Can you
imagine what it must have been like to travel with Christ up the Mountain of Metamorphosis, or as it is
commonly called the Mount of Transfiguration?
Peter, James and John journeyed with Jesus for three days and there was changed in appearance and also appearing with Christ was Moses and Elijah.
Peter, James and John journeyed with Jesus for three days and there was changed in appearance and also appearing with Christ was Moses and Elijah.
While all
three synoptic gospels tell of this incident by introducing it with a prophecy
that some would see Christ coming in His Kingdom of God, only Mark, basing his
gospel on the preachings of Peter, stated that they would see the Kingdom of
God present with power! (See Mark
9:1)
The Hope
of Power’s Encouragement is linked specifically with the Latin word adventu in 2 Peter 1:16. Peter is
incarcerated in a Roman dungeon, locked up for preaching the gospel by Nero.
Soon the famed apostle and founding disciple of the Jerusalem church would be crucified
upside down, deeming himself unworthy to die in the manner of his Lord, Jesus
Christ.
What is
his emotional thermometer? What is his spiritual temperature? Does he feel
powerless and discouraged in his final days? Had he given up all hope? Hardly.
The once
shifting and stumbling Simon is now rock-solid Peter. He knows his jig is up,
his days are numbered and yet he waxes poetic, almost lyrical in his
description of his soon departure into eternity.
“I know that shortly I must put off my tent,
just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me,” Peter wrote. “Why would I want to
stay in this tent when I have an eternal 7 star accommodations waiting for me?”
His earthly tabernacle would soon be upsized for a heavenly mansion.
It is not almost comical, it is absolutely
gut-checking hilarious that this once swaggering, overly self-assured fisherman
even suggested to build three earthly tabernacles for Moses, Elijah and Jesus just so they could “sit for a spell” on that mountain so many years earlier.
Trade
God’s Heavenly Temple for an earthly thatched-together tent. Not even Chip and
Joanna Gaines could convince that trio into a such a Fixer Downer!
Do you see
old Peter wink his eye right here in his final epistle. “As long as I am here
in this feeble tent, I want to shake you until I wake you to see where Jesus
went and where I am going.”
Jesus told
Peter in his earlier years that when he was old, he would be led by the hand
and forced to go where he didn’t want to go. “I know I’m going to take off this
tent, just like Jesus showed me,” the imprisoned Peter wrote.
The
readers of the letter knew what Peter was talking about. He and the Apostle John had preached it for years. After the Resurrection, Peter had gone back to fishing and then saw
the Risen Lord.
During a fish
breakfast, Jesus restored his fallen disciple by asking him a question thrice,
the same number of times he had denied his Lord before the cock crowed twice.
Now only the rooster was cocky and Simon had
eaten the crow.
With every probing question, Peter humbly pledged his love for his Master. He heard the charge to feed his sheep and tend the lambs.
With every probing question, Peter humbly pledged his love for his Master. He heard the charge to feed his sheep and tend the lambs.
You see,
Peter had to learn:
Power wasn’t in the bragging.
Power wasn’t in the bragging.
Courage
wasn’t in the boasting.
Hoping wasn’t in the seeing.
The power
of the Kingdom was not what He saw on the mountain of transfiguration.
The
encouragement for courage was not found in the appearing of Moses and Elijah.
They were not going to exchange their heavenly habitation for the thatched tent, but now Peter was soon going to leave his earthly tabernacle for an eternal temple.
They were not going to exchange their heavenly habitation for the thatched tent, but now Peter was soon going to leave his earthly tabernacle for an eternal temple.
From a
darkened prison cell, Peter saw a light up above.
“You would do well to heed the prophetic word,” Peter wrote, “like a light that shines in a dark place.”
“You would do well to heed the prophetic word,” Peter wrote, “like a light that shines in a dark place.”
Hope
Power
Encouragement
are all found in the Word of God.
Power
Encouragement
are all found in the Word of God.
“This is my Beloved Son, Listen to Him.”
Whether booming on a holy mountain from a heavenly glory, or humbly written on a tear-stained papyrus, smuggled out and copied and translated for 2,000 years now, the Word of God is not a cleverly devised fable.
The Hope
of Power is in the Encouragement of the Word of God.
