(Audio Version; Music: "Air I Breathe"--by Marie Barnett--WorshipMob--Real Live Worship)
Introduction
The Watergate
Scandal from the early 70’s is understood by many as the high-water mark of political
corruption. The political intrigue of Watergate has been the subject of
countless books, documentaries, and dramatic motion picture productions.
Criminal activity, conspiracy, corruption, greed, pride, deceit, and the
general depravity by a group of twelve of the most powerful men in our country
eventually led to the humiliation and forced resignation of the President of
the United States. For those of you who have forgotten the details or maybe
don’t know the story of Watergate, here’s a brief summary of the events
surrounding the scandal:
“Mr. Colson was a 38-year-old Washington lawyer when he joined the
Nixon White House as a special counsel in November 1969. He quickly caught the
president’s eye. His ‘instinct for the political jugular and his ability to get
things done made him a lightning rod for my own frustrations,’ Nixon wrote in
his memoir,’ In 1970, the president made him his
‘political point man’ for ‘imaginative dirty tricks.’
‘When I complained to Colson, I felt confident that something would be
done,’ Nixon wrote. ‘I was rarely disappointed.’
Mr. Colson and his colleagues ‘started vying for favor on Nixon’s dark
side,’ Bryce N.
Harlow, a former counselor
to the president, said in an oral history. ‘Colson started talking about
trampling his grandmother’s grave for Nixon and showing he was as mean as they
come.’
As the president’s re-election campaign geared up in 1971, ‘everybody
went macho,’ Mr. Harlow said. ‘It was the ‘in’ thing to swagger and threaten.’
Few
played political hardball more fiercely than Mr. Colson. When a deluded janitor
from Milwaukee shot Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama on the presidential
campaign trail in Maryland in May 1972, Nixon asked about the suspect’s
politics. Mr. Colson replied, ‘Well, he’s going to be a left-winger by the time
we get through.’ He proposed a political frame-up: planting leftist pamphlets
in the would-be killer’s apartment. ‘Good,’ the president said, as recorded on
a White House tape. ‘Keep at that.’
Mr. Colson hired E. Howard
Hunt, a veteran covert
operator for the Central Intelligence Agency, to spy on the president’s
opponents. Their plots became part of the cascade of high crimes and
misdemeanors known as the Watergate affair.
Their efforts began to unravel after Mr. Hunt and five other C.I.A. and
F.B.I. veterans were arrested after a botched burglary and wiretapping
operation at Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office
complex in Washington. To this day, no one knows whether Nixon authorized the
break-in or precisely what the burglars wanted.
‘When I write my memoirs,’ Mr. Colson told Mr. Hunt in a November 1972 telephone
conversation, ‘I’m going to say that the Watergate was brilliantly conceived as
an escapade that would divert the Democrats’ attention from the real issues,
and therefore permit us to win a landslide that we probably wouldn’t have won
otherwise.’ The two men laughed.
That month, Nixon won that landslide. On election night, the president
watched the returns with Mr. Colson and the White House chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman. ‘I couldn’t feel any sense of jubilation,’
Mr. Colson said in a 1992 television interview. ‘Here we were, supposedly
winning, and it was more like we’d lost.’
‘The attitude was, ‘Well, we showed them, we got even with our enemies
and we beat them,’ instead of ‘We’ve been given a wonderful mandate to rule
over the next four years,’’ he said. ‘We were reduced to our petty worst on the
night of what should have been our greatest triumph.’
The Watergate operation and the dirty tricks campaign surrounding it
led to the criminal indictments and convictions of most of Nixon’s closest
aides. On June 21, 1974, Mr. Colson was sentenced to prison and fined $5,000. Nixon
resigned seven weeks later after one of his secretly recorded White House tapes
made clear that he had tried to use the C.I.A. to obstruct the federal
investigation of the break-in.
