BROADCASTS.com

\u201c\u2026We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, \u201cThis is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.\u201d We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.\xa0 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it\u2026\u201d (2 Peter 1:16b-19a)

\xa0

Moses and Elijah both climbed up Mt. Saini and had experiences there with God.\xa0 We heard about Moses and Israel yesterday as God met his people in fiery majesty.\xa0 The people heard his voice thunder and were filled with a healthy fear-of-the-Lord.\xa0 In Elijah\u2019s case: God appeared not in fire, wind, or earthquake, but in a still, small voice.\xa0 This too was God\u2019s glory inviting Elijah back into a healthy and humble fear-of-the-Lord.

Peter had an experience like that too.\xa0 It was a day that Jesus climbed a different mountain to pray. \xa0While praying, Jesus all of a sudden began to shine.\xa0 Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared there with him and talked to him.\xa0 The three sleepy disciples Jesus had bought with him\u2014Peter, James, and John\u2014were jolted awake and Peter stammered out some silly remark about building shelters, so as to camp out in this glorious scene.\xa0 But he was interrupted by a bright cloud surrounding them all and a powerful voice declaring: \u201cThis is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!\u201d\xa0 That voice and cloud knocked the disciples to their knees, face down.\xa0

Like the Israelites before Mt. Saini, they too heard the voice of God and lived.\xa0 They too had the fear-of-the-Lord imprinted on their hearts for years to come.\xa0 That\u2019s the experience Peter writes about in our text today.\xa0 We were eyewitnesses of his majesty, Peter says.\xa0 We heard the voice.\xa0 And this, he says, is what makes credible the testimony of Jesus Christ through witnesses like he and the other apostles.\xa0 It\u2019s not just that Peter was a witness though, it\u2019s also that he was transformed by wrestling through his response to this revelation of Jesus.\xa0 The man we meet in 2 Peter, is not the bumbling builder we met in the Gospels.\xa0 He has been humbled by a healthy fear-of-the-Lord.

Eugene Peterson says that \u201cfear-of-the-Lord\u201d is one, long, hyphenated word, not to be dissected into its component parts of \u201cfear\u201d and \u201cLord.\u201d\xa0 It\u2019s a new and different word that cannot be clearly nailed down or defined.\xa0 It is the appropriate, responsible awe and reverence evoked in us when we find ourselves in the presence of God and the revelation of his glory.\xa0 But, it is also the appropriate and faithful way that we participate in and responsively pay attention to that revelation.\xa0

Reverence and a faithful, humble response.\xa0 This is indeed, as Pastor Michael said yesterday, the mystery of living the Christian faith.\xa0 The revelation of Jesus Christ in our experience and in the words of our scriptures is not something that we can take control of and wield like a tool or a code of conduct.\xa0 There is always a reverent wrestling required.\xa0 God demands our attention and our engagement, personally with him on his terms.\xa0 And when we submit to that reverent, wrestling journey, we have entered into the unsafe territory of the fear-of-the-Lord.\xa0 \xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0

\xa0