It is probably the early 60s AD. Peter is aware that young Christians need to grow in their faith False teachers are undermining faith. People are scoffing, is the Lord going to return, is there a judgement? Why shouldn’t we live just as we please? Peter writes to remind his readers about the reality of Jesus for their lives not a shadowy figure from the past 2 Peter 1.12-22 Lord may the entry of your word bring light Graciously dawn in the darkness of our confusion and uncertainty Reassure any fear, challenge any unbelief May Jesus Christ be revealed Did you enjoy seeing the first of the Narnia films this Christmas? I am hoping it won’t be long till they get to filming ‘The Silver Chair’ In that book by CS Lewis, children are on a mission to rescue a prince who has been enchanted by a wicked witch. They are helped by Puddleglum a ‘marsh wiggle’. A marsh wiggle is like a skinny man with webbed feet; Puddleglum is a down to earth or perhaps down to mud creature whose main fault is his pessimism, but whose great strength is his realism. They manage to rescue the prince who is trapped in a silver chair underground but they are confronted by the witch who starts to enchant them: she burns a sweet heavy incense and strums hypnotic music and their minds and hearts grow heavy and tired. The witch has them persuaded that there is no overground above their cave that there is no sun, that her kingdom of gloom is all that there is she is nearly persuading them that there is no Aslan, the great lion, the Christ figure. But then Puddleglum bravely puts the fire out with his bare foot and challenges the whole enchantment. He is a realist. He is confused by the witch’s music and charming arguments but he is not going to let go of his memories of Narnia and he declares he will keep searching for it, against all odds. At that point the witch turns from charming beautiful lady to evil snake. The snake is killed and her kingdom’s power broken. I hope they make that film and use that scene because beyond the drama of fighting the enchantment Lewis was making the point that in this world Christians need to be fully awake and fully aware of the pressure to rubbish faith as a fantasy the seductive enchantment of people into the delusion that this world is the only reality and you may do as you please. I hope it is not too cheeky here to see the apostle Peter as kind of Puddleglum urging us not to forget our real origins and our real destiny See what he says v 12 ‘And so I will always remind you of these matters, even though you already know them and are firmly grounded in the truth you have received. 13 I think it is only right for me to stir up your memory of these things as long as I am still alive.’ As we’ll sing in a moment ‘Tell me the story often for I forget so soon Peter is an old man. He knows he will die soon and so he promises v 15 ‘I will do my best, then, to provide a way for you to remember these matters at all times after my death. Here’s our first point FAITH BASED ON FACT NOT ON FANTASY 16 We have not depended on made up stories in making known to you the mighty coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. With our own eyes we saw his greatness. Peter is saying: ‘We were there’ This is not a nice story or a wonderful flight of philosophy. This happened. We were there. We walked and talked and lived and ate with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was a human being whom we knew in earthly life but more than a human being. We saw him on the mountain when he was transfigured, we had a glimpse of his future glory and so we confidently speak to you of his coming again. We were there. Perhaps you’ve read the ‘Da Vinci Code’. It’s a good thriller glamorous locations, spooky threatening figures, a murder or a crisis every chapter and most spicy of all but most seductive the idea that the Christian church got it all wrong and has suppressed the truth that Jesus actually married Mary Magdalene and fathered children whose line of descent continues. Of course every ten years or so, a book like this emerges. People who wrote a book ‘The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail’ are now suing Dan Brown for allegedly stealing their ideas. There is no time now to go into this in detail. Enough to say two things: One is that the ‘evidence’ adduced in the Da Vinci Code is fragmentary and late compared to the historical underpinning of the New Testament documents. Of course they will argue that the Church suppressed other writings but there’s no way of proving that, it’s a classic conspiracy theory. If I say to you that the reason there the spire on Trinity church is crooked is that it was blasted by an alien space ship and you say there is no evidence for that I can reply that there has been a conspiracy to suppress the evidence. (As they say, don’t go there.) Be sure of this, there is more historical evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ than there is for the existence of Julius Caesar - the manuscripts about Jesus are earlier and much more numerous. The other point to think about is to ask what kind of Jesus do the Da Vinci Code and similar books leave you with. Does their Jesus give you peace for today and hope for the future? The Jesus that Peter writes about changes lives (we saw that in the earlier part of our reading). The Jesus that Peter writes about is coming again to take those he loves to glory. By all means read books like the Da Vinci Code the way you would read a John Grisham for a holiday read but make sure you also read about the real Jesus confident that it is not a made up story. This is the story that Peter and the other apostles were ready to die for and most of them were martyred because they wouldn’t change their story. A story based on fact not fantasy