Mr. Colson served seven months after pleading guilty to obstructing
justice in the case of Daniel Ellsberg, a former National Security Council
consultant who leaked the Pentagon
Papers, a secret history
of the Vietnam War, to The New York Times. In July 1971, a few weeks after the
papers were published, Mr. Colson approved Mr. Hunt’s proposal to steal files
from the office of Mr. Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. The aim was ‘to destroy his
public image and credibility,’ Mr. Hunt wrote.
‘I went to prison, voluntarily,’ Mr. Colson said in 2005. ‘I deserved
it.’”[1]
Colson
tells the story of his spiritual struggle during the years before he entered
prison and how he accepted Christ before he began his first day in prison.
Aside from his involvement in the Watergate scandal, Colson is most well know
for his Christian conversion and his subsequently creation of Prison Fellowship
ministries. I’ve listened to Colson speak and I’ve read a number of his books
and he was a passionate evangelist and apologist for the truth of the Gospel
message. Colson’s life experience gave him a unique perspective and witness on
the truth of the Gospel. In one of my favorite quotes from Colson he says:
“I
know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12
men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed
that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured,
stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true.
Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world and they couldn’t keep
a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40
years? Absolutely impossible.”
From the
time of Jesus’ death and resurrection, unbelievers have tried their best to
contradict or disprove the witness of Jesus’ disciples. The only problem was
that the disciples spent three years with Jesus, saw Him crucified and die on a
Roman cross, participated in preparing His body for burial and were there when
they laid Him in a tomb, they watched as a large stone was rolled across the
opening of the tomb, they ran to inspect the tomb after three days when they were
told that it was empty when some of the women in their group told them that
Jesus had risen from the dead, they were in the locked upper room when Jesus
appeared to them and ate with them, they inspected the wounds caused by the
nails driven through His hands and feet, they put their hands in His side where
He was pierced by a Roman spear, they spent forty days with Him between the
time He rose from the dead and ascended back to heaven. The disciples knew what
they knew and saw what they saw. They had no reason to lie about what they had
witnessed. In fact, given the persecution they endured because of their
witness, they had every reason to deny what they knew to be true. Instead, as
Colson said, those twelve men and countless millions since have gone to their
death proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ as witness to a true story—none had
to rely on Cleverly Invented Stories.
This is the message that Peter conveyed to the Church during his day and to us
today as well.
Subject Text
2 Peter 1:12-21
12So
I will always remind you of these things, even though you know
them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13I
think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in
the tent of this body, 14because I know that I will
soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to
me. 15And I will make every effort to see that after
my departure you will always be able to remember these things. 16We
did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his
majesty. 17For 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.” 18We
ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the
sacred mountain. 19And we have the word of the
prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay
attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until
the day dawns and the morning star rises in your
hearts. 20Above all, you must understand
that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21For
prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Context
This was
the last book of the Bible that was admitted to the official canon of the New
Testament. It is likely that Peter wrote this letter from Rome around 67 A.D.
which would have been very near the time of his death at the hands of Nero
during the Neronic persecution of Christians. There are a couple of important details
to remember about Peter’s witness. Peter wasn’t just one of Jesus’ disciples,
he was one of the three disciples among Jesus’ inner circle of disciples that
also included the brothers James and John. The three in Jesus’ inner circle
were witnesses to events that Jesus instructed them to keep to themselves until
after He had gone. It is also important to remember that even though Peter was
witness to countless miracles and was even the instrument of miracles when
Jesus sent the twelve out in His name to announce the coming of the kingdom, to
heal the sick, to cast out demons, and to raise the dead, he was also the one
who denied Jesus three times after Jesus was arrested. So we know that it isn’t
beyond Peter’s character to lie in order to save his own skin especially during
the days of Nero’s brutal persecution of Christians. Nevertheless, Peter would
allow himself to be crucified by Nero all the while proclaiming the truth of
Jesus Christ. Peter was done lying; done trying to save his own skin. Peter
witnessed to what he saw and knew—there was no need for Cleverly Invented Stories.
