Pilgrims in Christ – Part 33

What we can learn from the letters of Peter about practice of faith in Christ in times of uncertainty.

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 1:17-18

17 དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་གཟི་བརྗིད་དང་ལྡན་པའི་གསུང་དེས་ཁོང་ལ། འདི་ནི་ངའི་གཅེས་པའི་སྲས་ཡིན། དེ་ལ་ངའི་སེམས་དགའོ་ཞེས་གསུང་སྐབས་ཁོང་ལ་ཡབ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནས་བཀུར་སྟི་དང་གཟི་བརྗིད་ཐོབ།

18 གནས་རི་ལ་ཁོང་དང་མཉམ་དུ་ཡོད་པའི་དུས་སུ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ནས་བྱུང་བའི་གསུང་དེ་ང་ཚོ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཐོས་པས།

 

2 Peter 1:17-18

17 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,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

 

Peter was referring to that incident known among Christians as “Transfiguration of Jesus”, and together with James and John they were eye witness.

For Hebrews who are brought up in the teachings of Moses, what Peter was referring to was clearing pointing to Moses at Mt Sinai meeting with God.

As God showed His approval with Moses, God revealed His approval with Jesus.

Since Acts 2 after Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, his message has repeated reminders of being witness of the Messiah chosen of God.

Peter knew the people he was preaching to, especially his own Jewish people, a lot rejected Jesus as the Messiah not because they did not believe in the Messiah but they were expecting a different Savior.

Peter knew during his day majority of Jews who were waiting for the Messiah was expected political deliverance from Rome. And so when Jesus preached of repentance and “loving your neighbor as yourself” many turned away from Jesus.

Peter also faced aggressive opposition from the Sanhedrin for preaching Jesus as the Messiah.

Peter’s greatest assurance of his faith in Jesus was that he was among those who were eye witness of the power and majesty of Jesus when they also heard the voice of God.

 

How important is this “heard the voice of God” that Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God?

 

There is only one real Messiah who is able to save us from sin and death and to bring us to eternal life with God.

While Peter was preparing his message in this 2nd Epistle he knew of the up and coming Jewish Roman war that involves Jewish extremist groups and among those who claimed to be “Messiah” but are not the real one approved of God.

Peter was with that generation waiting for the appearance of the Messiah and many had been deceived through various religious sects that introduced their man-made doctrines of a political savior who will liberate Israel from Rome.

Many had fallen into such deceptions due to their difficult circumstances living in post-war environment. Their hardship of daily lives had added to their desperate desire for liberation, political liberation from the Romans.

Thus when Jesus preached of repentance many turned away and many who followed kept asking for signs and wonders.

 

How did Jesus response to these human expectations?

 

མད་ཐཱ། 12:38-42

38 དེ་ནས་ཆོས་ཁྲིམས་ལ་མཁས་པའི་མི་དང་ཕཱ་རུ་ཤི་པ་ཁ་ཤས་ཀྱིས་ཡེ་ཤུ་ལ་ “སྟོན་པ་ལགས། ཁྱེད་ལས་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་རྟགས་ཤིག་མཐོང་བར་འདོད་” ཅེས་ཟེར།

39 ལན་དུ་ཁོང་གིས་ “མི་རབས་འདི་ནི་ངན་པ་དང་ལོག་གཡེམ་ཅན་ཞིག་ཡིན་པས་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་རྟགས་ཤིག་མཐོང་བར་འདོད་ཀྱང༌། ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཡོ་ནཱ་ཡི་རྟགས་མ་གཏོགས་པར་གཞན་ཅི་ཡང་སྟེར་བར་མི་འགྱུར།

40 ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཡོ་ནཱ་ནི་ཉིན་གསུམ་དང་མཚན་གསུམ་ཉ་ཆེན་པོའི་གྲོད་ཁོག་ནང་ལ་བསྡད་པ་ལྟར། མིའི་རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་ཡང་ཉིན་གསུམ་དང་མཚན་གསུམ་སའི་གཏིང་ལ་སྡོད་པར་འགྱུར།

41 ཁྲིམས་གཅོད་པའི་ཉིན་མོར་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ནུ་ནེ་ཝཱ་ཡི་མི་རྣམས་ལངས་ནས་མི་རབས་འདིའི་མི་རྣམས་ལ་ཉེས་སྐྱོན་འདོན་པར་བྱ། གང་ལགས་ཤེ་ན། ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཡོ་ནཱའི་གསུང་ཐོས་ནས་ཁོ་ཚོས་སྤྱོད་པ་ངན་པ་རྣམས་སྤངས་ནས་སེམས་བསྒྱུར། ལྟོས་ཤིག ད་ལྟ་ཡོ་ནཱ་ལས་ཆེ་བ་ཞིག་འདིར་ཡོད།

42 ཁྲིམས་གཅོད་པའི་ཉིན་མོར་ལྷོ་ཡུལ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་མོའང་ལངས་ནས་མི་རབས་འདིའི་མི་རྣམས་ལ་ཉེས་སྐྱོན་འདོན་པར་བྱ། གང་ཡིན་ཞེ་ན། རྒྱལ་པོ་སོ་ལོ་མོན་གྱི་ཤེས་རབ་ཐོས་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཁོ་མོ་ས་གཞིའི་མཐའ་ནས་ཡོང༌། ལྟོས་ཤིག ད་ལྟ་སོ་ལོ་མོན་ལས་ཆེ་བ་ཞིག་འདིར་ཡོད།

 

Matthew 12:38-42

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

 

Jesus was pointing to His death and resurrection.

The death and resurrection of Jesus have been a powerful proof of scripture fulfillment how the Messiah chosen of God will defeat sin and death.

Peter was eye witness not only of the “Transfiguration of Jesus”, but saw the crucifixion and death of Jesus, went to the empty tomb, and met the resurrected Lord and Savior!

Jesus in His resurrected body was with the disciples for about 40 days before He was lifted up to heaven, and Peter was among the disciples receiving teachings and instructions from the resurrected Lord.

What powerful witness and testimony Peter had! But still there are those who continue the path of deception therefore Peter had to consistently remind the disciples to stand firm in their faith in Jesus that He is the Messiah chosen of God.

Jonah’s experience of being in the belly of a great fish was shocking testimony for the people of Nineveh.

Jesus death and resurrection is a powerful proof and evident that He is the Messiah chosen of God.

This is a cornerstone of our faith in Jesus that He was crucified, died and was buried, and resurrected from the dead, lifted up to glory and seated at the right of God!

 

David Z