FAITH SHAPED BY THE SCRIPTURES As well as saying confidently 17 ‘We were there’ Peter goes on to say at v 19 ‘So we are even more confident of the message proclaimed by the prophets. You will do well to pay attention to it, because it is like a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the light of the morning star rises in your hearts. As well as his encounter with Jesus, Peter commends what the Bible says, the message of the prophets. As the Easter story unfolds in the next few weeks do look out for the way in which the coming of Jesus, its meaning, is prophesied in the Old Testament. You see it in 1 Corinthians 15, Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures He was raised again, according to the scriptures Or in that lovely story on the Emmaus road, when they realised they had met with the risen Lord ‘did not our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us’ Even before they realised who this stranger really was an excitement took hold of them as he took them through different scriptures to explain and reassure why it was that Jesus had died and why it wasn’t weird that he had risen again from the dead and as they had the Bible explained it was heart warming. During World War 2 a man was in jail sentenced to death by the Gestapo a man with no background in Christian faith The prison chaplain offered him a bible but wondered would he read it or make anything of it. After the man was executed they gave the chaplain back his bible. In it was a note from the prisoner. ‘Last night I read the book; out of its pages came a man. I’ll meet you in heaven.’ I also have been privileged to be able to tell a similar story. It was around this time of year as a teenager that I was drawn to read for some reason the book of Isaiah and I found that God’s word began to come alive, Like a fire taking hold or a lamp beginning to glow. Particularly a verse in c 40: ‘the grass withers and the flower falls but the word of our God endures for ever.’ I began to sense that there was more to Christianity than the rather dull business of going to church and trying to be a good person. God was real and true and enduring. By God’s grace I was led to read the book out of its pages came Christ and I’ll be with him in heaven. Whatever the enchantments of this present world all the spin to reject God and do our own thing the wonderful thing is that whenever any of us reads the Bible with an open mind light begins to dawn, fire begins to warm us and we look forward to the full glory of heaven. So Peter tells us that faith is to be based on fact not fantasy that faith is shaped by the scriptures - so we must pay attention to them And we are to be BOTH SCRIPTURAL AND SPIRITUAL. 20 Above all else, however, remember that no-one can explain by himself a prophecy in the Scriptures 21 For no prophetic message ever came just from the will of man, but men were under the control of the Holy Spirit as they spoke the message that came from God What does that mean? It means that God speaks through the Bible. It means that those who first wrote the scriptures weren’t just sharing their own personal spiritual insights, they spoke from God. One of the most shocking things I have heard in my years of ministry in the deep South was when quoting from St Paul to hear someone retort: ‘What did he know?’ I realised then that from being a culture where authority had lain with a Church people had rebelled from that and were taking themselves to be their own authority so that they knew better than St Paul or their authority lay in some form of spirituality far beyond the bounds of Christianity. What we need rather both sides of the border is a faith which is both spiritual and scriptural. As the Westminster Confession says the ‘supreme Judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined … can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the scripture’ God speaks through the Bible in the power of the Spirit it is not the opinions of a few sincere people and it is up to us to reflect that message again in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the past few months we have been wrestling with the implications of the new legislation on civil partnerships. The tv news carried reports of the protests on the first registry office ceremonies in Belfast and I was struck by the absence of the Holy Spirit from the protest. I share many of the concerns of the protesters but I could not justify the anger and abuse which was recorded there. Where was the love, joy, peace, patience kindness, goodness, faithfulness gentleness and self control which scripture says are the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Scripture was written in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and is to be shared with the fragrance of that same Holy Spirit. If we are to be faithful witnesses in a world of alternative lifestyles many of them not in harmony with God’s will, if we are to affirm the reality of Jesus Christ against the charms of false spirituality Then we need people like Puddleglum in Lewis’s story and Peter in the real story to keep reminding us: to be both scriptural and spiritual; to seek a faith shaped by the scriptures and to be confident in a faith based on fact not fantasy. O Lord Jesus Christ, you have said: "I am the way, the truth and the life." We pray that we may not depart from you, who are the way, nor distrust you, who are the truth, nor rest in any place else than you, who are the life. Teach us by the Holy Spirit, what to do, what to believe and wherein to find our rest. Now may the Holy Spirit go on writing God’s law in your hearts; may the mind of Christ be truly in you as you go into all the world and love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and your neighbour as yourself.