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II Peter 1.16 (NIV)
We did not follow cleverly
invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but we were eyewitnesses to his majesty.
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| Personal testimonies are more powerful than we believe.* |
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When someone acts like they don’t believe what I’m
saying, I am sometimes pushed to exclaim in exasperation, “I’m not making this
up!” I don’t know if Peter was to the point of exasperation, but he was not
making up a story to entertain his listeners.
We read history books which were written by people who
have read other history books and we believe what they wrote – even though we
never met Napoleon or Alexander the Great. Peter isn’t asking for even that level of credibility – he just asks us
to take the word of genuine eyewitnesses.
And what did they see? The power and the coming of the
Lord, and his majesty. They saw Jesus
demonstrate his power through his teaching and his miracles. They witnessed the
ministry of the Messiah and had to rethink their notions of what his mission
was. And they beheld his majesty - the risen Savior who walked and talked with
them and who, one day, while he was blessing them, was taken up into heaven.
I remember reading a spy novel in which the hero kept
reminding himself (and the readers) that “testimony is evidence.” This is Peter’s testimony
and it sounds like a three-point sermon to me!
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| To be an eyewitness . . . supplies the highest kinds of evidence.* |
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