There are some events in life that are so impressive that the memories of those events remain with us forever. Such memories are vivid, in full technicolor and surround-sound. For example, I can remember standing in the delivery room, watching the doctor deliver my firstborn. To this day I can still feel the death grip my wife had on my arm during labor. As Matthew was born, I remember wondering, "why is he so purple?"

Let me give you another example. I can remember my first parachute jump, the queeziness I felt in my stomach as the airplane slipped around getting into position over the drop zone. It is easy to conjure up memories of briefly standing in the door, smelling the JP4 jet exhaust, hearing the roar of the engines, and watching the great gray tail of the airplane pass by as I jumped.

Do you have memories that remain- powerful reminders of good or bad times in your life? Can you remember the sights, the sounds, the smells? Do you remember those pivotal moments when the whole world focused its collective attention? Many of you remember the day the space shuttle Challenger exploded high in the atmosphere.

Most of you, my age or older, can remember that November day back in 1963 when you first heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated. That day I had rushed out of school, as usual, for my five-block walk home. Half-way home I remembered I had left my lunchbox. Stopping in my tracks, I ran back to my classroom and rushed in, only to see Mrs. Betty Parrish, my third-grade teacher, with her head bowed, weeping quietly. "Mrs. Parrish," I asked, "what’s wrong." "They shot the President," she said. "They killed President Kennedy." The magnitude of that event is forever emblazoned in my memory and in the memories of most others who were old enough to understand what had happened.

In our passage, Peter affirms the power of memory, and the accuracy of sight and sound. After talking about the great and precious promises of salvation, Peter says he will "remind his hearers" of these things, "even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth," verse 12. He wants to refresh their memory of these truths, verse 13. He is concerned that, after his departure, that is, his death, they will still be able to "remember these things," verse 15. Then, while encouraging his hearers to "remember," Peter’s own memory is triggered. As if to confirm afresh the reality of his teachings, Peter reaches back to the Transfiguration of our Lord- and his ever-vivid memory of that experience.

As if to anticipate the criticism of those who would not accept his testimony, Peter denies that he is teaching a cleverly invented story, or a myth. Instead, he affirms that he was an eyewitness of the majesty of Jesus Christ. This event, called the Transfiguration, is detailed for us in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9.

The particulars of this event are both simple and profound. Our Lord takes Peter, James, and John with him into a high mountain. There, two witnesses signifying the law and the prophets, Moses and Elijah, appear in glorious splendor. Moreover, for a time, the veil of servanthood in which Jesus had been clothed, is pulled back. "His face changed and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning," Luke 9:29.

There, with his divine glory displayed for a time, Jesus discussed his death, literally his "exodus," with these two Old Testament witnesses. When the disciples fully awakened, they beheld the Son of God in his glory. Peter, overcome by the event, began to babble about putting up tents, and- we are told in Luke’s gospel- he did not know what he was saying. Suddenly a cloud appeared- an image often used in the Old Testament to signify the presence of God- and a voice from within the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, whom I have chosen. With him I am well-pleased. Listen to him."

Say, don’t you think you would remember experiencing such an event! Indeed you would! It is not every day that you see the Son of God in power and glory. It is not often that the presence of God descends upon you as a cloud and the voice of God speaks audibly in your hearing. It is not often that you come face to face with Old Testament heroes of faith centuries after their earthly ministries came to an end. You better believe you would remember- and you would remember in exacting detail.

And so Peter says, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty! We heard the voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the mountain! I just returned from a trip to Germany. While there, I journeyed deep into Bavaria to a region called Berchtesgaden. There, high on the top of an alpine peak, I visited the historic Kehlsteinhaus, or Eagle’s Nest, as it was called by the American armed forces.

This was Adolph Hitler’s famous mountain retreat, accessible only by a narrow road carved into the side of a rocky peak, widing high and overlooking a dangerous abyss. I remember, vividly, the mirrored bronze elevator that took us 406 feet up the heart of the mountain, from the parking lot to the top of the peak. In my mind, I can picture the marble fireplace in the Octagon Room, a birthday gift from Benito Mussolini to Hitler, and the pine-paneled room that was Eva Braun’s sitting room.

