... . And for that reason most of them died cruel deaths. Peter was crucified upside down. Paul was beheaded. Thomas was killed with a spear. James was executed with a sword. Phillip was crucified. (3) It’s hard to dispute the testimony of an eyewitness, particularly one who will die rather than recant his testimony. And why would we want to dispute their testimony? ALL OF CREATION TESTIFIES TO THE WONDER OF THE RESURRECTION. Pastor Billy D. Strayhorn tells about a visit he made to a woman whose husband ...
... some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus.” (Luke 1:3, ESV) Luke knows that the window of opportunity for writing the most accurate historical account of Jesus is closing. It is about 30 years after Jesus has gone to heaven. Eyewitnesses are starting to die off and he has got to get this in writing now. It has been well said that the weakest ink is better than the strongest memory. Some things should be written down so we won’t ever forget them. There was an elderly ...
... power and majesty of the divine son is eternal. The derogatory “mythic” status of Jesus that was suggested by 2 Peter’s detractors is given yet another slap upside the head in v.18. The text makes it clear that not only was Peter an “eyewitness;” he was an “ear-witness” to the divine voice that came “from heaven.” Furthermore, the location of this event can be pinpointed by the witnesses, for they were with Jesus “on the holy mountain” (v.18). Along with Moses on Sinai/Horeb and the ...
... of Jesus Christ. It is recorded in overwhelming detail in all four of the Gospels, and the four that we have in our Bibles are only a minute percentage of the Gospels that were written. And these men were historians themselves, eyewitnesses who gathered the eyewitness of other eyewitnesses. It is affirmed in 23 out of the 27 books of the New Testament by some ten different authors. It’s the keystone of the faith of the early church. In fact, there is absolutely no way, historically, to explain the ...
... story that has no basis in fact. Peter makes the point strongly that Christianity is not fable; it is indeed fact. Jesus is not a fairy tale figure. He was, and is, true and real. The reason Peter declares this so strongly is because he was both an eyewitness and an ear-witness. A witness is someone who simply tells what he has seen, what he has heard, and Peter was a faithful witness. He gives his testimony: "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of ...
... had given him, Peter tried to reassure the people, that what they were taught and believed was true. He wrote, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.” Peter knew what he was talking about. He was present at all the critical moments in Jesus’ earthly ministry. He was there when Jesus was led off to die on the cross, and he was present when the risen Lord appeared to the disciples ...
... 11-12) Faith in the Witness (1 John 5) Luke’s Statement of Purpose Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught ...
... came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain (2 Peter 1:16-18 NIV). Although I was not an eyewitness to the works of Christ, I have been a witness to the glory and power of God all around me. When I think about the moment my son was born, or when I look at a sunset or gaze at the stars, I ask, “What more proof of God do ...
... Scotland, is the Isle of Man where ye will soon be and I have been many times." It all came alive for me then. It came alive for me because a "real person" representing a wonderful reality, an "eyewitness," had fleshed-out, actualized something beyond my experience. There is no better witness than an eyewitness. There is no better example than a living example. Jesus knew that when he "appointed 70 others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to ...
... Christ out as the Son of God, and are plainly designed to become the basis of such a confession. That is why Peter writes, "We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on ...
... writes in his Epistle concerning an amazing incident which he experienced along with James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration: “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, `This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from ...
... in Jesus at home (Jerusalem), in nearby familiar towns and villages (Judea), among people they typically hated (Samaria), and around the world (Acts 1:8). Do you see now how "the Ascension is the dividing line between the appearances of the Risen Lord to eyewitnesses and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the church"? As of the Ascension we have the ever-present contact with the Spirit of God known through Jesus Christ. As Augustine put it: "You ascended from before our eyes, and we turned back grieving ...
... that may be, we are sure that Luke's Gospel speaks to us and that the purposes which he meant for the unknown Theophilus are being fulfilled in us as well. Luke explains that others have "done their best" to write reports of the things they knew, from eyewitnesses, about the life of Jesus. We don't know how many such books or tracts were available in the first century. With the kind of impact the gospel was making on so many lives, it was natural that anyone who knew anything about Jesus either first- or ...
... that? In the epistle lesson read to us this morning, the Transfiguration is mentioned. It says, "We didn't make this up when we came to you and said, `Jesus is Lord,' but we have been eyewitnesses to his majesty." It means that they were there at the Transfiguration. Listen to the whole text. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. When the voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, for we ...