Text Analysis
One of the
things you will notice about people who are coming to the end of their lives
and who are still able to think and communicate clearly, they want to make sure
that certain things are clear and understood in the minds of those left behind.
Peter is no different in vv. 12-15 when he tells his readers that he wants to
reiterate once again the message that I have no doubt he told them countless
times. By this time it has been more than thirty years since Jesus’ ascension
to heaven—certainly enough time for them to have heard the Gospel message from
Peter more than once. Although we can’t be certain, it seems clear that Peter
believes his time on earth is short as he talks about the time following his
“departure.” This is the transformed Peter. At Jesus’ arrest and trial, Peter
couldn’t distance himself from Jesus quickly enough. However, trying to deny
the truth that he witnessed himself is now pointless even in the face of
death—it’s hard to unknow the truth when you’ve witnessed it for yourself. “Jewish
writers generally believed that the
righteous often were warned of the impending death in advance. In ancient
Jewish stories, heroes often gave final exhortations to their heirs in
‘testaments’ as their death approached. By announcing his imminent death
(undoubtedly his execution in Rome), Peter informs his readers: There are my
final instructions to you, so play close attention.”[2]
Peter says
that they [meaning him and the other disciples] weren’t tricked into believing
that Jesus was divine because of some Cleverly
Invented Stories in v. 16. Instead, they [this time probably meaning him,
James, and John] saw with their own eyes the majesty of Jesus. It is pretty
obvious that Peter is referring to Jesus’ transfiguration in vv. 17-18 recorded
in the Gospels:
“After six days Jesus took with him
Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up
a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face
shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then
there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to
Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three
shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ While he was still
speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This
is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to
him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the
ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. ‘Get up,’ he said. ‘Don’t
be afraid.’ When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. As
they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, ‘Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been
raised from the dead.’” (Mt 17:1-9)
While Paul
was known as the apostle to the Gentiles, Peter was known as the apostle to the
Jews (Gal 2:8). Consequently Peter has a Jewish perspective in his
interpretation of God’s prophetic revelation of the kingdom as revealed in the
person of Jesus Christ. “[Peter] understands the transfiguration story to
signal God’s investment of Jesus with the special ‘honor and glory,’ a phrase
that suggests the author has connected the transfiguration with Psalm 8:5-6:
‘You…crown him with glory and majesty [honor]…You have put all things under his
feet.’ Although the psalm originally expressed God’s privileging of human beings
over creation, early Christians read its words about ‘the son of man’ as a
testimony about Jesus, the Son of Man
(as in Heb 2:5-9). God’s pronouncement at this event that Jesus was God’s Son,
moreover, connects the event with Psalm 2:7. Originally a ‘royal psalm’
expressing the divine favor enjoyed by the Davidic king, Psalm 2 came to be
read as an oracle about the ultimate Davidic monarch, the Messiah. As Son,
Jesus would inherit the nations and ‘break’ them ‘with a rod of iron’ (Ps
2:8-9)—an oracle pointing forward to the return of Christ to usher in his
kingdom. The transfiguration event, therefore, becomes historical proof of the
fact that Christ would return as ruler and judge.”[3]
After
reading v. 12-18, v. 19 seems like a non-sequitur. However, there are three key
elements to help us navigate the verse. “The word of the prophets” refers to
the many Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament that were fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. The “light shining in a dark place” probably refers to the truth of
God’s Word to guide them along the path of their faith as expressed in Psalm
119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” And the
“morning star” that rises is clearly a reference to Jesus Christ and His return
according to John’s Revelation: “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this
testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of
David, and the bright Morning Star (Rev 22:16).”