These memories are important to me because of who had once been there, the Fuhrer and his Nazi cronies, the men who led the Nazi legions to put nearly all of Europe under their jackbooted heels. Yet my experience of this mountain top, where nothing remains but the concrete and steel reminder of these dead monsters, pales in comparison to the experience of Peter, James, and John. They were there on the mountain with the transfigured Christ; they were in the presence of the Lord of Glory!

And yet Peter says something quite remarkable. After giving testimony to his eyewitness account of the Transfiguration, after establishing that his witness is true and not merely a good story, he points to an even more certain witness. He says, "we have the word of the prophets made more certain and you will do well to pay attention to it, as a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts," II Peter 1:19.

What an odd thing to say, we have the word of the prophets "made more certain." What can be more certain than what you see. Isn’t it true that seeing is believing? Well, not so fast! Have you ever seen someone perform a magic trick? All the evidence is there before you- and yet we all marvel when the magician pulls the rabbit from his hat! We know that parallel railroad tracks always remain parallel, yet as we watch those tracks stretch out into the distance we see them converge! Do you remember the controversy that occurred when the Fox TV network began broadcasting the inside story, the truth about magic tricks? They proved to us that seeing is NOT necessarily believing!

Now I am not here this morning to turn you all into skeptics or cynics! I believe that God has created us in such a way that we can trust our senses. Our ability to see and hear and taste and smell are all adapted to God’s creation, so that the sensory date we receive is generally and normally reliable. Peter is not trying to undermine our confidence in our senses. He is instead trying to maximize our confidence in God’s Word. We have a word of the prophets "made more certain."

And this is a word that you would do well to heed! Pay attention to it! The word is a light that shines "in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart." Here Peter is echoing the words of Isaiah chapter eight. There the prophet warns against those who would seek to find the will of God through means other than the Word of the Lord. Do not turn to the occult, to witchcraft, to seances with the dead, he says. Instead, turn to the "law and the testimony." Then, noting the true mark of a prophet, Isaiah says, "if they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn." That is, if they do not speak according to the Word, they do not have the one source of light that can push back the darkness."

This is the same word that Peter affirms- the word that is a light shining in a dark place. Indeed, the time will come when the Lord Jesus, the Light of the World, the Bright and Morning Star, will return and we shall know, even as we are known. But until the fulness of that revelation, we have the word of God made more certain, a comparative expression that indicates the relative greatness, the weightiness of the Word as compared even to the certainty of one’s own eyewitness testimony.

The reason for the weightiness of the prophetic word should not be overlooked. The prophetic Word that does not find its origin in the prophet’s own cogitations. This Word does not flow from the prophets profound reflections and theoretical ponderings. No, this Word never had its origin in the will of man, but in the will of God. Holy Men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit!

Now this moving of the spirit is not some vague, ill-defined emotional stirring. The word here used for "moved" is a very powerful word. In Luke’s recounting of Paul’s journey to Rome, we find the record of the shipwreck near Malta. Apparently a storm of great ferocity arose, a storm so powerful the sailors lost control of the ship. In Acts 27:15, we read that "the ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along." Now, that’s a tough situation in which to find yourself. At a loss for control, under the complete domination of hurricane force winds. Driven along at the behest and under the direction of a greater force!

That, brothers and sisters, is how the prophets gave us the prophetic Word. They spoke as they were borne along, driven and directed by the Holy Spirit! This is not a bad thing- but a wonderful thing, for the end product, as Paul writes to Timothy, is God-breathed. All Scripture is God-breathed- that is why it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. This more certain Word is God’s own Word, true in all that it affirms, trustworthy, able to make us all workmen who do not need to be ashamed.

As we conclude, I would ask you to consider the story of the Rich man and Lazarus. Remember the rich man? In hell he lifted up his eyes, pleading for water. When Father Abraham told him there was no relief possible, he changed his plea. "Father Abraham," the rich man begged, "send someone from the dead to speak to my brothers! If one came back from the dead they would surely believe his witness." Abraham says, "they have the law and the prophets. If they do not believe them, they would not believe even though one should return from the dead.

We have a Word more certain that the testimony of any human witness, the living Word of the living God. My friends, you will do well to pay attention to it! It is God’s light that shines in a dark place, it is the lamp unto our feet, and the light unto our pathways.

Preached 11 July 1999, Westminster Presbyterian Church,