3/6/22 from 2 Peter 1:16-21 “This Book is Dynamite!!”

27 Feb 3/6/22 from 2 Peter 1:16-21 “This Book is Dynamite!!”

3/6/22 from     2 Peter 1:16-21       “This Book is Dynamite!!”

If we went around to everyone listening and asked for different ways which you relax, I would guess that we would get about as many answers as we have people.  Some of us like to sew or do scrapbooking.  Sharon does these things and we have found that many others do also.  Some people like to hunt and some of us like to fish.  There are people who like to paint and be creative.  There are people who like to travel.  There are many different ways to relax.  One of my favorites is to read.  I love to read.  As a matter of fact I rarely read only one book at a time.  I will usually be reading three or four and sometimes five at one time.  That way if I feel like learning something I will read one book and if I want to change the pace I will just pick up another one.  Generally speaking when I go to bed, the book I will be reading will be an adventure or a mystery.  The reason for this is that I want to clear my mind at that time of day so that I can sleep.  I don’t want to learn or make my mind active before I try to sleep.  I want something that is pure fantasy.  At this time, I don’t want a true story or a book about work.  I want to relax and go to sleep.  By the way, we do read some Bible verses before bed and this is relaxing also.  In today’s reading we are going to be talking about the truth, not fantasies or fables.  Peter is writing to us about the authenticity of the Scriptures.  We referred to this last week and now he is pointing out to us why we can rely on what has been said in this wonderful book we call the Bible.

Have you ever read a book or gone to a movie and it turned out to be something totally different than what you expected?  I think we have all done this.  I have gone to movies that are supposed to be the best ones ever made and I leave wondering why I wasted the time to watch them.  I have had this happen with books also.  On the other hand, I have gone to movies which are supposed to be terrible and I thought they were great.  Of course this may just tell you a lot about my personality and nothing more.  Seriously, I think that when we start to do something like this with certain expectations, it is harder for us to enjoy it because we are always waiting for what we expect and it just doesn’t happen.

I think this happens when we read the Bible also.  We have expectations.  Recently, someone sent me an email talking about someone who was going to be healthy because he claimed a certain verse in the Bible.  He also thought he was going to get a million dollars because all you have to do is ask and you will receive.  Unfortunately, this type of expectation is not that uncommon in our world.  It’s called name it and claim.  But this is not what is being said in the Bible.

We read our Bibles with certain expectations and one of them is that it is true.  In verse 16 Peter writes, “We did not follow cleverly invented stories.”  In some versions of the Bible it will read myths and in others it might say fables.  In other words they didn’t follow wild stories or outright lies.  That is what a myth or fable is.  They are lies.  They are not true.  They may have a moral or a good meaning but they are not true.  Many of our so-called scholars think that the Bible is full of myths and fables.

People have believed in fables, stories and lies since the beginning of time with Adam and Eve.  We still fall for stories today as can be seen in Ponzi schemes that come around every once in a while.  Remember that if something seems to be too good to be true then it is very likely to be false.  This happens in religion all the time.

I’m going to take you on a quick tour of some religions of our time that are based on fables, stories and/or lies. James May did most of the leg work on this research of other religions.  Jehovah’s Witness are the first one which is based on one man’s faulty interpretation of the Bible.  Jehovah’s Witness teach that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, we have no spirit, there is no hell and they practice mind control.  There is no Christianity here.

Mormons were started when a man claimed he could talk to God better than anyone else and once again there are no witnesses.  They rewrote the Bible for their own purposes, they do not believe in the virgin birth and we can all become gods just like Jesus someday.  There is no Christianity here.  By the way all these fables I’m telling you about have many more rules that I’m not mentioning due to the time element we have.

We have the Christian Science story which began with a woman who claimed divine inspiration in writing her first book on healing and she didn’t believe in a personal god.  Therefore who was inspiring her?  It could be none other than Satan himself.  They teach that there is no sin, no sickness, no death, and everything is god.  However, Jesus is not god.  This one is quite a story and there is no Christianity here.

The last one I’m going to mention briefly is Islam.  This was founded by a man who went to a cave, wrote a book, and said he was divinely inspired.  Once again, there were no witnesses.  Then he gathered an army of followers and starting killing Christians and others in the name of this so-called god.  They say Jesus was not God.  And there is nothing about Christianity in their god who delights in killing other people in his name.

We have fallen for lies in religion over and over again.  Peter is telling us that they were the witnesses to all that Jesus did.  Think about this for a minute.  There were thousands of people and maybe more who saw Jesus do various miracles when He walked among us as a human.  Think of all the people who actually saw him die.  Then think about all the people who saw Jesus after He had died on the cross.  Paul will tell us in another place that there were over 500 witnesses who saw Jesus walk around after He had died and been resurrected.  Now I would like you to show me one witness, just one, who saw any kind of miracle from these other fables we call religions.  There are none, absolutely none!  Christianity is based on the true life and death story of Jesus Christ and there are witnesses, lots of them.

