and have them

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kind of say whatever he wanted them to say. So you have, for example, the prophet Amos,

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who's hanging out tending sheep one day when all of a sudden God sends him a vision and

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off he is prophesying God's word to the people. Or Isaiah, who's chilling in Judah when God

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grabs him and shows him everything that's going to happen to the southern kingdom for

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several generations. These prophets played a major role in Israel's history and what

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they wrote down became precious writings and scrolls that are cherished by the Jewish community

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to this day. But even if you buy that God really revealed himself to these people, right,

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that Amos didn't just have a bad trip, that he actually had a vision of God in that sheep

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field, even if you buy that, can you really trust that what they wrote down about those

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visions is accurate? I mean, I've had all sorts of dreams in my life, right? I would

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be hard pressed to write down everything I've dreamt with pinpoint accuracy, let alone interpret

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my dreams with any sense of coherence. So the prophets had visions. Are they remembering

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them correctly? Are they interpreting them correctly? To put an even finer point on it

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for us, can we trust what they wrote down? Peter's argument is that yes, you can trust

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the prophets. Not only did God give them the vision, God also helped them to interpret

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the vision and he carried them along by the Holy Spirit so that what they said and wrote

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really was the word of God. That's why the words of the prophets are, in Peter's words,

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completely reliable, as he says in verse 19, because the prophetic writings are a product

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of God's will as God used these people to speak and record what he wanted them to, not

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just for the generations in which they lived, but for future generations too, particularly

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the generations who would be the eyewitnesses to the reality of what the prophets talked

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about, which was the coming of the Messiah and the person of Jesus Christ. So here's

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where things get interesting. So the prophets were carried along, carried along by the Holy

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Spirit as they wrote down the word of the Lord. What about the New Testament? Were the

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New Testament authors also carried along by the Spirit in which they wrote? Well, there's

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a lot of reasons why the church eventually recognized the New Testament as having the

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kind of authority that the Old Testament has. And we don't have time to go over all these

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this morning, but there's one reason that's present right here in this epistle in 2 Peter.

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In chapter 3 verse 16, the author actually mentions another apostle, the apostle Paul,

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and he refers to Paul's letters as hard to understand. Maybe for him, I find Romans incredibly

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easy to read, but for him, it was hard to understand. So hard that people use that as

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an opportunity to try and distort Paul's message, quote, as they do the other scriptures. And

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that word scriptures, graphé in Greek, is the same word that's used in 2 Timothy 3 16,

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which says, quote, all scripture graphé is inspired of God. So what Peter is implying

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is that Paul's letters actually belong in the same category as those Old Testament writings

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that he appealed to in the first chapter to bolster his own teachings about Jesus. The

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point is this, what makes something more than just writing, what makes a particular text

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scripture this higher category is the fact that the Holy Spirit supernaturally oversaw

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its composition. The Spirit was there when this stuff was being written down so that

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the text is somehow able to reflect or participate in the actual word of God. It's why when we

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read the Bible today, the Lord is able to reveal himself through these old, old texts

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to us, just like he did to the original authors. So yes, the Bible was written by human beings

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in all sorts of times and places, but because of the presence of the Spirit, the Bible is

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also the word of God. That's what the Christian doctrine of biblical inspiration teaches.

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And that's the reason why we can talk about the Bible, which again, in Greek, is just

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a word that means book. Vivlos means book. That's why we can talk about the Bible as

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holy. It is the Holy Bible, a holy book, not just because it's closer historically speaking

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to Jesus and the prophets and the apostles. The Bible is holy because it's a human text

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that has been sanctified or set apart, made holy by the Lord from the very point of its

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writing as its authors were carried along by the Holy Spirit. And that's where the

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power of the Bible comes from, because the Bible is ultimately a product of the Holy

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Spirit's ministry in our midst. All Bibles are Pentecostal Bibles. They're all charismatic

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Bibles because they're works of the Spirit. As Rob said last week, the Bible can do things

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that other kinds of books can't do because of this. It doesn't just inform us, but it

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can also transform us. Of course, it can also do normal booky type things, right? It can,

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for instance, give us a glimpse into the way people lived in the past. It can help us get

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to know all sorts of interesting historical personalities like Moses and David and Isaiah

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and Nehemiah and Peter and Paul and John and James and all the rest of the Beatles. It

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might even have a good idea or two about morality and ethics or history or ancient religion.

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But those sorts of things aren't what makes the Bible special. Other books do that stuff

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too. What makes the Bible special is that it has been set apart by the Spirit to reveal

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God to us. And as the Spirit continues to be with us, so the Bible will continue to

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show us the power and presence of God even today. One of my favorite theologians is a

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Swiss dude by the name of Karl Barth. He once said, within the Bible, it's like there's

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a strange new world, the world of God. And that's what makes the Bible so interesting

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to me personally. Other books are easily domesticated. They can be tamed. They can be understood.

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Other books can be mastered, but not the Bible. No matter how much you read it, no matter

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how much you memorize it, no matter how many degrees you get studying it, you cannot master

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this book. It won't submit to that because the Bible is the holy word of a holy God.

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And because of that, it will always stand above us. It won't fit into our categories

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and our expectations. But on the other hand, it's because the Bible is just so strange,

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so divine, so weird that even the least educated person can read it, can hear it, and can hear

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in those human words a word from God. It's why even a small child can hear the phrase,

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the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And sense the presence of their heavenly Father

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right there in their bedroom as they drift off to sleep. It's the Spirit, the Spirit

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who carried along the authors of Scripture who still whispers those words to us today

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when we read them. That's why the Bible is a holy thing, a divine thing. It's why we

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gather together week in and week out to hear it read to us, to have it preach to us, to

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pray its words, and to meditate on its truths. It's not because we want to tap into some

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kind of ancient wisdom. It's because we want to hear from the living God, and we believe

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that we will. Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift. Amen.

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Thank you so much for joining us today for our sermon here at Trinity Church, Streetsville.

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We hope you can come again next week and join us for our last sermon of the series, The

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Bible for Grown-ups. Thanks again. Today's sermon was taken from the April 28, 2024 service

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at Trinity Church, Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario.