This was first given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on February 6, 2005, and again, with some minor changes, at the Harford (IL) East Maple Street Chapel on April 20, 2008. THIS is the later ‘version’ of it. (The ‘original’ can be found on here earlier in the posts…)

The various Scriptures are from Exodus 24: 12-18, Psalm 99, Matthew 17: 1-9, and 2 Peter 1: 16-21.

       One thing that all of us who watched the original Star Trek series in the late ‘60’s learned early on was to never… never… ever… wear a red shirt when beaming down to a planet for the first time! You might have all of the salt sucked out of your body, or jump on an exploding rock, but however it might happen, you could just about count on being killed! The next thing that those of us watching learned was that that didn’t seem to matter… the red-shirt that was zapped by lightning in one episode was the same one that the Horta dissolved into a puddle of acid three weeks later! In fact, all of us who have ever watched television or been to a movie are well aware that much of what we see on ‘the screen’ is ‘film-maker’s magic’. And so it was with some air of disbelief that the twenty-odd students going through the training program sponsored by the Operating Engineers union sat to watch the safety film produced and provided by the Carpenter’s Union.

       It was the winter of 1973/74, I was almost three years out of high-school and had been married for less than one, and was about the average age of all those attending this eight-week training program. And the film we were watching was very graphic for its day… we saw one scene where someone came and distracted a man using a radial-arm saw and watched the blade slice off his fingers… another scene showed a guy holding a piece of wood with one hand and drilling with the other… you guessed it, he drilled through his hand… and scene after scene of things just like these, all intended to make one be aware of just how dangerous all of these things can be. And I must say that I, at least, learned something from it… to this day, every time I pick up a power tool I think of all of the things that I’m not supposed to do with it… and sometimes, I even pay attention and don’t do them!

       Another aspect of our safety training during that program was listening to some of the stories of our instructors. Each of them had been an operator for many years and had seen many kinds of mishaps… some funny… some not so funny. One told of running a crane during the building of the Poplar Street Bridge across the Mississippi River into St. Louis. There was a radio tower near by that was surrounded by a chain-link fence, complete with barbed-wire around the top. The caretaker had a really nice watermelon patch he tended inside of that fence. On occasion, this operator would have somebody hang on the cable as he lowered him into that patch and come away with a watermelon… the caretaker would come out screaming and yelling for them to stop, but could never really do anything about it.

       One day, while lifting concrete up to the bridge roadway, the operator heard a loud ‘snap’, and realized what it was… one of the struts in the boom had broken! As the boom began to collapse with the five-yards of concrete over the workers, he hung on and swung the unit away from the bridge, saving, undoubtedly, many lives… including his. In fact, the only actual ‘casualties’ were the crane, itself, and the watermelons… you see, that five yards of concrete landed right in the middle of the patch!

       Another instructor told of running a small crawler carving a road out of the side of a mountain when the clutch linkage must have fallen off and he couldn’t stop… as it went over the edge one way he jumped the other! Luckily, he jumped towards the hill and survived with minor cuts and scrapes! Still another instructor told of the guy who jumped up on his big crawler after lunch one day and started backing, in high gear, into the pit where they were working. Distracted, he didn’t realize he had missed the road and had one track going down and the other one still on ground level… before he could stop, it had turned over on top of him! He didn’t survive!

       Now, I tell you all of this to make a point… you see, for all of the gory effects that we saw in that film, we knew that they were just effects… they weren’t real! We knew that all of those things were possible… but the impact on us was just not as great as one might like. Yet the stories told to us by the instructors really did make an impression… because they were real! And we knew they were real because these men were actual eye-witnesses!!

       And that’s the same point that Peter is trying to make in the verses I read this morning! “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.”

       Now, Exodus 24: 12-18 tells a small part of the story of Moses meeting God on Mt. Sinai, while the Psalm talks about that very event, and closes by shouting… “Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.”

And Matthew 17:1-9 tells of the very event Peter is talking about … how he, James and John accompanied Jesus up a high mountain and watched as Jesus was transfigured into Holy radiance and stood speaking with Moses and Elijah! And as they spoke, they saw Jesus enveloped in a bright cloud and heard a voice say, “This is my beloved Son, whom I Love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” And we learned that… “As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” 

       Which brings us back to this passage from 2 Peter! Already, there were numerous cults and false teachers trying to spread their version of the story of Christ and what they wanted it to mean. 2 Peter was written with the intention of debunking these false teachings and establishing the truth.

       The Life Application Commentary says that, “Whether parents, coaches, professors, … or friends, we hold our teachers in high regard. They have opened our eyes, provided counsel, broadened our horizons, solved mysteries, and filled our minds. We have benefited greatly from their wisdom and expertise.

That’s what makes false teachers so dangerous. Misusing their privileged position and betraying trust, for the sake of pride, reward, or ambition, they prey on the unsuspecting and lead many astray.

Knowing this powerful influence of teachers, the apostles and other church leaders continually warned against those who would twist the truth and lead believers astray. That was the purpose of 2 Peter. Written to strengthen the church to resist the internal challenge to their faith, this brief letter warns of false teachers who deny Christ and scoffers who mock his return. Believers are to beware and to keep their focus on Christ.

Our world, today, is filled with cult leaders, religious scams, and others who would lead people astray. Estimates of the number of cults worldwide run as high as ten thousand. Some of these cults and many false teachers have even infiltrated the church. Reading 2 Peter can help you determine what is truth… rejecting every type of false teaching.”

It is important to realize that all of the books we have in our Bible have been inspired by God. Erwin W. Lutzer, author of The DaVinci Deception, a book which thoroughly debunks all of the proffered fallacies contained in The DaVinci Code, says that, “As you read the Bible you will discover that the Word of God came down to us in different ways.  Sometimes God spoke to the prophets directly, revealing things that could not be known in any other way.  Sometimes God wrote the words himself, as in the Ten Commandments.  However, God also used natural means, as in the case of Luke, whose book was written after painstaking research.

In the opening paragraph, Luke explained how his book came about:

‘Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.  Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.’”

In the last two verses of what I read, Peter says that… “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

This… is… the Word of God… given to us… the people of God… Praise be to God!

Everything in this book is real! There are no special effects wizards hard at work trying to deceive us! There are no clever story lines designed to mislead us! There are no fiction writers in here intent on making some kind of name for themselves by fabricating outlandish fairy tales! What we have are eye-witness testimonies and/or carefully researched and documented accounts… all of which have been inspired by God… giving us the history of God’s work with His people Israel, and of the life… death… and resurrection of his Son, Jesus! And more than that, it is a road map of how we are to live our lives in His name… and why… the promise of an eternal life with Him!

And finally, there is this… Carl F. H. Henry says that… “There is only one real inevitability: It is necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled.”