Critics tell us that we have no proof that Jesus ever lived.  I say that we have more proof than all other religions put together.  They will tell us that I cannot have the Holy Spirit living inside of me because there is no way to measure it scientifically.  We have all heard this scientific baloney before.  So I have a question for us to ponder.  Most of us here today know all about love.  We know it exists.  We know when we have it and when we don’t have it.  How can we scientifically measure love?  Can we hook ourselves up to a machine that will tell us that this is love?  There has never been any way that we can scientifically measure love and if you find one, let’s get together and make some money on Valentine’s Day.  We can measure symptoms but that is it.  If I wasn’t a Methodist I would wager that if you go to any of these scientists and other people who say that there was no Jesus and there is no God because we cannot measure God scientifically, they will tell us that they believe in love which also cannot be measured scientifically.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, you cannot have it both ways and that is what many scientists want.  God is here today, with us in this service right now in the form of the Holy Spirit, and I know this because I can feel Him just like I can feel my love for all of you folks.  Please don’t be fooled by the lies and fables that are rampant in our society.  When in doubt, go to the Scriptures for reinforcement.  God never lies.  God tells us that He is also love so it is no wonder we cannot measure it scientifically.

Peter then goes on to refer to the transfiguration.  I should bring this up because we just had Transfiguration Sunday.  If you remember this was when Jesus took James, Peter and John up the mountain.  There He transfigured himself so that He could meet with Moses and Elijah.  This whole thing was something that could have only been orchestrated by God.  Plus there were three reliable witnesses to this event.   This is much more important than listening to all the lies that I just told you about.  Peter was able to talk to these people like this because there were witnesses.  If you are going to tell of some sort of fantastic claim, it works much better if there are witnesses, reliable witnesses.

I think that it is very unfortunate that we live in a world where we don’t see these kinds of miracles.  I have never seen 5000 people get fed with next to nothing.  I have never seen anyone walk on water, unless it is winter and the water is frozen.  Jesus did many miracles and God also did many in the Old Testament as He parted the Red Sea and He stopped the flow of the Jordan River.  I really think that God did these wondrous things that had many witnesses so that He could get our attention.

Here is what I mean.  There are miracles from God that happen every day.  We have no explanation as to why this person was healed of a disease and the next one wasn’t.  We don’t know why Jesus has chosen us to be here today.  There are a lot of things that we don’t know the answers but Jesus keeps providing miracles.  They might not be as grand as some of the ones of the past but if we know and believe in all the old miracles, then it is pretty easy for us to believe in the modern ones that happen on a daily basis.  Please, don’t ever forget this.

The reason that we need to believe in all of these things is because we have to be the light in a world which is very dark.  Often times we don’t realize just how dark our world really is.  I made it a point this week that when I watched TV and looked at the news, I looked for references to God.  There were not very many.  Television is very dark!  I also think that we often times downplay how important we are to God in the battle against evil.  You may think that your gift or gifts are not as good as other people.  You are wrong.  Whatever gift you have been given, it was given with a purpose in mind.  Therefore, no matter who you are or what you do, do it in the best way possible because God is counting on you.  That is right.  He is counting on you.  Serve Him in the best ways possible so that you can help someone else enjoy this wonderful life in Jesus Christ that we have.  You can make a difference in someone’s life.  Just do it and think about it later.  This world is very dark and someone needs you to be its light.

So we know we can trust the Scriptures in all it says and we are to take these lessons into a world which needs our light.  Finally, you have to understand that none of this is about you.  It is all about Jesus.  Even in those early times, the people had a problem with their egos and their pride.  God had empowered these people to do many things and some of them began to get proud.

I want to just bring up a couple of things here as time is running out on us.  Just think of the kind of sports teams we would have if the players worshipped God instead of themselves.  Or think of the society we would have if we would worship God instead of money, power and our government.  Or better yet, think of the churches we would have if we focused on Jesus Christ instead of what our society thinks we should do.  I think that even those of us who are Christian and love Jesus, sometimes fall short and start to do things that we shouldn’t.  Our lives could be better.

To try to help us to make our lives better and help us concentrate on Jesus, we have God moments to think about.  The next time you take Holy Communion, I would like you to think about someone who doesn’t know Jesus.  I want you to pray about that person.  When you get a chance I want you to nudge that person in the direction of Jesus.  It might be that you think they would enjoy the fellowship at our church.  It might be that they need some help so help them in the name of Jesus.  Whatever it is that you do well; please do it for this person in the name of Jesus.  When you do this, you will improve their life and yours.  When you bring glory to God, God brings you blessings in return.

Bob Leroe tells the story of a man who went to a bookbinder to get a well-used New Testament rebound in leather.  He wanted the binding to read, ‘The New Testament.’  When he went to pick up the book when it was finished, the binder explained that he wasn’t able to put all the letters on the side of the book, so he shortened it to ‘TNT.’

How appropriate is that??  This book is dynamite.  It is one of the best ways to describe it.  Read this book and trust what it says.  Trust it with your life.  Then take it and let it explode into someone else’s life.  Let it explode into their lives and watch as their lives get better.  This is what Jesus wants.  He wants to make our lives better; and not just better but the best.  Only with Jesus will your life be the best it can be.  Praise the Lord. And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.