In one verse Peter describes the beginning, middle, and end of the Christian
faith. “The word of the prophets refers to the writings of the entire Old
Testament, not simply the prophets. In making reference to this, Peter
expressed his complete confidence in the Old Testament Scriptures. Peter has
just described his incredible experience of seeing Jesus Christ in all of his
glory on the mountain of transfiguration. The experience was a preview of what
it will be like to see Chris at his second coming. Yet here, when Peter notes
that we have the word of the prophets made more certain, he essentially says to
his readers: ‘You do not have to rely only on my experience. We have another
source of assurance about Christ that is even more reliable—the Scriptures.’ So
confident was Peter of the reliability and authority of the Scriptures that he
counseled us to use the Scriptures as our guide until the Second Coming of
Christ. Until the day dawns refers to the day of the Second Coming. The morning
star is a picture of Jesus Christ at his Second Coming. We are to walk by the
torchlight of Scripture until the second coming of Jesus…‘We are on a
pilgrimage throughout our lives in this dark world. God has graciously provided
us with a lamp—the Scriptures. If we pay attention to them for correction,
warning, guidance and encouragement, we shall walk safely. If we neglect them,
we shall be engulfed in darkness.’ Until we see Christ face-to-face, we have an
authoritative source of spiritual truth. Scripture introduces us to God and a
way of life that honors him.”[4]
Peter comes
back to the point of our lesson in vv. 20-21 that the revelation of Jesus
Christ proved that the Old Testament prophecies were not Cleverly Invented Stories. Likewise, the disciples’ eyewitness
testimony of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that they passed along to
others were not Cleverly Invented
Stories. Instead, the New Testament authors like Old Testament prophets
speak and act according to the direction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
God used the talents and experiences of the various writers of the Scriptures
to hand down a message to us that is not just historically reliable but
divinely inspired—there’s nothing invented about it. “The words of Scripture
throughout bear the imprint of the human authors: in style, background,
imagery, genre, etc. Scripture is, at the same time, the product both of human
beings and of God…God prepared specific human beings, through birth,
environment, etc., to communicate his word. These human beings genuinely spoke
their own words. But the words they used were also just those words that God
wanted them to use. Imbalance on this point is fatal. To deny the human element
in Scripture is to ignore the reality of the individual personalities, writing
styles, situations, etc., that make up much of the richness of God’s Word. But
to deny the divine element or to reduce it simply to a vague influence is to
deprive the words of Scripture of their truthfulness and, therefore,
ultimately, of their authority.”[5]
Application
If you’ve
never had the chance to read Lee Strobel’s book, The Case For Christ, you’re missing out on an exceptional resource.
If you’re already a Christian, Strobel’s book will put some real muscle in your
faith. It will also arm you with some valuable tools to defend your faith to
explain why you believe what you believe. Strobel is the former
legal editor of the Chicago Tribune
whose job it was to investigate, review and report on complex and often public
legal trials and investigations. Strobel is a critical thinker with the mind
and determination of the most committed criminal investigator. The Case For Christ documents Stobel’s
attempt to disprove the claims of Christianity. Stobel writes:
“For much of my life I was a skeptic. In
fact, I considered myself an atheist. To me, there was far to much evidence
that God was merely a product of wishful thinking, of ancient mythology, of
primitive superstition. How could there be a loving God if he consigned people
to hell just for not believing in him? How could miracles contravene the basic
laws of nature? Didn’t evolution satisfactorily explain how life originated?
Doesn’t scientific reasoning dispel belief in the supernatural?
As for Jesus, didn’t you know that
he never claimed to be God? He was a revolutionary, a sage, an iconoclastic
Jew—but God? No, that thought never occurred to him! I could point you to
plenty of university professors who said so—and certainly they could be
trusted, couldn’t they? Let’s face it: even a cursory examination of the
evidence demonstrates convincingly that Jesus had only been a human being just
like you and me, although with unusual gifts of kindness and wisdom.
But that’s all I had ever really
given the evidence: a cursory look. I had read just enough philosophy and
history to find support for my skepticism—a fact here, a scientific theory
there, a pithy quote, a clever argument. Sure, I could see some gaps and
inconsistencies, but I had a strong motivation to ignore them: a self-serving
and immoral lifestyle that I would be compelled to abandon if I were ever to
change my views and become a follower of Jesus.
