A Sure Word from God

A Sure Word

Second in Advent

Collect of the Day Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.  

Homily Text: 2 Peter 1:19-21

19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Susan and I were driving into Washington, D.C. on a Veteran’s Day, when we heard on the radio that Ronald Reagan was going to speak at the amphitheater at Arlington Cemetery. We decided to go. We saw and heard Reagan, a one time experience. But, there is much more to know about Reagan than what we experienced. To know more we must turn to books, the written word.

St. Peter tells of an experience he had that we cannot have. But he points himself and us to something we share - the sure written Word of God.

1. Certainty

1.1. Peter tells us about his experience in chapter one of his second letter:

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. 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,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

Peter had seen the glory of God and heard the voice of God. He, along with James and John, was an eyewitness of Jesus’ Transfiguration. Jesus changed as his clothes became whiter than any bleach could make them and his face shone like the sun. This was an outbreaking of divine glory that belongs to him as the eternal Son of God. Then God the Father spoke, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”

1.2. It is impossible to underestimate the glory of Peter’s mountaintop experience. But he comes down off the mountain and directs our attention to a sure word:

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.

People want to know what they can be sure of, and it seems there is very little. We’re skeptical about what the media, government, politicians, and car salesmen say. Even scientific knowledge is frequently revised and corrected. About the only thing you can be sure of is mathematical truth -  2+2=4 - but nothing more. Many have given up on the whole idea of certain and sure truth. We are reduced to believing in “my truth” or “truth that works for me” which may or may not be your truth and may or may not work for you.

1.3. But Peter says we have a “sure word of prophecy.” He means the Old Testament Scriptures. When we hear the word “prophecy” we may think of “predictions” such as Micah’s foretelling of the significance of Bethlehem or Isaiah’s foretelling of the sufferings of the Messiah. But prophecy is fundamentally “speaking for God.” Sometimes it is foretelling but it is always forthtelling - telling what the Lord reveals to and through the prophet. Prophecy is a message from God.

The words of the prophets had been committed to writing. When Jesus or the Apostles quoted from the prophets, their source was the writings of the prophets. The term “Holy Scripture” means “holy writings” - writings that are set apart from other writings, different because they record, preserve, and pass down what God has said.

1.4. St. Peter tells us we will “do well” to “take heed” to the “sure word of prophecy” “as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.” The world is dark because it is ignorant of the truth. People choose ignorance because they inevitably deny the truth of God’s existence and attributes revealed in the creation and within themselves as beings made in God’s image. The world is dark also because of moral depravity. One of the ironies of the present is that people think that indulging themselves and others in their sins is enlightened when in fact they engulf themselves in the darkness of evil.

Because of the world’s darkness we need light to guide us through the darkness to God and salvation, to truth and right. Otherwise we are constantly stumbling and going astray in the dark. We believe lies for truth and confuse immorality for righteousness. But the Scriptures are God’s light shining in this dark world.

We do well to pay attention to them throughout this age till the day dawns and the day star rises - that is, till the Second Advent, until Christ comes and finally dispels the darkness of the world and the darkness that remains in even our hearts as believers. That means we need to listen with understanding to the readings of Scriptures, to pay attention to preaching of the Scriptures, and to read our Bibles privately - or, as we say in the Collect for today, “to hear” but also to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the Holy Scriptures.  

2. Source

2.1. What makes the Old Testament Scriptures a sure word of prophecy? The answer lies in how they were produced. How were they produced? Peter answers that question both negatively and positively.

2.2. The Scriptures did not come about through “private interpretation.” The word “interpretation” usually has to do with how we understand what the Scriptures say. The goal is not to put into the Scripture a meaning that is not there, but to draw out of Scripture the meaning that is there. But St. Peter here is not talking about understanding the Scriptures but about how the Scriptures were produced.

They are not the result of “private interpretation.” That is, they did not come from a person thinking about some subject, coming up with his own thoughts, and then writing them down. Or, as he goes on to say, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man…” The Scriptures did not come about because some individual came up with some ideas and decided to write them down. Now that is the view of the Bible some people have - that it contains religious ideas man had in old times which may now be out of date and fashion. Or, they may say the Bible has excellent religious insights, but still is no more than high thoughts men had and committed to writing. But Peter clearly denies that. The writings of the Old Testament did not come from private interpretation or the will of man.

2.3. “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” or as the ESV has it, “Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” These men spoke from God - they were God’s spokesmen.

They spoke from God because they were moved or carried along by the Holy Spirit. When a ship is on the sea, it is carried along by the wind and tide. So the Holy Spirit carried these men. He used them, their personalities, their thought patterns, their vocabularies and writing styles, their historical and cultural settings, but he carried them where he wanted them to go so that not only their thoughts but the words they chose to express those thoughts were what he wanted. The direction of the Spirit led them to write God’s thoughts and God’s words. The authors of Scripture spoke and wrote from God because the Spirit guided them.

The Holy Spirit carried the writers to write God’s words. Where do those words lead us? The lead us to truth and righteousness, to salvation and eternal life. They lead us always to Christ who is the focus of all Scripture. On Easter evening, as our Lord walked with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). St. Paul reminded Timothy “ how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15). The Scriptures lead us always to Christ, to faith in him, and to life eternal.