... gifts of grace from the author of life, but to witness to others about their availability. Peter puts it this way, "God raised him [Jesus] from the dead. To this we are witnesses" (Acts 3:15). Peter and all the apostles were eyewitnesses to the resurrection. Today, we are not eyewitnesses in the same sense as Peter and the others were, but we are called to witness to the ultimate truth that Jesus is Lord, that people may know the author of life and find wholeness and forgiveness in him. Someone just turned ...
... to beat the story of the personal cure. I begin with this story because it so clearly parallels the remarks we find from Peter (or his disciple writing at a somewhat later time in his name) in today's lesson when he says, "We had been eyewitnesses of his majesty." It also parallels Eugene Peterson's somewhat free translation in The Message, "We saw it with our own eyes." I use this story because I think it captures the essence of the attitude with which both are told. We all know that conversation stoppers ...
... of Truth and of what the true "questions" of life are. 2 Peter 1:16-21 reads "for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty." To be an "eyewitness" is to know from the experience of personal relationship, to be present in the moment of revelation: "We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain." When you’re “with him on the holy mountain ...
... meaning of Easter which Peter was commanded to proclaim in the tenth chapter of Acts. Peter was explaining to Cornelius and the others the revealed truth about Jesus Christ. Peter, an eyewitness to the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, shared his testimony. As he was preaching, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who heard him! I am not an eyewitness as Peter was, but I am a witness nonetheless. And there is no other time this is more clear than Easter Sunday. I, like Peter, have been commanded by my Lord ...
... him back home. We've heard of his accomplishments in Capernaum. We know him. We wish we might have been there that Sabbath in Nazareth. Sure, we know this story of the hometown sermon by heart, but wouldn't it have been good to be there as eyewitnesses? Then we could see Jesus firsthand, without having to hear the story secondhand. Haven't you sometimes thought to yourself, “Oh, if I could only have been there--seen a miracle or two for myself, swept away the expanse of two millennia, and stood there, as ...
... well-balanced Greek sentence. Such a sentence would catch the eye of an educated reader and establish Luke as a person with literary skills who knows how to write history. Luke acknowledges that he has used written sources which are based on eyewitness accounts. He has also done scholarly research by investigating "everything carefully from the very beginning." The subject matter of his research is "the events which have been fulfilled among us." Luke writes as a member of a community which was brought into ...
... to be just shy of a full load. The possessed man is sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. The demons are gone and things seem to be absolutely normal. And how does the crowd react? They react with fear. They are told by eyewitnesses about how the healing occurred. They see that the man has been cured. And their appreciative response to the healing? They ask Jesus to hit the road. "Take your boat and go back where you came from! We don't want your kind around here." The man who had ...
... , the writer is so bold as to affirm in clear-cut terms "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." As evidence that the Lord will return some day, the author of this letter points not to "cleverly devised myths" but rather to "eyewitnesses of his majesty." In other words, his hope for the future is based upon historical reality. Principally, he refers to that shining moment in Jesus' life when he was transfigured before James, John and Peter on the mount. During that extraordinary experience the three ...
... that we are going to receive from the Holy Spirit what we need to take this message to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and beyond? You really want us to believe all of this?" Jesus' response: "Didn't I tell you that outlook determines outcome? You are eyewitnesses to all the things that have happened since my resurrection. "There are still people who doubt that these events have occurred. Some are disillusioned because they think that my death was the end. Tell them that the things that I told them regarding my ...
... in Seattle, Washington. A serial arsonist was terrorizing the city. George Keller followed the newspaper accounts carefully and concluded the psychological profile fit his son, Paul. That didn't mean much until the newspaper ran the police artist's rendering of an eyewitness who saw a man running from the location of one of the fires. That drawing looked like his son, Paul. The Kellers worried, thought and prayed long and hard. They concluded that they would go to the police with their suspicions. They ...
... the berm, blowing a tire. The car flipped over, end over end. The last thing Justin remembered was being upside down before he blacked out. A passer-by saw what happened and immediately summoned a state trooper and an ambulance on his radio. Recognizing Justin, the eyewitness also went to a neighbor and called his father. Jim, Justin's father, was at the scene in a matter of minutes, arriving shortly after the trooper. The officer briskly walked over to Jim's car, "You must be the boy's father. I'm Trooper ...