As far as I was concerned, the case
was closed. There was enough proof for me to rest easy with the conclusion that
the divinity of Jesus was nothing more than a fanciful invention of
superstitious people.
Strobel
believed what so many people believe about Christianity in general and about
Jesus Christ specifically—he called it “a fanciful invention of superstitious
people.” Peter refuted this claim when he said that his message was not one of Cleverly Invented Stories. Instead,
what he was proclaiming was precisely what he witnessed and knew to be the
truth—nothing clever, nothing invented, not stories, just the message that Jesus was the promised Messiah who
came from God, who lived, died, rose to life again, ascended to heaven right
before their eyes with the promise that He will one day return. Peter, couldn’t
unknow what he knew to be true because he was right there when it happened. It
wasn’t quite as easy for Strobel since he wasn’t there. So here’s what Strobel
determined examining the evidence for The
Case For Christ: “After a personal investigation that spanned more than six
hundred days and countless hours, my own verdict in the case for Christ was
clear…As someone educated in journalism and law, I was trained to respond to
the facts, where they lead. For me, the data demonstrated convincingly that
Jesus is the Son of God who died as my substitute to pay the penalty I deserved
for the wrongdoing I had committed.”[7]
What would
it take for you to believe the Good News of Jesus Christ? If you already
believe, what would it take to erase any doubt you may have that the Good News
of Jesus Christ is based on the faithful witness provided for us in the
Scriptures and not some Cleverly
Invented Stories? Lee Strobel went through great pains to investigate
Christianity’s claims to find the truth. Chuck Colson went through great pains
to hide the truth of his sins and ran headlong into the truth of Jesus Christ
and ironically was set free by the Gospel message on his way to prison. The men
of Watergate devised Cleverly Invented
Stories to hide their criminal activities. Yet twelve of the most powerful
men in government with only the treat of a little prison time couldn’t stick to
their invented stories for three weeks—three lousy weeks! With the exception of
John who was exiled to the prison island of Patmos, the other eleven disciples
endured beatings, torture, and eventually execution but maintained the same
Gospel message for more than 40 years for some of them. They were witnesses to
the truth and they couldn’t just unknow what they knew to be true because their
message wasn’t based on Cleverly
Invented Stories. This is the foundation upon which our own faith is built.
We can share the message of Jesus Christ with anyone and everyone without the
fear that it might not be true. Unfortunately, there is no argument or proof
that guarantees belief—I wish there was. Consider how many people knew that
Jesus died on the cross and knew that His tomb was empty yet still refused to
believe in Him. We can engage in a meticulous investigation of the evidence
2,000 years after the events the way Strobel did but in the end, we must still
take it on faith that the Gospel message is true. Nevertheless, for those of
you who believe, you can’t unknow what you know to be true in your heart. You
believe the truth that has been faithfully handed down through the Scriptures
authored by men, yes, but guided by the Holy Spirit. The message that Jesus
Christ is fully man and fully God, died for our sins, rose from the dead,
ascended to heaven, and will one day return to judge the living and the dead—a
message that is based on teachings by faithful witnesses and given to us
through divinely inspired Scriptures not some Cleverly Invented Stories.
[1]
Tim Weiner, “Charles Colson, 80, Watergate Felon Who Became Evangelical Leader,
Dies,” New York Times, April 21,
2012, p. A22.
[2]
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background
Commentary: New Testament, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993),
p. 727.
[3]
David A. deSilva, An Introduction to the
New Testament: Contexts, Methods & Ministry Formation, (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004P, p. 881.
[4]
David Walls and Max Anders, I & II
Peter, I, II, III John, Jude—Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville,
TN: B&H Publishing Group, 1999), p. 113.
[5]
Douglas J. Moo, 2 Peter, Jude—The NIV
Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), pp. 85-86.
[6]
Lee Strobel, The Case For Christ,
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), p. 13.
[7]
Ibid., pp. 267-268.
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